Posted on 06/24/2005 12:50:08 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Late last week I received one of those telephone solicitations at home. You may be getting the same one.
It was a man calling on behalf of the Houston Police Patrolman's Union. He said he was seeking contributions for such things as legal programs and insurance assistance.
He said if I gave, they would send me a decal that I could put on my car to show my support for police officers.
I agreed to give $50, the second-lowest amount he listed. I didn't want to seem cheap.
When he asked for my address to send an invoice, I gave my work address.
Over the weekend I received a second call. They were confused about the address. Was there a suite number? No, I said, it'll get to me.
It did, but after doing some research, I've decided not to send in the 50 bucks.
It's not because I'm against police unions. I've been covering police unions in Texas for 20 years, and while they've sometimes stepped out of line, they've also resulted in better-paid, more professional police forces.
No guns for martyrs
I want my police well-paid. I want them in it for the money, not for the power.
To put it another way, I don't believe in giving guns to people with martyr complexes.
So why am I not giving? Here are some reasons.
•You know that sticker with the obvious suggestion that it may persuade some grateful cop to not give me a traffic ticket after all? Well, Texas has a lot of competing police unions. This one has 503 members who have dues taken out of their paychecks. Their biggest rival, the Houston Police Officers Union, has 4,526 dues-paying members. So I figure the odds are 9-1 that the cop who stops me is as likely to be ticked off as grateful.
Telephone addiction
•I secured a copy of the contract the union has with the Houston "sole proprietorship " that runs the phone operation, Public Safety Services. It says the company keeps 70 percent of the first $4,000 it collects per week, 75 percent of the next $4,000 and 80 percent of everything over $8,000 a week. So chances are, $40 of my $50 would go to the people who interrupted my dinner.
•The union needs better relations with the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan Houston. The Bureau says of the union: "This company is a telemarketer that solicits donations in the name of, or on behalf of law enforcement unions or associations." It notes that "a very small percentage of donations go to the cause." •The union allied itself with the Fraternal Order of Police, a group that seems to suffer from an addiction to telephone solicitation. Two years ago, the Massachusetts attorney general sued a local FOP lodge, saying 93 percent of $394,000 raised in 2001 went to the fund-raisers and 5 percent to its own administration. What happened to the remaining 2 percent wasn't clear. The AG's office called it "badge fraud solicitation."
In 2002, Illinois officials moved to shut down telemarketing firms soliciting on behalf of four Chicago-area FOP lodges. Among other embarrassments: the firms were run by felons and hired felons to make the pro-law enforcement pitch.
Prior to that the Oklahoma FOP refused to register as a charity with the state even after being told by the attorney general to do so. The police organization used a New Jersey telemarketer. Registration would have required it to open records to the public on what it did with the money.
The FOP joined in a lawsuit in Colorado that struck down a law requiring charity solicitors to inform donors that they had three days to change their minds.
In 1997, the FOP and others sued in Texas and overturned a law requiring their telephone solicitors to tell how much of the donation was going to the union. A judge ruled it violated their First Amendment rights because other charities weren't required to do the same.
I will say this for Houston Police Patrolmen's Union President Johnnie McFarland. When I asked him how much of the money went to the solicitors, he was honest. He said, "70 percent." A few minutes later, he called back to correct it to "80 percent."
"We're full-time police officers, and this is what they do," he said, semi-apologetically.
Maybe so, but I don't want to pay them to do it.
You can write to Rick Casey at P.O. Box 4260, Houston, TX 77210, or e-mail him at rick.casey@chron.com.
Don't get me wrong. I love cops, and have two in the family, but I hate telemarketing scams, because I know that very little actually goes to the cause it claims to work for.
A few years ago, I was plagued by calls for the Iowa State Trooper's Association - to the point where I called the state commander's office - and raised he** for getting repeated calls after telling the telemarketer to stop. The CO's office got the calls stopped, and I got a nice phone call from the Trooper Association's Senior officer apologizing.
LOL! We have plenty of felons RUNNING Illinois!
I've been asked to sink $50 into this hole. I asked if that sticker would get me out of a ticket and the operator said an unequivocal "YES!" I spun it around declaring that is illegal and they said well yeah, but they'd look the other way if a gave $$$. I said isn't that a shakedown? Bribery? ...and this is law enforcement for you.
There is no other way you can feel when they call.
They have my name and .......
It's for the widows and children.....
I've known they're solicitors for awhile now, but it's still creepy. Doesn't "no-call" stop these guys?
I had a call today at work from these scammers. They mentioned something about the California Highway Patrol. I hung up on them.
I've been told, the guy/gal that sells you the extended warrenty on a product pockets a big chuck of the money.
I hang up on any and all tele-marketers. No exceptions.
Sometimes I thought I was the only one. "Hello, Mr. Skid? This is John Q. Phoneblower with the Iowa State Trooper's Association. How are you today? That's great. Mr. Skid you're not under arrest or anything, we're just calling to..."
The FOP solicitors that call you here in Maryland ask for you by your first name when they call.
The caller always says his name is "Travis." He must be one busy mug because every call we've ever received from these fine folks - I'm talking years here - has been from "Travis."
And yes, they are paid solicitors.
I think this is causes more hard feelings than any good it would do.
Unions!
While living in VA, I got calls from organizations like the "Virginia's Crippled Children of Police Chiefs Foundation" and "Firefighters' Family Support Organization". Pledged and gave money to one the first year. The next year all kinds of police and firefighting 'organizations' were calling. The floodgates had opened.
Never gave again and now hang up on all of them.
Same here -- gave a few times, and they've never stopped calling, tho I've told them to pound sand for over 20 years!
Scammer: "...so can we count on your contribution this year?"
Me: "No, I'm sorry. I'm out of work."
Scammer: "Well, how about the 'bronze' level? It's only $25."
Me: "NO I'm out of work, and paying my mortgage and feeding my family comes first." < click >
Talk about pushy..
I tell 'em to send me their literature if they want me to consider them. Shuts 'em up and nothing ever comes in the mail.
Leni
I love those calls. I donate 50$ a year to my state Police Union. I get a bumper sticker. I put the bumper sticker on my auto.......when I get stopped for speeding the nice officer walks around the back of my auto... sees the bumper sticker and walks back up to my window with a smile and tells me to "slow down" and hands me my papers back.
That's the best d@mned $50.00 I spend every year.
I tell them they've got a sexy voice and then ask them what they're wearing....male or female!! LOL...it really throws them off track, especially the men!
Literature and request in triplicate. We are a family corporation, you know, and the board needs formal papers for review.
You never hear from them.
Bingo. Anytime any solicitor calls for donations, always ask up front what percentage goes to that organization. They are required by law to tell you. Chances are, it's barely 25-30%, as you found out.
In the last year, we've received only one phone call among many where the entire amount went to the organization - our local fire dept. All the others, including state police and assorted others, were only given a fraction. So only the local fire dept got our money, and all solicitors were told why.
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