Stolen Raptor questions

[Gen2Boost]

In for the LOLs

Houston. One of the larger F series dealers around and 3 trucks purchased from there are stolen. Missing from this is that the 2015+ F150 is one of the easiest new vehicles to break into ever made. You can literally pull the door handle out, twist the lock cylinder with pliers - I can almost do it with my bare hands, it’s that easy. Proficient thieves can do it in under 5 seconds.

So there are a lot of F150’s stolen. There are a lot of all marques stolen in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Waco, and cities outside Texas. Even suburbs outside these Texas cities. Because they are notoriously easy to steal, GPS is simple to disable.

Thieves take what is easy to take.

I hope he’s not a trail lawyer. The last thing we need is lawyers mucking our off road shenanigans.

Where does this really happen? Because I’d bet the vehicle theft rate is much lower there.

That’s more like it.

Theft is not a high, medium, or even low priority for LE. Unless the victim is politically connected enough to make an impact on the agency’s management, or the victim is in the same department.

I will admit calls for a “just occurred” vehicle theft don’t come across our radios that often but when they do that’s what does happen and it’s almost always a chase and bail out. What happens more often is someone calling advising a vehicle has been sitting at a location for some time and doesn’t belong to them. Plates come back stolen. We will sit on it for a while to see if it becomes occupied and if not will recover the stolen vehicle. Sht and in the first outcome where it was just reported stolen and everyone gets excited it more often than not ends up being a repo.

And unfortunately administrators main concern is liability which means even if we do get behind a stolen vehicle and it takes off there is a very high likelihood that a supervisor will get on the air and tell you to cut it off as it’s a property crime and if they waffle someone while fleeing the city will get sued and they don’t see it as a risk worth taking. That’s the world we live in now. Wasn’t always the case. Of course the exception is if it was a vehicle involved in a forcible felony like a car jacking, robbery, etc.

 

[smurfslayer]

... Of course the exception is if it was a vehicle involved in a forcible felony like a car jacking, robbery, etc.

Yeah, you jack someone, take a vehicle with a child in it, armed robbery, etc...
that is next level thuggery, requiring next level response.

 

[Gen2Boost]

Yeah, you jack someone, take a vehicle with a child in it, armed robbery, etc...
that is next level thuggery, requiring next level response.

Yeah. The days of being allowed to chase bikes and cars involved in property crimes are long gone, at least for municipal departments like ours. Our highway patrol guys/state troopers however can and will chase you up and down the Florida interstate all day long and no supervisor is calling them off. That’s their playground and as they are state funded they can afford to pay settlements all day long lol

 

[CruiserClass]

Yeah. The days of being allowed to chase bikes and cars involved in property crimes are long gone, at least for municipal departments like ours. Our highway patrol guys/state troopers however can and will chase you up and down the Florida interstate all day long and no supervisor is calling them off. That’s their playground and as they are state funded they can afford to pay settlements all day long lol

We'll still chase for misdemeanors, but are expected to not be a ******* about it. A supervisor is assigned to monitor if nobody volunteers and the supervisor has to justify letting the pursuit continue. We're getting technology options that greatly reduce pursuits, though, including that fun doo-dad that wraps a strap around the rear wheel of the fleeing vehicle.

 

[Gen2Boost]

We'll still chase for misdemeanors, but are expected to not be a ******* about it. A supervisor is assigned to monitor if nobody volunteers and the supervisor has to justify letting the pursuit continue. We're getting technology options that greatly reduce pursuits, though, including that fun doo-dad that wraps a strap around the rear wheel of the fleeing vehicle.

You are guys are lucky that there’s some sort margin to let it continue. We are under a second administration that unofficially continued the no pursuit for non forcible felonies policies adopted by the prior admin aka you can initiate it but as soon as you hear a delta unit get on the radio you already know lol “bolo it to surrounding agencies and have that unit return to the city”. And that unfortunately has also been applied to the “do not chase the group of morons on dirt bikes tearing through your city” which is also a regular occurrence down here. There are however a handful of supervisors that will let it continue if it’s a suspect vehicle from a property crime like a burglary of an unoccupied dwelling just occurred or similar. Either way, the result is local shtheads who know your department won’t let you chase for most non forcible felonies and your crime rate skyrockets. It wasn’t always the case but unfortunately the political climate has driven it towards this nonsense

 

[tabvette]

Yeah. The days of being allowed to chase bikes and cars involved in property crimes are long gone, at least for municipal departments like ours. Our highway patrol guys/state troopers however can and will chase you up and down the Florida interstate all day long and no supervisor is calling them off. That’s their playground and as they are state funded they can afford to pay settlements all day long lol

 

[Gen2Boost]

View attachment 372782

Exactly lol AAA with a gun gets to have all the fun lmao jk just an envious municipal jurisdiction joke

 

[tabvette]

Even our Pursuit Policy is slowly changing. We used to chase you till you crashed or gave up. But after one of our Troopers on the east side of the State was charged with second degree murder by our Attorney General for a crash, The supervisors have been calling off pursuits much more often, Myself included. Sometimes you have to try and save the Troopers from themselves.

 

[smurfslayer]

Yeah, none of us wants to lose our Raptor to a POS thief. OTOH, there has to be consequences for stupid behavior on both sides of the badge.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1999/10/29/charles-county-state-officials-liable-in-death-tied-to-deputy/ff4f21e5-4444-4063-8d7b-113c8fe278d9/

"According to the lawsuit, Powell, who was off-duty, was traveling at speeds averaging 104 miles an hour to join other deputies pursuing a driver eluding police after a routine traffic stop. Powell was the fifth police car to join the chase and the farthest away, covering 3.6 miles in two minutes, according to the suit.

After deputies realized they were chasing a traffic offender, Powell's supervisor radioed her to break off her pursuit. Powell later testified she did not hear her supervisor's radio broadcast."

That 104 was registered in a 35mph zone. Powell was called off pursuit several times, not just once, and was found to not be using lights or siren.

"Carrington and Damon's vehicle had stopped at a red light and had begun to proceed into the intersection after the light turned green, when their car was struck by a cruiser driven by Charles County Deputy Sheriff Jody Powell, on her way to join officers pursuing a drunk driver. Powell and Damon survived; Carrington was pronounced dead a short time later."

So we may lament the policies that prevent chases, but when you put brainless oxygen thieves like Powell behind the wheel, dead volunteer firefighters are what you get. Then the “reconstruction”, which was found to be not credible and contradicted eyewitness testimony and dispatch records.

I can buy another Raptor (well... Jen Juan or Jen Too anyway), but we can’t buy back the life of a human being.

 

[Gen2Boost]

Even our Pursuit Policy is slowly changing. We used to chase you till you crashed or gave up. But after one of our Troopers on the east side of the State was charged with second degree murder by our Attorney General for a crash, The supervisors have been calling off pursuits much more often, Myself included. Sometimes you have to try and save the Troopers from themselves.

I hear you brother. We live in a world where good cops following policy and doing the right thing get hung out to dry. Not to say that every cop who gets indicted was doing the right thing; when you step on your dik that’s on you and you gotta face that. I’m referring to our coworkers and those outside our agencies who followed policy, who were good fking cops, guys who you knew would handle business on a hot call and back you when sht hit the fan, and were indicted because it was lawful but awful. Back when I was a noob I remember being on a call for a domestic with an old timer on his 36th year with the department. God bless that man. We were just shooting the sht after the call and I’ll always remember what he said…”we are and have always been our own worst enemy. Always check yourself when that call comes out and your pssy gets wet. Some things just aren’t worth it”.

Be safe bro.