Gosh, so many comments about police work that are just factually wrong and off-base that I wouldn't even know where to begin. So I think I will just ignore those comments, and instead comment on what Drew originally talked about.

I am a retired police officer here in the SF Bay Area, and my comments come from that experience. Unfortunately, my service came to an abrupt end when I was injured on-duty by a suspect. Early retirement is no fun, contrary to popular opinion.

I was out at Hearst for the 844/2472/3 appearance, and I saw all of the UPPD officers that were there. I do not know any UPPD officers, and I know very little about their department or specifically where their authority comes from (in crossing state lines, carrying "Exempt" California license plates, and so forth). But my observations as a police officer viewing the UPPD officers on Wednesday are very similar to what Drew witnessed as well.

Many of the officers were VERY old---as in elderly. They were wayyyy beyond the normal retirement age of 50. Two of them were easily in their late 60's to early 70's. This was quite shocking to me. Their supervisor showed up (wearing civilian clothing), and I couldn't believe my eyes---he looked as if he had been released for the day from Shady Acres. It was quite a sight, and is nothing I have ever seen before in law enforcement.

Age aside, I also had some serious concerns with both the fitness level of the officers (some were outright obese), as well as their duty equipment and how they wore it. I only saw one officer wearing a vest, and the rest had no impact/firearm protection whatsoever. Yes, a vest is hot and uncomfortable---but so is a bullet in your chest. Their uniforms were wrinkled and dirty, and not "crisp" as they should have been. Officer presence means a lot, and it did not appear to me that they took much pride in their appearance. Additionally, I did not see any officers wearing a specific type of holster for their weapon. I won't get into the details of this for safety reasons, but you gun nuts out there might know what I'm referring to. When an officer is old and out of shape, I would think that they would at least be concerned with a suspect trying to take their gun away---and they did not take any care in choosing their holster appropriately. One of them had a huge ring of keys dangling from his belt. Not only is this unprofessional, but it sort of shoots down the tactic of making a silent approach on-foot somewhere. There were a few other things I noticed, but those are the highlights.

On the positive side, it was nice that UPPD allowed all of us railfans to cross the tracks in order to get a better picture (or video). They did not have to do that, and I sure appreciated it. They were also very tolerant of some folks who did some things that were (in my opinion) very dangerous.

That's my 2 cents on it. All of the other police-bashing comments aside, I think Drew's observations were accurate.