Originally Posted by
Gilroy
I have to agree with you that the Police officers today are just not getting the job done,but the environment they are working in is so much changed from years ago.
What LEO did years ago to enforce the law would probably get them in trouble really fast today,they know this so the simple solution is simply to back off.
But that has also not changed years ago plenty of officers were not pro active and kept their noses clean and there were other officers who did get down and dirty with the criminals and they got the complaints and flack.
The biggest mistake was taking officers out of Community Housing Projects who walked the beat and knew everybody AND were in those projects for years.I was in Regent Park, Moss Park and St Jamestown for 15 years.I can tell you that local criminals even although they had access to guns (much less) did not dare carry one on them on a regular basis.The reason why is that they did not know when they might get arrested.
There are no officers these days walking and working in uniform and old clothes for 15 year stints in one area.When you become part of the neighborhood, you are actually in the hood more than home if you are anything of an officer you will get to know every criminal on your beat,plain and simple.Their names,street handles,baby mothers addresses,parents addresses,cars,rank in the gang and so forth.
Identifying criminals is really simple easy even if your a rookie out of college.Criminals are the one,s who get up at 1pm after another night of partying,they drive flash cars,wear flash clothing and have money without having a real job.They have to sell their wares generally on the street so will be seen.Your not going to see them in uniform,unless you get into a vacant unit with a pair of binoculars and look down on where they are dealing.
Once you have pinched them for traffficking,selling to an undercover,or a choke arrest, your in business.Terms of release (yeh they will get released) NOT TO BE IN REGENT PARK, curfew, .... Now the fun part starts, you get to pinch them again for breaching their bail because they will do that almost right away.
Your portfolio of criminals is run through CPIC every quite Sunday morning,guess what up pops more arrest warrants from other divisions where they have been active,occurrences where they are named suspects,driving suspensions.....Your back on the street now hunting them down.
What do you need to hunt them down, well you better be able to run and FAST,you better know the area as well as they do and you have to have no fear.You should have no fear in arresting them as you have a warrant for their arrest.Generally this represents some more charges as they are probably carrying a weapon and or drugs.
Back to bail court another release and the fun starts over again.Hunting them down day after day,week after week,year after year.Chipping away.
That is until they get shot by one of their associates,but that,s ok there are lots to replace them.
If your an officer and don,t know your local criminals, don,t have informants, you cannot play this game.But if you do you are actually much safer on the street because they respect you and basically have to kill you to stop your efforts.A rookie officer that know,s nobody is much more likely to get killed than a grizzly old vet that knows everybody as long as that vet does not get complacent.
Right now Toronto Police officers are marking time, they cannot even card anybody and are under constant watch by the media and special interest groups.
What the public must realize is that Police officers can respond to calls after the violence and take reports and be safe Or they can be pro active and stop that violence in the first place.But they will not be pro active because they are not getting the support from Politicians,the Courts or the media.This is not a new phenomena its been ongoing for over 35 years, only now are the public seeing the crack cocaine addicts,gang shootings,spilling over into their other neighborhoods.
