More cops watching for who’s naughty

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

That means residents can expect to see a lot more cops on the street.

Law-enforcement agencies in the county are putting more people on the street to try to stop the drunken driving and thefts that tend to occur more around the holidays.

“We tend to see high crash rates in November and December, especially those involving alcohol,” Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Kim Miller said.

Miller said that although patrols in the coming weeks won’t be as intensive as those during the Thanksgiving weekend, more troopers will be on the roads compared with other times of the year.

Local agencies, meanwhile, are focusing their patrols on areas that see many holiday shoppers.

The Mount Dora Police Department is increasing the number of officers on the retail-laden U.S. Highway 441 corridor, said Robbin Mayfield, a department spokeswoman.

The Sheriff’s Office will be keeping a close eye on banks and shopping centers, Cpl. Jim Vachon said.

The Sheriff’s Office’s mounted patrol also will be watching for shoplifters and car burglars, including at Lake Square Mall, Vachon said.

Although law-enforcement agencies beef up their street presence every holiday season, many said the current economic woes make added patrols even more vital.

The Leesburg Police Department has seen crime in the city increase “above and beyond normal holiday crime spikes,” likely because of some residents’ empty pockets, Lt. Rob Hicks said.

Likewise, the Sheriff’s Office has seen a similar increase in property crimes such as theft.

“Now, with the economy having some troubles, some people are getting desperate,” Vachon said.

Link

EDITORIAL: Keep police officers on the streets

Lake County Sheriff Rogelio “Roy” Dominguez has been one of the proponents of Good Government Initiative reforms. Now it’s time for him to follow those principles to make changes in his own department.

Sgt. Dan Murchek, president of Lake County Police Association Local 72, is complaining that his 13 years of police experience are being wasted with do-nothing assignments like supervising inmates performing manual labor.

“I never recall weed whacking 101 or car washing and waxing 101 at the police academy,” Murchek said. “It’s flat-out harassment what they’re doing.”

The “they” Murchek referred to are Dominguez and Police Chief Marco Kuyachich. Murchek contends they are retaliating against him for his support of former Sheriff John Buncich and for Murchek’s work for the police union.

Kuyachich denies it’s retaliation, of course.

But Murchek is right in saying, “Taxpayers pay police officers to be on the street.”

Correctional officers and police officers are not interchangeable, yet sheriffs have often assigned police officers to duties of the type Murchek is complaining about.

In a good example of poor timing, Dominguez is telling Winfield the county cannot afford to provide police protection for the town.

Whether Winfield should start its own police department or pay a substantial amount to the county to outsource that service is a separate issue. But it is disingenuous for Dominguez to say the county doesn’t have the manpower available when a police sergeant is overseeing inmates instead of patrolling roads.

Dominguez needs to stop complaining about police manpower shortages even as he reassigns officers to other duties for political or disciplinary reasons.

Porter County Sheriff David Lain, who also has been known to follow this practice of assigning correctional duties to police officers, should also refrain from doing so.

Keep the correctional and police responsibilities and staffing separate.

Your opinion, please
Should sheriffs use correctional assignments to punish police officers?
Share your thoughts at http://nwi.com/opinion

Link

Orange County Sheriff’s Office interviewing 12 for new position

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office has narrowed to 12 a list of candidates for a full-time internal affairs investigator, from 20 who responded to a recruitment ad.

“We’re in the middle of interviews right now,” said Capt. Dennis Barry, a spokesman for the office.

Sheriff Carl DuBois has made the internal affairs position one of the priorities of his second term at the helm of the office, which has about 400 deputies and correction officers.

The applicants include the part-time investigator who’s currently assigned to internal investigations, Barry said. That investigator, Barry Gorelick, is the only in-house applicant for the job, which pays $60,047 annually, or about $10,000 less than the sheriff’s chief investigator.

Some applicants were disqualified, Barry said, because their state certification as police officers had expired.

The new position has the title of “program integrity officer,” an indication that the job duties aren’t limited to internal investigations.

The new investigator will also be responsible for ensuring compliance with accreditation standards, and will report to the undersheriff, the second-highest position in the office.

The internal affairs post was authorized last year by the county Legislature, after three years of limbo and some heated discussion.

DuBois originally asked for two positions, saying that they were a necessity in an agency the size of the sheriff’s office. He also said that they were essential to rooting out the kind of malfeasance and misconduct that convinced voters it was time for a new sheriff in 2002, when DuBois defeated incumbent Frank Bigger in a Republican primary.

The sheriff’s office began advertising the position earlier this year, and accepted applications until Oct. 31.

Barry said that the new investigator will be chosen before the end of 2008.

Link

St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office to help needy with gift wrapping

St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office tradition of helping needy families continues with Christmas gift wrapping Dec. 13.

“Charitable, tax-deductible contributions to the St. Lucie County Crime Prevention League, in care of the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office, 4700 W. Midway Road, Fort Pierce, FL 34981-4825, make this possible,” Sheriff Ken Mascara said. “Despite today’s tough economic times, I am confident the public will make a brighter Christmas possible for St. Lucie County’s needy families.”

In previous years, the effort has received donations of cash, non-perishable food items and toys for children.

This year, members of the Sheriff’s Office and volunteers will gather at the Sheriff’s Office at 9 a.m. Dec. 13 to wrap presents for needy families.

Link

Tempe police welcome new K-9

Tempe Police Department Community Affairs Specialist Katie McDevitt writes about the department’s new K9 officer.

A new Tempe police K-9 will soon begin patrolling city streets, after more than a month of intense training.

Deuce is a 3-year-old German shepherd who police K-9 handlers selected in Seattle because of his strong body, good hunting skills and solid prey drive, Tempe police K-9 officer Jim Jeffries said.

Deuce was purchased with a $10,000 donation from Wal-Mart. The business offered to help Tempe Police Department following the line-of-duty death of K-9 Baloo on June 30.

Baloo died after falling 50 feet during a building search for a suspect. When Tempe police announced the death, there was an outpouring of community support. Wal-Mart and a private resident immediately offered to help pay for another dog.

“It meant a lot to us that not only did we get this outpouring of support from the community, but we got it from our business partners,” Tempe police Asst. Chief Angel Carbajal said.

Although Tempe police officers will always miss Baloo, Deuce is a special dog who stood out from the pack early on. He does exactly what police K-9 dogs are supposed to do – get excited to work and respond well to commands.

Deuce was trained from the time he was a puppy and has since learned even more from Tempe police K-9 handlers. And even though he’s going to be on patrol, Deuce will still need at least four hours of practice training each week, said Tempe police K-9 Sgt. Chuck Bridges, Deuce’s handler.

Once he’s ready, Deuce will also receive special lessons in becoming a narcotics dog, a position that would require him to recognize several different drug smells, Bridges said.

The Tempe police K-9 unit has been in operation since 1979 and has six dogs and six handlers. Two police K-9 dogs also work in the department’s narcotics unit.

Link/pic

Brevard County SWAT teams shape up for international competition

Most of the next week, two Special Weapons and Tactics teams from the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office will try to rescue colleagues and hostages, rappel down walls and shoot at targets.

So are they anticipating a hostage situation in Brevard? Not quite.

The two Brevard County Sheriff’s Office teams of eight members each will be taking part in the SWAT Roundup International Competition in Orlando that runs today through Friday. About 60 SWAT teams from all over the country and other nations are taking part.

There are teams from Georgia and Alabama, and from Germany and Qatar.

“There will be a lot of Type A personalities there,” Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Brandon Lanza said. “Everybody wants to win.”

An Orange County Sheriff’s Office team won the overall team event in 2007, while a team from the Brevard sheriff’s office finished sixth.

This year, at least one of the Brevard teams hopes to finish in the top five.

Maj. Greg Purden, the SWAT team commander for the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, said the grueling competition enables his officers, who also have regular law enforcement duties, to stay in good physical shape and share strategy and tactics with other law enforcement agencies.

“During the competition, we attend classes in the morning,” said Purden, whose men have been practicing for the event for six weeks. “And we compete in the afternoon.”

The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team was formed in 1977, and draws from a diverse pool of deputies and agents to tackle critical incidents. The team also is part of Florida’s statewide anti-terrorism task force.

The team is divided into an operational team, a crisis-negotiation team, a technical unit that helps with high-tech equipment, a fully certified medical professional and a tactical team that plans strategies.

Many of these skills will be on display beginning today in Orlando.

Link

Top Gun

Last week, Mesquite Police officers Brad Swanson, Jaime Macias, Christopher Rowley, MaQuade Chesley, and Justin Goodsell attended SWAT training in Las Vegas hosted by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

The officers were trained in the areas of downed officer rescue, vehicle and bus assaults, active shooter incidents, explosive breaching, rappelling, and many other scenarios.

Officer MaQuade Chesley, Mesquite PD

SWAT officers from all over the United States attended the training.

Mesquite officer MaQuade Chesley won the “Top Gun” award during a shooting competition.

Chesley competed with some of the best shooters in the country to bring home the award.

The Commander of Mesquite’s SWAT team, Sergeant Scott Taylor said, “I congratulate all the officers for completing the training, but I’m especially proud of Officer Chesley for winning the Top Gun award.”

Sergeant Taylor also offered his appreciation to the police department administration and city officials for their support of the SWAT team, acknowledging the City of Mesquite gives the team the necessary tools and time to train.

Chief Douglas Law added, “The residents of Mesquite can be proud of the members of the SWAT team. These officers train and work very hard to keep the residents safe, especially in dangerous situations.”

The Mesquite SWAT team currently has 12 members.

A cop’s worst nightmare

NO! Not the JELLY!!!!!!!!

Ar ar arrrrrrrr:)

Bad drivers beware: Staten Island cops are gunning for you

Drive like a dope on Staten Island, and you’re 17 percent more likely to end up with a ticket.

Since July, Police Assistant Chief Stephen R. Paragallo’s mission to crack down on the borough’s worst drivers has resulted in thousands more drivers pulled off the road and ticketed.

The haul has been attributed in part to several enforcement initiatives, including the assignment of two officers in unmarked cars who look exclusively for traffic violators across the Island.

“We focused them in on community complaints and historic trouble spots,” Paragallo said.

Between July 1 and Oct. 31 of this year, the NYPD wrote 17,049 moving-violation summonses, compared to 14,544 over the same period last year.

Of those tickets, more than 60 percent were written for “hazardous moving violations” such as reckless driving, disobeying lights or unsafe lane changes.

“These two officers accounted for 8 percent (of tickets) in these four months,” Paragallo said.

And because the two officers had already been doing traffic enforcement in their respective precincts before being assigned boroughwide, their task force doesn’t take crime-fighting resources away from the rest of the Island, Paragallo said.

On top of the officers in unmarked cars, the Island’s three police precincts also worked to rein in unruly drivers, with four separate blitzes of key arteries, including Victory Boulevard, Forest Avenue and Hylan Boulevard.

Don’t expect the cops to hit the same hot spots over and over again. They’re mixing up their targets. One day they may be on a high-traffic road like Hylan. On another day they may be on a quaint side street after getting a complaint from fed-up neighbors.

“We don’t want people to be conditioned,” Paragallo said. “We want them to get to that corner and it’s a roll of the dice.

“You never know who’s going to be out there.”

Link

Riviera Beach K9 department is going to the dogs…and not in a good way

RIVIERA BEACH, FL – A series of recent missteps and alleged crimes by Riviera Beach police officers have left the department’s K9 unit badly short-handed, or perhaps more accurately, short-pawed.

“It is disappointing when an officer is charged, however we still keep in mind that it’s an allegation in all five cases,” says the city’s spokesperson Rose Anne Brown.

In September, four of the department’s six K9 officers were taken off the street for allegedly downloading porngraphy on a computer at the Port of Palm Beach and re-assigned to the patrol division.

Now, a fifth handler has been removed from the elite squad.

43-year-old Maurice Morris in court Monday, indicted for sexual battery and bribery.

His dog will be retired, they say, temporarily leaving the city with just one of its K9 units.

“What we plan to do is we will actually operate with five K9’s when the four come out of training,” said Brown.

Meanwhile, taxpayers have temporarily lost the use of the dogs.

The animals will typically take three weeks to adjust to their new home and handler, but the human training will take longer.

“Learning how to track and lead the dog, all the obedience, all the bite work, all the control – uh, it’s physically and mentally extremely challenging,” says Bob Anderson, who owns Anderson International K9 college in Riviera each.

The department’s retraining work is going on at Anderson’s facility.

Anderson himself is a highly decorated former K9 officer with more than 20 years in the business.

“It’s a good group,” Anderson says of the new officers taking-on the K9 responsibilities, “It’s going extremely well. They’re having fun. The dogs are having fun. Challenging, but it’s rewarding.”

The dogs and their new hand-picked partners should be ready to hit the streets again in about two months, says Anderson.

In the meantime, Riviera Beach wants its citizens to know they’re fully covered.

If they need a K9 unit, and their remaining dog is off duty, they’ve worked out mutual aid agreements with surrounding cities to provide K9 service.

City officials say Riviera Beach already had the largest K9 unit of any local municipality, so going from six dogs to five when the training is completed won’t compromise their level of service.

Four of the officers who lost their spot on the elite squad have been moved to patrol positions. The fifth, Morris, is on paid administrative leave.

Link