I am going to start this off by saying that I know the overwhelming majority of police officers are good people who try to do the right thing. Most departments have mostly good officers with one or two bad apples.
But when the hell is Monroe County and the city of Key West going to say enough is enough with this arrogant department? I've read story after story about mistreatment (mostly verbal abuse) of citizens, but now I've had the displeasure of dealing with these people myself.
Last week, I was in Key West and was the victim of a hit and run accident. It was relatively minor; about $1,000 dollars worth. Unfortunately, the damage was on the rear of my car, so I did not notice it until I got home in Big Pine Key. I washed my car that day and knew the damage was not present before going to Key West. I called my insurance company, who told me that I needed a police report. I first called MCSO, but since the hit and run occurred in Key West, I had to file the report with them. Understandable.
First, I called KWPD and asked if I could do the report over the phone. They said no. I had to drive 30 miles back to their department. This was inconvenient, but I can understand that they needed to see the damage for a fair assessment.
I arrived at KWPD and was met by a very young and very rookie officer named David Corey. Officer Corey did everything in his power to avoid writing a police report.in the time it took him to complain about how MCSO didn't do it, question how I knew it happened in Key West, question me 3 more times about how I knew it happened in Key West, and try to tell me that I should just call my insurance company, he could have written the report twice. Finally, after 15 minutes of dealing with this officer's arrogance, I asked for his supervisor. I was appalled at how he refused to tell me who his supervisor was or how he wouldn't call for him. Throughout all this, Officer Corey was rolling his eyes and constantly letting out a loud sigh, making it more than obvious I was an inconvenience to him. At one point, he even said "I have 6 other reports to write." When I told him that all I needed at that point to satisfy my insurance company was a report number, he refused to give me one. To make matters worse, he only asked for me to describe the damage. He refused to walk 50 feet to the parking lot and look at the back of my car. This was the whole reason I couldn't do it over the phone.
Finally, when I got in touch with a supervisor, which I had to track down myself (Sgt Williams, I believe), all he did was back his officer and refuse to hear what I had to say. He was even more arrogant and immature than Officer Corey.
I was the victim here. This whole ordeal was about 5 hours out of my day, compared to the 10 minutes it would have taken him to write a simple report. There is no cause for supposed professionals to act this way. What is with the attitudes of these officers in Key West?
Now, a week later, I have a report number, but no report. I have been told 2 days straight that the report is not approved, so I can't have it. All it needs is a Sgt's signature.
I have never had this sort of run-in with Monroe County. The deputies are leaps and bound more professional than KWPD. Where does KWPD get these people? From what I understand, KWPD pays more than MCSO. If this is case, why can't KWPD get the quality of officers that MCSO has? It must be a supervisor problem that starts at the very top.
By the way, this isn't my first problem with them. This was just the final straw.
From reading these boards, I know there are other Keys residents reading this. Has anyone else had these problems? How do you deal with this sort of thing when the supervisors won't even hear it?
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