My Leo is a hero

I know alot of people have no room in their heart for Police Officer's and in a strange way, I understand that sometimes but before anyone makes a final judgement on all police officer's, please allow me to tell you my side of this debate.

I have been married to a police officer for twelve years....some good and some bad. He has seen some of the most tragic and de-humanizing sides of people and he has seen the best as well. He is the kind of police officer to stop at the house of a lonely elderly man who just lost his wife. He is the kind of police officer who will take the time to fix the mailbox for a family who can't afford to get it fixed for themselves....of course, he does this on his own time and with his own money.

He is the kind of police officer who cried at the drowning of a two year old little girl. This happened while I was pregnant with our son and to this day, he refuses to get a swimming pool. He is the kind of police officer who will drive a man to a hospital where his wife is fighting for her life and it doesn't matter how long it takes or how long he has to wait.

He is an excellent father to his son, he is an excellent husband to me and there isn't anything he wouldn't do for his entire family. His father is disabled and whenever he needs my hero, he is there.

My husband has been called just about every bad word you could think of......his patience has been put to the test.....and yet, he has this quality about him of never letting his anger get the best of him. His ability to stay in control in some of the worst circumstances is mind blowing and the respect he has of his junior officers is well known.

Am I biased? You damn right I am....police officer's don't get good quality press time. In fact, the only time cops get press time is when something has gone wrong. The press isn't interested in the truth about police officers....it's better stories for them! Al Sharpton and his cronies are the first to appear in front of a camera when a black person is killed at the hands of police officers and they aren't interested in the whole truth. It doesn't matter to them! Look at Tawana Brawley, this happened in my own back yard and the lives he ruined are just casualties in his quest for top black leader!

So, when you accuse all cops of being looters, murderers and whatever else you can come up with, please have the common courtesy of knowing all of the facts before you make final judgements. That is my hero you are talking about!!!

Well, if you followed my previous calculations, it costs NYC about $100,000 to solve each solved crime (actually that's probably low, since it assumes a low proportion of burglary in the mix). In part that's due to the low solution rate, in part to high costs.

In your town, a cop costs about half what one does in NYC. But what is the solution rate in your town? In some small towns it is pretty good. The cops solved a case of stolen bark mulch where I live (the costs are still out of whack since we have too many cops). But in some small towns, cops are too busy collecting revenue to deal with "civilians'" minor problems like burglaries.

How effective are your town's cops? How many crimes? How many solved? What is the cost per solved crime? THOSE are the difficult numbers.

Your stuck on the issues of cost....not that it is not important but how does it relate to your generalization that cops are no good. You make it sound so clinical when you talk about this subject and that is unfair because cops are human too.

If cost is your issue then that's fine but if you want to really get to the heart of the way our local government is spending our money then you must include other organizations as well. Schools for one.....our kids are not being taught like they should be.....this of course leaves kids open to all kinds of misfortune and that includes crimes. A large part of the crimes today are committed by children and who as a whole suffers for this....society. Kids today have no concept of accountability and I blame that fact squarely on the parents.

Starting to get off track here......getting back to police officers.....do yourself a huge favor and get involved in your local police department. Learn exactly what really goes on behind the scenes.....I can almost guarantee that you will gain a better understanding and a new found respect as well.

Everybody is human. Some humans willingly, even gleefully, take part in corrupt, counterproductive, anti-freedom, tax-eating enterprises.

As you point our, public schools suck. Almost all conservatives know this. What many don't know, but is becoming increasingly obvious, is that police departments have gotten as bad as public schools, and in some cases worse.

As I already pointed out I am invovled in my local PD. As with most towns, my town now has a budget crisis. Two cops are leaving for other PDs and we won't have to have a layoff because our chief listens to our selectmen when they say the sh*tstorm is coming. Now if we could only get our schools to realize they don't need so freakin many people to "counsel" kids and not threaten the town with laying off teachers before they touch the fat in their budgets.

It's really good that you are involved with your local police department but you mentioned you spend alot of time with the chief of that department, right? Do you actually sit down with the cops who are actually in the field? I ask this question because most times they feel like their views or even their questions are being ignored.

My husband who is now a Sgt. has told me stories about how different it was for him when he was a junior officer as compared to now and far too many times, he was ignored and told to just do his job. My point is that you should take some time to talk with these guys, away from any senior officers. I can't guarantee that they will share everything with you for fear of it getting back to the top brass but if you could prove to them that what they tell you stays with you, your perspective could become even clearer.

Ha! We have a tiny tiny department, and one of the main things I gotta keep telling the chief is to get in a car and ride around.

Before the budget crunch my town built a big expensive new cop shop, with a lockup. The PD used to literally be based in a closet in the town hall, and the chief HAD to be on patrol. Everybody even peripherally in touch with town government is on a first name basis with all six of our cops.

But my town is an anomaly. The main reason we have police is to have someone in a car with a defibrilator in the trunk on duty 24/7 - we have a volunteer FD and ambulance. Our solution rates are high because we have almost no crime and solving the case of the stolen bark mulch is the most exciting thing that happened last year. We don't do revenue speed traps. We don't have DARE or SWAT or any foolishness like that. After expected attrition we will be down to the barest fixed costs - about one cop for every 2000 population. We have to mothball the lockup because the only person in the bulding will be the dispatcher.

A neighboring town that got saddled with a big "traffic safety" group when they had an empire-building chief are now up the fiscal creek. Even in small towns the difference in costs for PDs can easily vary be 5X.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.