Steve Conrad to be new Louisville chief, source says

Can each officer honestly report exactly what "use" their take-home cars have been TO THE DEPARTMENT AND THE CITY in the last six months? How many off-duty responses have you made. I know that officers do stop, but do you keep a record? Only way to prove the usefulness of the program is to SHOW, with numbers and details, that it is for the good of the city. Please don't do like certain unnamed members of another agency did years ago, when they wanted their agency head to buy them vests (this was before they were the norm) by saying, we need them when we work off duty. I do not lie, they said that. He said, I will buy them and you will wear them ALL THE TIME.

In other words, start keeping track NOW - buy a notebook just for the purpose. The general public does not see the value in the program, you have to show them if you want to keep it.

Just curious.... how would it work and where would equipment be stored when SWAT, HNT, BOMB, DIVE or homicide, sex crimes, CACU, Div Detectives etc... get called out when off duty.... and these units get called out a lot....

I am so tired of people using comparisons between this job and other jobs to criticize our take home cars, pensions etc. This job is different. We do have personal things in common - we have good days/bad days, we have kids that we love, spouses to come home to, bills to pay, and so on. But professionally we are different. Only soldiers and firemen can understand what it is like to be expected to possibly lose your life "all in a days work" if that is what it takes to "get the job done". Lots of different types of jobs have their own perks and benefits offered to either attract good employees or to off-set some of the downsides of the working conditions. So what if we have take home cars or a decent pension. If that's what it takes to attract the best and brightest then that's what it takes. People complain about "it's my tax dollars being wasted". Really? That's where it's being wasted? The resources that go to protecting you and your family is part of "government waste"?

In the end, you get what you pay for. Take away our take home cars, overtime, or whatever. Eventually you will weed out all of the officers who are skilled enough to find better jobs somewhere else and all you will have left are the ones who can't leave or can't find any other job. We will see what it is that you complain about then.