Mmmm The Smell of Road Flares!
Well tonight I heard a call that a nearby intersections lights were out. They were asking a unit to go out and put some flares up. Me, being the good citizen that I am, got dressed and went out wearing my nice reflective jacket, and popped some flares up around the intersection. I then went to get some coffee, and returned just as the officer arrived. I spoke to him and he was very grateful that I came out and put the flares up. It was a nice change. Usually I get the 'nah, your help is not wanted, go home' treatment here in Buffalo.
Ahh the smell of Road Flares. I swear it is like crack or something. Grows hair on your chest, and after smelling a little bit of them, you have a nice after-smell on your body for the next few hours, which I savour. I am not sure why I love the smell so much, perhaps it reminds me of good times. That being said, I am sure I will not get another chance to smell them for a while now. I still have 3 boxes of road flares sitting here, that I will likely never be able to use. I suppose one way to get known and accepted in the community, is to get out there, and do good deeds in my community. But things that I can actually help on, are so rare these days. And honestly... the BPD is over staffed. They could stand to loose 1 or 2 cars per district a night, and still be able to function.
Up in Toronto, or York Region, response times were about 3 to 6 minutes, 12 minutes if the call was really out in the sticks. Here, response times are usually about 1 to 3 minutes. VERY Quick! BUT!!! There are times when their response times are anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes for serious calls. And upwards of 4 to 5 hours for non priority calls. One could argue that this is a good indicator that the police need more units on patrol. I however beg to differ. From what I have noticed, the BPD like to gang up for priority calls. In buffalo, if there is a call that sounds slightly dangerous, they always dispatch 2 cars. Usually, you will get between 2 and 8 OTHER cars who will 'back them up'. Of course you usually wont hear these cars notifying dispatch that they are backing up.
Usually it is only a note in the call history on the computer system. And in more cases then not, all of these 'backup' units are not really required. It also does a good job at grouping a lot of the districts police units, in one small corner of the district, leaving other corners without any available police units nearby. And of course, the units who DO respond, usually do so, without any flashing lights or sirens. Up in York Region, whenever there was a case where people were running from police on foot, they would put up a perimeter around the area, based on how long it takes for cars to get on scene. These perimeter cars would position themselves in such a way so that they can see in all directions if someone were to run out of the perimeter. Then, the K9 unit, and/or Air 1 (the helicopter) would be called in to track the suspect. YRPD never mass police units on the scene of such an incident, because the more people around, the harder the dogs will be able to track the scent of the bad guy. Of course, every minute that goes by once you have lost sight of a suspect, it decreases your chances of finding said suspect, by 10%. So after 10 minutes, he will likely be gone. BUT, if you do get dogs on scene, and/or if you have a helicopter with thermal imaging in the area, your chances of finding him just went up by 50%. Here in Buffalo, I am sure such a system could work a lot better. I am sure that the reasons for the current method are related to being able to catch suspects who run, and having enough backup in-case someone starts shooting. Well, one idea might be to give every unit an assault rifle - to solve the backup issue. 3 or 4 units with assault rifles, will outnumber and out gun pretty much any gun call there is. And in such a case where shots are fired, I am sure more units could quickly be called in to assist if needed.
To catch suspects who are on foot, (or even driving) and on the run, takes a lot of co-ordination. The BPD do not have such co-ordination. Units will drive around, or walk around willey nilly, without much communication, and generally try to follow, or find the suspect directly. Of course the perimeter system does work a lot better. Having a perimeter set up with units watching any escape avenues from the general area where the suspect was last seen. In relation to this, I saw / monitored a series of pursuits over the weekend. A car was being pulled over, and the driver fled police in a high speed pursuit. The driver then ditched his stolen car, and fled into a park area. Police poured onto the scene, and wasted their time checking each back yard that backed onto the park. when no one was watching the perimeter. 10 minutes went by, and of course he was not found.
However, a suspect was seen getting into a truck at the back of a school, just as the truck was taking off, the police attempted to stop it. It fled as well, and turned into another pursuit, ending in an officer injured, and the suspects ditching and getting away yet again. Had there been officers on the perimeter, the car could of been stopped before it left the area, by perimeter cars pulling out infront of it, and blocking its escape. Of course the School, backed right onto the park the guy ditched into... while every officer on scene was checking backyards, the School, and the parking lot of said School, was left unchecked. It was not until an officer who was clearing the scene, saw the truck in the parking lot, that the suspect was seen again. Pure Luck! Yet another way to improve things would be to have one channel for each district.
The police already have 5 channels, and 5 districts. Getting one or 2 more channels for special purposes and car-to-car purposes, and using one channel per district would help a lot! This way units would be encouraged to use the radio to communicate on scene, instead of pulling up and talking with the other officers in person. Getting back to my original point here, There are too many cops in Buffalo, and there are too few 'non-crime' related issues (traffic accidents, power failures, etc...) that really require the assistance of any services I can offer. And the traffic accidents I can help at, there are usually 3 or 4 cars on scene by the time I get there.
The usual response method I suppose. I am unsure if you are aware, but Mayor Bryon Brown recently introduced a new program which would in effect be similar to a program I introduced to the Mayor 2 years ago via Email. This program will put non-police officers, in a community service role, and will assist the police in all aspects of the job, however they just do not have arrest powers or carry firearms. These 'Explorers' will usually ride along with BPD units directly. I am sure that this program will help.