Officer’s quick thinking saves baby’s life

Stories like these NEVER get as much world wide attention as the stories in which officers do something wrong. Why is that?

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It was at the La Joya Police Department where a younger officer came to the rescue and performed CPR on a week old baby. Little Eduardo Flores started breathing again.

Mom and baby are currently at Rio Grande Regional Hospital. They were taken there last night. The mother says her baby is still in a fragile state and is undergoing more tests. She tells NEWSCHANNEL 5 that if it wasn’t for the officer’s help, she thinks the situation could have been much worse.

A La Joya Police Department spokesperson says that this situation is not a common one they come across on a daily basis, but this is the second time a La Joya officer has helped out a mother in need.

Just a few months ago, we told you about a La Joya Officer who helped deliver a baby outside of the police department.

The officer who helped the mother in distress this time around was Reymundo Vigil. We’re told he has only been with the department for a couple of months.

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Police reach out to youth with program, K-9 demonstration

Mark Boris, an officer with the Shelby Police Department, wants the community to trust him.
And to stress that message, Boris spoke to the youth group at Putnam Baptist Church this week.
Boris gave a slideshow presentation to more than 60 kids on topics ranging from drugs to how the police department works.
“Marijuana is the biggest things for kids your age,” he told them. “You will see it a lot.  Just say no.”
The group laughed and listened as Boris presented the information in an enjoyable way. He read street names of common drugs and even showed them a slide of what meth did to two people after only seven months.
“The teenage years are important,” Boris said. “You have to hit them now while you can.”
The Shelby Police Department K-9 Unit was also there and gave a full demonstration on how their dogs find drugs in concealed places.
“The most important part is their noses,” said Howard Young, K-9 trainer. “These dogs are full of energy with a lot of drive.”
As part of the presentation, Max and Siko found drugs the officers had planted in different areas along the side of the church building to demonstrate how they do their jobs.
Police Chief Jeff Ledford said Boris did this project on his own and wanted to share with kids that they can trust the police in their community.
“Our kids are going to be our leaders for tomorrow,” Ledford said. “The best way is to open up and let them know what we do.”
At the end of the presentation, Boris gave each kid a water bottle and his business card.
“Police aren’t always the bad guys,” he said. “It’s important that they know the officers in their area. I want them to know who I am.”

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Police union names Westhill alum ‘Officer of the Year’

Officer Robert Somody has been patrolling the streets of his hometown for past 20 years, his entire career at the Stamford Police Department. During the evening tour Friday, the 43-year-old officer went from call to call to call, stopping for old friends along the way.

Stamford Police Officer Robert Somody works on his afternoon shift Friday on the East Side. (Kerry Sherck/For the Advocate)

A Westhill High School graduate, Somody saw a former classmate in the parking lot of a Shippan gas station. In Glenbrook, he stopped in front of a convenience store, and the owner came out to ask about Somody’s family. His superiors call him the “unofficial mayor” of Stamford.

This past week, the police officers’ union, the Stamford Police Association, named Somody the 2008 Officer of the Year for the experience and maturity he displays while working patrol, as well as his gregarious and personable nature. Somody is also head of the local Police Athletic League.

“Bob is someone the bosses can rely on to be a street supervisor,” Police union President Sgt. Joseph Kennedy said. “When he’s on the call you don’t need a boss there. He knows what to do and how to

do it.”

Somody began his tour Friday with a trip to Cummings Park, checking on a group of regular alcoholics he found passed out, often before 10 a.m. They seemed sober enough, so Somody let them be.

“On weekends, kids come down to the field,” he said. “Do they really want to see this?”

For the past six years, Somody has covered city’s eastern-most district, which stretches from Springdale to Shippan

and includes the East Side, a increasingly busy neighborhood for officers.It’s a melting pot full of several sets of immigrant groups such as Hispanics and the Polish. Friction often follows, and Somody and his fellow officers then are called upon to resolve the small-scale cultural clashes, he said.

He got his start in the West Side, though, patrolling the since-demolished Southwood Village housing project.

“I don’t miss climbing those eight stories,” Somody said.

He said he was first exposed to police work as a 10-year-old playing on a basketball team in the Police Athletic League. His coaches were a veteran Stamford police officer and Judge Richard Comerford, he recalled.

“I had two heavy hitters coaching me as 10-year-old,” he joked.

His supervisor, Sgt. Bill Hnatuk, graduated with Somody from police academy. He said working with Somody makes the high-stress job seem fun.

“I’ve been his supervisor for the last three years, but I learn from him every day,” Hnatuk said.

Somody will receive the award June 5 at the Stamford Police Association gala at the Holiday Inn on East Main Street. Chris Hansen, the NBC news reporter and Stamford resident, best known for the “To Catch a Predator” series, will be the keynote speaker.

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CopLink revolutionizing crimefighting

thedenverchannel.com

Several police chiefs, county sheriffs and district attorneys in Colorado say the new CopLink search engine will revolutionize crime fighting the same way fingerprints did 100 years ago, or that DNA did 20 years ago.

CopLink links the criminal records from participating agencies into one database.

Member agencies said it will help investigators spot trends, develop leads and solve crimes much faster than before.

“This is really a big deal when it comes to criminal justice,” said Adams County Sheriff Doug Darr.

Right now, when investigators want information from another agency, they have to get on the phone, call and ask. Sometimes a record search and response can take days.

CopLink makes all the records from all the departments available at the touch of a button.

“Frankly, we’ll be able to do more in 10 minutes than we could previously do in weeks or even months,” Darr added.

Six law enforcement agencies fronted $2 million to help pay for the system, which also got an earmark from the federal government.

“This is a perfect example of where an earmark request really makes sense,” said Congressman Ed Perlmutter, D-Colorado.

“CopLink not only provides information, it can analyze it,” said Sgt. Michelle Moriarty of the Arvada Police Department. “We used it to help solve a bank robbery.”

Moriarty told 7NEWS that she tracked down a photo of the suspect. “I was able to take that photograph, that person’s name and associate it with other people that he had been committing crimes with in the past.”

“The bottom line is that when it comes to police work, knowledge is the most important tool that law enforcement has to stay one step ahead of criminals,” said Colorado Attorney General John Suthers.

Adams County District Attorney Don Quick said CopLink is one of those quantum leaps in crime fighting technology.

“A hundred years ago it was fingerprints,” Quick said. “Twenty years ago it was DNA. This year in Colorado, it’s CopLink.”

Police canine units get show of loyalty from St. Paul City Council

Months after gaining national recognition in an Animal Planet TV series, St. Paul’s police canine unit got local attention in separate events this week, both offering backers good news in tight times.

On Wednesday, Chief John Harrington told the City Council that department leaders objected to an audit recommendation to cut the 22-officer unit by half, prompting Council President Kathy Lantry to say, “I’m against that,” too.

And on Thursday, the police department hosted a sun-splashed graduation ceremony for new K-9 teams at its training facility. While St. Paul had no dogs of its own in the 11-team graduating class, it did share its expertise with others, police spokesman Sgt. Paul Schnell said.

Harrington’s appearance before the council came five months after a “best practices” assessment of his department by Berkshire Advisors Inc., of Bay Village, Ohio, suggested a sharp cutback in the K-9 unit, which now has 21 officers overseen by a sergeant.

The Berkshire Advisors study looked at seven other “benchmark departments,” and found the average K-9 unit had 10 officers, with Minneapolis second to St. Paul with 19. In 2007, the report added, St. Paul had 961 calls requiring a K-9 response, or an average of 46 calls per officer that year.

The department’s K-9 deployment was “extremely large,” the report concluded.

Berkshire’s K-9 recommendation was but one of many subjects the chief touched on Wednesday. He said that department leaders had looked at the feasibility and desirability of many of the study’s recommendations, and that the K-9 cutback wasn’t desirable.

‘They’re force multipliers’

“It really just doesn’t fit how St. Paul operates,” he told council members. “It doesn’t fit our culture. It doesn’t fit our values of excellence.”

No one argued.

“Please don’t do [it],” Council Member Melvin Carter III said. “The dogs are cool,” especially when jumping.

“They’re force multipliers,” Lantry said. “It just isn’t that they’re cool.”

“Yeah, all that, but they’re cool,” too, Carter replied.

“They’re part of officer safety — getting the job done,” Lantry said.

“And they’re cool,” Carter continued.

To which Lantry conceded: “I think it is, of course, very cool, too. But, I mean, they do the work of another officer.”

Sometimes 10 officers, Harrington said.

On Thursday, at the Timothy J. Jones Canine Training facility, dozens of friends, family members and law-enforcement officers welcomed participants from Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin into what St. Paul Assistant Chief Tom Smith called “the brotherhood and sisterhood” of K-9 handlers.

Dogs crawled under obstacles simulating porches. They leapt through barricades resembling windows. They climbed ladders. They grabbed hold of arms of fleeing “suspects.” They barked and they heeled.

All in all it was pretty cool.

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Overtime approved for police dog handlers

The dogs don’t notice the difference, but their police partners do.

National City council members agreed this month to pay $195,000, plus 3.5 hours of weekly overtime through June, to five police canine handlers to settle a federal lawsuit.

The raise brings the National City Police Department on par with the way other large law enforcement agencies in the county pay their dog handlers.

National City police Officer Omar Ramirez works as a K9 handler with Seven, a German shepherd. A recent lawsuit claimed the city violated federal laws by not paying overtime for dog care after officers' shifts ended. (John Gibbins / U-T) -

Attorney Daniel Padova of Seal Beach who represented the officers, said the one-time payment will cover attorney fees and back pay.

For the rest of the city’s fiscal year, which ends June 30, the pact says its canine officers will each be paid 3.5 hours in weekly overtime.

The settlement does not affect what will happen after that. Padova said it will be up to future councils to decide whether to provide similar pay in future contracts.

City Attorney George Eiser said the overtime changes were not included for the coming fiscal year, because city officials are negotiating a new salary contract, and they wanted to settle future pay issues during that process.

The lawsuit, which was signed May 6, was filed in October 2007 by five officers. They claimed the city was violating the federal Fair Labor Standards Act by not paying overtime for dog care provided after their shifts ended.

The dogs live with the officers, who groom, feed and train them. The officers also take the animals to veterinary appointments and give them medication. Officers claimed it takes at least an hour each day to care for the dogs, or seven hours of overtime per week.

Payments to the five officers ranged from $13,000 to $27,000. Padova’s law firm received $90,000 from the settlement.

Padova said he thinks that future councils in National City will provide similar overtime pay to canine officers in new contracts, so more litigation won’t be necessary.

“Deep down,” Padova said, “I think the (police) department and (city) management understand that they’re required to pay for overtime. I really think that they’ve got it now and we’ve got a fair deal going forward.”

Mayor Ron Morrison said he was relieved to have the matter settled. He also pointed out that some cities are re-evaluating whether to continue canine programs during the recession.

“It’s kind of an interesting time, because a lot of departments are re-evaluating their canine programs, and whether they can operate a shared canine program with other departments,” Morrison said.

“Especially after we learn what the governor will do to the cities to balance his budget.”

Many canine officers throughout California have filed lawsuits during the past decade seeking overtime pay. In some cases, cities changed their compensation policies or paid retroactive wages plus damages.

During 2007, Oceanside canine officers sued the city and claimed that the four hours of extra pay a week that they were then paid should be paid at the overtime rate, or 1.5 times regular pay. The council agreed with the request and settled the case, said Oceanside City Attorney John Mullen.

“What we settled on,” Mullen said, “was what we thought was equal to or right around what everybody else in the county was getting (from other law enforcement agencies).”

Pay for canine officers has long varied countywide.

Escondido and Carlsbad both pay canine officers four hours of overtime per week, while San Diego and Chula Vista officers are paid 3.5 hours of overtime weekly, officials say.

Sheriff’s canine handlers are not guaranteed any overtime pay or paid an extra stiped for working with a dog, said Sgt. Eddie Brock, who oversees 31 canine officers and 31 police dogs in the department.

However, once officers have graduated from a canine academy, Brock said they are required to complete at least 16 hours of training per month with their dogs. And, if that training takes place after their normal work schedule, they are paid at the overtime rate.

Brock estimated that less than half of such training is regularly done on overtime. He said the department has not been sued over pay for canine officers, but has rather agreed on what to pay for such work through negotiations with its staff.

El Cajon pays among the lowest in the region to its canine officers: an extra 5.3 hours per two-week pay period, but not at the overtime rate, said Lt. Mark Coit.

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Winona PD adds Neko, city’s only K9 officer

The newest member of the Winona Police Department has medium-length brown and black hair, pointy ears, a long, pink tongue and answers to Neko.

The German shepherd and her handler, officer Brad Barrientos, completed a 12-week training program with the St. Paul Police Department and graduated Thursday with 10 other K9-handler pairs from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.
Neko will become the only police dog on the Winona force.

Neko’s training makes her useful as a general-purpose control dog, Police Chief Paul Bostrack said. She is trained to apprehend suspects, recover evidence, sniff out drugs and find missing people. She will attend another training session later this year for narcotics recognition, which will round out her crime fighting skills, Bostrack said.

The police department is excited to have its own K9 unit on the force. The department has had dogs in the past, but recently have relied on the Winona County Sheriff’s Department and the Goodview Police Department when a dog is needed. There has been good cooperation, Bostrack said, but now things will just be a little easier.

Neko and Barrientos will patrol Winona’s streets during the night shift but will be on call all the time.

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Hemet PD K-9 teams get big boost

And just like that, the Hemet Police Department has a new K-9 team, maybe two.

A couple of months ago one of the K-9s, Luka, had to be retired for health reasons — and has since died — leaving the department with Mike Arillano and his dog, Fritts, the only K-9 team in the department.

But that was before, before a citizen wrote a check for $15,000 to finance the purchase of a new dog and the training of dog and handler in preparation to go into the field.

And it was before the Elks Club threw a fundraiser Saturday that raised a still-undetermined amount of money toward a third team.

When Luka retired, police began scrounging for money for a replacement K-9 team since the city does not have enough money to pay for a new dog.

In fact, said Mayor Eric McBride as the City Council prepared to present Harold “Hal” Day a plaque recognizing his $15,000 contribution to establish a K-9 team, most K-9 team are provided through donations.

Day came to the Police Department’s aid because, he said, the department had repeatedly come to his aid. Well, to his wife’s aid to be precise.

Her name is Ellen and she suffers from dementia. She has repeatedly wandered away from home and officers have found and returned her each time, Day said.

“They had to capture my wife a few times. She got loose,” Day noted dryly.

Though she is now under hospice care and will probably not be wandering away any more, Day said he wanted to help the officers who had helped Ellen.

“He asked us how much a new K-9 would cost,” Police Chief Richard Dana said. “I told him about $12,000 to $13,000. He asked if $15,000 would do it.”

“I have never seen someone come forward and donate the entire amount needed to get a dog,” said McBride during the presentation ceremony before Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

“Thank you very much,” Day said after the presentation. “Ellen probably won’t understand. I’m glad to do it because I think it is safer for the police to have a dog with them.”

Dana added that, “Ellen is a dog lover. Hal is a cat fellow,” but he gave the city a dog anyway.

Day is a retired Navy chief petty officer who served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, officers passed the hat at the Elks Club to gather money for what will become a third K-9 team, which will give the department more units than it had before Luka’s retirement.

The Elks Club fundraiser was planned before anyone knew someone would make a single donation large enough to replace Luka.

Dana said that, while no one has done the accounting yet, he is confident the donations will come close to the amount needed to establish the third K-9 team.

Money was raised through the purchase of tickets to a hamburger-and-hot dog lunch and through face painting and other fundraising activities operating concurrently.

The remaining K-9 team, Arillano and Fritts, planned to put on a demonstration for those attending the fundraiser and Dana said that, if $100 in donations were raised from those at the fundraiser at that time, he would assume the role of suspect for the demonstration.

Officer Pat Long began passing a police hat around the crowd and returned with the $100 so Dana donned the bite suit and let Fritts attack him.

“A lot of my officers donated a lot of money, I think,” Dana said afterward.

There were other extraordinary donations, some running to $200 and “one little girl walked up and handed us $20,” Dana said.

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Sunday fundraiser in Danville for slain Oakland police officer

A fundraiser for the family of slain Oakland police Sgt. Ervin Romans will be held Sunday in downtown Danville.

The “Salute to Blue” event will run from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets are $30 for adults and $10 for children. There will be food from local restaurants, wine, games and music.

There will be virtual sports games, a water slide and an inflatable ocean of balls. There will be a wine bar and grill, and a live auction featuring an Arlen Ness-autographed motorcycle and three nights at the Beverly Wilshire hotel with a guest spot on the television show “Private Practice.” Entertainment will be by Super Diamond, a Neil Diamond cover band.

The festivities will be on Diablo Road at Hartz Avenue. Tickets are $35 for adults and $10 for children. The proceeds will benefit the wife and three children of Romans, of Danville. He was one of four Oakland officers killed in the line of duty in March.

Tickets are available at www.eticketcentral.com, by calling 877-449-7542 or at the door. Donations can also be sent to Salute Entertainment/Salute To Blue, P.O. Box 911 San Ramon, CA 94583.

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Policeman honored

Those who protect and serve do so out of a sense of duty and honor-not to see their name on a shiny plaque.

Nonetheless, for the last 21 years the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office has made sure the men and women who make selfless contributions to law enforcement do not go unrecognized or underappreciated for going above and beyond the call of duty.

Those individuals as well as local police forces were recognized at the annual PROCOPS dinner, held recently at the Touch of Class II banquet hall.

PROCOPS is an acronym standing for Prosecutor’s Recognition or Citizens or Public Servants. Established in 1988, the banquet is held during National Police Week as a way to formally pay tribute to the contributions made by members of law enforcement and county citizens.

Maple Shade Sgt. Scot Wallace received commendation awards for stopping a gas station robbery in November while he was off-duty. He also helped arrest the three suspects, one of whom was armed with a handgun.

Among the citizen honorees recognized by county prosecutor Robert Bernardi was Medford resident Salvatore Rose who received a Citizen Hero award for his brave and quick actions last August when he helped Moorestown Police Officer Peter Parker pull two motorists from a burning vehicle at an accident scene on Route 38.

Parker recieved a Law Enformcent Officer Comendation for his actions.

Other members of area law enforcement honored included Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office Detective Ed Zubrzycki and Evesham Detective Jammie Clements for their work in solving the murder of 52-year-old Evesham resident Maryanne DeMartin who disappeared in 2005.

Her killer, Alex Crow, 33, of Medford was sentenced to 40 years in prison in December.

The Evesham Township Police Department Detective Bureau was also among the units recognized for its work in solving a string of arsons at area car dealerships and a pet store.

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