The Albuquerque Journal has published a misleading story.
The average reader, after reading "APS Cops Face Delay for Guns" in the Journal this morning (sub req), will come to the same conclusion;
The leadership of the APS might not arm police officers for as long as 60 days due to reasons beyond their control.
That is misled belief. The truth is that they can arm the police in as little time as it takes to rewrite board policy. 24-48 hours.
If acting APS Chief "Lt. Steve Tellez ... wants to get better holsters that prevent guns from being removed from the police belt by others. (and) ... require simulation training before the officers are fully armed."; then his expertise must be respected. The concerns he expresses are legitimate.
Pretending a need for permission from the AG or the legislature;
and then reporting that pretense as "truth" are not.
As always, I will bow to controverting fact.
I will forward this challenge to Journal Editor,
Charlie Moore, and others at my discretion.
Friday, September 07, 2007
JOURNAListic Integrity Tested
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5 comments:
Should APS cops still be able to double dip if they go to work for the schools? If 90% or so of them are retired APD cops, I assume they have been drawing full APD retirement while they work for APS. Yet they are complaining about the pay at APS, for dealing mostly with school children instead of the general public. Could one thing driving having a separate police force be the ability to do this? Maybe a person on public retirement shouldn't be allowed to collect it while working full time at a similar publicly-funded job in the same city. Union Carpenters in New Mexico have a rule like this, forbidding them working for pay at construction when drawing Union retirement. Military people apparently do not. I worked with many of them in research at Kirtland AFB.
(the previous two posts were deleted because I can't figure out any way to correct my typos and misspellings without deleting and reposting the edit)
They are already allowed to earn a salary and be on retirement; so whether or not APSPD is independent is a moot point.
The issue of double dipping should be discussed; but in principle first and then applied equally to everyone. Why hold these people to a higher standard of conduct than others?
"...for dealing mostly with school children instead of the general public." On any given day, any one of these officers is expected to walk into a gang fight to protect students. On the way into the fight, many in a crowd of perhaps 2 hundred cheering students; will spit on them, some will throw their cokes at them; and worse.
I wouldn't trade place with any of them during that hour for fourteen bucks; would you?
Thanks for your kind attention to my blog; and your participation in the discourse
I think Ms. Meaders makes a point that is applicable to school employment in general. Bob Hennig works for Human Resources after retiring as a principal. The intent of the law allowing returns to work was to conserve the skill sets that are developed over a long career, not to allow former princiapls to become specialists.
As to the make up of the APS Police and Security forces, I do think that most cops working for APS are former cops, but many do not draw retirement from their former agencies. When APD would "let go" of someone for whatever reason prior to retirement, APS tended to pick them up since hiringa na already certified person is cheaper and takes less time than training one from scratch. I can name several from my time as the training sergeant and field training coordinator that fit that description.
I can also name an equal number who were indeed drawing APD or BCSD retirement as they became APS cops. Those are the ones who NEVER wanted to work any OT. Or demanded inside jobs or instant sergeant stripes or they would not come to the department. And some who were willing to work the time it takes to make schools safe as well.
APS Police, just like a typical APS classroom, has its high acheivers, its malcontents, and ,yes, those with special needs. EWvery workplace, police or not, is dealing with remedial training for those who should have learned how to write a five pragraph essay in high school, who passed but didn't learn some needed skills for the workplace.
Anyway, Ms. Meaders, you hit the nail on the head, to my thinking, that former cops with a retirement coming in don't make motivated employees for the most part.
J. LOPEZ
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