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LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

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Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#271
post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Law enforcement operates in a position where they “can’t lose” an encounter. This is a major cause of rapid and unnecessary escalation with LEOs and the civilians they’ve stopped.

Friendly reminder that LEOs are civilians as well— while they may dress like it, they are not military.

Very much so. Perhaps their training shouldn't explicitly use such language and work to increase that separation - LE training is notorious for teaching cops old and new that anyone/anything "not a cop" is not one of them, and is a threat or has threat potential.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm Canadian and American, and have lived in both places and seen the stark differences myself. In the US, the police culture is certainly militarized and proud of it. Even in small towns you have days where the police roll out the biggest armored vehicles they have to show off, and that's their idea of a "community event", kids think its cool obviously, but it's really just "lets show off all of our high power toys"…

Those high-powered toys by the cops are merely for showing off and to victimize the weak. Those toys typically never come into play to protect the citizens. Case in point: during the Uvalde school shooting incident in 2022, when a shooter (Salvador Ramos) went on a killing spree inside the school, then hundreds of cops gathered outside with brand new body armor (gifted to them just months ago) and armed with automati…

You forgot the most insane part of this (or at least of the aftermath) - the police chief was re-elected shortly after!

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

California's 3 strikes law only applies to "serious" felonies. The list is pretty reasonable IMO . No one is getting life in prison for littering or insurance fraud It's basically a list of violent crimes, the only one that seems out of pocket is selling PCP, meth, or cocaine to childre, which is bad but could arguably be less bad than the others on the list

> California's 3 strikes law only applies to "serious" felonies. But not all states are California. > No one is getting life in prison for littering or insurance fraud William James Rummel begs to differ[0] - fraudulent use of a credit card ($80), forged check ($28.36), failure to return payment for non-performed work ($120.75) and voila, life sentence (albeit later reduced to time served on procedural grounds.) [0]…

I would love to see more comprehensive stats to answer this question, rather than relying on cases studies you have to go back over one hundred years to find.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why do you have so many car chases? That seems like an odd problem. There must be a reason.

American police just like it. They start chase for any reason, even for a broken tail lamp. Also not a simple chaise, but one where they intentionally provoke a car crash, often with fatal results for innocent people.

You phrase it like the police can force you to run from them.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#275
post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why do you have so many car chases? That seems like an odd problem. There must be a reason.

Its interesting how both police chases and swatting is super rare outside of the US.

The US is still cowboy country in many ways.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because our society is spoiled, averse to consequences, and addicted to pleasure. People cannot tolerate it when they don't get what they want. What they want (when being pulled over) is NOT to go to jail, hence, due their conditioning, they avoid the consequence. Up to and including bringing injury and death onto themselves and strangers.

It's insane this is downvoted when it's the truth. Again and again the person is running from something small, but that's not an indictment of the chase, it's proof of how freaking stupid and self-centered the subject is: they are willing to put dozens of lives at risk to avoid something like getting their car towed because they're driving on a suspended license. The officer chases them because they don't know why th…

its a breakdown of community, with capitalism largely to blame. In small towns, this type of behavior is less likely when you know the sheriff or judge and feel like they are a part of your social sphere. In a large city, any red-light-flashing cop is just an NPC that spawed and will take your in-game credits. I think this is the result - for many of us - when each person we see every day is likely someone we'll never see again. The megacity is just a huge machine with sharp gears and lurking dangers you have to evade.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are high speed police chases (100mph+) in Los Angeles — no exaggeration — on an almost daily basis. Air support is the primary defense tool for law enforcement. It's so bad that the local TV stations have their own choppers and a dedicated on-screen UI tailored for the chases with GPS-based tracking and speed. If you're lucky you can catch one of the many YouTube live streams. Here's one from....two days ago: h…

The thing is: there shouldn't be. Car chases cause far more damage (including injury and deaths of bystanders) than the crimes that precede them do and "air support" is not a defense against that in any way.

Genuine question. What do you think the alternative is?

Let's say for argument's sake, that it was relatively well known that you could just drive away rapidly from a police encounter and successfully escape. Do you think that would affect the number of people who made that decision to do that?

I can see both sides of this, but I'm curious what yours is.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#278
post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is: there shouldn't be. Car chases cause far more damage (including injury and deaths of bystanders) than the crimes that precede them do and "air support" is not a defense against that in any way.

Genuine question. What do you think the alternative is? Let's say for argument's sake, that it was relatively well known that you could just drive away rapidly from a police encounter and successfully escape. Do you think that would affect the number of people who made that decision to do that? I can see both sides of this, but I'm curious what yours is.

So either we just use drones to track people while they escape at normal speeds or we use the pre existing panopticon to do so, or we use normal police detective work. Frankly even helicopters but with out police chasing is noticeably better from an over all lives lost perspective.

Did you know that (pre covid) about half of all police deaths were due to car crashes? Even from a view point which completely ignores non-cops: chases are a terrible plan.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#279
post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same reason that nearly every police response in the US is an armed response. Same reason police kill more Americans than terrorists do. US police culture is toxic and deadly. Several cities tightly restrict high-speed chases. That should be the norm.

That may be - it should be noted that criminals in the US are also much more violent and brazen then most of the rest of the planet. If your criminal population is packing heat the response tends to be much more aggressive. Its a bit cat and mouse.

You don't think that is a response to their knowledge that cops will often shoot and kill them on sight along with the incredibly harsh criminal punishment?

In the EU if you get caught doing a crime, yeah you will get charged and punished, maybe take a billy club to the leg during an arrest, but nothing too extreme and you go to jail for a bit, maybe pay some fines, but you live and learn. In the US there is a good chance you get shot right away, if you aren't shot the cops will likely beat you and abuse you doing the arrest, the prosecutor and court will try and dump a decade+ long sentence on you even if there was no violence involved and the material value is only a few days worth of work, and the prison is a horrible environment by designed that often fucks people up mentally.

Harsh punishment for crimes is rarely a very good deterrent against crime, it just makes people who were desperate enough to resort to crime more desperate and determined to escape capture. If I had a decent bank account I could probably get most charges lowered to something acceptable in the US, but most people committing low level crimes usually don't have lawyer money and will have their life ruined with a ridiculous sentence.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In an AI bot and troll infested world, expect quippy contrarian opinions posted with throwaways to be taken less seriously.

Every message on social media is a throwaway, unless if it has some tangible memorable impact on life.

I disagree. Accounts with a post history, sleep consistency and decency in their content and particularly older pre AI accounts can at least be trusted as human and well meaning.
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