Ugly Cell Phones

During Mardi Gras and other community events in Mobile it is common to see Police in uniforms oblivious to the world around them because they are hyper focused on their Cell Phone.

If a Police Officer is in uniform and sitting at the controls of an official police vehicle in the street with the motor running, he or she should not be texting on his phone or playing on the internet. Taxpayers pay a lot of money to fund the purchase of police communication devices. Police should use police radios to communicate, not cell phones.

An example of this unacceptable cell phone behavior was seen yesterday at the St. Patrick's Day Parade. The police officer above stayed glued to his phone for several minutes. Another officer in the middle of the Government Street also spent time looking at his cell phone WHILE DIRECTING TRAFFIC!

Another police officer in the above photo at the same parade was also oblivious to his surroundings because all his attention was focused on his cell phone which he was showing to another person.

These officer's actions are the same as an irresponsible citizen sitting at a stop light reading text messages or watching internet videos on their phone. People should not have a phone in their hand while at the controls of a vehicle. Period. Police included. 

The level of professionalism with police officers is rapidly declining. Look no further than lack of enforcement of traffic laws. You are more apt to see police breaking traffic laws rather than enforcing traffic laws. Hence speeding is so tolerated by law enforcement that more than half the people driving on the interstates break the speed limit law.

Even more disturbing are the prisons. A recent shakedown at Holman Prison in Alabama found 30 cell phones. Many of the criminals in prison use their cell phone to scam innocent people out of their money. And how are the prisoners getting banned cell phones into prison? Guards. You know, the same Guards prisoners pay off to get their drugs in prison. No wonder why criminals are quick to commit crimes to get back to prison. Prisons have all the comforts of home and no need to work for food or shelter. Thanks to Cell Phones police are becoming blind to criminal behavior while criminals in jail are using cell phones in their criminal activities done from the comfort of their prison home. That is Ugly.