Benton County Deputies Create iPhone Application, ‘Ask-A-Cop’
KVAL
If you’re getting pulled over by the police and don’t know what to tell the officer, just pull out your iPhone.
A new iPhone application called Ask-A-Cop tells drivers what they should do to avoid a ticket.
Who would create such an app? Why, two Benton County deputies, of course.
“The point of the app wasn’t to let out any secrets,” said co-developer Daniel Dodson. “It was more or less to help citizens interact with us.”
Co-developer Mark Luna and Dodson asked a number of police officers for advice before creating Ask-A-Cop.
According to the app, a cop’s decision to cite you almost always comes down to your attitude.
“Part of the discretion is gauging how well that person is being educated at that moment,” said Luna. “Are they going to learn best by a warning or learn best by a citation?”
To improve your chances of getting out of a ticket the app says, “A friendly greeting and courteous behavior will often be all it takes to get out of the citation.”
It also says that “crying does not work. In fact, it usually only secures your ticket.”
If you’re pulled over for speeding and the officer sees your radar detector, forget it, you’re likely getting a ticket.
“If it looks like you’re trying to get out of a ticket right out of the gate, that doesn’t help your situation by any means,” said Dodson.
And how fast can you really go? The app has that too.
On highways with posted speed limits between 55 mph and 65 mph you can usually go 8 mph to 10 mph faster.
On freeways with limits of 65 mph and 75 mph you can go 5 mph to 7 mph more.
What about if you’re parked in a 30-minute parking spot too long and you get a parking ticket? Can Ask-A-Cop help you there?
“No. You can’t even get out of parking tickets even if you have a badge,” said Luna.
Benton County Sheriff Diana Simpson says she encouraged the deputies to create the app if it makes their job easier. Besides, she said she can’t regulate the content since they’re doing it on their own time.
Determination, hard work pays off for amputee police officer
Walking across the stage means more to one Midlands man than you could imagine.
Officer Alva Williams has tried to graduate from the Criminal Justice Academy twice, and there’s a twist to his story of accomplishment on his third try.
Looking at Williams among his fellow officers, you can’t tell at first, but something is different about the new cop.
In 1986, as a senior in high school, Officer Williams lost most of his right leg after a high school football injury became infected. That injury didn’t stop him from wanting to accomplish his life long dream.
“Everybody has got challenges,” said Williams. “Mine you just happen to see and I get up. I recognize the challenge. I’m constantly thinking how do I maneuver around it and that’s what life is about. Get knocked down, get back up, keep on moving. Stay in the fight.”
Williams did not pass the required physical agility test his first time at the criminal justice academy, nor did he pass his second time.
Williams’ police chief says he didn’t even know about the prosthetic until after he was convinced Williams could do the job, and he never doubted this was a hurdle his new recruit could climb.
“He very definitively said he can do everything an officer does,” said Chief Lance Crowe.
Williams admits it was hard. There were days he didn’t want to go on, and times he worried if he would ever be able to make it. But his heart and will to go on, pushed him to the finish.
“Everyday is a challenge,” said Williams. “I get up, got my family. There’s nothing else I’d rather do. I enjoy it. Look forward to standing by these guys in blue.”
Still humble about his accomplishments, Williams just wants to be one of the guys.
“This is an award for all officers out there who give up their life, day in and day out,” Williams said.
Now that Williams has completed his time at the academy, this first ever amputee to do so, will join his home police force in Travelers Rest.
By Stewart Moore
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LAPD chief candidates are far from three of a kind
At first glance, the three finalists to become the next chief of the Los Angeles Police Department appear to be cut from the same cloth.
All are middle-aged white men. They are dyed-in-the-wool LAPD cops who came into the department as young men about 30 years ago and took on similar assignments as they rose through the ranks.
Below the surface, however, the similarities give way to distinct differences in leadership, personality and career paths that Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell, Deputy Chief Charlie Beck and Deputy Chief Michel Moore followed to arrive at this decisive point.
Police Chief William J. Bratton poses with, from left, Deputy Chief Michel Moore, Deputy Chief Charlie Beck and Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell. (Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times / October 28, 2009)
Interviews by The Times with the three men, as well as supporters, critics and neutral observers, reveal McDonnell as the LAPD’s gracious, well-liked ambassador who has spent the last several years with an eye on the chief’s job from his place in the upper reaches of the department as its second in command. Moore is an intense, hard-charging commander who leads with a firm hand, while diligently — some say obsessively — running the department’s operations in the San Fernando Valley. Beck, laid-back and seemingly unflappable, has surged from the LAPD’s middle ranks into the role of reformer under outgoing Chief William J. Bratton.
“One of the strengths that they all share is that they are their own person,” Bratton said. “They have their own ideas.”
With the finalists selected earlier this week and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa expected to choose the next chief as early as Monday, department observers have not had a chance to do more than sketch comparisons of the three. In trying to make his decision, the mayor decided Friday evening to call back all three candidates for more interviews this weekend.
Beck, 56, joined the LAPD in 1977. McDonnell, 50, and Moore, 49, signed up four years later. All three spent the first several years of their careers as patrol officers in various parts of the city and, relatively quickly, made the jump to sergeant and took on entry-level supervisor roles. With the city in the grips of the crack cocaine epidemic in the mid-1980s and an understaffed police force failing to keep up with soaring crime rates, it was a rough, eye-opening period to come of age as a young cop.
Each cited experiences during this time that made a deep impression. Within five years on the job, Moore twice found himself in confrontations with armed men and shot them both, killing one. Shortly after the second shooting, he volunteered to work on an anti-drug program with young children. “It was the other side,” he said. “It really broadened my sense of what this job is about. I realized that being a police officer is about much more than enforcement.”
McDonnell got a first-hand look at the devastation the city was enduring in an anti-gang unit in the LAPD’s West Bureau. “The scale of the problem and the desperation of the people involved stayed with me,” McDonnell said. “It was the beginning of me understanding that the gang problem in this city is not black and white. I saw kids who were brought up in homes that they didn’t get to choose and who were growing up in neighborhoods where gangs were the default family.”
Beck worked a similar assignment in South L.A., the epicenter of the city’s violence and misery. Like McDonnell, Beck said he was struck in retrospect by how one-dimensional and ineffective the crime-fighting approach was at the time compared to the city’s efforts today to link police work with gang intervention and prevention programs. “We were an occupying army,” he said. “I saw it not working, but I didn’t have the maturity yet as a person or professionally to recognize it and to understand why.”
With the exams that officers must pass to qualify for promotions and the internal politics of the LAPD, no one climbs the ranks by chance. These three are no exception, as each has deliberately sought bigger assignments and more responsibility over the years.
Early on, Moore set himself on an ambitious career trajectory, landing an array of positions in the field and in the LAPD’s administration offices, which are typically expected of officers who aspire to rise far in the department. He spoke with pride about a stint in the early 1990s in a criminal analysis unit, where he helped develop an early version of the computerized crime mapping systems that are used heavily today.
“It was something I needed to do to round out the look of Michel Moore,” he said, adding that the experience offered a stark lesson on the challenge of pushing change on a department entrenched in its ways of doing things.
Many people described Moore as a disciplined leader who demands as much of his staff as he does of himself. He often send e-mails late at night about issues he wants addressed and keeps close tabs on the work he assigns to be done. “Mike Moore is probably the hardest-working deputy chief I ever worked under,” said retired Cmdr. Valentino Paniccia, who was Moore’s second in command in the Valley. “If anyone is accusing him of being a micromanager” — and some do — “it’s because they weren’t doing their job. Those who aren’t doing well get micromanaged. . . . He lets you know he’s watching over your shoulder.”
Like Moore, McDonnell took on a range of assignments. More than the others, however, he gravitated toward high-level management assignments that landed him in the LAPD’s hallways of power instead of at command posts in the department’s field stations.
In the mid-1990s, he spent more than two years as a lieutenant running the department’s efforts to implement a more community-friendly philosophy. It was an idea that had long received lip service but was never aggressively pursued; the experience, McDonnell said, drove home for him “the power that can come from real collaboration between police and the community.”
Several of McDonnell’s supporters portrayed him as a serious but kind leader who demonstrates little obvious ego. “I’ve worked for a lot of different people and I sought Jim McDonnell out as a boss because of his reputation,” Capt. Scott Sargent said. “He pays attention to his people. The job is not about him at all.”
Throughout his career, Beck has spent most of his time in the field. While not denying an ambition to seek out new and bigger assignments over the years, Beck tended to shun many of the administrative positions that officers typically take to earn promotions. He also has shown less interest in pursuing academics, having only recently earned a bachelor’s degree from Cal State Long Beach. By contrast, Moore and McDonnell each have master’s degrees.
Beck’s evolution as a cop under Bratton is particularly striking. The son of an LAPD deputy chief, he grew up immersed in the old-guard, paramilitary approach to policing.
Soon after Bratton took over the department in 2002, however, he selected Beck to be the captain in charge of the Rampart Division, which had badly tarnished the department with revelations of corruption and abuses.
Beck was hailed by a panel that examined Rampart for his ability to develop — and get his officers to adopt — a more inclusive, progressive approach that emphasized a partnership with the residents.
“He puts you at ease as a leader,” said Officer Mike Wang, who worked with Beck at Rampart and elsewhere. Beck’s calm, hands-off approach can sometimes come across as aloofness to those not familiar with him, Wang acknowledged. “But that’s not what’s going on. He has an incredible intuition about his cops and what they need. . . . He can relate to you because he’s been there.”
Inevitably, a shake-up of the department’s leadership will follow after the mayor makes his choice as the new chief surrounds himself with people he trusts. It remains to be seen what happens to the two finalists who are not selected.
BY Joel Rubin
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Students cap Red Ribbon Week with DEA demonstrations
Orcutt students received a valuable lesson to wrap up Red Ribbon Week: Cops are people, too.
The students were treated to hands-on displays from the Drug Enforcement Agency, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department K-9 unit and the USDA Forest Service, which included a helicopter fly-in.
Along with all of the Red Ribbon Week messages, the special agents and officers wanted the students to realize that they, too, were once school kids faced with the same pressures and decisions.
“All of Red Ribbon Week is all about saying no to drugs, but we wanted to show the people in the business and show that they are friends,” said Alan Majewski, principal at Orcutt Junior High and Academy High School. “The one thing we want to do was show them in the best light we could.”
Mission accomplished.
DEA special agents Talbot and Nielsen showed students the tools of their trade. The agents brought a surveillance van, filled with equipment they use during drug raids.
Talbot suited up groups of a half-dozen students to form raid squads in armored vest and shields and armed them with picks and rams, used to break down doors at suspected drug houses.
The agency also flew in a helicopter to the junior high soccer field.
“One of the reasons we’re out here today is about making health choices when it comes to drugs,” Nielsen said. “It’s always a little more difficult to do that when one of your friends might offer (drugs).”
Nielsen told the students that it happened to him when he was their age, and if he hadn’t made the right choices, he wouldn’t be a DEA agent today.
The DEA has offices in all 50 states and 26 countries, he added, telling students he can basically work wherever he would like.
Two of the most popular visitors were sheriff’s deputy Mike McNeil and his best friend, Betti, a police dog.
Betti was a big hit with the kids, showing them her agility, her drug-sniffing ability and her tenacity. The 5-year-old German shepherd is trained in both drug location and urban tracking, McNeil said.
Betti is trained to locate methamphetamine, cocaine, ecstasy, heroin and opium, McNeil told the students as his pooch found a methamphetamine training pouch hidden under a traffic cone. Betti also can track a subject across grass, an open field, as well as across concrete and asphalt surfaces.
She is one of three dogs in the county sheriff’s department and McNeil said he is lucky to call Betti his partner.
Don Hoang, Curtis Davis and Grand Ealy are Forest Service Law Enforcement officers. Ealy works out of the Santa Barbara office. Davis is from Monterey County.
Hoang works in the Santa Maria office and was front and center for the La Brea Fire operation, a blaze that was started by workers at a marijuana grow.
Forest Service Law Enforcement has become increasingly active in recent years because of marijuana grows on public property and backcountry drug labs. In addition to drug crimes, the service also works arson cases and any other crimes on federal forest land.
“I think this shows how important public jobs are to everyone,” said Orcutt eighth-grader Lester Valenzuela. “It shows how important these people are to us.”
Officer and K-9 are honorary captains at Zanesville football game
Zanesville Police Officer Mike Schiele and his K-9 partner, Bosco, looked as if they fit right in with the members of the Zanesville High School football team Friday night.
Schiele and Bosco, both wearing jersey’s from the team, were honorary captains at the game and received a standing ovation as they took the field for the coin toss.
Standing between Schiele and team member Cory Harris, Bosco took it in stride as he walked to the middle of the field and seemed pleased that Zanesville won the toss.
Both Schiele and Bosco have been recovering from gunshot wounds they received Aug. 23 as they were attempting to serve misdemeanor warrants on Dominick Conley. Conley is accused of shooting Bosco twice and Schiele once.
Schiele has been recovering from his leg wound while Bosco, who was near death, fought to not only stay alive but to recover from the almost complete paralysis of his legs. Bosco still has to undergo intensive therapy at The Ohio State University Veterinary Hospital in Columbus three times a week, Schiele said.
“It’s an honor and this is an opportunity for the community to see the progress Bosco has made,” Schiele said of the evening’s event. “With all the support we’ve had from the community and surrounding communities, this is a chance for us to give back and let people see how their support has paid off.”
Shannon McKee, representing Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, said Strickland is proud of Schiele and Bosco.
“He’s very proud of our hometown heroes and that’s what the two of them are,” McKee said.
McKee was at the game to present Schiele with a proclamation from Strickland.
In the proclamation, Strickland said Schiele had shown bravery and selflessness when he and Bosco were put in harm’s way.
“Officer Schiele’s calm and heroic response and his actions to help Bosco after the two were shot is admirable,” Strickland stated.
Rep. Zack Space, D-Dover, wrote a letter that was read at the game stating he, too, is proud of the pair.
“Your actions in the line of duty shows that you are leaders and heroes,” Space stated.
Bosco stood patiently as picture after picture was taken of him and team members, the umpires, cheerleaders and even those in the crowd.
Three students dressed in Halloween garb all had to have their pictures taken with Bosco.
“He’s awesome,” said Jaymin Weaver, 16, a junior. “We all love Bosco.”
Weaver’s friends, Andy Paxson, 17 and Brett Armstrong, 16, both juniors, agreed with Weaver and added they were glad to see Bosco back on his feet.
“I felt really sad for him,” Armstrong said. “I love dogs.”
Other fans were a little younger, but still had emotional messages they wanted to send to Bosco.
Hunter Lavy, 8, Destiny Hammond, 6, Kassidy Jones, 4 and Trey Hammond, 9, all said they wanted Bosco to know they loved him and were glad to see him at the football game.
“He helps protect us,” Lavy said. “I just want him to get better.”
Even before the football game, Bosco and Schiele made a stop at the police department and Bosco was ready to run into the arms of the officers and staff.
Bosco will continue to live with Schiele but will not be back on the streets as a patrol or narcotic K-9. Instead, Schiele has been teamed with a new partner, Tino, a male German Shepherd. On Nov. 9, Schiele and Tino will begin their training as a team at Pine Grove Kennel. Bosco will serve as a public relations dog and ambassador for the police department.
Because Schiele has to drive Bosco to the hospital three times a week, a fundraiser will be conducted from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7 on the sixth floor of the Masonic Lodge on Fourth Street. The event is hosted by the Lodge of Amity 5 Free & Accepted Masons. The cost of the soup supper will be by donation, and chili or beef will be available.
For more information, contact Dave Roberts at 740-455-1145.
By Kathy Thompson & Holly Richards
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Memorial service confirmed for Axel, Allentown police dog
An Allentown memorial will be held next week for Axel, the city police dog who died Oct. 22, Mayor Ed Pawlowski‘s office has confirmed.
The service will be 10 a.m. Thursday at the Lehigh Consistory at 1533 W. Hamilton St. Police K-9 units from throughout the state are expected.
Axel, a black German shepherd, was 8 when he died of cancer. He and Sgt. John Hill, his handler, had been a team since May 2003. Axel had been involved in several arrests, and was awarded a commendation for bravery in 2006 for his part in capturing a shooting suspect.
Axel’s memorial service will be followed by a wreath-laying at the Allentown Police Academy.
City police officers will wear mourning badges in Axel’s honor through Sunday.
– Frank Warner
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First person: It’s a dog’s life
Clovis Police Canine Officer Stephen Borders has had the same partner for nearly two years. Before they can hit the two year mark, Renzo, a Belgian Malinois, is retiring next week because of health issues and his partner is going to miss him.
Paw-tner: Renzo is a Belgian Malinois which is a cross of three breeds. They are supposed to be faster, stronger, more aggressive, and more intelligent than a regular German Shepherd. Typically, whatever the task is they’ve been assigned, they love it. They do it and they won’t stop no matter what. A German Shepherd normally gets bored. These guys don’t get bored. At all. We’re a team. Our role is dual. He is a narcotics dog, he can sniff for various narcotics. Also, he is what we call an apprehension dog. If a police officer gets in a fight or anything like that, Renzo can help out. He can go from 0 to 35 mph in about 30 feet. It’s unreal. We’re also on the SWAT team. His purpose is the same on the SWAT team. It’s a little more dangerous, the stakes are a little bit higher. He can wear a tactical vest and go in and take care of business if we need him to.
Doggie retirement: He has a disease of his spine called spondelosis. It’s a cousin to osteoarthritis. He has five disks in his backside close to his tail that are fusing together. Generally, it’s not a disease that’s considered painful. In Renzo’s case it is painful. It’s gotten to the point now in my patrol unit, he can’t turn around. If he’s facing one way, he gets out that way because he can’t go the other way. He’s in a lot of pain so he’s through.
Decision time: They’ve offered to buy another dog. These dogs typically cost around $10,000 to $12,000, plus $6,000 to send me to training and time away from the police department which is almost two and a half months. So we lose a man on the SWAT team, a guy on the street and a dog. We have two dogs and this’ll leave only one dog on the streets. They’ve offered that to me and in the next couple of weeks, I’ll make that decision. The training is one of the hardest we can do. It’s non-stop daily getting beat up by dogs. It’s a task, it really is, so I’ll make that decision pretty soon. But the department plans on getting another dog if I take it or not. If I don’t take it, someone else will test for it and they’ll get it.
Doggie resume: Renzo has found numerous narcotics in vehicles. We were the first team that arrived at the jail when we had that big escape in August of last year. He found the guy we actually found after the escape and alerted us to the rest of the guys who escaped. Right now, I don’t have a number of narcotics he’s found in vehicles and things of that nature. These dogs have probably stopped more crime from happening by being around. If a guy’s going to make an arrest on a warrant service, we can roll by and Renzo will bark and let them know that he’s there. If they had planned on running or fighting police officers, they don’t. Because they know that he’s going to come out and take care of business. Statistics show officer involved shootings went down 25 percent when San Diego got their dogs five or seven years ago. We can’t measure here what he’s kept from happening but as an officer on the street, whenever I roll by or the guys see Renzo get out and he sits there and he’s ready to take care of business, it’s soothing for these guys. When we show up they smile. It’s a different story when the dog shows up because he loves his job.
Officer’s best friend: I wasn’t sure I wanted the dog to begin with and then I took it as a challenge. But after having him, I can’t imagine working without him. I have a partner with me everywhere I go. Everytime I go to a call, even though I don’t get the dog out, I have a button on my belt I can push and the door pops open on my unit and this dog comes and finds me. I know in the back of my mind that if I get into anything I have help right there. I don’t have to find my radio and wait for someone to show up. He’s there. And that is incalculable. In my opinion, every officer should have a dog. They’re a life-saver a mind-saver. My job is less stressful. Plus, I can open up my kennel, he sticks his head through there and I can pet him, you know. It’s amazing.
Compiled by CNJ staff writer Liliana Castillo
New police recruit will “Roc” suspects
Roc has joined the Bellevue Police Department.
The Bellevue Police Department has landed a new recruit, a German shepherd puppy named Roc. The dog will train with a K9 officer to track suspects and locate evidence.
Roc will eventually take over for Bosco, who is retiring as the oldest of the department’s three police dogs.
Money from the Bellevue Police Foundation helped pay for the new pup. The non-profit fundraising organization, formed last year with guidance from the New York Police Foundation, is now turning its attention to the acquisition of taser guns for Bellevue Police officers.
For additional information about the Bellevue Police Foundation, visit bellevuepolicefoundation.org. A video of Roc is available on the site.
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Kilgore K-9 makes ‘pot’ bust
Kilgore’s canine officers helped to nab a Huntsville man with more than 160 pounds of pot during a DPS traffic stop Tuesday night.
Kilgore police officer Brady Middlebrooks and the department’s drug dog, Jeroen, with bags containing 161 pounds of marijuana.
Trooper Robby Dillard pulled over a speeding 2009 Chevrolet Malibu on I-20 at 5:35 p.m. and requested K-9 officer assistance.
KPD Officer Brady Middlebrooks and his partner Jeroen responded and the dog hit on illegal narcotics in the vehicle. A search revealed seven plastic trash bags containing 161 pounds of marijuana.
The trooper arrested Albert Edward Hightower Jr., 21, of Huntsville for felony possession of marijuana and he was jailed in Gregg County with a $10,000 bond. Another man in the vehicle, a 24-year-old from Houston, was not arrested.
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MADD awards for 5 sheriff’s deputies
The MADD Virginia Peninsula Chapter and The Peninsula Alcohol Safety Action Program held its 20th Annual DUI Enforcement Awards Ceremony October 19 at Hampton City Hall. Five York-Poquoson Sheriff’s deputies were among the award recipients.
Award recipients (left to right) - Deputy Benjamin Farr; Deputy Eric Hart; Sheriff J. D. "Danny" Diggs; Deputy First-Class Jason Houston; Deputy James Hazelwood
They include: Deputy James Hazelwood, 37 DUI arrests; Deputy Henry Reichle, III, 19 DUI arrests; Deputy First-Class Jason Houston, 18 DUI arrests; Deputy Benjamin Farr, 16 DUI arrests and Deputy Eric Hart who had seven DUI arrests
“Drunk driving is a serious concern and I am very proud of the enforcement efforts shown by these deputies to make our streets and community safer,” Sheriff J. D. “Danny” Diggs said at the ceremony.
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