U.S. Police in Major Metropolitan Areas Voting With Their Feet

This creates several serious problems. First, there are not enough officers to respond in a timely manner to an emergency call. Second, new officers will not have enough veterans to mentor them. Mentoring is a critical and under appreciated factor. A new cop fresh out of the academy still has a lot to learn when it comes to working on the streets in high crime areas. Learning how to recognize a dangerous developing situation is something a new officer garners from watching and listening to a senior officer who has been on the job for some years. Experience is invaluable, and that is what police departments across the nation are hemorrhaging.

The comments from the survey respondents are chilling:

“My department is getting younger as my experienced personnel retire/resign and are replaced with new officers.  We are struggling to keep up with salaries for neighboring larger departments who are recruiting my experienced officers.”

“We have seen an approximate 40% reduction in applicant packets this last fiscal year. In addition, we are seeing fewer ‘above average’ candidates.  The current rhetoric and negativity surrounding law enforcement is having a negative impact on the number and quality of applicants we recruit.”

“Applications have decreased dramatically, making hiring extremely difficult. And our officers have fatigue from working long shifts and covering backfill slots to supplement staffing.”

“We’ve had a more than 50% reduction in the number of applicants for the recruit academy, from an average of 450 per year, to only 205 in 2020. And we’ve seen a 100% reduction in qualified lateral recruits, with zero hired in 2020, compared to an average of  3 to 4 annually since 2008.”

I chatted with a new friend yesterday. He’s been with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office for 21 years. Even here in this section of police friendly Florida, he said the County is having trouble filling new training classes. In addition, the physical and intellectual standards are being lowered. Previous candidates were required to run a mile and a half. That is no longer on the books.

When police are no longer readily available to help enforce the law and maintain order, it should not come as a shock that those communities become less safe.

There is another factor hurting the police. In many communities they have been used as shock troops to enforce mask wearing and social distancing. However, that type of enforcement has been very inconsistent. If you are a Black Lives Matter protestor or an Antifa thug, you are usually left alone to go about your business of sowing mayhem. If you are a Christian wanting to attend church or a patron at a restaurant, it is likely that you were subjected to some sort of coercion by the police.

This has been a real problem in England:

COPS will go into Brits’ homes and break up Christmas family gatherings if they break lockdown rules, a police chief has warned.

David Jamieson, the West Midlands police and crime commissioner (PCC), said officers will investigate reports of rule-breaking over the festive season.

But we have seen it here in America as well, particularly in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. That kind of double standard does not sit well with patriots and has made populations normally sympathetic to the police much less so.

This problem is not going away. The best thing you can do is ensure you have a firearm to protect yourself and your family. Most importantly, take the time to get properly trained on how to use that firearm. The worst thing you can do is buy a pistol and not have the first clue on how to load it or how to clear a stoppage.

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26 Responses to U.S. Police in Major Metropolitan Areas Voting With Their Feet

  1. TV says:

    George Floyd has been sober for 14 months.

  2. Harlan Easley says:

    If you are a young white man you would have to be insane to consider joining the Police Force in a large metropolitan area controlled by the Democrats. Especially, in this red-hot job market.

  3. Fred says:

    All is proceeding to plan. The call for Federal help was already sent by the mayor of Chicago, who is systematically destroying policing in the city. I look forward to seeing the incorporation of BLM/Antifa style “community” social justice groups into police forces in either official or affiliate roles with full powers and immunity. Weimar Republic police force 2.0 is on track.

    • carl says:

      Fred, can you explain your reference to the Weimar Republic police force? After the German people suffered wartime starvation, military defeat, economic collapse and moral breakdown following WWI, what exactly did the cops do or not do to make a bad situation even worse?

      • Fred says:

        Incorporation of militia groups supporting your party, groups which spent months in disrupting civil society, into the government you only tentatively control after a very narrow election victory.

  4. akaPatience says:

    What’s just as bad is that I’ve noticed in my city in the midwest, some of the cops who DO chose to stay on are often reluctant to actually do the job of policing. They’ve been cowed by the unfair demonization of law enforcement; exploited by bullying extortionists who extract huge sums from local treasuries in wrongful death settlements, almost always for perps who’ve died while violently resisting arrest, etc. In the last few years I’ve noticed increased hazardous driving conditions that are likely at least partially enabled by the now-routine reluctance of police to deal with traffic offenders. Drivers speed with abandon. But who of us would have the guts to approach the vehicle of a suspect or reckless driver, knowing the chance of being murdered while doing so?

    The huge costs associated with law enforcement are MAJOR burdens for cities. It’s no wonder some politicians foolishly regard reducing those costs as a way to make their jobs easier. But we end up paying one way or the other. In spite of what I’ve written we still have pretty good policing where I live, for which I’m very grateful. If the MSM ever decided to actually do their jobs, there could and should be a daily drumbeat of reports of how “progressives” and their irresponsible governance are turning some major cities into crime-ridden shitholes.

  5. Keith Harbaugh says:

    Not on the topic of the police, but on a topic you have spoken about in the past:
    NSA politically-motivated spying on U.S. citizens:

    https://technofog.substack.com/p/that-strange-nsa-non-denial

    “Yesterday, Tucker announced that the National Security Agency had been collecting his communications in order to take him off the air. He has now provided a brief update.”

    That link embeds a five-minute Tucker monologue that is quite remarkable, which does not (yet) seem to be available at YouTube.
    If you have concerns about NSA politically-motivated spying, that is well worth watching.

    • Keith Harbaugh says:

      I should have added to the above a link to this related Sundance column, which makes some absolutely scorching points:

      https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/06/30/nsa-responds-to-tucker-carlson-claim-of-surveillance-the-generic-and-very-political-non-denial-should-alarm-everyone/

      E.g.,
      “The Intelligence Branch of government is [now] a public-private partnership that includes governmental agencies and private sector technology groups, Big Tech.

      The IC Branch is a partnership between the U.S. government and the private sector; that is why various elements within the Intelligence Branch use ‘contractors‘. ”

      • JerseyJeffersonian says:

        Keith, Harbaugh,

        Yes, I read that post from Sundance with interest, and noted his advisement that he is working up another of his characteristically deep and far-ranging analyses of the issues that these developments raise.

        A while back, Col. Lang ventured that the observable facts and circumstances of our societal arc were overall pretty consistent with the initiation of fascism in Mussolini’s mold; i.e., the merger of the State and Corporations, with hoi polloi reduced to existence under their less than benevolent rule. Sundance’s formulation seems increasingly to have twigged to this insight, coming to this conclusion from his own observations and researches.

        This is due to the fundamentally conservative view of human nature that underlies both of these analyses. The elites’ attempt, yet again, to erect their favored “one size fits all” Luciferian Tower of Babel in order that they may be as gods stands revealed for what it is.

      • blue peacock says:

        Nothing new. Been going on for a long time. Read the Church commission report from the mid-70s. Why have both Republicans and Democrats supported the growth of this “4th branch of government”?

        What did Sundance’s cult leader POTUS Trump do about any of this?

        • Fred says:

          What did Trump’s opponents do?

          • blue peacock says:

            Knocked him out of the ring. KO!

          • Fred says:

            Blue,

            Guess that solves your problem.

          • Sam says:

            Fred,

            Trump sold Drain the Swamp. When he got the brass ring he folded like a cheap suit.

            Sundance is a Trump cultist. He rails against Barr, Wray, etc. When folks point out that Trump hired these people, he says “woe is me” he couldn’t get anyone past the Senate. If Trump had the competence and guts he would have used the powers of his office. He didn’t!

            Politics is a blood sport. If he had any real intention of Draining the Swamp he would have acted with the knowledge that the Swamp would resist. He proved to be weak.

            BP is spot on. Trump got KO’d. In the first round.

          • Fred says:

            Sam,

            !Jeb! would’a done better. Or little Marco, or Mitten’s or take your pick.
            “Politics is a blood sport.”

            Oh, is that what it is? Obama’s way is the right way, constitution be damned!

          • Mishko says:

            Deplatformed him.
            The social media giants are a curse.
            Social media are about social engineering.

        • Sam says:

          Fred

          Trump was POTUS. How did he Drain the Swamp?

  6. A. Pols says:

    If you are young, idealistic, and thinking of becoming a first time cop because you think you can do some good, you might apply for a police job in a big Democrat run city with a sizeable black population. But if you’re an experienced officer who in past times might switch from one metro PD to another, you’re much less likely to now, when considering the fact that if you attempt to apprehend a black motorist for anything, and he violently resists, you face serious allegations which are likely to be unquestionably believed by the ruling Nomenklatura of that metro area and you may find yourself held without bond and facing a long prison term following a Kangaroo Court trial where the verdict comes before the trial. The object lesson of Derek Chauvin should serve as a warning to anyone considering employment with any PD in such a city.

  7. James says:

    Ex Baltimore cop Michael Wood is in favour of some police reform and I think he knows what he is talking about:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf7ryvcDvOE

    Wood believes that a large part of the problem is that police are scared because they are poorly trained. He says that the cops who have served in the military are much better cops because they have the confidence that comes from extensive training and experience.

    • I put this out there:
      I once had a soldier explain the difference between soldiers and police.
      Let’s imagine there’s a sniper somewhere.
      The police’s answer is to cordon off the area, try and talk the sniper down; take as much time as possible to end it as peaceable as possible
      The soldier’s response is to put a couple of artillery rounds into the sniper position and move on.
      Sound right to you ex-soldiers and ex-police?

    • Ken Roberts says:

      Well, that’s a very interesting interview. Michael Wood is/was clearly a good police officer, and I hear what he’s saying. And Baltimore is/was a tough assignment.

      BUT – I’m going to disagree with the idea that military service is good training to be a municipal police officer. People differ, and this is a generalization – but to be a good municipal officer, at least here in Ontario, Canada, is not a matter of knowing how to shoot a firearm, how to wear a uniform, or how to follow orders. An Ontario officer might draw his firearm once a year, shoot once a career. He must be in good condition, and military service qualifies for that. Much of the job is not following orders, but rather figuring out the broader mission (keep the peace, aka law and order with the emphasis on order), and act most of the time independently (not wait for or follow orders) as suitable.

      Just to be troublesome — I like Joe Rogan, but watching this video I was really struck by the contrast between the bulshit generalities vs the reality of Wood’s speech. Despite the heavy editing and rearrangement of Wood’s video. JoeR went down a bit in my ranking. He could have done a better job in this show.

  8. Deap says:

    Here is what one small, coastal California city pays its police officers where most of the crime is dealing with vagrants, drugs, alcohol and gangs. Over and over again. It too is a defund the police town and plenty of people with ACAB, attitudes but are usually too lazy to get organized to do anything:

    Total compensation packages for 2019:
    https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?a=santa-barbara&q=police&y=2019

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