Police Friend or Foe?

IMO, a lot of people don't trust them. We've had our share of crooked cops. More than our share, in fact.

I believe they changed the motto here from "To Protect and Serve" to "To Bemoan and Demean"...

i know a few and they are nice, but if a crime is commited can you count on them???? i dont think so. i had my car broken into, waited two hours for them to come and they said wait for the crime techs, waited waited, finally called and they said if you dont have a suspect nothing we can do?????? wtf i thought that was their job to find the criminal not mine?

Maybe you should have gone to one of the bars...you would have had a better chance of finding a cop in there drinking a greenie, than you would having one dispatched to you! Haha!

True story. One night when I was little my parents and I were driving around Indianapolis late at night and decided we wanted donuts. A cop passed my step-father so as a lark he started following him. Lead us straight to a Dunkin Donuts.

We have had a couple of incidents in our neighborhood lately on the East End of STX and have noticed a much improved response time by the VIPD. I hate the cell phone law.

The new chief really is trying, IMO.
And now we have fresh uncorrupted faces coming to the big island's police force, keeping HOPE alive!

Cops in CA wont do anything for a car break-in. I don't think they do anywhere. If you need to clam something on insurance. Then you must go to the station and make a report, every where I have been.

I have no complaints with the police and responce times for crimes. My complaints lay in their general attitude of entitlement. Strange how many police sirens you hear right around quitting time when traffic is bad on St. Thomas. Cops down here will rarely bother to get out of their car during a traffic stop and instead yell at the driver through the loud speaker. They demand respect from everyone but give none in return.

Granted, these are extremely gross generalizations. There are many good cops on the force down here but their reputation is tarnished by the bad eggs that unfortunately outnumber them. If you want a good metric of the effectiveness of the St. Thomas Police, look no farther than the approximately 30% homicide case solve rate. In other words, if you murder someone on St. Thomas, you have almost a 2/3 chance of getting away with it.

ashultz
never had my car broken into before so didnt know it was up to me to get them a suspect, same thing happened on a construction site that was robbed. polica came but did nothing. i have heard many stories about the lack of policing and care the cops here give.
i was in md pulled off the side of the road because my brother broke down and i was going to take him to a repair place, a cop pulled over to make sure we were ok and to make sure i knew this person i was helping, he was not leaving until he knew for sure i was safe. i was on the side of the road for less than a minute when he pulled over. big difference.

Bombi,
What do you mean about the cell phone laws? I thought you could use your cell in an emergency.

In my two short years on the island I have had contact with two police officers, and I have to say they were both equally ridiculous encounters. Minor traffic infractions (i.e. tag not adequately affixed to front of bumper and inspection sticker 8 days out of date). Both times I was extremely respectful since I had been forewarned about police. Both officers were yelling from the word go, both threatening to tow my vehicle, etc. Once they couldn't get me to react to their threats they ended up letting me go with tickets not towing. When I asked my born and raised St Thomian friend if this was normal treatment or was this because I was a woman, white, etc., she informed me it was quite normal. She informed me that most people, law abiders included ,do not like police officers and have a bad opinion of the force in general.

Perhaps the most troublesome thing to me was my 8 year old was in the car with me on the second stop, and he was very scared because of the officer's yelling. Afterward, I thought what kind of impression has this officer left with a child? Not that police are to be trusted and admired.

Not trying to play the Devil's advocate here, However if you were post these same statements on the upper 48 and the two outside states do you think there would be any difference. CSI is a TV show and even on TV they don't investigate when a car is broken into.

Juanita, talking on a cell phone while driving. Everybody does it and it's only selectively enforced.

I've seen cops on numerous occassions here on STX driving and yacking on their cell phones.

Juanita, talking on a cell phone while driving. Everybody does it and it's only selectively enforced.

Unlike stateside, if you get into a car accident, never move your car until the cops get there. Always keep a little disposal camera in your car or use your cell phone.

lizard, i have since found out they dont do that in the states??? but the cops did tell me they would send the crime tech guys out, so naturally i would assume that they meant it.