DO DCRP Officers Ignore Illegals?

[Lone Gunman]

Bottom line is this wheather these people are legal to drive have insurance are legal in this country or not they represent tax dollars. So the people who supposedly represent the people who obey the rules have one blind eye and the other one has cataracts.

[lurker]

We are forced to rely on cheap labor to sustain the quagmire we're in....

Politicians have cleverly created positions that separate themselves from the tax payer. I prefer to call them bureaucrats. Their job is to be the bad guy and insulate the politicians from mad tax payers.

The last position to die was the Postmaster. Used to be that the House of Representatives had direct control over the US Post Office and the elected Representative was responsible for fixing any problems within his district. Nixon sold it out to the Unions.

Imagine how life would be if Pat Robertson was also our IRS auditor or Kathleen Sebelious (I don't care to know how to spell it) was our .......... well, what can she do?

Now we suffer from finger pointing whenever we need an answer. Politicians spend money, bureaucrats collect it and parcel it out.

Our city has extended it arm and artery out to take feed off of our cattle processing industry and removing cheap labor will only provide incentive for those industries to relocate.

Nebraska's in their sights...... it's only a matter of time.

[Fred Sanford]

Radioguy, that attitude is part of the problem; not a good excuse.

When you see a Mexican driver give repeated examples of having no drivers education (e.g. stops when there is no stop sign, or don't where there is; don't have a clue who goes first at Sixth & Comanche, etc.), you have a pretty good indication that they have no license/insurance.

I ask you not to take the easy reply to this, that you know of numerous legal white people who violate the same laws.

I drive a lot of miles each year, in a new vehicle, very good driving record, and yet I get stopped every now and then. The reason, as verified by numerous LEOs I have worked closely with, is that they will often use the most trivial infraction in order to pull a guy over and see if he has anythiung 'else' that might be intersting. I personally road with a Texas DPS trooper who, on Friday nights, would pull over drivers who were driving 5 mph "under" the speed limit, usingthe rationale that they might be driving excessively carefully because they're drunk.

My point being that all you have to do to establish that "probable cause" of an infraction exists, is to drive with your eyes open and your brain in gear.

Originally Posted by NoLongerInRadioGuy

Maybe you think "they" are not hard to spot...I assume you mean driving...so I will address it that way...

In order for us to stop someone, we need reasonable suspicion that a crime or infraction has been, is being, or is about to be committed. We can't just see someone who we believe is hispanic and pull them over because they might be illegally in the US. Sounds like you are suggesting us do some racial profiling?

We do what we can, and it doesnt matter what race they are. If they are unlicensed and do not have a state ID, they go to jail. What happens after that is not up to us as cops. We have done our job. As I think was posted earlier, an illegal alien getting caught with no DL will not rise high enough to get INS to send them back to whatever country they are from. Usually it takes at least a felony to get INS to do anything.

Also, can you tell me what a "Obviously unlicensed/uninsured" driver looks like? From my experience, unlicensed people sometimes drive better that licensed onces because they dont want to get caught. And I sure cant identify an uninsured driver without asking them for proof of insurance...

[NoLongerInRadioGuy]

Wasnt this the original post?

Originally Posted by Fred Sanford

It sure seems as though the obviously unlicensed/uninsured illegal aliens get a free pass in DC. Sheesh, I can pick 3 of them out between Sonic and Wright Park every time; they aren't that hard to spot. Why does DCPD ignore them?

I thought I had answered that in my post - that officers have to have a reason to pull someone over, not racially profile them and stop them based on their nationality, like it seems you are suggesting.

Let me take it one by one from your last post...and when I use the preposition "I", I am referring to not only myself, but DCPD officers in general...
If I see someone stopping at intersections when they have no stop sign, I am going to think they are either overly cautious or something is wrong, and my attention is now on them, no matter what race they are.
If I see someone not stop at a stop sign, I am going to stop them and investigate it, no matter what race they are.
If I see someone at 6th and Comanche who doesnt seem to have a clue who's turn it is to go, I am going to observe them and possibly stop to see if there is a reason they keep yielding right of way, no matter what race they are.

I am not taking an easy reply to anything - I am just not racist - I am an equal opportunity cop - I pull over anyone breaking the law.

I dont know who the LEOs are you closely work with, but I personally pull someone over for what you call a "trivial infraction" because it is still that - an infraction. I dont expect to get anything else out of it other that getting the problem corrected if possible.

Maybe in Texas the DPS can get away with pulling someone over for 5 mph below the limit...however, in Kansas, that wouldnt work, unless the vehicle in question was impeding traffic - going 30 in a 35 does not seriously impede anyone.

In your original post on this thread, you said you could "pick three of them out", which I thought meant 3 unlicensed/uninsured drivers. You must have some sort of ESP because I can only tell if someone has a license or insurance by asking them...not based on their color of skin or if they committed an infraction.

[Fred Sanford]

Radioguy, if you can't look at a driver who is giving you 3 clues-per-block and determine that he probably is unlicensed, you can never hope to advance from patrolman to detective.

Btw, nice try making this a racism issue but that isn't going to work.

I'll tell you what. I'll bet you $500 that I can drive around Dodge for 30 minutes and pick out 3 drivers who're unlicensed and uninsured. If I mistakenly pick out someone who is licensed, you win. Of course that will be hard to make work because you are afraid to pull anyone over that doesn't have an "I'm An Illegal Driver" sign in his back window.

Come to think of it, this would be a good expose story for Dateline or some regional tv program. I could show how easy it is to identify unlicensed drivers and at the same time show how DCPD officers spend more effort erecting excuses than they do in protecting the general public from unlicensed/uninsured drivers.

[NoLongerInRadioGuy]

This will be my last post on this issue because my point is obviously falling on deaf ears....or eyes...

Our training says we stop people that have committed infractions, not because we have a hunch that the driver does not have a license or insurance. If the person we stop for committing the infraction does not have a license or insurance, we take what we consider appropriate measures, whether it is issuing a citation or taking them to jail.

I was not trying to make this a racial issue but I felt you were since you specifically said Mexican in one post, and your post to start this thread, in the first line, said unlicensed/uninsured illegal aliens.

[Detector]

What I don't understand is why you can't drive without proof of a drivers license, which is illegal, but you can drive without proof of insurance which is also illegal. You can't get away with just telling the officer I have a drivers license just not with me, but you can get away with telling them I have insurance just no proof.

[Bubba]

Being fed up with illegal aliens and everything that they take from our city, state and federal government, does NOT make you a racist. It only says that you are standing up for YOUR rights as an American citizen.

For example, it really ticks me off that an illegal alien living in our state can enroll in college and get in-state tuition. That is completely insane! They are a legal resident from another COUNTRY living illegaly in our state and we will reward them for breaking the law by giving them a discount on their education. Some legislator really had their head up their @ss when they came up with that one.

[K C Muffin]

Originally Posted by Bubba

It takes insurance to get a car registered and license plates issued. Why can't insurance companies be required to send law enforcement a list of cancelled insurance policies and addresses. Then the officer can do a drive by and see if the licensed car is still at that address, if so watch for it to be driven by increasing the amount of neighborhood patrolling. It moves and boom! Catch somebody for driving with no insurance. Might even bring insurance rates down by not having so many uninsured motorist claims.

Hi, Bubba - sorry I haven't chimed in, I've been out of town. As a matter of fact, insurance companies are required by law to notify insureds, lienholders and law enforcement (state of registration) if a policy is cancelled or lapses.

The problem as I see it, is it passes a huge law enforcement burden to a service industry. The problem from your perspective is that it takes the state a full 60 days or more to recognize there's no coverage. So they send a letter to the taxpayer/insured. Well, if you don't have insurance and you KNOW you don't have insurance, are you really going to respond to the letter?

I wonder what kind of burden this would add to an already overtaxed police force - chasing down non-insured residents, only to find out that some DO have insurance but the company report hasn't been fully registered yet with law enforcement - and those that DON'T are going to 'disappear'.

You have to have it to register your car. If it cancels the next day, nobody's the wiser. The biggest problem with almost any solution we can come up with, is that it won't be a country-wide solution and there's always somebody that's registered in another state that will skirt the law.

[Fred Sanford]

I was not trying to make this a racial issue but I felt you were since you specifically said Mexican in one post, and your post to start this thread, in the first line, said unlicensed/uninsured illegal aliens.[/quote]

OK then, Radioguy, just how many unlicensed Russian and Chinese drivers are driving around Dodge in numbers sufficient to cause an obvious problem? That's a non-starter!

This is part of the problem - that too many are content to spend more energy explaining why the problem can't be solved, than they are in finding a solution to the problem.

Do you stick to your "training" word-for-word, or are you allowed to improvise so long as you stay within the law? You are allowed a certain amount of discretion, I'm sure.