I heard the King County Sheriff talking about proposed cuts to programs like their Helicopter, Motorcycles, Communty Service Officers, etc. I believe that he like most of the elected officicals should cut things FIRST like letting his deputies drive their patrol cars home. Many King County Deputies drive to their homes everyday in other counties in their patrol cars. Lets cut these kinds of perks. First and then the other programs if necessary.

-- roy (nannoook@aol.com), November 22, 1999

Answers

In my County, Deputies are on call 24 hours day. They take patrol cars home to cut response time in an emergency. While it is a perk, I would say it is also a neccessary evil. We could require them to respond in a personal vehicle that is not equipped, but the liability issue could cost far more than gas etc....Just a thought. There are other things that can be cut.

-- Marsha (acorn_nut@hotmail.com), November 22, 1999.

Marsha:

I agree with you on this one. Police cars last longer if they are used by one person who has responsibility for it, and can be made accoutable for how it looks and will report problems. Police cars in neighborhoods also reduce crime, even if they are empty. Officers are equipped and available to take any action from the moment they leave home, and can be called back to duty immediately.

-- dbvz (dbvz@wa.freei.net), November 22, 1999.

Roy you are absolutely correct. Marsha and Db, you are out of line. Many places have cop CARS on duty 24/7 or on a rotating 24/7 to perform scheduled and emergency maintenance. 1 person does NOT take care of the vehicle. There is a maintenance department that is paid EXTREMELY WELL to service the vehicles. And there is a bureaucracy that is paid EXTREMELY WELL to 'service' the public.

Using the vehicles as private transportation is a lot more than a perk. It is method to extort a lot more money out of us for no logical reason. It's the same thing with all these 'public servants' being issued cell-phones. What's wrong with VHF? You can keep the RADIO operating 24/7 and the only cost is electricity and the devious crooks can't use it for PERSONAL BUSINESS.

Screw the 'perks' let's ferret them out and get them removed.

-- maddjak (maddjak@hotmail.com), November 22, 1999.

Madjack, first, after reading your posts for many weeks, I would say on most issues we agree. :) I enjoy reading your responses. Roy, please read the following. If I am wrong, oh well...I tried.

I can only speak for my County and what happens here. We just don't have enough Deputies to cover the area in this county. Our Sheriff is very under funded and these Deputies are only paid 60% of what most Law Enforcement Officers are paid in this State. Our Sheriff does what he can with the resources he has available. Many of our Deputies fortunatly live in the rural areas they patrol. We have 20 or so volunteers who assist the Sheriff by staffing a remote substation in heavily populated area. Volunteers assist the public when a Deputy is out on a call, away from the substation unless it is an emergency. They fill out paperwork, fingerprint citizens who are required to be fingerprinted for employment etc. and direct citizens to the proper authority if they are unable to assist or answer a question. Since I am one of the volunteers, you can be damn sure I look for the FAT. I just don't see any. I wish one of those Deputies with a patrol car lived within 10 minutes of my home. I can expect a response time of 1/2 or more in a real emergency. Roy, is it possible we are both right?

-- Marsha (acorn_nut@hotmail.com), November 22, 1999.

Just a side note. I could swear we have 4 building inspectors for every Deputy in my county.

-- Marsha (acorn_nut@hotmail.com), November 22, 1999.

Marsha, we know you don't live in the 'County of the King' http://maddjak.bizland.com/king.jpg However even in smaller counties there are programs that can be done away with.

DARE is a good one and so is the 'community information officer(s)'

King county is way overloaded with the overspending in the area of police. Maybe not in the section of working officers but in other areas there is a lot of waste.

-- maddjak (maddjak@hotmail.com), November 22, 1999.

Marsha, You also forget one point. The emergencies that are really important to the police department are the ones that threaten their bosses (the government). We the people always come in a distant second.

-- maddjak (maddjak@hotmail.com), November 22, 1999.

Don't get me wrong guys, this is my first positive experience with any Law Enforcement. The last county I lived in, the Deputies gave some of us the impression that they were afraid to pursue gangs and serious criminals, and gave law abiding citizens a hard time instead. (ego?)

Madjack, I have never seen a "community information officer" here and I had been under the impression the DARE Officer does double-duty.

I am beginning to feel fortunate to live here. No I won't tell you what County this is, I don't want more people to move here, but we save $350 a month in lower electricity, taxes etc. compared that last County.

-- Marsha (acorn_nut@hotmail.com), November 22, 1999.

Aha Marsha, I see you must have lived in King county before!!! Maybe even Seattle. A community information officer (the one's I've seen) drive a nice van, have a cell phone and make themselves seen by the public. The one's have have seen don't carry a gun??????

And DARE?? well even if the officer is doing double-duty it is a complete waste of OUR money two or three times because it is a non- profit agency that receives mega-bucks from our taxes too!!

And as for going after the 'criminals'??? Well the definition of a criminal in our neck of the woods is someone who owns a club or apartments and can't do the job of the POLICE-DEPARTMENT and make the community free of drug-dealers and other unsavory elements.

So the POLICE acting with the blessings and under the command of the GOVERNMENT excercise their powers against the CITIZENS!!!

-- maddjak (maddjak@hotmail.com), November 22, 1999.

Maddjak:

You get so excited. All I meant was if you run a car 24/7 on patrol it may last 2 years. If it runs 1/4 that time, it may last 4 or 5; and take home has some other benefits to the community as well as the officer. The big dollars for police services are in the personnel, and if you can improve their effectiveness with a relatively small increase in equipment costs it may be worth it. This is one that will be looked at again by many police agencies lookng for cuts, but it is not just a perk as you seem to think.

-- dbvz (dbvz@wa.freei.net), November 22, 1999.