Rest

On a much needed vacation into the great southwest.  Throughout the Bible there is a theme of hard work followed by rest.  Started in creation with The Lord creating for six days and resting on the seventh and placed as a mandatory work week for the Israelites.  You then factor in all the time off they took for festivals, holidays and the like and you get a number of rest days throughout the year.

Police Officers tend to come in two flavors when it comes to the idea of work and rest.  The first is always at work.  The 80 hr a week guy.  The someday the spouse is going to make the calculation that he/she can have all your money and none of your time or half of your money and all of someone else's time.

The second is the vacation bank at zero guy.  The 35 hr a week guy.  The counting days till he/she can burn a sick/return/vacation/holiday guy.  The why did you ever pick this job because you hate it so much guy.  The selling real estate off his/her cell phone in the squad guy.

I have been both of those guys throughout my career and I have to say both have significant downsides.  The blend of rest and work is always the best way to go.  Strange how that Bible thing keeps saying to do what is best for all of us.


Genesis 2:2

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.

Burglar Alarm Info-Gram

From: HomeInsurance.org

To account for...life or death on a traffic stop

I initiated a traffic stop on vehicle for failing to stop at a stop sign.  When I was able to curb the vehicle, the driver, female, immediately opened her driver's side door and put one leg out to exit her car.  In response, I kicked open my driver's side door, got both feet on the ground and had my hand on my Glock 22 in its holster.  I ordered her to stay in her vehicle and close the door.  She hesitated then slipped her second leg out of the door and turned slightly to exit her vehicle.  I pulled the Glock out of it's holster and pointed it toward her vehicle but kept it behind my driver's side door and out of her view.  I again ordered her to re-enter her vehicle, which she did, openly startled by both the volume and tone of my voice.  The traffic stop was completed without incident and a citation issued.

At the beginning of the traffic stop this driver was angry and was attempting to come back to my squad to demand why I was stopping her.  She further informed me that she thought that I was rude, mean and should not treat the public in that manner.  She then sped away without giving me an opportunity to provide her with a response.

The following video is one that I have seen many times for training purposes.  I hate watching it, even though through its use many Officers have been made safer.  This is why I try to take total command of a situation and why if I do not get compliance in two commands, I greatly ramp up my response, get control and backup.

I can always apologize to the soccer mom for being mean and yelling at her when her intentions are harmless.  But I can't apologize for anything if I am dead.

My prayers are with Deputy Kyle Dinkheller's family, friends and fellow police officers, while some time has passed since this incident, I do not doubt that the pain is still real.

Andrew Brannan was found guilty on January 28, 2000, for the murder of Dinkheller and was sentenced to death.  As of July 2012, he has not been executed and is still incarcerated in Georgia.  After being captured, Brannan was asked why he killed Dinkheller. His response was, "Because he let me."

It will be a good day when the State finally provides Brannan with the final and complete punishment he is due.  A punishment long over due.

Guest Blogger...A Suggestion of Conduct.

Wow this Blog is getting serious, we have a guest blogger! Today's entry is by a fellow Christian Officer. His perspective comes from a different place than mine. While we are both Christians, he only recently accepted Christ and has only just stepped on the straight and narrow path. I have served in a medium seized department for over fifteen years, our guest blogger, "Floyd" is under ten years with one of the biggest departments in the nation. He is also about ten years younger in age. His submission:

As Law Enforcement Officers we subject ourselves to many dangers on a daily basis. Of these dangers, not all necessarily threaten our physical well being, but our psychological as well. It’s ultimately what, I argue, hardens us. It can come in the form of a stare that you know, but cannot prove in a court of law, the bearer of those eyes is excreting extreme hatred for you. This goes all the way to the verbal attack on our justified, and what we take for granted, everyday part of the job.

Do people like police officers? I can no longer ask that question without a rather amusing smirk form across my face. Of course they don’t. Is it because they dislike us personally? Well, no. Most of those that we encounter don’t know us to make that determination. They dislike what we stand for; what out uniform represents. It’s like the hall monitors from High School. Did we like answering to them as to why we were in the hallway during class time? Of course not, the teacher allowed us to be temporarily excused from class to use the restroom or whatever else your reason was to be out of class. That reason came from a higher authority than the measly hall monitor. Nevertheless, we acquiesced to him/her.
So, when you see those angering, horrible red and blue, or in some cases just blue, lights behind you yes, they are meant for you and yes you will have to present your driver’s license and proof of insurance. You know you were speeding, just disregarded that stop sign about a block or so back, went through a red light, etc, etc. Did you scream and yell at that hall monitor when he asked to see your hall pass? My guess is you probably didn’t. Did you actually beat up that hall monitor after school? Maybe some of you actually did, but are you really going to go to such extremes as to step out of you car now and attempt to beat up the police officer that is now pulling you over? Some may answer yes and it has been attempted. Fortunately for law enforcement, we are equipped to handle such occurrences. Too bad for that young hall monitor, though.

By now you should be asking what’s the point. The point is when you get stopped, most of the time you know what you did. And the next time you want to stand up and take a hard-lined stance against crime and disorder, remember how you treated that officer that was “just doing his/her job” the last time you were stopped. There’s no need for the expletives or the demeaning of his/her position. Trust me, the officer knows that there are girls being raped and murders occurring. And yes, we are now going to deal with the fact that you were speeding. As any detective could tell you, fighting crime in an area starts with making public contact. That contact is usually in the form of a traffic stop or a street stop and then documenting that stop. Why? Simply because it tells those in law enforcement who is in a certain area at a certain time. And when you receive that verbal warning, you know the one you sort of demanded, that doesn’t mean you didn’t actually do what the officer originally said you did. The truth of the matter is, you did it; the officer is using discretion and not writing a ticket. Why? Probably because you were one of the few that didn’t yell and scream and actually admitted to your wrong doing.

Now for the twist. I have put a lot on the citizen. But an equal amount of burden must also be placed upon the officer as well. It’s a fact, people don’t like being stopped. You may have to deal with the name calling from time to time. Perhaps you caught somebody at a bad time. Just as they shouldn’t judge you for “doing your job” you should equally not judge them for being a bit irritated. Document your stop, write your ticket, or make an arrest and move on. Both you and the individual you stopped will, and should, get over it soon. I personally have become hardened over the years as a law enforcement officer, but we should work to maintain our own personal dignity and respect. We should listen to what a citizen says even when it’s clouded with verbal attacks. Sometimes they may just be telling the truth; it does happen. Of course, I usually fail miserably at my own advice and find that the angry stare as I mentioned at the beginning is also coming from me.

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

I hate dirty cops.

Law Enforcement is a unique profession in that the very, very, few of us that go "bad" tarnish the vast majority of ethical, moral and compassionate Officers serving the public every day.  When I worked in the private sector a ten percent employee turnover would have been considered fantastic and been rewarded with promotion and pay increases, if that happened in the Law Enforcement field it would be considered a plague.

Ethics, morality and performance standards and practices are in place to keep everyone safe and allow the successful end of a 30 year Police career.  I have always said that if every cop kept, to nothing else, to the ten commandments he/she would never have a permanent career problem.

Some examples of those of us who did fall off the reservation...would love to give each a swift kick in the crotch.

1.    BOYNTON BEACH — A Florida Atlantic University police officer responded to an online ad under the “escorts” section on Monday, where a woman called “Stephanie” promised that satisfaction was her main concern.  But something went wrong between the two, and the escort ended up handcuffed by the officer, before she was shot once in the abdomen and once in her neck.  Today, Jimmy Dac Ho, 47, is sitting in jail, while the woman — Sheri Carter — is in Delray Medical Center, paralyzed from her waist down.  Ho was placed on administrative leave on Tuesday, when the department learned of his arrest, said Deputy Chief Keith Totten, of FAU police. Ho turned in his letter of resignation this afternoon and it was accepted, FAU Police said.  Police say the shooting happened on Monday, when Boynton Beach Police were told by a friend of Carter that she was concerned about Carter’s well being. When police entered Carter’s home at the Marina Village condominiums in the 600 block of Casa Lona Boulevard, they found her shot and unconscious.  Subsequent interviews with neighbors revealed to police that Carter runs an independent escort service from her home and that she lists herself as “Stephanie” on Backpage.com, according to the police report.  Her last escort ad was posted on Monday, where she offers “a quiet, clean and discreet incall location.” The ad lists Carter’s phone number and guarantees that her photos are “100% real and accurate guaranteed or your time spent with me will be completely free!!”  Through phone records, detectives found that Ho was in contact with Carter prior to the last text message she sent at 4:21 p.m., to her boyfriend, where she said that her client was acting “weird and scary.”  When they knocked on Ho’s door, detectives noticed that he looked “worried,” according to the arrest report.  “The defendant quickly then blurted that it was self defense and that she struggled with him over the gun,” the detective stated in the report.  Ho told the detectives that he was a police officer and that he felt that Carter had “ruined his life.”  First, Ho told police that he went to have sex with Carter for money, the report states. Then, he said that Carter wanted money but he didn’t have any.  After waving his rights, Ho told police that he was scared that Carter was trying to rob him, according to the report. He said that he handcuffed her when he thought she was going to use a knife. When he tried to take the handcuffs off, she struggled and he shot her in the abdomen, according to the report.  “He said that he remembered a second shot, which struck her in the neck,” the detective detailed in the report.  When Ho allowed a search of his house, police found evidence taken from Carter’s home, the report stated.  In addition to attempted first-degree murder, Ho faces false imprisonment charges.  Deputy Chief Totten said that Ho had been an officer with FAU police since 2006. Although Ho has had incidents in the past, Totten said none “would lead us to believe that this was capable.”  Meanwhile, Pembroke Pines Police confirmed on Tuesday that Ho had been arrested by the agency in 2004 for battery “in reference to domestic violence.”

2.  A California Highway Patrol officer who fatally shot her husband two years ago in what she said was self-defense was charged with the man's killing on Tuesday, prosecutors said. Tomiekia Johnson, 31, of Compton, was arrested by Los Angeles Sheriff's deputies, according to the district attorney's office.  The officer had initially told sheriff’s homicide investigators that she retrieved a handgun and shot her husband once in the upper body after an argument erupted and he became verbally and physically abusive. Prosecutors, however, say she intentionally shot her husband, a father of two.  The shooting occurred shortly after 11 p.m. on a Saturday in 400 block of Amantha Avenue in Compton. The officer did not remain where she shot her husband but drove to her parents’ home and reported the killing from there. She was not arrested at the time of the shooting and was off-duty.  Sheriff’s homicide detectives, however, doubted the story especially after family members and friends of the 31-year-old barber at Platinum Cutz in Compton described him as a peaceful man not known to be violent. By contrast, witnesses told investigators the officer had a history of drinking heavily.  The couple had met through a local bowling alley, Cal Bowling Lanes in Lakewood.

3.  SUGARCREEK TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WDTN) - Sugarcreek Township police arrested a fellow officer Friday, after they said surveillance cameras captured him stealing DVDs, said Sgt. Mark White, Sugarcreek Township Police.  West Carrollton police officer Joseph Purnell and his wife Ashley were arrested at the Walmart on Wilmington Pike.  Both have since been released from jail. Charges are pending, and they're both expected to appear in court February 16, 2011.

4.  A San Francisco police officer was arrested Wednesday and faces two felony charges related to the theft of a vehicle registration sticker that the district attorney's office says he stole from a motorist during a traffic stop.  Officer Gregory Hui, 45, who also faces a misdemeanor embezzlement charge, had his bail set at $18,000, police said.  Hui was reportedly on patrol in the Richmond District in January 2010 when he pulled over a motorist for having a broken brake light, District Attorney George Gascón said in a news release.  During the traffic stop, Hui cited the driver for an improper registration sticker, according to the district attorney's office.  The officer, who has been on the police force for seven years, then confiscated the tag and put it on a car he co-owns, which had an expired tag, Gascón said.  "Police officers are sworn to uphold the law and protect the public," Gascón said in a statement. "When they violate the law and public trust, they must be held accountable, particularly when the allegations involve on-duty conduct. The law must apply to everyone equally."  Hui was suspended without pay on Dec. 17 while the police internal affairs unit investigated the incident.  He was charged with two felonies for fraudulent use of vehicle registration and a misdemeanor charge of "theft under the color of authority," police said.  Interim Police Chief Jeff Godown declined to address specific information related to the charges, saying the matter is under investigation and a personnel issue.  "That's all I can tell you," he said.

5.  The shadow of corruption over Prince George’s County government widened Monday with indictments against three county police officers and others on charges of trafficking bootleg cigarettes, alcohol and cocaine, just days after County Executive Jack B. Johnson’s arrest on charges of trying to conceal tens thousands of dollars payoffs from a developer.  The latest round of charges accuse Amrik Singh Melhi, 51, who owns several liquor stores in the area, of paying police officers to help ship untaxed alcohol and cigarettes in Maryland and Virginia. Among those charged in that case were Prince George’s Police Sergeant Richard Delabrer and Corporal Chong Chin Kim, officials said.  The indictment seeks the forfeiture of $3.5 million, 25 properties, 13 vehicles and money from 84 bank accounts that authorities say they traced to the crimes.  In a separate indictment made public Monday, authorties charged Prince George’s police officer Sinisa Simic of cocaine trafficking.  On Friday, Mr. Johnson was charged with witness tampering and destruction of evidence in an long-running federal investigation into bribes paid by real estate developers to county officials. Mr. Johnson, who has said he’s innocent of the charges, were released pending trial, with Mr. Johnson under electronic monitoring.  There’s no indication that the cases involving the police officers and Mr. Johnson are related, but the latest indictments come just days after U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein in Maryland said following Mr. Johnson’s arrest to expect more charges.  Mr. Johnson, nabbed by the FBI taking $15,000 from an unnamed developer Friday, later told his wife by phone to hide tens of thousands of dollars at his home in her underwear as FBI agents arrived.  Leslie Johnson, who was elected but not yet sworn into a seat on the Prince George’s Council, was also charged Friday. The FBI recovered $79.600 in cash from her underwear, authorities said in charging documents.  The county executive, a Democrat who previously was the county’s top prosecutor, also told his wife to tear up a $100,000 check from the developer and stash tens of thousands of dollars in cash in her bra, authorities said.  “Tear it up! That is the only thing you have to do,” Mr. Johnson told his wife, referring to the check, according to prosecutors.

Exodus 20

The Ten Commandments

 ¹ And God spoke all these words: ² “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
 ³ “You shall have no other gods before^[a] me.
 ⁴ “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶ but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
 ⁷ “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
 ⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. ¹¹ For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
 ¹² “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
 ¹³ “You shall not murder.
 ¹⁴ “You shall not commit adultery.
 ¹⁵ “You shall not steal.
 ¹⁶ “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
 ¹⁷ “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Coming up Empty

Our team recently completed a project and while arrests were made and a small amount of narcotics were recovered, for all intents and purposes, we came up empty in this investigation. Sometimes you just strike at the wrong time. In this case we slowed them down but did not knock them out.

Logically, this has frustrated the case agent, the team and me. Primarily because of the time spent here when other cases that could have garnered better results were temporally sidelined (looking back is always done with perfect vision). But I was struck by the swing of emotions that I went through in about ten minutes. There was the thrill of the take down, the panic when we realized that what we thought would be there was not, the rush of anger as we scrambled to the new locations and the frustration when we struck out.

This reminded me of variable-ratio conditioning. This is the mechanism that get people addicted to slot machines. The payoffs are random and could yield different outcomes (1 coin on the second pull, 15 coins on the 14th pull). It is considered the best way to have an animal (or man) conditioned to repeat an action for the longest amount of time. IE he/she will pull on the lever of the slot machine as many times as it will take as long as they believe that the next pull could yield the reward.

This is very similar to what any Police Officer experiences when they go out on patrol. You could score the big incident (bank robbery) or medium incident (major traffic accident) or low incident(telephone harassment-the bane of many a police officer) or nothing at all.

This would suggest that the nature of Police work could have an addictive quality to it. This could explain why so many officers prioritize this job over everything else (our 75% divorce rate is an example of this).

Is Police work addictive? I will have to figure this out...well once I get back from my double shift at work.

Surveillance

Recently, we began a project that has both built in time constraints and is very surveillance heavy. So I have spent the last four days sitting in a car making sure my head is not above the window line for thirteen hours at a time.

A long time ago, the bad guys started watching for cars sitting around where they were "working" that would routinely come and go (Det. eating, going the bathroom etc). If the drug dealers saw this pattern, they would quickly shut down and disappear. In order to counter, their counter surveillance, we arrive in the early morning and stay, in basically one place, until night fall.

This week was the first week I have had of multiple stints of this type of surveillance. I can not remember when I have been this sore. Everything hurts and not like the R.E.M. song. I am still trying to figure out why after doing nothing for thirteen hours, it feels like I have been digging a ditch for those same thirteen hours. Plus, you have not lived till you have to create a bathroom schedule and pack three lunches keeping in mind that your food will be staying with you the whole time (I will not make a salami sandwich again...at the end my car smelled like a dumpster in the back of an Italian deli).

I did not think it was possible but I ran out of food, reading materials, people to talk to on the phone and people to send text messages. I have realized that I could never be a monk, I simply do not want to sent that much time with myself.

Anyway when you see surveillance on television or in movies, they have space, the bad guys show up quickly with their intentions clear and the protagonists do not smell of rotting sandwiches. I wanted to provide a slice of reality and I hope that my next assignment does not find me sitting in a cardboard box next to a warehouse (its been done).

Joel 2:20
"I will drive the northern army far from you, pushing it into a parched and barren land, with its front columns going into the eastern sea and those in the rear into the western sea. And its stench will go up; its smell will rise." Surely he has done great things.