Trooper Receives Ace Award

MANSFIELD — Trooper Ryan D. Randall of the Ohio Highway Patrol’s Mansfield Post was honored with the Ace Award at ceremonies Jan. 17 at the Ohio Highway Patrol Academy.

It’s the second time he has received the award that recognizes excellence in auto larceny enforcement. Randall recovered five stolen vehicles worth $28,400 and apprehended five suspects in connection with the thefts.

Randall joined the Patrol in March 2001 as a member of the 137th Academy class. He received his commission that September and was assigned to Fremont. In 2002 he transferred to Mansfield and earned his first Ace Award of his career. He is this year’s Mansfield Post Trooper of the Year.

He lives in Shelby with his wife and their three children.

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I am woman hear me roar

WSB-TV

Tanisha Cross never thought the Taser stun gun she received for Christmas would come in handy so soon.

Cross said she was headed to Wal-Mart in Lithonia with her mother when she noticed a DeKalb County police officer in distress.

“I just told my mom pull over, … let’s try to help,” said Cross.

The 20-year-old mother, who received the taser as a gift from her husband, said she kept it in a diaper bag.

Cross said while others gathered to watch, she sprung into action.

“I went straight for my kid’s diaper bag and I got it and asked it if he [officer] wanted me to do it and he said, ‘Yea,’” said Cross.

Cross said the officer had a hard time defending himself because the attacker had taken the officer’s radio and managed to rub pepper spray in the officer’s face and eyes.

Jolting the attacker, Cross’ timing couldn’t have been better. Cross said she tasered the suspect in his arms and legs.

Cross said she stunned the attacker to where the officer regained his composure and fought back until a security guard came to their aid.

“He’s brave,” she said. “He did his best to keep him from his gun. He handled the situation very well. I was just glad I could help him,” said Cross.

Cross doesn’t consider herself a hero.

“I’m just a bystander trying to help do the right thing,” said Cross.

NYPD checks recruits MySpace and Facebook pages

NY Post

It’s a sign of the times.

The NYPD is requiring police recruits who have MySpace or Facebook pages to watch as an investigator sifts through their most private postings, The Post has learned.

The measure is designed to weed out would-be cops who litter their Web sites with violent or explicit imagery, racist rants and any other material deemed objectionable, a law-enforcement source said.

Applicants Processing Division officers are demanding any recruit with an account log on to their pages, even if those pages are private and not accessible to the public, the source said.

Without the applicant logging on, only a subpoena could get the NYPD that much access to the private Web pages.

The policy has successfully alerted the department to some decidedly unsavory would-be cops – including one whose pages included a picture of himself jokingly pointing a gun at his buddy.

“He said it was just his friend, but at that point the interviewer thought it best that he not join the New York City Police Department,” noted the source.

The online snooping goes well beyond the previously announced policy of Googling would-be cops and visiting them online in the publicly accessible pages of social-networking sites.

It makes investigators privy even to some of the most private postings of anyone who wants to be a cop, sources said.

There is no written policy on what is objectionable – investigators just know it when they see it, sources said.

The policy, which went into effect with the class that got sworn in last January, is a direct result of embarrassing disclosures of inappropriate online postings by cops and recruits.

Last summer, a rookie cop named Christian Torres was arrested and charged with twice robbing a Sovereign Bank in Manhattan, along with one in Pennsylvania.

Internal Affairs investigators discovered Torres had a MySpace page in which he posted cartoons about bank robberies and listed his profession as “Oink,” an apparent reference to police.

Other personal Web pages of would-be cops have surfaced that featured videos of violent police beatings, explicit photos involving police uniforms or gear, and snide or bigoted remarks.

The online scrutiny has successfully winnowed out some obviously inappropriate applicants – including a couple of recruits whose networking accounts included boasts of gang membership, or photos of the applicant sporting gang-related tattoos and making gang gestures, according to a retired Applicants Division investigator who asked not to be identified by name.

“They’re not looking to hire gang members,” he laughed.