Never in my life have I seen so many police departments so dependent on anonymous tippers. Now, I do concede that they can be instrumental but before anonymous citizens tip, they must first be confident that they can remain anonymous; otherwise, they place themselves and their families at risk for retaliation. Quite frankly, I dont fully trust police departments to maintain that anonymity. Im not saying theyll spread it over the news (although if you anger the wrong person, they might), but just gossiping over their morning coffee might disclose a source. Furthermore, what happens when a tipper is outed when he/she is dragged into court to validate whey they witnessed and reported? Finally, what happened to old-fashioned investigations? Stakeouts? Surveillance cameras? I suppose I just need something to gripe about, but it seems that too often, people nowadays merely want the easy way out. It seems that, in the past, police invariably got their man through hard work, long hours, and intelligent deduction. Now, they seem to be content to sit back and broadcast some Hey, somebody call me and tell me who did this! public plea without being able to guarantee absolute anonymity. And that is merely my two-cents worth.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 01:02:42 +0000