No Response

Mere weeks after we wrote about the Sacramento County sheriff ordering his Officers not to respond to non-criminal mental health calls, a small-town Illinois Department is doing the same thing:

• The Salem Police Department is no longer dispatching officers to non-violent mental calls.

  Deputy Police Chief Tyler Rose says the department is participating in a pilot program ahead of a new law that prohibits initial response to mental calls that takes effect in July.

  “If it is non-violent, there are no weapons, there no threat to another individual, it’s someone simply having a mental health crisis, the legislation forbids us from dispatching officers right away,” Rose said. “That will have to be referred to these mobile crisis units. For Salem, it’s going to be members of the Community Resource Center that come out and make contact with that that individual.”

  Rose says if the Community Resource Center is not able to respond within 60 minutes the call will revert to Salem Police to handle.

This is going to be State Law starting in July? Outstanding.

They ought to be cutting TV and radio commercials and airing them every hour telling people that the cops aren't coming and they better have some contingency plan in place....like a taxi and a large neighbor on call with a straitjacket.

Police Matter?

Sounds like a perfect opportunity to roll out those Mental Health Responders:

• A McKinley Park woman who lost her cat in January said he's been sitting dead for weeks on top of her neighbor's roof, and she hasn't been able to get him back.

  Jadine Wambaja shared surveillance video footage showing a cat somehow landing on her neighbor's roof. She believes it's her cat, Scarface. "He was flung like he was garbage up on the roof," Jadine Wambaja said. "In the video, you see the cat tossed up, and seconds later, if you look at the man's back door, you could see someone walk inside."

The aldercreature posted video of the subject tossing the dead cat on the roof (if you find a working link, post it). The back yard looks like a disaster and the article further states the occupant isn't opening hte door and seems to have barricaded it shut.

Maybe someone from 009 can update the readers? 

UPDATE: Link here.

UPDATE: Clearer view here - content warning for the sensitive.

Another Traffic Freebie

Another effort to hamstring police proposed in Springfield:

• (via the 016/017 Police Scanner X/Twitter feed - no working link available) - State senator Rachel Ventura (IL-43), who represents many parts of Bollingbrook, Romeoville, Lockport, Joliet among others, has proposed a bill that
  
  
   "Amends the Illinois Vehicle Code. Removes the requirement that cannabis within any area of a motor vehicle must be in an odor-proof container. Provides that if a motor vehicle is driven or occupied by an individual 21 years of age or over, a law enforcement officer may not stop or detain the motor vehicle or its driver nor inspect or search the motor vehicle, the contents of the motor vehicle, or the operator or passenger of the motor vehicle solely based on the odor of burnt or raw cannabis."
  
  
  This is akin to allowing people to drive with open alcohol.
  

Seeing as how you can't drive more than a block without smelling weed emanating from parked cars, cars on streets, cars on the highway, trucks and bicycles, it's not difficult to say that driving while high is a very big issue. We'd estimate that nearly 10% of drivers are high as kites and a friend over at MAIU claims that personal injury / fatal accidents involve weed over 60% of the time, surpassing even alcohol the past few years.

But hey, keep the police from enforcing the law.

The Fallacy of "Consent"

The Contrarian has a guest article up outlining the Orwellian "newspeak" describing Consent Decrees:

• A consent decree is a term and process feared by law enforcement and law enforcement chiefs, city village managers, and some political leaders. While there may be some legitimate reasons for having consent decrees in some police agencies throughout the United States, I have always believed they are a form of judicial extortion. If you think there is any consent by police agencies in these consent decrees, I hope to enlighten you. 

  What is a consent decree? For law enforcement agencies, it is a court-ordered settlement between a police department and the Department of Justice (DOJ) that establishes an enforceable plan for sustainable reform. Typically, consent decrees are detailed documents that include specific requirements and deadlines for action. Most consent decrees require an independent monitor as part of the process. A federal judge typically oversees the consent decree and is the individual who appoints an independent monitor.

"Extortion" is an understatement.

The entire article is a mere ten paragraphs, so go read it all.

025 Citing Personal Vehicles

Got this from half-a-dozen people today (click for larger version):

 

One of the emails said they were going to try this citywide?

Didn't there used to be a General Order that said Discipline for these types of violations would be handled via the SPAR/CR process - administratively - and not through ticketing?

Don't get us wrong, this way is far cheaper than a one-day suspension or surrendering eight-hours comp time, but since they're keeping track of violations and Officers, we better not be seeing both.

Nationwide Body Cam Victories

Remember when we were all hesitant about body cameras? They've been a help in many shootings despite the obvious shortcomings of only providing one direction of reference, but multiple cameras can alleviate some of that.

Truth be told, they've revealed quite a bit about the people cops end up stopped - especially politicians:

• Oklahoma State Senator Regina Goodwin got pulled over on a traffic stop by a Tulsa County Deputy. Body camera footage of the stop shows Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols showed up after the citation was already issued. Goodwin's attorney and a Tulsa City Councilor also showed up.

  Body camera footage of the stop shows a Tulsa County deputy telling Senator Goodwin she ran two stop signs near the 200 block of East Archer Street.

  The video shows Goodwin refused to provide her driver's license, even after the deputy asked for it more than a dozen times. It then shows the deputy handcuffing Goodwin and then putting her in his car.
  

As suspected, a democrat.

Same with this one:

• A longtime New Jersey politician unleashed a profanity-laden rant at a cop for pulling him over last month — telling the officer that he’s his “boss,” body cam footage shows.

  Paulsboro Councilman Theodore D. Holloway tore into the local cop after being flagged for allegedly running a stop sign near Penn Line Road and West Adams Street just after 10 p.m. on Jan. 4, according to footage obtained by Fox News Digital. Holloway, who has served the borough for 12 years, initially appeared bewildered by the cop — who appeared to recognize the councilman — but quickly reverted to ripping into him.

  “I’m the one that brought you on! I put you on!” Holloway yells at the camera before threatening to call Police Chief Gary Kille, the footage shows. “I’m the one that hired you! You actually pulled over an elected official. … You’re pulling over your boss. I’m literally your boss.”

Actually, if the cop is a taxpayer, he's your boss CouncilAss.

So people complain cops aren't doing enough....then when they do to someone connected, they're ripped for that, too. But cameras give everyone the opportunity to see what's going on.

Just Don't

If you want a bunch of reasons why pursuits are a bad idea, hop over to this link here and read about all sorts of judgements leveled against CPD in recent years.

We won't bother to quote from the article except for this little item:

• Prosecutors said the officers followed behind Wade as he sped off in his sister’s Chevrolet Equinox and talked to his girlfriend over video chat. Wade was traveling at 80 mph, while the cops were going 30 mph.

If that doesn't tell you everything you need to know about pursuit lawsuits, perhaps some math would help? Remember those math problems with Train A and Train B leaving stations at different times?

• at 80 MPH, the criminal had traveled .666 miles in 30 seconds - about 3,516 feet
• at 30 MPH, the cops had traveled just .25 miles in 30 seconds - about 1,320 feet

That's a difference of 2,196 feet.

A city block, barely an eighth-of-mile, is 660 feet....meaning the criminal was almost 3.5 city blocks ahead of the "pursuing" police car in those 30 seconds....and getting farther away every second. That isn't a pursuit. Not even close. And with GPS, you can bet those numbers are pretty close to reality.

The city is going to pay out $4.5 million.

Pilot Program?

If someone gets caught with a gun in Englewood, no need to stay off the street all night. Just process him and go out for another gun:

• Cops in one Chicago police district who arrest people for illegal gun possession can now file some firearms-related felony charges directly without getting approval from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.

  Multiple sources say the “Felony Review Bypass Program” began at midnight on January 1 in the Englewood (7th) District. Neither CPD nor the state’s attorney’s office directly answered questions about the program, although both provided statements that did not deny its existence.

  For years, cops in Cook County have had to get a prosecutor in the state’s attorney’s Felony Review Unit to approve all felony charges, a sometimes time-consuming hurdle that keeps officers off the street. Now, at least for a while, cops in the Englewood district can file some gun charges with the approval of their lieutenant.

Felony Review is a mostly useless process where the ASA on duty demands more evidence, more interviews and labels cases "continuing investigation" before dropping all charges or making the police charge misdemeanors. It allows Dart to empty out the jail and not actually hold prisoners.

If we remember correctly, there isn't a "felony review" in any county except Cook, where it exists simply to provide the politically connected bottom 20% of lawyers to make some money until they can run for office.

If they're letting WOLs actually charge criminals with breaking a pretty straightforward law, that's actual progress that O'Neill-Burke is making.

Bump Card Warning

It seems they all expired at once, even those that had a 2026 date:

Expect Inspectors to be touring the Districts shortly. Do yourself a favor and keep track of who gets disciplined and who doesn't.

NYPD Applications

This is indicative of a nationwide trend, even if no one is covering it much:

• The number of candidates testing to become New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers has reportedly dwindled in recent years, leaving the Democrat-run city scrambling to fill those positions.

  The number of candidates has shrunk over the past eight years, the New York Post reported on Saturday. In 2017, the number of prospective officers was 18,000 but has decreased to 8,000.

  That is a 55 percent drop, according to data from the union known as the Police Benevolent Association.

  A seasoned Brooklyn officer told the outlet that officers are telling people not to take the job because “You’ll be worked to the bone, attacked by perps and politicians and hammered with nonsense complaints and ticky-tack discipline.”

For some odd reason though, this isn't as big a problem in the reddish portion of the nation. In fact, sizable percentages of those leaving blue state / blue city $hitholes are ending up in right-leaning jurisdictions where they aren't going to be indicted, fired or jailed for doing the job they were hired to do.

It's so very odd.

Expanding Chances of Being Sued

And this is why we've been saying, "Ticket EVERYONE"

• Five Chicagoans who accused the Chicago Police Department of targeting Black and Latino drivers with a massive campaign of traffic stops will not be allowed to intervene in the federal effort to require CPD to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers, a federal judge ruled.

  U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer ruled that there is no need for the plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, to become an official part of the consent decree case even as negotiations continue over whether and how the court order should be expanded to include traffic stops as well as what role the city’s new police oversight board should play.

  Eric Wilkins, a community organizer who lives in Roseland, is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit that accuses CPD officers of making more than 1.5 million traffic stops between 2016 and 2023 based on dubious evidence of minor violations that took direct aim at Black and Latino Chicagoans but spared White Chicagoans.

But if you go through the "TSSSSSSSSSSS Obama Cards," you find an interesting pattern:

• the police give pretty much EVERYONE a break by doing the blue card instead of a moving violation, including nearly 100% of minorities. 

Seriously. Look it up, the percentages are ridiculous, like 99% of the time, no citation is issued, just a blue card. And they're attempting to use this as evidence of profiling.

You're seriously better off documenting the violation and making them go to court to provide a judge proof of compliance than producing numbers that are going to end with you in a Civil trial. It's only a matter of time and finding the right judge to drag the entire TSSSSSSSSSSS process into a massive lawsuit.

Really Secure?

We don't know about you, but stories like this make us feel completely safe and secure while flying to vacation and/or retirement destinations:

• A body was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines flight that departed from Chicago on Christmas Eve, the company said. Flight 202 departed from Chicago's O'Hare airport on Tuesday morning and landed at Maui's Kahului airport.

  After landing, United Airlines said a body was found in the wheel well of one of the main landing gears on a United aircraft. "United is working with law enforcement authorities on the investigation," the company said in a statement to ABC.

Screening long before you get to the gates. No one without a ticket permitted in the concourses. Cameras everywhere. Reasonably well-lit wide open flat spaces for miles around. Secured doors and hundreds of workers all supposedly keeping an eye on things to prevent a terror attack or an airfield incursion. 

And that's not even mentioning the ground crew and flight crew physically inspecting the aircraft prior to takeoff....we see them wandering around underneath the plane with flashlights, checking out cargo doors, exterior structures and wheel wells.

And this still happens every year or so. Any airport people want to update the readers?

Berwyn Shooting

A quick response by Berwyn PD results in a shootout with a wanted subject:

• A man who was wanted for a triple homicide in downstate Illinois was killed during a shootout Wednesday night with Berwyn police, the suburban police department said.

  The suspect has been identified as John R. Lyons, 24, of Westchester, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Lyons was shot and killed in a shootout with officers about two hours later Berwyn.

  Officers responded to a call of a man with a gun in the 1800 block of Home Avenue in Berwyn just before midnight, then trailed Lyons as he forced his way into a home in the 1800 block of Wenonah Avenue, according to a news release from Berwyn police.

  Lyons allegedly fatally shot two dogs at the residence on Wenonah before fleeing back to Home Avenue.

Strangely (and allegedly) this triple murderer showed up at the home of someone else in the news these past few weeks, who just made an appearance in court for Battery after being doxxed and a goofy Karen showing up at his front door:

• Nick Fuentes, a far-right streamer known for his racist, sexist and antisemitic views, claimed Thursday that he was the target of a “would-be assassin” who was fatally shot by police near his home in Berwyn after allegedly killing three people downstate.

  Fuentes made the jarring claim shortly after his first hearing on a battery charge that stems from a bizarre confrontation last month outside the home, which had become a target for his critics after his address was leaked online in response to a controversial social media post he made.

So all of this "conditioning" by the media that violence is an appropriate response to offensive speech and conduct (think the insurance CEO) has introduced a new and disturbing trend of doxxing and hunting down those with whom you disagree. This isn't go to turn out well when someone on the other side decides media types are fair game, too.

FOP - Please Clarify

From an email, and a few comments the past weekend:

• There’s an issue I think that needs to be brought out ..at the last meeting it was stated that if you get a cr number and you get called more than once , the fop will deny representation for the second statement even if it’s Job related . A bad cr you can be called more than once . We pay 1000 a year in dues and what’s the point if we can’t get legal representation

In this day of re-opened / never closed Log Number investigations, where COPA and IAD release records that are thirty and forty years old along with dredging up past histories and suing cops long since retired (and in some cases, deceased), the need for competent counsel at ANY investigative questioning is unquestionably needed.

What's going on? Did someone misspeak or mishear something?

Windfall Elimination Passes

It only passed the House. Now it goes to the Senate:

• Today, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 82, the Social Security Fairness Act, by a vote of 327 to 75.

  H.R. 82 has been a top priority for the IAFF. The bill eliminates the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), provisions that unfairly punish retired fire fighters, police officers, teachers, and other public servants.

  “Today’s vote was a major step toward ensuring fire fighters and other public servants receive the full retirement they’ve earned and paid for,” said General President Edward A. Kelly. “While we’re proud of the work our team did to get this bill through the House, this is only half the battle. Now it’s time for Senators to step up and send this bill to the President’s desk.”

The National FOP released this:

Of course, this is a lame duck post-election session of Congress. There is exactly zero impetus to get it done and no votes to be bargained with at this moment. Plus, someone has to wake up Sleepy Joe, inject him full of Adderall and pharmaceutical meth so he can sign it. 

But it can't hurt to contact Durbin's and Duckworth's offices and let them know you're paying attention.

Fall Back

Remember, if you show up an hour early for your shift today, you forgot to move your clock forward. You probably won't get paid for it.

And if you show up an hour later at home after being at the bar when they moved the clocks back, you've got a ready made excuse for the spouse.

Show Us the Money

And this money - unlike the usual owed cash - is accruing interest:

• Chicago's budget crisis may be worse than many had thought.

  A still-pending lawsuit over police overtime pay could put the city on the hook for $200 million. It's a liability Chicago City Council members recently learned about as the city heads into budget season.

  [...] In 2015, several police officers filed suit in what is now a class action case against the city, alleging officers were not properly paid for the overtime they worked.

  "It's pretty basic, and it's almost unbelievable that it happened, so the city used two systems to track an officer's time," said Will Aitchison, an attorney for the officers. "One for overtime from extended shifts, and another for when cops worked special details, and the systems were not integrated... In a court filing a year ago, the plaintiffs estimated the overtime backpay due the officers exceeded $200 million, a figure the city disputed in the filing."

  Right now, there are no settlement talks underway and none are planned. The officers' attorney says if that doesn't change, this case could drag on for another three years.

This has mainly to do with FLSA overtime - time in excess of the federally "permitted" total hours that are paid at the regular rate. Anything in excess of the "permitted" hours is paid at the higher FLSA rate, occasionally amounting to something between $4-to-7 dollars-per-hour (depending on grade). 

Very lucrative for those who worked every single day off and every single OT initiative the City offered to hide the manpower shortages that were becoming evident even before 2015. But the Department and City were miscalculating or deliberately misrecording hours into different columns on the time cards depending on which pool of money they were draining at the time.

They're going to fight this tooth-and-nail, because the money isn't there.

COVID Payday

A federal jury of all things, in lib-tarded San Francisco:

• A federal jury has sided with fired BART workers who sued the agency claiming they lost their jobs over a COVID vaccine mandate.

  There are six of them total in the lawsuit and each will receive more than $1 million.

  The employees claimed religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate but say they were not accommodated by the transit agency, and subsequently lost their job.

  BART did initially grant vaccine exemptions, but the plaintiffs argued they weren't accommodated. An accommodation could have meant that they were able to work from home or get COVID tested regularly for COVID. They argued none of that happened and they lost their job.

Groot lucked out here. A sharp-eyed cop noted that the CPD was denying religious exemptions to Officers at something like a 75-to-90% rate while other city departments were granted everything under the sun. He publicized it and made a stink and it all ground to a crawl before dying out.

We know we could have used a million bucks, though waiting for four years would have made it very difficult to maintain our current lifestyle. Perhaps those who resigned or retired under pressure could have some sort of recourse? A few hundred cops being compensated for Groot's dictatorial power grab would be amusing at the very least.

Impersonator Evidence

That three-time un-convicted police impersonator we wrote about a few days ago? Here's what attracted the Officers' attention:

That would make us look twice.

And the ID:

We'd give that one an extra look, too.

But good enough for a Cook County judge to let him loose on the public. Again.

He's probably out there right now.

Gang War in 33rd Ward

And the aldercreature of the 33rd is one of the more vocal anti-police turds:

• Last week, CBS Chicago reported on the gang war in the Old Irving Park neighborhood. 

  Responding to the increase in gunfire heard in the neighborhood, one local resident said: "The gunshots keep ringing out day and night."

  At a recent CAPS meeting, Chicago Police said that there is indeed a gang war in Old Irving Park, which is in the heart of the 33rd Ward. A ward that covers the Albany Park, Ravenswood Manor, Irving Park, and Avondale neighborhoods, the ward is represented in the City Council by Alderman Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez. While Ms. Rodriguez-Sanchez has declared herself an Independent, she is, in fact, firmly aligned with the City Council's Democratic Socialist Caucus.

  Rodriguez-Sanchez, along with the five other socialists in the City Council, is in favor of cutting spending for the Chicago Police Department (CPD).

The entire Contrarian article is an eye-opener, and hints at more problems on the horizon, not only for the residents who voted this "progressive" into  office, but for the Department moving forward. We're awaiting more info, but rest assured that the 33rd Ward will most likely be on the leading edge of a pilot program that will result in anyone with time on the job to bid out of the affected Districts.