Squeaky Wheels Get the Grease
In a prior post we wrote that Florida Sheriffs are running out of creative names for their registrant compliance operations. But you have to give credit to Osceola County for coming up with one of the dumbest.
According to the Sheriff’s website, “The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, the United States Marshal Service, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement conducted a joint operation to verify the compliance of the 580 sexual predators and sexual offenders in Osceola County Florida. The compliance operation titled Squeaky Wheels was funded by the United States Marshal Service and ran from April 12, 2021, through September 1, 2021. ”
What’s with the name? Isn’t the proverb “Squeaky Wheels Get the Grease” supposed to imply that those who are the loudest or most noticeable get the attention? That’s an interesting name for an operation that targeted people who allegedly failed to report stuff.
Perhaps the name of the operation suggests something else? As the article continues, “The United States Marshal Service funded 450 hours of overtime for the Osceola County Detectives to work beyond the 40 hours a week work schedule to accomplish the goals of the mission.” Could it be that the press release is the “squeaky wheel” and the “grease” is the 450 hours of overtime the taxpayers funded in addition to the standard pay for the officers participating in the operation (as in “grease payment” – google it if you’ve not heard of that term)?
These multi-agency “operations” where County Sheriffs can hold a press conference touting the number of arrests they made for technical (and often unknowing) violations, really should be called “Squeaky Wheel Operations”! Maybe Osceola’s choice for operation name isn’t the dumbest? Maybe they are just calling it out for what it is?
I have seen many ridiculous operation names over the years, but to me, Operation Chester was one of the worst.
Osceola registrants need to be congratulated on their rehabilitation rates— only one (hands-off) re-offender out of hundreds of compliance checks.
The other 60 arrests appeared to be for administrative crimes.
Law enforcement sometimes persuades the media to report positively and uncritically regarding the number of compliance checks and arrests made. But re-offense rates turn out to be low on every single compliance operation. And credit for that goes, not to law enforcement efforts, or tough laws, but the registrants themselves.
Am I right? Do we need to better educate the media on this?
Every compliance operation seems to increasingly discredit the “frightening and high” preamble to the laws that prompt those operations in the first place. But I don’t recall many crime reporters putting two and two together on this. Do we need to push them?
a spot on and very clever commentary!!!👍🏼👍🏼
I no longer feel for anyone who complains that their taxes are too high when they also support the registry and these ludicrous expensive missions that harass registrant families without doing anything to protect society.
You’ll notice in the media that Marshalls have lately begun a new method for misleading the public— they report compliance operations and rescue operations in the same news release, misleading the reader into assuming that the compliance operation resulted in the rescue, when in fact the two were unrelated.
Perhaps we need to push back more on media outlets who are failing to question the conflation.
FAC Operation-Naming Contest!
Let’s do this!
I’ll go first:
Operation Squeezy Lemon
Operation Beans n’ Franks
Operation Scratch n’ Sniff
Operation Lazy Susans
Operation Sleazy Balls
Unfortunately the Paycheck Protection Program is already taken.
Here are my votes:
Operation Christmas Cash
Operation Tripwire (another vote)
Operation Papers Please