Has anyone else seen a LotCop?

[16thVACav]

I think the object is to appease the insurance companies so the loss claims are paid.

Large corporations like Walmart don't deal with insurance companies. They are self insured, assuming the risks and rewards themselves. There are a few exceptions, such as the handful of states that prohibit self insured workers' compensation (and even then there are a few ways to structure coverage so you end up with the equivalent of self insurance).

 

[yaktamer]

I've seen some of these at construction sites. As far as people stealing them, I'm guessing some may have motion sensors that alert a centralized monitoring station who can call cops for a real-time response. I know of at least one retail store that had that kind of setup on its loading dock. Monitoring center was out of state and called local cops with description of guys trying to break into a semitrailer and they got caught.

 

[Doug M.]

Meth maggots will steal and recycle for cash anything metal. The damage they do to complex farm irrigation systems is staggering - usually at least 10 and often 50 times the value of the stuff they "scrap".

 

[DWalt]

Meth maggots will steal and recycle for cash anything metal. The damage they do to complex farm irrigation systems is staggering - usually at least 10 and often 50 times the value of the stuff they "scrap".

For a while around here, the dopers were stealing and plundering home air conditioner outside units to get the copper inside. I haven't heard anything about that for the last several years.

 

[427mach1]

For a while around here, the dopers were stealing and plundering home air conditioner outside units to get the copper inside. I haven't heard anything about that for the last several years.

That's because they got all of them already....

 

[chopshopcop]

Memphis PD has a bunch of those camera trailers. I believe these are referred to as SkyCop. They can be found at city/gov owned venues around town as well as some of the larger store parking lots.
I was parked within about 100 ft of one last January when my truck was broken into.

I was involved in one of the first uses of these back in the late 90's. We took an old utility trailer, outfitted it with a camera on a telescoping pole. Had recording capability but no audio. We also monitored it on-site in real time. meaning we were physically present actually watching the events as they happened. We usually set up at one of the malls, especially around the Christmas shopping season. Under those conditions, it was effective and we made several good arrests for auto burglary as well as assorted other lesser offenses.

Nowadays the units are more sophisticated, they have better cameras, audio, recording and are even now having gunshot detection technology added. But although they are still monitored by humans, they are miles away from the unit, not on site for immediate intervention. Incidents now are detected, evaluated, an alert is sent from the real time crime center to dispatch (miles away from the rtcc), a dispatcher has to assign the incident a priority level, find an available officer, then dispatch on it. if a higher priority call comes in, it gets pushed further down in the stack.

Because the city cut pay and benefits a few years back, over 700 officers quit and left for other departments. Subsequently, there aren't enough officers to handle the usual call load, much less the increased load generated by these things.

But the public has been buffaloed into believing that these are a necessary and acceptable alternative to an actual working cop. They are just another tool, not a substitution. Some neighborhoods are even fundraising to purchase a unit to sit full time in their area because there aren't enough officers to go around and they have been conditioned to believe that they are the future of law enforcement.

 

[bearman49709]

**
Most of this stuff is security theater. One of my clients was in the Army in the late 70s, and served in Germany. They pulled all sorts of guard duty on sensitive stuff with wooden replicas of M16s ... there is a reason that (Lt. Col.) Dave Bolgiano said the only entity more afraid of firearms than the military is Disney.

In the late 70's I was in Panama, when we pulled guard duty we used real M16A1's with real bullets loaded in the chamber and magazine.

 

[NYlakesider]

Well I do not claim to know anything about LotCops, I have run into a lot of sleeping policemen in my travels.

A sleeping policeman is the name used in a lot of the Caribbean Islands to denote a speed bump in the road.

 

[steveno]

the first year I had to be a junior skycop at Rhein Main AB. when we got called out on an alert we reported to the skycops and they gave us a M-16 and several magazines of real ammo and put us out on the flightline. a magazine could be in the rifle but nothing in the chamber. they really didn't say when to shoot or who but if you do shoot try not to hit the airplanes. when the skycops would show up to see how we were doing they were really careful doing it. I don't think they were happy that a bunch of rookies were on the flightline with loaded M-16's and we didn't want to be there as well.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Well I do not claim to know anything about LotCops, I have run into a lot of sleeping policemen in my travels.

A sleeping policeman is the name used in a lot of the Caribbean Islands to denote a speed bump in the road.

In my town it's also used to refer to the sleeping policeman parked behind the Winn Dixie

 

[Lt JL]

one ofthe fundamental problems is that security is the enemy of convenience.

 

[BigBoy99]

But the public has been buffaloed into believing that these are a necessary and acceptable alternative to an actual working cop. They are just another tool, not a substitution. Some neighborhoods are even fundraising to purchase a unit to sit full time in their area because there aren't enough officers to go around and they have been conditioned to believe that they are the future of law enforcement.

Just another method to get people thinking that surveillance cameras are just a way of life. Soon there will be CCTV cameras all over the place just like in the UK. The book 1984 was only about 35 years too early!