John, I was reading through some of the old posts and thought I would make comment on this one about squad cars.

I have decided from now on I’m gonna say what I think. I have been quiet too long. Of course I usually get to ranting on about other things.

I will add first that in my opinion leasing three crown vic’s was stupid. They are gas hogs. But I don’t have to worry about patrolling in one, I am a trouble

maker so I will be driving the biggest piece of crap we have.

Going on your comment about having two squads, the chief taking one home, to answer back up calls.

First you can’t expect the chief to set around his house waiting on calls.

He has a family, he hunts, he plays golf etc…. His personal life can’t stop just because he’s the chief.

Especially for the peanuts he works for.

Say we only have two cars.

The officer on duty has one, the chief has one. Three other officers have to go to court to answer to the charges on the bad guys they have arrested. Do you expect these officers to drive their personal cars to court, at their expense.

They already don’t receive any compensation for getting up, and setting in court most of the time for four or more hours, almost every Monday morning.

You have to keep in mind like everything else, Bicknell last, so we get to set their longer than the other departments, and that’s usually after working the night shift Sunday night.

Pick any insurance company and call them. Ask them if you were a police officer and sometimes had to use your personal car for police work, how much the rates would increase.

Call a different one and ask If they had you insured, you were a police officer, and got called out on an emergency, and you were involved in an accident would you be covered if you were found at fault.

Call a third one and ask them if you were a police officer, and had one of those little magnetized emergency lights that you stick on top of your car so you can get through traffic in an emergency, and you had an accident would you be covered.

Unless things have changed I think you will be surprised at the answers you will get.

O’yea and who’s paying for my gas and the wear and tear on my vehicle to use it for city business.

I can’t afford to give anything else to this city.

Especially since my pay has been cut!

It is obvious that if something were to happen in my personal vehicle while doing city business.

They would hang you out to dry.

I was around back in the day when we had two police cars.

One was the chief’s car, and it wasn’t to be touched.
The other one after three shifts, and four officers drove it.

It was trashier than a taxi cab in the Bronx.

We had to drive it on bald tires, the driver’s seat was propped up with a three foot 2X4, you had to drive through town in the winter with the windows down to keep from being overtaken by the exhaust fumes, didn’t make much difference because the heat didn’t work anyway.

This car was less than a year old.

No one car can hold up to the kind of abuse that a police car goes through, keeping it running twenty four hours a day.

I forgot to add that in this time period we did have to drive our own cars for city business, like backing up other officers, court, out of town training, to the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy.

And we were never reimbursed for the gas or mileage, or time.

A third car for a pool car isn’t a bad idea, and would make things better.

You could even assign one officer to take the pool car home to run back up calls.

But then you have to pay him for making himself available.

Of course the city doesn’t pay overtime, so that would be volunteer. Volunteer at time and one half doesn’t go far in today’s economy.

Then there is court time. All Officers attending court could ride together, then they could all wait for each other to get done, and if everyone gets done before noon (about four hours each) and doesn’t have to go back for afternoon court (about six or seven hours each, after working all night) that would work out great.

Wait what difference does that make.

We don’t get overtime.

But we will!

I no longer have a take home car so part of this doesn’t apply to me.

I have hundreds of times used my personal vehicle for police business, and have even had to use it to patrol with. Seldom if ever will I get called out due to where I have chosen.

No!

Where I have the right to live.

My guidance is still available 24/7 for phone call to answer questions for the lower ranking, and I will respond to the big emergencies.

But I will also add that from the time between Dec 20, 1986, and Feb 8th, 2008, I was the first one, and most often called out when someone needed something. I think I have put in my time to the city and I have no problem handing that part over to the younger guys.

I was always the one that filled in on an extra shift so someone else’s family time, or off time didn’t get interrupted.

Where has it gotten me?

Well I will tell you. Early promotion to Lieutenant with a pay increase, and then another promotion to Captain with another pay increase.

The Captain promotion would have came sooner than it did but there was an illegal hiring directly to the position about ten or so years ago.

I let it ride because the guy was, and still is a good friend of mine. But I won’t again.

An intelligent boss can see through all the B.S., and knows who really does what at their job, and I put my trust in past administrations and it paid off. I was recognized with the promotions.

I am gonna have to be up front and say, with this administration I don’t trust the Board Of Works, they will have to earn my respect, and it will not be forced on me.

I will not bow down to someone just because they are in control.

What I really hate is when the new administration came in and kicked me to the curb, and if you read the papers, one of the BOW members stated, “He is no longer an asset to the city”. What the hell does he know?

He’s a maintenance man, and has no way been involved in city government long enough to make a statement like that.

I think he may turn out to be a good councilman; In fact I voted for him and am not yet completely sorry I did.

And nothing was said about the fire chief who lives outside the city limits, or the police chief who will be moving out of the city limits when his house is completed.

But he and other council members need to base their decisions on what they know, or have the brains to find out for themselves by going to the source.

Not falling into the spreading of the grapevine rumor mill that Bicknell is so well known for, or decision making just to please the mayor, or city attorney.

Be accountable for a decision right or wrong because that’s what you believe, or know to be right, and admit to making a decision even if it’s wrong.

I have yet to hear much about the council itself, but someone on there needs to step up, and make the BOW accountable for some of the decisions they are making, and why, and they in turn need to verify what they are told, and not believe it just because the mayor or city attorney said it.

Of course most of them have no clue what goes on behind closed doors.

Not that it makes much difference now because if things keep going the way they are Bicknell will be a ghost town within the next five years, but other than the housing market, the first few things people look at before they move to a new city are the Police and Fire Departments.

If the city has a professional well staffed police department they will feel safe, and the city will appeal to them.

If they have a good fire department, they not only can get lower insurance rates, but they feel safe that if they do have a fire they won’t lose everything they own, and the city will appeal to them.

If you were to set down and figure the cost to purchase a house in Bicknell, and a house in Vincennes, then add the cost of utilities, with the higher purchase price of a comparable house in Vincennes (quality not dollar amount) , you are probably going to be spending the same money a month.

We have
doctors,
dentists
Most every church denomination
Ambulance Service
Two Grocery Stores Drug Store
Bars & Clubs if ya like that sort of thing
Golf Course
Two Parks & Swimming Pool
North Knox School System is a plus
New Waist Water System like it or not, is a plus
Eventually a new water plant, like it or not it’s gonna happen, will be a plus,
it hasn’t worked properly I know for at least fifteen years when they shut down the salt tanks used to soften the water.

So what’s left to bring people to Bicknell?

What’s going to make people want to live there and pay the extra price to drive to Vincennes and surrounding communities to work?

1. Public Services (Police & Fire Protection)
2. Get Rid of the abandon houses, junk cars, and piled up garbage
3. Keep the druggies out. ( a drug sniffing dog would help)
4. Get as many as possible rental houses sold to new family’s that will improve them (There are grants for this)
5. Make the Fire Chief who is also the City Inspector for rental property with strict guidelines.
6. Improve and expand the parks. Grants available
7. Most Importantly – Bring the small town feeling back to Bicknell.

Where you are looking over your shoulder to see which of your neighbors is coming to help you, instead of looking over your shoulder to see who is sticking that knife in your back.

Some may tell me to shut up because I am no longer a resident of Bicknell, but I still do have family and hundreds of friend that I have made over the years, and still work there. Even though I was not born there I still consider Bicknell my home town.

Heck, ya never know I may move back in twenty, or thirty years and run for mayor.

Douglas A. Daugherty