Tires vandalized

It's time to FIRE THE POLICE CHIEF. The series of multiple car breakins (Car hopping), combined with the same described individuals now slashing tires, shows a lack of leadership, neglect of not staffing nightly patrols to catch these teenagers that are KNOWN to the police to have done these crimes. You can't even get this CHIEF to return phone calls, get his people to file police reports, or follow through. There needs to be a community meeting on the subject with the Mayor, Police Chief and victimized citizens. It's time for a change.

Fedup, you are automatically accusing teenagers. I don't think this is fair to stereotype unless of course you know some information. If you do then maybe you could help instead of throwing words around. It apparently happened at night, where were you? Sleeping? The police officers can't be everywhere 100% of the time. It takes a community effort.

Guess I better go check my tires.!!!

I am not exactly a huge fan of the chief and would not disagree with some changes in the police department. But I don't think you can put the blame solely on him when a crime occurs.

Do you mind telling us what you do for a living, fedup?

How is locking your doors and hiding valuables supposed to keep your tires from being slashed? These are cases of vandalism, not theft.

In respomse to Rural Citizen. Teenagers are exactly who are comitting these crimes. Specific conversation with police personnel...they KNOW who is doing these car hops and tire slashings. They have even shared names with me, but I will not post that here. Their own words, not mine. I am not throwing words about. When a community has been victimized for more than a year with dozens of car break ins and now 40+ cars being targeted, there is an ongoing problem. You would think with hundreds of cases involving cars at night, with several eye witness accounts of the same described people, something would be done. This isnt a metroplex with a hundred thousand people and hundreds of miles to patrol. In this small town it should have already been solved. Chief DOES NOT return his phone calls...his staff even says "I can't get him to return my calls either" As a victim of both the car hopping and the tire slashing, you would not believe how I have seen things handled by this department of keystone cops. There needs to be a change.... I am fortunate and went out and got new tires. However, I feel for the people who are faced with the cost of replacing their tires, who don't have the money. The bottom line, why can't this department solve and/or apprehend the people doing these ongoing crimes? Thats why it has to start at the top with the Chief...The public service message to lock your car is an insult to the people replacing their tires today.

While I do agree some change in leadership might be necessary, I want to know how you would better handle the situation at hand? The public does not know, and sometimes shouldn't know, everything behind a case.

I have trust in the officers. Unfortunately they can not be in every location in town at the time something happens. As the commercial goes "in a perfect world". Well we all know this is not a perfect world and the officers on duty do the best to their abilities.

If one of you know so much into catching the individuals committing these crimes, why don't you take the test and apply the next time the department has an opening.

Lay blame where it belongs! Too many times when things happen we always want to find a person with a name and a face we can attack for letting this happen becuase we will probably never see or know who did it...we must blame someone.

Seems to me that this is the fault of a couple of brats that have nothing else to do but cause people trouble.

Sad, but true Rural...this is likely not the work a 30 something married guy with kids. Sure it could be a 40 years junkie out to have some fun, but everytime we have uncovered a vandalizm ring in this town, it has been teens or very young adults.

I was the victim of a similar crime in the same area a couple years ago. I got a letter one day from some punk who was appologizing for throwing a rock through my window. Funny, he never offered to pay for it, or come work it off somehow. I had to pay for the window of course, just like all these people are going to have to buy new tires.

This is an outrage. I don't care who these kids are or how young they are. If they are caught and convicted, they should have to work for everyone they victimized until their debt is paid in full. If my sons ever do anything like this you can bet your posterior I will like a work ethic camp guard watching over them while they repay their debt to society with blood, sweat, and tears. That's how I roll!

If it is teenagers, then fine. If it is an adult, fine. But to start a public bashing and stereotyping, isn't fair unless you have 100% of the facts of which I'm sure Mr. Fedup does not. Even if he did, this is not the place to do this. If and when the people are caught, I agree they should be convicted to the fullest extent.

Rural Citizen - way to focus and address the real issue here - stereo typing of teenagers. It's a tragic event in today's society. I propose a campaign to end all teenage stereo typing. Who knows it may result in world peace and earn yourself a bid for the Nobel Peace Prize. I can't believe I'm even feeding into your rant and commenting on that, but C'mon man!

Somebody needs to step up, police can't do the work on their own, they need the community's assistance in fighting crime - if you see some individuals that look like they could be up to no good - follow them discretely, and if they are doing something wrong - video tape them, call the police, if capable detain them, call your neighbor or somebody that is close by to detain them, do something, do whatever you have to do to catch these delinquents and make them take responsibility for their actions.

That's what I'm trying to say BCW. We need to stop being the judge and jury before all the facts are out. We can't ALWAYS assume that it's teenagers...good guess but to ALWAYS assume is not fair.

The REAL ISSUE is that we need to work together as a community instead of waiting for others to do everything for us. Be proactive instead of reactive. The cops can't be everywhere 100% of the time. If you see something, call.

Working together as a community would be the best to ever happen. Take look around at your surroundings. Get off the cell phone, quit the texting, and shut the computer off. This event happened. And why??? Like I said, look around at your surroundings. You might see more than you thought of. And it takes all to look. Not just one person.

The police department can't always be there when someone cries wolf. If the chief returned all the calls, that is all he would get done. I would rather see him busy investigating and collecting information than on the phone to complaints. Legitimate complaints, yes. Whining about things that happen, no. Blue collar, Rural, Justin, you have said the right things. We all have to help. That is the way it used to be. If you are "fed up" with what is happening, you need to walk in another man's shoes to see life from their point of view.

And saying it was teenagers or real young adults, maybe you are right. If you have kids in school, listen to what they have to say. You might hear more than you ever imagined.....

The subject of my post/comment is how the Police know who is committing these car crimes. a)they started with crimes of opportunity by looking for cars that were unlocked and stealing items. b)it then escalated to crimes where the same known people are smashing windows to break into cars. c)it escalated even more when the same known people are now slashing tires. What is next as they get more bold?

This is not an 'assumption' as previously posted, I am not 'bashing' or stereotyping teenagers as previously posted!

It's a FACT the police say they KNOW who is doing these crimes.

The police chief and several officers have admitted that in all three cases the same names keep coming up, the same descriptions are coming up, and the kids are going to school bragging of their escapades. So, dont say I am stereotyping teeangers.

Yet, nothing will be done until they can catch them in the act.

I have been keeping my eyes out late at night to see if anything is going on, and I've seen no more patrols at night when all these crimes are being committed. It's the paid police department's responsibility to patrol more because of this increased activity. Not mine to get a job with them, walk in their shoes or other off the wall comments I have read. They are not getting the job done, and this has been going on for SEVERAL months. Even though all these crimes are basically centralized in the same area, no more partrols.

Probably more than a hundred cases and no results. I dont know about your job, but continued long term failure would result in unfavorable reviews at my job.

Who's the face of the Police Department? Ike, he needs to be accountable.

You would think when a police chief says "I will followup on this and call you back tomorrow" that his word as a sworn officer of the law would be all you needed. I dont want to hear about why the police chief shouldnt return his calls, or follow through on his commitments, thats bull.

The unfortuante part, is that these brazen people who are clearly getting away with these events, might possibly run into someone late at night, while breaking into their car or slashing their tires and get more than they bargained for. Then, you commenters will be in here writing "oh what a tragedy", instead of realizing that more patrols were needed in this section of town where all this happens.

Then Fedup, why don't you go into law enforcement. Then maybe something will get done.

I have been the victim of one of these breakins. A portable dvd player was taken. Yes not right and yes I shouldn't have been lazy when we returned home from that trip and taken it out. I did report it to police and have yet to hear if they recovered it. Fact is I don't expect it to be. I just hope that these individuals committing these crimes will be caught and tried and convicted and held accountable for their actions.

You can not blame every police officer for the issue of these perpetrators not being arrested. And as I stated earlier, there may be more behind this case than what meets the eye.

I do believe the right approach is for the memembers of the community start being more aware of their surroundings, maybe go back to the neighborhood watches and keep an eye out on our neighbors and possibly we might catch these persons of interest in the act.

In the meantime, it isn't doing any good bashing those who are sworn to protect us. Since it is simply not feasible to have an officer on every block of every day we are going to have to trust that the majority of them are doing the best of their abilities and lobby to the council if we are unhappy with the leadership. These officers not only patrol for suspcious activites but patrol speed enforcement, assist fire and paramedic personel during fires and accidents as well as other law enforcement duties. Quit lumping all of them into the same group.

As I said before, instead of bashing them on here go to the council or city manager with your concerns.

Man, it would be nice if "rural citizen" had something intelligent to say!

Intelligent? What's wrong with wanting the public to work together with our officers, help fight crime, be proactive instead of waiting for others to do everything for you? Maybe Remington81 should pull his head out of the sand and try to understand that the officers can't be everywhere 100% of the time and are trying. Maybe it's not good enough in your eyes, maybe you should get off your.... and help keep an eye out for suspicious activity in your neighborhood.

"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 on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence." - Sir Robert Peel

Unfortunately, the public hasn't been given information about who may have done this which leads to only 2 possible explanations. The police either aren't sharing that information with the public or the more likely scenario, they really just don't know who has been doing it.

It's less useful to "know" something than to have the ability to "prove" it.

It's even less useful to "know" nothing and still lack the ability to "prove" anything.

Absolutely, McCook1.

Perhaps, then, those who "know" EVERYTHING could help out, by lending the benefit of that vast body of knowledge to those tasked to "prove" things.

I haven't met anyone who knows everything so I can't help ya there.

However, I believe the police have no idea who did it because the case that was being made in this blog was based off the assumption that the same people are responsible for a series of thefts. If that were true and they were bragging about it to people then a reasonable person would assume the police would have interviewed these people who were told this (assuming the police were aware of the bragging)or at least solicit information from the students, if these kids were found to be bragging to other students after a thorough process of interviewing students or others who brought it to the attention of police then the police would get a search warrant and try to match up their list of stolen items with what they find during the search. All they need is probable cause which is not exactly a high bar. They could even match up fingerprints, assuming they attempted to collect any fingerprints at the various scenes.

Probable cause only requires that the facts available to the officer warrants a "man of reasonable caution" to conclude that there may be stolen property or contraband that would be useful as evidence of a crime. If there are students who have heard the suspects bragging about this and officers are made aware of this then that would also meet the reliable informant requirement based on the totality of the circumstances, being that there would be multiple accounts from different people confirming the same thing, that the suspects may be in possession of such items.

Back to the original point though, they either know something and aren't sharing or they don't know who may be responsible.

McCook1, I think it's important to examine exactly where that original assertion came from, particularly what it's based upon.

Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to get into specifics here, but I will say that the assertion, while plausible at first glance, is not the only possibility, nor even the likeliest one.

You have access to the newspaper, clearly. The daily police report is published in the newspaper. Make note of where these incidents occurred. Plot them on a map. Make note of the route, and ask yourself: if this pattern is PART of a route originating from and returning to the same location, where would that location be?

It might also help to understand that "birds of a feather flock together", and to take into consideration the attitudes toward "snitches" and "narcs" among the criminal "flock."

Someone just went speeding down the highway... lets fire the police chief! Someone got into an argument with their wife... lets fire the police chief! Someone robbed the local conveniene store... lets fire the police chief! Not just here, all across America - lets give em' the pink slip! Because it really seems so reasonable to me that the police chief should be fired because of the actions of others! If you haven't caught onto the sarcasm yet "fed-up", then you are no more an investigator than you claim. Returning phone calls has nothing to do with the actions of idiots who wished to go out and cause the public damage to their property. Nothing! In fact, I will also assume by your post that the phone calls not being returned to you came AFTER the fact, not before. Hmmmmm..... Everyone else seems to have the right idea. You, "fed-up" only seem interested in placing blame; and unfortunately for you, my opinion is that it is focused on the wrong, apparently singled out person. I would imagine that the police ARE on duty. They ARE patrolling. They ARE doing what they can. Realize quick - they ARE outnumbered too, similar to you within this entire blog. It's been mentioned several times and I will agree; they cannot be EVERYWHERE, EVERY MOMENT, FOR EVERY INCIDENT... if that were the case, then why would we "911" to call them? Judging by your opinion, the police should be psychics with crystal balls. I'm afraid reality needs to set in fairly soon so an actual solution can be sought, rather than pointing the finger at those who are sworn to protect, rather than the ones who damaged, stole, or otherwise tampered with our property. Lastly, I am literate and I can read quite well. The article states descriptions of people who were seen in the area at the time of the crime. It does not say that these ARE the people who did it. It appears to be a lead and they obvioulsy continued by asking for our help. Sounds like that rules out your theory of "they already know". I guess my only question is this, based entirely of your assumptions. IF these are they people and the police were expected to have all the answers and know that these were the "ones" or catch them in the act; then why didn't the citzens who actually saw them, reported them, and otherwise had the information not know anymore? Take a break "fed-up"... cause that's where I'm heading each time I read a post by you.