Dave Robbins review on The Review Journal on Police Shooting

I’m still perusing the articles in the Review-Journal regarding officer involved shootings in the Las Vegas valley and amazed on how skewed the RJ’s “investigation” is. 

The RJ has stated that the focus is on LVMPD’s activities and that the investigation is a result of a year-long effort on the RJ’s part.  No outside, unbiased entities were involved UNTIL the RJ, upon doing its own research, provided their own findings to the outside agencies and asked opinions of those agencies.  At one point, a professor stated “based on (your) data…”

Percentage comparisons between departments showed a higher number of LVMPD’s officers were involved in shootings versus other departments.  Again, no consideration of Metro’s interaction with over 30 million tourists and visitors, and no per capita comparisons between local jurisdictions.

The RJ article states that 97% of the findings of 500 cases reviewed by the Use of Force Board, comprised of officers and civilians, rules in favor of the officer(s).  It cites that officers, such as Officer Pease, “who show patterns of poor judgment and multiple lapses in police procedure with fatal consequences - rarely face discipline when they shoot and kill”.  If I read this right, if an officer has had what is considered by some, as poor decision making skills, and he is placed in a life or death situation, and he has the tools to protect himself or others, he shouldn’t react because he should be punished because of his past?

I invite anyone to be placed in the same circumstances, or ANY life or death situation, given the same tools, and see how they react.  But before they react, tell them their past history will be held against them however they act.  “Remember when you wet your bed as a child?”  “You’ve been arrested for DUI or domestic violence”. 

Inquest results were also listed, and the vast majority was shown as “unanimously justified” for the use of deadly force. Others show a 6 to 1 vote in favor of the use of force. The folks that sit on these boards are civilians, not department members.

Jury of your peers?  Sound familiar?

What is the complaint?  Are the officers being judged?  The jury selection?  The preparation by the attorneys?  The venue?  I’m confused.  It seems that the complaint is that officers, doing their job, protecting their lives and others, are deemed justified, in all avenues, when they use force.

Not all incidents are perfect, and all the incidents have their critics, regardless how “black and white” it seems, and the majority of the incidents that are ruled justifiable show the suspect had a clear-cut intent and ability to harm/kill the officer or someone else.  The officer sometimes had to make a split second decision.

Basically, if you point a gun at an officer, you will be met with deadly force.  The same goes with trying to run them over with a vehicle.  Bring a knife to a gun fight?  Who’s going to lose?  That’s the rules.

It’s unfortunate that shootings do occur.  Someone loses a life.  Someone takes a life.  There is more than one victim.  There are family members, friends of both the person who lost their life and the person who took it.

Hints have been made that alternatives to deadly force need to be used.  There already have been issues raised with the use of less-than-lethal alternatives, such as “Tasers”, bean bags and other types of less-than-lethal shotgun rounds, batons, etc.  Each is a tool on the officers belt and the training on each is extensive, but each can cause severe injuries or worse (hence the less-than-lethal designation).  Each tool has been highlighted by the media when it is used with dramatic effects.

But with each dramatization by the media of any officer’s use of force, regardless of the tools used, the media slowly biases the public’s perception of the folks that are sworn to protect and the department’s reaction to such articles.

LVMPD administration has developed a “kneejerk” reaction to the public’s response to issues, forming committees, additional reviewing teams, additional training, getting more civilians involved, all at additional cost to the already financially burdened department.

Not once, during my tenure in the department, did the administration ask the line personnel their opinion about how change should come about.  Decisions were always made at the upper levels, by administrators that had not seen any street time in several years, yet the sheriff repeatedly states that he remembers where he came from.

No wonder department morale has been at an all-time low.

To be continued…

Congrats to the motor guys.

Recently, I wrote about the new “Eldora” substation being completed and then being abandoned by the department due to lack of funds and personnel.
We’ve learned that the LVMPD administration has now opted to move the traffic bureau to the new Eldora substation.


The traffic bureau is the last “substation” to receive a new substation and has historically always been the last to receive any benefits.
Northwest Patrol has its new substation on west Cheyenne, moved from the old Jones and Hargrove location.


Southeast Patrol has its location at Pearl and Harmon after moving from the old station at Atlantic and St. Louis (The current traffic station)


Southwest substation, now called “Enterprise” is located at Windmill and Rainbow after closing down the Spring Mountain and Duneville location.


Northeast substation is now at Pecos and Walnut, after abandoning “Fort Mojave” at Washington and Mojave


South Central has a new substation located on Las Vegas Boulevard and Russell.


Convention Center Command has a well equipped new facility behind the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Downtown Area Command has a new station on Bonanza, east of Las Vegas Boulevard.
The Traffic Bureau had been stuck in the basement of City Hall and then shoveled over to the old (built in the early 70’s), refurbished Southeast substation, with the help of the city.  The city pitched in some funds to help in the re-opening of the station as long as the neighbors had the police presence and was able to take reports from citizens.


The original plan was to allow the motorcycle mechanics to be housed at the substation, in the same building.  A large storage area in the building seemed to be appropriate for the mechanics, and the logistics were perfect for the officers and mechanics.  The officers could drop off their bikes with the mechanics during their briefing times and the bikes were usually done after briefing.  No extra travel times and mileage.  Evidently, some other accoutrements were needed to house the mechanics and the department wasn’t willing to pay out the extra money to accommodate them, so they moved back to the Decatur and Oquendo location, approximately 20 minutes away from traffic briefing.  The other accommodations in the building were sparse and archaic, to say the least.


The new substation should be a godsend for the traffic division and well deserved.
The problems?


Contractors that were working on the Eldora substation bailed out, in the middle of their contracted work.  Since LVMPD takes lowest bids, many bid so low to assure that they would get the contract but then realized they couldn’t do the work for that price, so they walked away, leaving the job partially completed. 
Several jobs were done, only to be re-done over and over again, sometimes with less than desirable results.
And what happens when the Sheriff decides to make the Eldora Substation a patrol station again?  Where does traffic go then?


The city is building a new City Hall.


Does it have a basement?

Great Hotel rates in Vegas

Get ready for Great Hotel rates in Vegas .. after Thanksgiving!

Locals get ready to enjoy casino hospitality with great hotel rates. This only occurs 2 times per year and the ridiculous rates are about to enter into one of those historic annual timelnes. From November 28th to December 16^th hotels rates throughout the area will drop dramatically. The reason … no tourists in town between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hotel rates will drop as low as 14.00 to 19.00 per night. Yes, you will still have to pay the taxes and any up charges the property may require (computer access, phone, cable etc.) but the base rates will be worth a “nearly free” night on the town. Be sure and check the Stations casino’s rates along with those hotels on Fremont St. The strip still makes every attempt to maintain a minimum price on their room rates but hey, don’t be embarrassed about asking for upgrades. Monday Nights thru to Wednesdays will always provide the very lowest in hotel/casino prices and Thursday to Sunday nights are always the toughest to negotiate.  As locals start enjoying your Holidays early it is truly our time of the year – Happy Holidays!

When will the Las Vegas Community demand better?

Editorial by Rick Singer

Although I have written on this subject prior to today the question of “when will the greater Las Vegas community demand more for themselves?’ continues to remain in the conversations of many residents throughout Clark County. As one man put it, (a 3^rd generation Clark County resident) “out of the ashes of what are currently Las Vegas needs to emerge a new Phoenix with leadership”.

When you or I or any resident of Greater Las Vegas or anyone observing Las Vegas from a far looks at the ridiculous standards in which our community continues to operate the scenario goes from beyond humorous to completely embarrassing. The levels of self-indulgence, narcissism and nepotism provided or empowered  by this communities leadership (if you can call this leadership) has excelled to the rate of incompetence, theft and abuse that could never be interpreted as maintaining any form of  ‘fiduciary responsibility”  to the citizens.  Just within the last 4 months, here are some highlights:

1. North Las Vegas judge places an order on North Las Vegas city council preventing further reduction of the city Police force because of the citizens rights to Public Safety have been compromised.
2. The son of a Clark County judge is found guilty for “grand theft” at local casinos and then given a minimal sentence.
3. Sun reporter is “encouraged” by a Judge not to write about a specific story that affects the cornerstone of Journalism and the community’s right to know.
4. The school systems of Nevada and in Clark County are nationally ranked amongst the WORST systems for education in the United States.
5. Pill Mill’s (distribution of Legal Narcotics via Pain clinics) has become so epidemic in the Las Vegas area that the number of arrests of Doctors within the community has gone over 19 in 8 months.
6. Unemployment remains between 13.5 and 13.7%. That means 1 out of every 8 people who were working a year ago is no longer working.
7. Metro’s Sheriff Gillespie and his new management team have determined that it is in the best interest of the public to  triple the building and facilities budget while asking Metro Officers  to reduce their incomes. The leader of Clark County Law enforcement has also decided not to add any new law enforcement academies. (I feel so much safer with that new building, don’t you?)
8. Public Safety has been compromised with multiple shootings taking place on the Vegas Strip; enhanced accosting by smut peddlers and children being both injured and killed attempting to cross the street.
9. Las Vegas property values have diminished at a rate faster than the National average (homes are worth 45% less than they were in 2007) in large part due to the number of foreclosures in Clark County. 
10. Why have the foreclosure rates been so high in Clark County? Because the procedures for “kicking people out of their homes” has been compromised, and oh, by the way, the suicides in which  law enforcement has witnessed in conjunction with foreclosures has increased and  is no longer uncommon.
11. Clark County Firefighters were systematically creating an embezzlement scheme by utilizing ‘loop-holes” in the Firefighters contract to be utilized for sick days.

The list can and probably should continue .. but I am becoming noxious thinking about it. The real question is simple; “when will the Clark County residents become sick and tired of being sold neon signage and a cheap cocktail as a substitute for real community leadership”?

1. Judges are bending rules; children of Judges’ are receiving minimal sentences for federal Crimes.
2. Doctors are going to Federal prisons for drug pushing of prescription narcotics.
3. Our Children are getting the worst education in the Nation
4. Public safety has been compromised, crime has increased and our kids cannot come home safe from a night of “Halloween”.
5. Tourists are concerned about safety on the strip with increased shootings and harassment by smut peddlers.
6. Law enforcement has a nice new building while citizens are being evicted from their homes without proper due process.
7. Firefighters and goodness knows how many other city and county employees are working a system to steal that much more money from the populist.

Is this really Las Vegas at its best? For the MILLIONS of dollars available to these departments and boards are you telling me this is the best result we can get for the community? The answer is obviously No! Many more communities with comparable populations and LESS money are providing more to their citizens.
The hard working people of Southern Nevada are great; the people they choose to represent them are the aliens.  Clark County residents need to begin looking within themselves, their own neighborhoods and friends. It really is time for new leadership at all levels of the City of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Clark County, the Board of Education, the Sheriff, and the Judges. We the people of Clark County need and deserve a new Phoenix with leadership.     

Police stress pt 8 (Yup, lots of stress)

This is a continuation of a series of articles regarding the different types of stressors that officers face daily, in their personal and professional lives from a personal point of view.

by Dave Robbins, retired Metro Officer

Along with these obvious producers of stress on the job, there were also the added issues of leadership. The motor division had its share of bureau commanders, so good, some not-so-good.
When we had the “good” ones, the morale was good and productivity was fine.
When we had the bad, well, you know.


When morale and productivity was low, all management saw was the productivity side of the equation. It never occurred to them that the policies and leadership quality could be at fault. The only way the bureau commanders could "fix" the problem was to lower the morale even farther by incorporating an autocratic dictatorship and “performance standard”.  A fancy term for quotas. This is usually what inept leaders do; instead of looking at each officer individually, assessing their strengths and weaknesses, and letting them know where they were excelling, meeting performance  standards, or deficient, they make a "one size fits all" method of deciding who is or is not proficient.

When the standards were met, even more stringent standards were implemented, because now that they were invested in this idiotic system of determining achievement, there needed to be some arbitrary way of separating the officers' performance.  Tickets were then scanned for “quality”, not “quantity”.  Violations were categorized by type.  Certain violations were deemed “goal oriented” and officers were required to write X amount of “goal oriented” citations.

The categories were confusing.  Also, you couldn’t write more than five citations to someone.  If you had more than five violations on someone, you were supposed to arrest the driver, but LVMPD policy states that you can only arrest on the most serious charge, not all the charges you could’ve charged them with.
So if you stopped a driver with an unrestrained child, no license, no insurance, unregistered vehicle, fictitious license plates, not wearing seat belts, open container, equipment violations, etc., you were supposed to arrest the driver.  That required waiting for a transport officer, one for the trip to jail and one for the child to be booked into Child Haven.


LVMPD policy also states that before you tow the vehicle, you should call someone to come and get the vehicle since everyone is in dire straits due to the economy. 


So, if the vehicle is unregistered and uninsured, you were still supposed to release the vehicle.  On several occasions, the “someone” would respond with the entire (usually irate) family. And on many occasions, the “someone” didn’t have a valid license.  In any case, each situation was a waste of the officer’s time (at taxpayer’s expense).


For many years, the traffic division was stationed in the “basement” of city hall.  Brand new area substations were being built to accommodate patrol officers but no plans had been made for a new Traffic Substation.  The old Southeast substation was then “refurbished” and traffic moved into that building, at the intersection of St. Louis and Atlantic.  The building was built in 1972 and still retained the 70’s features.  The showers were located on one side of a main hallway and the locker room (with 70’s style lockers) was positioned on the opposite side of the hallway, requiring a walk across the hallway to your locker.  Oh yeah, not everyone had a locker.  No workout facilities.  The substation wasn’t even listed in the LVMPD website as a substation.  The administration had no qualms about expressing their disdain for the traffic officers, often lauding traffic for their efforts to the public but then internally claiming traffic officers were a pain to deal with.  The majority of officers assigned to traffic were senior on the department and had a lot of very reasonable opinions about how to properly do the job.  The bosses wanted no part of that.   It was their way or the highway.  They often alluded to who lost the rock-paper-scissor game to address the traffic briefings.


During my tenure in the motor division, I was involved in many more accidents than any other traffic officer(9 total, I believe).  Each time I was hit, I was traveling less than 30 mph. Once I wasn't moving at all; a vehicle hit me while I was standing on the opposite side of the road dealing with another traffic accident. Sometimes I even had my emergency lights and siren on, and STILL got hit.  Some of those accidents required a trip to the hospital and some surgeries.  I became a familiar face in UMC Trauma.  Each time I was wheeled in on a gurney, I heard the familiar word “Again?”   Each recovery required doctors, more surgeries, therapy and the dreaded “light duty”.  My personal accident scenes were a favorite for the evening news.  “Metro motor cop gets hit…again…and again…and again”.  It was pretty bad when I would go to my favorite restaurant and the owner had a front page picture of my wreck, even in the foreign language newspapers.
After each time, I got back on the bike.
Hard headed?  Some say so.  Dumb?  Heard that too.  I was resolved not to let anything to keep me down and away from what I considered the best job on the department (okay, second best.  Gotta give cred to the Air Unit)
Some believed I had a “S#&t” magnet on my bike.
I couldn’t find it.  Neither could our mechanics. 
Was it on my bike?
To be continued…

Stress of the Job

This is a continuation of a series of articles regarding the different types of stressors that officers face daily, in their personal and professional lives from a personal point of view.

by Dave Robbins, retired Metro Officer

Returning to riding the motorcycle after my first accident was harrowing, to say the least.  I was always on edge.  Every revving engine, screeching tires and passing vehicle raised the hairs on my neck.  I was constantly looking in my mirrors and panning the horizon.  I didn’t want to be on the roadway.  I never finished my motorcycle field training before the accident. 

I had my doubts.

I went to accident scenes and tried to make heads or tails of the evidence presented to me. 

It took a long while before I felt somewhat comfortable riding.  You never feel comfortable after being involved in an accident.

My first exposure to a fatal accident investigation was near the Charleston underpass, by the “Holsum” Bread Company.  My supervisor had already arrived and began walking me through the scene, describing skid marks, the dog who had been hit, the end position of the vehicle and the dead person (He was outside the vehicle) with the top half of his head missing and the brain lying in the gutter.  After my amazement of the brain’s position and lack of apparent damage, I tried to recreate the pre and post-accident events.  Very confusing.  Even the officers on scene were having a difficult time deciphering what had happened.

The traffic Fatal Detail arrived a short time later and after a brief walk-through, described what had happened.

The dead person was the driver of the vehicle.  He was not belted in.  The impact into the guardrail, spun his vehicle, which caused his body to be partially ejected, but his leg was hung up in the window.  His body was flung into the front of the windshield and his head hit the windshield wiper just right, causing his skull to pop open and eject his brain which rolled down the embankment and into the gutter.  The dog (still alive, but with a broken leg) was a stray that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

After attending a few of these scenes with senior motor officers, I felt comfortable with my accident investigations and even became interested in the dynamics of a vehicle accident.

For example;

A person with metal piercings/jewelry in their face will almost certainly receive “interesting” injuries when they fail to wear the seat belt and their face impacts the windshield, or if the airbag deploys and the metal snags in the material of the airbag.  Flaps of skin are peeled back, requiring many stitches.

If a human skull hits a corner of a vehicle, it will pop open and launch the brain.

Drivers and passengers not wearing their seat belts that are ejected from the vehicle during the accident don’t always survive and sometimes are crushed by the same vehicle they were just in.

If someone fails to properly store objects in the trunk or outside of the passenger area of the vehicle, the objects become missiles when the vehicle is involved in an accident.  In many cases, those objects were responsible for the deaths of the occupant(s).

Sometimes, a person that is literally run over by a vehicle will survive their injuries.  One of my investigations involved a small child that was run over by a large SUV, over his chest area, causing a “hydraulic” effect, swelling his head to almost twice the normal size, and thankfully, the child survived.

Vehicles are now designed to crush and absorb the force of a collision, but able to keep the passengers relatively safe.  Unlike your first car, which was probably built completely of steel and hardly dented the bumper when you ran into something.

The front windshield is a laminate and will act as a “net” when something impacts into it while the side windows break into small pieces to avoid large shards of glass flying around and also allow the window to break if someone is trapped inside.

Part of our duties was to investigate employee’s on-duty accidents.  I found there was definitely a double standard.  Many supervisors, without knowing anything of accident investigation, would automatically accuse the employee to be at fault.  On many scenes, I would describe what had occurred, sometimes with witnesses help, and the supervisor would say, “So it’s our fault”.  I would explain it again to reiterate that it wasn’t and get the same response.  On many occasions I would ask if the supervisor would like to complete the accident report. 

Some accidents were the employee’s fault, with varying degrees of damage.  Some required citations to be issued by the supervisor, others did not meet the criteria by policy or statute for a citation, but some supervisors felt it was necessary to cite all employees.

After the accident, the employee was subjected to an “Accident Review Board” consisting of a board of department members to review the accident and the employee’s culpability and adjudicate administrative discipline, ranging from no punishment to hours of suspension.

Many ranking members of the department have “skated” from on-duty collisions without so much as a talking to.  One lieutenant rear ended a citizen while riding his police motorcycle, causing injuries and never received a citation.  I investigated a motor officer’s single vehicle accident consisting of striking a concrete barricade while responding to an officer’s request for assistance after being shot several times.  No damage to the barricade.  The bike was damaged, not beyond a few scrapes,  and the officer was injured slightly.  The supervisor arrived on scene and began writing a citation for “not maintaining a travel lane”.  I strongly questioned that decision.  The supervisor said he “had to”.  I told him that he didn’t and to look at the circumstances.

It was frustrating at best, not knowing if we were being backed up by the department and our decisions, based on law, were even being considered.

I then realized that our traffic substation was not even noted on the LVMPD website as a substation, even though we offered all the services of a substation.

OF course, our substation was considered a “dinosaur” by department standards.

To be continued…

Pedestrian Safety; who’s at fault?

A pedestrian was in the crosswalk when he decided to take a shortcut to the bus stop. He exited the crosswalk and walked in the travel lane where he was struck by a driver supposedly under the influence of alcohol (story).  Since he was jaywalking and the driver was allegedly drunk, who is at fault?

 A Henderson woman was killed crossing a street, struck by a UPS truck.  Details state that the accident is still under investigation and exactly what happened had yet to be determined (lvrj.com).  Who was at fault?

A six year old girl died and two other youngsters suffered severe injuries when they were struck by a 78 year old woman driver while they were in a crosswalk. (cross walk story).  The driver was charged with the accident.  Do we need to invoke a “refresher” course for senior drivers?

 

A school bus ran over a high school student while she was in a marked crosswalk.  She suffered major injuries as a result, requiring surgery to save her leg (school bus story). School bus drivers have a commercial driver’s license (CDL) which requires more training and knowledge of laws and vehicle equipment.  Is it enough?  What criteria does the school district require?

A “high” pedestrian ran out into the street and was run over and killed by a passing car.  (story). Drugs at fault?  Lack of enforcement?

Reference the same article, a 12 year old trick-or-treater was killed by a drunk driver in Summerlin and a 55 year old woman was killed while jaywalking.  A 15 year old was jaywalking when he was struck and killed by a 77 year old DUI driver.

Inevitably, the police will be blamed for the lack of enforcement at crosswalks and driver’s violations.

What’s the saying?

 “Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked (sorry, not a pedestrian reference) a mile in his shoes”.

While working as a motorcycle officer, I conducted enforcement at numerous intersections with varying results.  I did find the good “fishing holes”. 

One of those is the crosswalk in front of UNLV.  Who was at fault in the majority of the observed violations?  The drivers, without a doubt.  But I did witness a few pedestrian violations.  Young people entering the crosswalk without even looking.  Some walking outside of the VERY well-marked crosswalks, some a little bit, some by a lot.

The crosswalk is probably the best well-marked crosswalk in town, with super-bright yellow strobe warning lights, assorted markings, posted signs, etc.  Yet, drivers CONSTANTLY drive right pass these numerous and OBVIOUS indicators as people are walking in them, sometimes missing them by inches.

I stopped a woman twice for the same violation, at the same crosswalk, within 30 minutes while she looked for a parking spot.  Both times she wasn’t wearing her seat belt.  Made my job easy.

I watched as pedestrians, mostly tourists, run across Las Vegas Blvd, some intoxicated, directly into the path of distracted drivers as they look at the scenery on the strip.

Try and conduct a stop on the strip without it not turning into a “YouTube” event.

Why only have the “walk-overs” at certain intersections? 

They biggest traffic problem on the strip is the pedestrian traffic.  There is too much congestion on the corners as they wait for a walk signal.  Smut peddlers are harassing them as they walk by.  Others hawkers are trying to get their attention.  Alcohol flows freely on the strip,  sometimes on the sidewalks, easily accessed by pedestrians.

What needs to be done to insure pedestrian safety? 

Address the pedestrians?  The parents? The drivers?  How about the resorts on the strip that furnish alcohol to everyone while they walk along the sidewalks and then dart into traffic?

I hope all the schools, every grade level has a program to ensure pedestrian safety.

Have you seen the traffic debacle around the schools when school starts or gets out?  Double parking.  Kids running/darting into traffic. 

Maybe the parents should be required to attend, too.

The strip hosts folks from all over the world and not all speak/read English. 

While most of us agree that the signs and signals are easy to interpret, maybe  signs in different languages need to be posted (not every language, but the major ones).

So, are we doing everything we can to address the issue?  I don’t think so.  Yes, it’ll take time and money.

Isn’t a life worth it?