LAT Poll: South Pasadena police add armor to their fleet

[ellisonz]

January 31, 2012 | 11:39 am
-- Jon Healey

As a South Pasadena resident, I have few complaints about my city's police. I wish they issued more speeding tickets on my street, but that's a minor gripe. Nevertheless, the news that the 35-officer South Pas P.D. has acquired an armored vehicle for the sake of conducting SWAT operations is more than a little unnerving.

A diverse and neighborly middle-class bedroom community, South Pasadena (2010 population: 25,619) has relied on the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to handle its infrequent need for "tactical operations." By infrequent, I mean not having summoned the sheriff's SWAT team for more than six years. But Police Chief Joe Payne told The Times' Adolfo Flores that local cops are having to depend increasingly on their own personnel to handle SWAT situations, rather than counting on sheriff's deputies.

Then there's the issue of who pays if something should go horribly wrong. "If the Sheriff's Department takes over, they also assume command of operations, which can be problematic because we're still responsible and liable," Payne told Flores.

That's why the South Pasadena Police Department has sent four of its officers to SWAT training, with four more due to receive it soon. These officers will join counterparts from Arcadia, Monrovia and San Marino in the San Gabriel Valley Foothills Special Enforcement Team.

http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2012/01/south-pasadena-police-swat-team-armored-vehicle.html

There is a poll at the bottom of the page.

[msongs]

1. because police have military envy and don't know how to stay in their appropriate place n t

[Dawson Leery]

2. No.

Police have too many powers. They do not need to be militarized.

[Merlot]

3. South Pasadena...where the cops call for back up on traffic violations

because that's about all they have to do.

BTW, 2 bedroom bungalows in SoPas cost around 500K. "middle class" might be if they average out the renters income with the homeowners.

[JDPriestly]

4. This is the biggest waste of money.

South Pasadena has less of a crime problem than the average small town in the Midwest. It is full of middle to upper middle class folks who live in trim houses with manicured lawns and put their kids to bed at 7:00 p.m. so that they will do well in school tomorrow. This is RIDICULOUS.

What is worse this is a typical example of the militarization of our local police forces.

And watch, once the officers get this equipment, they will search and search until they find some excuse to use it.

This is a bad trend. It will lead to a bad end.