Sleepless in Midland

New gunboats for the Texas border

Ahoy, maties. Be you friend or foe sailing these rivers?

OK, they probably won't participate in Talk Like a Pirate Day. However, the Texas Department of Public Safety will be cruising the rivers. They recently showed off the "J.D. Davis," a new gunboat which they say will patrol the waters marking the Southern Texas border. The video shows three 300 horsepower Mercury outboard motors powering the thing, and automatic weapons stick out quite impressively. KHOU.com says this:

The $580,000 shallow water interceptor can patrol in just 12 inches of water and is the first of a planned fleet of six such vessels comprising the newly-created Highway Patrol Tactical Marine Unit.

A similar report can be found at KXAN.com.

It's a sleek looking vessel, and those three motors should really make it move.  Hey ordinance experts, is that a Saw mounted up there?

Dancing cop directing Christmas traffic

What could be better than a dancing cop directing traffic? A dancing cop directing traffic in a Santa hat!

Just in time for Christmas, it's Tony Lepore, the dancing cop of Providence, RI, shaking his bootie, strutting his stuff, and keeping the traffic flowing. Youtube link.

How to tell if someone is lying

It's almost a joke.  Goes like this:

Guy says to gal, "You're lying."
She says, "No I'm not."
Gal say to guy, "You're lying."
He says, "How did you know?"

So how does one tell when another is lying? A UCLA professor named R. Edward Geiselman has been studying this topic and has come up with some things interrogators could watch for as clues the interrogatee may be lying. Here are few of his tells, straight from the UCLA Newsroom article.

• When questioned, deceptive people generally want to say as little as possible. Geiselman initially thought they would tell an elaborate story, but the vast majority give only the bare-bones. Studies with college students, as well as prisoners, show this. Geiselman's investigative interviewing techniques are designed to get people to talk.

• Although deceptive people do not say much, they tend to spontaneously give a justification for what little they are saying, without being prompted.

• They tend to repeat questions before answering them, perhaps to give themselves time to concoct an answer.

• They often monitor the listener's reaction to what they are saying. "They try to read you to see if you are buying their story," Geiselman said.

• They often initially slow down their speech because they have to create their story and monitor your reaction, and when they have it straight "will spew it out faster," Geiselman said. Truthful people are not bothered if they speak slowly, but deceptive people often think slowing their speech down may look suspicious. "Truthful people will not dramatically alter their speech rate within a single sentence," he said.

• They tend to use sentence fragments more frequently than truthful people; often, they will start an answer, back up and not complete the sentence.

• They are more likely to press their lips when asked a sensitive question and are more likely to play with their hair or engage in other "grooming" behaviors. Gesturing toward one's self with the hands tends to be a sign of deception; gesturing outwardly is not.

• Truthful people, if challenged about details, will often deny that they are lying and explain even more, while deceptive people generally will not provide more specifics.

• When asked a difficult question, truthful people will often look away because the question requires concentration, while dishonest people will look away only briefly, if at all, unless it is a question that should require intense concentration.

Professor Geiselman, who sells training programs to law enforcement personnel, thinks police departments don't provide enough interrogation training. However, he does give away a few free tips, as follows:

• Ask open ended questions and encourage the interviewee to talk,

• Keep asking for more details, and

• Ask them to tell their story backwards -- from the end to the beginning -- to induce cognitive overload.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

No refusal Labor Day weekend

The local paper calls it "no-refusal" weekend. But the politically correct phrase is Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over. The "or" implies sober drivers won't get pulled over, however each of us can draw on our own experiences to decide whether that's the case. But the catch phrase probably sounded a lot more palatable to the focus group than "forced needle stick."

The no-refusal process is a fast track to an involuntary blood draw in which a Judge or Justice of the Peace is on call to sign a warrant against anyone refusing to blow. They had one in Houston earlier in the year, and here's a writeup of a cop car ride-along, including a description of the field sobriety test.

Speaking of field sobriety tests, we can't leave this without a link to Clementine Johnson of Reno 911 demonstrating the dance version of the field sobriety test, which in that case, resulted in a confession.

Party hard and drive sober.

Grab 'n Run caught on video

This is from the Midland, Texas, Police Department Youtube channel. Link. The thumbnail on the right shows the guy at about the 0:26 point in the video.  The thing he stole was at the far end of the shelf, and he stood there staring at the object of his affection for nearly 15 minutes.

Theft at Cash America Pawn
From: MidlandPD  | Aug 26, 2011

The Midland Police Department needs your help in identifying a suspect who committed a theft at Cash America Pawn, located at 3200 N. Big Spring St.

The offense occurred at approximately 12:00 p.m. on August 6, 2011. The black male suspect seen in this surveillance video took a Sony Playstation 3 and then fled out the front door.

If you have any information on this suspect please contact Detective Fraley at 432-413-7469. If you would like to remain anonymous you may contact Midland Crime Stoppers at 432-694-TIPS or 1-800-7-LOCKUP or even submit a tip online at http://midlandcrimestoppers.com.

(Psst. The store could use some high resolution surveillance cameras placed at eye level.)

FBI's 40 faces quiz

Readers of this blog probably seldom waste their time. But this being Friday afternoon here's a neat little face recognition quiz that might make the next few minutes go faster. It's a collage of 40 faces -- from Ma Barker to Mark Felt to Fox Mulder -- people who were hunted by, served as, or portrayed FBI agents at one time or another.

Get the answers at Famous Faces Quiz.

Too easy for you? Try Your Hand at Cryptanalysis.

Drug smuggling submarine

On July 13 the Coast Guard spotted then intercepted the semi submersible boat loaded with cocaine in the Caribbean. The craft was built so that they could scuttle it they were spotted. So boat crew sank the ship and tried to escape in a rubber raft. Didn't work, though.

After two weeks of sonar searching, the sub was spotted suspended about 50 under water, and divers retrieved 7.5 tons of coke.

Take a look at this weird looking craft. Those pipes on top are bent like snorkels, and that was probably their source of air. Foul air and high risk. It sure must have been stuffy inside. What people will do for a few million dollars.

Links: MiamiHerald.com And Military.com.

Over land, under land, through the air, over water, under sea. What next, low orbit space craft?

Crime in the news

Case number 1: Open up, it's the FBI. Not!
Robbers claiming to be FBI agents forced their way into a home in Burbank, California, after midnight. Then they robbed the family of $20,000 cash. Link.

Lessons learned. First, law enforcement shouldn't force their way into a house until after providing authentication that they really are law enforcement officers. An armed homeowner would then know that anyone trying to force their way in without law enforcement authentication is up to no good, and reasonable defensive force would be justified.

Second, $20,000 is a bit much petty cash to have around the house. And maybe the perps knew it was there.

Case number 2: Go free until there's room at the jail.
A prosecutor in Dunkirk, France, named Philippe Muller determined that 150% of capacity is the maximum number of prisoners he will allow in the jail. So he will delay incarcerating new prisoners until there is room for them. Link.

Lesson learned. If incarceration is supposed to be a deterrent to crime. Then non-incarceration would be an incentive. Then again, maybe they are convicting too many people of trivial offenses.

What do you do if your home is invaded?

From what some say, a home burglary has a heavy psychological impact on the victims. That being the case, a home invasion must be devastating.

So what does someone do if their home is being invaded? Not long ago I asked a local police lieutenant in front of a small audience how an armed homeowner would know whether a commotion at the front door was a home invasion or the SWAT team. The answer: you don't know.

So the homeowner is faced with a serious dilemma. Shoot or surrender. And that choice is a life or death decision as the SWAT team would surely prevail, but a home invasion might be repelled.

Now I don't sit around worrying about this as the likelihood of the SWAT team assault at the wrong address is fairly remote. But it happens.

In Lufkin, Texas, the police raided the residence of Marco Sauceda, a 30 year old who, according to his lawyer, did not speak English and had the mind of a child. Apparently, a neighbor had reported an attempted burglary, so the cops barged in. Sauceda locked himself in the bathroom and refused to come out, i.e., he resisted arrest. So they charged him with resisting arrest.

The prosecutor probably argued to the jury that if they believed that he did resist arrest with the full intent to do just that, then the jury must find him guilty. The jury did convict him, but they sent out a plaintive note to the judge saying this:

“We’ve all reached a verdict. To us we feel he has been wronged. Please consider that in his sentencing.”

If there was ever a case that would justify jury nullification, this certainly seems like one, but apparently that did not occur to the jury members. And the judge slapped Saucedo with a $500 fine and sentenced him to 30 days in the slammer. LufkinDailyNews.com.

Tatts make the man

Notice to tattoo wearers: Your tattoos make you who you are. They're proof of your individuality.

They set you apart from every other human being. Don't hide them. Show them off, especially when you rob a bank --  'Die Pig Die' tattoo identifies robber.

School Shooting! (It's just a drill.)

Today at Midland Freshman High School local law enforcement agencies conducted training for a situation involving a school shooter. A drill consisted of an armed team including an EMT responding to a call, entering the building, neutralizing the shooter, and treating and evacuating the wounded. Several drills were scheduled throughout the day, and what follows is a sampling of photos snapped at the first drill this morning:

My request for an invitation to attend as "media" went unanswered.  So I had to peek through the window paparazzo style.

A young woman was hauled out on a stretcher, but she was up and around in no time.

As you can see from the 30.06 sign, the school was a gun free zone. And maybe school administrators take comfort in knowing that law abiding people wouldn't bring guns in the school.

New FBI surveillance -- prominent bloggers protected

That person climbing out of your dumpster may not be just any ordinary dumpster diver. She may be an FBI agent looking for dirt on you.

The FBI just revised the rules making it easier to conduct surveillance on citizens. Read all about it at Foxnews.com or TheAtlanticWire.com.

Dumpster diving is in there, but more threatening is the authorization to make internet searches of people without making any record of it. In the old days a person could make a request and get a copy of his/her FBI file. But with this new practice there would be no file and no trail. It's a little creepy knowing there could be unsupervised FBI stalkers out there spying on innocent people. But in practice it merely means that FBI agents can surf the net and call it work.

But here's one that should really annoy bloggers, at least those of us with small regional blogs. Spying on members of the press is considered sensitive and calls for extra supervision. However, the only way bloggers fit into this category is if they are "prominent bloggers." There's no definition, so that exception probably only applies to blogs affiliated with major newspapers.

So to the FBI agent snooping these pages, look around, have fun. Check the archives, you might find something here you like. Heck, let's meet for coffee.  Make it Starbucks.  Bring your credit card.

Nemo me impune lecessit

Nemo me impune lecessit.

That slogan was taped across badges of police officers yesterday outside the courthouse in Midland, Texas, during a 45 minute memorial service honoring slain peace officers. It translates to No one attacks me with impunity. A modern English translation might be, "They gonna get back at you, sucka," and it's got to be one of those priceless perks of a police officer's work.

I like to take pictures of people taking pictures. But the next one was a first for me.

The photo above was taken within a minute of the MRT photographer snapping a picture of the same scene which appeared on the front page of the morning paper. The MRT photographer is the bald guy in the white shirt on the far right, and his front page photo can be seen here.

Here are some thumbnails of more photos from the event.

As you can see, it was heavy with honor and ceremony.

Representative Conaway was guarded well.

The shoulder patch on the green uniform says "US Customs and Border Protection."

FBI bank robbery stats for 2010

Some interesting bank robbery statistics from the FBI--

In 2010 there were 4,997 robberies at banks, a smattering of robberies at mutual savings banks, savings and loans and credit unions, for a grand total of 5,546. Additionally, there were 57 burglaries at banks.

The total loot taken amounted to $43,016,099.07 and $8,193,065.41 (19%) was recovered.

Most of the perps were black although whites ran a very close second. The most likely time of day for a bank robbery was between 9-11 a.m. and with a slightly better chance on Friday, but not by much.

The counter at a branch office in a commercial district in a metropolitan area in California was the most likely place to get hit.

Firearms were used in 1,445 (26%) of the cases, and firearms were threatened but not observed in 2,461 (44%) of the cases.

Acts of violence were committed during 236 (4 %) of the cases. The most likely person to get injured or taken hostage was a bank employee, but the most likely person to get killed was the perp.

Bait money was used in 1,830 cases. And tear gas or dye packs were taken in 562 cases.

Finally, there were 48 armored car robberies with a haul of $12,655,586.44. Of that $1,553,988.41 (12.28%) was recovered.

See the whole thing at FBI Bank crime statistics 2010.

Blood and money, drugs and murder -- gangland West Texas

Some of us got a surprise the other day to learn that our fair city of Midland, Texas, is part of the territory of a violent gang of drug selling, gun running murderers.

The FBI issued the press release on March 9 announcing an indictment recently unsealed against 35 individuals, 16 of whom were already in custody, 12 of whom were just arrested, and 7 of whom are still at large, including Eduardo Ravelo who is on the FBI's top ten most wanted list with a $100,000 reward offered for information leading directly to his arrest.

They are all alleged to be members of a gang called "Barrio Azteca," which, according to the indictment was formed in 1986 as "Familia Azteca" in Texas prisons for the purpose of uniting inmates from El Paso and West Texas. Eventually they became enforcers and transporters of the Vicente Carillo-Fuentes drug organization of Juarez, Mexico.

Barrio Azteca's gangland was said to include the cities of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua City, Mexico; El Paso, Midland, and Odessa, Texas; and areas of New Mexico from Sunland Park through Las Cruces.

The 57 page indict makes for shocking reading. See it for yourself at Google docs if for no other reasons than to see the quantity of drugs involved.

For example, on pages 16 and 17 they talk about various instances in 2006 and 2007 in which gang members were in possession of 18 pounds of heroin, 82.75 kilograms of cocaine, 47 pounds of marijuana, 10 kilograms of cocaine, 150 pounds of marijuana, 100 pounds of marijuana, 4 kilograms of cocaine, 3 kilograms of cocaine, and on and on.

Among the charges there's a RICO conspiracy (Count 1), conspiracy to possess and distribute heroin, cocaine and marijuana (Count 2), conspiracy to import heroin, etc., (Count 3), conspiracy to launder money (Count 4), conspiracy to kill someone in a foreign country (Count 5), murder (Count 6), murder (Count 7), murder (Count 8), murder (Count 9), murder (Count 10), murder (Count 11), and finally, obstruction of justice by burning a car used in a murder (Count 12).

Some of the gang leaders may have been conducting business while in prison as some of the conspiracy allegations involve mail and telephone communication with individuals in the free world. A "kite" was someone, possibly using a fake name and address, who might send or receive letters from incarcerated gang members to try to avoid law enforcement detection. Sometimes the gang would call a meeting of key members so that orders from an incarcerated capo could be read.

Loyalty to the gang was paramount and superior to loyalties to God, country, family, or friends. A "green light" was authorization by the gang leaders to commit murder. "The target of a particular order may be a fellow BA member, blood relative, friend, or other associate of the person who is given the order."

Not very nice folks.

It must have taken much hard work and many man/woman hours to pull together the evidence for this indictment. Our hats go off to the law enforcement officers who helped bring it about, and they deserve every accolade they are sure to receive for their work.

Not to make light of that accomplishment, but somewhere I read -- can't find it now -- that the gang has about 2,000 members. And as long the illicit drug industry is so lucrative it won't take long for others to step into the jobs vacated by those arrests.

Top Ten Most Wanted Texas Fugitives

Here's a list of the Texas Department of Public Safety's top ten most wanted fugitives. See if you can spot something that ninety percent of them have in common.

1. Gaspar E. Loya, III
2. Rene Morales Munoz
3. Javier Morin, Jr.
4. John Junior Godinez Pesina III [Captured]
5. Gwen Komahcheet
6. Ricardo Zuniga
7. Robert Barrera, Jr.
8. Javier Cortez, Jr.
9. George Feliz Deleon
10. Leeroy Suarez
Link.

Did you spot it? Anyone who guessed "Hispanic Male" would be wrong. The DPS has bent over backward to avoid even a hint of ethnic profiling. Every one of these guys is a "White Male" with the exception of number five who is "American Indian Male."

Open Sesame -- Ali Baba and the garage door opener

There was an interesting news release from the Midland, Texas, Police Department the other day. Seems there have been some burglars working the NW part of town this month looking for unlocked cars in driveways with garage door openers in them. They use the openers for what they were intended, then they raid the garages. In one case they took a car for a joy ride.

A 2008 study tried to categorize burglars. They studied the criminal careers of 456 burglars finding the mean age to be 38.50. They put them into four categories with the mean age for class one, "young versatile" offenders at 35.26 making up 57.7% of the whole group. Other classes were class two, "vagrants" at 21.4%, class three,"drug oriented" at 14.8%, and class four, "sexual predators" at 6.1%.

Never mind the academics.  The gut says our garage door perps are young non-working men driving around in the wee hours looking for opportunities to make easy money possibly to get high. But it says something favorable about our educational system. Someone had to figure out this method of operation.  Maybe they didn't learn the three Rs in school, but they learned how to think creatively.

The news release contained some helpful advice:

Residents are urged to double check that their cars are locked before going to bed, and to secure their garage door openers, especially if they have a rear entry garage and park a car outside of the garage, in the driveway.

Sleep tight.

Why would someone confess to a crime he didn't commit?

Last night the PBS Frontline show, The Confessions, was about the Norfolk Four -- four guys who had a casual association while in the Navy and who got caught up in a murder/rape investigation in Norfolk, Virginia.

The fact that makes the case unique is that all four, Derek Tice, Danial Williams, Eric Wilson , and Joseph Dick, confessed to the crime but recanted their confessions. Did they do it? Most viewers of the show probably came away believing that the homicide detective who interrogated them obtained false confessions.

So why would someone confess to a crime he/she didn't commit? If the interrogation process is long and arduous enough and it wears down the suspect, the suspect tells the interrogator what he wants to hear just to make the ordeal end. After all, if there's anything we learned from the CIA water-boarding saga it's that torture works. However, the torture victims will lie to make it stop, so it would take some skill to separate the lies from the truth. But if the interrogator is trying to prove an erroneous narrative, then all he gets is someone willing to give him what he wants.

While the Norfolk detective didn't use waterboarding, the physical ordeal of an 8 to 10 hour intense interrogation by intimidating detectives apparently wore these men down. And they repeated back the narrative they were given, rehearsing it several times to get it "right" before the recorder was turned on.

Amazingly, DNA crime scene evidence was obtained, but it didn't match the first guy, so the conclusion of law enforcement was that there was more than one perpetrator. So they kept roping in suspects for a total of seven. Charges were eventually dropped against the three who didn't succumb to the pressure to confess.

By sheer luck, the real murderer was found to be a black serial rapist named Omar Ballard whose DNA matched the evidence. He said he acted alone and didn't know the other guys. The prosecution was faced with either admitting they jailed innocent people or concocting a narrative that included the black guy. So they came up with the theory that the white guys wanted to rape and kill the girl but couldn't get into the apartment. They ran into this black guy in the parking lot, explained to him what they wanted to do, and the black guy joined up with them to break into the apartment to rape and kill the girl.

It was a bizarre theory, but the juries believed the taped confessions and convicted those who didn't take a plea bargain.

They all went to prison, Wilson was released after he served the time given, and Tice, Williams, Dick were released only after a public outcry resulted in a conditional pardon from the governor. But they are convicted felons classified as sex offenders which subjects them to all sorts of conditions. Lawyers are working pro bono to get them cleared, and no doubt there is a civil suit coming.

As for the detective who got the confessions, he's Robert Glenn Ford, and he was convicted last month of extorting thousands of dollars from criminal defendants in exchange for promises of a break in court. Source: HamptonRoads.com which adds that Detective Ford "was responsible for solving nearly 200 homicides."

It's infuriating. Every case Detective Ford "solved" should be reexamined by competent investigators independent of any Virginia law enforcement agency.

Electronic eyes and ears solve crimes

Some communities have more law enforcement cameras spying on public places than others, yet the complaints seem to have dwindled as the public has grown accustomed to them.

They may serve as a crime deterrent, but the utility of the ShotSpotter is more in detection than prevention.  Here's an example from Minneapolis

The plan consists of strategically placed microphones which pick up the sound of gunshots. The program triangulates the sound, pinpoints the location where the shot was fired, and focuses cameras on that spot.

Apparently it works. Shots were fired in Minneapolis on September 17 as a fellow was gunned down. No human witnesses came forward, but the system did its job as the cameras zoomed in and picked up the car the gunmen used for their getaway. The car's owner directed police to the suspected gunmen. See Technology cracks Mpls. homicide case. Via Slashdot.org.

So would that be enough to get a conviction if there is no other evidence? We'll have to wait for an answer to that one.  But a jury would probably want more than that to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt.

Related: A pilot program planned for Oak Cliff, a suburb of Dallas, Texas, was put on hold due to liability concerns of Oncor, the electricity distributor which owned the poles on which the microphones and camera would be attached. See Pilot project for gunshot sensors in north Oak Cliff is on hold.

Ferreting out Nuclear traitors

The Department of Justice has come under considerable criticism, and rightly so, for turning a blind eye to voter intimidation and fraud.

But they may have done something right when they nabbed a man and woman who, it is alleged, wanted to sell nuclear weapons secrets from the Los Alamos National Laboratory to agents of Venezuela.

But it was a sting by undercover FBI agents pretending to be Venezuelan spies. Here's the DOJ news release. Via NewsRealBlog.

A sting operation is a tricky thing with the sinister aspect being that they might lure someone into doing something the person might not have done without the enticement the stinger dangles in front of him. But in the field of nuclear armament we can't take chances. And hopefully a sting like this may create such a distrust of real spies that the potential traitor decides not to take the chance.

Know your neighborhood - spot crimes on a map

Crimemapping.com is a service that provides a map showing the locations where crimes have been reported in participating cities. The one for Midland, Texas, utilizes the data supplied by the MPD Crime Analysis section, and it's essentially the same map they used to post online at the city website. So it frees up the Crime Analysis folks for more crime analyzing and less mapping. And the Crimemapping map has a few more bells and whistles, like email notices when a crime occurs near the address the user registers.

Currently, only two Texas cities subscribe to the service, Midland and Fort Worth. According to a city insider it costs a couple hundred bucks a month. So expense has to be a factor for any municipality trying to watch its budget. The insider says its paid for here from funds provided by a federal grant.  (So those of us trying to be tax hawks need to direct our complaints to DC where $200 probably wouldn't cover a lawmaker's monthly lunch tips.)

In the meantime, for the security conscious citizen, a glance at the crime map can give a snapshot of the recent activity where he/she can learn, for example, that sexual assaults occurred at Midland Memorial Hospital on Tuesday and Friday last week at 10:50pm and 8:55pm, respectively. Is that a pattern? Call Crime Analysis. Stat!

A good idea for red light camera proceeds

Fortunately, our fair city of Midland, Texas, doesn't have red light cameras, although a local politician did float a trial balloon not too long ago. But while we don't have them, we can appreciate the uproar that typically follows red light camera implementation in a city.

Some people in Baytown, Texas, are fed up with them and have initiated a petition drive to get rid of red light cameras in their city. See SafeBaytown.com for details. Their premise is that if they can take away the profit it will prove that profit really is the motive.

How profitable are they? The city of El Paso made over $2 million in 2009 off of red light cameras. Source.

However, Txdot.gov says that once the expenses are paid and the camera company wets its beak, the remainder is "required to be directed to the regional trauma account and local traffic safety programs." Those traffic safety programs include "pedestrian safety programs, public safety programs, intersection improvements, and traffic enforcement." Source. Such a vaguely defined "public safety program" could eat up as much money as a municipality wanted to spend on it.

Anyway, enough of this. Onto the idea. I would love to claim it as my own, but Techdirt.com found it at Fun Theory Award Winner - Speed Camera Lottery.

It's simple. Keep the red light cameras and continue giving tickets to the drivers caught by them. But instead of putting the proceeds into the municipal pot, put it in a lottery pot. Have the cameras photograph the good drivers, too, and they would be entered into the lottery. A winner would be randomly selected, and he/she would get the pot.

It's win/win!

In the meantime, sites like GPS Angel can help keep alert drivers aware of the camera locations.

Sgt. Brian Rackow of the MPD bomb squad

If you've ever met Sgt. Rackow you know he's an open and engaging individual who is proud of his work as a Sergeant and Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) team leader in the Midland, Texas, Police Department.

The entire city was stunned yesterday to learn of the explosion and the injuries he received at the MPD shooting range and training facility. From Mywesttexas.com:

Rackow was injured just after 11 a.m. Thursday [6/24/2010] when he was removing aluminum casing from an explosive in preparation for a future training activity, [MPD Training Division Lt. Bernie] Kraft said. He remained in critical but stable condition late Thursday at University Medical Center in Lubbock, officials said.

Sgt. Rackow had a reputation for caution around explosives, so news of this incident is doubly shocking. And it drives home the point that bomb squad work is a high risk endeavor.

When the shock wore off, Midlanders no doubt reached deeply into their pockets to donate to the Brian Rackow Benefit Fund that the police officer's union set up at Community National Bank.

We'll have to wait for police and ATF reports to find out exactly what caused the explosion.

Stepping aside for a moment, here's a random observation. From a statistical standpoint the most dangerous place for a law enforcement officer to be in Midland County would seem to be the MPD shooting range and training facility.

The hit man he hired was an undercover agent

It was just up the road in Brownwood, Texas. Jeffrey Dwayne Harrison, according to the U.S. Attorney's news release, had a drug trial pending in Brown County District Judge Stephen Ellis's court. And the tactic he came up with to beat the case was to hire a hit man to rub out the judge, apparently assuming that a new judge would make a difference in his case.

The cops got a tip from a CI in March about what Mr. Harrison wanted to do, so an ATF agent went undercover and played the role of an Aryan gang member ready to do the deed for ten grand.

Mr. Harrison and the agent had a few telephone conversations, and the agent visited him in the county jail, all the while pretending to be a hit man as they made the deadly deal.

Then in one final display of theatrical talent, the agent was brought in handcuffs into the same interview room as Harrison as if he had just been arrested. Here's how that went down, according to the news release:

When the two were alone, the undercover agent asked Harrison, “did you drop the dime on me?” Harrison responded that he hadn’t and the undercover agent replied that someone had because he was caught an hour outside of town and that they’d found the body. Harrison repeated that he hadn’t said anything.

Mr. Harrison was read his rights, made a few more incriminating statements, and on June 10 he made a guilty plea in federal court to two counts of using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.

Links: U.S. Attorney's news release and GoSanAngelo.com.

Newspaper -- special prosecutor appointed for Choc Harris

Midland Reporter-Telegram's Bob Campbell reports that Judge Robin Darr appointed Brazos County District Attorney Bill Turner to "evaluate the evidence" about Midland County Constable Charles C. (Choc) Harris.

Further:

"It has to do with certification documents submitted to our office regarding appointment records," said [TCLEOSE investigator] Englert.

and

Harris last December had appointed two reserve deputy constables, Paul Paget and Mat McClure, telling Midland County commissioners that both men were certified peace officers and that he and other constables are overworked.

Mr. Campbell is leading us to presume there may have been something improper about one or more of the two reserve deputies' credentials.

A couple of years ago I obtained a copy of Choc Harris' public info page -- see below -- and at that time the TCLEOSE Open Records office had a hard working woman employed there who would reply to email requests within about an hour. But, she doesn't seem to be there anymore. So my request today may get the full ten day Open Records treatment.

Before we leave this, let's look at one more thing from Bob Campbell's report:

A TCLEOSE spokeswoman said in April that her agency's records showed Harris had earned 3,720 hours of education and 2,833 hours of training at Sam Houston State, LaSalle University and other schools during his career as constable and as a deputy here and in Pecos, Martin, Cochran and Henderson counties. ...

Well, Mr. Harris' TCLEOSE public info as of 2008 said he had 3,720 hours of education, so that number hasn't changed. However, the 2008 TCLEOSE page made no mention of LaSalle University where Mr. Harris claimed to have earned a PHD. See Choc Harris is in the news again about that. Surely Mr. Campbell didn't just pull it off of Mr. Harris' web page and attribute it to the TCLEOSE spokeswoman.

Updated 6/11/10: Good news for records junkies. In spite of a change of personnel in the TCLEOSE Public Information Office, they are still making prompt replies. My request yesterday for Mr. Harris' information page was answered this morning.

About Mr. Harris, note this ominous paragraph from the cover email:

TCLEOSE records show that no disciplinary actions of suspension or revocation have been taken on this officer’s license; however, there is a pending complaint for criminal misconduct and his license is subject to action.

Emphasis mine.  If you want to see Mr. Harris' current TCLEOSE information page in PDF,  Download CHARLES C. HARRIS 70727 . The educational portion doesn't appear to have changed since 2008, however the training hours have increased.

The 1st annual MPD Open House

The weather worked against them. With a temperature in the mid 50s, the air was coolish. The crowd was small, but their enthusiasm made up for it.

 

CSI and the SWAT team opened their trucks for inspection. The K-9 corps had a couple of rambunctious Belgium Malinois on display -- look but don't touch. A wagging tail means he's ready to bite.  Let's not confuse the canines with McGruff, the friendly crime dog. His tail doesn't wag, but he'll shake your hand. Heck, he'll give you a high-five.

 

And Sgt. Brian Rackow let delighted kids pilot the EOD robot on a successful mission to pick up a can of Orange Crush. Way to go, young man! Then there was the dunking booth.

Ya gotta love Officer Larry Woodruff, a guy willing to stand up to -- or rather take a dunk for -- a pack of strong armed, ball throwing kids aiming to drop him into a tub of water.

Over and over again he went under, and Officer Woodruff had such good humor about it. Some of the kids couldn't hurl the ball hard enough to trigger the release, so he let them walk right up and physically mash it. Down he went, laughing the whole way. Ya gotta love that guy.

Oh, and let's not forget the hot dogs. The color was a healthy pink with touches of open grill tan. Juicy with a nice mix of meat and fat, when placed on a soft bun adorned with mustard they made a rich and tasty meal.  Bon appétit.

Choc Harris is in the news again

The TV stations are teasing us with little hints that something is going on between TCLEOSE and Constable Choc Harris. Here's the link to the channel 7 report, and here's channel 9, excerpt:

The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Education tells NewsWest9 that Harris is under investigation, but would not comment on the nature of the investigation.

The last time we gossiped about Constable Harris on these pages was back in 2008 when he was running for reelection to the Precinct #2 Constable position. See Precinct 2 constable race. And you might be curious enough to glance at the post titled State of Texas vs. Theodore L. Jurgensen in which Mr. Harris' next door neighbor ended up in court facing a felony charge resulting from an argument with Mr. Harris about Mr. Harris' barking dogs.

Around the time of that 2008 election I received an anonymous tip about the possibility of resume inflation at Constable Harris' page on the Midland County website. I captured a screen shot of the site at the time, but unfortunately, I didn't get the very top where it said "Charles Choc Harris, PhD." The PhD and the references to La Salle University and La sale University have been changed for the new site. Here's the old version:

Choc holds an associate Degree from Colorado Junior College in Security Management, Bachelor of Science Degree from Sam Houston State University in Criminology, Master of Science from La Salle University Summa Cum Laude in Criminal Justice Management and A Doctor of Philosophy from La sale University Summa Cum Laude in Criminal Justice Management. He holds a Master’s Texas Peace Officer License, Certification as Peace officer Instructor, and Firearms Instructor by the state of Texas.

[Emphasis mine.]

The gist of the anonymous tip was that Mr. Harris was claiming to have earned a PhD when in fact it came from a mail order diploma mill. I cannot prove it. But I did contact La Salle University in Philadelphia and Sam Houston State University. Sam Houston verified that he got his BS there. But the registrar at La Salle University replied very quickly and unequivocally that he did not earn a degree there and that they had no criminal justice department. They helpfully suggested that Mr. Harris may have gotten the diploma from La Salle Extension University. I won't disparage that university by calling it a diploma mill, but I'll just let you draw your own conclusion from the wikipedia entry at the link.

Anyway, here's the new version of that same paragraph from Mr. Harris' web page as of today:

Choc holds an associate Degree from Colorado Junior College in Security Management, Bachelor of Science Degree from Sam Houston State University in Criminology, Master of Science from La Salle University Summa Cum Laude in Criminal Justice Management (non-accredited) and A Doctor of Philosophy from La sale University Summa Cum Laude in Criminal Justice Management (non-accredited). He holds a Master’s Texas Peace Officer License, Certification as Peace officer Instructor, and Firearms Instructor by the state of Texas.

[Emphasis mine.] Note the addition of "non-accredited." Someone must have called him on it.

There's a standard page for each peace officer licensed through TCLEOSE which is very easy to obtain.  (Download Harris' TCLEOSE page PDF from 2008.)  And Mr. Harris' page contains no reference to "La Salle" or "La sale." So he didn't use those degrees in his application. The TCLEOSE rules back in 2008 appeared to be very strict about lying to TCLEOSE, but unfortunately for voters and taxpayers, there appeared to be no rules against lying to the public.

So, I concluded at the time, it was merely a politician inflating his resume, and he didn't pad his TCLEOSE application, so no rules were violated. And I filed all this research away and went to bed.

So what is happening now? I dunno. Maybe channel 7 and channel 9 are onto something new. I guess we'll just have to wait for it.

Maryland cop pulls gun on cyclist -- crime? Speeding and video taping

This ridiculous. This Maryland law is too long in the tooth to be worth honoring.

It seems that a motorcyclist was speeding along a roadway with a video recording device in his helmet turned on. A state police officer pulled him over and drew his gun although there doesn't appear.s from the video to be any threat except a formerly speeding cyclist fully stopped.

It was captured on the cyclist's helmet cam, and that's the crime -- Video recording someone without their permission.

There's a clear case of the law being so far behind technical innovation and popular consumer products as to be totally worthless.

Here are the Youtube links:
full 3:39 video and
0:24 cop only portion.

Via Autoblog via Techdirt.

Some states eliminating speeding ticket grace zone to supplement coffers

Most drivers are under the impression that they can drive 5 or 10 mph over the speed limit and not get a ticket or at least get nothing more serious than a warning ticket.

According to an article in USA Today, some cash strapped jurisdictions are eliminating that cushion. Excerpt:

As cities and states scramble to fill budget gaps with revenue from traffic citations, "not only are the (speeding) tolerances much lower, but the frequency of a warning instead of a ticket is way down," says James Baxter, president of the National Motorists Association, a Wisconsin-based drivers' rights group that helps its members fight speeding tickets. ...

A study published last year in the Journal of Law and Economics found that police issue more traffic citations during recessions. From 1990 to 2003, counties in North Carolina issued significantly more tickets in the year following a decline in general tax revenue.

Researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and the University of Arkansas-Little Rock found that a 10% decrease in revenue growth caused a 6.4% increase the following year in the growth rate of traffic tickets.

Now that's a low blow.

Midland Police Awards Ceremony

Last week the Midland Police Department held its annual awards ceremony, and dozens of honors were bestowed on the officers who earned recognition last year.

It's worth your best

The keynote speaker was Lt. Kenny Ray of Company E of the Texas Rangers. No need for anyone else -- one riot, one ranger. Mr. Ray gave an inspiring speech to the police officers and guests as he told how he was motivated to become a highway patrolman as a kid. His older friend and mentor advised the young Kenny Ray that the profession was "Worth your best."

Mr. Ray's plan was to meet the minimum requirement for the job, then apply. But the mentor advised him to get a college degree first, so he did. After graduating from A&M, Mr. Ray worked as a county extension agent. But that childhood dream kept gnawing at him. So he became the highway patrolman he always wanted to be, and ultimately, he became a Texas Ranger.

He told the offices at the awards ceremony that whenever they got tired of working, or whenever they started feeling burned out, remember the honor that goes with the job, and remember that it is worth their best.

Now that's valor

One of the award recipients was officer Joey Garcia who earned the Chief's Medal of Valor. So what does a person have to do to earn one of these? Well, here's how Mr. Garcia earned his.

It was a hot summer night, and the alcohol was flowing at the night club where Officer Garcia worked an off duty security job. One of the bar customers got a snoot full and started acting just a little bit too belligerent toward the other guests. Officer Garcia called a cab and the sent guy home where, apparently, he stewed in his humiliation and worked up a head of steam. He came back to the bar spoiling for a fight.

Officer Garcia tried to defuse the situation, but the guy pulled a knife and struck Garcia on the head with the butt end. Mr. Garcia pulled his baton but lost it in the struggle. So here comes the brawler with the baton in one hand and the knife in another.

Well, you know the old saying, "don't bring a knife to a gun fight." Officer Garcia dispatched the attacker with two shots from his handgun. The guy died. And last week Officer got the medal of valor.