No lack of effort

With Independence Day falling on a Wednesday, I expected the usual mayhem to be a little less intense.  From the standpoint of fireworks complaints to the police, that proved to be the case.  LPD responded to 295 such calls, from June 28 until about 5:30 AM today.  That's the lowest number since I've been counting.  The Fourth itself was still a busy day, though, with almost 400 police dispatches, about 20% above the daily average--including a homicide.

On the fire side, I had been watching LF&R activity closely, especially in light of the current drought and oppressive heat.  As the week unfolded, things were actually rather calm, with the number of daily incidents hovering around 60, compared to the daily average of 57.  It was, however, just the calm before the storm, as LF&R doubled that yesterday.  Independence Day was really hopping for the firefighters, particularly late in the evening. Medical emergencies had dominated the earlier part of the day, but after sunset, the fire runs went a little wild: 12 fire dispatches between 10:00 PM and midnight. Thankfully, no one managed to burn their house down, but it sure wasn't for lack of effort.

The most serious incident associated with the holiday was Tuesday night, when two men were seriously burned while in the process of taking apart pyrotechnics in order to remove the powder and build a bigger bang.  During my career, I can recall several serious fireworks-related injuries like this, including one kid who lost a hand, and another who lost his life.

Practitioner-initiated research

A reader of the Director's Desk corresponded off-blog with me yesterday about a certain type of firework that he and I both feel should be banned. In the email, he also sent me the link to an interesting article in Yesterday's New York Times. The New York City Fire Department is doing some investigation of its own into the dynamics of fires involving modern furnishings.

I am a huge fan of challenging the conventional wisdom, and being willing to put it to the test. I also support trying new and different things, when the circumstances are right, i.e. the risk is low, no large capital investment is needed, and there is a readily-invoked back up plan if the bright idea turns out to be a problem.

What particularly interests me in this article is that it represents practitioner-initiated research. In my view, some of the very best research in policing, firefighting, and public safety begins with ground-floor involvement from the practitioners. When the police officers or firefighters help to frame the research questions, develop the methodology, and interpret the results I feel you get a better research product, and I absolutely know that you are more likely to have the results incorporated into practice.

Unusually effective

The Mayor, City Councilman Jon Camp and I all received an email yesterday from a disgruntled citizen who is upset to learn that he must pay a $25 annual fee to register his residential alarm system.  He opined that the two-year old ordinance changes here in Lincoln would do nothing to reduce false alarms.  I've given several updates on this topic here on my blog before, but here is the response I sent him:

"The Mayor's Office has asked me to respond to your email about your disagreements with the City's alarm registration and excess false alarm ordinances.  Ordinances of this type are virtually universal in cities of Lincoln's size.  We have a fairly conservative ordinance, in that the cost of registration is comparatively low, the number of "free" false alarms comparatively high, and the fee for excess false alarms comparatively low.  These ordinance changes were adopted to both decrease false alarms and to place more of the cost for responding to false alarms on the users of such systems, rather than the general taxpayers.   

With respect to the impact of more restrictive false alarm ordinances in our region and in Lincoln, I can assure you these policies have made a significant difference. As a practical matter, over the past several years alarm companies have instituted procedures to verify alarms more effectively, and to provide better training and support to customers in order to avoid an excessive number of false alarms at a business or residence.  Since our peak year, The number of false alarms in Lincoln has declined by more than 2,000 per year, a 45% reduction.  The number of addresses with  five or more false alarms during a calendar year has decreased by 82%, from a peak of 242 to only 44 last year.  This has occurred despite the fact that Lincoln's population continues to grow by about 3,600 per year.  

From my standpoint, these are certainly impressive results.  Each false alarm results in the dispatch of at least two police officers, and officers are typically tied up on an alarm anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or more.  Since we respond to alarms in an emergency driving condition, there is also a risk to both the officers' safety and that of other motorists. Reducing false alarms both conserves resources and improves safety.  I regret the fact that you disagree with this public policy decision by our elected officials, but I wanted you to know why I continue to support this approach to alarm registration and excess false alarm fees. "

Morton's Fork

I'm a little concerned that a "show me your papers" bill will turn up in the Nebraska legislature again, now that this provision of Arizona's SB1070 has been upheld by the United States Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court also declared the other provisions of the Arizona law unconstitutional.  The net result is an unsatisfying predicament.  Here's what this decision means, as I read it:

1.  Arizona law enforcement officers can be required by law to investigate the immigration status of someone they lawfully detain for another offense, when the officer has a reasonable suspicion that the person may be an illegal alien. 

2.  If this inquiry reveals that the person is illegally in the United States, there is nothing the officer can do about that, because the State criminal violation for being in the country illegally has been overturned.

3. Oh, and by the way, if you detain the person too long in your attempt to comply with the requirement to investigate immigration status--a rather vague judgement call--you're going to be in trouble for violating his or her Constitutional rights (see pages 22-23 of the decision).

4. And don't forget, the provision in the Arizona law that creates a cause of action against the officer and agency by any Arizonan who believes the police are not being sufficiently diligent about investigating immigration status. That part was untouched by the decision.

What we have here is a Morton's Fork.  The police are left holding the bag.  The Supreme Court's decision is practically inviting a series of lawsuits against Arizona police officers.  Ironically, the Arizona bill was called the "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act." I've already heard a Nebraska state senator testing the waters on a similar proposition, and thus my concern.  The sensible thing to do, in my view, is to let the case law develop in Arizona and the 9th District, before dipping Nebraska's toes into this murky pool. A little more clarity for the officers on the street would be a mighty good thing.

Now, before the rant begins in the comments, let me re-emphasize:  in Lincoln, the process for every single person arrested for a crime serious enough that he or she is booked into jail includes notification to Federal authorities.  Each has his or her fingerprints and descriptors transmitted electronically to the Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement for a check against their database. That is the way it has been for a good long time.

Felony lane

The "felony lane" is the lane at a bank drive-through furthest from the teller. In recent years, the modus operandi of thieves with forged checks has increasingly included the use of the felony lane to pass checks. Here's how it works: someone steals the victim's purse at a pool, golf course, trailhead, school, or similar location by busting into a parked car. Armed with the victim's ID and checks, an accomplice driving a stolen vehicle or one with stolen plates--often donning a disguise to resemble the victim--presents a forged check in the "felony lane", sending the genuine ID along in the pneumatic tube. An alert teller at a Union Bank branch, forewarned by Union's security staff, noted the vehicle description from an earlier case yesterday at another bank. The result was this pursuit, which ended in a dramatic collision. Thank God, no one was critically injured. As noted by a witness, however, it was a matter of inches.

Emergency response vehicles

I had a public speaking engagement at a civic organization Monday, and opened the floor for questions after my presentation. One of the questions concerned why both a fire engine and ambulance respond to so many medical emergencies in Lincoln. I explained that our goal is to put an adequate number of trained personnel at the patient's side without regard to what type of vehicle they arrived in. We have 18 fire companies in Lincoln, but only 6 medic units, and those medic units are often tied up. The engine or truck is staffed by EMTs, and usually includes a paramedic, and is typically in a better position to get to the scene more quickly. We are currently experimenting with a smaller alternate response vehicle, but right now, the only ride Station 12 has to pick from is Engine 12. Fire engines have become more like general purpose emergency response vehicles, as the medical emergency workload has eclipsed the number of fire responses.

I get questions of this nature fairly often. These are sometimes mildly critical, and merit an explanation. A typical story starts like this: "Smoke was filling our house, and we called 911. In the meantime, we realized that the smoke was from burning popcorn downstairs, and we doused it in the sink just before three fire trucks, a couple of red SUVs, and about a dozen fire fighters showed up.  It caused quite the uproar in the neighborhood, and we felt really bad about causing such a scene.  I just can't understand why so many people and so much equipment had to come to something so minor.

Another version I have heard several times sounds like this: "My husband has a medical condition, and was feeling ill.  I couldn't get him out to the car, so I called for an ambulance.  Instead, a fire truck roared up the street with its lights and sirens on, follwed by the ambulance a few minutes later. There must have been seven firefighters in our living room. When they finally took him to the ambulance, all the neighbors were outside watching to show.  We were terribly embarrassed." Let me explain:

Virtually all fire and rescue departments nationwide (for that matter, worldwide) establish response protocols: plans and rules about which personnel and apparatus to send to a particular type of emergency. Lincoln's is pretty typical. These protocols often result in a lot of stuff being sent, but they are grounded in experience and research. The goal is to get an effective working force en route, based on the nature of the emergency. When the first arriving units find something different, like a false alarm or a situation that requires fewer resources, the response may be downgraded. This is an excellent video that provides a description of the role of various apparatus and responders at the scene of a working fire:

Watch for this

Coming this fall, and not to be missed.

Heroes Behind the Badge.

Yet another gun

Early yesterday morning, police officers in Petaluma, CA recovered another pistol from the cache stolen in Lincoln's largest gun burglary at Scheel's back in October, 2007. The pistol recovered way up in Sonoma County yesterday, a Kahr Arms CW .40 S&W, was discovered after a DWI arrest. It has been more than two years since any of the Scheel's guns have surfaced. With this latest recovery, 49 of the 79 stolen firearms have been accounted for, and 30 remain at large.