Meh. My county Sheriff's Department does all kinds of things that they're not specifically required to do. They give lifts to people whose cars break down, give advice about snow tires, point callers toward the right agencies or vendors if they don't know who to call about something, take complaints about trees ready to topple over power lines and pass them on to the power company... all sorts of things. No one complains. They're on the clock anyway. I think it's good that they're helpful in ways other than their strictly-defined duties.
I'm a big supporter of good cops, and most of them are good. It's not their fault that they're often pressed into duty as armed tax collectors.
I'm fine with it too, just not willing to pretend it's free. Like I said, probably a better use of their time than most (not all) traffic stops.
(You really do have to read me literally to catch my true meaning. I'm relatively careful with the words I choose, barring that it's just an Internet forum and not a formal paper I'm writing.)
I'll also argue that no police officer friend or non that I've talked to was ever "pressed" into their duty. It's a job that's willingly accepted and even enjoyed by many.
There's a few who obviously chose the wrong career and the industry is somewhat lax in removing those officers. I have mentioned this to friends in that business before. A little house cleanup goes a long way and reaps a long list of benefits. I'm also a supporter of third-party auditing and voted leadership (Sheriffs) vs appointed leadership (Chiefs). Much better outcomes for those served, generally.
As far as the additional services go, most departments around here have to log motorist assistance rides separately including mileage... One of the departments I monitor on the scanner calls in each ride given with mileage.
The call serves two purposes, one to protect the officer transporting someone by themselves from both an attack and liars who later might claim the officer drove them off somewhere and assaulted them, and also logs the mileage used in the non-law-enforcement activity.
One can pull the numbers, they're all public. If any wackos really wanted this helpful activity to stop, they'd have all the numbers available to make such a (losing) case in public meetings where the press is present (by default).
I have no interest in protesting such use.
With it being "cool" to hate all cops right now, it is a wonderful video to have out there.
Standard PR flood after the masses get cranky. All the "good" stories will capture the media attention for a while.
Not a bad thing, but it'll wane soon enough. Right now, departments and politicians need the good stories to soothe rioting idiots and murderous morons, who don't even know what they're rioting about, or worse, are so stupid they think killing cops is a solution to their personal problems. (It's really a shame the idiot in NY who executed the two officers just didn't *start* with killing himself, instead of doing it afterward. If you're such a victim you think being dead after shooting a cop, is better than being alive, please feel free to off yourself preemptively.)
