kermit (Anonymous) says…

On the surface this does make me wonder why we are turning down an experienced police officer for such a petty reason. It sure would be nice for a change to get some experience in the department instead of having the taxpayers of this community constantly pay for training for all these newbies we keep hiring.

Also, why are we hiring yet another police officer? don't we have enough? Or did we lose an officer after we had paid for his./her training so they could go on the greener pastures?

Before I would pass judgement on this particular situation I would like to hear from the Chief. There may be another side to this story and as head of the department he does have the right to hire whomever he so chooses. I'm guessing there is more to this story than what was posted and I will give the benefit of the doubt to our chief.

However, this does bring up the bigger issue of the constant merry-go-round of police officers in this town. Does anyone know exactly how many officers we have on the payroll here? I'd like to hear from other posters how many officers do you think it takes to adequately protect Baldwin? do we have too many? Not enough? Just right?

I'm honestly not trying to bash the police department –but these are things as a taxpayer whose about had it with the cost of living in BC that I've been wondering about for a while now. Just curious if anyone else has an opinion. After all we are paying for all of this aren't we?

hdlady (Anonymous) says…

On the “official” Baldwin web sight it states that therr are 10 law enforcement officers. I don't know if that includes the chief or not.

retwyocop (Anonymous) says…

I am a retired Wyoming Police Commander visiting family in Baldwin City and I read the article submitted by a disgruntled wife on her husband not being hired by the police department. After reading this article it caused me to reflect on the difficult job our leaders have in balancing hiring qualified individuals for positions in their communities and the scrutiny they are subjected to by members of the community.
It is very easy to say, “well he made a mistake by not hiring a qualified 14 year officer.” Let me try to enlighten you on some things I am sure the Chief will not share with the communtiy openly.
Just because an applicant has a number of years of experience does not make them the best qualified for the position. A chief in his right mind would not hesitate to hire a qualifed 14 year veteran with investigative expereince unless there was some serious issues with this applicant. I will assure you that a new officer having a perceived problem with this applicant because of an issue involving his father-in-law would not keep a Chief from hiring a good applicant with this much experience.
Background investigations include interviewing past employers, co-workers, friends, other departments applied with, current employers and members of the community. This is done to obtain an overall picture of this applicant and ensuring the best qualified is hired. Apparently this applicant has something in his past that would lead the chief to determine that working for Baldwin City would not be in the best interest of the City. This may include questionable work performance, questionable personnel issues or possibly questionable integrity issues. Keep in mind that a poor 14 year employee in his current enviroment will be a poor new employee with your city.
The Chief needs to be supported for his decision to ensure only the best employees with a strong character are employed with your city. Trust his experience and knowledge. I would hope these traits are why you hired him in the first place

kermit (Anonymous) says…

Thanks for your insight retwycop. You made some excellent points and reaffirmed my choice to give our chief the benefit of the doubt. IIn my mind that issue is put to bed.

However, I still have questions regarding the size of our department and its cost to the taxpayers of a town this size. I'd like to hear from others about that issue.

towniegirl (Anonymous) says…

If I'm not mistaken kermit, we have trained another officer to venture to “greener pastures”. I believe one of the officers went to the county. I do feel that we have a large amount of officers for this town. Granted we are larger than we used to be but 10??? I wonder also if that number includes the chief and/or the SRO that the city pays for.

kristisander (Anonymous) says…

disgruntled wife?? well maybe i am but its more than that sir. what is right is right and what is wrong is wrong and the reason the chief gave my husband is petty. i agree with you in your comment that a chief would have to be out of his mind not to hire a cop with 14 yrs experience and you shouldnt assure anyone that a chief would not hire an applicant based on percieved issues that a cop has due to his father in law because that is exactly what happened and that is the reason the chief gave to my husband.
i am not some crybaby wife that is going to whine about my poor hubby not getting a job if it was a good reason. i do take great offense with you making accusations that my husband had serious issues and that is why he didnt get the job and that his background check wasnt good. well lets see–what background check was even done? my husband did check with people at garden city that would of been called in a background investigation and they advised that they never talked with anybody from baldwin. he worked for police dept for 10-11 yrs and was a sergeant and then went to sheriff dept. about 2 yrs.ago. the sheriff office recruited him as well as a baldwin police officer that used to work with my husband also called my husband in reference to the opening in baldwin. that is how my husband got interested in going to baldwin in the first place. he was contacted by a baldwin police officer—my husband was his sergeant when he worked in garden city. he knows my husband and obviously respected him enough to want to work with him again. that is what i am saying, my husband is a respected cop and a good person and please do not question his integrity. the chief also told a couple of people at baldwin how impressed he was with my husband so maybe the chief is just intimidated by good cops with experience.
i know you say you are police commander and it is obviouly hard for you to believe that the reason given as to why my husband didnt get the job is not the real reason. but i can assure you that is the reason and that is why i felt the need to express myself—because it is absolutely ridicuolous. if the reason that my husband didnt get the job was because of a bad background—believe me that would of made sense to me and would of been understandable and a lot easier to swallow than the petty reason that was given by the chief to my husband.
i was home when the chief called my husband and even with my husband getting the bad news and the stupid reason as to why he didnt get hired, my husband remained calm and proffesional just like he always is. obviously where you come from you know about good leadership and probably are a good leader as well if you can see the absurdity in all this. but just because you know about good leadership doesnt mean the chief of baldwin does.

kristisander (Anonymous) says…

also retwyocop– you revealing you are from wyoming gave me a clue–are you related to the father in law in question?? if so you should realize by now that he probably isnt being so truthful as to why he was forced to resign in the first place and even so the fallout that occurred was not my husbands decision. my husband was in a bad position and was forced to investigate a co-worker of his. the findings of the investigation was not just due to my husband—give me a break. if you are not who i think you are—then disregard above comment.

Bystander (Anonymous) says…

Anyone who has ever been involved in recruiting/hiring for a company or organization knows there is a lot more to the process then what kristisander seems to believe. There are many reasons that a person is not selected for a job and most candidates will never know exactly why. Your posts seem driven by emotion and bitterness, which makes me even more suspicious of their merit. If your husband is as good a person/police officer as you say (and I'm not saying he isn't) then he should have no difficulty finding a job in any number of nice little Kansas towns. For reasons that we will probably never be privy to, he was not selected for employment here in Baldwin. You and your family would probably be a whole lot happier if you just let it go and move on with your lives.

kristisander (Anonymous) says…

okay bystander—your suspicious of me?? i am the only one using my real name here. what is so hard to believe that in my origional e-mail all i wanted to do was express my disappointment in not being able to move to baldwin due to we liked it a lot and it was unfortunate that we would not be able to due to the beliefs of an immature cop that doesnt want to work with my husband due to differences that my husband had with his father in law. the chief TOLD my husband that! im not just making that up and its a stupid reason—is all im saying. if it was because of a background check—my husbands boss(the sheriff), his last boss ( the chief) his Lt and his Sgt and his last Lt. etc. would of been called and they were not! it was because of a petty reason! and you better believe i wil sound bitter when people like retwyocop try to make the city of baldwin believe that my husband is a bad person with “serious issues” and then says a poor 14 year employee will be a bad employee for baldwin too—that was out of line and mean and slamming his character. my e-mails were over until retwyocop had to go on a whole different level as well as you too bystander.

kristisander (Anonymous) says…

and dont be so dramatic bystander—not moving to baldwin is not going to cause us to not go on with our lives. baldwin had more significance to me than just my husband working there—my grandpa grew up in baldwin so i thought it would be nice to live there–guess i was wrong.

Bystander (Anonymous) says…

Are you serious? Get a grip. I don't care where you live. I was just pointing out that there is a lot more to hiring employees than you seem to understand. I'm not doubting your side of the story or the other… I don't know the facts of the entire situation (nor do I care to). Move on.

P.S. Please don't send me anymore of your profanity laced, near-illiterate e-mails. Thanks.

kristisander (Anonymous) says…

profanity laced? one word isnt “profanity laced” –again you being dramatic, mental or just a liar. and what is your definition of profanity—wasnt even that bad of a word. dont be such a baby. and your right you dont know the facts but you are the one that gave your 2 cents worth 3 days later. so you should of moved on days ago—this story was old news until you brought it up! i could care less but when someone i know keeps letting me know another blog has been posted—i have to look—so now why dont you drop it.

sawman (Anonymous) says…

Mrs. Sander, have you considered how your whiney illiterate rant might affect your husband's prospects of being hired somewhere else? Have you considered how it might reflect on your participation in KEMTA? Don't you realize that posting contentious remarks containing personal information just paints a target on you? Bitch to your neighbors on Pawnee, not at us, please.

kristisander (Anonymous) says…

im defending myself for crying out loud. why are you guys being so mean? i have been called a liar from how many people here and that there is more to this story etc, etc.. my husbands character was attacked by retwyocop in that he must have “serious issues”. all i was saying is that i thought baldwin was a nice place and i was disappointed in the reason given—that is it. i can only go by what the chief told my husband. bystander wants everyone to believe i wrote a “profanity laced” e-mail to him–which is not true. again sawman i could care less if you know who i am–that is why i am using my real name… unlike everyone else. this is my last comment….im tired of trying to open some type of dialouge with a bunch of negative people. im not the one the started with the downright character attacks. if you look at my first blog, i was praising the people of baldwin and was just disappointed in the chiefs decision that he gave my husband—it probably would of been more professional if he just would of said “things wont work out” instead of actually giving him the reason that he did. my first impression of baldwin has definitely changed—thanks for the insight. TRUCE—i give up.

ozzy (Anonymous) says…

after reading some of these blogs i felt the need to put my “2 cents” in. i dont get the backlash of all this in the first place. its not too hard to understand what Ms. Sanders is saying—whats up with the mean spirited attitude of this town anyway. leave her alone. bystander and sawman can not possibly be over the age of 21 and the e-mail from sawman sounds borderline threatening. more people than you realize do understand Ms. Sanders. and why do people find the need to stick up for the chief of police so much when he cares so little for the city to not even live in baldwin full time.

sawman (Anonymous) says…

I'm not trying to threaten anyone. In an admittedly callous manner I was trying to point out the futility of airing dirty laundry on a public blog like this, and the dangers to someone posting so much personally identifiable information on the internet, not to mention opening yourself up to derision rather than the sympathy you're seeking.

I don't do chat rooms, or facebook, or myspace, or IM. Doesn't that age me a little ozzy? If you were at all familiar with Speakout you'd know I'm usually correcting people's grammar(even though mine is often suspect). I'm not sure any 21 year olds are into grammar, if the internet is any indication. You get a rain check this time. Fact is I'd love to turn the clock back much more than three decades to 21.

It could be that McKenna could have handled things differently but I imagine Kristi's husband would rather know why than to just be left hanging. A “no, things won't work out” would obviously have spared Kristi a lot of consternation. Perhaps he could skip a step and get on with Douglas County. Your utility bills would be 40% lower outside of Baldwin. Kudos to you for your commitment to emergency medicine and to your husband for his service. I can seriously empathize with your desire to leave Garden City for the greener grass back here and am sorry that you missed this opportunity. Seeing the elephants take a swim at the end of pool season once a year isn't much to look forward to.

Bystander (Anonymous) says…

This entire conversation has become so tiring I'm loathe to respond. This shall be my last entry. I was simply trying to point out that I don't think anyone should be up in arms over a situation which they don't know all the details of. I don't find kristisander's posts to be even- handed and impartial (nor would I expect to, necessarily) and I don't think we can judge the situation based upon her opinion alone. That was the only point I was trying to make. I am still flabbergasted at Ms. Sander's responses to all of these posts… she seems not to understand that this forum is for all parties to give their opinion and have discussions, etc. Ms. Sander isn't under attack and need not defend every post with a fiery comeback (or a name calling e-mail).

This conversation ceased to be interesting several posts ago. At this point, I regret contributing to it in any way. Ms. Sander — I am sorry for your angst. I will withhold any additional comments as I'm sure they would only prove to distress you further and leave me viewed as the evil n'er-do-well of Baldwin City… bent upon cruel attack because I don't take your every word as gospel. Suffice it to say, I wish you and your husband good tidings and great joy in all future endeavors.

P.S. Ozzy dear… I surely WISH I was nearer to 21… those days are long past. But thank you for thinking me young. You don't know how happy that makes me. ;)

p_zinzer (Anonymous) says…

Am I missing something, or isn't the word “cop” considered derogatory? I would think the wife of a “police officer” would be hesitant to use the derogatory name for her husband's profession.

sawman (Anonymous) says…

Half a dozen explanations at least have been put forward for this one, including an acronym from “constable on patrol”, which is reminiscent of the story behind posh and quite certainly just as spurious. It is also said to come from the copper badges carried by New York City’s first police sergeants (patrolmen were alleged to have had brass ones and senior officers silver); it is almost as often said to refer to the supposedly copper buttons of the first London police force of the 1820s. Both these stories seem about equally unlikely.

The most probable explanation is that it comes from the slang verb cop, meaning “to seize”, originally a dialect term of northern England which by the beginning of the nineteenth century was known throughout the country. This can be followed back through the French caper to the Latin capere, “to seize, take”, from which we also get our capture.

The situation is complicated because there are — or have been — a number of other slang meanings for cop, including “to give somebody a blow”, and the phrase cop out, as an escape or retreat. Both of these may come from the Latin capere. But it’s suggested that another sense of cop, “to steal”, could come from the Dutch kapen, “to take or steal”. There’s also “to beware, take care”, an Anglo-Indian term from the Portuguese coprador, and phrases like “you’ll cop it!” (“you’ll be punished, you’ll get into trouble”), which could come from the idea of seizing or catching, but may be a variant of catch.

But the “seize; capture” origin for the police sense seems most plausible. So policemen are just those who catch or apprehend criminals, a worthy occupation. And a copper is someone who seizes, a usage first recorded in Britain in 1846.

(the above copied from World Wide Words)

I think we find it a bit derogatory because it's usually the gangsters in movies saying:”you'll never take me alive, copper!” or lawbreakers saying:”the cops are after me”.
In my 1969 print of the American Heritage Dictionary copper is said to be slang whereas the use of 'cop' is informal.

Torch (Anonymous) says…

lol…now you know why you shouldn't be disappointed Kristi.

You've just scratched the surface.

markdunn (Anonymous) says…

Wow. I have a tear in my eye. This almost like the old Speakout!

NanCrisp (Anonymous) says…

Wow! A thread that's actually running past 2 comments. A new record! Now, will this be a real blog? Will all the people who wish they could move to Baldwin join in and tell us their stories of unfulfilled desire? And will Baldwinites pitch in with “Wish we were moving away” entries? Ah, the possibilities!

woofwoof (Anonymous) says…

Well- I'm on the outside- looking in- happily!

kermit (Anonymous) says…

I would have started a new blog but the system won't let me because I have already started another blog. What's with that? Does that mean I can never bring up a new subject? If that is the case then I think I like the old speakout forum better—even with all it's problems.

Maybe we all just need a speakout blog lesson. Jeff, why not write an article about how we are supposed to use this new tool. If you don't think it's interesting enough to the masses in BC to put in print how about posting it on line so those of us who want to use this can figure it out and so it the way it's intended.

sawman (Anonymous) says…

Well kermy, as you can see, you have to blog your own blog. Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? NOT!!!

markdunn (Anonymous) says…

A friend of mine reminded me of a story tonight that made me think of this “blog”, “thread”, “post” or whatever you want to call it. It goes something like this:

An old man runs this gas station on the edge of a small town. One day, he's sitting out front, and a car pulls up. A young couple gets out of the car. The woman walks up to him and says, “What a quaint little town. We just got married, and we are looking for a new town to settle down in, and raise our children.” She then asks the old man, “So what is this town like?”

The old man replies, “Well, the town you live in now, how is that town?”

“Oh lord,” the woman replies, “Everyone in our town is cranky, they back stab each other, the utilty bills are outrageous, there's only a few places to eat, and the gossip is just horrible. To top it off, our main street is a mess, and the only big business in our town get's major utility breaks because they seem to own the town. That's why we want to move.”

The old man looks at her and says, “Well, I hate to tell you this, but our town is just like that town.”

The couple then get in their car and drive off.

A few days later, the old man is sitting out in front of his gas station when another couple pulls up. They get out of the car, and say “Good morning”, and asks him how he is doing. The woman tells him “This is such a beautiful little town. My husband has taken a job in the city, and we are looking relocate to a small town near his job. Can you tell me what it's like to live here?”

The old mans asks, “Well, what is it like where you live now?”

She replies, “Oh, it's fantastic. We have brick lined streets, good neighbors that pull together in good and bad times, and we can go to sleep at night not worrying about locking our cars. We really love it there, and hate to leave, but we really have no choice.”

The old man looks at her and says, “Well, you'll be glad to know that our town is just like that town. I think you will like it here.”

The moral of this story? You figure it out.

Still_Pool (Anonymous) says…

Nice story Mark!

SP

towniegirl (Anonymous) says…

That IS a great story Mark!