Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Hazards of the job
This Incident Report has been lightly edited to protect the identity—of the officer, that is. Where’s the OC spray when you need it?
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
You haven’t actually won
Used up the proper title previously, but we’ve had something of a rash of lottery scam frauds here lately. I’m always amazed at the people who get taken in by this, but I suppose if you make a hundred thousand phone calls, you will hit the jackpot every now and then.
Officer Rob Brenner handled an attempt earlier this month, in which the victim received a phone call notifying her that she had won $1.5 million. She hadn’t entered any lotteries, but the caller told her that she had been automatically entered just for paying her utility bills on time. Wow, who knew! All she needed to do was send the $150 processing fee to Mr. Anderson in Jamaica---no doubt the first installment.
Here’s the good part: Officer Brenner redialed the caller, and had a little chat, identifying himself as a police officer. During the conversation, the scam artist tried to talk the officer into sending the $150 on behalf of the victim-winner! Rob declined, but he did offer to go to Jamaica personally for some follow-up, if I would foot the bill for travel. I think I will pass on that.
Officer Rob Brenner handled an attempt earlier this month, in which the victim received a phone call notifying her that she had won $1.5 million. She hadn’t entered any lotteries, but the caller told her that she had been automatically entered just for paying her utility bills on time. Wow, who knew! All she needed to do was send the $150 processing fee to Mr. Anderson in Jamaica---no doubt the first installment.
Here’s the good part: Officer Brenner redialed the caller, and had a little chat, identifying himself as a police officer. During the conversation, the scam artist tried to talk the officer into sending the $150 on behalf of the victim-winner! Rob declined, but he did offer to go to Jamaica personally for some follow-up, if I would foot the bill for travel. I think I will pass on that.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Idea to share
I have a great idea to share with other police departments, but it’s not my idea. Detective Sergeant Jim Breen came up with it, and Officer Katie Flood made it happen. Here’s the story: a couple weeks ago, we busted up a burglary ring that had been quite prolific. After the search warrants were served, we had a huge volume of household goods of all kinds: clothing, jewelry, cameras, electronics, and so forth. These are obviously ill-gotten goods, but with a few exceptions we have no idea where it it all came from. We would like to get this property back to the rightful owners, and we would also like to tie these suspects to other unsolved burglaries.
The normal process of accomplishing this is a laborious process of contacting victims of similar crimes, and trying to arrange for them to come have a look at the mounds of property that we suspect is stolen. It’s incredibly time consuming, inconvenient, and inefficient for both officers and victims. Sgt. Breen asked Officer Flood if she could create a web archive of digital photos. He and his colleagues laid out some of the most-likely-to-be-identified items, and took the photos. Katie created a menu structure of categories, and tagged over 600 photos up for a web page.
About two days’ labor was involved in this, but the process of getting the goods identified has now been vastly streamlined, and there’s a terrific return on investment for this effort. Since these kinds of cases occur several times a year in agencies of our size, I thought this might be a good concept to share with other police departments who face the same daunting task from time to time.
Here’s a couple of screen shots. The URL is not published, though—we want victims looking for their property, without tempting uninvited visitors trying to claim something enticing.
The normal process of accomplishing this is a laborious process of contacting victims of similar crimes, and trying to arrange for them to come have a look at the mounds of property that we suspect is stolen. It’s incredibly time consuming, inconvenient, and inefficient for both officers and victims. Sgt. Breen asked Officer Flood if she could create a web archive of digital photos. He and his colleagues laid out some of the most-likely-to-be-identified items, and took the photos. Katie created a menu structure of categories, and tagged over 600 photos up for a web page.
About two days’ labor was involved in this, but the process of getting the goods identified has now been vastly streamlined, and there’s a terrific return on investment for this effort. Since these kinds of cases occur several times a year in agencies of our size, I thought this might be a good concept to share with other police departments who face the same daunting task from time to time.
Here’s a couple of screen shots. The URL is not published, though—we want victims looking for their property, without tempting uninvited visitors trying to claim something enticing.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Blue street map
A reader yesterday posted a comment requesting a visual representation of the private streets in Lincoln (those with the blue street signs), so here it is. Please forgive the absence of a scale bar and north arrow, I was in a hurry. The map makes the point from yesterday's post: there really are a lot of them, and the number is growing. You can click the map for a larger view.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Distracted driving
The Nebraska Legislature has been pontificating this week about the problem of distracted driving. Legislative Bill 945 advanced on a first- round vote Monday. The bill prohibits texting-while-driving: composing, sending or reading text messages, emails, web pages, and so forth while driving. My personal favorite in this category occurred three years ago. Back in May of 2007 I reported here in the Chief's Corner my observation of a driver at 9th and South Streets in Lincoln who was brushing his teeth.
Not that I'm opposed to good oral hygiene, but there sure is a lot of bad driving out there. Like everyone else it seems to me that I see a lot of lane-straddling weavers driving like ding-a-lings driving 10 MPH under the limit, only to pull up alongside and notice the driver yammering on the cellphone. And don't get me started about the aggressive driving. I hear from people all the time complaining about speeders, red light runners, tooth brushers, and big talkers. It seems to me that bad driving is epidemic.
Or is it?
Not that I'm opposed to good oral hygiene, but there sure is a lot of bad driving out there. Like everyone else it seems to me that I see a lot of lane-straddling weavers driving like ding-a-lings driving 10 MPH under the limit, only to pull up alongside and notice the driver yammering on the cellphone. And don't get me started about the aggressive driving. I hear from people all the time complaining about speeders, red light runners, tooth brushers, and big talkers. It seems to me that bad driving is epidemic.
Or is it?
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Twenty five and counting
Included in the good police work that’s been going on this week at LPD was a little case yesterday that mostly flew under the radar, because their were bigger fish to fry. Omaha’s KETV ran a short snippet about it. Officer Jason Hellmuth and Officer Matt Voss nabbed this suspect in the act just after midnight. At the 0735 lineup, Capt. Jim Davidsaver mentioned it during his briefing.
I thought the name sounded familiar. I remembered that Officer Jim Ashley sent me an email a few days ago about this man. Jim had arrested him on March 8 for driving under a suspended license. The defendant was jailed and appeared for arraignment the next day, where he pled guilty and was sentenced to a $50 fine, which he sat out in jail.
Given the fact that we arrested 2,984 people for driving under suspension last year, another one isn’t especially noteworthy. Officer Ashley sent me an email, though, because he thought the $50 fine was noteworthy, in light of the fact that this was the man’s 25th conviction for DUS. His DUS convictions are from Lancaster (17), York (4), Seward (2), Sarpy (1) and Cass (1) Counties. Needless to say, he is uninsured.
I don’t know what to do about criminals like this. Going to jail is just part of his lifestyle, and the fine is pretty meaningless if he sits it out. I’ve always thought that after a couple of DUS convictions, we should arrest the car you were driving. I don’t care if it belongs to your brother, your mother, or Enterprise—at some point it ought to belong to the people of Nebraska, so that you are relieved of the instrumentality of your crime, at least until you can drum up a new weapon.
This guy would be a good one to keep in mind if you are ever wondering whether to spend a few extra bucks on the uninsured motorist coverage.
I thought the name sounded familiar. I remembered that Officer Jim Ashley sent me an email a few days ago about this man. Jim had arrested him on March 8 for driving under a suspended license. The defendant was jailed and appeared for arraignment the next day, where he pled guilty and was sentenced to a $50 fine, which he sat out in jail.
Given the fact that we arrested 2,984 people for driving under suspension last year, another one isn’t especially noteworthy. Officer Ashley sent me an email, though, because he thought the $50 fine was noteworthy, in light of the fact that this was the man’s 25th conviction for DUS. His DUS convictions are from Lancaster (17), York (4), Seward (2), Sarpy (1) and Cass (1) Counties. Needless to say, he is uninsured.
I don’t know what to do about criminals like this. Going to jail is just part of his lifestyle, and the fine is pretty meaningless if he sits it out. I’ve always thought that after a couple of DUS convictions, we should arrest the car you were driving. I don’t care if it belongs to your brother, your mother, or Enterprise—at some point it ought to belong to the people of Nebraska, so that you are relieved of the instrumentality of your crime, at least until you can drum up a new weapon.
This guy would be a good one to keep in mind if you are ever wondering whether to spend a few extra bucks on the uninsured motorist coverage.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
By popular demand
Some anonymous armchair critic in the comments to my Tuesday post accused me of writing about technology too much. The technophobic critic wants me to blog about:
1) The details of the process are described online. The only part that isn’t is the last mile: narrowing down the long list. I use a hiring review panel of a dozen employees of all ranks. They pore over the files of the applicants who make it all the way through the tests. Then we meet together, and I decide (largely based on their advice) who moves on. We’re going to have around 600 applicants for the less-than-ten slots in our fall academy class, so it is intensely competitive. What gets you bumped? Lying on your application or in your interviews. Domestic violence. Poor physical fitness. Cheating; use of pejorative racist, sexist, homophobic language, excessive drinking, illegal drug use, thievery, poor debt management—all depending on recency, frequency and severity; bad employment history and references; mediocre academic performance. What gets you hired? High scores on the written tests and interviews; strong college education; good GPA, class rank, and ACT scores; good life experiences, such as work experience, extracurricular activities, military experience, cross-cultural experiences, volunteer and/or work experience in helping roles (i.e. mentoring, coaching, teaching, social work); special skills such as multiple language fluency, police certification, or medical training; lack of any significant negative behaviors; excellent interpersonal communication skills.
2) It is highly individual, but here in Lincoln, the private investigators and firms generally have had good reputations, and I have nothing negative to say.
3) The inter-local, mutual aid, and jurisdictional agreements and practices are strong in our neck of the woods, and we all play well together. You will find little or no conflict or overlap between the Lincoln Police, Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office, Nebraska State Patrol, UNL Police, and Airport Police.
4)
There you have it. Three out of four isn’t bad.
“1) What is the hiring process really like? What gets you bumped? What gets you hired?So, here you are:
2) Thoughts on private investigators? Shady or respectable?
3) What about jurisdictional issues with so many LE agencies around?
4) Anything but a new app, chart, table, dashboard, etc.”
1) The details of the process are described online. The only part that isn’t is the last mile: narrowing down the long list. I use a hiring review panel of a dozen employees of all ranks. They pore over the files of the applicants who make it all the way through the tests. Then we meet together, and I decide (largely based on their advice) who moves on. We’re going to have around 600 applicants for the less-than-ten slots in our fall academy class, so it is intensely competitive. What gets you bumped? Lying on your application or in your interviews. Domestic violence. Poor physical fitness. Cheating; use of pejorative racist, sexist, homophobic language, excessive drinking, illegal drug use, thievery, poor debt management—all depending on recency, frequency and severity; bad employment history and references; mediocre academic performance. What gets you hired? High scores on the written tests and interviews; strong college education; good GPA, class rank, and ACT scores; good life experiences, such as work experience, extracurricular activities, military experience, cross-cultural experiences, volunteer and/or work experience in helping roles (i.e. mentoring, coaching, teaching, social work); special skills such as multiple language fluency, police certification, or medical training; lack of any significant negative behaviors; excellent interpersonal communication skills.
2) It is highly individual, but here in Lincoln, the private investigators and firms generally have had good reputations, and I have nothing negative to say.
3) The inter-local, mutual aid, and jurisdictional agreements and practices are strong in our neck of the woods, and we all play well together. You will find little or no conflict or overlap between the Lincoln Police, Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office, Nebraska State Patrol, UNL Police, and Airport Police.
4)
There you have it. Three out of four isn’t bad.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
KU and NU
A few weeks ago, Jesse Fray, a reporter at the World-Journal in Lawrence, Kansas contacted us. He wanted to schedule an interview with me as part of a series the newspaper was writing about efforts in Lincoln to curb high-risk drinking by UNL students. Apparently two KU students died in alcohol-related incidents last year, raising this issue onto the public agenda in Lawrence.
We were happy to oblige, and Mr. Fray and a cameraman (the World-Journal and 6News are the same media organization) spent a few days in Lincoln in late February. They did several interviews with a variety of community members, and also went on a late night tag-along with Sgt. Jason Goodwin.
The resulting series of print and TV stories kicked off yesterday. From the first couple of installments, I am impressed. I will say, however, that I think we are getting more credit than is warranted. Although it is quite true that we are one of the few places in the United States that can demonstrate some progress in addressing this issue, it’s not like we don’t have plenty of our own problems. When our local coalition, NU Directions, started this project in 1998, the Harvard College Alcohol Study showed that we were well above the average in binge drinking rates. Essentially, we’ve brought that down to the average—which is still not exactly bragging material. Nonetheless, I think our broad-based and sustained approach can be instructive to other communities and campuses.
I’ve blogged on several occasions about our efforts to reduce the impact of high-risk drinking parties and unlawful activity at these parties. This is one area where our success is particularly noteworthy. I think that the main thing we can contribute to others dealing with this issue is the efficacy of engaging landlords, owners, and property managers.
Tomorrow morning at 1100 hours, I am the guest on a web chat hosted by the World-Journal. If you’re really bored, feel free to join or lurk. Somehow I’m not expecting an overflow crowd.
We were happy to oblige, and Mr. Fray and a cameraman (the World-Journal and 6News are the same media organization) spent a few days in Lincoln in late February. They did several interviews with a variety of community members, and also went on a late night tag-along with Sgt. Jason Goodwin.
The resulting series of print and TV stories kicked off yesterday. From the first couple of installments, I am impressed. I will say, however, that I think we are getting more credit than is warranted. Although it is quite true that we are one of the few places in the United States that can demonstrate some progress in addressing this issue, it’s not like we don’t have plenty of our own problems. When our local coalition, NU Directions, started this project in 1998, the Harvard College Alcohol Study showed that we were well above the average in binge drinking rates. Essentially, we’ve brought that down to the average—which is still not exactly bragging material. Nonetheless, I think our broad-based and sustained approach can be instructive to other communities and campuses.
I’ve blogged on several occasions about our efforts to reduce the impact of high-risk drinking parties and unlawful activity at these parties. This is one area where our success is particularly noteworthy. I think that the main thing we can contribute to others dealing with this issue is the efficacy of engaging landlords, owners, and property managers.
Tomorrow morning at 1100 hours, I am the guest on a web chat hosted by the World-Journal. If you’re really bored, feel free to join or lurk. Somehow I’m not expecting an overflow crowd.
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