imported post
I agree that Mike Cox is definitely someone we need to talk to. But I think my idea could carry some weight, and could be important if Mike doesn't manage to help us as much as we hope he will. My idea would be that you'd try to get a chief, sheriff, or minimally one of his or her lieutenants to acknowledge that OCing is legal, and that their officers are well aware of it too. Having this in writing would be nice, and of course this could all be listed in alphabetical order by city/township and county, and passed out along with the standard brochures whenever one of us was handing out info to someone.
I think it would take a lot of time and a lot of effort, but I don't think it would be all that complicated to type up a nice looking letter that could be tweaked for each PD. It could ask for specific information, such as if all officers are aware, and if not, it could offer guidance, such as relevant laws, AG opinions, and phone numbers (MSP) for who to contact for further information. Plus, it could contain an invitation to any meetings in that area, and to sign up on this site to share comments or concerns if they wished. And lastly, it could contain a request for an on the record letter, email, or phone call back, to acknowledge if the PD was certain that all agency members are aware of OCing, and add that if they weren't on the list, that it would be likely that some would see this as hostility, and that this was sincerely unwanted by MOC and all of its members, because we are all out for the common good, same as they are.
Cities and townships that acknowledge us would be much more inviting for newer people who are more nervous about OCing, and with cities that don't, we would have our work cut out for us with meetings and such.
If others are interested in this, after MOC becomes more established, I'd be quite happy and eager to help get it done.
On the other hand, something we maybe shouldn't do is try to get too big too fast. It is possible, that such an effort could piss off a lot of cops, and that it would therefor be a bad idea, because they could call their state reps and local news agencies and make a mess of things. So maybe going after every dept at once would be a bt it much. But I still think that mass quantities of letters could carry benefit, perhaps in the form of 10 or 20 at a time.