Thursday, March 13, 2008

Follow up: Fifty minute Wait Per Dispatch

{COI=CONFLICT OF INTEREST}

In a
previous post I wrote regarding the Fort Wayne City Council and the Fort Wayne Police Department there were certain facts given and assertions made that were trusted as documented but in fact were not completely or properly cited; so therefore, per my own journalistic integrity, I am following up that article now with some better information from several anonymous sources.

  • FWPD only has budgeted one million dollars for overtime. The original cite was 3.7 million.
  • FWPD has considered using sponsorship of the vehicles in the past but doesn't wish to do so yet as a COI.
  • When an Officer works a separate job site they are in no way paid by the City.
  • The City or FWPD does not know the hours worked by an individual Officer off the clock.
  • The FWPD is aware however of the companies that Officers work for.
  • When an Officer uses his police power off the job, on a work site, it opens the Department and the City as the issuing agency, as well as the Work Site, both up to at a minimum a civil liability if abuse of power is alleged, claimed, or pursued.
Please keep in mind that while certain information has now been updated it still does not change some of my initial concerns, which no one bothered to actually address directly, so here is a summary of my issues from that post:
  • If you are paying any amount of regular overtime it is time to add at least one to five new employees rather than paying time and half or double time and overworking your employees.
  • If you aren't paying them enough in the first place it makes the off the job work necessary as a supplement; however the practice of loaning out police officers should be curtailed.
  • Charge the businesses or events for the Officers' time and service not to mention the wear and tear on the City owned vehicle but any work site employment should be done on the clock and as part of the Officers' normal schedule and pay. This step would remove some of the Conflict Of Interest between the Police Duty and Security Detail. This would also give some assurance to the Public Trust and Citizens that our Officers are not overly fatigued while on a normal duty shift.
  • This one case, of Scott Morales (just cited by links above), happened right before last years general election. What makes it even more ironic is that the incident started at a local Fricker's franchise, which is owned by Chris Stewart, a Democrat Party candidate for City Council, who lost his bid for the 4th District race. This one incident alone has given the City a possible three hundred thousand dollar liability alone and there are more cases happening every day.
This post will be updated further as more information comes across my preview. I got the photo from Andrea, thank you!

5 comments:

David C Roach said...

thank you for your support. I am not against the Police- they do jobs we cant, or dont want to do. But we are all responsible, and have citizens arrest powers, and gun rights, to keep the peace and protect our selves, and our neighbors, in the absence of the police- such as natural disasters, or other civil unrest. We are our brothers keepers in this respect.
And we also must keep our childrens faith in the police, as their delegated guardians to keep an eye out for the kids, as well.
But I am against the abuse of police power, and so strict enforcement of laws, so as to restrict our freedoms, and civil liberties.
And uneven enforcement of laws- such as 1992-2005 select enforcement of illegal racketeering, and political corruption-cherrymasters, etc.
example: why is the "Marijuana mastermind"/6 milion dollar BUDman in jail- when he wasnt trafficking to minors, and it was between consenting adults-and the neighbors didnt even know(they finally stopped him on a pretext? traffic stop for speeding? 8 miles over? thats a lame excuse- and wouldnt hold up in court, which would have everything subsequent as inadmissible.
Yet, white collar criminals- such as Elliot spitzer- dont even spend a night, or weekend in jail- he hasnt even been fingerprinted, and boked, yet.
they walk free? you know if you or I were arrested on a friday night for .085, we would be in jail until monday morning- all weekend, late for work( released after 3)if to work at all- cant phone in. then we'd lose our jobs, our licenses, our homes. our insurance would be canceled, and then branded a "dangerous criminal", and so unable to be hired by even wal-mart.(note- 900 childmolesters in FTW http://www.insor.org in allen county-employed by local employees.)
then all the local tax-evading employers hiring illegal guests-illegally. the local banks that gladly accept their illegal moneys, illegally, and gladly assiat them in illegal? international money transfers to their home countries. theres about 100 federal laws being broken there.
All I want to do is work, pay as little taxs a possible, live as cheaply as possible, and be left alone by the cops, and everybody else, unless I invite them in, or need to call 911. I just want to smoke pot, drink alcohol, frolic with my female friends, tend my lawn, grow my garden, and live my life in peace, and quiet, free from police harassment. and wave hello to officer friendly, so he knows I'm a basically harmless guy, same as him, with the same goals- a safe city, where its fun to party, without harassment, or undue criminal intrusions. And where our elected officials, cops, lawyers, bankers, doctors, and such are all held to the same standards of law enforcement, as well. we can start by randomly drug testing all of allen County Bar licensed lawyers- as they are officers of the court, and like Mr. spitzer- are held to an even higher standard to obey the laws. drug use is breaking the laws, which lawyers are sworn by oath to uphold. the rest of us- well, we're not lawyers.
and convening a grand jury to indict the politicians who presided over "the biggest illegal gambling racket in the recent history of allen county(under the helmke, and richard administrations)and their police comand staff, and others who may have know, or not known about it, and who again- harass us citizens, and residents on a daily basis- especlayy the DUI Nazis.
thank you. i'll shut up again for now.

Tim Zank said...

Just out of curiosity, is Lori Squadrito related to former Allen County Sheriff Joe Squadrito?

Robert Enders said...

1. There is no conflict of interest as long as the officer works security outside of his assigned quadrant.
2. It is up to the officer to be rested at the start of his shift. Other than that, it isn't really anybody's business what they do in their free time.
3. There probably should be reasonable limits on what an officer can use his take-home squad car for. Can he take it shopping? Can he bring it along on a date? Can he use it for other jobs? Even if the answer is no (and it should be) it is still hard to enforce those rules.
4. I defend the practice of officers working private security this way: Some officers wish to fight crime 7 days a week. But the city cannot afford to pay for that. So the officers find other sponsers. It is only fair that the officers fight crime at a location designated by their sponser.

Phil Marx said...

According to one of the stories, Lori Squadrito is the former daughter-in-law of Joe Squadrito.

Phil Marx said...

roach,

I often get lost in your commentarries. You say a lot and go in many different directions. And all the many issues seem to mix together. This is not necessarily a bad thing though, as sometimes a lot needs to be said and many different directions need to be explored. It just makes it difficult to reply to.

However, in this case I was able to isolate one short but comprehensive fragment of your commentary and provide an equally short reply.

You said "...a safe city, where its fun to party, without harassment, or undue criminal intrusions. And where our elected officials, cops, lawyers, bankers, doctors, and such are all held to the same standards of law enforcement, as well."

I say "Well said, I agree completly."

Also "Exactly what ARE you smoking?"

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