Friday, April 24, 2009

Another Bolton Appointeee Shines

Looks like there are some pissed off residents in Center Precinct. Here is an excerpt of a complainant from a DeKalb County resident.

"Instead of really listening and communicating (two-way) with us at our last neighborhood watch meeting, the local precinct commander went on the offense, treated us like we were a pain in his ass for making a big deal out of all this crime, told us the county is 800 police officers short, he looks forward to retirement in a couple of years, and tells his neighbors he can't do anything about the crack house in his neighborhood, either."

As a fellow blogger once said: "Dayum!"

30 comments:

Lou dobbs said...

Center precinct is the best precinct, check the stats. We do need more officers. This is not Mayberry anymore.

Anonymous said...

One less Major drinking the KoolAid. Sir, you won't be missed!

I don't think a few more years will enhance your retirement..... SOooooo hit the Road and let us get on with putting this place back together.

Don't let the door hit ya on your way out!

Uniformed Street Officer said...

Hmm...wonder how many suspension days he'll be facing.

Do you think the Major would have looked the other way if we had made a similar statement on the street.

What's good for the goose.....

Anonymous said...

Hey I have an idea....how about the department create a special enforcement team to crush crime while the ICP/NET/and District Net teams drive around, do nothing and kiss the command staff's asses.....oh wait.....thats already happened! Never mind.

Anonymous said...

Who was the major? Sorry for the dumb question, but I can't tell the playas without a program.

Anonymous said...

Suspension? Are you serious? Verbal counseling and an apology to the complaintant and move on. At some point everybody, regardless of rank has said the wrong thing at some point in time. DKPD needs accountability and a proportionate response/sanction for infractions. Didn't the last Chief show you what not do do? And ease off the guilt by association...

Anonymous said...

If any job will give you a bad attitude. It's police work in a big PD. You start off with a great attitude and sooner or later it goes in the toilet. Some guy's are just better at hiding it than others. Police work in general is an attitude buster but working at a place like DKPD with all the constant year after year inter department turmoil intensify's it tremendously.They should make supervisors take a pyscho and a comon sense test every couple of years. The inter departmental crap is worse than dealing with the public and the crooks. Hell, after working in this nut house all these years I need a psycho too.

Anonymous said...

Looks like he told the truth to the group. Everyone wants someone to solve all their problems.

Anonymous said...

The Major at Center Precinct is Higdon. He does have a tendency to say crazy things sometimes and I’m not really sure why. I guess a lot of cops say crazy things to be honest but sometimes Higdon says these things in public which is obviously not appropriate. But these things aside he does seem to be a good guy and he lets his supervisors do their job without constant interference. I am not sure, but I believe he actually lives in Center Precinct and he seems to really care about what goes on, although you wouldn’t know it from these nutty comments he made.

Anonymous said...

Higdon is a good guy,and he does live in Center Precinct which is very rare for someone with rank to actually live in the County that they serve. Although he worries alot about simple issues he takes care of his business and lets his supervisors be supervisors.

ddh said...

Higdon has lived in Center Precinct for the longest. The old 220/240 territory area. Not sure what its called now since Tucker came in. Higdon has been crazy since we were Center Precinct partners back in the early 90's on morning watch. Great guy then and im sure great guy now. He is one of the old no nonsense guys that's still around.

I'm Ron Burgundy? said...

Higdon is a great Major. You guys are crazy to think otherwise. He cares about his troops, which is rare for upper brass to do.

dedicateddkpd said...

Ya know this is about a sorry story put out by the blog. ONE guy makes a complaint and you crucify a superior officer. Why? Could it be you have a personal axe to grind? I've been here a good amount of time and had plenty of unjustified complaints. How many of you have had to justify yourselves because of some crazy complaint? I don't know if that was the case here or not and neither do you. If you have proof show it, otherwise don't print it. Keep this crap up and you'll lose your support.

Anonymous said...

"Center Precinct is the best precinct, check the stats?????" First of all, higher stats do not make you the best. Who ever said that must be a rookie. What makes you the best is having a pleasant environment to work in. Being a TEAM makes you the best. Being ON THE SAME PAGE, makes you the best. Protecting EACH OTHER makes you the best. Stop bickering like a bunch of children and become the police department that that county needs!! How bout instead of having the "I'm the best precinct" attitude, you all come together FOR ONCE and be the BEST the way it used to be. There is NO "I" in team rookie!! Stop making excuses like "They won't let me police the way I used to. All they wanna do is investigate complaints on me." Stop crying over things you cannot change. JUST DO YOUR JOB AND DO IT WELL! You get out of this job only what you put into it. If you are not happy...go do something else.

Anonymous said...

I gotta stick up for the Major on this one....Just because some citizen made a complaint because he got his feelings hurt by someone telling the truth does not mean he was out of line. Higdon is a good supervisor, I worked for him before he was a Major.

Anonymous said...

ddh,

I've typed up a response to your comment and have deleted it twice.

Call it fear. Call it dispair.

I've lost faith in those above me and don't see the hard charging officers that you say once knew how to get the job done. That's just not what I see at the top.

I see a lot of titles and a lot of people bellying up to the trough.

I'm just spent.

Anonymous said...

Higdon had Vernon Jones photos and campaign junk all over his office until recently. He also praised Bolton like he was a king until December. You can call that watching out for his troops if you want to but I will call it something else. Just because he was a, “good drinking buddy” does not make him a good Major.

Aside from the person who sent the e-mail complaint against the precinct commander regarding the community meeting, there were numerous other people in attendance. There were also several police officers in attendance. Maybe this blog was right after all.

Anonymous said...

ddh,
I worked Center Pct Morning Watch with Higdon back in the early 90's too. I liked his sense of humor, common sense/no crap attitude then, and it looks like it's still there. I think thats what that citizen heard, the truth. You guys at DKPD need more citizen involvement instead of them looking to you to solve all their problems for them. I wish I was still there with you today remaking DKPD after Bolton. Be Safe. tjk

Anonymous said...

How come the blog is silent about Detective Sowell graciously being allowed to "resign"?

Anonymous said...

Sounds to me as the citzen was attacking the officers for not doing there job, being overworked understaffed etc. Thus maybe a higher number of crimes. So it seems to me an outsider your Major was actually defending the actions of the officers and his precinct. Just my view.

Anonymous said...

I wasn't at the meeting, but my gut(for what it counts) tells me that the Major is more concerned about keeping his rank and perks than protecting his officers.

If the officers benefit from his saving his "arse", so be it. I don't believe for a second that things are done with the officers in mind.

Anonymous said...

This comment came from a citizen in a small neighborhood that, like most neighborhoods, has seen an increase in crime over the last few months, most of which have been property crimes.

Instead of working with the police or even contacting them regarding issues in their neighborhood, this person blasted off a letter to various news medias - print & TV and to various elected officials, many of which have no actual involvement with the Police Department. This defaming letter criticized everyone & everything, decrying that nothing was being done to prevent the crimes in their neighborhood.

What is posted here is a small excerpt from it. I would take their criticisms with a grain of salt...

Anonymous said...

To th person interested in officer Kevin Sowell:

I assume he is not being mentioned here because he is not a lieutenant, captain or major. If someone of that rank preyed upon teenage girls and threatened those girls families with violence, I'm sure there would be multiple posts here and lots of people calling for the command staff to have terminated him. It looks like DeKalb police cover up for sexual predators when it's one of their own.

Anonymous said...

Right or Wrong.....Higdon had no right to make those statements in public............When wrong stand up take the punishment and get over it......

Anonymous said...

Whoever is posting about Ofc. Sowell:

If his what he is accused of doing is actually true, Officer Sowell's actions are inexcusable...no one here is making excuses for him.

Anonymous said...

To the person who made the post about Sowell who thinks they know what they are talking about: the department isn't covering for anyone. They went after him as much as they could without the cooperation of the female. If you think you could prove something more happened without cooperation from her, please, show us all how it's done. Until then, don't make false accusations about a cover-up and protecting one of their own, because you don't know have a clue what you're talking about.

Anonymous said...

How can you say they went after Kevin Sowell as much as they could, when he was allowed to resign? Sounds more like a half-assed investigation. They could have terminated him, but instead they cut him a deal. And Gwen Keyes-Flemming loves to talk about prosecuting sex crimes and cops, but here she lets a police officer who is probably a sex predator walk away.

Anonymous said...

It never ceases to amaze me how people think they know what they're talking about when they don't have a clue.

He wasn't allowed to resign. Investigations take time. Before they had a chance to fire him, he resigned.

If you don't know what you're talking about, keep your mouth shut. This department is just full of people who think they know what they're talking about, but don't.

Anonymous said...

Hey, thanks for clearing that up. I'll take your advice and shut up just as soon as DeKalb officials explain to the public what happened, instead of having an anonymous commenter here be the only public remarks about the issue.

Anonymous said...

The county did explain it. It was on Channel 2 News. The county said that Sowell resigned before they got a chance to fire him. Sorry YOU missed it, but YOU missed it and assumed you knew what you were talking about. I'll repeat it again, if you don't know what you're talking about, don't make assumptions and keep your mouth shut.