Sleepless in Midland

CSI 3-D: laser scanning technology for Crime Scene Investigators

This looks like a fascinating piece of equipment, if it's affordable. The Deltasphere scanner takes a digital image of a crime scene, then gaming software lets the investigator work the scene and manipulate the images. It will be like playing a game based on a true story, the players just have to solve a crime.

North Carolina State University received a grant to help build an IC-CRIME platform. Here's an excerpt from their news release:

The IC-CRIME platform will employ the latest in 3-D laser scanning technologies to virtually reconstruct and preserve crime scenes, and will be built on a game engine to enable virtual recreation of the scene. The laser scanner technology, developed by Research Triangle Park company 3rdTech, will allow investigators to accurately record room and object dimensions, as well as the placement of every piece of evidence in a crime scene. The scanners can capture millions of data points at a crime scene within a few minutes. Combined with high resolution digital photography, and other trace evidence data such as microscopic and chemical analysis of fibers, a comprehensive, permanent data record will be produced within the NC State IC-CRIME platform. The IC-CRIME platform will make the crime scene accessible to those investigators granted access, such as blood spatter and hair and fiber experts who may be located in different parts of the country. In fact, experts from around the globe will be able to be brought into crime scene virtually and collaborate effectively to prosecute a case.

Chief: "Are you playing computer games again???"

CSI tech: "Uh, yeah."

Chief: "Good."

Via Slashdot.

A Prius in the Pit

Dig a hole, and someone will fall in.

It started a couple of weeks ago when a cavity was discovered under the intersection of Garfield and Golf Course Road in Midland, Texas. Work crews have dug up and replaced much of the bad water drainage pipe. But the work is not yet finished, and currently there's a deep ditch in the intersection.

Ditch Diving -- In the predawn hours this morning a woman drove a Prius past the "Road Closed" signs, plowing through the fence into the ditch.

Try to visualize this in slow motion. The vehicle enters the hole with the right wheels still on the street. The left wheels go into the hole tilting the car to the left. The car starts to roll, and while the vehicle is almost sideways, the left front strikes a conduit in the hole. That stops the front of the car, and the rear comes over the top. The car rights itself and settles at the bottom of the ditch, upright, facing the opposite direction from which it came.

Sunk in the Sink Hole -- The driver called in the accident report herself, and she was said to have incurred minor injuries. As you can see from one of the photos, the airbag had been deployed.

Pop-up thumbnails.  Left click on a thumbnail for a larger version.

 

Police officers speculated that alcohol may have been involved.

The police firing range not open to the public -- should be

The local police shooting range is closed to the public, more on that later, but one recent Saturday the citizens who participated in latest Citizen Police Academy got to take a guided tour of the Midland Police Department shooting range where they experienced a first class facility.

There's a pistol range with electronically controlled silhouette targets that will swivel on command. Or they can be set to swivel randomly so that the target portion is exposed for a brief time to give the shooter a limited time to line up a shot.

On the day we were there an off duty police officer was sighting in his deer rifle adjacent to the pistol range, so we were very careful not to get between him and his target.

Farther down the road there's a rifle range where shooters can practice from as far away as 400 yards. Now that's a good test of a rifle's minute of angle.

All in all, the MPD firing range is a very impressive facility.

In January of 2009 the city accepted $286,000 from the federal government for range improvements. See Resolution 2009-026 in the minutes of the 1/27/09 meeting of the Midland City Council. And that money paid for a large metal storage building as well as improvements for other parts of the range.

Unfortunately, the range is closed to the pubic. And that raises some questions given the language in 10 USC 4309 which says the following:

§4309. Rifle ranges: availability for use by members and civilians

(a) Ranges Available.— All rifle ranges constructed in whole or in part with funds provided by the United States may be used by members of the armed forces and by persons capable of bearing arms.

(b) Military Ranges.— [not relevant, omitted for brevity]

(c) Regulations.— Regulations to carry out this section with respect to a rifle range shall be prescribed, subject to the approval of the Secretary concerned, by the authorities controlling the rifle range.

"Persons capable of bearing arms" -- unless some prohibition against bearing arms somehow overrides the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution, that would mean "citizens."

I prefer recreational handgun shooting over rifle shooting, so I would not likely use the MPD rifle range if it were opened to the public, but there are probably a lot of hunters around who would like to sight in their deer rifles at the MPD range just as that off duty police office was doing on the day of our tour.

Oh that federal money. So enticing. And yet so many strings attached.

Citizen Police Academy

They've had 35 of these in Midland, Texas, and the 35th Citizen Police Academy ended last night with a certificate presentation and a delicious meal at a local restaurant. The citizen academy is a public relations effort on behalf of the MPD, and for anyone interested in the workings of the police department, these courses are excellent learning opportunities. Plus free T-shirts! It was a win/win situation.

Officers from each of the departments described what they do, and they all answered questions in the most knowledgeable and cordial manner. (The organizational chart you see on the right came from the 2008 MPD Annual Report.)

There was too much material to try to summarize, so I'll just say that it was an excellent program, and every citizen should try to take advantage of this opportunity to get to know the police a little bit better.

Here's one little tidbit that may or may not be helpful to know. A SWAT team leader gave a lecture and showed some of the gear they use. And he answered questions.

Sample question: "A Midland citizen is in bed at night, he's got his handgun by the side of the bed, and he hears a commotion at the front door. If it's the police he would comply with what ever they demanded. But how does he know whether it's a home invasion or the SWAT team?"

Long answer made short: "There have been home invasions in Midland where the invaders said they were police. ... You don't know."

On a lighter note, there were plenty of power point presentations with lots of photos, among which were crime scene photos including a cadaver on a slab, a decomposing body, a severed head, and wounds too gruesome to describe. Enjoy that free meal.

NY cop: "Hey, look at this cool laser on my Glock." BAM! "Oops, sorry."

First the good news: handgun accidents are on the decline. The bad news: they still happen, often with tragic consequences.

 An off duty cop in Eastchester, NY, was showing a friend the laser sight on his Glock 9mm handgun, and he accidentally shot the friend in the throat. The friend was pronounced dead at the hospital. Link.

Police department armorers like Glocks because, among other reasons, they have fewer parts than some other brands, and many people believe they are more reliable. But, they have a light trigger pull and no manual safety. In the Eastchester case the police officer was pointing the gun at his friend, and the police officer's finger must have been on the trigger. A Glock is very unforgiving of carelessness. So adherence to gun safety rules is a must.

Let's review Richard Fairburn's Causes and cures for the negligent discharge:

1. All guns are always loaded. (Even if they are not, treat them as if they are.)

2 Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. (For those who insist “this particular gun is unloaded,” see Rule 1.)

3. Keep your finger off the trigger till your sights are on the target. (This is the Golden Rule. Its violation is directly responsible for about 60 percent of inadvertent discharges.)

4. Identify your target, and what is behind it. (Never shoot at anything that you have not positively identified.) What I mean by the term negligent discharge (ND) is, a round fired from an officer’s weapon that they didn’t intend to fire. Several factors can enter into the causation of a ND, but they almost invariably involve mishandling on the officer’s part.

Finally, the photo of the handgun you see above was borrowed from lohud.com because of the neat way their CSI crew packed up that handgun. Looks like a very efficient way to store a handgun for evidence.

Thanks to Clif Sikes, CHL instructor and MPD Crime Analysis Supervisor, for the pointer.

Good job, Sergeant Kimberly Munley

This is a hero's story.

If you hear gun fire, do you go toward it or away from it? Sergeant Kimberly Munley did something few of us could have done. But she was trained well, and she used that training to save countless lives when she charged into a gun fight and shot Major Nidal Malik Hasan who was on a killing spree at Fort Hood, Texas, on 11/5/09.

Here's the way the Statesman described it:

[Director of emergency services at Fort Hood Chuck] Medley said Thursday’s shooting began in a medical area of the Soldier Readiness Center building around 1:20 p.m. By 1:27 p.m., Munley had arrived, he said, and was outside the building when the shooter, who he identified as Hasan, emerged from the building, gun in hand.

Medley said Hasan ran toward Munley, firing at her. He said Munley returned fire with her pistol, hitting him. Munley was shot in both legs and one wrist, he said. He did not know how many times she was shot.

She entered a very dangerous situation and ended the threat. And by golly, she deserves the highest honor for that bravery. Here's more from that same Statesman article:

Munley is a civilian police officer with the Department of the Army and serves as a SWAT team member and firearms instructor for the department, Medley said. He said she joined the police force in January 2008 after serving in the Army.

Medley said the Army police department had been doing ‘active shooter training’ as a precautionary measure since the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech University in which a student killed 32 others before taking his own life.

“When you have an active shooter hurting people, our protocol is to move to the threat and eliminate it. That takes some courage and skill,” he said. “If there was a person there to respond, Kim Munley is the one we would want to be there.”

Going toward not away from gunfire is a hard thing to do. In 2007 I had the privilege of watching some police officers at an active shooter session training session -- see Active Shooter Training at PBLEA for the writeup and a link to photos. An officer explained that the training process was analogous to teaching someone to crawl, walk, trot then run. And the objective was to inoculation the officers to the unpredictability and danger of a situation so he/she could think clearly and proceed to eliminate the threat.

Clearly, Sgt. Munley was trained well, and it paid off.

And she has a personal side.  WSJ says this is Munley's Twitter site:

Name Kim Munley
Location Killeen, TX
Bio I live a good life....a hard one, but I go to sleep peacefully @ night knowing that I may have made a difference in someone's life.

I hope you slept peacefully last night Sgt. Munley, because you sure did make a difference in people's lives yesterday!

Who could have taken this handgun?

It's almost funny, but hopefully it's a hoax -- a small town police chief loses his handgun and cell phone from his car while it was being washed by prisoners.

Items like this circulate among emailers and end up posted on websites. This one was found at Criggo.com with the title "Duh!" Here's the text:

COLUMBUS -- Columbus Police Chief Billie Pickens lost a handgun and cell phone from his patrol car while it was being washed by prisoners at the local training center.

The incident occurred Friday.

The gun, a Smith & Wesson ...

It looks like a real newspaper clipping, but it could have been easily photoshoped.  And the story itself wasn't verifiable, at least with a mild search engine effort.

But there's a real lesson here. Don't leave anything of value in your car or there's a risk it won't be there when you get back.

P.S. Don't leave your handgun on top of the car either. Here's one that really did happen -- Dude, Where's my Glock (part 2).

You would have thought it was Bonnie Parker posing with that gun

A law enforcement officer is held to a higher standard than the rest of us. And that became abundantly clear when the citizens of Round Rock were mortified by the image of a good looking gal posing with a deputy's rifle on his Midland County car at Twin Peaks in Round Rock.

One head rolled, and Sheriff Painter did the right thing. Our deputies can't be scaring people in the big cities like that. But criminal charges? Good grief. Surely the people of Round Rock weren't injured that much. What next? A civil lawsuit by traumatized bystanders?

Maybe there's at least a Playboy centerfold in the waitress's future.

Links:
MyWestTexas.com;
Statesman.com;
Statesman.com w/ sarcasm;
and prepare yourself for the
Twin Peaks photo album.

Updated: Apparently cooler heads prevailed, and they won't face criminal charges.

Further, put a gold star on his pink slip if the Deputy unloaded the rifle before handing it over to the waitress. However, the rifle appears to have a magazine in it, so isn't clear whether it was loaded.

New training mantra:
This is my rifle,
this is my gun,
this is for shooting,
this is for ... getting fired!

Message for CALEA: The problem with police departments is there aren't enough dancing traffic cops

The other morning an athletic event had the local police directing traffic at several intersections. They seemed to be doing an adequate job, but there was just something missing.

The CALEA is in town conducting its periodic evaluation of the MPD for accreditation purposes, and tonight they'll be listening to public comments beginning at 7 pm at City Hall in Midland, Texas. The MPD typically gets high marks, but anyone with complaints will have the opportunity to be heard.

See No news is good news at the CALEA public hearing for a report from the August '06 hearing.

But what about dancing traffic cops? Tony Lapore is probably the best known. Here he is on a video. And I would imagine that all drivers' eyes are riveted on him as he directs traffic. (Hmmm, maybe that could be a hazard in itself. But never mind.)

They are all over the world. Here's one in Brooklyn and another one in Connecticut. There's one in Japan, and you know, they drive on the wrong side over there, so it must be tough trying to direct traffic and dance at the same time.

Since we can have so much fun with this that's probably a sign the MPD is doing a good job even if they can't dance. Here's hoping the MPD gets high marks once again from the CALEA.

Cambridge cops need cap cams and body mics

The dispute between Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley has gotten such wide spread attention that even our esteemed President Barack Obama snapped forth with a judgment on a prime time TV appearance.

Sounded like Mr. Gates dropped the H-bomb, "H" being Harvard. "Do you know who I am?" He allegedly asked, certain that a Harvard professor shouldn't have to deal with a lowly police officer even though he appeared to be a door kicking house burglar.

Sgt. Crowley seems to be holding his own, though. Listen to him explain his side of the story as he called into this radio talk show.

On that tape Sgt. Crowley said the Cambridge doesn't have a recording of the incident. Too bad. What each officer needs is a cap cam and a body mic. Surely it will occur to them after this event that whatever downside they fear doesn't outweigh the positive that could come from having a record other than a police report and "he said," "I said," hearsay.

Updated 7/28/09: Apparently, the only tapes available are the 911 call and Sgt. Crowley's call for backup. Links to recordings can be found here, as well as the transcript of Sgt. Crowley's call. Too bad they didn't have a policy of recording all citizen interactions.

Bank robbers, don't forget to update your Facebook page

There's just something about those social networking sites that really must hook users into them. Here's a fellow who robbed a bank then bragged about it on his MySpace page.

He wrote on his MySpace.com page, "One in the head $till ain’t dead!!!!!! On tha run for robbin a bank Love all of yall," federal court documents say.

Link .

The social network is the local bar, the locker room, the hair salon and everything else that once served as a place to brag and gossip.

Remember Leo Gao? See On the lam? Don't forget to update Facebook. He's the New Zealand chap who took advantage of a bank's mistaken deposit into his account and high tailed it for Hong Kong with his gal pal.  They are still on the loose, however, police may be closing in.

And now we learn that the wife of the British M16 incoming chief has plastered family photos all over her own page. See The Spy Who Loved to Wear Speedos. Although the only real harm there is probably that it made it a little easier on the tabloids and paparazzi. Her page has since been taken down -- tough luck, Smersh.

Say, have you heard about this "Twitter" thing? All the rage, it seems. Just a matter of time before someone tweets a true crime confession.

Midland Police Department Awards Banquet

The MPD handed out awards last week at its annual awards banquet. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can link to at the city's website, and although the 3/29/09 print edition of the Midland Reporter-Telegram did have a couple of photos along with a partial list of the award winners, it isn't online.

Judge John Hyde gave a very touching opening address in which he told the audience that today's law enforcement officers face more danger than they have ever faced in the past. He began his talk by describing a quaint 1958 Norman Rockwell painting of a nine year old child sitting on a stool at a lunch counter talking to a police officer. Fast forward, and the times they were a' changing.

Judge Hyde described four cultures: the question-everything culture taught in colleges, the free love movement, the drug culture, and the anti-war movement all converging about ten years later around the time of the 1968 Democratic convention. That nine year old kid had experienced quite a bit by the time he reached 19. And those influences are still being felt today.

Later when asked jokingly if he gave that same speech to the defense side of the bar he said yes, basically the same speech. Defense lawyers have a job to do and that's to provide the best defense he/she can for the defendant. Due process is a fundamental component of our legal system, and it's important that the defense attorney makes sure it is upheld. And that might not be as easy as it seems as sometimes a criminal defendant may not be the most likable person in the room.

Then to the awards. People in each department received an award for stellar work, and then my favorite part, the award for Citizen Appreciation. The building boom the city has experienced brought with it a boom in theft of building supplies. Theft is a difficult crime to solve unless the thief is caught in the act. In this case a sting operation was put into effect, and four local merchants provided lumber and supplies to capture criminals. Those four citizens were given the award for their contribution to this endeavor, although as you can see from the photo, only three were present that evening.

Congratulations, everyone. See you next year.

Fighting Crime

[Update and correction. A comment left by Joe Hathaway informs us that the city's news release contained some incorrect numbers in the percent change column. The table originally shown at this post has been changed by adding a new column to the right showing the correct percentage change. Most notable error was the Aggravated Assault percentage change.]

Last month the City of Midland released crime stats for 2008 including the 2007 stats for comparison, as follows:

2008 Crime stats:

Crime	2007	2008	percent	corrected pct
Murder + manslaughter	7	6	-14%	-14.3%
Sexual assault	57	64	+10.3	+12.3
Robbery	76	94	+23.7%	+23.7%
Aggravated Assault	206	255	+12.3%	+23.8%
Burglary	835	836	+0.1%	+0.1%
Theft	2630	2492	-5.2 %	-5.2 %
Auto Theft	208	158	-24%	-24.0%
Total	4019	3905	-3%	-2.8%

The biggest increase between '07 and '08 was in the Robbery category. Catching the people who committed the 2008 crimes might go a long way toward reducing the number for 2009, but other than that, there's probably little a police department can do to bring the future number down. With the local economy going into a downturn increased individual diligence in 2009 is probably in order.

The biggest decrease was Auto Theft, perhaps due to the efforts of the prevention programs of the auto theft teams. Or it might have been a result of the increasingly sophisticated auto locking systems in new cars helping to keep thieves from driving off in the family vehicle.

Burglary probably includes residential, business and vehicular burglary. And the burglary rate held steady with an increase of only one resulting in a total of 836 in 2008. So for this town of roughly 100,000 residents the probability of having been burglarized comes in at a little less than one in a hundred.

Catching the ones who have already committed a burglary might reduce the future number. But how does a police department do that? In addition to old fashioned police work, there's the possibility that DNA evidence might be useful in solving burglary cases.

A study published in the National Institute of Justice Journal last year titled DNA Solves Property Crimes (But Are We Ready for That?) reports the results of experiments in which DNA samples were collected at property crime scene, and here are some key portions from that report:

The study revealed that, when DNA was added to traditional property crime investigations:

* More than twice as many suspects were identified.
* Twice as many suspects were arrested.
* More than twice as many cases were accepted for prosecution.

The DNA Field Experiment also found that suspects were five times as likely to be identified through DNA evidence than through fingerprints; blood evidence was more effective in solving property crimes than other biological evidence, particularly evidence from items that were handled or touched by the suspect; and evidence collected by forensic technicians was no more likely to result in a suspect being identified than evidence collected by patrol officers.

Another significant finding of the unprecedented experiment — conducted in Orange County, Calif.; Los Angeles; Denver; Phoenix; and Topeka, Kan. — was that suspects identified by DNA had at least twice as many prior felony arrests and convictions as those identified through traditional burglary investigation.

The emphasis in that last sentence is mine and implies a future problem. The reason the suspects identified by DNA had twice as many prior felony arrests could be because they eventually learned from their past mistakes and adapted to avoid leaving fingerprints or other evidence typically collected in traditional investigations. So if the collection of DNA evidence becomes common practice in property crimes then the criminals will eventually adapt their behavior to that, too.

But it's expensive, and for a moderate sized community it probably should be reserved for situations involving serial burglars or high dollar losses. The NIJ report suggests the problem would be that the laboratories would be overwhelmed which would require spending money on the building of new labs. In any event, it's going to cost.

How about something cheap and easy? Study after study has shown that the "broken window theory" works. Fix the broken windows, pick up the trash, and crime rates go down. See Can the can and Breakthrough on 'broken windows'. Every city probably has a day set aside as part of the Great American Cleanup, and locally Keep Midland Beautiful has one on April 4, 2009. So there's an opportunity for all citizens to help reduce crime the easy way by cleaning up the streets in high crime areas. Can't locate a high crime area? Many cities put crime maps online; here's Midland's crime map.

The report shows that DNA collection could help capture burglars if taxpayers are willing to foot the bill. Let's apply "broken windows theory" first. Pick up trash -- toss out crooks.

Defensive Combat -- fists, feet, knives -- a pro fighter teaches police

Anything goes in this kind of fighting, at least that's the way it appears to this outsider looking in. The Mixed Martial Arts genre looks like old fashioned "street fighting" gussied up, legitimized and televised. Now it's an all out cage fight with few rules. Well, they aren't supposed to kick in the groin, hit the back of the head, bite, or continue fighting after the horn honks. That's right, no bell in this game, it's a horn.

Fans are familiar with it, and TV viewers may have stumbled upon it while channel suffering and wondered if anyone survives such a match.

Paul Buentello is a professional in the sport, and he is in town to teach a few classes. Media were invited to watch the classes he conducted for some officers of the Midland Police Department, and I schlepped in to watch, too, and snap a bunch of photos.

They hit, they kicked, and they swung at each other with rubber knives.

Officers Mollie Porter and Brad Barnes were there. You may remember them from Police Academy -- training defensive moves last August. It was a great experience watching fast, coordinated, muscular people practice techniques few of us would have occasion to see.

Mr. Buentello is an impressive fellow. He really didn't look that big in the videos I watched before going to that training session, but I suppose when heavyweights hang out with other heavyweights, no one looks big by comparison. But don't be fooled. He's tall, strong and affable, and he looks like he would be comfortable in just about any situation.

Mr. Buentello grew up in Amarillo but now lives in Austin. He was in Midland for the police training session, and the local fight club advertised a separate training session with him scheduled for today. When he leaves town he'll be headed to Amarillo to visit his mom.

It's a tough business, the fight game. It's takes a certain quality of character to even want to do this for a living. They get paid a fight fee just for showing up, and a win earns a bonus. (Not sure what kind of medical plan might be available for participants.) But it's clear you've got to be strong, quick and agile to expect a pay check in this industry.

Here are a few links: Mr. Buentello has his own website; here's his Wikipedia page; and here he is on Youtube. There's a page about him at Sherdog, and here's the newspaper article about him from the other day about his training session with the MPD.

I took almost 700 photos, but eight is probably the logical limit for any one post. It was a job picking those eight, but there they are. And needless to say, don't pick a fight with anyone you see in those photos.

A cute little Japanese Robocop

Cool robot. It's cute, and it can capture a bad guy with the best of them in a non-lethal sort of way.

Made in Japan, it's the T-34. This robot disables the target by shooting a net over it. Watch it do its thing in this video. And read about it in Scientists develop 'robocop' to capture suspects.

It's still a few years and a lot of Yen away from implementation. And it's a far cry from the Cyberdyne Systems, Series 800 Model 101, Version 2.4 (Terminator 2).  But it's a pretty good start.

(Via Link Filter.)

Odessa American shielding commenters from police

That hoax on the Odessa Police generated by Barry Cooper and his Kopbusters with the fake grow house in Odessa has certainly been an interesting story. And now there may even be a First Amendment issue.

To recap, a local preacher took a letter to the OPD. The letter provided an address of a house and said the resident of the house was growing marijuana plants and was planning on harvesting them soon. So the OPD obtained a search warrant and entered that house. That's when discovered that it was all a hoax and that they were being videotaped.

There was some controversy about the affidavit for the search warrant as the affiant identified the preacher as Terry Pierce. It turns out that the name of the preacher was Terry Pugh, according to an Odessa American article by Doug Carman. And the OPD maintains that it was a simple mistake by the officer who signed the affidavit.  (Link to a reproduction of the affidavit can be found below.)

The OPD, understandably, wants to try to identify the person who delivered the letter to the preacher.  And according to this unsigned OA article, the police have asked for information about "everyone that is responding" in the form of comments at oaoa.com about the news articles. The Odessa American declined to provide that information. Here's this from that article:

Odessa American Editor Laura Dennis said the OA will not release confidential records that indicate e-mail addresses or other information from posters who have registered on the paper's website to the OPD or anyone else.

"We tell website users that their information is confidential and that it will not be sold or given out. We will stand by that," Dennis said.

Attorney John Bussian is a First Amendment specialist and is a Freedom Communications attorney. Freedom is the parent company of the Odessa American. Bussian said Tuesday that Freedom recently successfully resisted a subpoena in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., by law enforcement asking the paper to reveal confidential data given to the paper by users who had registered on the paper's website.

"We have just resisted efforts by law enforcement officers to make the press reveal confidential data provided to us by those posting comments on our websites," Bussian said. "This is not obstructing justice it is simply asking law enforcement to make the press witnesses of last resort and to demonstrate the things required by the First Amendment before forcing us to reveal these posters," Bussian said.

Bussian said information given to the OA on the website is confidential.

Press shield laws were proposed in 2005 and 2007 in the Texas legislature, but neither bill passed into law. Media folks are saying maybe this year.

[Previously at this website: see Odessa Cops Stung and USA vs. Yolanda Jean Madden.  And for a reproduction of the affidavit for the search warrant and the letter see A 2nd look at that fake "grow house" sting on Odessa cops.]

Home invaded

According to the news report some masked men forced their way into a house identifying themselves as sheriff's officers. Audrie Palmer tells the story at Mywesttexas.com:

Midland police are searching for the group of masked men who allegedly broke into a Central Midland home early Tuesday.

The victims told authorities that three, possibly four, men wearing black masks over their faces identified themselves as from the sheriff's office before they forced their way inside the residence.

The incident happened around 3 a.m. ... The suspects then took an undisclosed amount of cash before fleeing the premises, authorities said.

Midlanders will remember the incident almost exactly one year ago when police raided a house in the early morning hours and encountered the resident with a rifle. The resident didn't survive that encounter. See When police kill. There are still some questions about that incident that haven't been answered publicly: How did the police make known their presence? Did the surviving civilian witness confirm the police version of the incident?

So now we have an incident where robbers break into a house in the early morning hours claiming to be law enforcement officers. The homeowner is in an awkward position. "Officer, may I please see your photo ID?"

The normal response for many Midlanders might be to reach for the gun unless they believe the invaders really are law enforcement officers. The challenge for law enforcement officers to make darn sure that the residents know they are real police and sheriff's officers. This might be accomplished by flashing car top lights and a bull horn announcement for the resident(s) to come outside. And most importantly, the public needs to know this procedure in advance so that they don't have to make a split second 3:00 a.m. life or death decision.

Welcome Chief Robinson

At around 2:05 pm today the Mayor and City Council affirmed the appointment of Price Robinson as the new Chief of Police of Midland, Texas, with a unanimous vote of all the council members present. It was a full house, minus two council members. The audience gave him a warm welcome and a standing ovation, and I fully concur. I predict he is going to be a great chief.

Mayor Perry said they had received a lot of applications, and they came from literally everywhere. However, Chief Robinson's application rose to the top. Courtney Bacalso has penned a nice article about Mr. Robinson for the Midland Reporter-Telegram, and a city news release provides some key points from his resume, to wit:

Robinson was one of five finalists interviewed last week.  He has served as Interim Police Chief since May 1, 2007, following the retirement of John Urby.

Robinson has worked with the Midland Police Department since 1980.  He has served as Deputy Chief from November 1, 2004, until May 1, 2007.  He began his career as a Recruit on September 1, 1980, moved to Police Officer on November 1, 1980, then to Detective on April 1, 1983, was promoted to Sergeant on March 1, 1987, and was promoted to Lieutenant on July 1, 1995.

Robinson has a Master Peace Officer certificate, received his undergraduate degree in Law Enforcement and Police Science from Sam Houston State University and a Master of Business Administration from UTPB.  He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, attended the Senior Management Institution for Police at the JFK School for Government at Harvard, and a graduate of the first Rising Star Program with the City of Midland.

Robinson also served on the Greenwood I.S.D. Board of Trustees for 15 years; as President for 13 of those years.  He represented Region 18 on the Texas Association of School Boards for five years.  Robinson serves on the Board for Teen Court, Safe Place, and PDAP.

As Chief of Police, Robinson will oversee the daily operations of the department including managing the 162 sworn officers and the 44 civilian employees.

He has served as interim chief for the past several months, so he knows what a tough job it is. There's a big staff to supervise, and he's the one who has answer to the public when something goes wrong. It's a high profile position which typically draws lots of complaints and little praise. But they've selected the right person for the job, and I feel confident he will make us proud.

City Manager names Price Robinson new Police Chief. Is it too soon to start giving advice?

According to a news release from the Midland Police Department, city manager Courtney Sharp has named Price Robinson as the new Police Chief, and that's good news for the city of Midland, Texas. Chief Robinson has been with the MPD since 1980, and having served as interim chief for the past several months surely gave him an edge. A promotion from within the department probably sits well with the MPD employees, too.

Good job Mr. Sharp, and congratulations Chief Robinson. So is it too soon to start giving the new Chief advice? Probably not, let's throw in two cents worth anyway.

I've attended a couple of MPD awards banquets over the past few years. And each time it was great to see the fine and deserving men and women of the force honored publicly.

However, here's my beef. At each ceremony there was a medal of valor or some other award given to the officer or team of officers who were involved in the killing of a civilian by the police. It seems almost routine that these killings are eventually validated by investigating authorities, so there will no doubt be those who disagree with me on this, and I respect that -- I'm only speaking for myself here. But as a civilian watching someone get an award for killing another civilian left me feeling a little bit queasy.  Yes, we want our officers to protect and serve with valor. But we also want our fellow citizens to live to see another day, and if it's a bad guy/gal, live to see his/her day in court. If the ultimate goal of a police officer is to defuse a dangerous situation, then a resolution leaving a dead civilian doesn't seem like a successful outcome and shouldn't deserve an award.

So here's my suggestion: Give an award to each officer who has NOT killed a civilian in the past year. Better yet, simply stop giving out the awards to those involved in the shooting of civilians.

I don't want to give them any ideas here, but I suppose they could address the issue by banning civilians from the awards program.

In any event, we should welcome and congratulate Chief Price Robinson.  I feel sure he will be a good chief and make us proud of the Midland Police Department.

Updated 12/17/08 re comments. The comments left on 12/17/08 are not appearing for some reason. If you left a comment and it doesn't appear here, please be patient. Here's what Typepad says:

Some users are experiencing issues with the comment form on their weblogs. We are working on this currently.

Rest assured that I value your comments whether you agree or disagree. (And on this post most seem to agree about Chief Robinson and disagree about the awards.)

A 2nd look at that fake "grow house" sting on Odessa cops

Last week we discussed the stunt that Barry Cooper and Kop Busters perpetrated on the Police Department of Odessa, Texas, when they lured the police into raiding a fake "grow house." Odessa Cops Stung was our first look at this. And it seems that Mr. Cooper and crew had been hired to bring attention to another case, specifically, USA vs. Yolanda Jean Madden, and the tactic they used to accomplish this appeared to be to try to publicly embarrass the Odessa Police Department.

Apparently we were supposed to hear about the search of the fake "grow house" and think that the OPD was ready to pounce on innocent people without probably cause. Texas law provides that a sworn affidavit setting forth probable cause is required before a magistrate may issue a search warrant, and that affidavit is public information. So now that we have a copy, a different story emerges.  See the affidavit and warrant in this PDF document.  (My scanner isn't long enough to scan legal size paper, so if it looks sliced and diced, sorry about that.)

The practical jokers didn't just set up in the fake "grow house" and wait for something to happen. According to the documents, an unsigned letter was left at the front desk of the Odessa Police Department on 12/3/2008 by a Pastor Terry Pierce. That letter was transcribed in the affidavit as "Attachment 'A,'" and here's what it said:

Attachment "A"

I'm leaving Odessa because my boyfriend is out of control. The cops only have a few days to catch him. I can't talk to the police because I have traffic warrants. He is from Ohio and is growing 80 marijuana plants in the house he rented in Odessa at 232 Lottman. There is clones to. He never leaves the house because he babysit the plants. They are almost ready so he is going to start harvest Friday morning. It takes him all day and he will leave to Ohio late this Friday night. He vent the hot air with a fan that blows out of the bedroom window ac by the front door. If you walk up to the door to pretend you are Jehovah witness you can feel the air coming from the vent and you can smell the plants. I tore a small piece of tinfoil he use to cover the bedroom windows. He doesn't know I tore it so drive by at nite and you can see the brite lights. He moved the half grown plants from Arizona to Odessa in a U Haul because his land lady got suspicious. He drives a Nissan Versa that is silver that he parks in the driveway and takes off the plates so nobody knows he is from Ohio. He knows about tap raps and will not answer the door if the police are there. He has $19,000 hidden in the fireplace but I took $1000 out to get me back home. He always keeps his money in the fireplace. He does not know I'm telling and thinks I don't know about him cheating on me. He has been growing pot for a long time and never get caught and he is getting sloppy. He will be easy to catch if the cops get him before he goes to Ohio.

Detectives went to the house, and everything appeared on the outside exactly as the anonymous letter writer described. So the search warrant was obtained, and police did indeed search the house. From the Youtube video taken by Mr. Cooper's cameras it's apparent that the police realized in short order that it was a hoax. That anonymous letter appeared to be a bald faced lie.

Some of the news reports suggested that police were considering whether charges should be brought against anyone in this case. And it would seem that the person who submitted that letter has made a false report. But here's another trick. Apparently they didn't deliver the letter to the police themselves but tricked some innocent pastor to do it for them. Sneaky, sneaky.

In any event, this certainly has been a curious case. Whether Mr. Cooper is trying to help Ms. Madden or is trying to make a point about the war on drugs, the public perception could be that he is simply trying to be mischievous. Sometimes a practical joke is so devious that the sympathy goes to the victim, and in this case the public might just very well side with the police.

Added 12/21/08:  Photo of house located at 232 Lotteman added above.

Updated 12/22/08 -- A comment left by Mr. Cooper alerts us about Doug Carman's article in the Odessa American titled Hoax Mess which reports that a pastor named Terry Pierce denied delivering the anonymous letter to the OPD. If that's true, and there is only one pastor named Terry Pierce, then one error in the affidavit is the description of how the police came to be in possession of the letter. However, based on Mr. Carman's article, no one seems to be disputing whether that anonymous letter actually exists.

The article contains this: "When asked about Pierce's role in the affidavit, Odessa Police Cpl. Sherrie Carruth said the department considered the aftermath of the raid an open investigation and refused to comment." So hopefully that investigation will uncover how the police actually obtained the letter if not who actually wrote it.

Odessa Cops stung!

Victims of the drug war fight back with publicity.

They set up a fake "grow room" with Christmas trees, and an anonymous tip brought the cops who kicked in the door only to find that they themselves were targets of a sting.

Apparently Barry Cooper set this up in an effort to expose police abuse in the drug war, and his message board gives a little more detail about this particular bust.

Here's Eddie Garcia's CBS7 report, and a here's a local open thread about it.

Hopefully there will be some video of the bust available without having to purchase Mr. Cooper's DVD. And let's keep an eye out for OPD news releases on the matter.

Added: The objective appears to have been to demonstrate how easy it is to get the police to raid a house, SWAT style, even though they lacked any real evidence. Apparently, it isn't that hard. If we have all the facts then all it took in this instance was a suspicious house and an anonymous tip.

The CBS7 news report has been posted on Youtube.

Updated: Here's the raw video from Mr. Cooper's cameras. And for my latest on the case about which they were trying to bring attention, see USA vs. Yolanda Jean Madden

Spending on law enforcement

The other day a city news release informed us that the Midland, Texas, City Council voted to accept a grant for the sum of $54,270 from the Texas Department of Transportation to be used to pay officer overtime for intersection traffic and DWI enforcement for the year beginning 10/1/2008.

I'm sure there's an official report somewhere saying that these expenditures reduce traffic accidents. But from my own observations, the biggest intersection problem is the unsynchronized traffic lights. A smooth and steady ride is the best way to either preserve our precious fossil fuels, save gasoline money, save time, or save all three. So the mandatory stop and go driving that we end up doing because of the red lights is costing us money. When I'm out and about it appears that most people obey the traffic laws anyway, and those who don't seldom cause a collision.

Now, I know that there are those who want a zero tolerance for traffic violations regardless of any risk that they may pose. But it's at least possible that the enforcements for which these type grants are directed do little more than generate ticket money for the city.

So is this where the citizenry wants its law enforcement dollars spent? Let's look at the city crime map. The map for "Last Week," which I presume means 9/14/08 through 9/20/08, can be seen below. It was taken from the city website.  Click Crime Map to see it.

Using that map I've added up some totals, and here's what I get:

6 auto thefts
3 burglaries of businesses
19 burglaries of residences
1 burglary of a storage unit
19 burglaries of vehicles
1 graffiti
1 robbery
14 vandalism
15 vandalism of vehicles.

Therefore, the two most frequent crimes, according to the map for the designated week, were burglaries of residences and burglaries of vehicles with 19 each.

So should intersection traffic control and DWI get the priority over these types of crime? I don't know, it's above my pay grade. But if I had the power to eliminate either red light running or burglaries, I would focus on the burglaries.

Arson at the Texas Governor's Mansion -- arson at GHWB house. Too similar for convenience.

Newsroom Stew links to the Dallas Morning News article. Excerpt:

Department of Public Safety officials won't say whether the men – 22-year-old David McKay and 23-year-old Bradley Crowder – are suspects in the June 8 arson, which gutted the governor's mansion. But a high-ranking state law enforcement official said Wednesday that the men, who remain in custody in Minnesota and stand accused of manufacturing Molotov cocktails for use at last week's convention, are under investigation in Texas.

These two have not been tried, and as Stew says, they are presumed innocent until found guilty. But it is interesting that investigators are looking into the connection. And if they find a connection, I hope they continue to look for similarities of the 6/8/08 fire in Austin with the arson fire at the George H. W. Bush house in Odessa on 12/27/07. (Did they return to West Texas to roast some some Xmas holiday chestnuts?) For review, see Who would do such a thing?, infra.

And as I said in Arson at the Texas Governor's Mansion - a coincidence?:

A fire at a house of historic value. A possible political motive. An accelerant on the front porch. A lot of coincidences.

Police Academy - training defensive moves

The Permian Basin Law Enforcement Academy, located at the Midland, Texas, Police Department shooting range, is currently conducting a police academy, and the graduates will most likely become police officers. There are 16 in the class, ten of whom hope to become officers with the Midland Police Department. The others have the goal of becoming law enforcement officers in Big Spring or Seminole.

On Thursday, 8/7/08, the PBLEA conducted a training session, and members of the media were invited to observe. So the local tv stations and the newspaper had cameras and reporters there, and your humble blogger was there also, snapping photos and trying to stay out of the way.

Jim Reynolds heads up the PBLEA and was very much in charge of the class, and to this observer it appeared that he had the students' full respect and undivided attention. The lesson for that afternoon, however, was a hands-on demonstration and practice using the legs in defensive tactics, and two specialists taught the class.

It would seem that the best use of legs in a defensive move would be to face the opposite direction and run like hell. But maybe that's just me.

A police officer should be able to control and defuse a potentially violent situation, so the lesson that afternoon was basically how to kick an attacker to throw him off guard and off balance. The instructor for the class was MPD Officer Brad Barnes, and he was assisted by MPD Officer Mollie Porter -- you will see them in the Photo Journal.

Mr. Barnes is not only an instructor for the MPD, he teaches these skills to the public as well. See West Texas Mixed Martial Arts for details. His assistant, Ms. Porter was a college soccer standout -- who better to teach kicking skills, eh? It's nice to know the MPD utilizes the talents an officer brings to the job.

The move taught that day involved kicking with the shin, not the foot, as the foot is too easily injured. Mr. Barnes calls the move the "Thai Kick," and if you search that phrase you could probably find some video demonstrations of the move. But in the meantime, check out this Photo Journal from the session.

Finally, you will see a cat in a couple of the photos. That's R.C., for Range Cat, and she's a very people-friendly cat and is probably a real delight to have around the range. They say she's so calm that a flash-bang can go off in a SWAT team exercise, and it doesn't even faze her. However, just after the Thursday class ended, one of the students ran up to the place where she was lying, and not realizing she was there, accidentally stepped on her. She screamed, scratched and ran off. She literally vanished, leaving behind nothing but a thin red line on the student's bare leg.

Here's hoping R.C. is OK.

When police kill

It appears as there had been a small wake on the front porch.  The photo was taken on Christmas morning, 2007,  in the front of the house where Alfredo Losoya Vela was shot and killed by police a few days earlier.

[The remainder of this entry was revised on 2/23/2008.]

It was an unfortunate event, and it was sad that Mr. Vela died.  A grand jury heard all of the evidence and ruled that the shooting by the police did not warrant any criminal charge against the police officer.

I was very upset about this shooting originally.  It was unfortunate, and I thought it should have been handled differently.  But it's over.  It's done with.   And now it's time for everyone else to get over it and move on.  If this seems unfair remember that life is unfair.  This is one of those things  that everyone is just going to have to live with.   And anyone who might think that retaliation is the appropriate response is sadly misguided.

One Hundred Grand from the Bad Boy Blast

Last month the Bad Boy Blast clay shoot fund raiser took place -- see Blasted Away at the Bad Boy Blast.  And this afternoon at a small ceremony at the CEED building Kevin Carathers of Halliburton and Lewis Woods of ConocoPhillips representing the two corporate sponsors expressed thanks to the area law enforcement offices, announced the net proceeds from the event and handed out checks to the recipients.

Last year the event brought in $62,600.  And their optimistic goal this year was $80,000.  Well, when the bucks were counted and the expenses withdrawn there remained a whopping $100,00 from what could have been the biggest fund raising clay shoot to date in the U.S.  What an accomplishment.

And Janie was there.  That's our Janie, the Midland blogger.  And if you haven't met Janie yet, you are missing out on a certain something.  She is every bit as delightful and charming as her blog.  And with her involved in the planning and execution of the Bad Boy Blast, it's no wonder the thing was so successful.

The purpose of today's event was to hand out the checks, and the Midland Police Department, the Midland County Sheriff's Office, the Odessa Police Department and the Ector County Sheriff's Office each got giant checks for $25,000.  Last year's money was used to buy guns, make range improvements and to buy radios.  And this year?  It will be up to each of the offices to do with the money as they see fit.  But check back here for some suggestions.

Active Shooter Training at PBLEA

The Permian Basin Law Enforcement Academy (PBLEA) has frequent training sessions for officers in area law enforcement agencies.  And today they conducted an Active Shooter Training session at the shoot house on the grounds of the Midland Police Department shooting range.  (Click here to see the photos.)

One of the team leaders, MPD patrol officer Brad Robertson, explained that in training for something new the steps can be analogized as crawl, walk, trot, and finally, run.  Today's session was the trot stage.  Future courses might include a medical situation, an improvised explosive device, and someone shooting back.

"Inoculation" was the buzzword in today's training session.  That's inoculation as in getting an officer accustomed to the unpredictability of a dangerous situation and the possibility of facing gunfire.  Retreat is usually the most common reaction when shots are fired.  So the trainers used blanks to help increase the level of stress in the trainees.  And if the trainee's first reaction is to hesitate, then after a few times he/she becomes as accustomed as someone can get to the idea of someone shooting at them.

The trainees were from the Midland Police Department, the Midland College Police Department, and the Department of Public Safety.  And a team might be composed of people from each of those departments who might be strangers to one another.  Then if a real event were to occur the officers from various departments would all have had the same training and could work together well, hopefully.

The MPD is currently under scrutiny from citizen groups due to the recent shooting by the police of a suspected murderer.  Officers often have only a split second to make a decision, and rightly or wrongly, sometimes people get killed.   And from the news accounts of the recent shooting death of the murder suspect, it was one of those ambiguous situations in which the officers didn't want to risk their own lives where the suspect appeared to be pointing a gun at them even though he turned out to be unarmed.

Today there were targets representing bad guys/gals and good guys/gals.  So look at the targets in the photos and ask yourself whether the person in the target is armed with a handgun.  Look at the hands.  If there's a gun pointed at you, then shoot.  If it's ambiguous, then there's a big the risk.  And there's not much time to think it over.

And finally, be sure to check out the rules on the sign in photo #4.  Rule number 3 says: "Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target."  Now scroll down to numbers 13 , 14 , 15 and 16 where you'll see those rules put into practice as Officer Robertson (gray shirt, camo hat), enters a room.  Initially he has his finger off the trigger, but when he spots the target his finger goes into the trigger guard.  Then it goes out again once the target has been neutralized.

By the way, I was standing outside looking in the window.  The red tape in the handguns indicates that the guns had been unloaded,  inspected and marked.

The Chief says "Goodbye"

Area residents had a chance to say "goodbye" to retiring Midland, Texas, Police Chief John Urby this afternoon.  Here's Tina Jauz's news release with highlights of his career:

The Midland Police Department will host a retirement party for outgoing Chief of Police John Urby. The event will take place Thursday, April 26, 2007, from 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. in the third floor conference room of the MPD. The media is encouraged to attend.

Urby’s retirement will be effective April 30, 2007, bringing an end to a 27½ -year career with the Midland Police Department.

Urby was first hired by the City of Midland as a Police Officer on August 8, 1979. He was promoted to Sergeant on October 1, 1981, to Lieutenant on January 1, 1990, and Deputy Chief on February 1, 1993. Urby was appointed Chief of Police on December 1, 1997.

During his tenure as Chief, Urby has lead the department to national recognition, remained on the cutting edge of technology, and helped to obtain increased in salary for sworn personnel. The MPD is one of 574 agencies out of 17,000 to be a nationally accredited department. In 2006, the MPD was named a Flagship Agency for the first time ever. The department is serving as a role model to other agencies. MPD’s National Night Out has been recognized for eight of the last nine years. New technology is now being used at the department including in vehicle laptops, field reporting, AVL/CAD in the works. Pay Progression for sworn employees with steps 4-9 funded and overall salaries increasing 50% since he has been chief.

Urby plans to remain in Midland while he pursues other interests.

(AVL/CAD stands for Automatic Vehicle Location and Computer Assisted Dispatch.)

Chief Urby is very well liked in the community and is held in high regard by the members of the police department.  The photo was taken on March 28, 2007, and shows outgoing Chief Urby with newly appointed Acting Chief Price Robinson.

The MPD Command Staff Letter

Twelve high ranking Midland Police Department officers sent a letter dated April 2, 2007, to Midland, Texas, Mayor Mike Canon and the members of the City Council.  It took a lot of courage to sign and send that letter, and the result for them could be either good or very bad -- there doesn't appear to be a middle ground.

Specifically, the problem they have is the way City Manager Rick Menchaca has dealt with the Police Department, and by extrapolation, the other city departments over the course of the years in which Mr. Menchaca has been City Manager.

Excerpt:

Our problem is the dysfunctional condition that exists between the Midland Police Department and the city manager's office.  The following statements we believe to be the truth based primarily on our personal observations, the culture that has developed in our organization in recent years, and to a lesser degree, on what other credible people report.  The Command Staff of the Midland Police Department has no confidence in City Manager Rich Menchaca, Assistant City Manager Tommy Hudson, or their ability to effectively lead our organization.  This has been true for a number of years.  This is a result of approximately seven years of micro-management and behavior that is both belittling and berating of Chief John Urby, and his peers )other City department heads).  Our lack of confidence is also founded on what we believe are the vindictive actions that result from a difference of opinion with the city manager.

They make a strong argument.  And one of their requests, that the City Council go into Executive Session to discuss this problem, is already in the works with an Executive Session having been scheduled to begin at 3:00 pm today.

Reports indicate that the police department is presently understaffed by 19 officers.  And the current private sector hiring boom has probably severely limited the number of potential applicants.  And people say that there are roughly 25 police officers who have worked the sufficient period time to be currently or nearly eligible for full retirement.

I think that, for the most part, police officers have accepted the bargain of getting low pay in exchange for being able to hold such a powerful and respected position.  But with the Midland Police Department employees making 8% less than the average at comparable cities -- as the recent survey revealed -- that theory can carry only so far when we expect quality police officers.

We've got quality.  The Midland Police Department has a pretty good reputation with police departments in other cities.  In fact, a few years MPD Lieutenant Jim Sevey landed the job of Chief of Police of Nacogdoches, Texas.  [Link to Nacogdoches PD.]

So we are asking a lot of our police officers.  But however much pay is an issue, it wasn't even mentioned in the letter.  The concern of the Command Staff was the unacceptable condition of working under City Manager Rick Menchaca.  Read it for yourself.

Typepad has limitations on the size of images I can show, but hopefully the JPG images will be legible.  However, the letter in PDF format should be suitable for printing if need be.   Here's a special thanks to Joe Hathaway for assistance in transforming the letter into the PDF format. Download here:  Page01.pdf , Page02.pdf , Page03.pdf and Page04.pdf

Related, see MPD Blue, infra.

MPD Blue

The room was filled with blue at the Midland City Council meeting today.  The police were there in tall numbers to support any proposal for a pay raise.

Officer Raymond Miller made a passionate plea for  a raise saying that staffing was at a crisis point with a shortage of 19 police officers.

A survey had been made of cities with a population range of 50,000 to 350,000 to compare what Midland city employees were earning in comparison with other cities. And the results presented to the Council were revealing.

Both the Fire Department and the Police Department were 8% below average.  And entry level salaries were below average in those departments and in almost all the other categories as well.  City employees will probably get a raise, but the question now is how much?  The City Council plans to study the survey and make a decision so that any raise can be initiated on May 1, 2007.

The Council planned to hold an Executive Session to discuss the complaints against various city employees, including those against City Manager Rick Menchaca.  We will have to rely on our imaginations as to what the complaints against Mr. Menchaca are as the session will be closed to the public.  But you don't have to look to far to find someone in a city administrative position who would complain that Mr. Menchaca likes to micro-manage each department.  Mr. Menchaca has his fans, one of whom addressed the Council today complaining that the policemen should have kept their complaints private rather than calling a media conference.  [See Police officers condemn city manager in the Telegram.]

The heads of the departments got their positions the hard way, by earning them.  And assuming the complaints about the micro-managing are true, one has to question whether Mr. Menchaca's decisions are better than those of all of the department heads.

One thing that has brought this controversy to the attention of the rest of us is the announcement of the retirement of Police Chief John Urby.  The prevailing view is that he has done a terrific job as Chief, and he is very well liked by the citizens of Midland and the rank and file of the MPD.  However, there was speculation that he resigned because he got fed up with having to deal with Mr. Menchaca which was brought to a head in a disagreement over the punishment of a police officer.   [See Chief Urby Explains Why He is Retiring at CBS-7.]  The unidentified police officer's infraction involved the internet circulation of a video shot from a police car camera.  [See the video on Youtube here or here.]

But the Chief is a classy guy, so he certainly wouldn't go public with a reason like that.  [See City manager, chief deny rift cause of retirement.]  Chief Urby has been eligible for retirement for a few years, and he has said in speeches that he could retire at any time.  So we shouldn't be too surprised that he finally decided to do it.  But we also shouldn't be surprised if we later learn that Mr. Urby has landed a plum law enforcement position in another city.

The Policemen's Ball

The Police Department held it annual awards banquet on March 28, 2007.  The event was open to the public for a whopping $3 ticket price.  So it was too hard to pass up, and here are a few highlights.

I'm always impressed with citizen involvement, especially at the volunteer level.  And there were a pair of Citizens on Patrol volunteers who received an award for having logged in 900 patrol hours during 2006 and having helped apprehend car thieves, burglars and beer thieves.  Hey, give THEM a raise!

There were five retirees who were scheduled to receive a Medal of Service.  But only two of them showed up to get their medals.  Frankly, I don't know what to make of that.  Are they burned out so much by the time they reach retirement that they don't want anything else to do with the PD?  Maybe this relates back to the pay issue.

Finally, if you like a good story then here's the payoff for having read this far.  The most dramatic presentation was to a police officer for something that happened in September of 2006 in which he ended up fighting for his life.

It happened early one morning when the officer pulled over a car in a residential neighborhood.  The driver took off running, and the officer chased the guy on foot to a fence.  The guy started climbing the fence, and the officer drew his gun and yelled at him to stop.  The guy turned around and charged the officer.  A fight ensued between a 230 pound guy and a 130 pound police officer.  The guy grabbed  the gun, but the cop held on for dear life.  The gun discharged three times, and the third bullet struck the guy in the head killing him.  For the newspaper account, see Midland man dies in officer-involved shooting in the Telegram.

On March 28 the police officer received a Medal of Valor and a standing ovation.