PAX Centurion - November / December 2013

www.bppa.org PAX CENTURION • November/December 2013 • Page 15 Letters to / from the editor Dear Editor, In the Herald’s editorial of 12/2/13 (“Picking patrolmen’s side”), Rachelle Cohen totally disregards facts and launches into yet another predictable anti-cop/anti-union screed. The fact is that the city first requested arbitration and requested arbitrator Tim Buckalew, not the union. The fact is that patrolmen have lost thousands of dollars in so-called “Quinn bill educational  incentives” because the state, under the regime of Gov. Deval Patrick, reneged on their commitment to fund 50% of the cost. (And with chronic short-staffing causing repeated mandatory-overtime shifts with little or no advance notice to the officer, few officers have the time, the financial resources, or the incentive to seek higher education.)  The fact is that  patrolmen currently earn about $16,000 less than a similarly-situated firefighter. The fact is that our contract expired 3½ years ago, and we have continued to work with  no interruption in outstanding service to the citizens of Boston. And the fact is that as recently as the Marathon bombing, the Herald lauded us  as “heroes”, but of course, when it comes to a fair contract, we’re now considered greedy “zeroes” by your editorial board. My, how times don’t change, at least when it comes to the Herald’s editorials…. – James W. Carnell Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association Area A-1 representative Response to “Picking patrolmen’s side” editorial U nder the newly-passed contract, GPS locators will (in all probability, already have …) be installed in all department cruisers, radios, and department-owned telecommunica- tions devices. Of course, the department will insist that these devices are strictly for “officer safety”, as if they are actually concerned about your safety. (If you believe that one, give me a call… I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale…) It’s very much like the teacher’s unions insisting that everything they want is “for the children.” (Stop me while I gag.) (NOTE: by the way, I have it on good information that if you download a department “app” on your private phone, in order to re- ceive BPD news, updates, info, etc., they have the capability of access- ing your personal information, text messages, phone records, etc. By all means, be extremely careful about accessing any BPD information via your private phone….) The fact is that the GPS system is already there; modern technol- ogy being what it is. But the question is, who is GPS targeted against, primarily, and who will be the subjects of discipline? The answer is, very simply, patrol force: YOU. GPS will not – and SHOULD NOT – be used to identify the location of specialized units such as the drug unit, the gang unit, intelligence, etc. etc. As we all know, ANYTHING the BPD does is subject to computer hacking, and nobody would advocate or support having criminals know where our investigative units were located at any particular time. Computer hackers are a dime-a-dozen; they can and will quickly hack through anything that our crack I.T. team can put together; that fact has been proven before. (Another note: according to the NewYork Post, Saturday, Nov. 16 th , 2013, page 12, Computer hacker Jeremy Hammond, of the no- torious cyber-terrorist group “Anonymous” was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison. He had hacked into the BPPA’s website and the BPD’s website during the “Occupy Boston” movement in 2012. Nothing is secure…) And GPS will NOT be used to track the movement of unmarked cars assigned to members of the command staff at they leave head- quarters on Friday mornings (Thursday afternoon?) in the summer for West Dennis,Yarmouth, or New Hampshire’s lake region. No, that will not happen. Nor will GPS be used to track the movements of media relations-assigned cars or any of the myriad of fakes and phonies who are assigned unmarked department cars from various and sundry units that operate underneath the radar screen. (no pun intended). No, GPS be targeted solely at the officers and supervisors who perform the basic police service of answering radio calls. Some little puke behind a desk at HQ who got his job through a local politician will be examining a computer screen and questioning why this car or that car hasn’t moved in a while, or why cruiser “X” hasn’t been sent to radio call “Y”, since they appear to be closer to the source of GPS: who’s it directed at?… You guessed it! the radio call. The human factor of common sense police dispatchers will be replaced by drones tracking blips on a computer screen. A bu- reaucrat sitting behind a desk will critique the actions of experienced police officers who have answered radio calls for many years. I fully understand that the technol- ogy exists, and that the department owns the cruiser and the portable ra- dio. I get that. But the only ones who will be affected and disciplined will be the street-level patrol officers and supervisors. And the consequence will be that many good officers will seek to remove themselves from the most basic of police functions, that of answering radio calls for police service and emergencies. Concerned about our safety??? Please, don’t lie to me. Big brother is here. Patrol work is rapidly becoming unappealing and undesirable. The patrol force will be on pins and needles, worry- ing about whether their movements will be tracked by some little snit watching a computer screen at headquarters. And if that’s what they want, that’s what they’ll get…. By James Carnell, Pax Editor