Placing The Blame

I know precisely what you are going through, I LIVE HERE. I just don't happen to work for LMPD right now. My comment was in response to the assertion of another poster that leaving LMPD is "jumping ship" - which is silly - if you are unhappy, LEAVE. Officers do it all over the United States, and that is often what it takes to truly shake up an agency and get change. Staying - and moaning and whining - doesn't result in change - a mass exodus of current officers to other policing jobs, not of retirees, who the agency now expects to leave no matter what, might. There is absolutely nothing wrong with retiring OR resigning - although the latter is considered a mortal sin at LMPD. (I guarantee it isn't considered such at other policing agencies.)

In other words, if things are so bad at LMPD (and to be honest, I agree, they are) - the current method of dealing with it is not getting the problem before the citizens. If you want the citizens (and the council) to understand the problem, you have to SHOW THEM. Use this site to give very specific information about staffing, on a daily basis, for example, you guys know precisely, for example, how many officers are working on specific shifts. Get the information before the public every single day. I guarantee that most members of the public have zero idea about staffing levels and would be shocked to learn how few officers are actually working the street at any given time. This site, for example, could post this information - or the FOP could. Even if you wanted to do it "right" - have some retired officer make an open records request fo the information for every day, and POST IT.

I think that a lot of officers leaving - BEFORE RETIREMENT - might be just what the city needs to get their attention. (And remember, if you go to another agency with the same plan, you can still retire at 20 and go to yet another agency.)

I'm always confused when I read these postings - such as the statement "when I retire - 4 years from now - I am going to work for a university ...." And you know this, how? How do you know that the university will even hire you then? Do you just assume they'll have an opening? (Remember, you aren't the only LMPD officer with that plan, half the LMPD guys I know contemplating retirement have that exact same plan. The other half don't have kids in college.) A couple of guys I know fully expected to go to work for the sheriff's department, only to learn that "sorry, we're full up." Many agencies specifically don't want retirees anyway, or at least, don't want all their new hires to be retirees, since retirees expect to make top pay and aren't considered as energetic as the youngsters. J-town has hired a couple of new recruits, I'm told, of late,and sent them to the academy, and obviously, it's not for a lack of retirees or other laterals wanting to go there.

Don't quit your current job until you are absolutely sure that you have a new job - and remember, most sheriff's offices are "work at will" - there is no job protection there at all. (Unless the sheriff's office is merit system, and that's only Jefferson and Oldham, around here, they don't even get the protection of the Police Bill of Rights - courts have stated that it doesn't apply to them.)