Most the things you listed I'm fine with. I've listed my main concern a million times. That is the over use of swat teams and no knock warrants for non violent crimes.

 

I could list 100 cases of how it's been misused in seconds and I no it won't sway you. Still doesn't change the fact it's a major concern for millions of Americans who are pro police.

 

That has nothing to do with equipment.

 

And judges sign those no knock warrants.

Hundreds of cases of misuse, or alleged mis use? And I've been told the number of times no knock raids have been used have gone up tremendously, so hundreds would be a small fraction of the total use right? How many have gone wrong on average?

 

If your comfortable with it that's you. In the constitution we aren't suppose to have military occupying domestic soil . Local forces using military vehicles on U.S. citizens makes me uncomfortable because it doesn't seem to be in the spirit of the law. If police forces had them solely to fight terrorism on a local level I could be swayed but using against citizens is not something I'm comfortable with.

 

But like I said my main concern is use of no knock warrants and swat for non violent offenses which continues to increase each year. I could pull up multiple examples of it being used for lack of paying child support. Not comfortable at all.

 

That's just silly. An armored vehicle = a military occupying domestic soil? Cmon man...

I'm not as focused on the equipment as the approach to community policing. My opinion is that our local law enforcement, many of whom we know personally, have gotten away from the community part of the police work.

 

To try to be specific... I see no reason for 2 - 3 officers, be they city, county or sheriff departments, to be at a high school basketball game in black, rip-stop fatigues. Sends the wrong message IMO. I see no reason for a small city to have invested well over $150k in a "tactical response vehicle" that includes upwards of $15k in graphics on the side promoting policing. I could understand this if maybe the County High School were within the city limits, but it's not. I also see no reason that small departments are actively pursuing reinforced incident "bunkers" for themselves and their families in the event of an incident (another story behind this one).

 

I'm not concerned with flak vests, I'm not sure about weaponry, but I do know if as a public safety official you are not , or do not appear approachable, you are less effective in that role. There is a lack of relationship amongst police and the community with which they serve, not all, but overall.

 

I would think that some of that money could be better spent on cameras and recording devices in interrogation rooms, so at least there is some evidence that questionning of suspects was done legally. Maybe body cameras for traffic stops are a good idea.

 

It really is not so much about equipment as attitude, and that is hard to quantify, but easy to recognize.

 

For the record: No knock warrants in small towns I do not believe are a good idea based on the intel gathering process in many of these cases.

 

BDU uniforms are cheaper, easier to replace, easier to clean, more comfortable etc.

 

Some departments choose black. Some wear brown, some blue. Arguing over the color of a police officers uniform is silly.

 

Btw, I've seen ambulance workers in black BDUs.

 

I can see this will continue to be a futile discussion, but to your points:

 

I'm not concerned about the actual number of officers at a game, it's the uniform. Yes, I realize fully what BDU's are, I wore them for over 12 years serving my country, I'm not an idiot, but you seem to take me for one. I don't care about comfort for a police officer, I care about perception. I want them in a standard uniform, not BDU's, unless they are on a specific duty that calls for that. Honestly don't know what that would be unless they were doing heavy field work.

 

Yes, $150k for a vehicle for a department that is very small, much smaller than even say...Somerset. It wasn't free, it was misguided purchasing.

 

Yes, $15k for the sticker package. And yes, I think that volunteer fire departments that spend $800k (or some other insane amount) for a multi-stage ladder truck in a town with no buildings over 2 stories fits this....and yes, I complain about it.

 

I never said "Doomsday Bunkers", I said "incident bunkers". I don't have a link because I was the person who was selling the sea land containers to the local agency. When I inquired about usage, so I could better understand what to look for, that's when I was told they would build these negative air, secure areas for their families to stay in during an incident...why you ask: "you can't expect us to do our job if we are worried about our families, so we want our families safe in the incident shelter". Is that enough of a direct quote for you ?

 

Your last paragraph is just stupid...the reference to No Knock Warrants would require some common sense and not an emergent situation like you described.

 

We obviously will not see eye to eye on this issue and could continue this nonsensical banter until the end of time, but that would be wasting my time. Without any ability to see the other side of this argument, it will continue to be difficult for you to ever come to any different conclusion. I determined this after you BDU statement. Thank you for your service. I stand by mine and my right to express my opinion because of it.

 

Your argument about BDUs is just silly. There nothing else to say about it.

 

It is telling that you said you don't care about their comfort though. That's interesting.

 

As for your bunker comment...I've heard a lot of people say a lot of things I don't believe. I'll leave it at that.