Wednesday, August 22, 2012

135 Vacancies....And Counting

"Taka Wiz" Miller claims there are 135 police vacancies. We say horse squeeze.

We just don't have any confidence in "Taka Wiz". When explaining reasons for delayed police response to calls, he says “There are a lot of factors such as traffic or other motorists". Simply brilliant.

Click here for Dunwoody Crier article.

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. CEO/BOC, A father died in his daughter's arms yesterday. I should be shocked and outraged but I'm not any more. I see no real effort by the CEO or BOC to place public safety as a priority. I've watched as Dunwoody and Brookhaven were created with the primary rally cry being public safety. I've seen Decatur and Avondale expanded with the same rally cry. Next year Druid Hills, Tucker and Lithonia groups will probably come forth with similar cries. Lip service on public safety will create the scenario where you (CEO & BOC) are only in charge of the sewer system. I'm not suggesting the current CEO & BOC solely created the current situation but you're the current elected officials thus you own the situation.
Here are a few simple suggestions about investing in public safety that would move towards a solution. Retain the cops using the benefit of take home cars paid for out of the seized funds, restructure the department to put more officers on the streets, pay the firemen a little more by charging out of county residents public safety fees for responding to car accidents, etc. Start charging for false alarms.
If public safety had been a priority of the CEO and BOC then you wouldn't be taking a back seat to cities and maybe just maybe the citizens would look upon the CEO and BOC with some measure of respect for a job well done.

Anonymous said...

Wow!!!!! We lost 60 Officers in July. Keep up the good work we must being doing something right to retain our Officers.

Anonymous said...

Just because you have a college degree does not mean you are more qualified than someone else. Give me common sense and the ability to lead people and not try to belittle them or intimidate them. A good example is the Major over cid he is a artist at delegating his job and he was groomed and hand fed all the promotional test even tho he is just a box of rocks. He was never a detective or even investigated a crime , I guess being investigated for assault counts tho. Just look around there is no set standard for promotions around here if you know someone and they have connections you will get what you want. The ceo created the public safety director position for what to spend more money on a useless person and his cronies. I feel sorry for the rest of you im two away from leaving and i cant wait.

Anonymous said...

I was one of the 60 the got the hell out of dodge in July the only thing Im shocked about is the fact that the number wasnt bigger. Good luck out there and even more luck on finding employment with another agency. #Dekalb County doesnt give 2 fingers in the air about any of its Officers or Public Safety Personnel. Period!!

Anonymous said...

Didn't look like any shortage of officers when I came up Shallowford Rd. going home. Everyday I pass two or more units busy writing tickets in front of the cleaners. This is why I would support Chamblee annexing my area. We have had a business on this street for 8 years and only several times have seen a DeKalb officer patrol our parking lot. The one that I stopped to thank told me to read this site and see why we were in the mess that we are in. I pay and pay and pay taxes, we've had cars burglarized and property stolen and the only answers I see are a large contingency of officers writing tickets daily at the same location. I appreciate the speed enforcement but feel this is a blatant show of revenue generation. I support the officers but feel that they must have a lot of pressure to make this county money and put crime fighting as second priority.

Anonymous said...

not to defend the director but that article was written by someone who pushed for the creation of the city of brookhaven and now is running for a council seat, another side to that article is the owner of that newspaper is openly hostile to dekalb county government (or maybe i should say completely politically partisan). either way i take stories from that paper with a grain of sand. what the article fails flush out is how the times are measured. dekalb's times are measure from the second the call is answered until the officer either announces on scene or pushes the "on scene" button. the article doesn't say if the other two departments measure their time in the same manner; my gut feeling says no. the other important fact the article left out is calls assigned to screening also count against "response time" for priority 3 calls. the reason it took "since april" for the 6 months of data is because the county had to sort through tens of thousand (my guess is somewhere around 40 thousand) 911 calls. the 135 vacancies , does anyone know the average number of vacancies we carry; i thought in the 90s we carried a vacancy list of about 60. another error from the story's author is "if...annexation passes ...all of DeKalb north of I-85 into municipalities", the industrial area north of chamblee tucker up to gwinnett and over to buford hwy will still be unincorporated.

Anonymous said...

Dekalb govt is not unlike The Star Wars Saga. You either give in to the corrupt Dark Side or use the force to fight them. Best of luck guys, you're gonna need it.

Anonymous said...

@August 22, 2012 3:50 PM

How did your Kool-Aid taste this morning. There have always been vacancies how many is just a matter of who you talk with. Go by the FBI stats, then subtract all the folks that don't and never will answer calls.. The sworn folks who are not police but the ADMIN will say we have this many sworn people not police to try to inflate the numbers. Add a little and subtract and you may get your answer. Then subtract the number of burnt out disgusted officers from that total and see how many you have left. That Officer KA (Kool Aid)should scare you. Or you could just go find monthly watch lists. Counting SP OPS and CID! Or wait until the yearbook comes out.
Gee you think that Dunwoody Editor's paper has an axe to grind? You must be a hot shot smart cop to figure that out. The reason he will not stop is because he has been a victim of Dekalb County Goverment for quite a few decades. He has had his tax dollars stolen oh I am sorry reallocated for decades.
"not to defend the director but that article was written by someone who pushed for the creation of the city of brookhaven and now is running for a council seat". Then why do you go on and blabber? Are you stupid to lead off with that or what? Then you try to defend someone Director Miller and the Homeless one that no one can defend. Those two are padding their retirment nothing more. If you think that Doravile won't get that area north of 85 you are kidding yourself. Maybe not this year but the next for sure. Everything on the Northside of 85 will be gone. North Prect does such a lovely job then tell me why are there 3 differnt pretend homeless people at Winters Chapel rd and PIB next to QT everyday about 14-15 hours a day in the streets with their signs. You don't see them on the Dunwoody side nor the Gwinnett side. Not afraid of DKPD because you never see the PO PO up there. 10-67 the rip off artists instead of the roll thru the stop sign homemaker. With all the officers leaving maybe Wiz & Dale can open a second had uniform shop. With your first purchase you get a bag of weed.

Anonymous said...

To Annon 3:34...

Reason we write those tickets in that school zone...because folks are still doing over 50 & 60 in "HIGHLY" marked elementry school zone. If these folks are dumb enough to continue to run through there at that speed with all those kids walking the side walk...then they get what they deserve....

But wait.....if someone got hit....then the public would cry..... "were are the officers when they should be in the school zones?".....sorta catch 22 is it not????
Proof that anyone can bitch about any thing...and you think the fines are high....just wait until Chamblee takes over that school zone....then see what you're really going to be paying when you get stopped.

Roger Rabbit said...

Like I said earlier---

The problem with Dekalb County is its only going to get worse. Take a look at the Major over CID. This guy truly thinks he pisses excellence. You all want to get on Holmes & Wiz but Major White scares me. What an arrogant, egocentric clown he is, he is truly a box of rocks as stated earlier.

I only wish he would stay in his office. I'm not sure if he knows this but we don't all think he's the greatest. He parades himself thru the 3rd floor like a celebrity. The only thing missing is his flower bearers throwing down rose pedals in front of him before he walks. Reminds me of James Earl Jones in the movie “Coming to America”, I bet he'll have his so called aide doing that before long...and speaking of his aide...all he's ever done is kiss butt being someone's aide his whole career. I bet he's the next one to get promoted. It's all in who you know. When you have the test questions its pretty damn easy.


Anonymous said...

We have lost just over 150 Officers since January 1st 2012!!! This includes the ones getting fired. Im interested in a true count as of today for ALL active DKPD Officers?? Any gold badges on here find out for us!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like anon 3:50PM needs some more furlough days. How about a 5% reduction in pay and raise the health insurance premiums by 17% for FYI 2013. And no paid holidays or do we get paid holidays and have to take 10 furlough days? And lets raise the pension contribution by another 4%. What a handsome and attractive/competitive benefits package? What a great place for the oppurtunity for advancement. But you have to know someone or be arrested and not convicted first. Keep drinking the koolaid while you write your tickets. Im sure they appreciate your hard work down in Decatur where the party never ends, But only if you are a party to the emporer or the chosen few!

Anonymous said...

I don't care who ya are... you can't bitch about bird dogging a school zone where cars are regularly stopped at 50 and 60 mph in a 25 school zone.... that's just plain doing your job and protecting the public. If you notice, there is lots of coverage every time a young child gets run over....that's just publicity we don't need.

Anonymous said...

This might sound a little stupid, but crying about vacanies is nothing new. Any large department will always have vacancies because that is the nature of this employment. People get bored with their lives and careers, want something new and challenging, ready to retire, and the list goes on for many reasons. In this case, DCPD hasn't had a serious raise in the salary for many years and thus. this makes employees very mad.

To get mentally sick regarding this, is something that has to be dealt with because it affects family members and the employee and creates bad situations. The ever reducing paycheck and benies is a way of scaring someone into looking for a better job.

Now, on the other side of the coin, this economy has causewd far to many people to be out of work, and while the jobs at DCPD are being vacated for various reasons, those of you who are still employed at DCPD, realistically ought not to complaint to loudly.

I realize that as an OUTSIDER of your department, we all can't "bitch" too loudly right now and ought to be very thankful that you are employed. This country has never been in the shape that it is currently in since the GREAT DEPRESSION which a hugh majority of y'all do not remember because of your age.

Can something be done about this mess? Its called voting for the right person. I am not going to specify a name or names because if you are intelligent enough, you ought to be able to think this one out. Will this solve the current problem? Not immediately and not for a little while. Depending on who gets in, the change down the road remains to be seen.Will this mess go away? Only time will tell, but bear in mind, it cannot get much worse than what we have already experienced.

Anonymous said...

Anon 1017....We apologize, but the BOC and higher ups aren't smart enough to come up with those ideas. They are afraid to piss off the residents of this county if they were to charge for certain services. They need those votes to keep them in power!! Your ideas make too much sense.

Anonymous said...

The vacancy number is like the unemployment rate that gets reported. It is a manipulated number that does not tell the true picture. Don't ever think that this country has any elected and appointed officials in any level of government that will tell you the truth. The county is never going to lead on how bad the conditions are in this department. Those of us that are in it truly know.

-Anon 1118

Anonymous said...

To 10:46pm maybe just spread the coverage to more than one school zone. Isn't 4 cars in one and none in twenty others excessive? If you TAC guys want to team up and work one zone at a time why not rotate around the various school zones. I agree we need the enforcement just maybe wiser use of resources.

Anonymous said...

I am so glad I retired from the department. Thank GOD! DKPD has become a shameful thing for me to even mention when I talk to others. Blame the voters for electing fools. And if you dont beleive that....look at the recent run off election in Clayton County.

Anonymous said...

This is a 2011 blog post and still good in 2012. This would one way to cut costs for the county. The school police call us to handle everything and what do we get in return-NOTHING.




http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2011/10/dcss-school-police-on-job.html?m=1

Anonymous said...

Anon 3:19......It's clear you aren't a gold badge because your post is dead on!!! The department doesn't know how to "manage," otherwise the department wouldn't be in the hole it's in now.

Anonymous said...

Since the county has decided to continue to take and take from us I've decided to start taking back and holding THEM accountable the same way they do me. The next time I'm injured while struggling with a suspect because I had no backup 1012 for a suit for negligent staffing against the county. Sgt and Lt I suggest you be enroute to back or you'll be named as well.

Anonymous said...

Yes there are a lot of vacancies but let’s cut some fat, look at all the wasted man power we have in this department. We have more aids that do nothing than any department I have ever worked for. The waste of man power from the director’s office all the way to animal control is ridiculous. The cid chief has two mpo aides and a sgt. The major over cid has an aide that all he does is make coffee and walk the halls and has a four day work week. I hear all he ever did in uniform is dodge calls and try to find out the latest gossip so he could have dirt on someone. He even threatened to file a complaint if he didn’t get picked for the cve unit. Then he kisses ass to become the Majors aide.
Look at homeland and intelligence they have way more officers than they need. Special operations get whatever they want so they can generate revenue for the county, what about the officers on the street who are busting there ass and never get a day off. The only thing this department is good at doing is wasting man power and killing morale.
Side note please stop getting on Major white all you are doing is feeding the larger than life ego. If you have worked with him or still do you know he thrives on making people miserable and bullying them. If you have never been in a comstat meeting or a supervisor class then you would know that he has the biggest ego here. For those of us who worked hard in uniform and cid and where ever else we have been and studied and took all the promotional test and passes on our own we can be proud. When he leaves he will know he accomplished nothing on his own. Look if coat tail riding, kissing ass and bullying were Olympic events he would be a gold medalist in each of them. Let’s just wait and see what happens when Bill Obrien leaves and see who he tries to align himself with to keep his rank or get promoted.
I think its funny how we have people in charge of divisions that don’t have a clue as to what they are doing. The cid command staffs from the chief to the aides have never been in cid never investigated one case taken warrants or written a supplemental report. This is how our department is run not just cid but every division

RR said...

At least I can hold my head up and look people in the face and know that I've accomplished and obtained my rank thru hard work of my on. Some of us have worked hard, busted our butts to have real on the job training. There are several within the dept that can't say that. Instead of some pencil pushing, coat tail hopping wagon hooker....like Major White who definitely as an ego to bruise. He does his best to belittle people under him. I hope you remember that you never know who my pass you by. That Lt. or Capt my very well be your Major or Chief one day..lol... In a way I feel sorry for him cause if it wasn't for OB, Burrows and a few others who spoon feed him questions and answers then he'd be a nobody. I've never seen anyone so egotistical and just so it's out there he wouldn't know how to work a case if you wrote it out using a crayon. He's already trying to align himself with Chief Holmes by trying to buddy up to Holmes, Banks, Ellis & Wiz. Yea, we see what you're doing.

Now as far as his aide he has. Well he's never, and I'm saying never been on a CID list. Oh... he tried putting in for CID thinking just because he was friends w/ Major White he could get in...remember, I do believe there is a reason the dept as a CID eligible list, perhaps you should take it, instead of running around gathering gossip on everyone. Maybe you can file a complaint like you did to get into CVE....which is common knowledge..

I feel comfortable saying this much, you two deserve each other.

Anonymous said...

Major White blah, blah, blah. Some of you complaining about White were obviously passed over in the last selection to go to CID. Sounds like spilled milk to me, or maybe someone kicked sand in your morning cereal.
As I recall the last CID Chief had one aide that was never in CID and then went to CID as a supervisor. The replacement aide, spent years in CID. The new Chief was in CID years ago and his aide was in CID at least 10 years. The new chief only has one aide, the other guy in that office is the crime analysis person. Same with Holmes, he has one aide, and the other guy is the crime analysis person.
I know of 2 perfectly wasteful positions in the inspections unit. The Lt. in charge of it could do the inspections and write the report. It doesn't take 3 people to do the inspections.
I don't blame the command staff for the vacancies, I blame the BOC and the CEO. The BOC increases our insurance contributions, or pension contributions and furloughs us. Our pay has been frozen for at least 5 years and with the ever increasing contributions, along with the furloughs, our pay has actually been back sliding.
The BOC will probably cut our pay at least 5% across the board in 2013.
The cities and other jurisdictions offer some sweet deals. Insurance paid in full, take home car, full reimbursement for college, and an increased salary. The BOC doesn't even try to compete.

Anonymous said...

There has not been a CVE Unit for a year now...good grief...who is the majors aid???...and why would he want to go to CVE...when there isn't one???...it was gone on Oct. 1st 0f 2011.

Anonymous said...

Consider the police department a civilization (as we are sub-culture of sorts) then consider this quote by Arnold Toynbee, "Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder."

Some of you will skim over this post and laugh it off, others just won't understand it, and others are just looking for the next finger pointing post.

With all of this infighting, bickering, backstabbing, and slanderous behavior, you are killing yourselves. No one is to really blame except you. So when things get bad, and I mean really bad, the only people to blame are the officers - gold badges and silver badges. What's happening here is self-destruction and you're just too stupid to see it.

You all are too petty to really go after the real culprits - the BOC/CEO - but instead choose to point fingers at each other and do the blame game (behind the 'anonymous' keyboard). Get off your collective asses and go to the BOC meetings and let them know what's up.

All the best.
John (retired)

Anonymous said...

******Check this link out Possible Future of Dekalb County Police Department*****

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/24/camden-nj-to-reboot-police-department-by-new-year/#ixzz24e3FPNvM

Anonymous said...

Gritty N.J. city of Camden to scrap police department amid budget woes
By Perry Chiaramonte
Published August 26, 2012
FoxNews.com

"Is this the future of DKPD"

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/24/camden-nj-to-reboot-police-department-by-new-year/#ixzz24kibJt4a

Anonymous said...

http://www.officer.com/news/10769831/san-jose-police-department-losing-some-of-its-best


San Jose Police Department Losing Some of Its Best
By Mark Gomez
Source: San Jose Mercury News
Created: August 26, 2012
A total of 79 officers have resigned from the department since 2011, including 30 this year.

Its an epidemic all over the country large corupt city and county governments are forcing officers to quit and work for smaller municipalities. The point is smaller government creates better working conditions for police. I hope people are able to secure better positions elsewhere and to save careers and improve their own morale towards the profession.

jerky boy said...

In Center Precinct alone, we lost 6 officers, 5 MPOs, last week. Looks like the flood dam is about to break!

Anonymous said...

You can add two more...one at south and one at north to the 6 officers, and 5 MPOs at Center Precinct.

Those two were rightfully terminated.

Anonymous said...

Not only are the flood gates open there is about to be a Katrina sized flood after the first of the year. Brookhaven will need 50+ Officers, Doraville 10, and Chamlee 10, thats at least 70 Officers. Add on to that the Dekalb Officers who retire when Chief OBrien leaves and it will be almost impossible to put a single shift on the road. Hold on because the storm is coming folks.

Anonymous said...

I don't know what it cost to put a rookie through our academy, someone once said $100 grand so I'll go with that number. If we lost 135 at a cost $100,000 each this year (let's say all had an average tenure of 5 years to keep the 100 grand number reasonable) that a $13,500,000 loss on investment. That's like destroying 270 late model police crown victoria cars for no reason. To consistently train dozens upon dozens or officers only to watch them leave the department with in a year or two for departments that will assign them a take home car makes little sense. The citizens lose on cost, they lose having a well trained officer respond to their calls for assistance, they lose becasue crime effect their quality of life and the value of their property. Mr CEO/BOC make a strong move for the citizens of this county and authorize the police department to use the seized funds to buy police cars for the MPOs and above as assigned take home cars. Mr. CEO/BOC that simple act might make a huge impact for the positive on the citizens, the county and the department.

Anonymous said...

Here's a chance, blog administrator, to turn this site into something that can inspire and motivate officers who need help focusing on the positive, keep things in perspective, and for those who don't look at this as just a job, give them a reason to recognize how noble their profession and mission in life is, and be gratified by it.

http://tucker.patch.com/articles/dekalb-police-hosting-beat-the-badge-run?ncid=newsltuspatc00000001

All proceeds from the event benefit the DeKalb Police Alliance which provides life insurance for officers and support for families who have lost loved ones in the line of duty.

So Ken C. - put your "fracken" money where your mouth is, and work towards helping - REALLY helping. That is, unless all you want to do is continue spewing hatred towards your former employer.
Enjoy your fracken vacation.

Anonymous said...

The reason Brookhaven PD along with others (Sandy Springs PD, Dunwoody PD, etc) will be able to pick and choose the best officers is simply because their citizens demand it. For example, if you've ever been an unfortunate victim in Dekalb and have actually had a response from a detective regarding your case you've heard every excuse in the book as to why nothing can be done regarding your case. Basically if a suspect walks into headquarters with a written confession you MIGHT be notified. Successful police departments that are actually held accountable have intelligent and aggressive officers/detectives that know the results of their efforts will be looked upon and take pride in the outcome. Dekalb had better wake up, though it's probably too little too late at this point.