For YEARS ON TKC . . . The topic of KCPD take-home cars have been a point of contention in the comments.
TODAY KCPD CHIEF FORTÉ ENDORSES KCPD TAKE HOME CARS IN AN EPIC BLOG POST!!!
Take a look:
Take-home police vehicles benefit communities, public safety
Here's the money quote . . .
"Take-home vehicle use is carefully monitored so it is not abused. These vehicles and those who use them are audited every year to determine whether each vehicle’s use is justified. You can read those audits here. You also can see our policy governing take-home vehicle use here. Keep in mind that audits of take-home vehicles do not examine feelings of safety, improved relationships or other benefits of having police vehicles that are readily available to respond to critical incidents.
"As long as police take-home vehicles continue to prevent crime and allow for quick response times, you will continue to see them on the streets of Kansas City."
Don't expect debate to end on the topic but KCPD Chief Forté does an excellent job of addressing the situation and explaining his position.
The chief makes several valid points regarding take home cars. The only one he stays away from are that all commanders and several civilians have take home cars that are nothing more than perks. They use the excuse of being "on-call", however the majority of commanders have never been called in, nor would they answer their Blackberry if they thought they were being called in. The only people who need take home cars are those who get called out from home to respond to crime scenes. If they only have to respond to a police facility, they can drive their own car like everyone else. I have been involved in the BS "justify your take home car" audits before and that is all they are, BS. This is another example that shows Forte is no different than his predecessors. Commander perks are not up for discussion.
ReplyDeleteyou're nobody in KC until you can produce a phony audit.
ReplyDeleteHey chief how about giving us patrol officers who live in the Northland take home cars since we have very few officers up here on all watches and actually get our responding serviced from liberty and not even my own department. It would help my neighborhood. I prefer to keep it safe an not have to try and dig out of a hole down the road.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever seen a take-home car in all of the years in KC.
ReplyDeleteHow many officers have take-home cars?
Not many in my part of the city.
Time after time when people complain about take home cars it is because they see people on the PD driving around town with their families inside, instead of using their personal vehicles. 95% of the time, those are commanders, not on-call detectives, traffic officers, or tactical officers.
ReplyDeleteCommanders (i.e. captains, majors, deputy chiefs, etc.) drive around the city all of the time in take home cars packed with their families. Many of them are not on-call or even going to and from work. It is a large waste of money.
Forte mentioning police take home vehicles preventing crime is pretty ridiculous. Many of the PD officers live north of the river in safe neighborhoods anyways. I doubt take home cars make a difference. It's not like they're parked in driveways near Armour and Troost or off of Independence Avenue and are deterring crime.
Take it from several department members who read and follow this blog, take home cars are needed for some (Units called out from home to Op 100s or crime scenes: Tactical and Traffic Officers and On-Call Detectives) and are not needed for commanders.
The press release written by a couple of ambitious officers in the communications department does not explain a lot about the program. It actually reads more like a campaign speech. The complaints about abuses aren't intended to attack police, they just want to make sure that department is making the best use of the city's resources. This answer to those criticisms seems like it relies on a great deal of misdirection and deference to authority.
ReplyDeleteRaise your hand if you're brave enough to be a police officer (with a family) to live in a "hot spot" and park a marked take-home car in front of your home.
ReplyDeleteThere are no KCPD commanders who reside in a hot spot are there?
Major Harvey
DeleteHarvey embodies all that is wrong with the kcpd.
Delete8:00 I believe you are correct regarding your last question.
ReplyDeleteCop car in Bonner Springs for Cub Scout Camp for three days? Seriously? Forte lives in an area almost in Lee's Summit with about 50 cops in the neighborhood all with take home cars. Zero crime there. It must work. LOL
ReplyDeleteOf course what people don't realize is that the commanders are so out of touch with today's police work and how computer systems, report writing, and technology has progressed that it would be unfortunate to see how they would fail as normal patrol officers these days. It's easy to criticize from above and discipline officers for things that you have no idea how to do.
ReplyDeleteI would even wonder whether or not some of the commander who are off duty and driving in their take home car would even know what to do if they witnessed something or rolled up on a crime in progress or accident.
All they do is call for a district car to handle it. Hell the police dept has a huge traffic into who when they roll up on a traffic accident calls dispatch to have an already over worked district office come take the report.. Never ever seen a dept so big that has such a big traffic unit that doe NOT handle accidents. Fucking lazy cops
Delete@8:49
ReplyDeleteOh I am sure they can get on radio and scream real loud for help.
Then pose for the cameras
I saw a take home car with a child seat installed in it. Actual pd vehicle with pd plates. How do you explain that in a reasonable way? It was parked in a driveway in a residential area.
ReplyDeleteLook at a commanders car in center that has all kinds of kids seats, golf stuff and all kinds of other stuff In it. But guess what??? Capt and above are untouchable. The pd is as corrupt as it was back in the early days.
DeleteCommander car.
DeleteIs it policy the vehicles are not to leave the city? I have seen cars outside city limits parked. At things like family bbq type events. How does command staff, assuming this was, justify that?
ReplyDeleteNo its not. They can leave the city limits up to 50miles.
DeleteGive the one's who need to respond a cop light to stick on top of their car and plug into the cigarette lighter and pay them mileage.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, we are searching for cars everyday in patrol. The chief can defend anything he wants, but he doesn't even have the backing of his own department members. The deputy chiefs got all new Tauruses and those vehicles took priority over patrol vehicles. He can kiss ass to the media and put on the big dog and pony show, but it is the same old song and dance. He hasn't even come out to visit patrol since he has been chief. When he was a deputy chief he made time to visit with patrol officers. It is often times forgotten that patrol is the department in the eyes of the public.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like there should be some streamlined way to complain about so many abuses that take place with these cars.
ReplyDeleteTO, exactly. The stations don't even have enough cars for the officers on patrol in some cases. Not to mention several of the cars they do have are over 175 or 200k miles. Time after time officers have to disregard going after a robbery or shooting suspect simply because their cars aren't good enough to keep up with the suspects.
ReplyDeleteIf the cars make it there at all.
Delete@9:01 if they are on call (i.e. tactical unit or murder squad) then they may take it out of the city (within reason) because they may need to immediately respond some where in the city on short notice. @8:57 it could be a detective or even a commander who who has to drop their child off at day care enroute to work in the morning. Not saying thats why it's really there but that would be their reason I'm sure if asked during an audit.
ReplyDeleteThe cops need to be on the radio at all times that they are in their take home car. When crimes take place 80% of cops are not tuned in to a radio to know a crime took place.
ReplyDeleteIf they are taking a car home they ought to be available to respond to all types of calls.
Few criminals are caught because officers on the tac team and other teams are not solving the crimes. They are out of radio contact and going on tac calls and operation 100 s occasionally.
Put all officers available for all calls and solve the burglary and murder problems.
No more police blackouts!!!!
Car use will be abused and has been for years.
ReplyDeleteIt's the patrolofficer who drives the shit but who is the one who shift after shift is the one doing the real work.
For once the ones who just use a free car to drive to work and back home should use the hand me down shit.
Plus I am sorry any officer who has a car 24 hrs a day to respond from home should at no time be using the car to haul any family members any where. It's plain the units are being used as personal taxi cabs and for personal use instead of city use only. If you have to be at out of the city on personal business then you need to go 10-7 and park the unit.
The police dept does not give a SHIT ABOUT PATROL OFFICERS. The property who are the back bone of the pd get the worst treatment. The worst cars and the fuck you button all the time. You got capt who are running inner city stations and have never been anything more then an administrative cop their entire career and now are micro managers and think they are the world's greatest cop. Then are rude to their officers and the public.. You know who you are.......
ReplyDeleteHonestly? The chief said all that shit with a straight face? KC is just fucking hopeless.
ReplyDeleteShit it's a wonder anyone will even work for KCPD anymore.
ReplyDeleteCarefully monitored. I call bullshit. Like the captain who put 50000 miles on his take home car in one year driving back and forth to st joe and using it for his construction side job. Like the detective who has a hitch on his department SUV and tows his sound equipment trailer to his side job as a a DJ. Like the guy who has a station desk job 30-40 minutes from his house yet goes home for lunch every day. Like the cop who goes to hockey games at the independence event center and parks in a handicap spot with a handicap placard on the mirror of his police car. And how many cops have wrecked or gotten dui's in a take home car. How about the high ranking black commander who has his take home car adorned with Obama paraphernalia in violation of policy and state statute. The abuses are widespread and are common knowledge. But forte and his staff, the worst abusers of all, are monitoring it. What a load of crap.
ReplyDeleteWhat a bunch of crap. Those all perks plan and simple.
ReplyDeleteHe can say that and keep a straight face?
ReplyDeleteWhat are the cops going to do that I see at the mall with their family?
Take the whole family to a shooting?
What the "Chief" is saying is that "take home cars" are part of HIS pOlice force and if you don't like it, well fuck you then! I'm black, I'm proud and I'm loud...
ReplyDeleteI have a take home car and when I am on call I have two options. Drive two cars to visit family in a nearby suburb well within the 50 miles alloted, or take my family in that car. They understand that if I'm called out, they will be abandoned either with family, or somewhere along the way so that family can come get them. It's actually a pain in the ass at times to coordinate it all. Bottom line I have to have that car to go to work should I get called in, so it's something I have to plan for. If the public doesn't approve of my wife being in the car with me, they can go fuck themselves and stand in the front of the line when the shots are coming down range. I go out of my way to drive seperate because the police car is a target, and I don't want my family inside of a target. If I have to act on a robbery or any other life threatening event, I don't want to have to worry about my families safety as well. I need to be able to handle the situation without worrying what my family will do if I fail. On a side note, no commander outside of TRT, Violent Crimes Commanders, Patrol Division Commanders, or Bureau Commanders need a take home car. It's a massive waste of money, let alone giving every officer a take home car. Maybe 10 officers out of the 1400 live in actual hot spots, the rest live up by me.
ReplyDeleteJust another BS Story out of KCPD.
ReplyDelete'm glad they got screwed on their raises.
I find it very interesting that the people posting sound like KCPD cops who do nothing but complain. If you hate it so much, leave. Buck up and be a man about it and stop hiding behind the anonymous name.
ReplyDeleteOfficers crack me up!
I think most of these posters are pissed off fireman who know a little about the PD. wouldnt be the first time.
DeleteKCPD Chief Forté is full of shit. Never trusted anything to do with KCPD.
ReplyDelete