[Az-Geocaching] Law Enforcement, Geocaching, Anarchy and fut…

I swear, this is going to keep me busy for eons just responding to the various posts, along with the refuting anarchy as a good alternative.


First, let's discuss litter.

13-1603. Criminal littering or polluting; classification

A. A person commits criminal littering or polluting if such person without lawful authority does any of the following:

1. Throws, places, drops or permits to be dropped on public property or property of another which is not a lawful dump any litter, destructive or injurious material which he does not immediately remove.

2. Discharges or permits to be discharged any sewage, oil products or other harmful substances into any waters or onto any shorelines within the state.

3. Dumps any earth, soil, stones, ores or minerals on any land.

B. Criminal littering or polluting is punished as follows:

1. A class 6 felony if a knowing violation of subsection A in which the amount of litter or other prohibited material or substance exceeds three hundred pounds in weight or one hundred cubic feet in volume or is done in any quantity for a commercial purpose.

2. A class 1 misdemeanor if the act is not punishable under paragraph 1 of this subsection and involves placing any destructive or injurious material on or within fifty feet of a highway, beach or shoreline of any body of water used by the public.

3. A class 2 misdemeanor if not punishable under paragraph 1 or 2 of this subsection.



Unless the geocache in question weighs greater than 300lbs or consumes 100 cubic feet of earth and is commercial in nature, it is NOT a felony. It's merely a class 2 misdemeanor. Regan, hopefully Scott or yourself will remember the name or at least the badge. If not, you can still report the incident, citing the day/time/location, and through their records and investigation can figure out who it is. IA doesn't screw around when stuff like this comes down the pipe, TRUST ME.

Officer pay.



DPS pays $36,096 annually for a new officer. To reach the mid-point/maximum levels takes years. Annual increases don't come unless the legislature chooses to allow it, which doesn't happen. We aren't like city agencies who get their money from themselves. We're in the pit fighting every other agency/entity for our minute slice of the pie. It is a fact that <1% of the annual budget goes to DPS, and yet Napolitano continues to squeeze dollars out of us under the banner of a balanced budget.



Mesa PD starts their officers at $36,816 annually.

You're right, they are well paid...if this were Somalia.

Safe society.

So, what I gather from this is, the homicide suspect one of my officers went into foot pursuit with along Loop101 a few weeks ago (with a $2 million bond) should be allowed to go free. Nevermind the fact that he shot/killed someone, but also had warrants for robbery and weapons charges, all out of California. Or the guy who carjacks your car while high on methamphetamine should be allowed to take it home and enjoy his spoils until he gets bored with it and torches it somewhere in the desert with the body of a hooker he killed for drug money in the trunk.

Daily, I run drivers who regularly show suspended or revoked for any number of moving violations (the worst was suspended more than 27x). More and more I am seeing numerous DUI convictions for regular DUI, extreme DUI and felony DUI. These are people that will make a career out of jail because they no longer care about who they kill or what overpass they careen into while on their latest drinking binge. Following the logic I've seen here recently, these people should be allowed to continue drinking/driving, putting everyone they come near at risk of serious injury, or death because we don't need cops. I don't know if you've been following what the Tribune has been printing every Sunday, but DUI is a serious problem. We are only able to catch so much of it, but one of those drivers we arrest may have been the one that had their targets set on your vehicle at 1am on a remote 2-lane highway and snuffed out your life before it was due. True, a majority of the public follows MOST of the laws, but the population who chooses not to is ever increasing. Don't even get me started on the UDAs who are the stand-out majority of hit-and-run suspects on just our freeways. Quite frankly, officers get the bad rap by default. Unlike firefighters, the public dreads the sight of red/blues in their mirror(s) while driving down the road talking on the cellphone while playing solitaire on a PDA and eating a bagel. It's hardly ever a good situation when an officer shows up on your doorstep. The power to take someone's freedom is something that I believe is resented by some of the masses.

[quote]

Law enforcement is a thankless job, but I believe that the cops bring a lot
of that upon themselves. We seem to forget that our safety should fall on
our own shoulders first and that we should be responsible for our own safety.

[/quote]

I disagree. It's the apathetic nature of so much of society that causes this. Nobody looks out for their neighbors anymore. Everyone comes home from work, drives straight into the garage and walks into the house without ever setting foot in the sunlight, immediately closing the garage door. Kids hardly play out front, and don't go to the park unless the parents are around. Yet few of them actually talk and get to know one another. I've had many in my neighborhood say how much they would to see a patrol car parked in a driveway on a regular basis, because it is a strong crime deterrent. When was the last time someone told you they leave their doors unlocked at night?

[quote]

I never buy the argument that we don't have enough cops on the streets, but
I do see a big problem with the training that our current cops get, or I
should say the lack of training they get. I deputy friend of mine down
here in Pima was telling me that there is a 1 year waiting list to get time
to shot on the county range unless you are doing your qualification shooting.

[/quote]

I cordially invite you to spend a shift with me in OpComm at DPS Headquarters. If that doesn't change your belief that there aren't enough cops on the streets (in this case, the metro-Phoenix highways), nothing will. Drop me an e-mail and I'll arrange it. Pima county is hardly the barometer for the entire state. It's the fault of the agency they work for that this is such an issue, and lack of proper policy/procedure that allows it to continue. Shooting is only a portion of the training they receive. DPS requires and enforces the policy that its officers go to the range every 3-months to qualify. ALEA is an intense 16-week academy that grills you on many, many things, to prepare you for the streets. Each department has their own policies on subsequent training before beginning FTO. DPS at last word was a 12-week Advanced Basic in addition to the 16-week ALEA. In all reality, the training DPS provides is hands-down the best in the state. On top of these two periods, there is a 12-week FTO program before being sent out on your own to work traffic. My training for Dispatcher was 15-months.



Back to the real issue...harassment of Geocachers.

That was the original issue, but the case o' worms was opened when such a harshly toned attack on police officers (LE in general) was sent out.

Being questioned by an officer while geocaching doesn't constitute harassment. Officers are trained to spot suspicious activity, and in all honesty some of the searching we do in looking for caches does look truly suspicious. My most recent contact by an officer was in Tempe, who saw my truck with the lights on near 52nd St/Broadway at Futte o' the Butte. He pulled up and asked what I was doing. I explained Geocaching in very basic terms, showing him my PDA with the cache page downloaded. The lack of anxiety in my voice and my forthright information satisfied him quickly and he wished me luck and left. If I have nothing to hide, why act as though I do? As I said before, the respect you get is often the respect you give. In no way do I mean that Scott and Regan were being jerks. I honestly don't believe they gave him anything but the respect they would expect from anyone else. So no, I didn't miss the point.

Brian

Team A.I.