baldeagle wrote:This is exactly why I won't volunteer for the program.
I get it if this is a employer policy. But these are voluntary activities. The downside of not following the policy is what? A lack of integrity and being dismissed from the program - in the event that something occurred where a firearm was necessarily unconcealed? I'm generally willing to follow the rules, but this is a case that might warrant another type of behavior in my mind.
From running an HOA, I understand why (as an organization) we might not want to "authorize" armed men patrolling the neighborhood, for simple liability reasons...
What's the difference in being part of an HOA neighborhood watch and doing your own patrolling and knowing who to call?
This is exactly why I would/will never be involved in anything my city has like this. I'm a good neighbor & have no problem picking up my phone to report whatever needs reporting.
“I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant”
NRA- Life member
TSRA - Conditional Life Member
ScottDLS wrote:If I wanted to work as a cop for free, I would do the TCLEOSE certs and sign on with my county as a reserve deputy. I don't want to be a "kind of" cop. Most of the folks I've met in my town's Citizens Patrol are young people getting experience before they study criminal justice in college or try to get into a police academy.
Over the years, we get a lot of 'repeat threads', where the same topic is discussed anew. This is one of them, and (as has happened previously), this one has devolved until the conversation suggests that people want to 'play cop'. It has happened in the past: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=38861.
No, ScottDLS, you didn't specifically say that in this thread, but the conversation is heading in that direction so I'd like to nip it in the bud.
Nobody is suggesting being a cop, or a kind of cop, or any of that. It's just a neighborhood program which allows people to drive around and report suspicious activity that may take place. The demographics of our particular neighborhood program is disproportionately staffed by senior citizens with nothing but time on their hands during the daylight hours - so they volunteer to patrol for an hour or two a month (some more than others, of course). Very few of the participants have either the time or the ability to get their TCLEOSE certs, but they want to contribute to the safety of their community in an organized program.
Suggesting that any of them are wannabe cops (or any other designation) needlessly demeans the fact that they just want to help in a small way. None of them is expected to intervene, and I doubt any of them plan to.
By accepting the HPD sponsorship, the neighborhood is granted permission to post signs reminding outsiders that the homes are being watched actively by neighbors (instead of passively via nosy neighbors through kitchen windows), and the formality of the program makes it easier for the neighborhood to recruit more volunteers.
However, since I won't volunteer for a program that, by its very nature, will require me to break its rules in order to participate (because I'm not going to disarm), I choose not to do so. But that in no way lessens the value of the service that my neighbors provide to us. I just get irritated when folks suggest they're playing cop - so please forgive me if I've upset the apple cart here.
The ones in my town drive around in a marked patrol car provided by the Town which is why I said "I" don't want to be a "kind of cop". As well as not wanting to be unarmed. The people that I noted DO possibly want to be cops. That's fine for them, but not for me. If I'm too old, young, infirm, busy... to be a cop...which I am not, I still do not prefer to help my neighbors while unarmed with a target on my back. For the guys that do, good for them, but they shouldn't complain that the city won't let them carry unless they do the TCLEOSE cert.
4/13/1996 Completed CHL Class, 4/16/1996 Fingerprints, Affidavits, and Application Mailed, 10/4/1996 Received CHL, renewed 1998, 2002, 2006, 2011, 2016...). "ATF... Uhhh...heh...heh....Alcohol, tobacco, and GUNS!! Cool!!!!"
Since retiring, I have covered 17,157 miles around in my neighborhood on foot and armed. It amounts to 60 hours per month, The guy in charge of the program being discussed here would like adding my hours to his published total each month in the neighborhood newsletter, I suspect. But rules are rules. The patrolling constables all know me by sight, of course, and have no clue if I am carrying or part of the citizens on patrol organization, nor do they care. They know that if I see anything suspicious, I would call their dispatcher.
