Where people hide

Every now and again, I find myself cataloging in my mind the number of ways things have occur ed. In this case I began thinking about all of the places we have found people hiding in a home. Sometimes you can find an elephant in a match box.

Some of the places we have found people hiding are unique, imaginative, amazing and other times just stupid.

I once found someone hiding in a dresser drawer. I'm not kidding. A drawer. As I am told this same individual was found in a dryer once.

We've found people under piles of cloths, under steps, on the top shelf of closets, under mattresses, inside of boxes, under trash bags, standing behind cloths in closets, in attics, under sofas and beds.

As a matter of fact, I once found some one under a bed that only looked like it was 6 inches above the floor. Of course the girl was thin as a rail.

People are almost as creative at hiding themselves as they are at hiding dope.

Brad

Got Dope?

"There's a new sheriff in town". Well not really, but we have a new team leader in our narcotics department. This guy is top notch and it is with no small amount of pride that I can tell you he has been my mentor from the beginning of my law enforcement career.

Every team needs a captain. Someone who has the final piece of the puzzle that makes it all work. This officer was the last and very important piece of the puzzle. To use a football metaphor, we can get to the red zone, but we needed someone to get us into the in zone. He does this for our team and he does it well.

In two months, we have made a crazy number of significant drug arrest. The back lot of the police department looks like a used car lot with all of the vehicles we have confiscated. We have stepped up our game and the dealers and users know it. To make things even more interesting is that we have a "you send it to our city and we will go and get you in yours" attitude.

The effects are being noticed in all of the surrounding communities. The word is out. If you're "dirty" be careful in that city. Those boys aren't playing.

The team is still young but they are coming together. The added bonus is that it serves to motivate many of the young officers that were starting to get a why bother attitude. This is significant because it increases the number of leads that are generated and keeps the street level players on their toes.

One person can make a difference. Not by themselves but as a needed and essential part of the team. I'm learning, making mistakes, and moving forward. While this is happening I'm having a great time doing what I love to do. Which is chasing and catching the people that are causing so much pain and suffering in our community.

http://www.klfy.com/global/story.asp?s=10004156

Team work... a great concept.

506

You have the right to REMAIN SILENT

I dedicate this post to all of the morons that missed the first seven words of their Miranda Rights. You know... "You have the right to remain silent".

I can't tell you how many people incriminate themselves because they forgot how to do one important thing... to SHUT UP!! ha

Please don't be mistaken. I as a police officer truly appreciate the moronic behaviour of people that have a bad case of mouthous-won't-stopus.

-Case in point- young suspect arrested for possession of a few pills. While at the station and asked how many he had consumed to determine if he would need medical attention the suspect enthusiastically informs us that he was quite all right and that while he regularly ate those pills, the ones he had were for him to sell. - Thank you for that. LOL

- Another example -
Officer: "Sir how many beers have you had tonight?"
Driver: "Not that much... Maybe a 12 pack. I drink all the time... a 12 pack ain't s**t to me."

- Yet another example -
Officer: "Is there anything in the car that I need to know about?"
Suspect: "No Sir. I threw it out of the passenger window"
Officer: "Threw what?"
Suspect: "Two pills"
Officer: "Really? Where?"
Suspect: "Should be right there on the side of the car."
Officer: "Humph... well look there. I really appreciate your honesty. Really!!"

506

All a game of chess

Most of you have heard that sending criminals to prison is sometimes like sending them to college. Not the good traditional learn to be an upstanding member of society college, but the kind where they learn tricks of the criminal trade.

Some of those tricks are how to deal with or manipulate or even disarm the police. If you are a law enfocement officer and you're reading this then you can probably recall a time when your suspect(s) were moving in casual ways that put you at a disadvantage. Even if nothing happened they positioned themselves to have either the upper hand or at least a better chance at being the victor should things turn ugly.

Take a few moments to look back and reassess some of the many situations you have been in. How many of those did you allow the suspect to have the advantage because you:

- Didn't want to offend them?
- Were worried about how you would be percieved by the public?
- Were somewhat afraid (lets just be intellectually honest with ourselves - you don't have to tell anyone)
- Were just plain complacent that nothing was going to happen?
- Were out numbered and too ashamed to call for backup?

Lets face it. All of us at one time or another have allowed ourselves to be in bad situations that perhaps we didn't have the control that we would or should've had.

This post isn't about trying to make you feel bad or inadequet. It's about making you aware. With awareness there can be adjustment. Fix the problem by learning from your previous mistakes.

You don't have to be a jackass to the public in order to show that you are in control of a situation. It's actually very easy to behave in a matter of fact way the gives them the feeling of he's just doing his job.

Behave in a manner that shows confidence in your abilities, awareness of your environment, knowledge of your job. Doing this will go a long way to gaining the respect and cooperation of the people you are dealing with.

I don't remember the percentages but of the officers murdered, the killers most often said the picked them because of how they presented themselves. Because they didn't look like they could defend themselves or that they were sloppy in appearance and manner.

So go forth yon officers and be confident, strong and resilient. But most of all be safe.

518/901

Sometimes You Just Can't Help People

Those officers out there that have done this for a while know this to be true. Sometimes there is just no helping people. It goes right there with the ole' "no good deed goes unpuished".

For all of the grateful people that have been stopped and released with a warning or released with only a minor violation without the book being thrown at them there are a hand full that make you crazy.

I don't know, maybe they're just stupid. Who can say?

Two minor cases in point, are I stop a guy for traffic violations and note that his window tint is WAY past the legal limit. I offer to let him go if he'll just remove the tint on scene. Hell I would've been happy if he just started the job so that he would have to finish it later. Subject didn't want to be seen with his tint messed up so he opted for both the moving violations and the window tint ticket. ... ah... McFly...!!

The other night I stop a vehicle, whom I might add I've given warnings for the same thing on two previous occasions. The vehicle has one of those lights that fit in the towing assembly and plug to the trailor light adapter. It was producing blue light which in my state is illegal. I advise the driver that if she simply disconnects the light I'll release her without citing her.

She refused. She almost went to jail over the issue because she didn't at first want to sign the ticket. What is wrong with people? Oh by the way. She wasn't permitted to leave until her husband came on scene and pulled the plug.

There are plenty of good folks out there and most are let off with a warning. Please if you are one of those people that were stopped for a violation, even if you don't agree with the violation, don't run off and call the station to complain. You're only going to succeed in making the officer jaded. Be glad you didn't get the ticket and go on with your life.

518/901

Liberal Media

Recently there has been yet another complaint by a portion of the community in Iberia Parish about the use of force from the Police and Deputies. While I don't want to detract from legitimate complaints those of us in Law Enforcement are very aware of tactics used by violators and their relations.

Attack the police for doing their job and play down the responsibility of the perpetrator for the actions taken against him by the law.

Too many times I've seen and been involved in cases where the suspect is resisting the police with violence. When the police use force in kind to subdue him he cries foul. His family and friends cry foul. For some ridiculous reason they feel that it's okay to attack the police. They apparently believe that the police just have to take it. Wrong.

The crowd mentality. This one is lovely. "Hey! there's a bunch of us so the law doesn't apply" Wrong. When a crowd is becoming unruly and have been instructed by the police to disburse numerous times and they refuse to do so, don't be upset when mace canisters are deployed. You knew something was going to happen. You knew that something was likely to be mace and that someone was going to go to jail. If you got sprayed... shame on you for being there. You should've left when instructed to do so.

Lets not forget about this one. Well known drug dealer. Residents call and complain that nothing is being done about him. Police step up their scrutiny of the suspect and the community cries foul because the police are harassing him. Frequently making it a racial thing instead of it being a CRIMINAL thing.

A significant part of the crime that occurs in the late hours are by juveniles. This is well known by law enforcement officers. Police attempt to deal with the problem by enforcing curfew - FOUL. Picking on the community. "Hey... Let's make it a racial issue." - Sigh-

Oh lets not forget the elitist in the community. That's my kid and he's above the law. How dare the police handcuff him for fighting in a bar that he's too young to be in anyway. "I'm a councilman and I'm going to have that officers job."

Here's one... I've lived here for 30 years. You can't handcuff me for resisting. - Wrong.

The news media just LOVES to talk to disgruntled idiots and post they're comments as if they were the gospel truth. The media loves to make it look like the police are just a bunch of big meanies. In a future post I will put links to news articles illustrating this and I'll try to post the real story to go with it.

The joys of law enforcement.

518/901

Volunteer Officers Killed in NY - It wasn't necessary

(Click on heading to read the story)
Those volunteer officers were indeed very brave. They were patrolling the streets, in uniform, UNARMED. From what I gather that was a department policy.

How can ANY department in good faith put officers out on the streets UNARMED. What a load of crap!! NYPD is one of the finest departments in the country. That being said, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

I'm ticked. The audacity to convince those officers that walking the streets on patrol without a gun was a good idea. Where is the sanity in that? Don't give me the liability bull****. You don't want liability then train them.

I think I saw somewhere in the article that they have 4500 volunteer officers in the department. You want liability? How about the liability of putting those officers out on the streets without the tools to protect themselves and the public. How many people could have been saved had they been armed? We'll never know.

Contrast this story with the one in Utah where the armed off duty police officer stopped an active shooter.

I repeat. Those officers did not have to die. They didn't have a fighting chance and that was just plain wrong.

518/901