LEO freebies

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3rd Gen Neal

3rd Gen Neal

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Coffee, fountain drinks, meals...why? At least once a week I will be having lunch or dinner with friends, forking over our hard earned cash while HPD officers stroll in and order at will without having to pay a dime. Yes police work is dangerous but geez so is being a roofer or store clerk. That irks me big time.
 
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Well maybe your not the one that comes to help when their life is in danger..:rolleyes:.I give cops freebies or big discounts and they look after me.


Ken
 
There is another side to his discussion. The guy who owns the shop next to you, and who pays the same taxes, may not get the same "protection" as you do. I understand that you're "paying" for your added protection. But there's another name for it, and its called graft.
 
rburg,They never ask me for freebies or discounts,I give it to them myself.You can call it graft...I call it smart.
On the other hand if you got freebies or discounts I bet you wouldn't say no.Or the original poster got a free feed he sounds like he would be happy.

Ken
 
The shop owners do it because they like the extra protection of officers comeing in and out. What I dont approve of is some officers trying to "badge" their way into all kinds of events.
 
I'll bring the popcorn....

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3rd Gen Neal said:
Coffee, fountain drinks, meals...why? At least once a week I will be having lunch or dinner with friends, forking over our hard earned cash while HPD officers stroll in and order at will without having to pay a dime. That irks me big time.
Click to expand...
Then spend your "hard earned cash" some where else.
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I shouldn't have vented about that or worded it in a different way. I'm not looking to be a trouble maker here and lets just leave it at that. What made me post that was an unusually pesky LEO request which I'm sure is isolated. No harm meant and hopefully none done.
 
rburg said:
There is another side to his discussion. The guy who owns the shop next to you, and who pays the same taxes, may not get the same "protection" as you do. I understand that you're "paying" for your added protection. But there's another name for it, and its called graft.
Click to expand...


lets dont forget your post awhile back where the officer used the toe of his boot to remove some mud from the rear quarter panel of his car :eek: that wound your clock up tight as well
 
The majority of departments around here do not allow it. Mine does not. No freebies or discounts.
 
Although I've never seen a roofer or a store clerk have to run out and leave his meal untouched due to an emergency call, I reckon it could happen. :)

I happily let on-duty LEO's eat free when I was in the food industry. It was they who would be escorting me to the bank at midnight or later. I sure didn't want them distracted by hungry bellies. :D
 
Hey officer! Thats goverment property that I helped pay for!
When I was a lockheed guard I used to patrol through the parking lots driveing "wrong way" to block any thieves trying to get away. This time I met a gruff old man employee that didnt get what I was doing. He read me the riot act, you of all people etc & etc.
 
I can remember when I was just out of high school and worked the night shift at a convenient store. The boss was cheap enough that we had no panic alarm, no cameras, and if I needed to use the phone, I had to go outside and use the payphone. So all the local cops knew that I had the best and freshest coffee in town and they didn't have to pay a dime. None of them ever asked, it was just something that I did on my own. Personally, I see nothing wrong with it if you are offering, I know alot of departments frown on it now though.
 
I dont think there is a job without some perks. When I was a kid picking strawberrys for a couple cents a box I ate some. I take that back. The dirtyist job I ever had was working in a foundry. The only thing they had that I wanted was a good paycheck! At the end of the shift we were black except for the whites of our eyes. You would blow soot all weekend!
 
We are not allowed, and I think it is a good idea.

The problem with a discount or a freebie is the intent, which is very hard to determine.

I know some shop owners that simply want to provide a small measure of thanks.

Some really like the extra presence.

Some may think it will get them a break on a ticket or such.

A half price meal or a coffee when provided without expectation is not graft.

When it becomes an expectation or service is not equal then the slippery slope has been touched.

In my experience it is better to steer very clear from that slope.
 
I have seen this from both sides, as a LEO and as a business owner.

As a LEO, we had some convenience stores that gave free coffee/free fountain drinks to LEOs and some restaurants gave half price to LEOs. Once in a while a restaurant would give free meals, but our department would not let our officers eat there if they found out about that, and the restaurants stopped that, going to either no discount or half price.

Generally, there was no problem. Once in a while, a new officer would meet up with a new cashier who charged the officer full price and the new officer would insist on half price. This was handled by older officers "counseling" the newbie not to ever do that again. There was no "entitlement" to anything but full price and if someone gave food for less, that was nice, but failure to do so was to be ignored without comment.

There were lots of restaurants and, generally, the officers did not eat at the same restaurants every time they were on duty since one grows tired of the same menu day after day. They ate at some restaurants that gave a discount and some that did not. Me, too.

One restaurant owner said she gave the discount for two reasons-she liked cops and she liked to have their cars parked in the lot for the bad guys and the public to see (if the cops eat there, it must be good and probably it's not a good place to rob).

As the owner of a convenience store (don't ever buy one-don't ask me how I know) from the mid-80s to the late 90s, I had the clerks give free coffee/fountain drinks to the deputies who stopped by.

I had the same reasons, basically, as the restaurant owner, I like cops and I wanted the bad guys to see that marked car in my parking lot.

There wasn't anything corrupt about either situation. I, as the owner, can give anything to anyone I want to.

Just like the restaurant owners and convenience stores can, if they want to, today.

Graft is more than a "bit heavy" to describe this.

I have a friend who is in the military. From time to time, I give him shotgun hulls to reload or maybe a real good deal on a gun or pay for something for him.

That's no more graft than the free coffee for cops. I don't expect him to have a fighter circling over my home or a company of GIs at my beck and call just because I may have treated him better that I might treat you.

It's my money and I can do with it what I want. Just like it's their restaurant and store.

Bob
 
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Recently while doing a lot of ride alongs with our local department, I asked some of the cops why they chose certain establishments to get their coffee's, since anyplace around here gives them the half off discount. They told me something very easy to understand.

A lot of places will have an employee that will smile at a cop, then spit in his coffee before passing it out the drive through window, because some cop, somewhere, had once given him a ticket, so they tended to go to where they knew all of the employee's and could trust them. In turn, they provided an extra measure of security by their mere presence at those etablishments, more often than other places they could go to.

Sounds like a plan to me!
 
Just about everybody will take advantage of a good deal when it comes their way, although I try to avoid it just because of appearance and people like the OP.

Of course, that doesn't keep me from giving people breaks or warnings instead of tickets, even though there's nothing in it for me except, hopefully, voluntary compliance in the future. I'm guessing that the OP wouldn't insist on being written up if he got let off with a warning, just a little perk for being cooperative.
 
Many years ago, I was the night manager, wrecker driver, night mechanic, etc. at a gas station. Three interstates came together, truck stop about 1/4 mile away. We attracted many people, as it was between Charlie Sherrill's area and Cajun's area, you may have read about the types that could come around.

The policy was that if a sheriff's car, highway patrol car, came by, their tires were checked, windshield washed, or something checked if they requested, and coffee was always on.

Amazing how having an LEO visibly around, and known to be around, kept things in order.

When I went on a wrecker call @ 2AM, and it looked even slightly off kilter, amazing how quick a deputy could be there to check things out, while I waited in wrecker truck, with the engine running!

Worked both ways, they got help when they needed it, amazing what you can see when pumping gas, or on a night wrecker call, and their presense helped me!

Good citizen and LEO cooperation managed to keep the bad guys somewhere else (well most of the time)! :)
 
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