Auburn Police push to purchase a K9 officer
If the Auburn Police Department has its way, it may have a new officer one day — one with four legs.
The APD approached the Auburn City Council Thursday night to further discuss the possibility of purchasing a working canine to add to the staff.
The Auburn Police Department’s narcotics officer spoke to the council about the benefits of having a police dog.
As someone who works in the city, he sees the drug abuse that is going on, and told council members that in his years on the streets, he had seen what an effect that abuse has on Auburn’s residents.
“It’s not pretty,” he told the council.
Having a canine officer would be a further effort to remove drugs from Auburn’s streets, he told the City Council.
Auburn Police Chief Frederick Brown spoke to the council as well.
The city’s narcotics officer has experience with canine training, he said, and a well trained dog would have a positive impact on the community.
Brown told the council that there already had been donations made to the police department to support the dog.
As a matter of fact, he told the council, the cost of the dog — the police department would consider purchasing either a puppy to train or a certified dog — would be completely offset and supported by money obtained from drug seizures, and from donations that already have been made for the hypothetical dog.
The dog that the APD would choose would not only be used to sniff out narcotics, but would hopefully be able to be used in the event of missing persons.
The dog also would be cleared to be safe around children.
The council had discussed the possibility of purchasing a canine officer last year, so this was the second time that council members had a chance to discuss the merits of a dog on the police force.
Council member Dorissa Shackelford said she had done some research on the concept of police dogs, and that one of the main concerns was that the dog might bite an innocent person.
A member of the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office was on hand to discuss concerns such as this.
Oftentimes, he said, the dogs who bite are improperly trained.
The GCSO brought one of its canine officers to the meeting so that the council could get a firsthand look at a police dog.
The dog, which was kept on a leash, did not act aggressive and behaved while his trainer discussed how at three years of age, he still had things to learn and work to do.
Police dogs are specifically trained to assist police and other law-enforcement personnel in their work.
Police dogs – often referred to as “K9s” – can be used in a number of different ways.
Public order enforcement dogs can be used for direct apprehension of people.
Search and rescue dogs can be used to locate suspects or missing persons.
Detection dogs can be used to sniff out illegal substances, such as drugs or explosives, that might be in a person’s car or bag.
Cadaver dogs can be used to detect decomposing bodies.
Some of the most popular breeds of dogs that police use are the German Shepherd, Dutch Shepherd, Boxer, Doberman Pinscher, Bloodhound and Beagle.
Oftentimes, when police dogs grow old or are injured, they are retired to a life of a regular dog, usually with their handler.
Until then, though, the Auburn police dog would be on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year — for
whatever reason he or she might be needed.
The Auburn Council will take up the matter at its February meeting.
By Lona Panter
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Sheriff’s Office hold fundraiser for burned deputy
A Palm Beach County deputy who was badly burned when his motorcycle caught fire expressed gratitude this weekend to all those who helped him through the ordeal.
Sgt. Rich Ragali suffered burns on over 60 percent of his body when his motorcycle caught on fire at a gas station in the Keys in October last year. He said that in the days after his accident, deputies were by his side constantly encouraging him to get better.
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office Deputy Rich Ragali was severely burned at a gas station in the Florida Keys.
“There were always deputies by my side down at the hospital,” Ragali said. “I couldn’t have survived without that. Everybody from the sheriff’s office was right behind me.”
Three months after the accident, his law enforcement family showed that they were still by Ragali’s side as they organized a fundraiser at the Palm Beach Gardens Moose Lodge to pay for Ragali’s mounting medical bills, which were not covered by insurance.
“He’s doing extremely well,” said Sheriff Ric Bradshaw. “He didn’t expect to make it through the night, and here he is trying to work towards a full recovery. So we’re hoping it’s going to work.
“Ragali said that every day after his accident has been a challenge, but that he has learned important lessons.”Never take life for granted,” he said. “Every day is a new day. That’s all I can say.”
Those who would like to make a donation to help Ragali can call 561-644-8558.
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Alameda County sheriff’s sergeant steering kids in right direction
Some officers’ approach to crime fighting begins and ends with making arrests.
But Alameda County Sheriff’s Sgt. Marty Neideffer’s approach is a little different. His goal is to keep the kids in the neighborhood he grew up in from breaking the law in the first place.
Neideffer is the founder of the Deputy Sheriffs’ Activities League, which for the past five years has been organizing free activities for kids in kindergarten through high school in the urban unincorporated areas of Alameda County.
He said the idea began in 2004.
“As a school resource officer, you’re talking to kids all the time and you’re doing the sort of the ‘don’t do bad, do good’ lecture,” he said. “You look around. For kids of modest means, there is not a lot of things to do — inexpensive, fun things to do.”
Neideffer, 46, of Dublin, grew up in San Lorenzo, just blocks from the DSAL office on East 14th Street in San Leandro. He joined the Sheriff’s Office 13 years ago, and before becoming a deputy was a sports reporter for what was then the Alameda Newspaper Group (now the Bay Area News Group-East Bay, which owns this newspaper).
Back then, Neideffer said, there were plenty of things for kids to do. But as time went on those activities disappeared, and the neighborhoods today are still not that much different. They’re still populated by blue-collar, hardworking people striving for better lives.
Neideffer hopes that
offering “cool” activities will keep kids away from negative behavior. In 2009, about 3,000 kids participated in the various DSAL programs, he said.
The nonprofit partners with the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District, the San Leandro Boys & Girls Club and other local groups to offer free classes and activities such as bowling, golf, dancing and cooking. It also sponsors a group called Furthering Youth Inspiration, whose 50 members have held dances, put on a parade for green energy and voiced opinions on a proposed youth center in unincorporated San Leandro.
For Neideffer, giving these kids something positive and free to do is a form of crime prevention.
“They are looking for something,” he said. “If you offer them the opportunity, they’ll take it.”
Last March the DSAL began organizing a soccer program. About 600 kids participated, with games played every Saturday from May through July. Neideffer had a few volunteers for coaching, but also was able to rope in some parents who attended the games.
One of those coaches, Shamika Parker, of Cherryland, said the program is great for families who can’t afford to pay the fees for other soccer leagues.
It’s also about more than playing soccer, Parker said. Neideffer’s program has brought people together, she explained, adding that these types of activities give kids a positive image of law enforcement.
“His vision is much bigger. … A lot of people don’t understand how an outreach program can change the community,” Parker said. “In the long run, it’s going to be much more pleasant.”
Through the Sheriff’s Youth and Family Services division, DSAL also offers parenting classes. Fifteen parents are currently enrolled.
Neideffer is not one to take credit. He said former Sheriff Charley Plummer and current Sheriff Greg Ahern have supported DSAL’s endeavors, and that community members who have stepped up to help have made all the difference.
“I’m just fortunate enough to work with them and be involved in the process,” Neideffer said.
He also isn’t satisfied with the status quo. He is working with a group of parents and community members to create a stand-alone soccer league, and also wants to see the youth group grow to 150 kids. And he’s always looking for new ideas and sources of funding.
Cherryland resident Susan Beck received a grant from the San Francisco Foundation to create an urban community garden, where residents learn to grow fruits and vegetables to sell to local residents and businesses, or donate to shelters. She had gone to DSAL as a partnering agency, Beck said, and Neideffer was on board.
“He looks for an impact on a social level, and he looks for an impact on a personal level,” Beck said. “He just has a broad view of what crime prevention is.”
Having Neideffer as an advocate is great, Beck said, because he floats easily between two worlds. He can talk to the community — kids and adults — and law enforcement in languages they understand.
“He just wants to see people thrive,” Beck said. “That’s all that it comes down to.”
Marty Neideffer
By Sophia Kazmi
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Palm Beach policeman Thomas Machate named officer of year
Palm Beach Police Chief Kirk W. Blouin, right, presents Thomas Machate with the Officer of the Year award, with Jupiter Police Chief Frank J. Kitzerow looking on.
Little did Palm Beach Police Officer Thomas Machate know that his role in a $2.3 million drug bust would put him front and center before a room full of more than 30 police chiefs a year later.
Machate, a career police officer who has been on the island since July 2000, was named 2009 Police Officer of the Year last week by the Palm Beach County Association of Chiefs of Police.
He was chosen from a field of nine nominees by a three-member committee primarily for his role on a Jan. 11, 2009, seizure of 92 kilograms of cocaine that came into the Palm Beach Inlet from the Bahamas.
Machate, acting on a tip from a confidential informant, positioned himself with members of the department’s Organized Crime, Vice and Narcotics Unit in the drug interdiction. The drug bust led to the seizure of cash and other assets, and the arrest of five subjects for conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States.
South Palm Beach Police Chief Roger Crane served on the committee that picked Machate for the 2009 award.
What moved Machate to the top of the list in Crane’s estimation was the officer’s coordination with the Drug Enforcement Agency and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“He did the interdiction and the surveillance,” Crane noted.
Machate, 42, comes from a long line of New York City police officers. He worked there before coming to Florida to what he thought would be his retirement.
But he joined the Palm Beach police force and did have some second thoughts with a desire to return to New York.
Then-Capt. Kirk Blouin encouraged Machate to stay. And it was Blouin, now Palm Beach’s chief, who nominated him for the award.
Blouin said he saw Machate as “a hard-working, intelligent, professional, street-smart police officer who would be a great fit in the department.”
He also noted Machate “created his own luck” in the drug case and others through his work ethic and ingenuity in cultivating sources within the marine community.
“These things don’t just happen at the local level [of a police department],” Blouin said. “He’s an exceptional officer. We’re fortunate to have him.”
Machate was also recognized for his role in rescuing a kayaker in the Intracoastal Waterway on June 6, 2009.
He shared credit for his success with fellow marine patrol officer Mick Keehan.
“I love him like a brother,” Machate said. “He deserves as much credit as I do.”
Machate received the award, a plaque and $500 at the ceremony at the Abacoa Golf Club in Jupiter.
By Margie Kacoha
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Defending police officers who are in legal trouble
Fresh out of the Navy, John D. Patten walked into his congressman’s office unannounced; he walked out with a job as an aide. He did the same a few years later, after graduating from law school, selling Frank Hogan, then the Manhattan district attorney, on the story of his working-class Irish upbringing and noting the many times that Mr. Hogan had been discussed at the Patten family dinner table.
In an Albany courtroom a decade ago, defending one of the officers who fatally shot Amadou Diallo, Mr. Patten had to be more than just affable or charming. To convince jurors that his client had fired his weapon only because he feared that Mr. Diallo’s wallet was a gun, Mr. Patten delivered his closing argument holding his own wallet between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand; in his right, he held a starter’s pistol, showing how one could be mistaken for the other.
“I don’t think anyone holds a wallet that way,” said Eric Warner, the chief prosecutor in the Diallo case, recalling with admiration his opponent’s gimmick all these years later. “But he convinced the jury.”
The officers were acquitted. (Mr. Patten said he had not really planned the wallet trick, but also acknowledged that some of his best stories were embellished.)
Now Mr. Patten, 69, is defending Officer Richard Kern, who is accused of repeatedly ramming a baton between the buttocks of a Brooklyn man, Michael Mineo, in October 2008 while handcuffing him in a subway station after catching Mr. Mineo smoking marijuana.
Another officer is expected to testify that he saw the abuse, and prosecutors say they have DNA evidence from the baton that proves Officer Kern’s guilt. Nonetheless, Mr. Patten confidently asserts that Mr. Mineo — whom he subjected to withering character attack during opening arguments in the trial last week — made up the whole story.
He has defended police officers for about 35 years, but Officer Kern could be one of the last: Mr. Patten, a fan of both “La Bohème” and the New York Giants, said he hoped to retire by his 70th birthday, in August.
In the fast-moving world of criminal defense lawyers, where careers are sometimes made and lost in the press, Mr. Patten, who looks a bit like Albert Finney, is not “a screamer or a yeller,” said John Van Lindt, who met Mr. Patten when they were both junior prosecutors in Mr. Hogan’s office. “He comes across as a real gentleman.”
Alan Vinegrad, a former federal prosecutor, faced Mr. Patten during the 1999 trial of the officers accused of torturing Abner Louima. Mr. Patten represented Sgt. Michael Bellomo, accused of covering up the beating.
“I remember the ones who get acquittals,” Mr. Vinegrad said. “John was a worthy adversary — a likeable guy who had real jury appeal.”
In court, Mr. Patten can be aggressive. During the closing in the Diallo case, he went after the victim, a West African street vendor who died in a hail of police bullets in the vestibule of his apartment building in the Bronx. “Why didn’t he stop? Why did he reach into his pocket?” he asked.
Last week, he wasted no time in telling jurors in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn that Mr. Mineo, who has filed a civil suit in connection with the case and is expected to testify as early as Monday afternoon, was trying to scam the people of New York.
In an interview on Friday in the downtown Manhattan office where he has run his solo practice for 22 years, Mr. Patten expressed some regrets. In 1994, a federal judge ruled that he had provided ineffective counsel to a Bronx police officer who was convicted of killing a firefighter, by not allowing her to testify at her trial. With her conviction overturned, the officer pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
“It was a jointly made decision,” Mr. Patten said. “I don’t make many mistakes.”
Mr. Patten grew up in Long Island City, Queens, one of five boys born to immigrants from County Galway. His father, the son of a blacksmith, worked on an automobile assembly line, and his mother was a live-in housekeeper. One brother became a firefighter; another works for a phone company.
Mr. Patten, who studied for the priesthood but decided that the celibate life was not for him, joined the Navy, specializing in explosive ordnance disposal. He met his wife, Connie, a Red Cross nurse, when she took his blood; they live in Staten Island, like many of the officers he defends.
Now he keeps her photograph by his desk along with pictures of their daughter, Ann, who is a lecturer at the Dublin Business School. He also keeps a drawing that a client, a South African arms dealer, gave him: it depicts a fish caught in the talons of an eagle. “He was the fish,” said Mr. Patten, referring to the client. “I got him out.”
There are drawings of Mr. Patten, by courtroom sketch artists, before his hair turned white. Certificates of appreciation from various police unions hang next to windows that look out on ground zero.
His last case in the district attorney’s office, in 1974, was prosecuting a police officer, who was convicted. He got into the business of defending them by accident, when a mentor threw him a case.
“I like policemen,” he said. “They make decisions that are hard decisions — that can turn out to be wrong decisions.”
The police officers in the Diallo case “were not right,” he said. But that was beside the point; to get an acquittal, he needed jurors to sympathize with his client, Officer Sean Carroll.
Mr. Patten said he was afraid that Officer Carroll’s emotions would disappear once he took the stand. So he asked a question that had little to do with the case: “Who is Kevin Gillespie?”
Officer Carroll answered that he was a friend, a fellow police officer gunned down in the Bronx.
“The floodgates opened,” Mr. Patten recalled.
By Kareen Fahim
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Digital mug shots keep wanted faces fresh for Dallas police
Before the advent of computers, many Dallas police officers carried a “hook book” filled with mug shots of criminals who worked their beats. It was an easy way to keep an eye on them in case they were wanted by police or appeared to be looking for more trouble.
Now hook books are making a high-tech return.
Officer Joe King came up with an idea to create color-coded digital charts of burglars recently arrested in the southeast patrol division where he works. Rather than relying on happenstance to catch burglars, officers employ the “virtual hook books” to spot targeted offenders.
Red indicates there’s an active warrant out for the burglar’s arrest. Green indicates a habitual burglar. Yellow means the burglar is in jail.
“It’s a way to track them,” said King, a 13-year-veteran. “Do they have an active burglary warrant? Are they a habitual burglar? Are they still in jail? Where do they live?”
Now, all seven Dallas patrol stations have been instructed to adopt King’s approach. And officials placed copies of the charts on the department’s internal Fusion Center Web site.
Eventually, the virtual hook books could be available on the computers in patrol cars, providing constant updates to officers in the field. This would make it easier for officers to monitor known burglars in their patrol areas.
Police also are in the process of entering the name of every offender into a system that would automatically notify authorities of arrests.
First Assistant Police Chief David Brown called King’s idea “amazing police work” that will help shut down repeat offenders by “finding a way to circumvent their behaviors.”
King came up with the idea after noticing that many patrol officers couldn’t readily identify the burglars preying on their beats.
In a city where property crime drives much of the crime rate, officers know that the chances of catching a burglar in the act are slim to none.
So King spent weeks coming up with the concept and combing through arrest records to compile the names, pictures and other information of all burglars arrested since January 2009 in the southeast patrol division.
“He’s such a breath of fresh air of innovative ideas,” said his commander, Lt. Regina Smith.
“It’s our job to take them off the street. Each time we take them off the streets, that’s one less house or business getting burglarized.
King updates the boards in southeast, which divide offenders into geographic areas, on a weekly basis.
Take the board for southeast’s “310″ sector, encompassing portions of South Dallas.
It lists information on and displays the mug shots of felons such as Joseph Dunn, 46, who has been convicted of burglary, theft, attempted vehicle burglary and aggravated robbery in Dallas County. Or Dwayne Allen, a 54-year-old felon with a long Dallas County rap sheet that includes repeated convictions for burglary, theft and possessing drugs.
At southeast patrol, the charts have been placed on the walls of the detail room where officers assemble before each shift. Officers take printouts into the field.
Commanders have also decreed that any officer who arrests a targeted offender will receive a departmental commendation.
In recent weeks, southeast officers have arrested more than 20 offenders who were in the “hook book.” Smith, who frequently accompanies her officers in the field, snagged one herself.
At northeast, the charts showed their worth on the first night they were in use after an officer immediately recognized a wanted felon.
“The deployment detective said, ‘Wait a minute, I know that guy,’ ” said Lt. Mike Black, a northeast patrol commander. “Within an hour or two, we had an arrest.”
At south central, they’ve identified nearly 200 burglars arrested in the division since the start of 2009. Officials plan to also compile a list of paroled burglars living in south central.
“We’re making them all targeted offenders,” said Sgt. Louis Felini, supervisor of a deployment unit. “We have a very large Walmart in our division. Several off-duty officers who work there said pretty much everybody on this board shops at Walmart. They’re going to take the wanted list for when they’re in their off-duty capacity.”
Department officials recognize that many of these offenders won’t stay long behind bars in a county jail constantly struggling with overcrowding.
“We can’t control the county and how they let the revolving door swing,” Smith said. But she added, “We can control what we have the authority to do and that is to make the appropriate arrest.”
By Tanya Eiserer
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New police chief puts on the badge today
Mark Mew, who already has one career on the Anchorage Police Department under his belt, returns to the force as Anchorage’s 29th police chief today.
In his previous stint, Mew was a patrolman, detective, SWAT team member and deputy chief. He completed the police academy in 1983. And because he’s been gone from the department since 2003, when he left to become director of security and emergency preparedness for the Anchorage School District, he’s been required to spend the past two weeks in a refresher course in Sitka, preparing to pin the badge on once more.
But traditional police work isn’t something he’s talking much about these days. Both he and the man who appointed him, Mayor Dan Sullivan, are indicating there could be a fundamental shift in department philosophy on the horizon.
The catch phrase they’re talking about: “Community policing,” an approach that aims to put police closer to the people in the city’s neighborhoods and, the theory goes, make that relationship work to reduce crime.
“We want to do more of that kind of thing than what the police department’s doing today,” Mew, 55, said in a recent interview. “Now, how much of that we do right now, facing shrinking budgets, that’s a big question.”
Mew, whose appointment must still win Anchorage Assembly approval, has been on the community policing course before. He was deputy chief in the late 1990s, when the city was making a big push toward embracing the concept. The plan then divided the city into five districts, each operating under its own command. A central major crimes unit remained to investigate homicides, sexual assaults and crimes against children across the city. But many other detectives became general-purpose investigators in the districts, handling an array of lesser crimes from burglary and assault to forgery and theft.
Some of changes then were met with resistance in the department and have since been reversed. Now, Mew says, though nothing’s been set in concrete, the city could change direction once more.
“We could get there. I don’t know that we’ll get there soon,” Mew said. “There was a lot of strife associated with that. I’m not sure that we will want to take that step up front. We might reserve that discussion for later down the road. But I think we’d be interested in finding more ways to get patrol thinking about proactive work.”
BUDGET CUTS
As the city wrangles with budget shortfalls in the millions, Mew, along with other city leaders, will likely be forced into cutting budgets, not introducing new programs. Mew says he’ll look for ways to save on fuel, cut back overtime and stretch a roughly $89 million budget for the department of about 550 people, including roughly 400 sworn officers.
But in a department that’s already seen dozens of positions cut, future shortfalls may mean more layoffs, he said.
Tough times will also make it difficult for the new chief to make drastic changes, and the department needs to focus on its core mission: responding to crimes and serving the public, Mew said.
But community policing is a concept Mew says can help make people feel safer and reduce neighborhood crimes — from nuisances like graffiti and loud music to felonies like robberies and homicides.
Community policing, in one embodiment or another, has long been a push at APD, and there have been localized teams working toward that end. Right now, the department has a Community Action Policing team working in Spenard and Fairview. Its six officers, supervised by Sgt. Denny Allen, patrol the same streets and have gotten to know residents and business owners.
They tell police about the things that concern them — for Allen’s team, the problems are mostly inebriates, prostitution and street-level drugs — but as residents get to know an officer, they’re also more likely to share more important information, Allen said.
“That’s the idea of what community policing is all about,” Allen said. “How much of a work load have we taken off of calls for service? I would think probably quite a lot.”
The broader potential changes being eyed now could have implications for the entire department. Sullivan, who appointed Mew to replace Rob Heun, characterized the push in the 1990s as the first true move toward community policing in Anchorage, and said the department seems to have gotten off it.
“What we’re doing now isn’t working well enough for my satisfaction,” Sullivan said. “If you compare what (they) were doing in the mid-to-late-90s, and look at the crime rate and the resultant decline, and you look what’s happened over the last five or six years with more generalized policing and our violent crime rate on the incline, it’s clear that it’s not particularly a question of resources, because we’ve added 90 police officers during that period. It’s more a question of how do you deploy those resources.”
Sullivan said the city plans to commission a deployment audit on the department, which, along with input from Mew, will tell Sullivan what needs to be done.
GENERAL-PURPOSE DETECTIVES
Perhaps the most contentious issue — among detectives, anyway — in the idea of community policing is the concept of general-purpose detectives working directly with patrol in specific geographic areas. Sullivan said he’s undecided on the issue, that he’ll let the experts, beginning with Mew, make a recommendation on whether it makes sense.
Mew also says he wants to talk to his commanders and get a feel for what they think. But he indicated he’s not opposed to it.
De-specializing detectives and putting them under a single commander in separate districts with patrol officers allows them to get to know the neighborhoods and the people in it, Mew said. It also would allow a district commander to establish priorities for both patrolmen and detectives in the area — something not possible when each group reports to a different commander — and stay in tune with what the community wants from police, he said.
“It probably does make sense to keep specialization to some extent in the detective division,” Mews said. “To what extent do we do it? I mean, that’s the big debate.”
Former Anchorage police chief Walt Monegan was one of the district commanders when the changes were made in the ’90s. Then when he became chief a few years later, he reversed them. He says now that he supports community policing, but that there were some problems with the model the last time around.
Detectives working the same crimes in different districts weren’t talking, and criminals weren’t staying inside the district boundaries, he said. Detective sergeants tried to bridge the gap by meeting weekly to compare notes and try spotting similar cases.
Also, if a commander needed more manpower for a specific project, he would have to ask another commander, who was working on his own, unrelated project, Monegan said.
“On paper, it’s a grand idea,” Monegan said. “I wish them luck. I didn’t think the concept was bad, I just don’t think we were staffed and structured for the way that they wanted it done.”
MORE OFFICERS
To be done right, in Monegan’s estimation, community policing could require doubling the size of the department.
Community policing adds an extra dimension of police work to the job, said Sgt. Derek Hsieh, president of the Anchorage Police Department Employees Association. Officers still need to respond to crimes in progress and investigate crimes that have already happened, but they also have the added task of trying to prevent crime from happening in the first place, he said.
“With long-term community policing strategies, I think the desired outcome is that by engaging problems somewhat before they happen, that you could potentially realize efficiencies in the other two stages of law enforcement,” Hsieh said. “But initially your commitment will have to be to all three stages simultaneously. And that obviously is demanding.”
Assemblyman Mike Gutierrez said community policing can help reduce crime and foster trust in the police force. But the department needs a bare minimum of officers, and if it’s not done right, it might jeopardize operations, he said.
“I worry that maybe if we change the focus there might be the temptation to say, ‘Well, if we do it this way we need fewer police officers and therefore we don’t need to spend as much money,’ ” Gutierrez said. “I think there’s some real danger in that.”
But community policing doesn’t necessarily mean staffing changes, just deploying officers more effectively, said Sharon Chamard, associate professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Justice Center.
Decentralizing the department can allow officers to have more leeway dealing with situations and more time to understand and resolve the root cause of the crime, which reduces calls for service later, she said.
“The Anchorage Police Department for the most part is a reactive department,” Chamard said. “I just feel really positive about this change in the department. I think it’s moving the Anchorage Police Department into current-day policing that you see in other large cities. And I think it makes the department perhaps more receptive to innovations in policing.”
By James Halpin
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Bad Day, Good Cop
It started as just another call.
“927-D,” the dispatcher said – a dead body.
Garden Grove police officer Thi Huynh, 29, was in the area.
I’ll take it, he radio’d back.
Barely two years on the job, Huynh already had earned two Life Saving medals and a reputation as a go-getter.
He arrived to find a 48-year-old man dead of a heart attack in his driveway. Firefighters and other police were there but Huynh offered to file the report.
He knocked on the door.
Garden Grove police officer Thi Huynh gets a hug from Maria Villasenor the night he visits with the family. LEONARD ORTIZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
“We deal with dead bodies a lot,” he says. “You try to show as much compassion as possible and be professional about it. You don’t get too emotionally attached. You go and handle the job.”
That’s what he did. For the next 15 minutes, he interviewed the grieving widow and even asked questions of their children.
Don’t get too emotionally attached. Go and handle the job.
He tried. But something happened that day that he couldn’t let go of. A small thing, maybe, but it stuck with him throughout his shift. Throughout the next day. And the next.
“Sometimes, it’s more than just coming out and writing a report,” he says of his job. “A lot more. When you can do something, you should do something.”
So he did.
CIRCLE OF FRIENDS
Tucked in a file cabinet in Huynh’s apartment is a letter from a 15-year-old boy.
It says, Thank-you for saving my life.
On Aug. 15, 2008, the boy lay dying, in full cardiac arrest, on the floor of his parent’s home. Unconscious. Not breathing. No pulse.
Huynh and another officer arrived in time to apply CPR and bring him back to life. It was the second time that year Huynh saved a life.
Even by police standards, that’s pretty rare, says Garden Grove Police Chief Joe Polisar, adding, “It goes to the character of the man. I’m proud of him.”
Just a few years earlier, Huynh was an intern for the L.A. Clippers basketball team looking for a job as a sports reporter. When none panned out, he decided to become a cop.
“We were like, ‘Oh sure,’ ” says Kevin McDonald, 25, of Fountain Valley, one of a close circle of longtime friends. “He likes to joke around a lot so we thought he was kidding.”
But he wasn’t.
It was this same circle of friends that Huynh first turned to, in December, with a crazy idea. This time it wasn’t line-dancing or flying the trapeze at the Santa Monica Pier like he’s apt to suggest.
This idea was different
A CARAVAN
The next weekend, Huynh and roommate Scott Coleman, also a Garden Grove police officer, drove to Guitar Center.
“I play guitar,” says Huynh – “very poorly!”
They strummed a few chords. Asked a few questions. And walked out with a brand new guitar. And a drum set. Then they drove to Fry’s Electronics and bought a Wii video console.
Huynh kept plunking down his credit card to pay.
“We’ll figure out the money part later,” he told his buddy. “If I get it back, cool. If not, oh well.”
That week, Huynh rose after the daily briefing at work. He described what he saw inside the home of Pascual Villasenor – the man who’d died of a heart attack two days after Thanksgiving.
One by one, officers came up and handed him money. Tens. Twenties. Hundreds.
“A bunch of guys pitched in,” says Sgt. Carl Whitney, a motorcycle officer who was there that day. “Then it spread. Guys told others, who told others. They all kept going to Thi to drop off money.”
Meanwhile, Huynh’s friends agreed to help. As did a local charity. Some schools. And others.
Finally, on Christmas Eve, a caravan of 12 cars, including eight police cruisers, lined up outside the Garden Grove Police Department.
EVERY SINGLE DAY
All along, there had been one image that Huynh couldn’t shake: six kids huddled in a hallway.
These were good kids – aged 4 to 16 – who all played instruments at school. Who all helped Dad wash trucks on Sundays to pay the bills. Who went to church and studied hard to someday become “professionals,” as he dreamed.
“I remember seeing these kids peeking around the corner, wondering what was going on,” Huynh says, of the day their dad died. “They didn’t know. They had to be wondering, ‘Why is Mom talking to a cop? What’s wrong with Dad?’ “
That’s why Huynh asked his friends to sponsor them at Christmas. Why he asked his colleagues to pitch in. And why he asked the nonprofit United Labor Agency if they could donate some toys.
No one turned him down.
So on Christmas Eve, the caravan pulled up to the Villasenor home and out came the drums and guitars, the skateboards and video games, the clothes and dolls. There were pies and tears and hugs.
“It was the best Christmas I ever had,” says Huynh, who still checks in on the family from time to time to make sure they’re all right.
In return, they do what they can to make sure he’s all right, too. Each morning, before school, Maria gathers her six children around the table.
“We pray for the police and their families,” she says. “The kids say, ‘Again? We prayed for them yesterday.’ And I say, ‘We’re going to pray for them every single day.’ “
By Tom Berg
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At Policeman’s Ball, officers show off fancy footwork
Rochester police Officer Manny Ortiz lifts Megan Seely of the Arthur Murray Dance Studio during the Dancing With The Law competition. (JAY CAPERS staff photographer)
Rochester police Officer Bing Reaves Jr. joked that if he won the “Dancing with the Law” competition at Saturday night’s Policeman’s Ball, he was going to celebrate by eating a dozen doughnuts.
Reaves came up just short, finishing in second place behind an officer who could not be identified because of her undercover work.
But he’d have been forgiven if he indulged in a doughnut binge anyway. The two months of training sessions he went through at Arthur Murray Dance Studio to prepare for the event saw him shed 15 pounds.
The dance-off was the highlight of the third annual Policeman’s Ball, which drew 750 people to the Riverside Convention Center. The event, which also featured a charity casino, live entertainment and a silent auction, was hosted by the Badge of Honor Association to raise money for its charitable causes and for the Autism Council of Rochester.
“Police have the power to bring people together to help people, and what better way to help a great charity than like this,” said Officer Justin Collins, the president of the Badge of Honor Association.
It was the third year that the Badge of Honor Association has hosted the ball, which drew police officers from 14 area departments. In 2009, the event raised $20,000 for the association and last year’s co-charity, Hunter’s Hope Foundation.
David Paterson was on hand to express his support for the Badge of Honor Association, which was founded by Collins in 2007 to raise money for families of fallen police officers. Speaking from the podium during dinner, Paterson recounted his two trips to Rochester in the past year to visit Officer Anthony DiPonzio, who was shot in the back of the head last January.
DiPonzio attended the ball and was seen walking around and socializing with fellow officers. When his name was mentioned alongside Officers Luca Martini and Daniel Brochu, who were shot while responding to a home invasion in December, the attendees gave the trio a lengthy standing ovation.
The silent auction featured a variety of electronics, firearms and sports memorabilia. For attendees who were interested in emulating the salsa, cha-cha and rumba dances they saw during the contest, there was also a 60-lesson dance package auctioned off by Arthur Murray Dance Studios, whose franchisee Tiffany Nuessle estimated that she’d donated $9,000 to the event between the package and the free lessons that her studios offered to the “Dancing with the Law” participants.
Mike Lesniak, a lieutenant for the Rochester Police Department, has attended the Policeman’s Ball since it started in 2008, and said events like this were important for the morale of officers.
Said Lesniak: “I’ve been on for 27 years, and since I started, it’s the first time they’ve had such a nice social event.”
By Sean Dobbin
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