02-22-02

Want to Go to Bosnia? Kosovo? East Timor?

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), through the United States Department of State, is working to implement a system to enhance their capacity for rapid deployment of personnel from participating states (OSCE has 54 members, including the United States) to address crisis prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation. This Program is called the Rapid Expert and Assistance Cooperation Teams (REACT).

While there are many areas of expertise, including civil affairs, human rights, elections, reconstruction etc, the Department of State is seeking qualified Law Enforcement officers, for referral to OSCE, to participate in this program. The United States as an OSCE member is committed to contributing a working list of 500 police officers to the civilian police CIVPOL component of REACT. The State Department is coordinating this project through DAOL (DynCorp Aerospace Operations, Ltd.) a defense service contractor.

As an experienced law enforcement professional, we invite you to learn more about the OSCE REACT program at www.policemission.com (select the OSCE REACT button). If you are interested in participating and meet program requirements, please complete and submit the on-line application.

We look forward to hearing from you. Also, feel free to pass this opportunity along to other qualified law enforcement professionals.

Riddle Me This

Dumb Crooks

Halifax, Virginia police received a call one weekend to respond to a lover's quarrel gone horribly awry. They ended up arresting a guy for stabbing his girlfriend and his cousin (one person - his girlfriend was his cousin).

At the station, an officer read him Miranda and asked him if he understood his rights. He said he did.

The officer then said, "Having these rights in mind, do you wish to make a statement about what happened?"

He confidently said, "No way, man...I ain't stupid. I ain't making no statement...I mean, I did stab her, but I ain't dumb enough to make a statement about it."

He was found guilty.

A woman who escaped from mall security guards with $900 of clothing from a Miami, Florida department store jumped into the parked car of two off-duty police officers in an ill-fated attempt to hide.

Marsha Reid, 19, of Fort Lauderdale, was charged Thursday with retail theft, resisting arrest without violence and escaping from police.

Security guards at Dadeland Mall stopped Reid and her teen-age friend as they tried to leave a store with bags full of clothes they hadn't paid for, according to police reports.

Reid slipped out of her handcuffs, ran to the parking lot, and climbed inside a parked car that had its front door open, hoping to hide.

The dark blue Ford Taurus belonged to two Miami-Dade Police officers, Maj. Grace O'Donnell and her husband, Lt. James O'Donnell, who were putting their purchases in the trunk.

A security guard ran to the lot and the officers pointed him to Reid.

© 2002 Dumb Crooks
Www.dumbcrooks.com
Used with permission

Officer Safety Alert

The attached photographs show a knife confiscated at
a LA Airport Security checkpoint on 02/06/2002. This item was discovered during a physical search of a passenger's bag after a toy gun was observed on the x-ray unit. The knife was completely transparent on the x-ray. This item is sharp and could easily be used as a stabbing weapon.
The knife was distributed free of charge to attendees at a local Las Vegas Shotgun/Handgun Outdoor trade show known as the "Shot Show." Information on the knife includes the following: "Tactical Letter Opener" Arizona Precision Mold, Inc. www.az-precision.com 480-539-1999.

Legal Issues

Officers on routine patrol around midnight noticed a group of people around the sidewalk in front of a house in a “known drug area.” When the officers approached the group, the defendant reacted nervously, walking from the group toward the house and then back.

One of the officers had dealt with the defendant previously during “domestic calls” and on an occasion when the man “climbed in the window to the next door before that house burned.”

The officer asked the defendant for identification, and then frisked him for weapons. He later testified that “due to [the defendant’s] actions, being nervous, [the officer] felt for [his] safety, and…went ahead and did a protective pat down on him for weapons.”

During the frisk, a crack pipe was discovered in the defendant’s pants’ pocket. After arresting the defendant for possession of the pipe, the officer searched the defendant incident to the arrest and found cocaine, for which the man was charged.

The defendant moved to suppress the contraband, claiming that the detention and search violated the Texas and United States Constitutions. The trial court denied the motion, and the defendant appealed.

Holding: A warrantless search is considered per se unreasonable, but there are exceptions to the warrant requirement. An investigative detention is justified when specific and articulable facts lead to the reasonable conclusion that a suspect may be associated with a crime.

A pat-down search, or frisk, of a detained suspect may be conducted when the officer “reasonably suspects he is dealing with an armed and dangerous individual.” The degree of suspicion needed to frisk a suspect is not certainty or probable cause, but “whether a reasonably prudent person in the same circumstances would be warranted in the belief” that the person is armed and dangerous.

In this case, the officer saw the defendant and others gathered at around midnight in a yard in a neighborhood known for drug activity. The man seemed nervous, but there was no evidence that he made any furtive gestures or attempted to flee when he saw the officers approaching.

The State contended that the defendant’s walking to and from the group was evasive behavior, or attempted flight. The suspect never walked away without returning, though, and even if he had walked away, that would not have created reasonable suspicion.

“One has a right to leave when approached by officers unless the officer has reasonable suspicion of criminal activity before approaching. Leaving cannot supply the missing articulable facts justifying suspicion.”

There also was no evidence that anyone in the group was seen committing a criminal act. The officers were not dispatched to investigate reported criminal activity; in fact, neither officer testified that he had ever arrested anyone in the area for drug dealing.

While the officers had some prior contact with the defendant regarding “domestic calls,” there was no reason to believe that the defendant had any dealings with drugs or was violent. The fact that the area might have been a high crime area alone does not create reasonable suspicion, any more than does a person acting nervous.

The totality of circumstances control whether a detention and frisk are justified. The circumstances in this case consisted of no more than a gathering of persons in a yard at midnight in a drug area, and the nervous behavior of one of the group.

The officers’ observations did not give rise to reasonable suspicion, and the search was illegal. The contraband should have been suppressed.

COMMENT: In the conclusion of its opinion, the court observed, “Given their economic status, some families cannot afford to live in places other than high crime neighborhoods. To hold that their gathering outside at night, walking to and fro, and becoming nervous when police approach justifies a search of their person is to further injure them for circumstances beyond their control.” Davis v. State, No. 07-00-0544 (Tex. App. – Amarillo, 10-11-01).

From the Chaplain

Ten Commandments for a Long and Peaceful Life

1. Thou shalt not worry, for worry is the most unproductive of all human activities.
2. Thou shalt not be fearful, for most of the things we fear never come to pass.
3. Thou shalt face each problem as it comes. You can handle only one at a time.
4. Thou shalt not cross bridges before you get to them, for no one yet has succeeded in accomplishing this.
5. Thou shalt not take problems to bed with you for they make very poor bedfellows.
6. Thou shalt not borrow other people’s problems. They can take better care of them than you can.
7. Thou shalt be a good listener, for only when you listen do you hear ideas different from your own. It’s very hard to learn something new when you’re talking.
8. Thou shalt not try to re-live yesterday for good or ill – it is gone. Concentrate on what is happening in your life today.
9. Thou shalt not become bogged down with frustration, for 50 percent of it is rooted in self-pity and will only interfere with positive actions.
10. Thou shalt count thy blessings, never overlooking the small ones – for a lot of small blessings add up to a big one.

How Many Do You Remember?

Designated What?

Recently an officer on a routine police patrol parked outside a local bar.

Late in the evening the officer noticed a man leaving the bar so intoxicated that he could barely walk. The man stumbled around the parking lot for a few minutes, with the officer quietly observing.

After trying his keys on five different vehicles, for what seemed to be an eternity, the man managed to find his car, which he fell into. He sat there for a few minutes, as a number of other members left the clubhouse and drove off.

Finally, he started the car, switched the wipers on and off (it was a fine dry night), flicked the indicators on and off, tooted the horn, and then switched on the lights. He moved the vehicle forward a few inches, reversed a little, and then remained stationery for a few more minutes as some more vehicles left. At last he pulled out of the car park and started to drive slowly down the road.

The police officer, having patiently waited all this time, now started up the patrol car, put on the flashing lights, promptly pulled the man over and carried out a breath-analyzer test.

To his amazement the breath-analyzer indicated no evidence of the man having consumed alcohol at all! Dumbfounded, the officer said "I'll have to ask you to accompany me to the police station, this breathalyzer equipment must be broken."
"I doubt it," said the man, tonight I'm the designated decoy."

Some Days...