Great Post. I have said for years that I am the natural constituent of the Police. The law abiding tax payer. However my trust in the institution of Police, and Sheriff has been damaged by saturation patrols, dui checkpoints, petty barons running little city speed traps. Your correct, they need us. They need us to comply. They need us to pay taxes. Without me, the tax paying “good citizen” the streets are awash in blood. LEO, I know you are here on Free Republic. Time to stand up and be counted.
What bugs me is that last year there was this tremendous hue and cry that if we didn't pass this proposition or some such on the local ballot they'd have to cut the force. Note, this was obvious pressure: cut police and fire first, scare the citizenry. Never mind there are a ton of lesser needed things financed by the County. eg. All that drainage ditch work? Let it go natural. Widening roads in the oddest places, for just a mile or two at a stretch. What's the point?
So what do I see several times a month? County Sheriff's patrol cars running speed traps on the way to work. They are blatantly targeting the people that commute to a large, relatively remote military base. There is nothing and no-one for anyone to hit or get into trouble with out there. You could (and I have seen) people safely drive that road 20mph over the speed limit. There are maybe 2 accidents a year out that way - invariably at the one lone stop light. Not attributable to speeding, but rather inattention. So it is obvious the speed traps are merely a revenue maker.
So my beef is this. If we really need all these officers on the force and should have raised taxes to support them (the measure went down to defeat by a large margin), what is it that is so important? Do they need all these officers to address crime in the County? There is crime in the County, livestock, drugs, domestics, theft... Why aren't the officers addressing these crimes? If they've got time to sit on the side of the road and write tickets to people just going to/from work and maybe in a bit of a harmless hurry, then there can't be all that much need for them.
I place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Sheriff. He's the one setting the strategy, determining where their focus and manpower goes. Next election, he goes.