The Inquisitr » police

Kid rings police after parents confiscate Xbox

Chris Greenhough — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:25 +0000

True (and depressing) story: some little sod from Illinois has called 911 on his parents after they punished him by taking away his Xbox 360. Ugh.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the boy hung up before the emergency call was complete, so officers were sent to the address in case something of actual importance was happening. It probably didn’t look like the scene above. I hope it didn’t look like the scene above.

After the cops arrived, El Brat asked an officer whether his parents had the right to swipe his precious Xbox. The cop replied that yes, they do, and advised him to listen more to his parents.

They then drove off, their time thoroughly wasted by this little ingrate. Hopefully a slipper is connecting with his ass right … about … now.

[The Chicago Tribune, via GamePolitics]

Young girl sells her toys to buy police dog’s bulletproof vests

Steven Hodson — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:50:27 +0000

This is a young girl with more heart than some people I have known.

Kayleigh Crimmins of Newport News might be young but she sure seems to have a plan to try and make sure that police dogs have the same protection that their police handlers do. To do this she has been selling her toys on Craigslist and using the money to buy canine bulletproof vest which she then donates to police departments who need them.

Her most recent purchase will be going to a Newport News sheriff’s department police dog named Vader.

There was round of applause at Tuesday night’s Newport News city council meeting for a local girl taking action and getting results.

Kayleigh Crimmins has been raising money to buy bullet resistant vests for police dogs.

This one will go to a Newport News sheriff’s department K-9 called Vader.

This is the fifth one she has bought with money from selling her toys on Craigslist.

“I think she is amazing I think she is determined I think she loves dogs, and there’s no end to this she’s made that very clear,” says Kayleigh’s mother Lee.

Source: WTKR.com News

Kayleigh has also started a new project called Cans for K-9’s to help raise more money.

Arambula family sues after cop shoots homeowner, not intruder

Kim LaCapria — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:46:59 +0000

Tony Arambula is suing the police department in Phoenix, AZ for nearly $5.8m after an officer accidentally shot him, twice.

Officer Brian Lilly fired a total of four rounds at Arambula while responding to reports of an intruder in the Arambula home. The Phoenix PD released a statement yesterday acknowledging the mishap on September 17th of last year:

“…after entering the residence, one of the officers mistakenly shot the armed home owner.”

The press release goes on to say that the “department has been honest and forthright from the very onset of this incident. No attempt has been made to conceal the truth or the facts surrounding it.”

On the night of the shooting, Arambula and his wife say that they placed a 911 call, reporting that Arambula had cornered the intruder and was holding him at gunpoint. When officers arrived, his wife Lesley described the situation as such. Police entered and announced themselves, and Arambula was immediately shot in the back by Lilly. When he fell, he was shot at three more times and hit once again, in the arm. Lilly admitted to firing without warning.

Arambula says that he did everything he was supposed to in the situation:

“I would have loved if they would have told me to get on the floor and drop to my knees,” Arambula said. “To not have given me any opportunity to not get shot, it’s confusing. I pray that this never happens to another family.”

Former police officer sues for discrimination over his “alcoholism disability”

Duncan Riley — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:11:05 +0000

A former Sarasota, Florida police officer is suing for discrimination after he was fired from his job after repeatedly turning up to work hung over.

Sgt. Clinton Knowles claims that the Sarasota Police Department discriminated against under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1992 on the grounds that “alcoholism [is] a recognized disability or handicap.”

Local media obtained a copy of Knowles’ internal investigation report, which included Knowles harassing and man-handling a pair of women at a local bar, and being regularly unavailable to perform his duty as a member of the S.W.A.T. team.

The law might be partially on his side, as the Americans with Disabilities Act states that a person who is an alcoholic is “protected by the ADA if s/he is qualified to perform the essential functions of the job. An employer may be required to provide an accommodation to an alcoholic.” However the Act also states that an employer can “discipline, discharge or deny employment to an alcoholic.”

The EU looking to head down Orwellian black hole

Steven Hodson — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:24:53 +0000

Under the guise of Project Indect, a five year research program that includes: Police Service of Northern Ireland, computer scientists at York University, and fellow researchers in nine other European Union countries, The EU wants to develop “automatic detection of threats and abnormal behavior or violence”.

These programs are meant to act as “agents” to monitor and process information from web sites, discussion forums, file servers, peer-to-peer networks and individual computers. The project has already received £10 million in funding from the EU and is a part of its ever expanding role in crime fighting, terrorism and managing travel of people. Already this year the EU has increased its budget in these areas by 13.5% or nearly £900 million.’

This is all suppose to help develop what the European Commission is referring to as a “common culture” of law enforcement to be developed across the EU over the next five years.

According to the official website for Project Indect, which began this year, its main objectives include "to develop a platform for the registration and exchange of operational data, acquisition of multimedia content, intelligent processing of all information and automatic detection of threats and recognition of abnormal behaviour or violence".

It talks of the "construction of agents assigned to continuous and automatic monitoring of public resources such as: web sites, discussion forums, usenet groups, file servers, p2p [peer-to-peer] networks as well as individual computer systems, building an internet-based intelligence gathering system, both active and passive".

Source: Telegraph Online – EU funding ‘Orwellian’ artificial intelligence plan to monitor public for "abnormal behaviour"

The program isn’t without its detractors however. Among them is Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty a human rights group, and Stephen Booth, and analyst with European think tank Open Europe.

Chakrabarti considers the massive type of surveillance that Project Indect and Adabts – the acronym for Automatic Detection of Abnormal Behavior and Threats in crowed Spaces, a separately funded program by the EU to the tune of nearly £3 million so far – are sinister steps for any country to be taking. Chakrabarti added that this type of action is absolutely chilling consider the it is to include all European Union countries.

For Stephen Booth the scale is “Orwellian” to say the least.

According to the Open Europe think tank, the increased emphasis on co-operation and sharing intelligence means that European police forces are likely to gain access to sensitive information held by UK police, including the British DNA database. It also expects the number of UK citizens extradited under the controversial European Arrest Warrant to triple.

Stephen Booth, an Open Europe analyst who has helped compile a dossier on the European justice agenda, said these developments and projects such as Indect sounded "Orwellian" and raised serious questions about individual liberty.

"This is all pretty scary stuff in my book. These projects would involve a huge invasion of privacy and citizens need to ask themselves whether the EU should be spending their taxes on them," he said.

"The EU lacks sufficient checks and balances and there is no evidence that anyone has ever asked ‘is this actually in the best interests of our citizens?’"

Source: Telegraph Online – EU funding ‘Orwellian’ artificial intelligence plan to monitor public for "abnormal behaviour"

As well Open Europe believes that all this data collected by the likes of the Project Indect could be used by a little known EU agency called the EU Joint Situation Control (SitCen) which it believes is the beginnings of an EU secret service. It has been referred to by others as “Europe’s CIA”.

a big hat tip to papa

Upset police shoot complaining fire chief in Arkansas courtroom

Steven Hodson — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 07:35:00 +0000

I realize that it’s pretty much an over worked running joke about towns whose police chief rules with and iron fist and whose coffers overflow with money raised by excessive ticketing. For the most part we associate stories like these with overblown television shows needing some sort of comic relief. That is until you come across Jericho Arkansas.

Up until recently much of the policing of this 174 person town was handled by the state police but then the town found out it could get some some grant money to form its own police force. So in the 1990’s Jericho got its own police force and the poor town hasn’t been the same since.

The town became the epitome of a traffic ticket town where Thomas Martin, chief investigator for the Crittendon State Police has said you can’t get the Jericho police on the phone because they are too busy writing tickets. It is so out of hand that 75-year-old retiree Albert Beebe got a ticket for going 58 miles per hour in his driveway.

Now before you start thinking that being such a small town it is understandable that their officer is busy all of the time it might be wise to point out that besides the police chief the Jericho police force consists of seven officers – in a town of 174 people.

Well it appears that the simmering tensions between the town residents and their police force came to a head recently as their Fire Chief Don Payne found himself in court twice in the same day to contest traffic tickets. Words got a little heated and suddenly the fire chief found himself being shot by one of the seven police officers present in the courtroom.

It was anger over traffic tickets that brought Payne to city hall last week, said his lawyer, Randy Fishman. After Payne failed to get a traffic ticket dismissed on Aug. 27, police gave Payne or his son another ticket that day. Payne, 39, returned to court to vent his anger to Judge Tonya Alexander, Fishman said.

It’s unclear exactly what happened next, but Martin said an argument between Payne and the seven police officers who attended the hearing apparently escalated to a scuffle, ending when an officer shot Payne from behind.

Doctors in Memphis, Tenn., removed a .40-caliber bullet from Payne’s hip bone, Martin said. Another officer suffered a grazing wound to his finger from the bullet.

Martin declined to name the officer who shot Payne. It’s unclear if the officer has been disciplined.

Source: Yahoo News/AP – Fire chief shot by cop in Ark. court over tickets

Since the shooting the police department in Jericho has been disbanded “until things calm down”. As well the judge, Tonya Alexander, has voided all the tickets written by the department both inside the town and others that were written outside of their jurisdiction. Alexander has also resign as judge after the whole incident.

Lie to the boss says police instead of trying to fool them

Steven Hodson — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 05:45:00 +0000

Being late can cause blood pressure to rise, encourage all sorts of road rage, and generally get you in trouble with the police. So in order to make your life a little smoother the traffic police in London, Ontario Canada, have some suggestions for drivers.

Wit the addition of a few props and some imagination Sgt Tom O’Brien suggests the following ideas that could eliminate the stress of being late or possibly endangering the lives of those around you.

Go to the junk yard, get an old “flat” tire, throw it in the trunk or back seat and before entering the office, rub your hands all over it to offer evidence of your struggle to change a tire.

Dab just a little amount of gasoline on your hands, then blame your significant other for leaving the vehicle “empty” and forcing you to push the car to the nearest gas station, or walk with a gas can.

Same excuse as above but you had to call a tow truck because the gas station was too far away.

Have a pair of pants with the knees torn out of them to explain that on the way to work you saw someone pushing their vehicle and while helping them push you slipped, scraped your knee, ruined your pants and had to return home to change.

Buy a realistic arm cast, keep it in the glove box, slip it on — presto instant hospital visit.

Source: Ottawa Sun – Police tell drivers to lie to their bosses

Sgt. O’Brien says that while the police don’t normally encourage people to lie but if it means safe road travel then by all means stock up on those props and excuses.

It takes 1,000 cameras to solve only one crime

Steven Hodson — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:18:51 +0000

If there is one thing that England is known for it is it Big Brother attitude about watching every move made by its citizens. In London alone there are more than a million cameras that has cost the government £500 million.

So what are the results from all this surveillance?

Well according to Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, a senor Scotland Yard officer, in an internal report out of all the crimes committed in 2008 only 1,000 were solved with the help of CCTV camera. He also wrote that CCTV only played a role in capturing just eight out of 269 suspected robbers in one month. This would seem to match up with an early report form the Home Office that cameras have had only a “modest impact” on reducing crime.

David Davis, the former shadow home secretary said it is ”entirely unsurprising” that the report highlights some shortcomings of CCTV.

”It should provoke a major and long overdue rethink on where the Home Office crime prevention budget is being spent," he said.

”CCTV leads to massive expense and minimum effectiveness. It creates a huge intrusion on privacy, yet provides little or no improvement in security.

”The Metropolitan Police has been extraordinarily slow to act to deal with the ineffectiveness of CCTV, something true both in London and across the country.”

Source: Telegraph :: One crime solved for every 1,000 CCTV cameras, senior officer claims

It would be interesting to see if this kind of effectiveness, or lack of it, that CCTV has had in other countries employing them.

Texas Police Surround Home Of Officer Held By Officer

AHN — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:59:59 +0000

Houston, TX (AHN) – Police from several different agencies have surrounded a house in a rural area west of Houston hoping to negotiate for the release of a police officer allegedly kidnapped by another police officer.

The scene at the Brookshire home of school police officer Rachel Hillsman is the latest action in a search that began early Tuesday morning and has stretched as after as the Louisiana state line. Hillsman’s alleged kidnapper is her ex-boyfriend, Julio Reyes, also a police officer with the Katy Independent School District

Hillsman, 24, has been missing since early Tuesday morning when, police said, she was taken by force from her vehicle near her mother’s home. Two children inside the vehicle, a 7-year-old and a 13-month-old child, were left unharmed inside. Reyes, 38, is father of the infant. The older child is from a previous relationship.

Investigators believe the couple may have argued the night before the kidnapping.

Officer who killed 10 year old boy given one day suspension

Duncan Riley — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:00:23 +0000

A Dallas police officer who hit a 10 year old boy on a bike while speeding to a call out without his siren or lights on has received a one day suspension.

Sr. Cpl. Michael Vaughn hit Cole Berardi in October 2008 has he rounded a blind bend doing 69 miles (110 km) per hour on an unlit section of road.

The local police force naturally isn’t taking responsibility, with a spokesman telling local media (also picture credit) before the inquiry that “It was just a dark road, not well lit…This sounds like a combination of factors that caused the accident.”

The officer driving the car received the one day suspension not for killing the boy, but for (and you can’t make this stuff up) violating policy on using lights and sirens.

Mother and children saved from fiery crash by strangers [VIDEO]

Steven Hodson — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:42:37 +0000

People are incredible especially when push comes to shove as it did when a mother and her two children, a baby and a 4-year old boy, found themselves in a burning wreck of a SUV on Sunday in Milwaukee Wisconsin. In a split second the mother found herself in a crash that was erupting into flames but as her husband said in a press conference later – there are angels all around us.

In this case it was the people who lived on the street where the crash occurred, including off-duty firefighters John Rechlitz and Joel Rechlitz as well as off-duty police officer Lt. Mark Wroblewski.

Jason Lepowski was driving down the street Sunday when a car crashed and erupted in flames. So he parked his car and ran to the vehicle to help.

“It blew up, and I was already smashing on the windshield of the vehicle because I saw the people inside,” he told CNN affiliate WTMJ.

His uncle, Jerry Lepowski who lives down the street, rushed to the scene and started filming.

Neighbors and those in the area frantically began screaming for help. Flames began to fan and tires blew as neighbors struggled to find a way to shatter the windshield and pull the three people to safety.

“We’re busting at the window because we saw everybody screaming,” Jason Lepowski told WTMJ. “We made a little hole to get the little baby out first. Then came the mother, then we were smashing out the window. We couldn’t break it.”

Then they began shouting for help.

That’s when neighbors, grabbing anything they could find, approached the car and started hammering the windshield with blunt objects including pipes.

“We’re freaking out, and then we get the windshield open,” Lepowski said.

But D.J. was still inside, trapped by a seatbelt and nobody could reach him.

“We could see the kid on fire,” Lepowski said.

Off-duty Milwaukee firefighters John Rechlitz and Joel Rechlitz assisted by off-duty Milwaukee police Lt. Mark Wroblewski raced to the scene.

Without gear, backup from emergency responders or any protection from the fire, the firefighters went inside the burning vehicle to try to free the boy.

“I saw him and I saw my son’s face. It was very emotional,” Joel Rechlitz told WTMJ.

With the help of a knife from a neighbor they were able to cut the boy free.

Source: CNN News :: Surgeon: Strangers saved life of boy trapped in burning SUV

Here is the video of the heroic efforts by some great people doing something pretty incredible – saving a mother and her children.

Police Drop Disorderly Conduct Charges Against Henry Louis Gates

AHN — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:46:22 +0000

Cambridge, MA (AHN) – Police have dropped charges of disorderly conduct against noted African-American historian and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, who was arrested last week for shouting at a police officer investigating a reported break-in at the Gates home.

The arrest was “regrettable and unfortunate,” the city and police department of Cambridge said in a joint statement released Tuesday. “This incident should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of Professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department. All parties agree that this is a just resolution to an unfortunate set of circumstances,” the two-paragraph statement concluded.

Police came to Gates’ home July 16 after receiving a report that two black men were breaking in. Gates had just returned from China and found his front door jammed, according to a statement issued by Gates’ friend and attorney Charles Ogletree. Gates asked his driver to help him force the door open.

A police officer arrived after Gates had entered the house and asked for identification, according to police. Gates showed identification but then became “very uncooperative,” the report said, and in the ensuing confrontation Gates shouted at the officer and accused him of being racist.

Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct and taken to jail, where he was released about four hours later after paying a $40 bond.

The 58-year-old Gates was named one of America’s most influential persons by Time magazine in 1997. He is director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard.

Read more: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7015855809#ixzz0LwrzrMNJ

Video: Be nice or no ambulance for you!

Kim LaCapria — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:04:40 +0000

A 17-year-old girl made the mistake of being in the middle of a terrified rant when a surly 911 dispatcher answered her call.

As her father writhed on the floor having a violent seizure, the girl panicked and dropped the f-bomb just as Officer Douchenozzle was picking up her call. Note that the profanity was not directed at the officer in question, merely that she was freaking out and swearing. Check out the video below to see what happened next.

No related posts.

Michigan police buy doughnut shop

Duncan Riley — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:10:32 +0000

Police in Clare, Michigan have decided that rather than just eat doughnuts, they should sell them as well.

The decision to buy the local doughnut shop came after the local police department heard that the shop was closing down. Given the possible rift in the space time continuum that would occur if they didn’t have a ready supply of doughnuts, they wrote a check and bought the store on the spot.

Of course a freshly purchased store needs to be staffed, and who better to staff it than their best customers…the police themselves. But it gets better according to local media, because not only are the police working in the store, they’re volunteering to do so without pay

They’ve also changed the name of the store to (wait for it)…..Cops & Doughnuts. You can even buy t-shirts from their website here.

UK Police accused of searching innocent white people to balance racial quotas

Duncan Riley — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:00:19 +0000

UK Police have been accused of stopping and searching innocent white people in an effort to balance racial quotes, a UK watchdog head has claimed.

Head of the antiterroism watchdog Lord Carlile of Berriew said in the organizations annual report that the searches were “almost certainly” illegal and that police were wasting time and money by carrying out “self-evidently unmerited searches”, which were also an invasion of civil liberties.

The Times noted that the searches came in response to a “backdrop of complaints from rights groups that the number of black and Muslim people being stopped and searched by police was disproportionate.”

Lord Carlile said that a racial imbalance in the numbers of people stopped because they fitted a terrorism profile was fine “as long as it is not racist.”

Oklahoma police abuse video finally released

Steven Hodson — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:19:54 +0000

Back a few weeks ago Patricia Phillips’ story at the Examiner.com in Oklahoma about the police officer who literally went hunting for the ambulance driver who had pissed him off. Then once he found the driver Trooper Daniel Martin proceeded to physically assault paramedic Maurice White. Unfortunately for Trooper Martin this was all caught on the dash cam in his patrol car.

Before the encounter is over, Martin has assaulted the paramedic, frightened the patient, and created a neighborhood scene that is so unprofessional that it’s just about unbelievable. Enraged, he calls for backup, repeatedly threatens the unit’s operators, curses, chokes and slams White up against the ambulance several times–an action the patient later said rocked the unit, frightening her.

He also keeps screaming "you insulted me." The trooper later says that Franks made an obscene hand gesture as Martin passed the ambulance, a charge Franks denies.

Source: Examiner.com

It took two weeks and a Freedom of Information request before the Oklahoma Highway Patrol finally relinquished a full copy of the incident. For those of you who don’t like strong language you may want to take a pass on watching the embedded video of the incident.

No related posts.

In the sky it’s Superman, no it’s a paragliding cop

Steven Hodson — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:11:30 +0000

You got to hand it to police forces around the world. they will try just about anything to make sure they can keep an eye on what the bad guys are doing – even if it is a bird’s eye view. While remote controlled flying drones are all the rage Palm Bay, Florida, police are taking to the sky using motorized paragliders.

Using specially constructed bulletproof seats they will be wearing lawnmower style motors on their backs and patrol the skies looking for bad guys doing bad things like committing burglaries, stealing cars. In addition they will be used for missing children searches.

These paragliders will come equipped with radios, camera and GPS navigation units. One of the reasons they had to switch to the paraglider idea was that their original plan for using unmanned drones was killed by the FAA due to safety concerns.

"Our agency is pretty innovative, we like to think out of the box and experiment with new ideas. The more we fly these paragliders, the more uses we’ll find for them," said Lieutenant Joe Eakins.

The $25,000 (£17,000) petrol-powered machines, purchased using proceeds from the sale of criminal assets, can fly at speeds up to 63mph and at altitudes anywhere between two inches off the ground and 18,000ft.

Lt Eakins and his colleague, Lt Mark Renkens, will generally operate at around 400ft, on the lookout for trouble below. They will also assist in search-and-rescue operations, photographing crime scenes, assessing damage after disasters such as fires and hurricanes – and even in keeping an eye out for sharks loitering off Palm Bay’s beaches

Source: Telegraph Online

No related posts.

Zapping kids with 50,000-volt stun gun isn’t good for job advancement

Steven Hodson — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:39:22 +0000

‘Take our Daughters and Sons to Work Day’ is a tradition in many places. After all what better way to have iPod listening, iPhone texting kids understand the hardships we go through each day to pay for that crap. However I think that showing them how the things you use each day at work isn’t meant to include a practical demonstration of how a 50,000-volt stun gun works – especially when you are demonstrating using your fellow workers children.

Such was the case with prison officer Walter Schmidt when he decided, apparently with the permission of the children’s parents, to give a practical real life experience by zapping them with the stun gun. This brilliant move resulted in at least two children sprawling to the floor in utter pain and burns on their arms. There was one child that ended up in the hospital as well.

Needless to say Schmidt, a 14 year veteran prison officer, is no longer employed by Florida Corrections, who has ordered an investigation into the whole matter.

[hat tip to the Daily Mail]

Police in Denton Texas will make you Twitter famous

Steven Hodson — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:33:04 +0000

It’s one thing to see the mugshots of famous people show up on the web but getting busted for anything in Denton Texas could see you show up on Twitter. To make it clear this isn’t an official Twitter profile for the Denton police but rather an experiment by an art student as a way to show just how much personal stuff ends up available on the web.

Through some simple scraping of the public information available on the Denton police web site the student creates a Twitter post of the date and time of the arrest, the age of the charged person along with their mugshot posted to TwitPic. I am sure there are some who think this is a pretty cool idea but it also shows just how scary Twitter can be as a publishing platform. Considering just how much personal stuff is available on the web the idea that it could show up on something like Twitter without you even knowing about it should make people just a tad nervous.

[hat tip to SlipperyBrick / bottom pic courtesy of SlipperyBrick]

UK student arrested for theft of phone he had found and was handing in to police

Duncan Riley — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:54:02 +0000

The police state has now completely lost the plot. A student in the UK was arrested for theft over a phone he found and was handing into police.

Paul Leicester found the handset lying in the street on his 18th birthday, and rang the last number dialled, telling a friend of the owner he would leave the phone at a nearby police station, according to the Daily Express. On attending the local police station to hand over the phone, officers arrested him for “theft by finding”, held him for four hours and took a DNA sample.

Paul told the paper that he won’t be doing the right thing again in the future: “I thought I was doing the right thing and had it thrown back in my face. I wouldn’t go to the police in future. All I was doing was the honest thing. It was a shocking experience.”

After being contacted by the media, police say that they would be reviewing the circumstances of the arrest.