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Municipal Madness

Tim Knight from Slope of Hope's picture




 

From the Slope of Hope: Only a government employee could point to a 99.5% failure rate and declare it a success.

Look no farther than my local newspaper this morning: the city of Menlo Park (which is an affluent superb like Palo Alto, but even whiter and more sheltered) spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment to read the license plates of all the cars passing by certain intersections. (We'll set aside the creepiness of the surveillance and just focus on the economics here.)

The latest quarterly report came out, and out of 198,286 license plates read, 204 of them were brought to the attention of authorities as "wanted" vehicles. OK, cool. Looks like we're getting some hits here and and go grab some criminals, right, boys?

The problem is that 203 of the 204 weren't "wanted" at all. The plates were all misread. There was one - count 'em, one - license plate out of the 198,286 which was indeed a plate from a stolen car, and the police captain (which, around here, is a quarter-million dollar year salary) assures the public that the license plate readers are "working properly" since, after all, they did button down one vehicle (which, if I may speculate, was probably worth, oh, about ten thousand bucks or so).

Suffice it to say that the hundreds of thousands spent on the equipment - - to say nothing of the time and effort involved from the police force (each member of which enjoys a six-figure salary) probably is a substantially greater sum than the value of the single vehicle retrieved. Here ya go:

0727-menlo

 

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Tue, 07/28/2015 - 07:46 | 6362237 Promethus
Promethus's picture

I see future HSA material here.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 07:24 | 6362186 besnook
besnook's picture

everyone in the usa should have to serve 6 months in the county jail upon their 18th birthday to pay for all the future crime they will commit. maybe that will satisfy the zionazi police state.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 02:52 | 6361945 Skateboarder
Skateboarder's picture

Ugh... fuck Menlo Park - the skatepark, though interesting to skate, reeks of overentitled grommet faggots who ruin the skatepark vibe. Greer skatepark a few exits away in PA is much better. Boy I've knocked the wind out of myself with some hard slams in that park... always a great time:

Some average skaters at Greer

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 03:39 | 6361992 jeff montanye
jeff montanye's picture

beware the bruised or broken rib.  those suckers can take a month for the pain to stop for a cough or sneeze.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 05:28 | 6362050 Macon Richardson
Macon Richardson's picture

Pussy!

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 08:01 | 6362275 willwork4food
willwork4food's picture

Us skatters eat broken ribs for breakfast.

Then go to work.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 01:24 | 6361871 Ajax_USB_Port_R...
Ajax_USB_Port_Repair_Service_'s picture

I think it would be more efficient to set up manned checkpoints at certain intersections. The police could then stop and ask each driver passing through the checkpoint;             'Are you driving a stolen vehicle?'

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 03:23 | 6361975 OldPhart
OldPhart's picture

It's not so funny when they're actually doing it.  Fucking roadblocks as you're trying to get home after a long days work, "license and registration" after sitting in a long god-damned line of other pissed off private workers.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 02:06 | 6361919 tc06rtw
tc06rtw's picture

 
 … or shoot them first, to facilitate a thorough check & insure the officer’s safety.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 00:39 | 6361806 sodbuster
sodbuster's picture

>" One person whose stolen car we've found would say they're working properly, " Dixon said. < Maybe, maybe not. A good share of them would say keep the car, gimme the insurance money.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 01:14 | 6361858 A Nanny Moose
A Nanny Moose's picture

Fascism demonstrated for anyone who cares to look.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 00:41 | 6361808 sodbuster
sodbuster's picture

WTF? $190k for a police officer- $200k plus for a sargeant? ??????

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 07:55 | 6362264 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

The key is that over $127K was spent on technology.

Never mind that it doesn't work, "break a window" is "winning!"

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 03:21 | 6361972 OldPhart
OldPhart's picture

Sit at a CPA office reviewing taxes for California Highway Patrol, Teachers, Municipal Employees...(all of which whine about being underpaid) and you soon realize that state workers are making roughly 2/3 of the equivalent private wage.  I saw CHP in annual earnings over $250k due to overtime, hazard pay and special training.  Mid-level teachers making $150k while protesting that they were only making $30k.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 00:58 | 6361837 Tim Knight from...
Tim Knight from Slope of Hope's picture

The magic of unions.

 

Around here, tree trimmers - - I'll say it again - TREE TRIMMERS - - make $125,000.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 08:54 | 6362375 Grosvenor Pkwy
Tue, 07/28/2015 - 08:19 | 6362307 Grosvenor Pkwy
Grosvenor Pkwy's picture

Tree trimming is difficult and dangerous work. Very few men have the skills and physical strength to do it.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 01:11 | 6361854 A Nanny Moose
A Nanny Moose's picture

around here, we could hire 4 illegals for that amount. The difference being that the illegals will actually get the damned job done.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 08:25 | 6362313 Grosvenor Pkwy
Grosvenor Pkwy's picture

The Latinos are generally good workers, but usually they work as helpers, picking up branches and raking up after the job. I have never seen them do the serious tree work, such as removing large broken branches by crane, roping the branch while suspended in the air from a line.

Tue, 07/28/2015 - 00:57 | 6361833 MrTouchdown
MrTouchdown's picture

And you don't even have to fuck

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