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?

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?

Police Stress Pt 6.

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.

After my accident in June 2000, I was then resolved to my recovery. 

Except for one thing that I was not prepared for.

After my accident while riding the police motorcycle in June 2000, I didn’t realize what I was in for afterwards. 

LVMPD’s Fatal Division of the Traffic Bureau investigates accidents involving officers with severe injuries or fatalities.  During the investigation, they mark the roadway with paint to indicate skid marks, positions of vehicles, bodies, etc. and the marks do not fade away quickly.  Needless to say, the marks were on southbound US95 near Rancho and I traveled over the accident scene every day, sometimes several times a day.  I saw the marks, drove over the marks and relived every part of the accident each time I did.

I already was having my doubts about getting back on the motorcycle after the accident, but experiencing the “shock” of driving over my accident scene was having a negative effect on me.  Each time I drove over the scene, I felt a strange sensation, sort of like an electrical surge going through my body.  I finally knew what “freaking out” was.

I was trying to deal with those feelings, doctor’s visits, physical therapy visits and the dreaded “light duty”. 

Light duty is reserved for those employees injured at work and/or recovering from an injury or a medical procedure.  While some employees relish staying busy, even injured, light duty was the bane of the injured officer.  You would usually be transferred to a civilian position, hopefully still in your particular bureau, and be assigned usually to desk duty, depending on your injuries.  I could barely walk.  Every bone and muscle ached.  My broken arm caused a lot of problems driving and felt wonderful every time I bumped it.  I had to buy new clothes as there is a dress policy if you are assigned to the office.  I racked up mileage on my personal vehicle driving to work, doctors, therapy visits, etc.  The work load of the light duty employee could be heavy or light, but usually entailed doing work that no one else would care to do.  My first duty?  I was given a large box of radar guns, apparently that had been stored away for a while due to the large accumulation of dust on the box and asked to package each gun for delivery to a repair facility.

Fortunately, I was assigned to the “Hit and Run” detail of traffic, so I was still assigned to the Traffic bureau.  I didn’t know most of the employees there but we grew close and had a good time working together.

Not sure if you remember my time in field training from my previous article and how the field training sergeant advised me that my field documentation of the trainees was too long and how he didn’t have time to read such a long dissertation.

His office was directly next door to the Hit and Run office.

He would repeatedly come into our office and proudly display pictures, printed on LVMPD equipment and time, of women that he had been dating and those he planned on dating.

No wonder he didn’t have time for reading.

I recovered from my injuries thanks to a great surgeon, supporting doctors and physical therapists. 

I now needed to deal with my fears.  Do I want to get back on the bike?

I had support from my co-workers with whatever decisions I made.

I’ve always been one not to let anything scare me away from what I wanted.  I wanted to ride the motorcycle.  “Live to ride and get paid to ride”.

So back on two wheels I went.

Was it the best decision?  There were times…many times I wondered.

To be continued…

Police Stress Pt 5

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.

After looking at other bureaus in the department, I finally settled on the Traffic Bureau.  I knew I could ride a motorcycle and write tickets.  How hard could it be?

I remember the impact on me of the motor officers escorting the funeral procession of Officer Marc Kahre in 1988 and how I thought how professional they looked riding in formation.

I put my transfer in and passed the preliminary riding test.  I hadn’t ridden a motorcycle for about 10-12 years, and needed some brief coaching on riding the provided motorcycle before the test (like; how to start it, push it, lift it, turn it, etc).

So after my transfer took effect and being on the department for 12 years, I was now a trainee motor officer. 

After an orientation in the briefing room, we were taken out to the “course” at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  The “course” was a series of coned patterns that we had to ride without knocking over the cones.

I felt the blood drain from my face and sweat began to ooze from my pores.  The courses looked impossible to negotiate.  The trainers assured us if we listened and practiced, that we would be able to pass the course without problems.

I still felt unsure. The trainers were extremely patient, attentive and made sure we were confident in completing the courses. 

As we got started, I was very appreciative that they showed us the proper way to pick up the motorcycle after it “fell” down. (insert motorcycle crash pix here)  We fell down a lot.  Several riders suffered various injuries, ranging from road rash to broken bones. Many motorcycles required “repairs”, either on site or needed to be trailered to the motor garage.

The final test was the “obstacle course”.  We had to complete the course a certain number of times, without errors (knocking over cones, leaving the pattern, “falling down”, etc).  We all passed.

Next step, learn how to investigate accidents.  We spent some classroom time learning how to calculate speed, stopping distances, know the difference between a “yaw” mark versus a “skid” mark, draw diagrams and other necessary procedures.

After all that, we had to spend some time with a training officer in the field, while we rode.

My particular training officer was an officer that I had initially trained when she came to work for Metro.  So the trainer was now the trainee.

One particular nice benefit of being a motor officer was that the bike was yours to take home.  No more getting to the station early, checking out a vehicle that may have been trashed by the previous officer, loading your equipment and paperwork into the vehicle, getting dressed in the locker room, every work day. Your vehicle was always ready and clean.  You knew the condition of it. And you dressed at home.

After getting ready at home, we logged on the air to our dispatchers and advised them we were enroute to the station for briefing.

Day 5 of my first week in traffic, I was riding to work and met up with another motor officer on the freeway.  He was riding his brand new Harley-Davidson with 500 miles on it.  I was riding one of the last few Kawasakis left on the department.

On US95, west of Rancho, a driver lost control of her vehicle and slid across the freeway, striking the center divider, blocking our path with her car.

I watched as the entire incident unfolded in front of me.

The part about your life flashing before your eyes?  It’s true.  My entire life, my loved ones, blurred before me.

Training kicked in.  I tried to brake without locking up the rear wheel.  Knowing I was going to hit the vehicle, I tried to go limp.

We both slid into the side of the car.  I was catapulted over the car, landing on my back on the fast lane of US 95.  I remember the crunch of the crash, but don’t remember anything else until I heard a female voice asking if I was okay.  I opened my eyes and looked up.  Several citizens had stopped and were looking down at me.  I then remembered that another officer was with me, hoping he had avoided the accident.  I asked about him.  No one answered. I then began taking “inventory” of my body parts.  I was aching.  I realized my left arm was broken.  I could move my legs, to my relief.  I broadcast on my portable radio (they worked pretty well back then) that 2 officers were down and gave our location.  I could hear sirens coming from all directions and that they all were getting closer.  Plainclothes officers, uniformed officers, paramedics, City fire all arrived on scene.  My training officer also arrived and asked how I was doing.  She had medical experience in the military. 

Now, as a motor officer, we do have a different uniform that we wear, including riding boots that we buy and alter for our comfort.  On average, we spent about $400.00 for these boots.  My training officer DID tell me to get zippers put in as it would make it easier to put them on and take them off. As a police officer, most of us wear bullet-resistant vests that cost upwards of $500.00.    Some of us had other custom fitted gear that we purchased ourselves.

The reason I bring this up is that paramedics have these very cool “scissors” that they love testing on different materials. Leather (boots and gloves), Kelvar (vests), etc.

My trainer asked if my back and legs were okay.  I told her “yes’ and moved my legs to show her.  She then began tugging at my boots, cursing at me because I had yet to put the zippers in.  The fire department paramedics arrived and began yelling at her for pulling on my boots.  She yelled back that I told her that my legs and back were okay.  The paramedic then walked over to me, grabbed my broken arm and shook it as if to console me and wondered why I was screaming.  My trainer then dropped the foot she was yanking on and almost punched the paramedic.

I was loaded up onto a gurney and an IV was started in my arm (I thought).  During a very bumpy, painful ride to UMC Trauma, I commented how uncomfortable I was.  They said, “Not to worry” as the pain meds would kick in. 

I was wheeled into the hospital and trauma team began cutting the rest of my clothing off and the doctor lifted my broken arm.  I again yelled out in pain.  Startled, he asked if I felt that.  Duh.  He checked my IV.  I was not receiving any of the meds due to the needle never accessing a vein.

I asked about the other officer involved.  Again I got limited info.

My family arrived and checked on me.  I was alive and functioning (for the most part) to their relief.

I was shown an x-ray of my arm, showing the clean break of my bone.  I then began to shiver uncontrollably.  They wheeled me out of the Trauma unit and down a hallway.  They told me I was going to surgery and “Good Night”.  I watched as they injected something into my IV line and that’s all I remember.

I woke up in the recovery room with my arm wrapped in about 10 pounds of gauze. 

They told me I was going home and after a brief recovery time, I was wheeled out in my gown, butt cheeks hanging out as I was loaded into a waiting car.

As we rode home, traveling west on Charleston, we noticed commotion around the intersection of Arville and Charleston, with numerous police running about and police crime scene tape blocking off the area.

I knew the area sergeant and called him as we passed. 

Macayo’s had been held up and a responding officer was shot in the face.

I forgot about my injuries and prayed for the officer.

To be continued…

More Metro notables

Today is the scheduled grand opening for the new multi-million dollar LVMPD headquarters. (fox 5 story) Hopefully they will announce the grand opening for the newly completed “Eldora Substation” also, probably in late 2012, or early 2013.

I’m a little confused.  Employees of LVMPD are being told not to call it the “headquarters” and the buildings were not built to “headquarters” specifications. So is the media calling it “headquarters” or did the Public Information Office release the info as such?  We were told it’s the “Administration” building.

How about the “Money Pit”?

Metro will be paying 300 percent of what they were paying before in rent for the other buildings they used to rent.

After the building was completed, administrators added to the cost by incorporating improvements which should’ve been included in the building process.  Not included are the hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, needed to bring the buildings up to the 21^st century.

Several offices received different color paint, after the initial color, due to the occupants personal tastes (whatever happened to the LVMPD standard of “You’re lucky to have a job”?) at taxpayer’s cost.  Other improvements were installed after the completion, again adding to the cost instead of implementing them in the building process.  Brand new furniture and appliances for each floor and offices (nothing was wrong with the other furniture they were using, most of which was thrown away or bundled up for auction at an additional cost burden including; hiring additional manpower to move the furniture, load it, drive it to storage, wrap it and store it.  It would’ve saved money just by throwing it away!  Donating?  Guess it wasn’t considered.)  Other bureaus suffered due to the money needed for the accoutrements for the new building.  The Horse Patrol bureau office lost its air conditioner in July only to be told they had no money to fix it, only to find out that tens of thousands were being spent at the same time to purchase appliances for the unoccupied admin building.

Maintenance wasn’t considered when the building was planned.  No freight elevators.  Minimal access to roof for service technicians with equipment. High maintenance flooring.

But yet, they claim the lighting is planned around the employee’s schedules and will be cost effective.

I guess they forgot the costs involved when the schedules change.  Service requests to change the light schedules, technicians needed to service the equipment, etc.  

Rumors of civilian employees getting “bonuses” (brand new personal vehicles).  New equipment that is being thrown out to conceal the fact they were ordered erroneously.  The sheriff wanting to form an “Elite” squad of officers responsible for the new building’s security, complete with “dress uniforms” and specialized training, but yet, the new $7,000,000+ Southwest Substation at 8445 Eldora sits unoccupied (and with a complete display of local graffiti art on the back fenced in walls) and will continue to, because there are not enough officers and civilians on the department to man the brand new substation.  Because it will be vacant for some time, a monitored alarm system will be added, at extra cost, to maintain interior integrity.  Rumor is that forced transfers will be implemented (I can hardly wait to see the morale at that substation), leaving other stations at skeleton crew status.  So again, we pay rent on a building we aren’t using.  Yup.  We now have a jail AND a substation that isn’t being used and the taxpayers are footing the bill.  Oh, and no new academies, civilian or police, are scheduled for the next year.  Retirements are at a record pace.  Officers are spending hundreds of thousands of their own dollars to purchase time to retire early.  The common phrase upon seeing another officer is “I can’t wait to leave this place”.

Is there stress in Police work? Part 4

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.

Is there stress in Police work? Part 4

After being “forced” out of a detail, I chose to enter the Field Training Program to train the new officers, fresh out of the academy.

I enjoyed the challenges of exposing the new officers to the rigors of police work.  It was an eye-opening experience for most of the officers and it was my duty to make sure it was a safe learning (and mostly enjoyable) experience for the new person.

After some exposure to the various challenges inherent to law enforcement, some officers decided that police work was not for them and gracefully bowed out.  Some handled some situations poorly, certainly not to the best of their abilities and training, and continued to struggle throughout their training period.

It became apparent that some were not ever going to be suited for police work and needed to find other avenues for employment.

I digress.  I made sure the new officer was able to experience the full gamut of police work.  Dead body calls, bank robberies, report calls, public contact, traffic stops, foot and vehicle pursuits (yes, at that time, we could chase bad guys).  Everything from the most trivial of misdemeanor crimes to the most heinous felonies.  It was always a learning experience, but I wanted it to be interesting and enjoyable, if possible, for the new officer.

I had trainees tell me and my supervisor that I was the best, or one of the best FTO’s (Field Training Officer) that they had, because they were able to experience a variety of calls, not just drunks sleeping on bus benches all day long, etc.

After about 7-8 years of Field Training, I noticed a “shift” in the program and some of the candidates that entered it.

Some new officer’s personalities were more defiant.  A lot were more submissive and less apt to get involved in serious situations.  When critique was given after each incident, excuses and rationalization became the norm.  Blame was placed on everything/everyone other than the new officer.  If the defiance continued, I would bring the new officer into the Sergeant’s office to discuss the situation.  Several times the stubbornness of the new officer continued and would require an intervention by the Sergeant or even higher ranking supervisors. 

When it was very apparent that the new person was not able to successfully complete the training period, they were given several options to follow up with.

Some would get the hint, and again, some would not.  Other procedures had to be implemented to terminate the employee, requiring proper documentation from the FTO(s).  I’ll talk more about those people later.

But wait!  If you documented to the point that it made someone else work a little extra, like the sergeant in charge of field training, then you, as a FTO, were talked to about “too much documentation”.

Really?!?!?

The Sgt. claimed he didn’t have enough time to read a nine page daily evaluation report about a “problem child” as he had several others to read each day.  So, I was instructed to shorten my evaluations.  I refused as I explained that my ass would be on the line if I didn’t document the deficiencies exhibited by the trainee and he failed to progress properly, and due to the inability to “get it” may commit a grave error. 

As a result, we were subjected to a “FTO report writing” class.  We, as the trainers, were now being trained on how to document the trainees based on the training supervisor’s inability to manage his time to do his job.

The first two evaluations that were on the top of the stack of “How not to write an evaluation” were mine and a fellow squad mate, also a FTO.  Both were documenting two different trainees and both were fairly long.

Needless to say, it was a long class with much “discussion”.

Back to the people we were training out in the field.

As an officer, you HAVE to develop certain skills.  You have to look a little deeper, longer and harder at people and the things they do.  Sometimes you have to ask questions that you would never ask anyone else.  You have to be willing to put hands on people, to make an arrest and get physical, if need be.  Some of the new folks were absolutely terrified to get close to our contacts in the field.  They couldn’t/wouldn’t  make eye contact.  They danced around suspects as they attempted to get close to handcuff them.  They would run from a fight.

Others couldn’t wait to play “cops and robbers”, even off duty.

One particular academy classmate of mine would sit in his personal vehicle, while off duty, and in field training status, in a particular notorious area of town and try to conduct “undercover” surveillance of drug dealers in the area.

A trainee of mine, again while off duty, would dress up in his academy training gear, that had LVMPD emblazoned on it, and put his gun belt on and handle the domestics in the apartment above him (rumor had it that he was smitten by the female in the apt.)

The same trainee, off duty, would dress up in full uniform and drive his personal vehicle to his old work place and walk in with extra guns jammed into his belt.  When his old co-workers asked him what he was doing, his response was “just checking out the old neighborhood”.  When they asked about the extra fire power in his belt, his response was that he and his Field Training Officer (me) had been threatened by gang members and he wanted to be “prepared”.

Both incidents were documented and brought to the attention of the department, but yet nothing was done.  No discipline other than a “talking to”.

The rationale of the department was that they had spent a significant amount of money to attract, hire and train these new officers and they didn’t want to lose their “investment”. 

When the senior officers objected, the administration claimed that there was “strength in numbers” and we should be glad that there is another “body” that can back you up while on a call.  The senior officers stated they wanted “quality”, not “quantity”.  A “quality” officer was worth 10 of a “quantity” officer.

That’s when I knew it was time to look elsewhere on the department.

To be continued.

Goofy criminals

I know we all deal with strange, kind of kooky people almost on a daily basis depending on your job description.

In my previous job, I dealt with the public on several different levels, many times a day. I got to realize that there was a huge spectrum of personalities out in society. Many times, each incident seemed easy enough but the people involved made it very difficult to resolve. I also realized, in the criminal world, there are the same types of people involved while committing crimes.

A little research resulted in finding, even by my standards, some really screwed up criminals. Some of these were overseas and I had never heard of these incidents.

In Australia in 1989, a martial artist, after receiving his first degree black belt in Chinese Kung Fu, believed his level of expertise gave him the skill and power to kill a wild animal with his bare hands. He decided to test his martial arts abilities by driving to the zoo, breaking in and jumping into the “lion’s den”, literally. Evidently, lions do not play fair and engaged in mortal combat. Police and zookeepers located what was left of the martial artist, which were his hands clenching lion fur.

In 1994, a terrorist organization in Jordan ordered attacks against all Jordanian stores that sold either videos or liquor. A 31-year-old terrorist, had accepted $50 in US currency to place a bomb in a Turkish movie theater. He entered the theater clutching his bomb, and then noticed the movie that was playing on the screen. He became engrossed in the movie as it was a Turkish pornographic movie. He had never seen this type of cinematic art and was intrigued. He placed his bomb package underneath the seat he sat and watched the movie. 10 min. later, the bomb went off, removing both his legs and his testicles. His penis was removed with surgical precision and was found safely inside his right hand. He never made it to the hospital to have his appendages reattached.

On April 1, 2010, Somali pirates purposely attacked the USS Nicholas, a guided missile frigate. The Pirates were armed with AK-47s, RPG's, pistols and grenades. The USS Nicholas is armed with 40 anti-ship missile, one three-inch artillery rifle that fires 120 rounds per minute, two triple tube torpedo launchers, 4 .50 caliber machine guns and a 120 mm computer automated Vulcan Gatling gun that fires 4500 rounds per minute.

Evidently, the Pirates failed to notice the weapons on board of the USS Nicholas, the U.S. Navy steel gray paint, and the 453 foot length of the ship which is considerably larger than the private yachts that they are accustomed to attacking. The pirates fired first with their small arms. The sailors immediately returned fire with the Vulcan cannon shooting down three of the four RPG's. The 50 caliber machine guns disabled the pirate skiff. The one grenade that made it through the firestorm struck the hull of the USS Nicholas, denting it. The three pirates on the boat surrendered and, after retrieving the prisoners, the USS Nicholas overpowered the mothership, which was a converted ex-shrimping schooner, and captured the rest of the crew.

We all know and respect Chuck Norris.  He has trained with Bruce Lee, has several degrees in various martial arts including his own hybrid concoction of fighting skills. He is an accomplished actor and is well known for training other fighters. In 1994, at the beginning of his fame as " Walker, Texas Ranger", he was walking down the street by himself and noticed two men walking towards him. Both men were slightly larger than Chuck and they were walking directly at him. He noticed that both men were staring right at him and assumed that they wanted autographs. So he walked up to them and stopped with a smile upon which they immediately produced two large pocketknives and demanded that he give them his wallet. They further stated that they knew who he was and that he had lots of money and instructed him to give it up or he was dead. When all was said and done and the police responded approximately 4 min. later, both the men were sitting on the curb with compound fractures of their arms and the two bloody knives laying in the gutter. Chuck was leaning against a wall wearing his beard, jeans, cowboy boots and a cowboy hat and just shrugged at the officers. The police laughed so hard that they bent over, holding their sides and took some time to compose themselves enough to handcuff the criminals. One of the officers asked the failed muggers if they knew who they attempted to mug. One of them said," yeah, we knew who he was, but we figured all that crap on TV was fake!"

Then there's the story of a purchase of a radio system by a police department for tens of millions of dollars, only to find out the department was bilked out of its money for a system that's been proven not to work…

Who's the criminal? The company that sold the radio system, or the purchasing agent(s) for the police department that that didn't do their research?

Three guesses?