Any of you small-towners have problems w/ an EXTREMELY overbearing police force?

Athens, GA. The cops are fat, stupid, zealous, and everywhere.

Interesting. I went to school there ;)

But yeah I can attest to the general worthlessness of rural GA cops.

Oxford, Mississippi. Police are awful there.

The solution? Move away and into a city. There, actual crime occurs and needs to be solved, thus occupying cops' attention and time.

Let me see if I understand this correctly. In Durango, when you violate a traffic law, you get pulled over and ticketed? Wow. Talk about unfair. Sounds like a terrible place for criminals. I'd move, if I were you. Where I live, I can drive 100 mph, drunk, while texting, and the local cops just give me a friendly wave as I swerve by.

And cops being fired for unethical behavior? That just burns me up. They should be protected from disciplinary actions like there are elsewhere.

Nope. I've lived in State College, PA and Ithaca, NY over the past few years (undergrad and grad school). I've found the police in both towns to be just fine.

HoodieFace wrote:

Let me see if I understand this correctly. In Durango, when you violate a traffic law, you get pulled over and ticketed? Wow. Talk about unfair. Sounds like a terrible place for criminals. I'd move, if I were you. Where I live, I can drive 100 mph, drunk, while texting, and the local cops just give me a friendly wave as I swerve by.

And cops being fired for unethical behavior? That just burns me up. They should be protected from disciplinary actions like there are elsewhere.

I hope you get hit with a $100 speeding ticket next time you're doing 30 in a 25.

holinshed wrote:

Athens, GA. The cops are fat, stupid, zealous, and everywhere.

I frequent downtown athens and I can attest to this. Cops wait outside of bars to look for people to lock up for looking a tiny bit drunk and they're freaking everywhere during all hours of the day

This does indeed happen in small towns. They don't have enough real police work to do and need to justify their existence and bring in ticket money, so they stalk people and follow them until they figure out something they can pull them over for--like having a tassle hanging from their mirror (obstruction), or having a turn signal that blinks too quickly. Not that these things aren't technically wrong, but it's nit-picky and silly to waste time on such minor things. Meanwhile, kids smoke pot in the high school hallway and they do nothing.

Make friendly with the cops and your troubles will vanish.

I spent most of high school getting followed around town by the police. The ridiculousness peaked when I was pulled over driving 40 in a 40 zone because the roads were wet from drizzle. Then the cop lectured me in front of my girlfriend, implying that I was putting her life in danger just to look cool.

Good times!

I opened a business in a small town 15k and moved here from out of state. I quickly got educated about small town cops.

A). Between city, state and county plus all the volunteer reserve officers there are cops everywhere in our town...any minor issue results in a flood of cops arriving onsite. These guys are bored and looking for action.

B). They don't pay the city cops well, they all own side businesses. Such as lawn service, janitor service, coffee service. The local cops all expect you to use their business...I was told "it would be in your best interest to buy your coffee from me". Nice

Small town cops are a different breed. Don't piss them off.

No sh*t. They are literally EVERYWHERE. I got pulled over not even 1/10 of a mile from my neighborhood which is down a quiet country road. The reason? Dirt covering up my license plate. I've saw two squad cars pull over a guy on a freaking scooter the other day, giving him sh*t on the side of the road.

The icing on the cake was the story behind the statutory rape. The son of the long-standing police chief was caught having a relationship with a 15 year old girl. They quietly dismissed him from the PD, but the DA refused to file statutory rape charges against him! There was more than enough evidence to arrest him for that, the simplest of which being a statement from the girl saying she had sex with him. The girl's parents were furious. If that had been me, I would have been locked up, denied bond, and spent the next year trying to prove my innocence. This is the kind of corrupt bullsh*t we have to deal with around here.

The guy that said go back to the city is absolutely right. I lived in a major metro area for 15 years and rarely had to deal with any cops. And they were typically reasonable. They generally know who is a danger to society, and who's not. These country cops walk around with their f'ing beer guts down to their knees and an enormous chip on their shoulders. I have to go to court in a month, and after that, I am outta here.

I saw*

BarneyFifeMFers wrote:

The icing on the cake was the story behind the statutory rape. The son of the long-standing police chief was caught having a relationship with a 15 year old girl. They quietly dismissed him from the PD, but the DA refused to file statutory rape charges against him! There was more than enough evidence to arrest him for that, the simplest of which being a statement from the girl saying she had sex with him. The girl's parents were furious. If that had been me, I would have been locked up, denied bond, and spent the next year trying to prove my innocence. This is the kind of corrupt bullsh*t we have to deal with around here.

What other action did the girls parents take?

I have no idea. It took some real digging up to find out about this. I don't even think the local paper ran a story on it, one of two from the front range did. The same cop (Chief's son) was involved in a domestic abuse case about a year before I think, and no charges were filed there either.

City of 5,000, the police have nothing to do except f*** with harmless drivers going 10mph over the speed limit.

Yeah, I'm sure there could be a thread about the adult sons of small town police chiefs, too. There are some bad actors in that category, that's for dam-dam

BarneyFifeMFers wrote:

after that, I am outta here.

If you want to leave, fine. Hell, I'd go back to Athens. I love Athens.

If you decide to stay, though, make an effort to get to know the cops. Even just a few of them at the station. Have your wife bake them some cookies or something.

Should you have to do this? No, of course not. But it helps.

If you act stand-offish to cops, you only make the situation worse. Either work to expose the issue or look out for yourself.

I've spent most of my life in DC, but I had a short period of time in Gastonia, NC - before it was a suburb of Charlotte. I was caring for a relative's lakehouse and doing a lot of training. Anyway, as the "new" guy in town who appeared to be a gay weirdo with all of that exercising (I didn't even wear short shorts), I brought on a lot of attention from the cops. One time they even knocked on my door and pretended to not know that I was supposed to be in the lakehouse. I almost got hauled to the station.

After being pulled over WHILE RUNNING and given a hard time, I decided I could either bitch and moan or make it better on myself. I went over to the closest station one afternoon and introduced myself. I basically said, "I am new in town and have been questioned a few times and figured I should let y'all know why I am here." I shot the shit with a few of them, told them I was trying to make the Olympic Trials (which was a way for them to relate to the running) and even discussed USC (South Carolina) football.

I was never hassled again and even got waves during my runs.

This will never work in a med to large city, but can do wonders in a small town.

The police aren't bad here, but the neighborhood watch can be a real downer.