Summer 2004
OPOA NEWSLETTER
Vol 30 No. 3 ~ Summer 2004
President’s Message
by Brenda George, Myrtle Creek Police Department
As the new fiscal year starts out it is also time for the OPOA membership dues to be paid, and I would like to thank all of those members, agencies, and/or associations who continually support their OPOA members by paying their annual dues for them. It is a credit to OPOA that the law enforcement community recognizes the importance and benefits of their employees being members of OPOA. We could not provide all the services we do without your support. For agencies to include memberships to OPOA in their budgets, and to provide OPOA memberships to their employees, especially during these trying times of budget cuts, is a great benefit to both the employee and the OPOA organization.
OPOA has over 1,100 memberships throughout the state, and with your continued support still maintains a high standard of training and increased benefits for their members. Part of these benefits will be shown at this year’s OPOA conference in September with a great lineup of instructors and training.
This is our 35th annual training conference. Be a part of it. Be sure to get your registrations in early. Also note that DPSST is providing 15 tuition scholarships this year to the OPOA Training Conference. In these tight times, take advantage of this financial assistance.
TRAINING
Robbery/Homicide Green River Task Force Training Seminar
The Robbery/Homicide Subchapter of the Oregon Peace Officers Association announces a homicide investigation seminar presented by members of the Green River Task Force from King County Washington.
The seminar will be held Wednesday, July 7th, 2004, at Linn Benton Community College, in Albany, Oregon. Registration is $50.00 per person (criminal justice personnel only), which includes continental breakfast, catered lunch, and refreshments in the afternoon. Seating is limited and will be on a first-registered first-served basis.
The presentations will be made by investigators from the Green River Task Force. The two primary speakers will be Detectives Jon Mattsen and Randy Mullinax. These two men served on the original task force. Other personnel from King County will also be present.
The syllabus for the day:
* History of Green River (1982 - 1990) * Det. Jensen, Sheriff Reichert and GRT
* The Evidence Review Team and DNA * The Arrest
* Projects and Paint…. * 188 days (06/93 through 12/03)
* What’s Happening Now
Make checks payable to OPOA Robbery Homicide. Mail checks and registration information (Name, Rank, Agency) to:
Detective Sally Jo Donahue
OPOA Robbery Homicide
1115 Jackson St. SE
Albany, OR 97322
For further information contact Detective Donahue at 541-917-6685.
OPOA 35th Annual Training Conference
Since 1969 the Oregon Peace Officers Association has been hosting quality training for peace officers in Oregon and Washington. This 35th anniversary conference may prove to be one of the best of the last three decades. The content this year has some valuable information and insight for all law enforcement personnel. See the session descriptions below.
The conference is co-sponsored by Chemeketa Community College who will grant college credits for those wishing to enroll, and the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training who has provided fifteen tuition scholarships to the conference.
Note that Wednesday’s hospitality time (6 to 7 p.m.) is hosted by the Robbery/Homicide subchapter. Thursday’s hospitality time (6 to 9 p.m.) is hosted by California Casualty Insurance.
Friday beginning at 5:30 is the annual OPOA awards and recognition banquet, with Lt. Col. Dave Grossman as guest speaker (tickets purchased separately). Additional details of the training conference are available on the Training/Events web page. Plan now to attend the 35th Annual OPOA Training Conference, September 29 through October 1, 2004 at Best Western-Agate Beach in Newport, OR.
Conference Sessions:
Christian Longo Homicide Investigation - Wed. 1 to 5 p.m.
(Sponsored by the OPOA Robbery Homicide Subchapter.) The session will cover an overview of the quadruple murder case from December, 2001. Discussion involves basic police investigation and problems encountered: issues with media, out of state follow-ups, prosecution, legal issues, and extradition from Mexico.
Meth Lab Recognition -Thur. 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Training covers the identification, recognition, and proper investigation of Meth labs. Classroom presentation and videos will include evidence gathering techniques, how to make meth (in a “mock” lab), and tactical meth lab entries.
Children In Meth Houses -Thur. 3 to 5 p.m.
Presentation covers dealing with children found in Meth Houses, and includes discussion on how to prosecute for child abuse.
The Bulletproof Mind: Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The bulletproof Mind helps build your mental muscle for winning in deadly confrontations–and surviving the aftermath. You’ll learn how the body responds to lethal combat, what happens to your blood flow, your muscles, your judgment, memory, vision, and hearing when someone is trying to kill you.
Douglas County Major Crimes Conference
Douglas County Sheriff’s Office announces that the 6th annual Douglas County Major Crimes Conference is scheduled for December 7th through December 10th, 2004, at the Seven Feathers Resort in Canyonville, Oregon. This conference has grown each year in size and scope since 1999, offering a variety of both general and specialized training. Last years conference hosted over 170 attendees representing agencies from 21 different counties in Oregon, 2 counties in California, 2 in Washington, along with attendees from Iceland and the United Kingdom.
This years agenda is still in the planning stage, and you can have input with the planning committee by dropping us suggestions. Just e-mail us kamcclai@co.douglas.or.us. This is a great training and networking opportunity. We have a complete venders hall that you won’t want to miss.
Each year the conference hosts a doorprize raffle. The raffle has always been a hit. Last year two lucky people walked away with gift certificates for brand new Glocks. This year we want to try for three, and a tactical Kimber .45 on Friday!
As in the past, tuition will include all lunches and refreshments during the breaks. Early registration per person $175.00. After November 5th, 2004, $195.00.
Watch for our conference link at www.dcso.com. Hope to see you in Douglas County in December.
DIRECTORY
2004 Oregon Criminal Justice Directory Available
Each year OPOA updates a definitive resource for law enforcement and criminal justice practitioners in Oregon and adjoining states. The 2004 Oregon Criminal Justice Directory lists local, state and federal agencies as well as courts, corrections, and large corporation security agents. There are nearly 200 pages of addresses, contacts and phone numbers. For police departments and sheriff’s agencies the directory provides pertinent information on the size of the agency and population served.
The directory is bound in an eight inch vinyl three ring notebook. The cost for binder and pages is only $15 (plus $3 for packaging and shipping). If you have the binder from last year, the new pages (shipped shrink wrapped) are only $12 plus $3 shipping and handling.
The directory is a valuable tool for investigators and administrators who need to work across agency lines, and throughout the state. Order multiple copies and save on shipping and handling charges. ($3 postage and handling for orders of up to 5 books, or sixty cents per book for orders of more than 5.) See the Merchandise web page to place an order.
AWARDS
OPOA Annual Awards Program
The Oregon Peace Officers Association presents awards to law enforcement personnel who have performed exemplary deeds or services on behalf of their communities during the previous year. Anyone can nominate a potential recipient for an award in any of the listed categories. Nominations will be reviewed by a committee made up of Oregon peace officers, and awards approved for those circumstances meeting the criteria. Awards are presented to the recipients at the OPOA Annual Awards Banquet in conjunction with the OPOA Annual Training Conference.
Awards may be presented in any of six categories. Awards are open to any working police officer, telecommunicator, reserve, corrections officer or others employed by a law enforcement agency. The incident must have occurred in Oregon. The recipient need not be a member of OPOA. On-duty as well as off-duty incidents will be considered.
OPOA specifically solicits awards nominations from Chiefs, Sheriffs or other agency and department heads. Nominations containing the written endorsement of the officers department are preferable. This year the awards banquet is in September. For complete criteria for each of the awards visit the Awards web page.
FEATURE ARTICLES
From the Property/Evidence Subchapter
“Officers Bomb Evidence Locker?”
This headline did not appear in the local paper, but it could have been in a Massachusetts newspaper last March. In Lake Oswego a citizen found a suspicious looking object, picked it up, drove to the police department and was going to turn it in as found property. An astute records clerk recognized it as a dangerous object and called a supervisor. The city hall building was evacuated and the Bomb Squad came and detonated what they confirmed as a “live” device categorized as “very unstable!”
The disturbing issue is this is not an isolated incident. Officers did indeed place a bomb in city hall in Fitchburg Massachusetts. Several years ago a Portland Officer picked up what he described as a bundle of road flares “with a fake fuse stuck in them” and took them to the property room, only to find out that they were six sticks of dynamite. Training today covers many areas. But don’t trust your training alone - listen to your instincts: If it looks dangerous call the ordinance disposal folks who have a safe way to handle it. And be careful for the sake of those who have to handle and care for the evidence locker. They don’t like surprises on Monday morning either. Police personnel are killed by many things. Let’s hope our own mistakes are not counted among them.
Police Keep Bomb Overnight
By Milton J. Valencia
WORCHESTER TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
Tuesday, March 2, 2004
Edition: NORTH, Section: LOCAL NEWS, Page B1
FITCHBURG — A small explosive device similar to a pipe bomb was left in the police station overnight, until higher-ups realized it needed to be detonated and called in the Massachusetts State Police bomb unit. The device was detonated on the first floor of the police station, under sandbags.
Police Chief Edward F. Cronin said the device — a 6-inch-long copper tube with a wick protruding from it — was considered harmless at first. He said its strength was similar to a firecracker, and speculated that it was made by a hunter who would have used it to scare birds. “It didn’t have any capability to do structural damage,” the chief said.
Still, the chief said the state police bomb unit was called in to detonate it for safety reasons. The unit would not move the device and detonated it in police headquarters. Sgt. Glenn C. Fossa said a passer-by found the device Sunday while in the area of Flat Rock Road and Prospect Street. The person brought it to police headquarters at about 4:10 p.m. Sunday, and the responding officer made a report.
The officer thought nothing of the device, considering it “harmless,” the chief said. The bomb was left in the police evidence room until the officer responsible for checking that room noticed it and questioned if it should have been left there. Chief Cronin called the incident a mistake, and asked residents who find such devices to leave them where they are and call police. Police will respond to the scene and take appropriate action, the chief said. Sgt. Fossa said members of the state police and a special agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating where the device came from.
[reprinted by permission]
Resource Management
by Analysis Officer Richard Karman, Portland Police Bureau, Retired
In this time of tightening budgets and increased responsibility, a task has been overlooked that is absolutely necessary if public safety agencies are going to allocate and justify additional resources to handle the additional load. This task is resource management!
In the 1960s it was anti-war protests, race riots, and civil disobedience. These were met with LEAA money for equipment acquisition and personnel funding. In the 1970s drug use was recognized as the leading causative factor for career criminals and LEAA funding dried up, but the Integrated Career Criminal Apprehension Program (ICCAP) funded Crime Analysis Units in order to apprehend and prosecute career criminals. In the 1980s ICCAP was pretty much forgotten, but the crime analysis techniques were applied to the regional drug enforcement task forces and the crime-specific task forces like auto theft, organized crime and gang enforcement. Most of us remember the 1990s when Community Policing was the buzz word. It was funded by COPS grants and hiring incentives, but they came with a heavy price tag of community accountability and involvement.
Looking back it isn’t difficult to see that each decade has added new responsibilities. Although there were some Federal moneys available at first, when the money dried up the responsibilities stayed with us. Gangs, Drug Enforcement, Community Mandates, Public Accountability, all were added to the ever-growing role of law enforcement. These almost pale by comparison to what were added in the last eight years: Identity Theft, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and External Reviews.
The same old song, “We simply need more officers” is falling on deaf ears. Federal money with almost unrealistic requirements, will only fund new officers for a brief time before the agencies are expected to absorb the cost. Many grants do not provide equipment for the new officers. Airports, dignitary protection, and “heightened security” measures are draining our overtime budgets and taxing the personnel and experience of many of our agencies. Time doesn’t wait. The swell of hiring in the early 1970s is now resulting in a mass exodus (retirement) of experienced officers, administrators and investigators. We are asking a young workforce to handle more with less money and less experience.
Additionally, these young officers are facing a staggering increase in the number of premeditated assaults on police personnel. No longer is an ambush or a life-threatening attack on an officer an isolated incident. In the United States these attacks have taken dozens of officer’s lives in the last 4 to 5 years.
So what resources do we need to meet this challenge? Maybe we do need more officers, but without additional officers, we still need better equipment (Kevlar headgear could have saved at least 10 officers last year alone), better training (criminals are actively trying to “kill a cop” and if they can’t do that let’s “sue a cop”), better communications (the 800 megahertz trunking system is overcrowded to the point of being deadly), and better supervision (some agencies have given up on the span of command just to get all the radio calls answered). None of these are going to be handed to us on a silver platter. Police agencies will have to fight for them; they will have to justify them; they will have to manage them.
Resource management is nothing new. Industry uses it every time they make a financial decision. They look at three things: capitol outlay, human resources, and return on investment. For the last forty years this has been belittled by law enforcement: “We aren’t making wiggets. You can’t measure us with a profit and loss statement.” Police managers and Sheriffs have to change the way they are thinking; change the way they are planning, and change the way they are managing. Additionally, law enforcement has to change the way it presents its needs. How, what, when , and to whom will these presentations need to be made? Police administrators need to combine pages from industries budget training manual, with the automated data collection (common in most dispatch centers) and crime analysis techniques available to all agencies, and make resource management a lifeline for support if we are to request, analyze and justify our resource needs.
If you can’t measure it, you can’t analyze it. If you can’t analyze it, you can’t manage it. If you can’t manage it, you can’t justify it. If you can’t show that you wisely manage what you have, you certainly won’t be listened to when you ask for more. Pick your battles. Pick your audience. Plan your strategy. This class will take a close look at how you view your resources and how you can manage them in the years to come. That’s what resource management is all about.
[Analysis Officer Karman served 28 years for the Portland Police Bureau and was information analyst for chief bureau administrators for 12 years. The preceding was the introduction to an 8 hour training session: Resource Analysis and Justification, given by the author to administrators and supervisors from 12 criminal justice agencies at a training held at Milwaukie PD. Officer Karman can be reached at dick@karmans.net]
