"Special request for help: I have a question about the DEA gold badge":
deaw...@pacbell.net
http://www.deawatch.com
14 Nov 2010, 19:51 PST, 8th Edition
To preface my question let me first state that I am a relatively recent
new police officer now in uniform only because my Republican governor accepted
and took personal credit for the "ObamaCop" money allocated to our state by the
Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid.
All of us newhires who got a letter telling us that we will be hired (and we
were hired) got down on our knees and thanked the Democrats for making our job
money happen. I am no longer a Republican voter. Since last week's election I
have become a People voter. I now vote only for the person I think will do the
most good for our country regardless of his or her political party.
Now to my question: I am close to someone who is romantically involved
with a DEA agent who works in the area that encompasses my city's PD. This DEA
agent has frequently asked to borrow my badge when he goes out to dinner with my
(D/W redacted) or wants to buy something that he thinks he can purchase for less
if he shows a police officer's or law enforcement badge.
When he first asked me to borrow my badge I didn't think much of if since
he will be a future member of my family and I understood that he only wanted to
save money so that he and my (D/W redacted) could put more cash away for other
purposes after they were married. However, his requests to borrow my badge has
grown to the point that he now cells me on duty and asks me to drive over to a
location where he is making a purchase so that he can get a discount for.
Let me now interject that only once, shortly after the first few times
that he asked to borrow my badge when I was off-duty, did I ask him why he
simply did not show his DEA badge to get a discount. He told me at that time
that there was an "official" DEA policy that prohibited DEA agents from either
"flashing" their badge to suggest getting a discount, or outright showing a DEA
badge and asking for a discount.
My reason for putting my problem on DEA Watch is to get confirmation that
an "official" policy against using a DEA badge to get a purchase discount is
true or untrue... fact or fiction. If this policy does exist then I have no
recourse but to continue being asked to loan my badge or drive over to wherever
my future (D/W redacted) is buying something that he does not want to pay the
retail price for. Or, if I am lucky, he may read this on DEA Watch, but not
knowing for certain that is it me who is writing this, will tell himself that
what he is doing is now affecting my job and stop celling me when I am on
patrol.
This is one of those delicate situations where you don't want to tell a
guy that he needs stronger mouthwash, so to speak, but you need to let him know
that his offensiveness has risen to a point that his cheapness to save a measley
few cents or a buck could result in me losing my job. BTW, he does not have bad
breath. He is a really great and wonderful guy. His only sin that I have been
able to detect is that he is incredibly cheap, which I have been told is
inherent in DEA agents who see a lot of money in their work that they will never
have as their own.
In my job as a beat cop I don't see even one one-hundredth of the cash a
typical DEA agent sees on a daily basis when they arrest a drug dealer who has
been stacking cash for years. I can well understand that any person who sees so
much cash can develope a cheapskate syndrome in their mind that makes them want
to buy on the cheap and stack as much of their own payroll cash as they can. In
a law enforcement psych class I once took the professor said that some people in
law enforcement who have "invisible" psychological problems will often emulate
the predators they seek. This professor was very direct in using the example of
DEA agents who see so much illegal money they become money horders and
skinflints themselves. Made sense in that class I took and makes sense now.
So if anyone in DEA can confirm to me, or deny, about whether or not there
is an official DEA policy that prohibits DEA agents from soliciting a discount
by showing their DEA badge at POP (point of purchase), please respond so that I
can then figure out how I should devise a diplomatic way to tell my future (D/W
redacted) to cut me some slack and get off my back.
I would be grateful to hear from anyone.
(D/W redacted),
(D/W redacted) Police Department