Michigan Association of Police - is this legit??

[Uncle B]

I apologize for the long post, but I wanted to share the whole story with you so that you understand where I'm coming from in asking this question.

I moved to Michigan 3 years ago and a short time after moving into an apartment I received an unexpected phone call. The man on the phone sounded very official and said that he is calling from the Michigan Association of Police. He emphasized the word "Police" and since I never heard of this organization, I thought that he was actually a police officer. The tone of his voice and way of speaking also sounded police like.

He offered to send me some information on how I can support their organization and assured me that I can read it over and choose not to participate if I didn't want to. I gave him my permission to send out the information by mail.

In a couple od days I received an envolope from the Michigan Association of Police. Inside was a short letter, along with a sticker with the association's logo and a bill for $20.

Now, not everyone may agree with me, but when donating money to any charity I don't like to be told that I have to give a certain amount. I believe that a charity should accept all donations and if I feel right about sending them $5 or $10 they should accept it gladly. I didn't like that this association was demanding that I send them $20 so I put the letter in my kitchen drawer and forgot about it.

A couple weeks later I received another letter from them which included a late payment notification letting me know that my $20 is now overdue. I decided to write back. I wrote a letter explaining that I don't appreciate them lying to me over the phone and telling me that they will send me some information in the mail which I can look over and support them if I choose. I also sent back the sticker which I received from them.

I never heard from them regarding that particular issue but once in a while I get a phone call from them asking if they can send me some info to look over. I always reply that I am not interested.

So my question is: Is this a legitimate organization that is actually somehow tied to Michigan Police departments? After my experience with them, I got the impression that they use the word "Police' in their name so that people are cought off guard and don't refuse when they ask if they can send something in the mail. Making people think that the Police is calling them asking for a donation is what I would consider a scam....

[Citicop]

There are a lot of those organizations in Missouri.

They donate about 15% of the proceeds to police causes and the other 85% is operating costs (like the salary of the guy who lied to you. I would never give a dime to any "police related organization" that soliticed me first. There are plenty of legit ones around, just do some research...

And where does any CHARITY get off sending a late payent notification for a DONATION that they didn't feel was sent quickly enough? :mad:

I hate those scams...

Citicop.

[Piggy]

My magic 8 ball says yes, it's legit.


Oh, google says yes too.
http://www.mapmichigan.org/

[DontBurnMyFlag]

They have em in NJ too.

I forget the numbers, but the majority of the money goes to their salary and operating costs like CitiCop pointed out. There is a firefighter organization too that magically started calling me once I donated to the police organization.

I assumed they were legit at first, but they proved to be more of a hassle than anything else.

I know there are better orgs out there.