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[SalmonGod]

I'm really curious how long the NYPD's work slowdown is going to continue, and what sort of aftershocks will follow when it ends.

[smeeprocket]

The slowdown has been a serious boon to the city. Let's hope they continue to pseudo-strike.

So I liked a page on facebook, Cop Block, yea that was a bad idea, there are a lot more examples of terrible things police officers have done/are doing than I knew about.

[Arcvasti]

Wait, let me get this straight:

-No one likes the police because they're basically all megadouches[And then some]
-So NYPD decides to go on pseudo-strike to show everyone how necessary their services are.
-No one wants them to start up again, because they're either a detriment or extraneous.

That would almost be hilarious if the issue here was less serious.

 

[smeeprocket]

http://republicbroadcasting.org/why-good-cops-stay-silent/

[SalmonGod]

The slowdown has been a serious boon to the city. Let's hope they continue to pseudo-strike.

So I liked a page on facebook, Cop Block, yea that was a bad idea, there are a lot more examples of terrible things police officers have done/are doing than I knew about.

Take Cop Block with a grain of salt, though.  They push their agenda pretty strongly.  Any case they present, you need to look up other sources for.

But yeah... there are a lot more examples than anyone realizes.  There are Eric Garners and Michael Browns nearly every day.  That is not an exaggeration, and it's been this way for years.  It just so happens that Occupy set the stage for heightened awareness of policing problems, which has made it possible for some angry and determined communities to push a handful of examples into mass public awareness within a short time frame, finally putting a very long overdue spotlight on the issue.

[smeeprocket]

The slowdown has been a serious boon to the city. Let's hope they continue to pseudo-strike.

So I liked a page on facebook, Cop Block, yea that was a bad idea, there are a lot more examples of terrible things police officers have done/are doing than I knew about.

Take Cop Block with a grain of salt, though.  They push their agenda pretty strongly.  Any case they present, you need to look up other sources for.

Yea I have to do that with some of my liberal sources, as well. It gets frustrating when there are plenty of examples of the subject that are just awful, and you have sources making up stuff instead of reporting on those awful things.

[SalmonGod]

I wonder what others here may think of this?

Reminds me of an idea I had a couple months ago for a phone app that crowdsources tracking of police activity.  You leave the app open whenever you're out and about.  Every time you see a cop, you tap the screen.  If you see a traffic stop or arrest or something, you swipe.  If you see police involved in some violence, you swipe a quick circle or something.  When you do these things, your gps location is uploaded and timestamped, and all these reports are aggregated on top of google maps with an expiration relative to the type of sighting (i.e. a tap remains for a few minutes but a circle remains for a day).

[Levi]

I wonder what others here may think of this?

Reminds me of an idea I had a couple months ago for a phone app that crowdsources tracking of police activity.  You leave the app open whenever you're out and about.  Every time you see a cop, you tap the screen.  If you see a traffic stop or arrest or something, you swipe.  If you see police involved in some violence, you swipe a quick circle or something.  When you do these things, your gps location is uploaded and timestamped, and all these reports are aggregated on top of google maps with an expiration relative to the type of sighting (i.e. a tap remains for a few minutes but a circle remains for a day).

Love the link(apart from the pop-up), good for them.

I'm not sure what the point is of tapping when you just see a police officer?  Or is it a "This policeman is currently behaving himself" sorta deal?

[Frumple]

I'm not sure what the point is of tapping when you just see a police officer?  Or is it a "This policeman is currently behaving himself" sorta deal?

Tracking where and how much certain areas are getting attention, presumably. I rather imagine you'd see some really interesting patterns showing up if the considered app hit decent saturation and usage.

[Zangi]

It would be interesting to see where their common speed traps are...

But... the biggest fear that the cops will incite: "They can be tracked and ambushed with that sort of crowd-tracking."
You can also expect getting some close-up unwanted attention if a cop does find that you are feeding into the crowd-tracking too.  Possibly followed by a beating, trumped up charges and a free ride in a cop car to the local lock-up.  >.>

[SalmonGod]

I can think of lots of potential uses.  Avoiding speed traps.  Giving anyone with the inclination notification that there's shit going on that needs to be filmed, etc.

Edit:

And yeah... I can also imagine lots of unintended consequences too, which is why I haven't bothered with entertaining the idea too much.

[Levi]

I dunno, avoiding speed traps seems like a bad use of it.  I'd rather see something to track abuse rather than to avoid getting caught at a crime.

[SalmonGod]

I dunno, avoiding speed traps seems like a bad use of it.  I'd rather see something to track abuse rather than to avoid getting caught at a crime.

Aiding in crime is one of the unintended side-effects I was thinking of, but I wouldn't include speed traps in that.  Speed traps are fucking ridiculous predatory abuses of the law that deserve to be circumvented in any way possible.

[Frumple]

Personally a liiiiitle unsympathetic towards people that want to speed through residential areas, myself. Which... is what makes up most "speed traps" I've seen, at least in this area. Maybe don't go eighty through a place people walk around? Just fucking maybe?

[SalmonGod]

The speed traps in my area are places where the speed limit just randomly drops by 10 mph for a distance of only a couple blocks for no discernible reason (example less than two minutes from my place is not residential - in fact the speed limit increases when it hits a residential area), and police can almost always be found camping there.  Or the three blatant cases I've seen in my time living here where they added lanes and improved the quality of a road, simultaneously lowered the speed limit, and posted cops there non-stop. 

One of those cases was a major interstate running past the city, where they made the pavement much, much smoother and flatter than it had been, replaced the ditch median with a nice concrete divider, straightened out the on/off ramps, added 4 lanes, and then reduced the speed limit by 15 mph for just those few miles of road when construction was finished and had at least 3 officers camping the area 24/7 for the next two years.  Then after a couple years, they bumped the speed limit back up to what it used to be and the cop presence disappeared.  That's a speed trap.