11/7    Does anyone know if police departments have records of where officers
        were patrolling on a given day? In particular, I'd like to know if
        a particular traffic cop only bothers to patrol a certain area during
        certain time periods (e.g., the opening weeks of school when people
        might not be sure whether school has started yet). Thanks.
        \_ Oakland PD lists beat cops by zone on their website.
        \_ And they would release this information to you because??
           \_ Because it would probably be a public record?
              \_ So you can hunt down and kill the nice officer who gave you
                 a ticket?  Ooh ooh ooh- and let's publish photos of the
                 undercover narc squad!
                 \_ Cops on patrol are usually given callsigns when they check
                    in to work.  Names are never used.  The call-sign-to-
                    name-for-that-night association is likely logged at the
                    communication center.         -POC
                    communication center and not on a public website.    -POC
                 \_ Umm, since most cops do tend to patrol certain areas,
                    it's not like I couldn't hunt him down if I really wanted
                    to. It's also not like he doesn't go to the police station
                    once in a while and I couldn't follow him from there.
                    But I just want to find evidence to discredit him with
                    so I can get out of this lame ticket, okay? Thanks.
                    \_ I predict that if you rephrase the question in terms
                       of getting out of the ticket you will get more useful
                       responses.  What sort of ticket?
                       \_ I seriously thought this was implied. Anyway, it
                          was an illegal U-turn ticket. The sign had some
                          lame conditions like "7-9 AM, 1-3 PM, school days
                          only". It was near the beginning of September, and
                          I don't think I should be responsible for knowing
                          exactly when their school year starts.
                          \_ Ignorance is seldom a credible defense in the
                             eyes of the courts.  -POC
                          \_ I think you should be responsible for knowing.
                             Whether or not the violation should be pardoned is
                             another story.