InVest USA founder Michael Letts discusses the attempted burglary, and how it took two hours for police to respond.
Crime has reached an all-time high in several states as of late, mainly due to the shortage of police officers coming off of “defund the police” funding cuts. But things are really bad in Chicago, where it’s reportedly taking officers two hours to respond to certain calls.
Fox News recently reported that a Chicago business, an auto shop called Chicago’s South Side, had set up a trap to find a burglar that had hit them multiple times. They managed to find out who it was, detaining him after a small scuffle and calling police. The only problem is, however, the police “eventually arrived approximately two hours later.” In fact, the only reason they appeared to show up was that the suspect was accidentally injured with a gunshot wound.
This is a result of the Chicago police department using a “backlog” status for some crimes, with a total amount of around 11,721 put into “Radio Assignments Pending” – which eclipses both 2019 and 2020 numbers combined. It just shows the sad state of affairs of not having enough officers to get the job done, especially in Chicago, where so many have resigned and others are working overtime shifts (without vacation) to fulfill the need.
Here to speak on the matter now is Michael Letts, a law enforcement veteran with over 30 years of experience under his belt. Letts serves as founder, CEO and president for InVest USA, an organization that provides bulletproof vests to police officers through various charitable groups and sponsorships. His expertise will prove very useful in this matter.
Q&A:
- Is “backlog” a procedure that’s used often with police? Should the incident that happened in Chicago been categorized as such when someone suffered a gunshot wound?
- This is the latest news to come out of Chicago pertaining to police officers, following reports of three officer suicides that happened earlier this year. How much trouble would you say the city is in right now?
- What do you think the biggest problem is in Chicago right now? The lack of upper management doing more for their officers? Something else?
- It almost sounds like the auto shop was trying to take matters into their own hands since they could get little to no help from the police. Are a lot of businesses running into this nowadays? Is it starting to become the Wild West in some states right now with hardly any officers being available?
- There seems to be a bill making its way through the House right now, in an effort to get police funding back to those who need it. Do you feel confident that it will be passed in 2023? Or could potential delays keep the money out of the hands of the departments that need it?
- If you had the chance to draft a police funding bill, how would you go about it? What priorities would you put at the top of the list? Protective gear? Mental health support?
- Tell us more about InVest USA, and how it’s helping police officers, especially in their time of need.
- Where can we learn more about In-Vest USA, and how people can contribute to the group?
You can visit the official website at http://www.investusa.org.
About Michael Letts:
Michael Letts is the Founder, President, and CEO of InVest USA, a national grassroots non-profit organization that is helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs. He also has over 30 years of law enforcement experience under his belt, hence his pro-police stance for his brothers and sisters in blue. Those interested in learning more about Letts can visit his official website here.
CONTACT: Jerry McGlothlin at: jerry.specialguests@gmail.com or 919-437-0001.
