Another gratitous cop bashing thread...

Status
Not open for further replies.
R

rburg

Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2001
Messages
7,407
Reaction score
6,234
Location
Kentucky, USA
Today I went to a drive thru to pick up lunch. I was sitting there waiting (nearly forever) to get to the microphone, passively watching the drama unfold in their parking lot. Out come 2 city cops, BSing in the sun.

One walks over to his cruiser, still talking. He uses his foot (clad in his uniform leather shoes) and notices mud covering his rear quarter panel. Obviously he'd been in a puddle or muddy section. So he takes his foot and starts scraping it off the fender. Not once, not twice, but about a half dozen times. Each one striking paydirt, and removing mud right down to the paint.

I know cruisers around here are driven into the ground. But that probably isn't going to buff out. It'll just look like crap until the car is declared un-roadworthy. I can't imagine anyone doing that to their own car. But its OK to abuse a taxpayer funded ride? CPD, noon today, unit 04333.

All the cops (now retired) that I'm friends with are smart guys. I don't know a single one of them who would pull such a stunt. I'm not really pissed, just disgusted.
 
Register to hide this ad
Today I went to a drive thru to pick up lunch. I was sitting there waiting (nearly forever) to get to the microphone, passively watching the drama unfold in their parking lot. Out come 2 city cops, BSing in the sun.

One walks over to his cruiser, still talking. He uses his foot (clad in his uniform leather shoes) and notices mud covering his rear quarter panel. Obviously he'd been in a puddle or muddy section. So he takes his foot and starts scraping it off the fender. Not once, not twice, but about a half dozen times. Each one striking paydirt, and removing mud right down to the paint.

I know cruisers around here are driven into the ground. But that probably isn't going to buff out. It'll just look like crap until the car is declared un-roadworthy. I can't imagine anyone doing that to their own car. But its OK to abuse a taxpayer funded ride? CPD, noon today, unit 04333.

All the cops (now retired) that I'm friends with are smart guys. I don't know a single one of them who would pull such a stunt. I'm not really pissed, just disgusted.
 
I'm sure there's money somewhere in the stimulas bill to repaint cop cars,he just wants to be sure his car is the one of the first.
icon_smile.gif
 
If he was one of the young twerps, er, I mean, turks, who has probably never washed a car by hand, nor ever done any body work at all, he probably hasn't a clue.

When I was a young lad, the Indiana State Police used to have "white-glove" inspections, and I can tell you for a fact, because I witnessed one, the inspector wore WHITE gloves!
icon_redface.gif
The vehicles I see prowling around now would make that guy faint.
 
Slightly off thread, but in this economy or even in good times, it always kind of bugged me that many departments let the officers take their crusiers home. I used to live in lancaster california and saw LA cops bring their bikes home and that was a average of 70 miles each way. Now I know years ago when I rode, the CHP sold them at 40K miles. We are talking about a $20K motor!
I had a friend that was retired Indiappolis PD, he was mad from the retirement staying low. He claimed the PD would let the officers take their cars home and keep the wages lower and the guys would go for it. Since his retirement was a percentage of the wages, he thought they did it to really screw the retirerees.
I can see a town letting them take them home if only a few miles, but not the 70 or 80 that I knew some did!
 
The "law of the commons", Dick. When something - anything is owned by all, the society at large "in common", it is treated as though noone owns it, and can therefore be mistreated, ignored, neglected, etc., As frustrating as it may be, its an old, common phenomenon and is demonstrated in various ways; look at any public facility, and the abuse it takes. The public doesn't realize that it is their own resources that they are treating badly.
 
I was one of those who took my car home. We were issued the car because we lived in isolated areas and worked a shift and were on call for a shift each day.

We were required to keep our cars as spotless as possible. Mine always looked better than my personal car, because we had a wash rack at the patrol office.

I got a brand new 1970 Buick patrol car, and the second night I had it a drunk puked all over the windshield, dash, and down the defrosters.

I have never been so mad in my life. I took the car to the shop the next day and the mechanics and I took the entire dash out so I could get it cleaned up.

I was in gun fights and never got mad, but I could have very happily done that guy in.
 
Well, here's a little different take on the "take home" car. A guy up the block is a city cop and brings his car home several nights a week. We have very few problems in our neighborhood, since folks have to drive by his car on the way into the neighborhood. One of the reasons I don't mind my mother living alone is because there is a deputy two houses down who parks his car in the street.

As far as the cop not taking proper care of his equipment, well, that's why I only own one truck, and I drive it. I'm not going to shell out $150k for a new rig, then have some bozo treat it like crap. Yeah, I might make a little more money, but I'd have a lot more headaches, too.
 
it always kind of bugged me that many departments let the officers take their crusiers home.
Click to expand...

Around here, if an officer drives an agency owned car home, it means he is subject to being called out at any time. If getting out of bed at 2:00 a.m. on a cold rainy night to go drag some moron off to jail is a "fringe benefit" I will pass! As for the cop scraping mud off the car with his shoe and damaging public property, I have better things to worry about.
 
One of my neighbors is a Sheriff's Deputy. Several nights a week he's got a patrol car or 4WD truck out parked on the street. A city Police Officer lives behind me and occasionally parks a patrol car in front of his house. My neighborhood is quite peaceful.
icon_wink.gif
 
Originally posted by n4zov:
As for the cop scraping mud off the car with his shoe and damaging public property, I have better things to worry about.
Click to expand...

How would you feel about it if one of the cop's "customers" had done it?
 
They do here too. I bet every thrid street around me has a police car in front. I own a rental a few miles away. There is three or four police cars within a block! That house is directly across from the small police station in enock.
What I was talking about is liveing 80 miles from LA and takeing them home. I bet not over 10 percent of LA cops actualy live in LA!
I had 3 or 4 LA cops that were friends of mine that commuted down there. One had a big van and was on the bomb squad with all his equipment. I could see that.
Several small towns around me, really villages, have old police cars permently parked with manikins in uniforms in them! One of these days I will take a picture of one and post it.
 
Gimme a break.
Scraping mud with his shoe was probably just an absent minded activity while he thought about something else.
Big deal. What does the average cruiser last- 18-24 mos? It'll be worn out or wrecked long before it rusts out.
 
Originally posted by handejector:
Gimme a break.
Scraping mud with his shoe was probably just an absent minded activity while he thought about something else.
Big deal. What does the average cruiser last- 18-24 mos? It'll be worn out or wrecked long before it rusts out.
Click to expand...

I think you're just about right on the replacement cycle. Our county replaces cars before they roll 100k, and they rack up 4-6k a month.

Every year there's a few deputies that smack deer, and a few cars will get dinged by assorted other means. More than a few will accumulate extra character from the back-seat passengers... face it, if someone is bent over the hood of a cruiser being patted down, he probably doesn't care that his belt buckle is gouging the paint to the metal.

Many of the local car washes do courtesy discounts for the cops here, too - but the cops that do it are doing it from from their own pocket, because a bucket and soap is available at the office.
 
A friend, a police detective, took his vehicle home. That way, if he was called out to work a call, he didn't have to go to the office and pick up his cop car. Ths made his ability to respond quicker.

yashua
 
Originally posted by Iggy:
I got a brand new 1970 Buick patrol car, and the second night I had it a drunk puked all over the windshield, dash, and down the defrosters.
I have never been so mad in my life.
I was in gun fights and never got mad, QUOTE]



+1, pukin' in a guy's office just ain't cool
icon_redface.gif



Su Amigo,
Dave
Click to expand...
 
One thing about cop cars, the suburban Barney Fifes have much nicer rides than the city police. In Hartford you'll see some fairly ratty looking squad cars rolling around. Hard to find one without a dent or scrape. All that action, I would assume. I remember the 60s and 70s and all the battered police cars (Plymouth Furys) rolling around Hartford with no hub caps and dents front,sides and back.
 
While talking on the phone to a Regional Cop in Canada on a fugitive case, he commented that he could take his car home about 25 miles. BUT he had to check in his revolver at the post. He did say that they were changing the procedure if you had a approved gun safe. I wonder if Reno and holder were up there giving advise.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top