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Reasonable police tactic or intentional bias?

Low dollar items are fair for bait, but not a pile of valuable stuff in an unlocked car. Not fond of that kind of baiting, but if low dollar average items it might scare people off. Big ticket stuff is too tempting to truly poor people.

While I am staying OUT for Trump and hardcore partisanship - though will post on issues - prior to the last election I would have liked police to have bait cars with Trump stickers in hard core Democrat areas and visa versa in hard core Republican areas - along with bait yard signs for both - and HIGHLY publicize arrests plus put their mug shots and name searchable by the person's name online to try to scare off people vandalizing cars for political reasons and stealing political signs out of yards.
 
Chomsky said:
There was a time when there were no police stings. I would happy go back to those days. And I'd gladly leave the War on Drugs behind, as well. Ditto for DUI checkpoints and alert dogs circumventing the 4th & 14th Amendments, too. But I'd keep the police body cams, making them mandatory.
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One of the best federal court rulings ever involved a police dog. A police dog with his head out the partly opened police cruiser rear window started barking at a guy just walking by on the sidewalk. So the guy stopped and started barking back. This set the dog off, going crazy barking at the guy - and the guy was crazily barking back loud as he could too making the dog go completely nuts. The officer got out of the car and arrested the guy. He fought it all the way to federal court - and won.

The court ruled that dogs can not have greater free speech rights than a human. If a police dog is free to bark at a human, the human certainly is free to bark back. G R E A T ruling!
 
joko104 said:
One of the best federal court rulings ever involved a police dog. A police dog with his head out the partly opened police cruiser rear window started barking at a guy just walking by on the sidewalk. So the guy stopped and started barking back. This set the dog off, going crazy barking at the guy - and the guy was crazily barking back loud as he could too making the dog go completely nuts. The officer got out of the car and arrested the guy. He fought it all the way to federal court - and won.

The court ruled that dogs can not have greater free speech rights than a human. If a police dog is free to bark at a human, the human certainly is free to bark back. G R E A T ruling!
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The cop should of just opened the back door.
 
:doh

.....Terpay said three people, ranging in age from 21 to 59, were arrested during the operation.......

.....after a weekend with seventy shootings and zero arrests, news of this bait truck operation is an appalling display of misplaced priorities and a step backwards on the path to trust and legitimacy........

Chicago and railroad police use of 'bait truck,' caught on viral video, is criticized by alderman, ACLU - Chicago Tribune
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Looks like a lot of city resources there.....



Protecting profits, not people......

Norfolk Southern Steams Past Earnings Expectations. Can It Continue?
High traffic and improved freight rates pushed Norfolk Southern's results to a record quarter.Jul 26, 2018

https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/07/26/norfolk-southern-steams-past-earnings-expectations.aspx
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Nike surges after beating on earnings and announcing $15 billion in buybacks (NKE) Nike topped analysts' expectations for its fiscal-fourth-quarter earnings and revenue.Jun 28, 2018

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/nike-earnings-q4-2018-2018-6-1027328545
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Intentional bias. An open truck full of designer shoes would still get stolen from in a middle class suburb. Why didn't they just stake out the rail yards to catch the people responsible, instead of targeting people that were probably uninvolved?
 
I don't see a problem with bait trucks.

Catching thieves means those thieves will be out of the neighborhood, and hence, the neighborhoods will be safer for the honest residents.
 
I dont have a problem with bait vehicles or merchandise.
 
justabubba said:
which is why i compared it to a pretty female getting raped. those who raped her were not coerced by her good looks

under your proposed limitations the government LEOs would not be able to buy drugs from drug dealers to make their case, coercing those drug dealers to sell their product to them
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The crazy thing about that sort of 'sting' is that it implies that buying drugs (the act of the officers) is not a crime yet selling the drugs is a crime. Obviously, there would be no drug sellers if their were no drug buyers. If the law simply made possession of the drugs a crime then no such 'sting' would be necessary.
 
These tactics will reduce thievery about the same way entrapping DeLorean reduced cocaine use.
 
Lutherf said:
Residents in Chicago neighborhood claim cops used a 'bait truck' to get them to steal | Daily Mail Online



Basically, the police left a truck full of retail merchandise in a certain neighborhood then staked the truck out to catch whoever might show up to steal the stuff. A "community activist" group is upset that this kind of tactic is "setting up" the neighborhood and creates crime rather than stops crime.

While I can kind of understand the community activist point I'm not convinced by their argument. Ultimately, rooting out the criminals in their neighborhood will make it a safer neighborhood and increase property values. That's GOOD stuff, not bad stuff. Frankly, it's more than a little disheartening that these activists would have such low expectations of their community that they would see the "bait truck" as an irresistible urge for some of the community members. Maybe these activists should take a long, hard look at where the problems in their community really stem from. It may not always be the police that are causing the problems.
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As long as they are doing it in middle class white neighborhoods and wealthy neighborhoods.. then there is no issue.

If they are only using this tactic in poor neighborhoods.... then I have an issue.
 
Moot said:
Since the thefts were occurring in the rail yard...it stands to reason they should've put the bait trailer in the rail yard...instead of a profiling and entrapping a poor community.
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How big of a problem are freight car break ins?
 
Maccabee said:
How big of a problem are freight car break ins?
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The OP article said it was a problem in the rail yards where the freight cars are usually located and stored. But it wasn't a problem in the poor community until the police parked one there as bait.


From the OP article...

"...Susan Terpay, a spokeswoman for the local force, told the Chicago Tribune the operation was used to draw out people who had allegedly been breaking and stealing from freight containers in rail yards nearby...."​
 
Moot said:
The OP article said it was a problem in the rail yards where the freight cars are usually located and stored. But it wasn't a problem in the poor community until the police parked one there as bait.


From the OP article...

"...Susan Terpay, a spokeswoman for the local force, told the Chicago Tribune the operation was used to draw out people who had allegedly been breaking and stealing from freight containers in rail yards nearby...."​
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Oh, never mind.
 
Lutherf said:
Residents in Chicago neighborhood claim cops used a 'bait truck' to get them to steal | Daily Mail Online



Basically, the police left a truck full of retail merchandise in a certain neighborhood then staked the truck out to catch whoever might show up to steal the stuff. A "community activist" group is upset that this kind of tactic is "setting up" the neighborhood and creates crime rather than stops crime.

While I can kind of understand the community activist point I'm not convinced by their argument. Ultimately, rooting out the criminals in their neighborhood will make it a safer neighborhood and increase property values. That's GOOD stuff, not bad stuff. Frankly, it's more than a little disheartening that these activists would have such low expectations of their community that they would see the "bait truck" as an irresistible urge for some of the community members. Maybe these activists should take a long, hard look at where the problems in their community really stem from. It may not always be the police that are causing the problems.
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I saw this tactic used in another city but to cover themselves there were signs posted in the parking lot.
BAIT VEHICLES IN USE or words to that effect.

Bait or not, no one should be breaking into vehicles to steal anything.
If they have that in their heart, then bust em'.
 
IMO this technique can put innocent people in danger, bystanders, observers, people in the vicinity that might be seen as potential witnesses. Or 'good samaritans' that might try to stop them.
 
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