From NPR: Rochester Police Department command staff announces Retirement, says Mayor
From NPR:
“The entire Rochester Police Department command staff has announced their retirement,” said the city’s mayor. “That includes the police chief.”
The news comes as protests continue over Daniel Prude, who died by asphyxiation after police restrained him. https://t.co/JRoO6HVdhc
— NPR (@NPR) September 8, 2020
(Featured image is “Airline Tele-Dial Radio” by The Rocketeer and is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 )
Oh well, take care, be a stranger. They are doing what to many cops do, escalating by abandoning their duty in the middle of an investigation into police abuse. Notable, from Balko i believe, is that the current chief took over a couple years ago in the middle of a investigation into another police killing. Big protests are typically the result of years of problems with cops, not just the big incident that got all the press.
I hope the protesters in Rochester have the tactical and strategic sense to be completely peaceful and orderly. Show the cops that their self decapitation does not make things worse. The mayor needs to quickly hire someone new and use this an inflection point to change their police culture.Report
At first I thought it was the department that resigned. “Holy cow”, I thought.
Then I saw that it was just the command staff.
Well, this is an opportunity to start with a vaguely clean slate. Look to see who gets hired as the new chief. (Is it going to be Derek Chauvin? It’s going to be Derek Chauvin, ain’t it?)Report
Looks like the Mayor wasn’t lying:
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Unfortunately he is going with the whiny, they are insulting me so i’m retiring instead, “we failed so i will take the hit and resign”Report
Do we want more cops in leadership to resign? If so, we shouldn’t resignation-shame.
Great! He’s gone. Get him a gold watch!Report
Some places yeah the leadership needs to go. Depends on the city and the problems.Report
This guy is pretty young. He’s just abandoning his post because the heat got turned up.Report
I love this. I wish I could do something like that when my work gets criticized. “I can’t believe you people dare disrespect all my hard, but otherwise piss-poor, work! I’m so insulted I quit (before you fire me for being incompetent)!”Report
Related:
A new program in Denver that sends a paramedic+a mental health expert to 911 calls instead of police launched amid calls for alternatives to policing. So far, the van has taken more than 350 calls without once having to call in police backup
https://twitter.com/EliseSchmelzer/status/1303354576750346241Report
That’s amazing, it’s almost as if medical pros have specialized training for dealing with mental health issues, so they don’t have to resort to violence.Report
At this point, I’m honestly at a loss as to why any city doesn’t automatically dispatch an EMT to any call that sounds even remotely health related.Report
I suppose if you were to look at the crime stats for my neighborhood (Historic Core) they would show some crazy level of crime reports.
Except like 99% of them are the de minimis stuff we’ve talked about- belligerent drunk, shoplifting, disorderly conduct, public urination, etc. Sometimes there are assaults, but always between two of the dysfunctional people.
Which is to say, almost all of the offenders are addicts, mentally ill or some other person who isn’t an actual criminal but in need of treatment.
But instead of treatment, which is “too expensive” they just cycle through an endless loop of arrest, incarceration, maybe some light treatment, discharge, then re-arrest.
The money for this never seems to be an issue.Report
“I’m honestly at a loss as to why any city doesn’t automatically dispatch an EMT to any call that sounds even remotely health related.”
EMTs, as private citizens working for private companies, don’t have the legal authority to detain someone against their will. The best they can do with someone going bonkers is to hope that he passes out from exhaustion. If some guy is screaming at people sitting outside the cafe and eating leaves off the potted plants, their maximum permitted response is to politely ask that he not do that.Report
So if a cop responds, they can direct the EMTs to take action, correct?Report
An honest question; what would an EMT do?Report
Depends on the situation, doesn’t it. Thing is, an EMT has training and tools at their disposal that does not include a gun. They are better positioned to triage a mental health issue or a physiological issue that impacts mental health (e.g. person in diabetic crisis, or suffering a seizure).
What they can not do is just get impatient or ignorantly misread the situation and shoot the person, or cover them with a hood then slam them to the ground and sit on them until the EMTs arrive, or the person ‘stops resisting’.Report
The whole 9-1-1 system seems screwy.
I called them recently from my cell phone to report something I witnessed. The person I spoke with had no familiarity with my town. I was blocks from the police station and they could not route the cops to the right location. I should have just called the police directly (I have their number programmed into my phone because I sometimes need to call in cars for overnight parking, another boondoggle).
I’m tempted to say we need different numbers for different situations but that puts pressure on citizens dealing with whatever they’re dealing with to remember what number to call. So I’d definitely say we need to update our 9-1-1 systems to make better decisions about who to dispatch in what situation. Oh, and to know where the F they are sending people.Report
Mobile 9-1-1 has always been screwy. It’s a hard technical problem and there are legal complications in some places.Report
I know this is a late comment, but is this considered a good thing or a bad thing? Did we get rid of some ineffective scoundrels? Or are we losing some of Rochester’s finest?Report