If you have been in law enforcement for any length of time, you have probably arrested the same person more than once. If you’ve been in long enough, you’ve probably arrested one of their kids also.
Back in November, I arrested a woman who was selling drugs, who was on house arrest for selling drugs. This week, I stop a car for a broken tail light and guess who’s driving. She’s driving with a suspended license, a misdemeanor crime in my state. As it so happens, she is on a new probation from my arrest in November.
For those keeping score at home:
- She is arrested for sale of cocaine and placed on probation.
- She violates the terms of that probation by selling more cocaine and is placed on house arrest.
- She violates the terms of the house arrest by selling more cocaine, marijuana, etc. and is released on probation.
- She violates the terms of that probation by committing a new criminal offense.
One wonders when she might actually serve prison time, but I’m not holding my breath.
Richard is a police officer with a medium sized, central Florida department, and previously worked for a Metro-Atlanta agency. He has served as a field training officer, court officer, corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, watch commander, commander of a field training and evaluation program, and general pain in the butt to management-types looking to cut training hours.
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- The Criminal Justice Costs of Welfare
- National Criminal Justice Reference Service
- Illegal Immigration Cripples County Criminal Justice Systems Along the U.S. / Mexico Border
- PPI Covert Ballistic Door Panels
- Drug Interdiction: Concealment Locations to Watch for When Police Officers Conduct Criminal Interdiction
People want to know how to reduce crime? Shut the revolving door. We don’t need more cops. We just need to put the people we catch in prison. Build a few more prisons and actually lock up people we catch.
I always wondered about our judicial system, some people get locked up for a long time for stupid stuff and some are hard criminals who typically find their way back out on the streets again. In some cases it’s God giving someone a second chance but the other times I just shake my head.
My sister has been arrested 20+ times and has not served a day. I think the system does all of us a disservice by letting people like her (petty criminals – thieves) never see a day of prison. They keep diverting her to rehab for her “problems” with drugs. I reccomended to the judge last time that they jail her and her listened to me and then put her in a 30 day rehab and let her free. Sick system.