Cops are masters of idling their cars everywhere.

Put those small-town cops on foot and be done with it. Problem solved. Give them Segways with the saved money.

ZAZ: Are they cutting back on speed traps and such?

basemetal: they could slow down once in a while

Or turn off their cars once in a while. I know, they have gadgets in the car and they can't find the "off" switch. I don't think they need them all. What they really need, given the fuel situation, is a subcompact car and a smartphone they can use to call in backup when a real emergency arises that requires the full 1.21 gigawatts of alternator power.

This! When you go to IHOP for a free breakfast, turn off your farking car.

how about we stop the war on drugs. that should eliminate 70% of crime. we could get by with far smaller police departments. eliminate a standing army and put all that money into social programs. starting with the public option would be a great first step. next we could lean forward and rebuild our infrastructure and put money into education...

Put them on bikes.

Let the pigs sweat off all those donuts.

OldManDownDRoad: ...It's also part of a national trend: when cost-cutting begins, it's always cops and teachers....

Rich people hire their own cops and teachers. Why should they be forced at gunpoint to contribute to those who CAN'T?

Have you ever tried simply turning off the squad car and sitting down with your police force...and hitting them?

Correction subby, you know your police force is farked when they put the price of gas above the citizens they are paid to "protect and serve".

basemetal: Or, if they are like most of the cops I see, they could slow down once in a while instead of flooring it everywhere they go.....and, you know, conserve a little gas.



A little extra gas is not going to put the city in hock. Besides, this looks bad.

Dumb decisions have bad consequences? Who knew?

Cheers

/Don't pay taxes, don't get government services
//Decisions, consequences...
///and slashies

And where did the gas money go?

Police pensions.

Meh. This is just politics as usual. The cops could have plenty of money for gas for their police cars if they would prioritize spending on that instead of getting the coolest new paramilitary equipment every year. And the politicians will buy into the police's scheme for more money and try to raise taxes by saying stuff like "Won't someone think of the children?" instead of cutting the funding to their pet project that will enrich their contractor crony for building crap that isn't really needed by the public at large anyway.

Bunnyhat: Grizzly Bear: ZAZ: Are they cutting back on speed traps and such?

basemetal: they could slow down once in a while

Or turn off their cars once in a while. I know, they have gadgets in the car and they can't find the "off" switch. I don't think they need them all. What they really need, given the fuel situation, is a subcompact car and a smartphone they can use to call in backup when a real emergency arises that requires the full 1.21 gigawatts of alternator power.

This! When you go to IHOP for a free breakfast, turn off your farking car.

An hour of a car idling only burns about 2/10ths of a gallon of gas.

If a cop was to turn his car off every time he get's out, he would also have to turn his radio, computer, and other electronics off every time. If something suddenly called him away, he might not have the few minutes it takes for everything to turn back on and boot up. Plus, why risk having to hop in a car only to have it not start up. For most people that's not a huge deal, for a police officer, it can be the difference between saving someones life and them dying.

So even if the cop spent 8 hours a day with an idling car, that is only a little more then a gallon and a half, or less then 8 dollars.

Please don't bring logic into this. I just want to biatch about cops.

Ok;

1) it's pretty tough to respond to calls in a timely manner without gas.

2) Sometimes grants have to be spent on specific items and cannot be appropriated for something else.

3) What was the amount cut from the police budget this year?

4) I thought no cops was what everyone wanted; I'm saying, all I ever hear in these threads is butt hurt bout the mean old police and how they were hassling the common man.

\ the hypocrisy; it burns

How is the economy to blame? This seems like a problem rooted in years of property tax cuts and mismanagement of funds already provided.

ZAZ: Or turn off their cars once in a while. I know, they have gadgets in the car and they can't find the "off" switch. I don't think they need them all. What they really need, given the fuel situation, is a subcompact car and a smartphone they can use to call in backup when a real emergency arises that requires the full 1.21 gigawatts of alternator power.

I've long thought that a hybrid would be good for police for this reason. With the right firmware, the engine would start whenever the battery became exhausted, the relatively large generator for the engine would charge the battery back up efficiently, then shut down once a certain charge point is reached.

Jack_Knopf: Correction subby, you know your police force is farked when they put the price of gas above the citizens they are paid to "protect and serve".

Okay, then where are they going to get the money for gasoline? The oil companies aren't going to deliver, the gas stations won't fill, if the bills aren't being paid.

Reading the article, they're still trying to protect their community - it's just that, without more gas money, fuel is going to become an extremely limited resource, ergo they'll have to conserve by only responding to the higher priority calls.

/Agree with legalizing drugs to free up resources
//Also agree that a few of the guys sitting in leather chairs needs to be fired
///Firing ONE should more than fix the gasoline budget problem for a year.

Reportedly the police also communicated to town leaders that they "totally owe them $35 for last month's gas bill, dude."

blindy the pirate: How is the economy to blame? This seems like a problem rooted in years of property tax cuts and mismanagement of funds already provided.

Where in the country have property taxes been CUT? I've only seen rates increase over the past few years.

iheartscotch: Ok;

1) it's pretty tough to respond to calls in a timely manner without gas.

2) Sometimes grants have to be spent on specific items and cannot be appropriated for something else.

3) What was the amount cut from the police budget this year?

4) I thought no cops was what everyone wanted; I'm saying, all I ever hear in these threads is butt hurt bout the mean old police and how they were hassling the common man.

\ the hypocrisy; it burns

HY YUO IS SO DUYMB?

Bunnyhat: An hour of a car idling only burns about 2/10ths of a gallon of gas.

If a cop was to turn his car off every time he get's out, he would also have to turn his radio, computer, and other electronics off every time. If something suddenly called him away, he might not have the few minutes it takes for everything to turn back on and boot up. Plus, why risk having to hop in a car only to have it not start up. For most people that's not a huge deal, for a police officer, it can be the difference between saving someones life and them dying.

So even if the cop spent 8 hours a day with an idling car, that is only a little more then a gallon and a half, or less then 8 dollars.

Have one battery for the engine and X batteries for the rest of their crap. Let the engine charge both batteries, but don't let all the gadgets drain the engine battery.

Then you could turn the car off, not have to worry about your car not starting, and as soon as you turned the car back on you could turn your crap back on.

Maybe they should stop running drug raids that cost $30-$40K a pop to get a few ounces of weed and $2K from local dealers, that is the biggest waste of funds.

Jim Panse: Bunnyhat: An hour of a car idling only burns about 2/10ths of a gallon of gas.

Don't be talkin no trash, fool. Maybe on a 125cc motorcycle. An idling car engine uses 1/2 to 1 gallon per hour.

This. Depends on the model, but all the Police Interceptors are powered by V8s that guzzle fuel. I ran a quick google and couldn't find exact figures, but something in the .75-1.0 gallon/hour range is probably about right (The Ford truck V8s which are a little bigger are running .8-1.2 GPH at idle according to some forum posts by owners). At 8 hours a day that's atleast 6 gallons of gas, so about $20-$30 (gas is $3.50/gal here) per patrol car, per day in wasted fuel. How quickly do you think that adds up?

Lets assume this is a small department running just 25 cruisers per shift, and that they idle about 1/2 the shift (4 hours).

25 cars * 4 hours at idle * .75 gals of gas per hour * $3.50 per gallon of gas * 2.5 shifts (fewer cars on third shift) = ~$650/day ($656.25) of wasted gas. Assuming that is an average workload, that means you're wasting about $240,000 ($239,531.25) per year. A quarter million bucks in wasted gas isn't chump change for a department that small. What about a larger city that's running 100-200 patrol cars every day?

pxlboy: iheartscotch: Ok;

1) it's pretty tough to respond to calls in a timely manner without gas.

2) Sometimes grants have to be spent on specific items and cannot be appropriated for something else.

3) What was the amount cut from the police budget this year?

4) I thought no cops was what everyone wanted; I'm saying, all I ever hear in these threads is butt hurt bout the mean old police and how they were hassling the common man.

\ the hypocrisy; it burns

No 'no cops', o obtuse one...But, you think what you want. Weaver nailed in the post right before yours. Many police departments today are engaged in ever-escalating revenue circle jerks that serve no real benefit to anyone but the police.

Revenue circle jerking aside; are you saying cops can fuel their cars with hopes and dreams? There really are departments that are barely scrapping by; I agree that a few suits should be sacrificed to find more money. But, that's a temporary fix; because there's only so many cuts that can be made before the wheels fly off the wagon. The funny thing about funding is, if you don't use all of it; then the city starts thinking they have given you too much funding, they cut your funding and then you're back in the budget crisis.

Most of the departments in my area are running between 10-15 hours in overtime a week per officer because of all the restructuring that's going on and because of the number of officers that either took early retirement or were fired. How much do you suppose that costs?

Weaver95: steamingpile: Maybe they should stop running drug raids that cost $30-$40K a pop to get a few ounces of weed and $2K from local dealers, that is the biggest waste of funds.

yeah, but pointing that sort of thing out during an election year gets you called a 'dirty librul'.

Only by about 5% of the voters, if someone were to do that they would have my vote, along with the GF and her father who is so conservative he makes me look like a socialist, but hes smart enough to realize the drug war is pissing money away.

Sounds like somebody should be a little bit more boot-strappy.

Prius's would make good cop cars.

Weaver95: the problem is that nobody is going to win on an 'anti-drug war' platform. they'll have cops, prosecutors, privately run prisons, the DEA...all gunning for 'em. plus the fact that NOBODY wants to hear the truth - they just shut their ears and yell 'LALALALA!' as loud as they can.

we're going to have to have the entire gotdamn economy collapse before we even think about fixing the problems we've got with how we enforce our laws.

I would put up a chart showing how much is spent on every bust and how much drugs we get off the streets, they get maybe, MAYBE 5-8% of drugs off the streets while spending billions worldwide, there is no way they will ever win this and they all know it but its their huge cash cow so nobody will ever give it up.

How about instead we cut back on your salary, your quality of equipment, your health benefits, your dental benefits, your eyeglass benefits, your retirement benefits, your vacation days, your sick days, your personal days, your pension, your clothing allowance, et al?

Weaver95: lets here it for zero tolerance and authoritarian government!

/sarcasm

Where?

I remember when my buddys house got robbed. It took the cops 4 hours even to just show up to prety much act like they filled out a report for 10 min and left

Wouldn't the city save money by hiring a private contractor to enforce the law? That way everyone could pay police insurance, and when you call 911, they'll check to see if you are up to date on your payments and what level of police enforcement you are entitled to receive.

We could have a number of rates of pay. Say at the lowest level, you'll get a call back from an officer to help resolve whatever troubles you have over the phone.

At higher levels, you'll get up to two uniformed officers to respond in person and a for an extra fee, a detective to investigate any theft, assault, rape, or murder.

At premium levels, the swat team will rescue your cat from the tree.

Weaver95: steamingpile: I would put up a chart showing how much is spent on every bust and how much drugs we get off the streets, they get maybe, MAYBE 5-8% of drugs off the streets while spending billions worldwide, there is no way they will ever win this and they all know it but its their huge cash cow so nobody will ever give it up.

it doesn't matter. I mean I get what you're saying...but it really won't make a difference. I've literally hit people over the head with the facts about the drug war and it make no difference. they see the data, and ignore it.

so I've pretty much given up trying to convince the GOP about the war on drugs. NONE of the drug warriors want to hear facts. they really do believe that if they just keep doing more of what has already failed that eventually it'll work.

Isn't that the very definition of insanity?

/wouldn't know
//not insane
//so they tell me