Arrests in Pontiac up 600% since policing turned over to Oakland County

[bartock]

For what it's worth, an editorial from the Oakland Press:

http://theoaklandpress.com/articles/...7296089176.txt

[Steve bennet]

Get your B&E and low level drug dealers off the streets, and the murder rates go down.

How would low level drug dealers affect murder rates? You watch too many movies.

[Autoracks]

the police are worse than the criminals

[corktownyuppie]

How would low level drug dealers affect murder rates? You watch too many movies.

C'mon. Some of my friends were drug dealers to pay for college. [[I know, crazy, right?) Having a neighborhood were drugs are sold in living rooms and at parties is totally different story than having it done out in the open and on the street corner.

When you have drug transactions on the street corner, the problem isn't that they cause violence. The problem is that you are basically advertising, "Hey, we can do whatever we want because there aren't enough cops around."

THAT is what causes the crime.

It essentially says, "hey, if I can do this without getting in trouble, what else can i do without getting in trouble." It goes back to my dress code example from school. If I was gonna get in trouble for having my shirt untucked, then we knew not to screw around.

[corktownyuppie]

the police are worse than the criminals

the criminals are worse than the police

[detroitsgwenivere]

Part of the fear factor for some in Pontiac isn't increased police presence. It's Oakland Co. police presence. They aren't exactly known for their compassion or understanding.

IMO, brown shirts remind me of Nazis, lol :O

[Detroitnerd]

Funny. I thought what caused crime was poverty. What we need is police who see somebody with baggy shorts hanging off their ass, take them out behind the woodshed and beat the shit out of them? That way, they'll be so busy pulling up their pants they won't think about stealing your iPod?

Honestly, you can't compare the way you treat children to the way you treat adults. Unless you really want a police state, where everybody is considered to have as few rights as children do.

[JBMcB]

[QUOTE=Detroitej72;272364]
I'd like to see some actual proof of this. If they were contracting to a private, for profit police company then you'd have a point, but not when your talking about civil servants.[QUOTE]

Here's proof. Second story of this show:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radi...-remain-silent

A new NYC cop was concerned that the department was pressuring it's officers to write up at least x number of citations a day, and coercing victims of assaults to downgrade their police reports to make the stats look better. [["Shot in the neck? That's not attempted homicide, that's really aggravated assault. There, the city is safer!")

Tie that in with the growing trend of using property seizures as a cash generating enterprise, and you have loads of incentive for officers to behave badly.

[lafayette]

Detroitnerd, you're right on in all of your posts. Especially about Bouchard.

[Scottathew]

the police are worse than the criminals

And that's the thinking that keeps Detroit and Pontiac where it's at.

Yes, not all cops are good cops, but the criminals are far, far worse.

[Hypestyles]

to address manpower issues, detroit police dept. need to have some strategic partnerships with county sheriff and state police for shared patrols..

[Scottathew]

to address manpower issues, detroit police dept. need to have some strategic partnerships with county sheriff and state police for shared patrols..

They also need to put cops on the streets and civilians behind desks.

[rjk]

They also need to put cops on the streets and civilians behind desks.

Are there any other big city PD's that do that?

And what exactly are the police who are sitting behind desks doing?

[Kevgoblue]

But swinging the pendulum high from one end to the other isn't the answer either. It just makes people scared and defensive. And puts lots of people from poor homes in jail and on probation for stupid shit.

Spot on. The 600% increase in arrests sounds good to some, but what becomes of that? 6x the people with criminal records who can't find jobs in a tight economy. Who then go on to indulge in a life of more serious crime since their options are so limited.

Existing true criminal behavior can't be ignored, but just once I'd like to see someone try something a little more proactive. Kinda ironic that the areas with the highest crime also tend to have the lowest graduation rates. Can we try some type of alternative education programs? After all, the cost to educate a kid is a heck of a lot less than to incarcerate one.

[JBMcB]

And what exactly are the police who are sitting behind desks doing?

Paperwork. Mountains and mountains of paperwork. I know a judge who spearheaded an effort to computerize his office. He says that the police and courts systems are the least efficient organization when it comes to paperwork. Everything a police officer does goes down on paper, with reports covering those reports, and summary reports covering those. It's nearly pathological.

A few years ago the FBI spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to computerize their whole operation. The effort went absolutely nowhere, and they aren't using the system at all.

[corktownyuppie]

Pooling resources turns into more efficient use of money and manpower? Makes me wonder how much we could save in all of Metro Detroit by letting go of our hatred toward regional cooperation.


http://www.freep.com/article/2011091...xt|FRONTPAGE|s

More than a month into its new stint policing Pontiac, the Oakland County Sheriff's Office says it's getting harder to be a crook in the county seat.

Officers are serving four warrants a day, response times are down from more than an hour to minutes and the 74 deputies -- 63 of whom were Pontiac police officers -- have fielded some 9,000 calls for assistance, said Sheriff Mike Bouchard.

"They're running fast, they're running hard, but they're getting there and getting there quickly," he said.

The Sheriff's Office took over for Pontiac police on Aug. 1, after a prolonged battle to save the city's police force

Sheriff's Maj. Robert Smith said community calls and faster response times, which Bouchard said went from 72 minutes before they took over to about five minutes now, often lead to crime interrupted, such as the nonviolent crimes that affect people like Rodgers.

[Kevgoblue]

Pooling resources turns into more efficient use of money and manpower? Makes me wonder how much we could save in all of Metro Detroit by letting go of our hatred toward regional cooperation.


http://www.freep.com/article/2011091...xt|FRONTPAGE|s

Interesting. So what were the officers [[it says 63 of the 74 patroling officers are ex Pontiac police) doing before they became sherriff's deputies? A 15% increase in officers cut the response time on calls by over 90%.

So is this a case of the Pontiac police being allowed to live the stereotypical police lifestyle of drinking coffee and eating donuts all day? Is it padded numbers by the sherriff for the sake of publicity?
If their response is truly that much better, initated merely by a change in leadership then the management of the old Pontiac Police Dept should be trumped up on charges.

[corktownyuppie]

Interesting. So what were the officers [[it says 63 of the 74 patroling officers are ex Pontiac police) doing before they became sherriff's deputies? A 15% increase in officers cut the response time on calls by over 90%.

So is this a case of the Pontiac police being allowed to live the stereotypical police lifestyle of drinking coffee and eating donuts all day? Is it padded numbers by the sherriff for the sake of publicity?
If their response is truly that much better, initated merely by a change in leadership then the management of the old Pontiac Police Dept should be trumped up on charges.

I don't think it was going from 63 to 74, it was from 50 to 74.

By the time the county Board of Commissioners approved the merger in January, there were only 50 officers with an $8.9-million budget for a city of roughly 65,000.

Plus, it's possible that the backlog wasn't just on the patrol side...I'd be that when the processors are understaffed it backlogs everything.

[luckycar]

Trust me on this.There are more patrol cars out and visable on the streets of Pontiac.What the PPD was doing prior to the switch I don't know for fact,but the OCSD is at least out there and and the public is being served.