How to solve crime problems, Chapter Uno

So how do we solve this crazy crime problem we have in the city AND the county? That's right, we have the answers! We can solve all the crime problems (not really) but we can damn sure kill most of them, just like putting poison down for rats! You heard it here first, we have all the answers! So Chapter one in our crime resolution plans for world domination, er to solve crime problems we mean.

Step 1 - Start doing organized police work, communication.

The fact that agencies don't share intelligence on a regular basis or work in conjunction with each other is complete smelly crap. Each agency likes to act independent of the others, except when there is a large scale problem and then they launch a night of 40 people working to solve an intermittent issue that needs to be prevented and controlled instead of swatted with 40 people on overtime assignment.

In order to organize police work effectively, we have to put our egos aside and sit down at a table and share information, daily. CID especially within agencies needs to work very closely with one another, in person or by video conferencing office to office. Communication should happen twice a day if possible, at the beginning of the day and at the end. There should be a summery sheet of current investigations and suspects e-mailed or faxed to the agency coordinator daily which would cut down on agencies investigating the same issues and would enhance a closer working relationship between agencies. CID must work much, much closer with patrol officers and be at roll calls, each roll call, daily or at least provide a summery of investigation status to roll calls. Being a detective is not only an honor, its a job. The ultimate goal is to arrest criminals.

Cut out the politics. Politics do nothing but hamper law enforcement from doing their job. Yes, this is a totally thankless profession. We are expected to act the best but deal with the worst and still act the best. We are expected to perform unreasonable requests, get yelled at about foolish issues that have no real consequence by administrations, read umpteen memorandums, e-mails, policies, procedures, and abide by unwritten or ever changing rules and regulations. The last thing we need is politics, which motivates much of the above, in law enforcement, but it is rampant. How about the politicians give us the money to operate effectively, stay out of our way, and we control crime and get results.

While we are at it, lets cut out egos. Administrative or supervisory egos have a terrible effect on moral and line officers performing at their peak performance. In fact, the more a line officer is mistreated, the worse he will do on the job because he adopts a passive aggressive attitude, which is his only means of fighting back. If the road officer is not screwing up, let him do his job and lock people up. If and when he screws up, then address the issue appropriately. Line officers with egos, lets get real. We are all cops, loose your 'tude. We don't care if you are CID, SWAT, or whatever, you aren't any better or have any other powers than anyone else on the road. Yeah, we know you are hot crap but really, who gives a crap. Shut up and get to work with the rest of us. Do you ever see your agency leader? Do they stop in at roll calls to talk to line personnel and assist them on the road? Do they handle calls for service along side you? If not, this is a problem because it creates a wide seperation between the ranks. Although they have an administrative job, they carry a badge and a gun like the rest of you.

All agencies should be operating on one radio system and digitally encoded. Each area of the county, especially the ones with independent cities such as Salisbury, Delmar, and Fruitland should have their own operational channel with one main channel. Communications needs to be upgraded dramatically, including dispatchers. Dispatchers are a vital component of the incident response system and should have double the current staff. They must be knowledgeable and trained to do their job and effectively handle the stress of dealing with the public and the officers on a daily basis. Attitude problems amongst dispatchers in some agencies is rampant and this does nothing but slow response times and delay vital communications that could result in the injury or death of a citizen or officer. For some reason either supervisors or administration are reluctant to address these problems with attitudes. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix in this issue except to pay dispatchers more and to retain qualified dispatchers and terminate lackadaisical dispatchers and to invest in training in these people.

Off-duty officers from all agencies should have a dinner or "social" once a month, where for about 30 min, someone who is well liked by all, a line officer or line supervisor, addresses the crowd with the months highlights and mentions who is doing a good job in each agency. Further, become involved in your local Fraternal Order of Police Lodges. Some lodges have more "teeth" than others and this is because of a serious lack of cohesion between members. You must attend meetings in order to change anything; there is strength in numbers. A strong FOP with a large attending membership is much stronger than a weak FOP with no one in attendance. This sends a message to administration that you are divided and can not even make the effort to go to a meeting to resolve issues that concern you directly.

Moral and "the thin blue line" is a very important factor in police work that is lacking in this area and most of the Eastern Shore. We as law enforcement tend to be at each other's throats a lot and talk about each other behind each others backs. Granted, there are cops that shouldn't be cops and they're are cops that are stupid or want to hump your wife however, these are all individual internal personnel issues. As a whole multi-agency personnel must do a better job in becoming more fluid and much more protective of each other. Regardless of which agency you work for, doesn't matter, we all do the same job.