What is the justification for multiple cops sitting in a parking lot talking to each other?

There could be a hundred very legitimate reasons.

Most likely is that one guy is going off shift and then other guy is going on shift, and #1 is telling #2 what to look out for in the precinct that day. That’s good police work and information sharing.

They could be discussing the previous day’s crime reports. They could be doing planning for the July 4 protection plan at the local park. And so on.

Or they could be talking about baseball.

Maybe their department has overspent their gasoline budget and they want to the guys to remain stationary until a call comes in. (as opposed to wasting gas cruising)

Why don’t you ask them?

@elbanditoroso All of those things could be accomplished by other means though like I mentioned above. I’m not saying they necessarily have to be out driving around but at least spaced out down the highway would make a lot more sense. I also highly doubt its a quick shift change discussion type deal since the parking lot across the street from my job regularly has cops sitting in it for multiple hours straight.

Why don’t I ask them? Because around here it’s generally best to stay off a cops radar all together.

Crash their party and ask.

Do you never have to exchange information with your co-workers? Would you do it over a radio (where everyone can hear) or a cell phone?

I see nothing wrong with it.

@marinelife If you’re on the clock then you shouldn’t be doing personal things. Also if I stood around for multiple hours while getting paid for it so that I could “exchange information” I feel like my boss would have a problem with that as well.

D.O.N.U.TS.

@uberbatman You have no way of knowing the conversations are personal. They could be talking about things they have observed or issues of the day.

My impression is that @uberbatman asked this question with his mind already made up, and is not open to additional, rational possibilities.

Unless you are a policeman who is assigned a precinct, anything is speculation.

Being a cop is a lot more difficult than many people think it is.

Cops are often called upon at a moment’s notice – or none at all – to engage in very risky behavior: to start or join a high-speed auto pursuit; to engage with armed thieves in any number of locations; to join in hostage stand-offs and kidnapping investigations, and to search for missing persons, especially toddlers and infants. The “obviously high risk” activities are tough enough, but those searches for missing children, especially when they end up with a corpse in a shallow grave somewhere, also take an internal toll on the body.

Then there are the situations that are not perceived as such high risk: stopping a speeder on the interstate, or breaking up a “routine” domestic disturbance or trying to tone down a noisy party. Those don’t appear to be so dangerous, yet each year those are the places where more cops are killed than any other.

These guys really can’t let their guard down too much.

Then, of course, there’s the fact that they’re in obvious uniforms and driving around in strikingly marked cars – they are meant to be visible, and they are. So they’re often targets of all kinds of misplaced hostility – maybe even yours, @uberbatman. Just suggesting, not asserting. There’s no doubting that cops are often lightning rods for any kind of hostility that’s in the atmosphere.

So if they want to fraternize in a parking lot at night while there’s “nothing going on”, and especially if they’re doing it in full view of you and everyone else who happens along, then I say good for them. Better that, than busting jaywalkers and other non-criminals for “ticket quotas” and stupid “stop-and-frisk” bullshit.

The face to face communications could be “Off Line” because they don’t want every scanner in the neighborhood listening to their conversation about a bust or surveillance of a perp.

Or they could be on their dinner break. You just don’t know!

Having dinner, having lunch, chatting about work issues, chatting about crimes and perps and things they want off the radar/scanner/cell phone. Who knows.

There used to be a book of funny little slang words (this is a long time ago) and they called two police cars sitting facing opposite directions “Adam 69.” (if you are old enough to remember the 1970’s TV show “Adam 12” about cops you might appreciate that, if not, you’ll not comprehend the joke).

Cops seldom just find crime to interrupt. Someone needs to tell them first. So they can respond. And that process can seem to take an eternity to happen. So as long as they are in radio contact at all times then they are technically on the job. What difference does it make where they are? There’s no way to know they are not in a strategic place wherever they are. Why don’t fire departments just cruise the streets in the fire apparatus looking for fires? Because until they are called to go out to investigate a specific problem it would be a waste of effort.

@uberbatman Or they may be privately discussing on the down-low how they are gonna finally set you up with a crapload of contraband they stole out of the evidence locker. They are sick and tired of you flaunting the fact that you are a big time head and you are going down brother.

I’d guess morning tea or the cops equivalent of a chat by the water cooler.

Well if every other employee was held to the OP’s standards they’d be millions of new job openings, that much I do know.

If I saw that, I’d just think it was their break. Or sort of like a water cooler chat. I really wouldn’t care either way. As long as they are where they need to be, when they need to be. I respect police officers – they really are generally good people.

I really don’t understand why everyone keeps saying I believe they should be cruising around looking for stuff, thought I was pretty clear about that a couple times. The amount of drunk driving accidents that occur in my area is pretty insane. I really feel like if they were spread out every couple miles (near the bars) instead of the constant cluster of multiple cars in 3 different spots that literally everyone knows about the drunk driving rates would go down. But hell what do I know, evidently I just got a stick up my ass about cops and they are clearly doing hard work all the time.

@uberbatman I agree with you. Around here, instead of busting teenagers for underage drinking and usually driving, speeding through residential areas and generally being disruptive and non-law-abiding, they sit around and harass the homeless or pull over bicyclists. They even join in on the thursday night bike cruiser ride because they know they can write people $50 dollar tickets for not having a light. It’s a bunch of bullshit. There are much better things they could be doing. There is not much crime where I live but there is plenty of alcohol abuse by the dumb 19 year old college kid population that would be curbed I think if the cops actually did something with their day.

Are the same cops sitting there for hours on end? Is it possible that it’s different cops for shorter amounts of time, and you just see a variety of them there frequently?

In the first scenario, I can see why you’d be concerned about it. Spreading out does make more sense if you’re going to be sitting still until a call comes in.

Maybe they’ve got enough coverage that the others on duty really are spread out, though. My initial thought there was, well then they’ve got too many people on duty. But on second thought, they probably know how to schedule appropriately. If some sit idle, I guess it’s probably better than being understaffed in an emergency.

In the second scenario, maybe it’s just a handy meeting spot for your area, so the cops frequently use it for quick meet-ups. There could be any number of legitimate reasons for them to have such a meeting – as many have mentioned above. Even if it’s a not-so-legitimate reason, say they’re just having a personal chat for 15 minutes or so, that wouldn’t bother me any more than personal chats in an office during a coffee break would.

So I guess my answer is: It depends. Helpful, I know. :p

@woodcutter I disagree. A cop on duty should not be sitting idly waiting for a call to come in. An easy example I can think of would be if he’s bored, GO OUT AND TICKET PEOPLE WHO ARE TALKING ON THEIR CELL PHONE AND DRIVING!!! Right?! It’s illegal here and constantly people still do it, meanwhile driving terribly! They never get pulled over. People who are doing actually dangerous things like not stopping at stop signs in the place that I mentioned earlier. There is never a cop there. Instead like I said the bored police cruise through the park and beat up the homeless.

@augustlan I can’t say for all of them as I don’t see the same lots over many hours(just know every time I pass on my way to and from work there is more than one cop) but I do know the lot across the street from my job will often have the same cops for multiple hours. I know this because there is a jeep cop car, a charger cop car and a f150 cop car and I’ll see the same vehicle there all day.

Handy meeting spot? Maybe but there are sooooooooo many empty lots up and down the highway I drive every night. What sense does it make sitting in the same spot every night so that all the intoxicated people know precisely where you will be?

Yeah, that is weird, then.

You can write to the Mayor or to the Chief of Police and express your concerns, or to the local paper. You can always do it anonymously but of course, if you write to a public official anonymously you cannot receive a response.

@uberbatman, it seems criticism of what our police officers actually do when working is a common problem. I live in a quiet area but I’ve never seen a police car around here. Even though, because we have long, wide streets, there are people who think it’s a drag racing track at times. I’d love to see police officers walking the beat in our more troubled areas. Getting to know the young people and being very visible.

Instead, I see police officers with radar guns revenue collecting. Never see them picking people up for tailgating, weaving across lanes or other poor driving. Speeding raises revenue.

Still on the couple of occasions I have had to interact with police officers, I’ve been impressed. It’s not a job I would want to do.

It is probably the only chance that they have to compare notes… I joined in once and they got quiet but after a month they accepted me , and we watched Mission Hill and the Incredible Hulk cartoons together in my convenience store during night shift… My handbook told me to make the police feel welcome so that the store would be safer.

Oh and the Ripping Friends too.