Request for Information [Weazel News]

[Herrman Wolff]

1. CONTACT INFORMATION

• Full Name: Herrman Wolff
  Phone Number: 298-4429
  E-Mail Address: [email protected]
  Position in Agency: Media Manager

2. REQUEST INFORMATION

• Detailed information of your request:
  • Dear Sir/Madam,
    It would be beneficial for Weazel News to get some information surrounding the Ride Along process in place at the LSPD to help with a meta-stasis article that is to look at interactive processes across the state and across various government departments.
    
    Are there currently any regulations imposed on Officers when they undertake Ride Along? An example is that Sergeant Alex Sorvanis has undertaken an obscenely large number of Ride Along's with a specific female, is there any checks in place to ensure that Sergeant Sorvanis and any other officer are not just going on dates whilst on duty due to how frequent, and how long each of the Ride Alongs are undertaken?
    
    One other area that is good to get an understanding for the article is how successful the LSPD finds Ride-Alongs for showcasing its duties? It is assumed that it's a fantastic way to interact with prospect cadets and civilians, but is this thinking in line with what the LSPD has found?

[Dezzy Bala]

Los Santos Police Department FIREARMS LICENSING DIVISION "TO PROTECT AND TO SERVE"

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• Mr. Wolff,
  
  As with any aspect of policing by the LSPD, there are certain expectations of any Officer that wishes to take undertake a ride-along for someone wishing to go out on one and those are primarily, that the conduct themselves by the values we hold as a department. The bulk of the regulations laid out, as you will see from the public post, are regarding the behaviour and eligibility of the civilian.
  
  That said, I think your singling out and naming of Sergeant Alex Sorvanis is quite inappropriate and once again, we have an employee of Weazel News, attempting to showcase an employee of the Los Santos Police Department with a heavy bias towards focusing on potential negative, absent genuine cause or reason.
  
  Sergeant Alex Sorvanis is a good officer, a consummate professional and beyond the badge, a damn good man. In our business, we're trained to approach a situation with soft eyes, which in layman's terms means, you don't form your opinion on the basis of seeing only some of the picture and ignoring the periphery. I'd recommend that you perhaps speak with some of these ride-alongs that Sergeant Sorvanis has taken out and find more out about the man before choosing this route to inquire.
  
  The main goal of a ride-along is to bridge the gap between the Police and the Community that we serve. A bridge that your organisation regrettably seems to want to cause damage to, in return for clicks to your publications. Ride-alongs are in some cases a Recruitment tool, where civilians can get a feel for what the experience of wearing this uniform is like and whether it might suit them to do this kind of work.
  
  To answer your final question, we believe in the program and where we can, we as a department try to make time for those wishing to go on a ride-along, availability pending.

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• Sincerely,
  Deputy Chief Dezzy Bala
  Bureau Commanding Officer, Administrative Services Bureau
  Los Santos Police Department

[Herrman Wolff]

Dear Deputy Chief @Dezzy Bala,

Thank you so much for your response.
I appreciate your anecdotal evidence on Sergeant Sorvanis, I will be sure to include him in our upcoming "Top 10 Consummate Professionals of San Andreas" publications as I am sure many will be swayed by your personal endorsement of him being a good man. I feel you may have misplaced my intention by mentioning Sergeant Sorvanis though, I was largely using him as an example for a wider question. If Sergeant Sorvanis wishes to use taxpayer money to get paid for his extra-marital dates then I am sure that is another article for another day (and only if Weazel ever became a gossip column), but largely I want to loop back to focusing on the Ride-Along process, which is the main purpose of my original questions.

A follow-up I had surrounding regulations, that I hoped to originally understand, was how the LSPD goes about ensuring the safety of ride along individuals as the program is known to be robust in ensuring civilians are kept safe, hence its success.

It may also be good if you can give some light about the original formation of the Ride-Along program and if it was originally for citizens or just to give potential applicants the opportunity to see the LSPD's duties. How has this program evolved over time?

Many people have given Weazel positive feedback surrounding Ride-Alongs, does the LSPD feel this positive verbal adverting is key in the program's continued usage and popularity?

[Elena Flores]

Los Santos Police Department "TO PROTECT AND TO SERVE"

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• Re: Request for Information [Weazel News]
  
  Herrman Wolff,
  
  The foremost method in which the Department ensures the safety of civilians partaking in our ride-along program is through the strict enforcement of the regulation that requires them to remain in the police vehicle as an observer at all times unless explicitly instructed otherwise by an Officer or they find themselves in a situation where they may find themselves in inherent danger and it is their only escape to safety.
  
  The Department will withdraw, and potentially ban, the approval of ride-along requests when a civilian fails to adhere to any of the established regulations, simply because these policies and regulations are established to guarantee their own safety as much as that of the Officer.
  
  The expectation of the Department is that any Officer conducting a ride-along with a civilian does not put the civilian in any situation that may be of danger to them. Generally speaking, examples of such instances would be in a vehicle pursuit where the pursued vehicle opens fire upon the pursuing Officers, a police vehicle with a civilian ride-along would then be expected to reduce its distance from the pursued vehicle and let other units take over to guarantee the safety and well-being of the ride-along, or by not being a vehicle that is in the direct line of sight or fire when apprehending a suspect. I hope that it is understandable that many different kinds of situations occur and that there are many circumstances at play and actions undertaken by Officers to ensure the safety of the ride-along, but that it is difficult to cover every single instance in great detail. With that said, however, I think it goes without saying that when an Officer is conducting a ride-along, ensuring the safety and well-being of the ride-along is their priority.
  
  The police ride-along system was formed in the early summer of 2017, and it was formed for two primary reasons, those being the honing in on the interest of aspiring candidates and providing the opportunity for those interested in a law enforcement career to gain insight into what the duties of an Officer generally look like, and to allow civilians to do the same. While the program has remained largely the same, under various leaderships of the Department, the ride-along program has evolved through the refinement of policy and regulation, both for civilians and Officers alike.
  
  While we believe that, generally, there will always be some form of interest in partaking in such a program simply due to the nature of law enforcement work, we do recognize that the positive verbal advertising of those who have partaken in the program is a large contributing factor to the continued success and popularity of the program.
  

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  Respectfully,
  
  Assistant Chief Elena Blake
  Los Santos Police Department