Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Anonymous Says:

15 years ago DeKalb was a great place to police. It had a stellar reputation, and quality people were knocking down the doors to get over here. Over those 15 years I have watched my police department transition from a great place to police into a great place to receive excellent police training before continuing your career elsewhere. It's disappointing to watch this take place when I know there is not really much I can do about it. I can stay and hope to make rank, maybe then in 5-8 years I can make a difference, or I can leave and take a substantial pay cut initially and hope the green grass that drew me away stays green long enough for me to see a benefit. It's a sad, sad time in my life when I come to work everyday and continue to put my life on the line for a county whose ruling body does not have my best interest at heart. I stay because I hope it will get better, it just has to. But I speak for many who will tell you that you can no longer expect us to sit around and watch you make financial and political decisions that benefit your future with play station like quickness, while voting on mine with all the speed of old men playing chess! That just plain crazy. if you need assistance fixing this mess you have yourselves in...you have us all in....dial 911, when you come off hold, tell the nice overworked operator you have a problem you can't solve, she will start you a unit. WE ARE DEKALB COUNTY POLICE OFFICERS. problem solving is what we do.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

A great place to Police......

That was then and this is now. Morale has taken a big hit because we've gotten away from policing.

Money is important because we need to provide for our families, but we all came here to do a job. We didn't expect to become rich. We did expect to be somewhat taken care of.

We expected a good retirement and affordable benefits. We expected raises that would keep up with inflation, increases in pension contributions, and increases in health insurance.

Morale takes a hit everytime the computers are down and Uniform Officers can't get their assigned calls, run suspects or run tags.

Morale takes a hit everytime Uniform Officers stand out in the parking lot waiting for patrol cars to come off the street.

Morale takes a hit everytime a Detective is assigned a number of cases to go with the huge backlog he or she is already working on.

Morale takes a hit everytime a special group of people get a new special perk.

Morale takes a hit everytime a "made man or woman" gets special treatment when they break the rules (or even breaks the law!).

Morale takes a hit everytime Detectives and Uniform Officers go to headquarters and are forced to look at the ridiculous number of reserved parking spaces.

Morale takes a hit everytime Officers and Detectives see money wasted on Tahoes and Expeditions....knowing full well that they don't have enough cars to go out on patrol or the cars they do have are high mileage cars that dont't work or have broken computers.

Morale takes a hit everytime a Uniform Officer is taken off patrol to babysit a useless RV.

Yes, Virginia, it is all about money....and a whole lot more.

Anonymous said...

HERE HERE! Amen amen and amen. I think you have hit the nail on the head. I still love most of the people, I just can't stand political grandstanding by CEOs, Commissioners, or Chiefs. There is such a real, large disconnect from the politicians and the fourth floor at HQ to the officer on the street. The lack of understanding & perspective is overwhelming.

I hate this place.

Anonymous said...

I HAVE BEEN GONE FROM DKPD FOR 9 YEARS NOW. I WAS THERE FOR 20 YEARS BEFORE I FROZE MY RETIREMENT. I MOVED OUT OF METRO ATLANTA AND THE ONLY REASON I WATCH ATLANTA NEWS IS TO MAKE SURE THE POLITICIANS HAVEN'T STOLEN THE RETIREMENT FUND. IT WAS A GREAT DEPARTMENT IN THE 1980S AND 1990S. GLAD I'M RETIRED.