Off-duty Dallas officer tells DeSoto police he accidentally shot his son

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Two in Dallas and one in Fort Worth in the recent past relating to the police making HUGE mistakes. Two involved fatal shootings.

Texas private LTC holders are held to a higher standard for actions… past, present, and future. And it should be that way.

After the last three LEO involved “accidental” incidents in the DFW area we should expect better from those paid to protect us. I am now more afraid of accidentally being shot by an officer of the law than a criminal. And my piers all agree.

I salute 99.9% of LEO’s out there. I fear the 0.1%.

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One thing everyone needs to remember and which we are seeing in Louisville right now. When LMPD was hiring in the past, there were 1500 or more applying for 30-40 spots in the recruit class. Today, it is hard to fill a recruit class for many different reasons. The main reason is budgetary and the elimination of pension plans in place of 401k type retirement plans. There is no guarantee for the future. Second is health insurance. A new officer with a family will spend more than 2 weeks pay per month on the least expensive health plan available. And the last, and maybe most important, is the anti-police rhetoric and ill feelings toward police in the community and within local government. As these changes lowered the number of applications, the department lowered their recruitment standards to boost numbers. Now, even if a field of 30 recruits enter a class, it is likely fewer than 15 will make it to the end.
On top of that, we are expecting nearly 300 retirements by the end of the year and, when next year’s retirees start to leave, the staffing numbers will drop below the critical level.
For the first time in LMPD and its predecessor departments history, officers are leaving LMPD after meeting their 3 year commitment to go to smaller departments in the area that offer a better work environment, better pay and better benefits packages.
It is not unusual to have an officer in a division as an “acting sergeant” who has been on the department for less than 3 years. It scares me as a citizen but even more so for the good officers we have on the department that have to place their trust in the hands of newer officers who would not have met the minimum standards to become a recruit when they became a police officer.
The fact there are less experienced officers on the streets without old timers there to guide and mentor them leads to more mistakes.

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Within the next few years here in Michigan over 3000 police officers are expected to retire, another 1000 to 1500 Corrections Officers, Conservation Officers are growing in number surprisingly. Recruits are growing few and far between. I suspect it’s the same all over the US.

I also suspect we’re going to see a rise in private security/corporation funded police departments plus I suspect Departments are going to have to lower some of their standards to get staff in. The media’s war on LEOs has taken a nasty toll. I’m all for accountability, but this has gone further than that.

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The one thing I gain from this story is to know who you fire your weapon at!

I’m so glad his son survived though!

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Hard lesson to learn for both father and son. I’m not going to judge till we know more.

This should make anyone think however about how they will handle dealing with what appears to be an intruder moving around inside your home at night.

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