Bloomington expands private security to 7 more parks across city, including B-Line Trail

[DoggyDaddy]

Had to look that up, to me PMC is still a cartridge company from the 80s.

That has to be a stretch taking federal covid money and using it for city security, Bloomington taxpayers should be footing the bill for this. This a local company, wonder what the connection is between it's principles and the park commissioners. maybe another concrete deal like the city went through a while back.

Always follow the money

Same as Chicago using Covid money to "address the gun violence problem".

 

[bwframe]

Are we sure they haven't already?????

Hard to tell for sure. Listening to the scanner app, is really difficult to discern whether the problem issues are all about the "experiencing no home" crowd or the ghetto project crowd or the meth/fentanol crowd?

Seems as of late that officers speaking of language barriers are more likely to be out towards Brown Co/Columbus?

 

[bwframe]

Same as Chicago using Covid money to "address the gun violence problem".

It's federal money, so its free. It cost us nothing, right?

 

[rosejm]

I know that's jest, but the big reason is the pay gap between domestic security jobs and PMCs. There's a difference in quality of candidate at 6 figures a year vs 6 bucks an hour. Private security stateside is often a joke because of that, as well as liability-driven decision making and society's rather uncharitable view of the prestige of the job.

I didn't mean to imply that domestic security guards were on the same level as international PMCs in any fashion. The skill level and training necessary doesn't compare.

Rather, that we're just turning over responsibility to someone else. Again.
Didn't get the result we wanted? Must have been this batch of replacements. We'll get some different ones next time.

 

[rosejm]

Many folks I know have gone there for school. They seem to always look at the place through "rose colored glasses". As a result, they are blind to what a ****hole it is in many aspects.

To be fair, this is the goal of nearly every campus. Bring together their students, but secure & isolate them from the surroundings.

Helps the student body grow & bring in that student aid money. Often the local governments are supporting this model, the school typically being a major tax base.
Protect the golden goose, and everyone else can fend for themselves.


We'll just skip past the part where this model ALSO helps in the indoctrination. Eliminate the outside influences.

 

[BigRed]

To be fair, this is the goal of nearly every campus. Bring together their students, but secure & isolate them from the surroundings.

Helps the student body grow & bring in that student aid money. Often the local governments are supporting this model, the school typically being a major tax base.
Protect the golden goose, and everyone else can fend for themselves.


We'll just skip past the part where this model ALSO helps in the indoctrination. Eliminate the outside influences.

Truth

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Eliminate the outside influences.

Like every cult does.

 

[Ark]

To be fair, this is the goal of nearly every campus. Bring together their students, but secure & isolate them from the surroundings.

Helps the student body grow & bring in that student aid money. Often the local governments are supporting this model, the school typically being a major tax base.
Protect the golden goose, and everyone else can fend for themselves.


We'll just skip past the part where this model ALSO helps in the indoctrination. Eliminate the outside influences.

Part of the reason I finally left. The whole town seems to exist just to give IU kids their "college experience" and maintain their little bubble. Nothing to really work towards or apply yourself at outside of that. Got tired of feeling like a maintenance worker at Disney.

Even Bloomington's problems are worked into it. Homeless advocacy is treated as baby's first activism experience for the IU kids. Every new crop thinks they're going to be the special ones who fix everything with their protest march or whatever, while being totally blind to the laughably tiny scale of what they're freaking out over.

But nothing can *actually* be fixed, not permanently, because they'd just move on to having a freakout over something else.

 

[Leadeye]

It's been a while, but I rememeber Bloomington as a factory town with the university as an addition. Now all the industry is gone and really not a lot left except the university and stuff that supports it.

Tarzian, RCA, Otis, Westinghouse, GE etc, there were lots of jobs in Bloomington.

Sometimes I drive through there with my sons down places like Curry Pike and show them how much the country has changed.

 

[sharpetop]

$113,000 for a security contract! That won't last 30 days!

 

[BigRed]

$113,000 for a security contract! That won't last 30 days!

You may be under the assumption that any security will be provided.

That would be a bad assumption.

 

[ghitch75]

i work in and around Bloomington everyday and my security is on me at all times.....the place is insane for what BPD lets go on....

i see it everyday

blue city blue stupidity..

 

[Hkindiana]

I am SO glad that Bedford said “NO!!!” to the idea of Indiana University originally calling it home. So, IU had to settle on Bloomington.

 

[EyeCarry]

I am SO glad that Bedford said “NO!!!” to the idea of Indiana University originally calling it home. So, IU had to settle on Bloomington.

Source please? I had not heard of this.

 

[roscott]

Not surprised a bit. I had a buddy that worked for Bloomington PD a couple years back. He said it was awful- they had absolutely no support from the liberal city. Lots of examples, but the one that really stood out was a guy he booked that kicked him in the face when he tried to get him out of the cruiser. He said the prosecutor dropped all charges related to it, and he wasn’t surprised a bit.

I think we’ll see more and more PMC types in the US, as we hamstring out police departments. Cities will have to do something to try and limit the costs of rising crime.

 

[maxipum]

I am SO glad that Bedford said “NO!!!” to the idea of Indiana University originally calling it home. So, IU had to settle on Bloomington.

I think it was Harrodsburg in southern Monroe county that was the proposed site.

 

[gregr]

Unarmed security isnt security. They are babysitters.

Was going to say the very same thing.

 

[Ark]

$113,000 for a security contract! That won't last 30 days!

Oh buddy, let me freaking tell you about Bloomington and security contracts...

So Lake Griffy used to be the city's water source before Lake Monroe existed, right? Well, at the base of the dam, there was a small water treatment plant serving what used to be small town Bloomington. The plant was closed after the new one was built at Monroe, and it just sat there. No real barriers or security, you could just wander in and look around at the decaying building.

A couple years ago, somebody does a survey of the site and finds out it's full of lead and PCBs like a lot of older water-related infrastructure. The mayor absolutely freaks out at the prospect of some criminal trespasser getting lead on their boot soles from going in the building, and declares we must Do Something.

The "something" turns out to be the most wasteful security contract I think I've ever heard of. I never found the actual dollar value, but we were paying at least $100k a month to rent fencing and park a guard or two at the site 24/7. Then they figured out the site was, you know, dark at night, so something had to be done about that. Out came the light towers and generators, which ran out of fuel, so a whole rota of city workers had to be pulled off their regular jobs to shuttle out there and refuel them. Sometimes the rota would get screwed up and people would have to be called in at night and paid full overtime to go fuel up generators.

Eventually they coughed up the money to have Duke wire the place up so they could get rid of the generators. I think this went on for over a year until they finally knocked down the empty shell of the building and cleaned it up.

Bloomington will absolutely make it rain money on the dumbest stuff.

 

[Route 45]

Trained monkeys at best.... In many cases, the trained monkey would be better.

 

[Hkindiana]

Source please? I had not heard of this.

I read it in the Bedford museum