How Do the Police Actually Spend Their Time?

[Arc F1]

How Do the Police Actually Spend Their Time?
A review of publicly available data in three areas reveals that much of an officer’s job revolves around handling routine calls rather than violent crime.

The best way to reduce the police force is to find a way to get people to stop committing crimes. We should all be turning against those that behave badly in the first place. They are no different than the bad cops. Let's all March against the drug dealers, wife beaters, murderers etc. Let's hold our citizens accountable and to a higher standard not let them destroy everything. Let's stop all the excuses for bad behavior and make this world a better place to live.

 

[SummerMadness]

"After dark" is when everyone is most likely to hit.

Whether it's petty thieves breaking into homes to rip the wiring and metal plumbing right out of the walls or anarcho-environmentalists moving in to torch stuff, things get dangerous once the sun goes down.

In fact, one of the dangers inherent in "pier and beam" construction and mobile homes is the prospect of someone going right up under the building to steal the metal pipes. No joke. Metal theft is that big a deal in some jurisdictions.

Part of how I paid for college was collecting food and soda cans to take down to a local metal recycler, and past a certain point metal theft was so bad that even for soda cans I had to present them an ID card and sign a form. My dad bringing in junked parts from the repair yard where he works? Hoo boy.

The police are not there after dark, they are there in the day while construction workers are there.

 

[SummerMadness]

The best way to reduce the police force is to find a way to get people to stop committing crimes. We should all be turning against those that behave badly in the first place. They are no different than the bad cops. Let's all March against the drug dealers, wife beaters, murderers etc. Let's hold our citizens accountable and to a higher standard not let them destroy everything. Let's stop all the excuses for bad behavior and make this world a better place to live.

It looks like someone didn't read the article, the bulk of their work is unrelated to responding to crimes or potential crimes.

 

[Arc F1]

The police are not there after dark, they are there in the day while construction workers are there.

I have to say I've been on plenty of job sites and I've only seen them there at night. That's just my observation.

 

[Arc F1]

It looks like someone didn't read the article, the bulk of their work is unrelated to responding to crimes or potential crimes.

Busted. You are correct.

 

[SummerMadness]

I have to say I've been on plenty of job sites and I've only seen them there at night. That's just my observation.

I have been to plenty of job sites, I see them there in the day while active work is happening, it must vary by state. Nonetheless, that is work probably best for security and probably cheaper.

 

[Arc F1]

I have been to plenty of job sites, I see them there in the day while active work is happening, it must vary by state. Nonetheless, that is work probably best for security and probably cheaper.

They never were on site when my job trailers were getting broken into. It got to the point that we started off site storage.

 

[SummerMadness]

They never were on site when my job trailers were getting broken into. It got to the point that we started off site storage.

What kind of job site was this? Were fixing a pipeline in the road or repaving the surface? These are the kinds of projects where I often see police officer. I would hate to have such an assignment because they have to sit there all day. That's one reason why the role of police officers needs to change.

 

[disciple Clint]

Even factoring in violent crime, the police are not spending a great deal of time on it. That's one reason why it's been suggested that some tasks given to the police might be better served in another capacity. For instance, having an officer sitting at a construction site all day might not be the best use of the officer's time.

Saying that police do not spend time fighting crime is just flat out not true, just the fact that the police car is seen detours crime. Not all crime fighting shows up in spastics. lI have not seen you provide any evidence that supports your views and objectives of limiting the police. We can look at Seattle and Chicago to see what happens when the police are not supported.

 

[disciple Clint]

What kind of job site was this? Were fixing a pipeline in the road or repaving the surface? These are the kinds of projects where I often see police officer. I would hate to have such an assignment because they have to sit there all day. That's one reason why the role of police officers needs to change.

Just for your edification the police you seem to be talking about are working directly for the contractor on their own time.

 

[Arc F1]

What kind of job site was this? Were fixing a pipeline in the road or repaving the surface? These are the kinds of projects where I often see police officer. I would hate to have such an assignment because they have to sit there all day. That's one reason why the role of police officers needs to change.

I owned an electrical contracting company for 25 years. Schools, commercial, industrial, power plants, I've been everywhere and helped build just about everything. No pipelines obviously unless you count all the big dewatering stations for city construction.

 

[mama2one]

follow

 

[Ironhold]

see our police daily around town

-they sit at certain spots to catch speeders
-they drive around the streets day & night
(often coming through our allotment)
-respond to domestic violence situations
(twice on our street alone)
-they were at the schools often, maybe daily
our daughter recognizes most from talks @ school

one of the safer towns in our state, so not much crime
I've felt safe enough to walk dog middle of night

Here where I live the police department is very uptight about having patrols going after dark.

On one hand, individual police officers assigned to the night patrols can often end up bored or on edge. I got my start in the newspaper industry by doing deliveries, and I've had more encounters with them than most people here can comprehend.

On the other hand, when something bad goes down they can have 2 - 3 cars on the scene in a matter of minutes. For example, when a car crashed into the building next door to the newspaper office, the first officer was on the scene in maybe five minutes.

 

[FireDragon76]

Police presence is a deterrent to crime. That presence ought to be commensurate with the potential threat. We will see an increase in violence if that deterrent is too diminished.
Historically, if crime rates are high, then municipalities will increase police activity.
Also, precincts certify certain officers in different areas of law enforcement. Not all officers are trained in the same area or level of expertise.

If there's less police, then businesses might have to hire more security guards, which in turn might be less trained than the police.

And even in cases of social workers, who is there to back up their authority? The police. So having more social workers is not some way to eliminate the need for policing.

 

[SummerMadness]

If there's less police, then businesses might have to hire more security guards, which in turn might be less trained than the police.

And even in cases of social workers, who is there to back up their authority? The police. So having more social workers is not some way to eliminate the need for policing.

Police are not needed for every call, sending a person in with a gun is not always the best solution. There could be a case that escalates to requiring police, so they should be on call, but there are many scenarios where a police officer exacerbates the situation, especially when dealing with people that have mental health issues. The fact that other countries deal with the same issues and unarmed police officers suggests that it's not a choice between "order" and violent chaos. It's about priorities and training; most police officers are trained to shoot first, hence the reason they injure and kill so many people every year.

 

[disciple Clint]

Police are not needed for every call, sending a person in with a gun is not always the best solution. There could be a case that escalates to requiring police, so they should be on call, but there are many scenarios where a police officer exacerbates the situation, especially when dealing with people that have mental health issues. The fact that other countries deal with the same issues and unarmed police officers suggests that it's not a choice between "order" and violent chaos. It's about priorities and training; most police officers are trained to shoot first, hence the reason they injure and kill so many people every year.

Point in fact. You have no ideal what a call actually is or what it might develop into until you arrive on the location and assess the situation. Often the information given the officer by dispatch is far from the true situation.