12-17-2009, 06:07 PM
An anecdotal story like the one you have told, green, doesn't prove anything. It is what it is, an anecdote. We don't even have the full story, just the part told by you. We can't tell if there were other circumstances which might have come into play. I'm not dissing you, just suggesting that calls to react emotionally don't help resolve real problems.
A real problem is that we have only seven officers per shift, to cover a land area that is 5/6th the size of Oahu.
That is up from 3 per shift just about 10 years ago. Another thing is that the attitude of the police officers on the force today is just about 180 degress away from what it was 10 years ago. And to a great extent the attitudes of law abiding citizens towards the police officers has changed in that time , too.
We have one officer per car, so they usually try to arrive at least in pairs. The train effect happens when serious or potentially life threatening situations occur. Many times when I have called for police assistance as a member of Kahakai Neighborhood Watch, one patrol car has responded. Sometimes I have seen one officer leave a scene which was stable to go to another one, leaving one officer alone. There are many issues to deal with concerning the police department, but let's not burden them or ourselves with nonexistent ones just to make chatter. Find out facts before trying to make a point. We all need to be vigilant of those to whom we give the power of deadly force, but when we put out less than factual information, we ultimately weaken our own ability to be vigilant.
A real problem is that we have only seven officers per shift, to cover a land area that is 5/6th the size of Oahu.
That is up from 3 per shift just about 10 years ago. Another thing is that the attitude of the police officers on the force today is just about 180 degress away from what it was 10 years ago. And to a great extent the attitudes of law abiding citizens towards the police officers has changed in that time , too.
We have one officer per car, so they usually try to arrive at least in pairs. The train effect happens when serious or potentially life threatening situations occur. Many times when I have called for police assistance as a member of Kahakai Neighborhood Watch, one patrol car has responded. Sometimes I have seen one officer leave a scene which was stable to go to another one, leaving one officer alone. There are many issues to deal with concerning the police department, but let's not burden them or ourselves with nonexistent ones just to make chatter. Find out facts before trying to make a point. We all need to be vigilant of those to whom we give the power of deadly force, but when we put out less than factual information, we ultimately weaken our own ability to be vigilant.