The Sheriff Is (Not) In Town

My experiences from living in this neighborhood have come to inform my opinion on many subjects other than just FWPD. For example, I’ve heard Allen County Sheriff Ken Fries speaking about some of the 911 consolidation proposals lately. But before you understand my views about this, you’ll need to see Sheriff Fries as he looks from the streets of crack town.

First of all, I remember many years ago Sheriff Joe Squadrito talked for a while about bringing his officers inside the city to get the crime epidemic under control. He never came through on that promise though, and it wasn’t because the situation improved. So I guess old Joey proved that he really was a politician after all.

In 2006, I decided to give Sheriff Jim Herman a chance to show his true colors. On October 18, I called ACSD to ask if they would help do the job that FWPD was unwilling to do here. I spoke with a woman who identified herself only as Melissa. She gave me a bunch of bullshit about respecting jurisdictions and boundaries, meaning they were too cowardly to step on FWPD’s toes. She did tell me that she would pass my information on to someone else within her department and get back to me. In November, I also sent a letter directly to Sheriff Herman, explaining the situation here and again asking for his department’s help. I received no reply to the letter and never heard back from Melissa or anyone else about my phone call.

I’ve never sent a letter or called the department since Fries took over in 2007, but I expect that would be a waste of time anyway. I do see county officers down here on occasion. They never seem to pay any attention to the drug dealers standing on the corner though. I’m told the only reason the Sheriff comes to these parts of the county is to serve warrants. So it appears to me that the department has been pretty consistent through at least the past three administrations. They come for the money, but they’re unwilling to do the hard work that really needs to be done.

When I hear Kenny bitching now about how some of the plans for 911 would end up killing people, my thoughts are that his statements are a bit incomplete. I think Ken Fries is truly passionate about his belief that taking 911 control away from him will hurt people, and I also think that Sheriff Fries does a lot better job of policing than Chief York does. But I suppose it’s easy to do a job when you’re only doing half of it. The fact of the matter is that Fries appears to have no more intention of exercising his full duties than any of his predecessors did. I really don’t think Ken Fries cares whether changes to 911 adversely affect city residents, just those in the rest of the county.

So here’s my thoughts about Sheriff Ken Fries today. I think he should resign as Sheriff, since he isn’t actually doing the job. Then, I think he should get involved in the East Allen County consolidation efforts. Once we officially divide Allen County into two separate cities, Ken Fries should then seek to be appointed as Chief of Police for everyone outside of the city of Fort Wayne. After all, that is in fact the job he currently does, he just has the added benefit right now of charging me taxes for not protecting me.

My next post, “What cops really think of us,” focuses on my recent experience with one particularly fucked-up Allen county officer, although I think his attitude is symptomatic of a lot of cops.