Above, we get to see the newest edition to the Brunswick Police Department in beautiful Glynn County: unarmed old men volunteering their time on patrol, looking for crime.
No doubt inspired by the ground-breaking 1987 cinematic success that forever changed the political landscape and altered the consciousness of a generation, Police Academy 4: Citizens On Patrol, the Brunswick P.D. under Chief Edna H. Johnson feels that now is the time for this program to return after a two year hiatus, as The Brunswick News reports. As “auxiliary police officers,” the totality of their job is to patrol city neighborhoods in a COP vehicle, which appears to look at first glance like a normal police cruiser but with a yellow light bar on top. But before these volunteers can hit the mean streets of Brunswick, an actual BPD officer is assigned to their training course and, thus, is taken off the road from normal duties. Unfortunately, the problems with this kind of program only begin there.
Programs like these merely serve to open the municipality to tremendous litigation down the road. What, for instance, if some serious criminal sees Auxiliary Officer Bob round the corner as he is fleeing a crime and he decides to take them out, not realizing that they are “volunteers”?
What if Auxiliary Officer Bob sees a crime in progress and gets over zealous in stopping crime from behind the wheel of his faux police vehicle and, in the process, hurts someone?
The goal of these volunteers is laudable and the desire of the BPD to have more eyes on the road is commendable, but the only real solution is to have an increase in POST Certified law enforcement officers on the road…not to have feel-good programs that take up more resources that could be used in better places.
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Is crime so bad in Brunswick that we need an auxiliary police force of old men to help clamp down?
Sheesh, if you have enough spare time on your hands to be a “volunteer cop”, why not just be a “paid cop”? The departments in Norcross and other parts of south Gwinnett can’t fill their vacant jobs… and Atlanta PD is hurting so badly, the last time I drove to south Georgia I saw billboard ads for lateral transfer opportunities.
It sounds like we have a severe shortage of cops in high-crime neighborhoods where they’re actually needed, and a surplus of people wanting to play cop in low-crime neighborhoods where they’re not really needed.
http://videodetective.com/photos/020/000864_15.jpg
Commandant Lassard: I want to welcome all of you to the academy. You are part of a new and exciting program, that I call, I call . . .
Zed: Cop.
Commandant Lassard: Cop!
Zed: Citizensonpatrol.
Commandant Lassard: Citizensonpatrol.
Zed: Citizens On Patrol!
Commandant Lassard: Citizens On Patrol!
Erick: Brunswick (and Glynn County) actually do have a surprisingly high crime rate according to the local judges. Add to that the fact that supposedly the City of Brunswick only has 3 officers on patrol at night.
Why cant they just be satisfied being a greeter at Wal-mart
I have a couple of close friends that live in Brunswick. From what I’ve been told (and seen), crime within the city limits is very real and very dangerous.
This program is an example of the ridiculousness of some “community policing” programs.
In most cases, such programs transform police officers into glorified social workers in order to “build trust” with the community. The problem is that the police officer’s role is to suppress crime, not play Mr. Feel Good.
Getting back to Brunswick, this program is not a good idea. Putting old men in quasi patrol cars wearing quasi police uniforms? C’mon! The best way to get citizens involved is through programs such as a “Citizen’s Police Academy” in which officers teach citizens what to do after a crime, how to be more observant, etc. etc.
A better response for the city would be to 1) recruit a few more officers (“a few more” being the key phrase) 2) implement the Compstat process so that the police will be able to pinpoint “hot spots” and, in turn, be able to suppress city crime with their limited resources.
…or send you, Mr. Bauer, in there for about fifteen minutes…
You are correct, Demonbeck.
Send me to Brunswick and the town’s criminals will be placed on the endangered species list next to the Chinese (they were placed there at the end of Season 6…)
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BILLINGS, Montana: Former Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said Wednesday Barack Obama’s bid for the White House is not being derailed because he is black, but because his former pastor does not want him to show the country’s race relations have progressed.
Obama, a Democrat, has struggled in recent weeks to distance himself from incendiary comments made by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
“His (Obama’s) campaign is not being derailed by his race, it’s being derailed by a person who doesn’t want him to prove that we have made great advances in this country,” Huckabee told reporters.
Wright has claimed AIDS was created by the U.S. government to kill “people of color” and that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were spurred by the United State’s “terrorism” against minorities at home and abroad.
“Jeremiah Wright needs for Obama to lose so he can justify his anger, his hostile bitterness against the United States of America,” Huckabee said.
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