High gas prices force cops to walk the beat more (no gas for patrol cars)

Source: Associated Press

NEWBERRY, S.C. (AP) -- With gasoline climbing toward $4 a gallon, police officers around the country are losing the right to take their patrol cars home and are being forced to double up in cruisers and walk the beat more.

The gas crunch could also put an end to the time-honored way cops leave their engines running when they get out to investigate something.

Some police chiefs think the moneysaving measures are not all bad, and might actually help them do a better job. But they worry about the loss of take-home cars, saying the sight of a cruiser parked in a driveway or out in front of a home deters neighborhood crime.

In Newberry, population 10,000, Chief Jackie Swindler is telling his officers to turn off the ignition whenever they are stopped for more than a minute or so, and to get out and walk around more.

<snip>

n Grainger County, Tenn., Sheriff James Harville planned for gas prices of $2.22 a gallon when he drew up his budget last year. He has since redrawn the patrol map for the two officers who work each shift, splitting his county in half. He now puts one officer in each half and makes them responsible for all calls in their area.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GAS_PRICES_POLICE?SITE=MOCOD&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-05-22-14-50-29

Backup in case one of them is injured.

And if something big goes down several miles away, what are they supposed to do? Jog to the scene?

If there's more than one person... A second should be available.

They would see things easily missed while driving.

could change the dynamics of the streets?

wife. Yes, back to the beat. Give some bicycles like they do in some cities.

Even to cross the freakin' STREET.

Twenty or thirty years ago -- you mean when Jimmy Carter was president and asked Americans to drive less, sacrifice, and walk more?

Anything over 2 blocks is not too dangerous to walk around... if it is you should sue your city for civil liability for unsafe streets (just like people did for jungle gyms. Jungle gyms, for heavens sake!)

Infantilization of America (plastic jungle gyms, never let the kids leave the car) means that the sidewalks of America are abandoned to "the criminal element" and anyone caught walking along them is assumed to be a vagrant or hired help, and can be detained for questioning as a suspicious act (walking around on streets where pedestrians were "obviously not intended" despite the cursory appearance of sidewalks).

um hum...

I think I'll call my police chief and mayor tomorrow and recommend it.

It might work in other places too.

them to "know" the people they are protecting. They may be more likely to use their peace officer roles, rather than their brute force roles.

personally!

Have a serious situation? Call swat.

Oh and hey I have an idea! :idea:

Maybe they can stop spending all their tax dollars on new and creative ways to generate more tax dollars busting people who drive 5 mph over the speed limit!

on edit: give them a little humility.

and they not only enjoy their beats, but say that they can roll up on suspects quickly and quietly, and have a better vision for what going on in town than their buddies do in their cars.

..How intimidating is that?

"Ok, buddy, pull it over" *ching ching*

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... try posting something that actually address what you're responding too. Seeing this kind of crap while reading through a thread is no better than if an ad were posted in its place.

that high oil prices and what started all this aren't connected? Would we be in Iraq right now without 9/11? Would cops have to cut enforce procedures at a time when crime is rising necessitating a call for Marshall Law? Are you one of the "censors" or are you just to deluded to make the connection?

All of this stems from neo-cons 35 year plan to bring us to out knees and one of the ways they have done that is to make us completely dependent on gas and them completely in control of it.

Some conspiracy nut-jobbery doesn't really add a lot to this discussion. There are loads of other nut job conspiracy theories that many people on here would like to talk to you about in their own threads about them. I'm sure you see the connection between these two things, but it's tenuous at best. Yeah, I know, lots of things have to do with the government, the economy and oil. You could have just as well posted this response to any thread. It really doesn't address the OP in the least.

In high school I PREDICTED that beat cops would lead to a major drop in urban crime and they did after US mayors instituted Community Policing in the early 1990s, just as I had predicted. Of course guys like Giuliani took it even further, using the broken window theory to justify ethnic cleansing of the poor from the inner cities and introducing beat cops only in response to gentrifying (white) residents' areas to establish a pattern of gentrification and improved city services for the wealthy few who are "increasing tax dollars".

Pathetic how this is the ONLY reason people dislike Bush. If they knew the truth they would still LOVE the fucker because they would realize Bush's foreign policy is ALL ABOUT STEALING THE REMAINING OIL so that Americans will continue to be able to drive around when gas reaches $10 a gallon for everyone else (fools in this country don't understand that gas has been $4 a gallon in Europe for DECADES because they have sensible energy policy. Instead they make up conspiracies when the truth is blatantly obvious.) Bush wants to sell you gas. He doesn't care how much it costs so long as US companies own it. However, WE WILL RUN OUT OF GAS which is why Bush wants to attack Iran. Your conspiracy theory that there is a limitless supply of gasoline, plastic, tv sets, and ponies to fuel the "endlessly upper middle class liberal society" that Clinton promised us is just that, a myth. The world cannot exist half upper middle class and half poor just to fuel the "information economy" with someone else's gasoline and luxury foodstuffs grown overseas on plantations traded at usurious rates for our rock bottom cheap grain.

Good for their health and better that they are interacting with the community instead of just cruising around handing out speeding tickets.

Weird. Had not heard of this before now.

Ford:Crown Victoria, Expeditions, Explorers

GM:Impala, Tahoe

Chrysis:Charger, 300, Durango

Its just ridiculous. All of these have big v8s. They can buy cars that are just as capeable with four and six cylinder engines. Look at police cars in the rest of the world.
Instead lets try....

Ford:Fusion, Focus, Escape, Taurus

GM: Malibu, Cobalt,

or even foreign cars/hybrids.

In College I even noticed campus police with Crown Vics and Expeditions. FOR WHAT?!

funny how I never see the lastest thugs in blue shopping at the stores here in town anymore. :sarcasm:

chances, so they order those huge police cars with the heaviest performance package including a humongeous V8 mill that gets 8 MPG.

Lets hope donut prices do not follow, otherwise all might be lost ;-)

a beat. We voted on this a couple of years ago and against the cops protests, the citizens won. Now, many cops admit it has been a success. It makes the police more approachable and more connected to the community, and thus, perceived, more trustworthy. That's not a bad thing. From both sides of the thin blue line.

What a novel idea! Might lower crime on the beat, if they were walking around. SEEN walking around. People might be more willing to talk to them, if they KNOW them.

This is the only way to honestly KNOW what is going on. And who they should watch out for.