[texdep]

This was motivated by the letter from SPAM thread.

About 20 years ago when I worked in a small central MA town it seemed MSP and locals (as well as other agencies) seemed do work together a lot better. Particularly on the street level.

Some things I remember,

My town had dispatchers that worked out of their homes so didn't have terminals. Our cruisers had the MSP frequency in it and the MSP dispatchers would run our listings etc. for us.

It was very common for a trooper to show up to back us up on a call or stop and was welcomed not questioned.

With one of the interstates going thru our town I remember it was a pretty common occurrence to get a call from a trooper like....." are you anywhere near exit **?.... Can you pop on eastbound and give me a hand with ......?"

The various "regional task forces" ( I was on a B&E Task force) always had a couple of troopers on them. (not to mention the Sheriff Deputies and the fact that the Sheriff would appoint all the members "criminal deputies" to cover any jurisdictional issues)

Not to mention doing coffee breaks together.

What happened to the good ole days??

 

[topcop14]

Thats a Good point. The regional drug task force that my department belongs to has members of the state police on it so I guess the SPs do work with so called LECS. I will see on the street troopers driving buy me on stops often stop and make sure I am all set and vise versa. However I think there will always be friction.

 

[HousingCop]

Long Gone I am afraid. Hell, I remember talking to a Metropolitan cop one week and the next week he wouldn't even look at us because he had a different uniform on. This was around 1993 if I am not mistaken.

I have worked well with others in my sandbox and have no problems because there are plenty of bad guys to go around in the bricks. I routinely get called to back up the Sheriff's on warrant sweeps, Probation / Parole and a myriad of different Federal agencies come in to get their hands dirty.

 

[texdep]

I had forgotten about the MDC. The time period I was reffering to was the 80's and I remember now that you mention it that we got along very well with them also.
We had a "good natured" competion most shifts as to who would get to a really good spot to do stationary radar on one of the "state roads" going thru town first.

I've also started to wonder if the fact that these were the years when most of the locals in central Ma went to the Framingham Academy run by the State Police had anything to do with the better relationships????

 

[EOD1]

well yeah see Super Troppers came out and it was all down hill from there.
do u think it is from the difference in academy training?

 

[Hooah]

I place most of the blame on city cops.

Now to explain my position...

I have never worked with a Trooper who publicly bad mouths town or city cops. I have met an extremely small number of Troopers who look unprofessional and sloppy (and found these were leftovers from RMV police and capital police). 98% of Troopers are smart, sharp, professional and willing to help out and go the extra mile (I believe they get this last value from the high amount of former military in their ranks).

I have worked with very few small town cops who publicly bad mouth other departments or officers. Small town cops are usually pretty hard working but humble. They like associating with other cops and LEO's of every type. They know their town and it's surroundings. They are used to working with P/T cops and receiving assistance from Troopers. In short they are more accepting of other LEO's.

If you work with city cops you are going to get a smart mouthed comment in your first 20 minutes. They always talk shit about troopers and cannot conceive of working with reserve officers or auxiliaries and hate other LEA's working in or near their space.

City cops usually do not have to rely on any other department. They usually have their own detectives, swat, K-9, DARE, IA, etc...
When they work with other agencies they can be difficult and smart-assed.

City cops are usually very knowledgeable and effective in their jurisdictions and perform most of the "dirty" police work (I don't mean crooked) that has to be done on tough streets. Unfortunately your biggest slobs (earings, need of a shave, dirty and/or wrinkled uniforms, poor attitudes) are going to work for bigger departments like Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Worcester etc...

My experience and perception...

 

[Killjoy]

Isn't this a loaded topic....remember that SPAM's job is to protect the interests of the State Police rank and file....

I don't know if ALL city cops are bad, I've worked with cops from Springfield/Holyoke iron triangle, and on the other end of the state in the North Shore area and found that, for the most part, locals are hard working, knowlegeable about the local rats, and gave me very little crap. There are exceptions, of course...there was this one local in Western MA, who gave me some sh*t for making traffic stops in "his" city. When asked some other locals if they resented my presence, they said, "No way!" and in fact took the dissenting officer aside and gave him a "talking to".
Now with that being said.....
It does seem, however, that most the trash talk seems to come from the city police bad mouthing the state police....I don't know why exactly...though I have a few ideas (you don't see the MSP deserting in droves to join local departments). And, HC, I don't know what you are talking about the, with the sainted cooperation between the BPD and Mets; most the former mets I've worked with (and some BPD guys) all say that they hated each other a long time before the merger. There are many stories of BPD/Met brawls spilling out into Hyde Park on a weekly basis.

 

[MVS]

.... There are exceptions, of course...there was this one local in Western MA, who gave me some sh*t for making traffic stops in "his" city.

Sounds like the Chief in Sturbridge... :wink:

 

[dcs2244]

The Boston guys used to refer to the Mets as "squirrel chasers"...there was also a lot of jokes about "Make way for Ducklings" :lol: