Post by Clipper on Apr 11, 2022 10:15:27 GMT -5
www.wktv.com/news/police-call-for-mutual-aid-after-shooting-leads-to-crowds/article_3039837a-b8f6-11ec-b51c-235c2a3d04d5.html#tncms-source=article-nav-prevta
I am saying nothing that most of us don't already know. Just musing about the facts and challenges that face our police officers today.
There was a time when 1 or 2 officers could safely handle a call such as the shooting on Devereux Street. The chances of the crowd becoming a threat to the responding officers were very low, and the chances of someone in the crowd having a gun was even lower. Utica's streets have literally become an urban jungle, as have urban areas across the country.
I can't even fathom what it must be like to be a police officer patrolling the streets of the city of Utica in recent years. Mutual aid? When did it become necessary for police officers to need mutual aid from outside departments? Mutual aid has always been associated with volunteer fire departments. Mutual aid for police has always been normal policy for small departments such as Whitestown, Whitesboro, NY Mills, Yorkville and New Hartford. Suburban communities where there may be only one or two police officers on duty and patrolling the community at a given time. But in the city? I can remember back in the 50s and 60s Utica was covered 24/7 by "beat cars" numbered 11,22, 33,44, 55, 66,77,88, and 99. Downtown had beat cops walking, traffic cops directing traffic, motorcycle cops doing traffic and parking enforcement. Crime was minimal, police were respected and revered, and there was no neighborhood anywhere in the city where a person was in eminent danger simply walking the street, either in daylight or at night. Officers could quell most disturbances with a night stick for defense and possibly one more officer to watch their back. Body armor, SWAT teams, and automatic rifles were not necessary. The heaviest armor carried in a patrol car was a shotgun and that was often carried in the trunk, not clipped to the dash for quick access.
Law enforcement has gone from a job where an officer could proudly actually look forward to going to work, fraternizing with fellow officers and the public, with little worry about whether they would come home safely at the end of their shift, to a job where their lives are endangered just wearing the uniform and a job where an officer may dread having to go to work.. A job where many calls can carry a potential risk of injury or death.
God bless those heroes who still take on the job. The heroes that face the intimidation, the trepidation, the frustrations, and the very real danger whenever they respond to a call. Crime grows while cities have cut budgets and cut police officer positions. Now in many cases cities are trying to play catch-up in order to remedy the out of control criminal activity. They have allowed the once proud occupation that applicants lined up to become part of, to become a job that is hard to even recruit applicants willing to put themselves in a position where they face intimidation, trepidation, aggravation, and the frustration of being helpless to change the situation.
We have all the same crime problems here but on a lesser scale. Our local and county governments are now realizing that the budget and personnel cuts that they have continued to make to law enforcement are endangering both the public AND the officers. The number of positions vacated due to the pandemic, the positions vacated by officers retiring due to the increased danger they face, and officers moving on to higher paying jobs in law enforcement have left departments dangerously undermanned. Now there is a panic to fund additional positions, and to fill existing vacant positions and recruitment is damned near impossible. A job that was once eagerly sought after has become a job difficult to fill.
I am saying nothing that most of us don't already know. Just musing about the facts and challenges that face our police officers today.
There was a time when 1 or 2 officers could safely handle a call such as the shooting on Devereux Street. The chances of the crowd becoming a threat to the responding officers were very low, and the chances of someone in the crowd having a gun was even lower. Utica's streets have literally become an urban jungle, as have urban areas across the country.
I can't even fathom what it must be like to be a police officer patrolling the streets of the city of Utica in recent years. Mutual aid? When did it become necessary for police officers to need mutual aid from outside departments? Mutual aid has always been associated with volunteer fire departments. Mutual aid for police has always been normal policy for small departments such as Whitestown, Whitesboro, NY Mills, Yorkville and New Hartford. Suburban communities where there may be only one or two police officers on duty and patrolling the community at a given time. But in the city? I can remember back in the 50s and 60s Utica was covered 24/7 by "beat cars" numbered 11,22, 33,44, 55, 66,77,88, and 99. Downtown had beat cops walking, traffic cops directing traffic, motorcycle cops doing traffic and parking enforcement. Crime was minimal, police were respected and revered, and there was no neighborhood anywhere in the city where a person was in eminent danger simply walking the street, either in daylight or at night. Officers could quell most disturbances with a night stick for defense and possibly one more officer to watch their back. Body armor, SWAT teams, and automatic rifles were not necessary. The heaviest armor carried in a patrol car was a shotgun and that was often carried in the trunk, not clipped to the dash for quick access.
Law enforcement has gone from a job where an officer could proudly actually look forward to going to work, fraternizing with fellow officers and the public, with little worry about whether they would come home safely at the end of their shift, to a job where their lives are endangered just wearing the uniform and a job where an officer may dread having to go to work.. A job where many calls can carry a potential risk of injury or death.
God bless those heroes who still take on the job. The heroes that face the intimidation, the trepidation, the frustrations, and the very real danger whenever they respond to a call. Crime grows while cities have cut budgets and cut police officer positions. Now in many cases cities are trying to play catch-up in order to remedy the out of control criminal activity. They have allowed the once proud occupation that applicants lined up to become part of, to become a job that is hard to even recruit applicants willing to put themselves in a position where they face intimidation, trepidation, aggravation, and the frustration of being helpless to change the situation.
We have all the same crime problems here but on a lesser scale. Our local and county governments are now realizing that the budget and personnel cuts that they have continued to make to law enforcement are endangering both the public AND the officers. The number of positions vacated due to the pandemic, the positions vacated by officers retiring due to the increased danger they face, and officers moving on to higher paying jobs in law enforcement have left departments dangerously undermanned. Now there is a panic to fund additional positions, and to fill existing vacant positions and recruitment is damned near impossible. A job that was once eagerly sought after has become a job difficult to fill.
