Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Just another day

Last Friday, I blogged about the two big events that kept our officers occupied on Wednesday of last week: a tense standoff with an armed subject firing a high-powered rifle, and a huge full-scale exercise simulating a campus shooting.  But those were just the most high-profile of the days events.  On Thursday, I had a speaking engagement with the Leadership Lincoln fellows.  I thought it might be interesting to tell them about the events of the preceding day that did not grab the headlines. So I took along the data, as well as a few highlights from the reports. Here's the synopsis:

Last Wednesday, we responded to about 300 other events.  That's a fairly slow day for us.  Among those were 15 assaults, eight of which were domestic assaults.  Two of those assaults occurred shortly after midnight when a man came home to discover his wife in bed with another man.  At about the same time, officers responded to an assault in which a drunken man was chasing his wife around the house with a meat cleaver while she cradled the couple's 2-month old baby.

There were 10 child abuse/neglect cases on Wednesday.  In one, officers investigated a report that a parent and her friends had smoked meth in the company of four children ages 1 to 11. In another, Officer Chris Howard investigated a report of possible human trafficking.  An 11 year old girl reported that the woman posing as her mother had actually purchased her from her biological parents in Africa, as a means of obtaining refugee status, and was forcing her into all the household labor.

We investigated two death cases, one of which was the untimely death of one of our retired officers, and both of which consumed considerable investigative effort, even though there was no obvious evidence of foul play.  You cannot act on assumptions when an unattended body is discovered.

There were six missing person cases. One of those was a 14 year old boy.  This is the 8th time he has been reported missing, and he has been arrested 7 times for such crimes as shoplifting, marijuana, and skulking around inside other people's cars in the dark of night.  A 22 year old women was also missing.  She, too, had been reported as a missing person 8 times previously.  She has also been the subject of five prior mental health investigations involving suicidal ideation or suicide attempts during the sort time (3 years) she has been in Lincoln.

There were only three narcotics cases, probably because we were too busy to engage in much proactive activity.  In one, an 10 year old girl brought her mom's stash of marijuana to school and gave it to a teacher.

There were two rapes.  In one, the victim went to an apartment to do some drinking and hang out.  After passing out, she awoke to found a man engaged in an an act of sexual penetration, and it appeared that he was not the first to assault her during her unconciousness.  Although she is in her early twenties has been the victim in over a dozen assaults and three sexual assaults.  She has worked for an escort service, and advertised as a massuese on craigslist. Her drug of choice appears to be meth, as she has a felony charge pending in District Court for possession of methamphetamine.

There were 11 medical emergencies, of which nine were mental health crises, all involving either an attempted suicide or suicidal ideation that required evaluation.  Looks like that might be getting even worse.

There were also 13 parking complaints, 46 disturbances, 20 prowlers, 9 vandalisms, 16 larcenies, 20 traffic accidents,three French hens,two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.

While the TERREX exercise unfolded, and the SWAT Team performed their apex job, it was just another day at the office for the remainder of the Lincoln Police Department.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

"a man came home to discover his wife in bed with another man"
For a moment shall we consider gender.
Would the man have called police if this had been another women?
Ok readers here is the self honesty test. How many of you think this is hot? I am no Dr. Phil, but a huge portion think the man would not have called. OK
Now if a women came home and found the husband in bed with another man. NOW, how many of you think this is hot? And how many of you think the police would be called in this case?
Now, I would like to take "Professions for 200 please"
What is the odds that the man chasing the women with the baby is a meat department employee at the local food store?
My point is this, you can take all of these posted situations and make a few changes in the cicumstances and get a brand new recipe. Go ahead, bake some of your own today. I can not wait to read what you all come up with.
And a note for the critics, gallows humor is in all police departments. That is part of the way our police officers stay sane in all these crazy events.

Anonymous said...

Amazing that LPD can keep up with this workload considering how understaffed they are.

What would have happened if there was a bank robbery while all of this was going on?

Anonymous said...

Does LPD, or law-enforcement in general have a definition of what qualifies as a "high power" rifle? A quick web search implies there's no accepted definition, with enthusiasts saying -- if they were forced to -- any centerfire ammo qualifies, which basically means anything bigger than a .22LR is "high" power.

Since most rifles that aren't blackpowder or 22s are larger, is "high power" nothing more than a buzzword for the media now? Just like "assault rifle" seems to mean anything that's semi-auto?

Anonymous said...

8:28'

This has always puzzled me as well. It seems that "high-powered" is a euphemism for "center-fire", because it seems to be applied to everything from a .22 Hornet to a 50 BMG.

Grundle King said...

Actually, I believe the currently accepted definition of an assault rifle, by liberals and the media, includes anything that looks 'scary'...though a true assault rifle is a selective fire rifle i.e. has at least one semi-automatic and one automatic mode. I also get very annoyed when people say "assault rifle" based only on appearance.

As far as high-power rifles go, I've always used the rim-fire vs. center-fire distinction. Calibers like .22, .22 Mag, .17 HMR are all rim-fire, so I don't think of them as high-power, though the .17 is a zippy little cartridge.

Anonymous said...

About ten years ago I bought a Marlin Lever action rifle chambered for a .357 Magnum cartridge. Since I did a lot of reloading for my .357 Mag handguns I thought I could have a decent rifle for deer. Then I was told by a Game Warden that the .357 Mag was not acceptable for deer. Go figure. I know it did a heckuva number on a few coyotes at ranges over 150 yards.

Gun Nut

Steve said...

Deer hunting rifles used to be based on the energy level of the bullet at a specified distance (foot-pounds at the muzzle or something of that nature). Not sure how they determine legality now.

Valerie Oakleaf said...

Thank you, Chief for putting a Christmas song in my head all day!! LOL
Your blog posts ALWAYS give me a smile and this one was no exception. Thanks to your wonderful department for keeping your little corner of the world safe from the crazies (and the not-so-crazies)
~V~

Anonymous said...

"What would have happened if there was a bank robbery while all of this was going on?"

It would move to the head of the line, and many routine calls being handled by units fairly near that bank would break off that routine call and respond to the robbery. The Chief can elaborate further.

Anonymous said...

Chief, Your reference to the Christmas song is hilarious!!!! Talk about a potpourri of events...

Anonymous said...

Off topic, but did you see these depression era color photos? One is of the Grand Grocery Company which was at the NE corner of 10th and P in Lincoln.

LINK

Anonymous said...

Chief,

B1-043935 - CAR LEFT FOR REPAIR/MECHANIC USED VEH FR PERSONAL USE FOR SVRL DAYS 1998 SIL HONDA PRELUDE 2 DR, LCTD IN PARKING GARAGE

Is there some reason the block and street of the repair biz isn't listed, or did the biz owner beg that it be redacted?

Anonymous said...

" Looks like that might be getting even worse."

When you give psychotics a prescription (and trust them to not stop their meds), then put them out in society, what do you expect?

BOB MARLEY said...

I only mean it as a compliment when I say SWAT are some BAD BOYS!

Anonymous said...

How could one person make all this up? Do you have a team of writers? I thought you guys just spent all your time catching speeders on East A St. Nada.