Former Metro Corrections employees sue again

Not so fast their lil cry baby. 20 plus years on and still riding the beat. Never asked nor would ask a buddy to hook me up. Not everyone is anti department or administration or whatever you want to call it like you or the other whiners on this site. Worked for different administrations in my career and this one has done nothing to me that I did not ask for. This Chief and certainly not my Major has never told me to not do police work. Policies are always coming out and most because some goof ball did something to cause one to come out. See your comment as a way to say you are being picked on. Had a Lt in the military way back before you were probably born in the military tell me if I had such a big problem with how things were done, get promoted and change the way they are done. See how that works for ya!!!!!!

Some more points I'd like to make, in addition to my rant already posted -

I actually agree with the de-policing movement that is/should be ongoing. Here's why, before the squirrelly little folks jump my arse:

First and foremost, the justice system is a joke. We all know it, and we deserve better. "We" includes the officers who make the arrests and the community that has to live with these criminals. Example after example after example can be found in both District and Circuit courts that will show exactly how badly managed our "justice" system has become. Those of you who who are reading this, and actually do the job, already know it. Those of you who don't do it, well - a more recent personal example: a guy who was on probation for burglary (5 years on the shelf) decided to run from me after I decided to arrest him for a myraid of offenses. He received eight additional charges once caught. Judge Armstrong ROR'd him (no bond, just let him out, for those not familiar with the term) just hours after he was arrested. No bond set, nothing. Guy had just been sentenced two weeks prior and was on supervised probation. So, I talk to his probation officer on the following Monday (happened over the weekend). She didn't seem all too fired up to revoke him for the minor offenses of fleeing and escape. Who knew? Matter of fact, he had arraignment later in the week, and again - no bond set, not ordered back into custody, nothing. Not even a detainer slapped on him. We go back to court next month, and I'm trying hard to get him slapped with actual jail time, and not some CD bull. Not holding my breath.

Mine is far from the only example. Any officer who has been around for longer than 3 months will have the same story, only they usually don't know how long the person they arrested was in jail. Being that I work there, it's fairly easy to look up the people I arrest.

Point is, if the judges, juries, and prosecutors don't care about the crime being committed, why should any of you out there care? They routinely release people back out to commit more crimes, then don't bother revoking the current time on the shelf that these habitual offenders already have. They plead down cases in a ridiculous fashion, and yet your bosses don't stand up to the court system. Instead, they demand more and more stats, and apparently, fudge reports and arrests to make their divisions look better. CYA policing at it's finest. CALEA would be proud....yes, I'm well aware of the abortionsknown as CALEA and Compstat, and how they are abused and completely unnecessary (like CALEA).

What's worse is, the community couldn't care less about you. Ask Mattingly, whom I've only met one time, about how much support he got. He got the shaft is what he got. Betrayed by the agency he dedicated his professional life to, betrayed by the court system that he trusted to do the right thing, and finally only saved by twelve jurors who were apparently smarter than lawyers with 7 years of college, in that they could read a statute and apply it correctly to his case.

We have had widespread community support on only TWO occasions in my career thus far (which has currently lasted me longer than halfway to my pension):

One was 9/11, the other was the tragic death of Ofc. Grignon.

Both times, a tragedy occured, and the community stepped up to support us....but where are they every other day? Where are they when officers are accused of being racists simply because they have to defend their lives from a piece of vermin who tried to kill them? Where are they when the city refuses to honor the very contract they agreed to abide? Where are they when officers make dumb arse mistakes like each and every one of them, but we are "held to a higher standard", and get splashed all over the news, potentially facing unemployment?

They're against us, that's where. They don't care about right or wrong, they just love sticking it to anyone wearing a badge and uniform. When my coworkers end up on the news, they don't think "Hey, that's one guy out of over 400 - that's .0025 percent of officers who are dirty". No, they think "Hmph. Jail guards are pieces of crap who screw around with inmates, and bring in dope to them."

Same for you guys - a cop drives drunk in his POV, suddenly all 1100+ of you all are drunks. An officer makes a split second decision in a life-or-death situation, and he's a racist pig because he didn't have to shoot that nice boy who was just trying to become a vet. Or, you could've shot those tires out because flat tires automatically render any vehicle inoperable and the guy trying to get his truck free of what is was stuck on was just scared and was trying to get home to momma.

Told you I've been around a while.

So, why do you all do it? The community doesn't want proactive police, the bosses only want stats (and we all know they don't want the WRONG kind of stats), and the court system couldn't give a rat's rear end about you. Why be proactive? Why do anything but take runs?

Don't give me the crap about "it's my job". Whatever. Tell that to someone who doesn't know what really goes on around this city. It ain't me. Remember, the community should get the police department they deserve. Well, how good of one does Louisville really deserve? To quote a friend, and one with a bit o'rank over there, they "took two good departments, and made one really crappy one".

Anyway, on with the topic -

I do get a bit defensive when LMPD guys start hammering on my agency. I've already said why, but it bears repeating. First off, you guys have enough of your own issues to deal with, before criticizing mine. We all know those problems aren't limited to command staff, either. Secondly, I'd ask you guys to make the complaints to people who can actually do something about them. Do you really think we agree with the decisions made by our command? Like we WANTED to do away with the ID lab, or start putting property in the bag ON the grill?

Those decisions came from the admin, not line staff. Oddly enough, no one bothers to consult the people who actually do the jobs, but that's not an oddity unique to the jail.

Likewise, we don't control staffing levels. Even the shift commanders, who are captains, are very limited in what overtime they can use. Those decisions are made by the major, deputy director (operations) and director, not us. Some of you guys should already know that a number of us are OT hogs. We had one guy (an officer, at that) retire with a high three in the six figure range. If they allow us to work it, it WILL be filled. Unfortunately, our budget is about a third of what yours is, with personnel being down the list of important things to worry about.

The booking area was mentioned as a problem. We are ordered to NOT run two at a time - I've heard the directive issued myself. The property issue on the grill adds to the time. Being short a BA officer increases the time it takes to do a BA, possibly making oyu go over your two hour limit.

All valid complaints, but not anything that complaining about line staff will do to fix it. Send your complaints directly over to the admin. Hell, if you need names for the emails, let me know - I'll tell you who to complain to, depending on the issue.

In any case, both our agencies have issues. I take great care in ensuring that when I have something to say about YOUR agency, it's about the person responsible for the decision. If I have a problem with an individual officer, I'll name them, as well. Perhaps you guys could do the same, instead of generalizing about the problem. I'll be the first to admit that our hiring process is a bit...lax. It's not my fault, and there have been a lot of people hired who shouldn't have come in to the jail by any other means than the grill door. Again, not a unique issue limited to my agency, is it?

Let's focus our complaints on the people creating the problems - in both our cases, one of them will be gone shortly. Perhaps that will herald a new beginning for both our agencies. A man can dream, can't he?