Trainees hope to make the cut for SWAT

The window three stories above Sgt. Lance VanDongen looked unintimidating, but only from the ground.

“You’re not going to want to go through that window,” he warned the 29 SWAT candidates who are harnessed up for Tuesday’s urban climbing course at the Salt Lake City police training tower. “It’s a very unnatural thing to do.”

The rappelling exercise is part of a six-day training course this week for prospective SWAT officers from seven police and fire agencies and military personnel. Starting at 4 a.m. Sunday, the trainees have been running obstacle courses, swimming, shooting and climbing up and down buildings.

It sounds cool, but Hollywood bravado has no place on belay.

“I don’t want to see anyone jumping down in leaps,” Detective Reuban Torres warned the students.

On the other side of the tower, trainees scaled a suspended ladder less than a foot wide. It twisted between their feet as they climbed to the roof through strong gusts of wind.

Salt Lake City fire investigator Cristal VanDongen finished her ascent without a hitch and assured her skeptical classmates she had no special ladders training from the fire department.

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State police raffling 2010 Camaro

The Kentucky State Police are raffling away a 2010 Chevrolet Camaro to benefit Trooper Island, a free summer camp for underprivledged children.

Tickets for the muscle car are $10 and available at any Kentucky State Police post and through the mail. The winning ticket of the 20,000 sold will be announced at the Kentucky State Fair Sunday, Aug. 29.

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Country policeman: life on a rural beat

Mike Pannett woke up one day and realised that, after 10 years in the Metropolitan Police, the rivers of his native Yorkshire were calling — he hadn’t been fly-fishing for a decade.

On his patch: policeman Mike Pannett covered 600 square miles of North Yorkshire moorlands Photo: PAUL LEWIS

So in 1997 he swapped his south London patch for the North Yorkshire Moors. Whereas once he had been patrolling inner-city estates, working on the murder squad and the TSG (the riot police), now he was chasing poachers and nicking opportunistic burglars. Oh, and drinking endless cups of tea in farmhouse kitchens. But little did he realise how the skills of the local police can be tested, as the Raoul Moat case highlighted.

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Police Dog Noted For Boy’s Rescue Passes Away

R.I.P., Mica. Job well done!

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Police in Weare are mourning the department’s K-9, Mica, who died from cancer this week.Mica was with the department for four years, and police said she was a lifesaver who galvanized the community during her battle with cancer.

“She was a great dog, and it’s going to be tough to replace her,” said Chief Gregory Begin.

Begin said Mica was the department’s first K-9, purchased with the help of a local businessman. With her partner, Sgt. Joseph Kelley, Mica is credited with catching fugitives and finding drugs.

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New K-9 and Handler Join the San Ramon Police Force

Bongo lives with Officer Bruce and being the handler is a “24/7” responsibility. Credit Roger Canady

The newest member of the San Ramon Police Department is 4 years old, weighs about 70 pounds and responds to commands in Dutch.

His name is Bongo and he is a German shepherd from the Netherlands.

Earlier this month, the K-9 finished his first shift with his handler, Officer Chris Bruce, and so far things are going “very well.”

“I’m glad I have Bongo available to me to do my job better,” Bruce, 38, said. “I’ll be able to use Bongo to locate a missing child or an Alzheimer’s or mentally challenged patient that walks off, possibly same someone’s life.”

Tracking people as well as guns, drugs and other dangerous articles is just one of several skills that the pair were drilled on during their month-long certification training at the Concord Naval Weapons Station.

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Salt Lake County sheriff remembers the fallen

There was no 21-gun salute or wreath service Tuesday to remember the 13 members of the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office who have died in the line of duty over the years. Mother Nature wouldn’t allow it.

But the rain didn’t keep Sgt. Manfred Lassig from reading each name aloud to the audience assembled inside the sheriff’s office at the annual memorial service.

The reading began with the name of deputy Rodney Badger, who died in April 1853, and ended with crossing guard Henry Tesch, killed in 1994.

Sheriff Jim Winder also dedicated the program to the memory of Millard County sheriff’s Deputy Josie Greathouse Fox, who was shot and killed during a traffic stop earlier this year. Winder then tipped his hat to Sevier County sheriff’s Sgt. Franco Aguilar, who was hit and knocked off a bridge in a car crash in April while helping a stranded motorist. Aguilar died in the incident.

Winder called the past few months in law enforcement “extremely difficult.”

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Harris sheriff starts initiative to halt DWIs

Harris County ranks No. 1 among the nation’s top 10 largest counties with the most alcohol-related traffic fatalities. It’s a title that Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia says he wants to relinquish.

Garcia announced on Thursday a comprehensive, multi-agency initiative called Operation Shared Responsibility that will combine enforcement and public education to reduce drunken driving. The countywide initiative will kick off Saturday in northwest Harris County, where patrol officers will focus solely on DWI or alcohol-related offenses. Officers will target specific, unannounced areas during the next eights weeks, he said.

“Alcohol-related accidents are claiming more lives in Harris County than anywhere else in the country,” Garcia said at the department’s northwest substation in Tomball. “I’m asking the public and the community partners to share the responsibility to put an end to this body count.”

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SWAT trains at OSU

Dangling ropes signaled that there was something much more interesting than parking going on Wednesday morning at Oregon State University’s parking structure.

Students carrying gym bags paused to watch as men in camouflage rappelled from the third story of the four-story garage. Some of them were cautious on the way down. Others easily inverted themselves while suspended more than 30 feet up.

The men were members of the Oregon State Police SWAT Team, but they were only training, not responding to an emergency.

Lt. Jeff Lanz of the OSP command at OSU said the team typically trains once a summer at the university. The experience lets the team become familiar with the campus and with local OSP troopers.

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CSX SWAT team training

SWAT teams from around the region participated in a SWAT training session 7/22/10, practicing on specially designed trains at the CSX railyard in Framingham.

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Advantage, kids

In tennis, how you play can matter as much as the score.

That’s one lesson Boston Police officer Frank G. Williams, Jr., 47, stresses as he teaches the game to the city’s most vulnerable youngsters.

What began as a one-man effort to keep youngsters off the streets last year has expanded into a joint venture between the Boston Police and the Sportsmen’s Tennis Club this summer in Dorchester.

On Friday and Saturday evenings — peak hours for juvenile crime and violence, Williams said — 25 police officers have been bringing in vanloads of children from the city’s housing developments to play tennis, bridge neighborhood divides, and build new relationships.

“All these kids are at risk of being involved in gang-related activity,’’ said Williams, who is on the board of directors of the Sportsmen’s Club. “They want to be part of something. Some of them don’t have the family unit others have.’’

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