Ever since I retired, I've made some observations about the Framingham police that I never had the time to do when I was employed. As a general rule, they are not very motivated individuals and most of them have been corrupted by power. Once a high school graduate is given a badge and a gun, it seems to corrupt them by making them believe they are better than someone without a badge and gun.

I prefer to observe (photograph and videotape ) them from a distance, using very high zoom cameras (Canon SX50) so I don't actually have to get close enough to smell them. These cameras make it seem that you are standing next to them even if you are so far away they do not notice your presence.

They are easy enough to find in donut and bagel shops and generally doing detail work (mostly fiddling with their smart phones).

They despise knowing that they are watched, photographed or videotaped, but they have no issues with doing surveillance on citizens. They believe it is their duty to do surveillance on us. They are, after all, the watchers. I simply watch the watchers.

It is my belief that now that we have the internet and web, every police officer and every other public servant should have their pictures, name and ranks posted on a public web site. The police might claim that the bad guys will be able to recognize them if their pictures are publicly available. The police prefer complete anonymity. For instance, stand a mere 10 feet from a police officer and you will find that the only markings that identify the individual are a very small name tag on his left shirt pocket and perhaps a very small badge number on his cap. Most of the time, police will wear highly reflective sunglasses to obfuscate their appearance.

It is this anonymity that makes them act aggressively against the public. I've drawn up a list of recommendations to reduce their anonymity.

While it is a risky occupation in my retirement, I have managed to accumulate a large number of photographs (many still have to be processed) of the Framingham police. I'm getting excited about facial recognition software that will make my job easier in the future. I can just feed the application an image, and given the database I have set up, it will tell me who it is.

I also scoop up all available info on these people from their LinkedIn and FaceBook accounts if they are benevolent enough to provide one.

You can get a good flavor for their attitudes towards the public by monitoring their chatter on Mass Cops. For instance, I listen to their chatter about me by googling the term:

site:http://masscops.com/ Harold Wolfe Framingham

This allows me to read the thoughts of those nice cops. Just look at all the different nouns/adjectives and adverbs used to describe the watcher of the watchers.

Send comments to: hjw2001@gmail.com