015 Trials and Tribulations

Here's what happens when manpower shortages meet off-duty life and it's run into the ground by incompetent, over-promoted, "merit" hacks like First Amendment violator Barb West:

• So, I looked for something regarding this matter and didn’t find anything. I will say this, in 015. we had heard rumors that time due was going to start being denied based on man power. We were never told exactly what that meant and were also told we weren’t going to know until three days before we expected to get the day off.
  
  Well, I never had a second thought about, because like everything else on this job, until it ACTUALLY happens, it doesn’t really mean much. Well, now it has happened. In 015 Commander BW and Capt S decided to deny time due for Saturday April 20th . There were 8 people requesting the day off and 4 needed to be denied. The WC was instructed to go by seniority. Well, that left 2 of the 4 not being able to go to their own partners wedding and another not able to go to his daughters birthday party. It was overheard when I cop had asked her about time he requested off because he was going to be out of town, her reply was, “We’ll see. It’s time you officers start taking a more personal interest in the District”. Are you kidding me? You want me to be more concerned about the community then you do with our own partners or our own daughters???? MAYBE, if you gave me OT for attending all these prayer vigils and crap when off duty, more officers would attend. Not that it would matter because we would be denied our time off.
  
  Commander BW, is so scared of losing her job as Commander that she works probably 18 hours a day EVERY day and micro manages more than any other Dist CO I have ever worked for. When Commander WG left, he told Commander BW, this (015) is a great place to work with some of the best and hardest working officers in the city, don’t scew it up… well…. Guess what she came and did???? She is a mindless pawn who knows nothing about policing the STREETS, and obviously knows nothing about actually LEADERSHIP. Someone should tell them when they give CO’s their Star, leadership is earned from your troops, not given to you with this star.
  
  I just wonder how the powers that be, have come to the conclusion that denying time, keeping officer away from their families and canceling their plans will make this city safer. There’s nothing like have disgruntled, unhappy cops on the street. In 015 there are more Tact Teams and Mission teams then any other Dist in the city. There are also less officers in 015 then most districts in the city. So when you do the math, there are far fewer cops that are able to take time, since they are all on tact or a mission team.
  
  I know almost all of us hated JFed, BUT, he managed to keep down crime (by manipulating the numbers, but regardless) without denying cops their time. At least he was able to figure out, a happy cop is a working cop. Funny thing is, he wasn’t even the police!!! Oh wait, and he was also able to do it before they closed districts, and disbanded units in an effort to put “more cops on the streets”.
  I am not sure how we can even try and show them this isn’t the way to handle the manpower issue. Maybe since OUR time due means nothing, we ALL need to start checking the money box. Maybe what city hall sees the Comp Time money go through the roof, they will inform the Supt, he is an idiot!!!

We're hearing more and more of this citywide. The FOP had a note posted a few weeks ago about calling them immediately in the event of Time Due being denied for any reason, especially if it was denied with under 72 hours notice. In these cases, you may be eligible for extra pay based on the Contract violation. However, that isn't going to help in the event of missing a wedding, birthday or other scheduled event.

This needs to be addressed, especially in light of upcoming summer events like graduations, vacations, reunions and everything else that summer entails.