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Cop at Alewife never takes breaks, comes cheap, curbs crime

Cardboard cop

A roving UHub photographer reports:

This T cop at the Alewife bike cage startled me recently. Until I got closer and saw that he was...a cardboard cutout!

An MBTA spokesman says:

That's the only one...and police report that it has made a difference.

He adds the cutout is of real-life Officer David Silen.

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Comments

I like the idea that bike thieves are as dumb as some species of birds, in that they can be discouraged from doing something by the presence of a scarecrow.

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Even birds aren't really that stupid. If they hang around a scarecrow long enough, they will eventually realize that it's not moving and they'll grow acclimated to it. Criminal humans, one assumes, will realize this even faster. But if some potential bike thieves are coming down to the bike cage they might just see a vague cop-like shape and decide "oh shit, let's go somewhere else" without bothering to take a closer look.

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....they're so 2 dimensional.

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THIS is the kind of minds that are running the T? Buffoons that think that a cardboard cutout will discourage crime? I've got a fake owl on my porch that doesn't even fool birds.

Meanwhile, as reported here, drugged out homeless people are harassing commuters at Alewife. I guess Officer Cardboard can't do anything about that.

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And yet you would scream bloody murder at the next fair increase. Hey their making and effort to both keep bafoons like yourself safe and keep OT down.

Good job MBTA!

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Must... resist... urge... for... red... pen...

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...

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that someone cruising by from a distance looking for bikes to steal might be fooled by this ruse?

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A few years ago, out in Western Mass, there was a community that was placing mannequins dressed in police uniforms in cruisers and parking the cruisers in areas known for speeding. It worked, until a couple of people saw the unresponsive officers in the cruisers and called 911.

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I slow down when I see the EMPTY state cruisers they park near construction stuff left on the road overnight. You can't tell it's empty until you're pretty close.

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There's 2 of them at Alewife, one in each bike cage.

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It should have been a cutout of Richard Donohue. Proven unkillable.

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If it were real, he would be texting.

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perverts run amuk, bus drivers get beaten up daily, some stations are open drug markets and others are overrun by teenage gangs and a cardboard cutout is managements response to crime.
If T-Management wanted to save millions of dollars in overtime they could use these cutouts on T-Construction projects and save the millions they pay out in police details.

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I don't like police details just as much as the next civilian, but blaming the MBTA for paying details? It isn't their fault.

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The governor tried to reduce the number of situations that required police details. If the T keeps hiring them anyway, whose fault is it?

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If he was holding a donut and had a huge beer gut possibly...

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He's not union, so he'll have to go.

Unless he actually pays union dues, I mean. Ya think he does?

This is Massachusetts, after all.

Bet we'll hear protests soon from ever-vigilant public-sector union thugs.

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It's all good.

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He can stare at a construction hole with the best of them, but doesn't cost much to move around. Just equip the cutout with a cupholder and supply some fresh dunks every couple of hours and it would be totally convincing!

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Oh I know him that's the T cop they sent out to investigate when that scum bag from Chelsea robbed and shot at me on the 111 route. great work T police

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Robbery by gunpoint on the 111? Please tell....

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We as a society could simply acknowledge the need for and benefits of having certain services provided, as well as the fact that an honest day's work should be able to provide you (and your family) with a decent living.
I'd bet that the average good cop making enough off of his base salary to live a humane (possibly even comfortable) life would love to give up that detail bullshit, leaving more time and energy for the work they actually were hired to do...

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These are in the Pedal-and-Parks, where there is a lot of video cameras watching things. I have a feeling that the cut-out is a subtle reminder to both would-be criminals as well as customers that the TPD are watching the area -- even if it's remotely.

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You really think so? That if we gave cops a raise in their base salary, and told them they could choose to keep earning more for standing around chatting with construction workers, that they'd all say, "Well, I earn enough from my regular shift, so I'll skip the easy extra money"?

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And in the meantime, the MBTA GM and Police Chief remind it's illegal to assault a T employee, while we passengers have to look out for ourselves.

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Considering the number of MBTA police officers, 200+, even considering two or three shifts, you would think they would have a more visible presence on the T and in T stations. They don't seem to ever be around. Perhaps the issue is that their HQ is on Southhampton Street which is pretty much nowhere near any subway stops.

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From Winthrop and Hull to Worcester, and Newburyport to Plymouth, those 200 officers have to cover quite some territory. They're primarily within 128, yes, but they cover more than the subway. They also cover bus routes and bus stops and commuter rail lines and ferries.

Frankly, I think they should be rolled into the State Police, even if given their own special unit/division within the State Police.

Transit PD jurisdiction: http://www.mbta.com/uploadedimages/About_the_T/Pol...

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Well, maybe they shouldn't.

If someone breaks into my car at the Newburyport commuter rail parking lot, the local cops should deal with it. It makes no sense for a T police officer to drive the 2 hour round trip.

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the Registry cops. Many were the events I worked where the old time Staties wouldn't even talk to those guys when they were rolled into the State Police.

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200+ officers
175 cities in the MBTA
Do the math

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The MBTA has just released crime statistics from Alewife Station showing that crime has dropped significantly in the station since they switched from humans patrolling the station on overtime to cardboard dummies who patrol for free

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You think somebody would have figured out how to make a holographic projection T officer. Hey MIT, quit trying to sink Harvard and get to work on this.

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As weird as it sounds, there's some scientific evidence to back up this kind of approach. In fact, there were studies showing that simply placing an image of eyes near otherwise-unguarded items made people less likely to walk off with them.

This Scientific American article talks about similar research: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=h...

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If you paint noses on the wall, are people more likely to shower frequently?

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It's huge and really is hard to ignore. I think it might actually be a useful reminder that there is somebody minding the store so to speak. I don't get all the hate given how inexpensive this is.

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The UK has been doing this for years and it works.

South Yorkshire Police lost almost a third of their force last year due to budget cuts. They bought the cutouts and say shoplifting is down by half.

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