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When Defending Cops Becomes Impossible


Cinaruco

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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — When police arrived at his house to investigate a hit-and-run, Joseph Ruddy, one of the nation’s most prolific federal narcotics prosecutors, looked so drunk he could barely stand up straight, leaning on the tailgate of his pickup to keep his balance.

But he apparently was under control enough to be waiting with his U.S. Justice Department business card in hand.

“What are you trying to hand me?” an officer asked. “You realize when they pull my body-worn camera footage and they see this, this is going to go really bad.”

https://apnews.com/article/drugs-alcohol-cocaine-smuggling-justice-maritime-bb69c4cb97561e7c6f9c0352681a382a?taid=64fae8f20fbb3c0001cb4294&utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter

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On 9/2/2023 at 4:12 AM, Tim Sielbeck said:

 

 

On 9/2/2023 at 9:07 AM, rmgill said:

Paid or volunteer? 

 

On 9/2/2023 at 9:24 AM, Murph said:

From looking into it, many of the officers were fired, suspended, or otherwise gotten rid of by their departments, but probably not given a "bad F5".  The F5 is the document when you retire, resign, are fired that the department sends to TCOLE which they use to update the status of officers.  In order to get a "bad" F5 your department has to provide documentation and even then the officer can challenge it in front of a hearing judge.  All too many judges overturn a "bad" F5 for whatever reason, with it mostly being poor documentation.   I personally did a background on a guy who was fired for cause (sexual crap), given a bad F5 (dishonorable discharge), and when he sued the agency, the city decided rather than fight it (their documentation was good but not perfect, and you have to be perfect), they gave him an updated "honorable" discharge.  We did not hire this guy based on what I found.  

So I suspect that the officers in Coffee City, Texas are mostly unpaid part timers who do it so they can keep their license active, and hope to get back on with a real department.  If you have a good background investigator you can prevent that.  But all too many are lazy who just make phone calls rather than driving and looking into a file.  My driving radius was 4 1/2 hours away max.  So I kept a lot of bad apples from getting hired.  

My F5 reads honorably retired.  It is not hard to get that, just do your job, and don't violate the law.  How hard can it be?

 

 

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On 9/12/2023 at 3:06 PM, Tim Sielbeck said:

 

 

 

 

Love the part in the 20 minute long one, where this @sshole is working side jobs in HOUSTON!!! 200 miles away.  No, that does not smell like day old limburger and rancid sweat socks!

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1 hour ago, Murph said:

Love the part in the 20 minute long one, where this @sshole is working side jobs in HOUSTON!!! 200 miles away.  No, that does not smell like day old limburger and rancid sweat socks!

IIRC in their first interview of the former chief he said they hired many for the sole purpose of them being able to work side jobs.

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I know a lot of cops who do that, Constables offices are notorious for hiring guys who do an 8 hour shift a month, and then rake in the big bucks on side jobs.  At one point they changed the law that you had to work a minimum of 32 hours a week to be able to work side jobs, but someone got to the congress critters in Austin and changed the law again.  

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Heck, I've thought about trying to find a reserve/part time officer position somewhere, for the sole purpose of getting the nation-wide LEO reciprocity for concealed carry.

I don't have a problem with someone being a part time officer in the same way that I don't have a problem with someone serving in the USAR or the ARNG. But the individual and the agency must maintain the same standards, which is admittedly tough and I doubt that they do.

If we didn't have the two-tier system (either for working security gigs OR for concealed carry), then this would be less of an issue. In general, most folks should be armed as a matter of course, and a competent human should be able to conduct traffic control and security work- neither should take a sworn LEO. We simultaneously have far too many and far too few of them.

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3 hours ago, rmgill said:

There are plenty of unpaid officers doing work for departments around the country in very lose part time fashion. 

I'm sure the details vary across states and jurisdiction. I know that my brother worked part time for 2-3 different municipalities until he got on to the Sheriff's Department in a permanent position.

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It may be amusing to see how the Feebies fumble this one. Demographic minefield. 

On the positive side, I stumbled across a pic of the state capitol building in Red Stick. Neato art deco architecture (somewhat marred by security cameras). 

 

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