I'm for them. You bet. This is a free country and if I want to run my vehicles on provided paths anyway I want, then I will.
Maybe if we had enough big, honking, diesel mules on the paths, some of those slow and miserable battery operated pieces of junk would get off.
I understand that the Japanese are working on reducing the size of the Toyota Tundra to the size of a golf cart--same engine, suspension, etc., just a smaller vehicle. It will have a cattle guard on the front, also.
I do think that the new gun law in Georgia will allow me to carry a loaded, hidden pistola on my Tundra. Now let those weaklings give me some static!
The PTC police have ordered 25 Segways for path patrol. (the reason for the cattle guards and pistolas). But I think they have already decided they could better use the Segways in the shopping centers checking back doors. Something about those paths?
All it takes is for a mule manufacturer to apply to get a city license to sell mules here and the current administration will put them into business overnight for the sales tax benefits.
A Tundra manufacturing plant could get their own paths built!

Comedy isn't your forte.

Coming home from the Amphitheater, my wife and I were suddenly surprised to pass two cops on bikes on the cart path after dark.

We were drinking and just kept on driving... luckily we were behind Harmony so they probably had other priorities.

When the weather warms, they will be on the paths, $250 open container on another occasion can attest to that!

If you recall, some out-of-towners beat up on a kid behind Harmony a while back.
When something like this happens, in order to placate the local dwellers, the cops show for awhile.
Kinda like 45 police showing up at a bank that has already been robbed hours ago. They will talk about the wonderful cooperation among themselves.
Also, when horses escape from barns the owners usually put on better locks in case they are lucky enough to get some more horses.
It ain't easy being a cop.

They need 250 more officers in order to start the patrols. However, it may become more important, once they get the 250, to use them for something else! As it always has. They never heard of random checks, I suppose. What you do is spin a bottle which will point to an area on the paths, then you go patrol that one today. Tomorrow, you spin the bottle again! Wow, complicated. They never know when you are coming.
The only problem with the bottle spinning however is that no cop wants to patrol a stupid golf cart path. It is demeaning. I suggest we shut down the paths and install barbed wire in the woods to prevent going around the blocks. Then we would need wire-checkers!

This message is to dollaradayandfound and to Hammer: Both of you jerks have no idea about police safety. You take for granted that a young officer stops a car in the middle of the night, with unknown people inside, and you expect them to do it by themselves. Dollar you are the biggest jerk on this blog site and everyone here knows you are a sorry, low down jerk. Everything you comment on comes from the bottom feeder you are. As for Hammer, bet you have bad kids or you are the same bottom feeder that dollar is. Both of you guys need to take a long look at yourself in the mirror as you are the type of people that police officers hate to even deal with. You talk like people that as so self centered that you can not see anything in life with your attitudes. If I was a young police officer in PTC, I would know that people like you are the reason I should have been a doctor. Both of you make me sick and I am neither a cop or have a cop in my family. I am sure glad they work for peanuts to protect scum like yourselves.

hasn't reproduced IT'S self.

Let's also hope our kids never make a traffic stop by themselves. This isn't Mayberry anymore, ....riverdale is jealous of how fast we are sinking.

Sorry, low down jerk and a bottom feeder, huh?
The type officers hate, huh?
Trying to figure out a conversation with you would be a problem to most people, let alone an officer.
I'll bet you eat bottom feeders: catfish and carp?

You take for granted that a young officer stops a car in the middle of the night, with unknown people inside, and you expect them to do it by themselves.

Officers, young and old, in PTC and out, make almost all of their traffic stops by themselves, initially. And every time, they do not know exactly what they will be facing when they approach that vehicle. That is why, in PTC, no one talks on the radio until the officer says he is okay and doesn't need back-up. PTC is the only agency in Fayette County that does it that way.

Within the past year, I can tell you for a fact that they *were* patrolling the paths at various times. But the call volume got to be so much that they had to take the police off the paths and put them on the roads.

If they would quit sending two or three to every minor traffic stop. At least three or four times a week I see Multiple PTC officers on one traffic stop. There is no way that all of those stops require two or three cars to complete. Its just another example of PTC not utilizing their resources properly. Traffic in PTC is already bad enough without the PTC Police being a nuisance by having multiple cars in the way at a stop.

I work in law enforcement and I can tell you why there is more than one patrol car on what you call "routine" stops. First of all a police officer never wants to be out numbered. We carry on average three weapons (at least two that are deadly)on every stop. Yes, we are trained to secure them in a scuffle but we aren't super human either. When we make a stop, there may be two or more occupants in the vehicle. We don't know who they are or what they are capable of doing. One or more of the occupants may be trained fighters or high on drugs. If someone is high on PCP. Meth or some other similar drug, their brain does not register pain. We can hit them with a taser or our baton and they will not feel it. They will keep fighting! All they want to do is hurt who ever is a threat to them. Add the persons passanger(s) to the fight and we are surly out of the fight if not dead. They will attempt at all costs to get to our firearm, taser, spray or baton and use it on us. Have you ever gone a full three minutes or more in a full out fight with someone? I doubt it.

People like you are what's wrong with this town. You make comments like this one without putting any time or effort into finding out why something is the way it is. Try asking a cop about why something like this happens; I did. It turns out that you will NEVER see more than one patrol car on what you call a "routine" traffic stop. If there are two cars on a stop, it is because the officer has requested a backup unit because he's about to arrest one of the occupants of the vehicle - or somebody is becoming very belligerent or violent. I think this seems prudent, if I were an officer about to handcuff somebody on the side of the road, I'd probably take a backup officer when available in case they decided to resist. Can you imagine getting in a one-on-one struggle with somebody on the side of the road while having to worry about other things - like their passengers trying to hurt you or accidentally falling into traffic while you fight. I also asked why there might be three cars. It turns out that this is extremely rare, but could happen in the instance that an officer had already received his standard backup unit for a DUI arrest and then requested a supervisor to bring him a portable breath test device. If that happens, then as soon as possible one of the two extra officers leaves. The only other reason this would happen is if there was a high-risk stop being conducted - i.e. stolen vehicle suspect, robbery suspect, or other armed person who was involved in somethinhg else. It was explained to me that we're seeing an increasing number of these incidents because we're getting more and more criminals coming through the city. I think we're pretty lucky with the police here, and they'll even answer silly questions like these for people like me who ask. Maybe you should try it.

from the manual for the way it is SUPPOSED to be handled. There is no way there are that many stops each week that need two cars. We all know that PTC does a good job , for the most part. However, there are plenty of us that have been around PTC long enough to know that they also do a good job of making themselves look busier than they are (like more officers than needed on a stop). If they truly had that many stops that ACTUALLY required more than one patrol car then Fayette County's jail would only have room for PTC's offenders.

Not quoting policy here, but telling you, from someone who knows exactly what is going on with the traffic stops. As was already stated, if you see more than one patrol car on a traffic stop, it is NOT routine. And yes, there ARE that many non-routine stops. PTC police nab the most DUIs of all the agencies in the county. And they seem to have a knack for finding drivers with suspended (or no) licenses.

Again, from someone who knows the truth (and no, I am not a PTC officer, nor am I related to one), they are NOT just trying to make themselves look busier. If they do not need an extra officer, they don't have one. End of story.

I appreciate what the police force does for us in PTC to protect us from harm.
However we should never assume that they can't be improved at a less cost. Proper research will usually determine if there is a real need for more officers or for better supervision and assignment.
As to saying the cart path patrols had to be deleted due to excess calls, the question is, from whom did the calls come and for what?
As to drunk drivers, there simply is more in PTC than say Newnan, or maybe Newnan doesn't stress that very much!
I don't know how an officer can determine whether a driver has a license without stopping and checking him. Not profiling, I hope.
The days of Matt Dillon are gone, and should be. Matt never called for backup because there wasn't any except Chester and Miss Kitty. If cars are patrolling, one might as well drop by a stop and make sure of the safety of the active officer. Most officers will do what they are trained to do and told to do. If you want them to look busy, they will.

As to saying the cart path patrols had to be deleted due to excess calls, the question is, from whom did the calls come and for what?
I didn't say "excess" calls. The calls come from the citizens and from alarm companies. The calls vary widely. It doesn't really matter *what* the calls are for, though, I don't think. If a citizen calls requesting an officer, the citizen gets an officer. If you'd like to live in a place where it isn't like that, try Clayton County.
As to drunk drivers, there simply is more in PTC than say Newnan, or maybe Newnan doesn't stress that very much!
I didn't say Newnan. I said other agencies in the county, meaning Fayetteville Police, Tyrone, and Fayette County Sheriff's Dept.
If cars are patrolling, one might as well drop by a stop and make sure of the safety of the active officer.
But I am telling you, they do NOT do this, without being asked to. I know this for a fact. Again, they are not being told to "look busy" and they are not just making themselves look busy. They *are* busy.

If the officers are being told to "look busy", then explain to me what would be the motivation for a superior officer to give them such assignment? What do they stand to gain? You may say that they stand to gain new officers, but why would that matter to them if they have so little to do. I don't really have a stake in the fight one way or the other, but simple logic suggests that there is a need. Nobody in the department would stand to gain anything from increased staff if there was not a need for more people to answer calls and/or increase proficiency. I know you want to argue management style as well, but if you've been going to City Council meetings then you know that PCPD was declared the flagship agency for the International Accredidation Program - a pretty lofty title for a place that can't even manage their personnel correctly (note sarcastic tone). The previous reasoning now brings us to the fact that these multiple car stops are likely warranted, lest you assume the unreasonable idea that they only back each other up to "look busy". I certainly don't think they show up on another officer's stop to stand out in the cold and hang out just to spend some quality time together.

I said I was for another backup to drop by while he is patrolling. It is just common sense. The look busy part I detest is the TV and newspaper spiels by some officer as to just how many various departments "cooperated." It is an obvious scam.
Yours is the third explanation as to how the police department operates with a stop. Some say radio silence (doesn't sound right to me), some say it is the type of stop (don't know usually), etc.
I don't have any trouble with multiple officers at a stop to determine problems, then move on.
I do have a problem with people protesting too much about suggestions.

radio silence (doesn't sound right to me)

What doesn't sound right to you? I was the one that said that... that when a PTC officer makes a traffic stop, the other officers don't talk until he says he is okay and doesn't need back-up. If they have something they absolutely just must say, or if he doesn't say he is ok/clears back-up pretty quickly, then someone checks on the officer before radio traffic resumes.

So what doesn't sound right to you?

I think you mean someone keeps a check on an officer at a stop (or several if there are more than one at a time). How could there be radio silence if three banks were being robbed, two DUIs were in progress, and a bunch of cars from Clayton came into town? You are easy to musunderstand and you want it that way.

You are easy to misunderstand and you want it that way.

I think you are being deliberately obtuse. Radio silence... we're talking less than a minute... only as long as it takes the officer to get out of the patrol car and walk up to the driver's window. If there is something higher priority going on, there is another channel available for the officers to use. The situation like you describe is highly unlikely.