The written word is more powerful.
If you would like to lodge your distaste with the Canton Police Department over Officer Daniel Harless' actions on 8 June, 2011, may I suggest that you write them a letter?
The appropriate address would be:
Dean L. McKimm, Chief Of Police
Canton Police Department
221 Third Street S.W.
Canton, OH 44702
Please be courteous. Please use calm, acceptable language.
Worthy talking points are the Canton P.D.'s Officer Code Of Conduct, Officer Harless' apparent cowardice, Officer Harless's continued rant beyond his initial surprise, the potentially criminal nature of his implied threats, and the damage that it does to the public respect for police.
Mine is mailed out.
Labels: police, public service message, You Do That In Public?
posted by Matt G @ 6:33 PM
4 Comments:
Thanks for the contact info, Matt. I'm on it.
I did mine to the mayor of the city. Sad to say, but I suspect the mayor will have slightly less reason to just whitewash the incident and put the officer back into contact with the public.
I was respectful, made a few points regarding a clearly unstable officer acting on the cities behalf, and the likelihood of my ever getting near their city again if he remains on the force.
I really wish administrators in a position to discipline or fire police officers would use a reciprocity test.
"What would one of my good guys do to a citizen who did something similar to a uniformed patrolman?"
If the answer, at any point, involves 'handcuffs', 'booking', 'bail', or 'charges', then some real discipline needs to be applied.
If the answer, at any point, involves 'felony', then honestly, give me a good reason why 'summary termination' isn't a good solution?
I'm Joe Public here, with no misdemeanor or felony arrests, warrants, charges, or convictions... and I absolutely do not want to EVER run into a man like this with a gun, a badge, and the authority and historical get-away-with-it-ness to absolutely mess me up.
Police departments are so keyed up about "My guys are going home tonight", but what about citizens? If you combine police injury and fatality studies with police-citizen interaction studies, a citizen is something like SIX times more likely to be injured during an interaction with a police officer than the officer him or herself.
And videos like this illustrate why.
"What would one of my good guys do to a citizen who did something similar to a uniformed patrolman?"
If the answer, at any point, involves 'handcuffs', 'booking', 'bail', or 'charges', then some real discipline needs to be applied.
If the answer, at any point, involves 'felony', then honestly, give me a good reason why 'summary termination' isn't a good solution?
Give me a good reason why "handcuffs", "booking" "bail" "charges" or "felony" isn't a good solution?
"Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence." Sir Robert Peel (the man that English "bobbies" are named for)
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