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02/18/04
Mayor and Council have gone too far.
The line has been crossed by Mayor Miller and
the Dallas City Council.
Many, if
not all, Dallas police patrol officers are beginning to modify work habits
after watching what is happening to Sgt. Flusche, Officer Coffey.
It is likely to happen to Officer Ortega in regards to the 13 week
injury time package.
There are people in the Police
Department who are opportunistic and selfish
enough to take advantage of the previous 52-week
injury time package. I have seen several people use the system to stay at
home and get a paycheck at the city's expense. |
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James Northrup:
The Mayor is taking her Cruella DeVille
routine with the DPD too
far.
The way to address sick leave for
officers injured in the line of duty is via
catastrophic insurance coverage.
Gary Griffith is on the right track with
this one. |
For every one of those types, there are many more
officers who have gotten hurt doing a dangerous and unappreciated job, and were
back to work as soon as bruised and broken bodies would let them.
As police officers, we put
ourselves in danger willfully to protect others' lives
and property. I never really expected much from the city in the way of a big
paycheck or good equipment, but I did expect that my family would not experience
economic hardship in the method of a pay reduction if I get seriously or
critically injured putting myself in harms' way.
I expect this as a basic necessity, and the line has
definitely been crossed by the idiots at city hall.
What is the trade off for the taxpayers and citizens of Dallas?
For one, I am only going to
do what is required of me and nothing in excess. I
have always been willing to put myself at risk for others, but I absolutely will
not risk punishing my family and causing hardship to my children because the
city wants to save a buck.
I love the citizens of Dallas, but I love my family more.
I recommend all Dallas Police officers do the following:
Don't shy away from answering 911 calls. We can't punish people in need of
emergency service because of city hall. I am answering my calls, finishing my
paperwork and parking my car in between calls where I am not likely to get in an
accident.
I no longer make "routine" traffic stops, harass drug buyers, drug dealers,
pimps, prostitutes, known thieves, serve warrants on my own initiative, or block
traffic as a courtesy for a motorist changing a tire off on the shoulder. These
are activities that are not required of me, and likely to get me injured.
We never got paid any more money for being aggressive on crime. On the
contrary, most of us who were aggressive in stopping drug and prostitute related
crime spend a considerable amount of time dealing with
the witch hunt called Internal Affairs.
We did it anyway, because it was the right thing to do.
City Hall has backed us into a corner now and makes us
choose between the job and our families. I apologize in advance to the citizens
of Dallas because your crime rate is certainly not going down anytime soon.
Officer Dan
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