MASON CITY – The Mason City Council will consider approving for hire two new police officers at Tuesday’s regular meeting.
The council will consider hiring Dan Borchardt and Cody Brown. Both men have completed pre-hiring requirements and must pass a pre-academy physical testing.
The Mason City Police Department has three vacancies at this time and has said in the past that finding qualified persons has been a problem. The department said in a City Hall memo that it is compiling a certified hiring list.
The starting wage for the two new officers is $21.01.
We need better cops not newer ones, when they are focused on underage drinkers over people stabbing and shooting each other they need re-trained. I AM a longtime resident of Mason City and the officers USE to be really good here but those people are gone now and we are stuck with alot of officers that stay away from the bad areas and stay in the better ares as much as possible. The other FACT is we need the judges to stop letting the ones that do get caught off so damn easy. People that slice another persons throat getting 60 days in jail is BS. Just sayin….
@CitizenX-I don’t believe it is the cop on the job that is at fault. They are told by their shift commanders where to go and what to concentrate on. I am sure the commanders are told by their bosses and so on. As you can see, we don’t have a officer on the beat problem, we have a management problem. That should not come as a surprise to anyone in Mason City. You can bet the farm that they are told to concentrate on anything that will generate revenue.
@Citizen X-The rest of your comments I completely agree with.
@ LVS- You are dead on with the officers being told to concentrate on anything that generates revenue. Traffic stops and parking tickets are the main ones. The police chief has even spoken publicly about traffic stops being a focus of the department. Officers have been chewed out in their daily briefings for failing to write enough parking tickets. Some have also been given a ‘verbal warning’ for failing to do enough traffic stops.
So, while garages and vehicles are being broken into, officers are more concerned with traffic stops and parking tickets, so as to not be reprimanded. This way the shift supervisors have beautiful statistics to show the bosses, and the bosses have beautiful numbers to show the city council, mayor, and administrator.
Whether the calls and cases they respond to are thoroughly investigated is anybody’s guess. That cuts into the time they would’ve spent generating numbers for the bosses and the bosses’ bosses.
I understand traffic stops are important, but when the focus is on the quantity more so than the quality, well, we are seeing the results of that.
It’s kind of like how some breakfast cereals make people fat and probably cause cancer. They don’t want anyone to look at that, and instead they put on the front of the box how the cereal contains ’19 vitamins & minerals’ or some other beautiful number like that.
After looking at all the people in jail. I would say they need about 5 more cops.
It’s the people who aren’t in jail we have to worry about! It has become so bad that everyone will need to have a security alarm and a video camera to catch these criminals. And then, even if they are caught red handed, they will just be turned loose to do it over again. Can a victim of a burglary refuse to let a suspect plea bargain to a lesser charge and force a trial? I sometimes seems as if the only way a perpetrator gets sentenced to prison is if he goes to trial. The victims in this country have no rights any longer.
Unfortunately, no, the victim has little to no say in any plea deal that’s done by the county attorney and defendant/defendant’s attorney. Once it’s in the hands of the prosecution, the ‘victim’ is only considered a ‘witness’ along with any other witness(es). Occasionally the prosecution will consult with the victim before offering a plea deal, however it’s not required, and even if the victim objects, the prosecution can proceed.
I should clarify:
Even if the victim objects to the plea deal, the prosecutor can still proceed with the plea deal. To my knowledge, the prosecutor does not have to consult with the victim at all, and generally does not.
SBT: Thanks for your answer. I don’t like it, but thanks anyway.
@ Katie- You’re welcome. And I’m glad you don’t like the answer, because it means you haven’t become numb to all that it wrong with the system.
Until more people decide they don’t like that this is our reality, nothing will change. The victims of many crimes go unnoticed and unheard, and their interests unrepresented. It takes citizens unifying and holding their elected officials accountable for things to change. This shouldn’t be left to the victims of crimes to turn around and have to fight the system to see justice served.
We currently have a lead county attorney who by all appearances has, for years, been willing to plea down (or not charge the defendant at all) cases that greatly impact the victims (domestic and sexual assaults are ones that come to mind).
We can say we don’t like it, but until we as citizens get organized, and pro-actively look for well-qualified people to replace these local leaders, this will continue. If we don’t, well, then we continue paying people to occupy positions they don’t deserve, simply because no one else is qualified to do it.
This includes current city leadership. We need to be seeking out their replacements NOW!!! (And it shouldn’t be everyone trying to get Matt Marquardt to run for office. He’s doing enough by exposing the truth for us- now we just need to take ownership of our local government again!)
What can we do to voice our opinion on the county attorney? Who do we contact?
Make a petition. Contact the community and ask us all to sign our names. Send them in mails as well as online. And create a gofundme account asking for donations to possibly buy the ownership from them.
@ anonymous- Great question, and I’m so glad you asked, because it’s showing that people do care about these happenings.
To answer your question, there are multiple ways you can voice your concerns.
1. You could contact the county attorneys office directly, however this (if by phone) will then make one of their front office staff field, potentially, a lot of calls. This then prevents that office employee from getting her own work done. (Many bosses hide in their office and have the assistants field the grief for them.) Emails are an option.
2, You can attend the next county supervisors’ meeting, or contact them by phone or email. Their meetings are during the day, and I believe they just had one, so the next one is a little ways off yet. The county supervisors oversee all county issues.
3. You can do this and do the others also: You can begin speaking with your friends and neighbors who live within this county and begin to organize. MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) is an example, albeit on a much larger scale. It takes time and energy, but so does working to pay elected officials who don’t bother to represent your or my best interests.
The leadership in our area are not accustomed to people organizing and making their voices heard. Two of our county supervisors were just re-elected. If I’m not mistaken, they each make good money for the county supervisor position, but Lord only knows what they do, because they haven’t had to answer to their citizens in a VERY LONG TIME!!
They were so sure they were the ones for the job, and good for them. Now it’s time for them to get back to working for the citizens’ best interests and not just cashing a tax-payer funded paycheck!
anonymous:
I’ll have to get back to you later on the specific contact information, as I believe in making it as painless as possible for you, and others, to take action.
When I have more time to locate the contact information, I will post it for you.
Again, I’m very glad that you care. We deserve better than what we’re getting, and it’s time ALL our local elected officials started to realize it.
It should also be noted, judges generally do not go against what the prosecuting attorney recommends for punishment, so all the more reason to expect more out of the C.A.’s Office prosecutors.
I am aware the prosecutors have a large case-load, but if people were held accountable every time, they would maybe only see someone once a year instead of three, four, and five times in a year.
The C.A.’s Office receives every state (not federal charges) criminal case from every law enforcement department in Cerro Gordo county (MCPD, CLPD, CGSO, and all others.)
CONTACT INFO FOR CERRO GORDO COUNTY STAFF:
http://www.co.cerro-gordo.ia.us/courthouse/departments.cfm
Click on the individual links and it will provide you with the appropriate contact info for each (Board of Supervisors, Attorney, etc). I didn’t see an email option for C.A.’s Office, but I do know they have email.
The city should hire these guys. We need more police to stop the damn thefts going on around town. I am really surprised that no one has gotten shot during these thefts. If someone breaks into my house all you bloggers will have something to talk about.
Police do not deter thefts. They only catch thieves.
They are certainly better than nothing.