It’s not a staffing problem. It’s a priority problem.
They should have an outside agency or oversight committee look into it and there just aren’t that many facts that need to be looked at.
Had a civilian driver hit a police officer, it wouldn’t take months and months to determine if a crime took place.
I mean, what’s the difference? How many people are available at the outside agency who aren’t investigating something else right now?
I understand the desire to get answers quickly, but every case being investigated is a priority for someone, and conflicts with what others want. Those doing the work can only do so much.
Like I said, my job can be a lot like this, and when everything is a “priority” , none of them really can be, and I can only chip away at tasks in the order I feel I can handle them. Further pressure doesn’t result in a faster answer, it just leaves me frustrated. Especially when there are follow-on legal implications. I can give you the answer you want, but if I botched the paperwork, you won’t be able to use it.
Do you want this done, or do you want this done correctly?
False dilemma.
If someone hit a police officer, would it take months and months to investigate?
There aren’t that many facts that need to be investigated.
Where I live, any incident of injury or death of a non-police person involving police is investigated by an independent organization (unaffiliated to a police force and funded but not managed by the government. It seems the investigators are themselves police by training).
Incidents where police are targetted are presumably investigated via routine police work within the same force, though it could be referred to the independent organization if my quick read of the website is accurate.
I agree the second case may be “resolved” faster, though I know which of the two investigations I’d trust more, frankly (not that I put a high level of trust into either).
And it’ll take the time it takes with the available workforce because that’s simply how things work in this particular version of space-time.
Unless they are intentionally doing it slowly.
I don’t know if they are or not, but you don’t either.
there are enough bad police agencies sob. It sure why you are so adamant about defending them.
Whatever
It’s sad that this kid died.
It’s a constant tradeoff in a police pursuit. We’re living in an age where kids are stealing and wrecking cars for fun and posting it on the internet. That’s on top of adults doing it for money and/or to commit additional crimes.
As has been mentioned above there are high tech tracking methods with camera systems. In my area they’re now using a GPS tracking device that a pursuing officer can attach to a fleeing vehicle.. It’s been affective when used and should reduce dangerous pursuits. There’s also a device that will lasso a fleeing vehicle and tether it to a police car. And drones are becoming a cost affective alternative to helicopters.
In short, technology will force a chance in pursuit policy.
I guess tangents are di rigeur here at the 'Dope, but just for the record, there was no high-speed chase going on in my son’s case.
Cop was driving 47 in a 25, on the wrong side of the street, and hit a kid (who slammed into the windshield and flew off the side of the hood). Officer did not render aid, but stayed in the car and backed up until he was on the correct side of the street.
BTW, we got answers quickly… because we sued and got the dashcam footage. Which contradicted the cop’s testimony, and was damn cinematic to boot!
This reminds me of the time my former wife and I were driving along and saw a guy lying in a crosswalk with blood pooling from head. (He’d been hit by a car in the crosswalk whose driver then fled the scene).
A cop was standing there right next to him doing absolutely nothing. My former wife was an ICU nurse; I’ve had a lot of first aid training; and we had a first aid kit, so I pulled a U-turn and we rendered first aid until the EMTs arrived.
But I’ll never forget the cop just standing there doing nothing. I guess he thought he was protecting the scene, but his squad car with the lights flashing right next to him seemed to take care of that.
I assume cops get first aid training, right?
If there are enough people to do the investigations, then there are enough to do the investigations quickly. Dragging out the investigations doesn’t make anything easier. It just means that you’re still working on the old investigation when three more come along, and now you have to split your time between four different investigations. Do it right, and you finish up one promptly, and then start on the next one promptly.
If there aren’t enough people to do the investigations, then you need to hire more people. And if you absolutely can’t do that, then you need to drop some cases entirely, until the workload is down to what the number of people you have can manage. And then once the workload is manageable, then you do all of what’s left promptly.
All correct.
The central difference between government and commerce is that there is no inherent feedback or connection in government between demand and supply. Nothing prevents the legislature from demanding everyone get a dog license every year and them funding staffing the state dog license office with 1 clerk for a state with 5 million dogs.
In commerce any major mismatch results in that business dying. Maybe another rises to take its place. Maybe not and the consumer demand goes unmet. But any huge resource / requirement gap is shortlived.
I’m not claiming business is better. Just different. Anyone who works for, or closely with, government is used to this perennial unchanging demand / supply disconnect. And all the vexations great and small appurtenent thereunto.