Why?

[NoLongerInRadioGuy]

I agree, although maybe a lil biased, that you cant depend on the police to protect you 100% from acts that are totally random in nature - especially if you dont take some measures to protect yourself, like motion sensor lights. Plus, on a typical night, there might be only 3 or so officers trying to patrol the entire city. There will be some officers doing jail paperwork, others doing paperwork from earlier...not to mention the fact that the police dept. is not fully staffed at this time. We cant be everywhere at once...if you see something suspicious, by all means, call the non-emergency number for dispatch - 227-4646 - and ask an officer to come check it out.

[K C Muffin]

I'm not tryin' to diss you, NLIRG, or any other officers that come to this board to relax. Seems to me that since the majority of crime (somewhat petty, but crime nonetheless) happens during the evening and night hours, why isn't it more heavily staffed? I realize people like to sleep and nobody likes the graveyard shift, but it seems to be when most bad stuff happens.

[Army_of_One]

Originally Posted by MissKitty

Do you have a car alarm? Hopefully that would at least scare a criminal away and wake you up. :

Again...a claymore makes an excellent alarm....only thing is it won't scare the f**ker away...it will splatter him all over your yard...

[LordFoulsBane]

it seems we (dodge city) got caught profiling

Let me start with this... No, the DCPD does not profile. Last year, a bill was passed by the Kansas legislature that all Kansas law enforcement agencies will track an officer's initiated public contact. This means that all the DCPD officer's will, reguardless if we give a citation or not, record name, location of stop, male/female, ethnicity, KS DL#, number of people involved and reason for contact (also a bit more info). This includes traffic stops and just stopping to talk with someone on the street.

You may scoff at the comment that we do not profile, but officer's everywhere will always include race, sex and ethnicity added to the totality of the situation. Example: White female high school student driving around the block a number of times in an area know for drug transactions... Would you call this profiling?

Next...

Why cant we just stop a car driving down the street or a person walk down the street?

We like to call it the 4th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

The courts have expanded upon the meaning of the 4th Amendment through various rulings. Anytime a law enforcement officer stops someone and the person feels they are not free to leave (traffic stop), in the eyes of the courts, its considered a seizure of that person and the officer needs probable cause to believe a crime has been, is or will be commited.

Lastly,

We usually do have more officers on night shifts, but its a catch-22 situation sometimes. Day shift is when everyone is awake and having problems ranging from a 12 year old that wont listen to mom (and we get called), fights after school to theft and forgery cases. Many calls are civil issues that we can not usually work out for someone. Day shift takes LOTS of paperwork, so this takes alot of time. Night shift on the other hand, has more officers because night time is usually more dangerous. On the whole, nights are when violent crimes happen (not all the time). It would take 8-10 officers on a day shift to adaquitely patrol the city AND help raise someone elses kid.

As NLiRG said, take precautions with yourself, family and belongings. Motion lights and dont park your car on the street (this is where 95% of the cars that get windows shot out are parked). Be aware of your surroundings and where your belongings are (hand bags, wallets, CHECKBOOKS). If you dont know the person, dont trust them around your things and especially, please, around your family.

We try, but we cant be everywhere. Dirtbags that shoot out someones window are extremely difficult to catch in the act, which is what we would have to do.

Call dispatch if you see something suspicious.

P158

[Made in the USA]

Aaaahhhhh----paperwork!!! You can't even take a good crap, without alot of paper work!!

[MissKitty]

Thanks to everyone for being civil about Craigb's first post. I was on the "old" board, and eventually quit visiting because I thought it got pretty heated and good Lord, there's enough nastiness in the world already, so I don't need to go to an internet site to get more of it. I applaud those who read a post, and then take a deep breath and relax before responding.

Thanks for the tip about parking on the street. I never thought about it, but that probably is easy pickins for dirtbags who just feel the need to destroy something. It's a good suggestion for those who have that option, although all of us not might have a driveway. Keep those crime stopping tips coming. (BTW, I think Singapore had it right when they publicly caned the American for his petty crime-I'll bet he didn't do that again.)

I think what we need is more neighborhoods coming together and working aggressively to fight crime. If they suspect the house across the street is a drug house, call the police. Invite them to sit in your living room and let them do surveillance on the scumbags. Report them if their weeds are too high, or if they have their music too loud-anything to keep the heat on them and let them know they are not welcome. If it's a rental, report them to the landlords. I wouldn't suggest confronting them directly, but I think there are ways to work the laws to the advantage of the law-abiding citizens. I think the police would appreciate any support and help they can get.

p.s. I will be the first to sign a petition to support the public caning of anyone caught shooting out windows or spraying grafitti.

Miss Kitty

[Made in the USA]

Check with Tom Taylor, MKitty. Seems like he has petitions out all the time for something! And I agree with you on the "caning"! As an example, when they gave us "swats" in school, we learned fast and never did that again. Today, it would command a giant lawsuit with the parents because they don't discipliine their children----------that's why they will be in jail by the time they are grown ups.

[Highwayman]

Miss Kitty, I hope you choose to spend some more time here. You always had something to post worth reading.

[Army_of_One]

Do you know what is black and tan and looks great on an illegal?














A Doberman Pincher...

By illegal I don't mean anyone of any certain race, color, creed, religion or whatnot....just someone that is here illegally..

[Detector]

I think what we need is more neighborhoods coming together and working aggressively to fight crime.

There ya go! You can either set back and complain or get involved and make a difference.

Personally I see nothing wrong with profiling. Heck we all do it anyway so why not the police? If statics show a majority of vandalism is caused by white males between the age of 16-18 after 10:00pm then it would only be smart police work to investigate any white males between the age of 16-18 out after 10:00pm.