Polluters, Beware: These Eco-Police Officers Are for Real
The woman at the desk of A & L Collision, an auto repair shop in Brooklyn, eyed Officer Neil R. Stevens suspiciously.
“You’re not from here,’” she said.
“Yes I am,” Officer Stevens replied.
“You dress differently,” she insisted.
She had a point. Officer Stevens’s uniform is olive green, not blue, and he wears a Stetson hat that gives him a friendly Smokey Bear look. But drivers of smoke-bellowing trucks, owners of oil-oozing body shops, vendors of undersize fish and other city dwellers underestimate him at their peril.
As a member of a small force of police officers whose sole focus is enforcing environmental laws, Officer Stevens carries a gun and handcuffs and can haul a suspect off to jail. These environmental conservation officers number barely 20 in New York City, out of about 300 around the state, but issue about 2,000 summonses for violations and criminal charges annually.
And while Officer Stevens, a self-described farm boy from upstate New York who is and looks 24, can be a nice guy, his patience has its limits.
Investigating a neighbor’s complaint, he had come looking for the owner of A & L Collision twice before to get an explanation for the wrecked cars on the sidewalk discharging oil, antifreeze and other noxious substances. When the officer was told that the owner was on the road and unreachable by cellphone — again — he asked for the manager’s driver’s license and wrote the shop a ticket for a misdemeanor. Within minutes, the owner, Victor Debiasi, materialized to apologize profusely and promise that “all this stuff will be out of here today.” The summons stayed written.
Created in 1880, when they were known as “game protectors” and watched over game and fish, these eco-friendly officers are now part of the State Department of Environmental Conservation and have become more prominent in recent years as public consciousness about the role of pollution in global warming has grown. They now answer complaints and respond to dispatchers’ calls in addition to carrying out spot inspections and longer investigations.
Over two shifts this month, Officer Stevens responded to incidents ranging from fuel spilled from a tanker truck involved in a traffic accident in the Bronx to a store’s refusal to redeem the deposit on cans and bottles.
Violations of the bottle bill, as it turns out, are the most common complaint the officers deal with in the city, said Maj. Timothy Duffy of the environmental police force, who oversees New York City. Over all, he said, environmental complaints in the city almost tripled in 2007 — to 621 a year from 226 in 2006 — and criminal summonses more than doubled, from 993 to more than 2,000.
The numbers stayed high last year, with more than 1,700 summonses and 600 complaints, the major said.
Officer Stevens, who grew up working on his family’s dairy farm in Cayuga County in central New York and graduated from Cornell with a degree in natural resource conservation, said he was drawn to the job because he liked the outdoors. But in New York, the outdoors means not only traditional conservation work like cracking down on illegal trade in fish and wildlife but also things like pulling over trucks that spew smoke in low-income neighborhoods with high asthma rates. It also involves making sure that New Yorkers are able to redeem those empty bottles and cans for a nickel apiece.
Officer Gregory Maneeley looked for undersized fish in Chinatown
So on a Monday morning, another environmental officer, Matthew Baker, 25, dressed in jeans and baseball cap, walked into a Pathmark supermarket in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn with a plastic bag filled with empty cans. When he found the return machines for recyclables locked and was turned away by a store employee, an officer in uniform, Gregory Maneeley, walked in and handed the store manager a summons.
Adina Kornegay, 65, a restaurant hostess, sounded surprised and appreciative when Officer Stevens, who had joined the other officers that morning, called her to tell her that an “enforcement action” had taken place at the Pathmark.
She had called 311, the city’s help line, because she had repeatedly found the machines locked, she said in an interview. And the last time she visited the store, employees were “very rude,” she added.
“To tell you the truth, I didn’t think someone would look into the problem,” she said.
The store manager declined to comment.
Yet many interactions between Officer Stevens and ordinary New Yorkers are less pleasant.
Robert Thompson was not at all happy when he was stopped the next day because of blue smoke emitted by his flatbed truck as he drove along McGuinnes Boulevard in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
“Blue smoke?” he asked, looking dumbfounded as he was handed a summons.
“Just make sure the violation is corrected when you come to court,” Officer Stevens told him.
Mr. Thompson looked at the officer as if he should be elsewhere, stomping out campfires.
“I thought they were from the parks,” he told a reporter accompanying the officer, testily suggesting he was stopped for her benefit. “I’ve never seen them stop a truck. I don’t know why they picked me out.”
New environmental officers are often assigned to New York City because that is where most of the job openings are. Most transfer out of the city the first chance they get, finding the cost of living too high for their $40,000-a-year salaries.
Officer Stevens, who rooms with two other officers in an apartment on Staten Island and has a steady girlfriend back home, came to the city for the first time in October when he was assigned to Brooklyn. Five months in, he already has pet peeves.
Topping the list: “really aggressive” driving in the city. Even in his Chevy Blazer patrol vehicle, he is pestered by horns. “I wouldn’t expect I’d be honked at anywhere else,” he said. “It’s a green vehicle, but it still has flashing lights and a person in uniform.”
The officers are a more familiar sight in the fish markets of Chinatown, the next stop for Officers Stevens and Maneeley. Their lieutenant called to relay reports that two storefronts were selling undersize wild striped bass, which is illegal because it undermines efforts to keep fish populations stable. The two officers and Lt. John Fitzpatrick parked, jumped out of their cars and headed in opposite directions toward the two stores.
As they inspected fish tanks and basement freezers and walked past blue snapper and flounder fillets on ice, they found only farm-raised live bass and no violations at one store. But at the other one, they confiscated 79 pounds of clams that lacked tags attesting to their provenance and were sitting in crates on the floor, which can lead to contamination.
The owner of the store, James Luu, seemed resigned as he received a ticket for a misdemeanor charge carrying up to a $5,000 fine and a year in jail. “When they say it’s about safety, we can’t fight,” he said. “They say, ‘Don’t put it on the floor.’ I didn’t know.”
Officer Neil R. Stevens investigated an oil spill at a traffic accident in the Bronx.
Officer Stevens, who left with the smelly cargo in the back of his vehicle, said he saw himself as a teacher as much as a cop. He often returns to his crime scenes.
“I’ll see whether our enforcement made a difference,” he said. “I hope that when we go in there, they’re in compliance.”
Outpouring of support for Oakland PD
When awful, unexplainable things happen, sometimes the best thing is a warm meal served by a friend who has been there before.
That’s why Oakland firefighters loaded up on hamburger and tri-tip steak and took over the kitchen at the Oakland Police Officers Association, to serve comfort food to a force reeling from the slaying of four of its officers last weekend.
Firefighters lit the grill and worked the room, offering round-the-clock meals and conversation since Monday morning.
“We are there to talk to the guys,” said Lt. Chuck Garcia, president of the Oakland branch of the International Association of Firefighters. “This is a big, crazy city. We have to be there for each other.”
Two professional counselors and a medical doctor also are offering their services.
Grief is rippling from department headquarters on Seventh Street throughout the city after the shooting deaths Saturday of Sgts. Mark Dunakin, 40, of Tracy, Ervin Romans, 43, of Danville, and Daniel Sakai, 35, of Castro Valley, by Lovelle Mixon, a 26-year-old parolee whom police had pulled over in a routine traffic stop. Mixon was killed in a shootout with SWAT officers.
Removed from ventilator
Motorcycle Officer John Hege, 41, of Concord was removed from a ventilator Monday night at Highland Hospital in Oakland after donating organs.
“Everyone is trying to understand what the hell just happened here,” said Sgt. Dom Arotzarena, president of the Oakland Police Officers Association.
The outpouring of support from the firefighters – and from elected officials such as city Councilman Larry Reid and state Attorney General Jerry Brown, who have been coming to the association offices every day since the killings – has been an enormous help to officers who want to talk, he said.
Many officers also have opened their homes for grief gatherings, Arotzarena said.
Libraries are collecting cards, condolence books are coming from City Hall, Whole Foods sent more food, and flowers are taking up half the police station foyer.
Jeff Thomason, spokesman for the Oakland police, said he is getting several hundred e-mails a day from well-wishers.
“It’s overwhelming,” he said. “Police agencies from all over the country are coming to the funeral. Boston is sending 50, I’ve heard from New York, Baltimore, and all the California agencies are coming.”
$40,000 donation
Although Arotzarena had not yet tallied the donations, the largest one so far came Tuesday from the Morongo Band of Mission Indians in Palm Springs. The tribe sent $40,000, to be divided equally among the four officers’ families, along with a personal letter from tribal Chairman Robert Martin.
Dennis Miller, a member of the tribal council, said the tribe was touched by similar violence in the late 1990s, when two sheriff’s deputies were murdered during a domestic violence call in Riverside County.
“There are … orphans now,” said Miller, referring to the children of the slain Oakland police officers. “Our donation is a way to send a signal that we’re not going to tolerate this kind of violence anymore.”
Funeral for the officers
The public memorial for Oakland’s four fallen police officers will be 11 a.m. Friday at Oracle Arena, 7000 Coliseum Way.
– The services will be led by the Rev. Jayson Landeza, chaplain of the Oakland Police Department. Organizers are expecting more than 12,000, including uniformed officers from police agencies around the country.
– Overflow crowds will be invited to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, where a big screen will broadcast the service.
– Parking lots open at 7:30 a.m., and the arena will open by 9 a.m.
– Drivers should use the 66th Avenue exit off Interstate 880. Guests are encouraged to take public transportation to the arena, accessible by the Coliseum BART Station and AC Transit.
– Find more information and directions at www.opoa.org/funeral.
Donations
The Deputy Sheriffs’ Association of Alameda County has established a memorial fund. Mail contributions to San Francisco Police Credit Union, attn.: OPD Memorial Fund, 6689 Owens Drive, Suite 125, Pleasanton, CA 94588. Make checks payable to OPD Memorial Fund.
A headcam for cops
Wonder if this will pose any health risks for the officer if he’s wearing it all the time?
—————–
Traffic cameras have some company. Uniformed law enforcers could get a portable third eye soon, if the Taser Axon eventually becomes standard police equipment.
Like the military-inspired Sanwa Throat Microphone which clips around a person’s throat, the Axon wraps around the head, with a GPS-enabled camera eye peeking over the ear for full audio-video recording, even in low light. 
Fortunately, there’s a privacy mode to temporarily suspend recording. After all, who needs to watch our friendly officers take bathroom breaks?
We don’t yet know how much onboard memory the Taser International device takes, whether it can transmit footage wirelessly back to police headquarters, or how long its battery lasts. But when the Axon debuts sometime in the third quarter of this year, it should make evidence gathering, particularly in a scuffle, a lot more cut and dried, barring hiccups such as hardware failure, dead batteries, bad lighting, or an officer down.
Just be prepared for some NYPD Blue-style choppy camera work.
Orgeon State Police to add 10 new troopers
Oregon State Police say 10 trooper recruits are ready to head to their first posts, and 20 more will start training in May – the last class in a push begun two years ago to boost patrols throughout the state.
The recruits are to graduate Friday from the Oregon Public Safety Academy. They will be assigned to work out of Springfield, Albany, Newport, Pendleton, Salem and The Dalles.
9 of the recruits will be assigned to patrol duties, and one will work in the patrol’s Fish and Wildlife Division.
Superintendent Timothy McLain says the troopers were hired and trained with funding approved by state lawmakers in 2007.
Bigelow is “Top Cop”
The council chamber floor belonged Rudy, a narcotic detection dog, and Officer Brian Bigelow, the city’s 2008 Officer of the Year. Numerous city leaders and law enforcement officers from various agencies were on hand to support officers Bigelow and Rudy.
“This is a proud day,” Mayor Rick Holland told the crowd. “Policemen are a community and everyone in the state knows if you are a good [police] department or not … they keep up with each other and everyone says positive things about the Benton Police Department. To be [individually] honored from this department …I mean you must be pretty good!”
The ceremony also recognized Detective Jeff Parsons, who became the legal owner of Rudy through a city resolution. Holland read the resolution that said, “K-9 Rudy, who has served the citizens of the City of Benton for a number of years …has become unable to meet the physical demands of serving and protecting the public …authorizing the mayor to give K-9 Rudy to his handler.”
Rudy is a German shepherd and became Benton’s first narcotic detection dog after graduating from the Little Rock K-9 Academy on Sept. 12, 2003. He was originally assigned to Officer Scott Fritz, but Fritz left the department in December 2005, and Rudy was assigned to Parsons.
Rudy worked alongside Parsons for nearly six years before Rudy’s retirement on Dec. 8.
Hip dysplasia, a painful condition resulting from a misalignment of the hip joints, forced Rudy’s retirement. Rudy was responsible for for a number of narcotics seizures, 40 arrests, the recovery of more than $30,000 in cash and the seizure of two vehicles, authorities said.
Captain Jeff Besancon also recognized the Parsons’ efforts at the ceremony. He said that without a well trained officer to work alongside the K-9, the team would not work.
“Together they made many drug seizures, made schools safer and improved the community,” Besancon said. “He’ll be, and is already, sorely missed at the department.”
Holland and Besancon both wished Rudy “Godspeed” and a lengthy retirement. Parsons and Fritz were both in attendance and said Rudy would make a good “house” dog.
“He has lived a good life,” Fritz said. “It’s neat and special that he received this recognition …K-9 officers life on the job are cut short by police activity, but I think he’ll be happy as a good house dog.”
“I absolutely love the idea of keeping him,” Parson said. “He is a part of my family and I am thankful the city council voted to give him to me — It means the world to me. My family thinks it is a plus too. Everyday my 2-year-old son says ‘Rudy, Rudy, Rudy.’”
Parsons said to transition Rudy from police work to the pet life, he keeps him busy with evening walks. He said another family dog, Pippin, a daschund, also keep Rudy company.
“Rudy is much bigger than him,” Parson said, “but he is as gentle as can be with [Pippin]. Rudy is taking [being a family pet] really well.”
Before Rudy was recognized for the end to his law enforcement life, Bigelow was recognized for his continued life in law enforcement with the illustrious Officer of the Year award. According to Sgt. Kevin Russell, “it has been many, many years since the [Benton] department has given this award out, but we decided to bring it back.”
Chief Kirk Lane said numerous officers were nominated for the award, and the field was later narrowed down to four officers.
“The hardest thing to determine was how to pick one officer for the award,” Lane said. “So I made the Chief’s Review Committee and they helped decided who will get the award.”
Lane said members of the committee are Alderman Bill Donnor, Carolyn Boone of the Citizens Public Safety Committee, retired Benton Officer James Smyth and Civil Service Commission member and retired Benton Officer Sam “Pokey” Gibson.
Bigelow was chosen for numerous reasons, including that he won the Officer of the Quarter award twice in 2008. The biggest reason Bigelow was chosen is his dedication to saving lives and helping improve the community, Lane said.
On Feb. 24, 2008, while on patrol as a DWI Enforcement Officer, Bigelow noticed smoke in the air near Carpenter Street south of Military Road. When he investigated, he discovered heavy smoke billowing out of the eaves, windows and doors of a house.
“I figured there were people inside the home,” Bigelow said. “There were several vehicles in the yard, but when I banged on the door several times, I never got a response. I decided to kick in the door, and I guess I made enough racket because I then heard a woman … inside.”
He said he could tell that the woman was short of breath from inhaling smoke, and then a man answered the door. “The man said they had all been asleep and didn’t know about the fire,” Bigelow said. “There was a man, a woman and a child around 1 or 2 years old, and I got them outside. Once I got them to the car, they thanked me for waking them up and were very grateful. I then wrapped them in some blankets, and I called the fire department.”
Benton firefighters were able to limit the actual flame damage to the back section of the house, which the family used as a laundry room.
“This kind of thing goes along with an officer’s training — to look for things out of the ordinary,” Russell said. “He paid attention to his surroundings and helped save these people’s lives. It is another example of an officer being proactive.”
Because of his actions, Bigelow also received a letter of commendation in his personnel file and later one his first 2008 Officer of the Quarter award.
“I was just happy that I was there at the right time,” Bigelow said. “I obviously feel good about the commendation, but I feel better about saving the family from the fire.”
Bigelow won the second 2008 Officer of the Quarter award after following a tip from a concerned citizen that lead to a drug bust at the Troutt Motel, near a church and a school in Benton.
On Oct. 2, 2008, a citizen told Bigelow that she believed a man named Scott Owens of Benton was selling crack cocaine and marijuana out of a motel room.
Bigelow said in a report he was on patrol in the area when he saw Owens driving a vehicle and new he had a suspended driver’s license. After stopping Owens, Bigelow said he told him about hearing information that he was selling drugs and Owens suddenly became nervous.
“He adamantly denied possessing any narcotics or being involved in any illegal drug activity,” Bigelow said in the report.
Owens reportedly agreed to let officers search his hotel room, but after he dropped his wife and kids, who were in the vehicle, at a home on River St. and that he would call when he got to the hotel room. Bigelow said when he finished citing Owens for driving on a suspended driver’s license and writing a report, he drove to the Troutt Motel only to find Owens already there. Reportedly Owens exited the hotel room with a large diaper bag and ran to the car. Bigelow reportedly found a digital scale with white powder residue, 3.7 grams of suspected marijuana, a bag of 12.95 grams of suspected crack cocaine, a second bag of 5.74 grams of suspected crack cocaine, numerous plastic bags and a razor blade. A further search of the bag reportedly found matches, five small pieces of suspected crack cocaine all weighing between 0.18 and 0.24 grams.
Owens was charged with possession of crack cocaine with intent to deliver, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana, use of another person’s property to facilitate a crime and maintaining a drug premises in a drug free zone. All charges were felony charges.
Russell said Owens was later sent to the Arkansas Department of Correction. For his efforts in the bust, Bigelow was recognized by his peers during that month and again on Tuesday. Bigelow said he was surprised when he got the Officer of the Year award, but thought something was “up” when he was approached earlier this week by Lane.
“Chief just said for me to come to the event and that I needed my family here,” he said. “It’s awesome to win this award — it is a great honor. There are a lot of amazing officers here and to be selected among them makes it more enjoyable.”
Officer Brian Bigelow joined the Benton Police Department on Sept. 2, 2001, as a cadet and moved up to patrol on June 4, 2004. He became the second officer in the Benton department to have a K-9 partner, Lucky, an 18-month-old Belgian Malinoisn, on Jan. 24, 2007.
Fresno officers feel the pain of Oakland shooting
There is new information on the parolee who shot four Oakland Police Officers.
Investigators say DNA evidence links him to a rape just a day before the shootings. It may be a reason why gunman opened fire on two police officers who pulled him over for a traffic stop.
Three officers are dead and a fourth was left brain dead. It’s the worst loss of life in the Oakland Police Department’s history.
Meanwhile, two Fresno Police Officers know all too well the horror of facing a gunman on parole and the Oakland shooting has brought those bad memories back. 
Fresno Police Officer Brian Nieto and his partner Jim Young were in a similar situation just over two years ago and sympathize with the officers and their families in Oakland.
Nieto said, “I feel for them because I know what my family went through and I’m still here. And I know what my friends went through and how tough it was for them and its still to this day.”
In their first on-air interview together, Brian Nieto and his partner Jim Young recalled the night they too faced a gunman on parole, desperate not to return to jail.
Neito was shot July 31st, 2006. It was a traffic stop of a parolee and just like in Oakland, Nieto was also on a motorcycle.
Nieto was shot three times. One of the bullets just missed his bullet proof vest and broke a rib, and tore through his lung and stomach. He spent more than a month in the hospital. Nieto was shot by Joaquin Figueroa, a parolee, wanted for questioning in a murder and several rapes. Nieto’s partner, Jim Young, was twenty yards behind him and saw everything.
Brian retired from the Fresno Police Department in January. He has nerve damage to his leg and pain that won’t go away. Jim is now a K-9 Officer, patrolling the streets with his dog ‘Rocky’. Their thoughts and prayers are now with the families in Oakland.
The officers say that few people realize the dangers they face every day.
Hundreds attend vigil for Oakland Officers
Oakland Police officer Tim Scarrott, left, comforts Oakland resident Denise Cusseaux-Vital during the vigil in remembrance of the four Oakland Police officers who fell in the line of duty last Saturday at 74th Avenue and McArthur Boulevard in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, March 24, 2009. During the City of Oakland event "Hope and Healing", the Interfaith Gospel Choir performed, candles were lit and doves were released. (Ray Chavez/Staff)
Hundreds gathered Tuesday night in East Oakland at the site of a traffic stop gone bad Saturday that led to the deaths of four Oakland police officers, to honor the fallen officers and sound a message of hope for a city troubled by violence.
A diverse crowd poured in from around the region with men, women and children carrying lit candles and signs reading “Oakland/Peace.”
“This is our community,” said Julie Hadnot, 42, an Oakland resident who attended with other members of St. Benedict’s Catholic Church. “This is our neighborhood. We are here to be in solidarity with our brothers and sisters, and to show support for the city of Oakland and its healing.”
State and local elected officials and law-enforcement officers from around the Bay Area joined in offering condolences to the Oakland Police Department, which the past few days has suffered one of the darkest periods in its history.”We’re going to get through this,” said Howard Jordan, who had been acting chief three weeks when the shootings occurred. “But we’re going to get through this with the support of you, other law-enforcement families and our personal families.”
Jordan said he has received more than 3,000 letters, cards and e-mails.
“I’ve read every e-mail that you’ve sent me,” he said. “I’ve read every card that you’ve sent, and we appreciate it. It means a lot to me, and to the men and women of the Oakland Police Department.”
Tuesday’s vigil — punctuated by singing by the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, poetry by Oakland youths and the release of six doves — came three days before a public service for the officers set for Friday at Oracle Arena. The 11 a.m. service is expected to draw thousands to Oakland.Killed Saturday were Sgts. Mark Dunakin, 40, of Tracy; Erv Romans, 43, of Danville; and Daniel Sakai, 35, of Castro Valley. Officer John Hege, 41, of Concord, also was shot Saturday and declared brain-dead Sunday. He was taken off life support late Monday.
Their killer was Lovelle Mixon, 26, of Oakland, who was shot dead by police. He was an at-large parolee whom police linked Monday to the rape of a 12-year-old girl on 74th Avenue in February. Investigators also said he could be responsible for at least one other sexual assault and possibly more in the same area.
The killings have drawn attention to Oakland from across the state and nation.
The Morongo Band of Mission Indians in Riverside County said Tuesday it donated $10,000 to each of the officers’ families. The White House spoke with Mayor Ron Dellums on Monday to express the administration’s condolences and to indicate that President Barack Obama hoped to speak with the families of the officers. It is not clear whether Obama has been in touch with the families.
The shootings also have played into an oft-repeated narrative of Oakland as a city rocked by runaway violence, where tensions between the police and the community run high and, all too often, boil over.
Councilmember Desley Brooks, who led the organization of the vigil and whose sixth district includes the area where the shootings occurred, said Tuesday’s event represented the true “sentiments of this community.”
“It was a diverse crowd that came out here,” Brooks said. “And there are many people who care about the police, appreciate them and aren’t the picture that’s been portrayed since Saturday about this community.”
She said “there are a lot of people motivated to see change come about” in the wake of the officers’ deaths.
“There are some legitimate concerns that the community has about the relationship with the Police Department,” she said, “and we need to find a way to bridge that.”
Jack Peters, the 65-year-old father of an Oakland police officer, said Tuesday night: “I’m leaving with hope. “… Out of (something) very bad, maybe there’s some good. And I am anticipating something good. And I’m just praying we can get through this.”
New state police commander named
A 21-year veteran of the state police force has been picked to lead it.
Major Thomas L’Esperance will become the next director of the Vermont State Police, replacing Col. James Baker, who is retiring at the end of June.
L’Esperance started his career as a trooper in Brattleboro in 1987. He’s worked as a detective, lieutenant and is currently in charge of the state police criminal division.
Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Thomas Tremblay says L’Esperance is a proven leader and trusted public servant.
L’Esperance takes over as head of the state police on June 30.
MSP has “silent witness” on board
Trooper Jared Reichenbach’s patrol car was light on hardware when he started his Maryland State Police career in 2002.
Trooper Jared Reichenbach of the Maryland State Police shows a video screen in his cruiser that records traffic stops. (Megan Raymond photo)
He only could gauge speed by pacing other cars. He had to radio the dispatcher if he wanted any access to state databases, and even the radio was basic, connecting only to his Berlin Barrack. And he certainly didn’t have any devices to capture video footage.
Today, the Maryland State Police have all that and more in their familiar black and green sedans, giving troopers the technology they need to be more efficient and effective in the digital age.
Seated in his patrol car, Reichenbach is surrounded by a radar gun, a video camera, a touch-screen laptop and a bulky radio that can reach any law enforcement unit in the area.
“It’s part of the mobile office,” he said. “I definitely rely on this stuff now.”
The camera is mounted to the right of the rear-view mirror. A drop-down video screen, about the size of a bar of soap, shows a live feed or plays back old footage. A VCR in the trunk records footage to a VHS tape, which only a supervisor is allowed to handle.
Reichenbach said the camera provides instant feedback about both officer’s and suspect’s behavior during a traffic stop or a pursuit, something many in law enforcement have said comes as a useful tool for resolving complaints quickly. Old footage also comes in handy for training purposes.
Elena Russo, a state police spokeswoman, said in-car cameras came about in late 1990s. They’re now used in about 600 vehicles in the statewide fleet of patrol cars. She called cameras a “silent witness” that can provide information to both parties about a traffic stop after the fact.
Each trooper who has a camera in their car comes equipped with a wireless microphone, worn on their uniform. Troopers are obligated to tell citizens that they’re under video and audio surveillance.
Reichenbach said while some people have been known to act out, most keep their cool during a traffic stop when told they’re on camera.
“Some people are like, ‘Hey, I’m on “COPS!” ’ ” he said, mocking an over-the-shoulder wave. “No, you’re not on ‘COPS.’ ”
Russo said the state police are working to convert the current VHS method of storage to DVDs in the near future, though it’s not ready to be rolled out.
Another modern tool at the trooper’s fingertips is a touch-screen Panasonic ToughBook laptop, which state police started using in 2005. It’s connected to police
and Motor Vehicle Administration databases, so all a trooper has to do is run your ID under a bar-code scanner to pull up — without any typing or searching — your personal information, such as prior traffic stops, outstanding warrants, even your driver’s license photo.
If a trooper issues a citation, your information is wirelessly beamed to the main District Court in Annapolis as he prints out your ticket — the only piece of paper involved in the process.
“It’s not the fastest thing in the world,” Reichenbach said. “But we’re definitely up to date on technology.”
Sheriff honors citizens
Luke Davis was recognized last week for his daring action that helped Platte County Sheriff’s deputies apprehend a man suspected of leaving the scene of a dangerous accident.
Timothy McCoy was praised for helping authorities arrest a burglar who broke into a Platte County residence.
Last week, the Platte County Sheriff’s Department recognized those two men and several other persons as outstanding citizens. Three Parkville police officers also were honored for assisting the department on various efforts. The event was held last Wednesday at the Platte County Administration Building.
Sheriff Richard Anderson has said the awards are designed to recognize citizens and fellow law enforcement officers who perform tasks worthy of the public’s attention.
The Sheriff’s Department began the recognition about three years ago, although the awards were not presented last year, Anderson has said.
This year’s recipients were:
•Mark Malony of A&M Printing, who was recognized for his support of the Sheriff’s Department Kid Print Program. Malony has supplied the department with Kid Print fingerprint cards at no cost. The items were used at public safety and community events over the past 10 years.
The Kid Print program enables deputies to fingerprint children on a Kid Kit card at various community events. The card is given to a parent to attach a photo of their child so that the picture and print record can be used by authorities if their child is missing.
•Luke Davis was recognized for helping capture a suspect who fled the scene of an injury accident on Feb. 23, 2008. The suspect had run into a wooded area north of the accident scene. The deputies arrived and searched the area but were told that Davis, a tow truck operator, had located and apprehended the suspect.
Deputies soon showed up and found Davis detaining the suspect at gunpoint. The suspect reportedly approached Davis, who was inside of his vehicle.
•Timothy McCoy helped authorities capture James Vielbig, who was considered a dangerous felon.
On Feb. 11, 2008, McCoy was returning home when he saw a man wearing a stocking cap and carrying a bag walking down a road in rural Platte County.
McCoy arrived home and realized his residence had been burglarized.
While his wife called the Sheriff’s Department, McCoy got into his vehicle and drove back to the area to find the man he had just seen. McCoy later spotted the person running down a nearby road and duck behind a residence.
McCoy ran after the suspect and was able to detain him at gunpoint until sheriff’s deputies arrived. Deputies found two loaded handguns on the suspect.
Vielbig was later charged and convicted of burglary and stealing. He is currently serving 38 years in prison.
•Lynn Jordan was recognized for her support and assistance to a tactical operation on Dec. 28. Jordan is the wife of Parkville Sgt. Jon Jordan and co-owner of Growing Places Day Care.
Jordan had opened her day care center at 4 a.m. to allow the Sheriff’s Department to use a command post during an Operation 100. Two suspects were arrested, and multiple weapons were recovered.
Sgt. Jon Jordan and officers Timothy Heiman and Aaron Spring of the Parkville Police Department were recognized for their participation in a tactical operation that occurred on Dec. 27.
Share this Blog
