Man’s hero pins on his police badge in Arlington

We never really know how our actions affect others, do we? And it was SO COOL of Sgt. Wegscheider to be at the ceremony!

————–

Quan Nguyen grew up cheering television’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as they battled evil to protect the world. But it was the actions of a real-life crime fighter that inspired Nguyen, 25, to the ultimate moment of his life Thursday when he became an Arlington police officer.

Sgt. Scott Wegscheider of Colorado, the reason Quan Nguyen wanted to be a policeman, secures the new officer's badge.

That living hero, Sgt. Scott Wegscheider, was in town to pin the badge on Nguyen’s chest during graduation ceremonies for Arlington’s 40th police recruit class. It was the culmination of a relationship that began 17 years earlier in Colorado when Wegscheider saved the life of Nguyen’s older sister, Kim, after she fell into a neighbor’s pool during a party and stopped breathing.

The two saw each other briefly two days later at the hospital where Kim was taken but never formally met. Both moved on but never forgot each other or that June day in 1993.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

Police: Belts may save lives, but slow down officers

The police chief in St. Louis said excessive speed and failure to wear a seat belt contributed to the deaths of two officers there in the past six months.

Chief Daniel Isom told local media outlets he has been in a long-running dispute with officers about wearing seat belts, even before the deaths of David Haynes and Julius Moore, two young officers killed in separate crashes in March and October.

Haynes, 27, was broadsided while crossing an intersection during a high-speed pursuit. Moore, 23, was responding to a burglary when his patrol car was struck by a tractor-trailer.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

Plainfield police motorcycle ride to benefit fund to honor fallen officers

Plainfield’s Policeman’s Benevolent Association Local No. 19 is holding its second annual Memorial Run this weekend, during which Central Jersey motorcycle riders are offered a day of fun and a chance to contribute to a fund created to build a memorial to honor the city’s fallen officers.

Registration for the ride is scheduled to take place from 10 a.m.-noon Sunday, April 25 in the city’s Cedar Brook Park. The ride begins around noon and runs from the Queen City to the popular Bar Anticipation in Belmar. The cost is $25 per rider and $10 per passenger.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

Police dogs attend K-9 college in Yakima

The old cartoon crime dog McGruff’s slogan may be “Take a bite out crime,” but a real police dog’s primary asset is its sniffer.

“The main reason we use them is for their nose,” said John Munson, president of the Washington State Police Canine Association.

Of course, powerful jaws that can clamp down on a forearm or ankle help too, especially when a police dog scrambles into a dark, confined space pursuing a bad guy who might have a gun.

That’s one of the scenarios that dogs and their handlers encounter at the WSPCA spring seminar this week in Yakima. There are 14 training sites, eight for K-9 patrol dogs and six for drug dogs.

There are 125 K-9 units from law enforcement agencies around the Northwest and British Columbia participating in the training seminar, hosted by the Yakima Police Department.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

Video shows dog leading Alaska troopers to fire

How smart dogs are!

————-

A dashcam video from the Alaska State Troopers shows a dog leading them through winding back roads to a blazing fire at his owners’ property.

The video on the troopers’ website shows the German shepherd running to meet the trooper’s vehicle, then racing to the house on Caswell Lakes on April 4.

Troopers say Buddy and his owner, 23-year-old Ben Heinrichs, were in the family workshop when a heater ignited chemicals. Heinrichs told Buddy: “We need to get help.”

The dog eventually found a trooper responding to a call about the fire.

The State Troopers are presenting a special award Friday to the dog. Buddy will receive an engraved silver-plated dog bowl in Anchorage.

Heinrichs suffered minor flash burns on his face. The workshop was destroyed, but only some window trim on the house was damaged.

LINK TO ARTICLE

VIDEO

THP Announces Trooper of the Year 2009

The Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) today named Trooper Donald “Dewaine” Jennings as the 2009 Trooper of the Year. The announcement was made during a special ceremony Thursday, April 22, at 10:00 a.m., at the THP Training Center located at 283 Stewarts Ferry Pike in Nashville.

Trooper Jennings, assigned to DeKalb County in the Cookeville District, was named Trooper of the Year for an act of heroism on December 13, 2009. He responded to a traffic crash where he found a vehicle submerged on its top in a rain-swollen creek. The creek water was high and the current was swift. Nobody at the scene had checked to see if there was an occupant inside the vehicle. Without hesitation, or regard for his own safety, Trooper Jennings entered the frigid, waist-deep water to check for entrapped passengers. Unable to determine if anyone was inside the vehicle, Trooper Jennings called for a wrecker to hoist the car out of the creek. Although the efforts of Trooper Jennings did not save the life of the driver, he made every effort, including risk to his own safety, when he entered the water knowing that he could not swim.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE