Space Center officer shoots store robber www.privateofficer.com

TITUSVILLE, Fla. Dec. 10, 2007 — An off-duty Kennedy Space Center SWAT officer shot and injured a robbery suspect at Titusville Winn Dixie Saturday night.
Police began receiving 911 calls just before 9:30pm saying there was a man in the parking lot wearing a mask and holding a shotgun. Shortly thereafter, frantic customers inside the store began calling 911 saying a robbery was in progress.
Police say the off-duty SWAT member was going into the store, saw what was happening and ran back to his vehicle to get his gun.
Meantime, police say 34-year-old Barry Noetzel had fired a shot at the store’s office door in order to get inside and grab some money. They say Noetzel then ran out an emergency exit where he was confronted by the off-duty officer and was shot in the chest.
Noetzel was airlifted to Holmes Regional Medical Center in good condition.
“I was shopping and all of sudden I heard a gunshot. Then they told everybody to get on the ground and I just hid,” said an eyewitness. No customers were hurt during the incident.
Noetzel is being charged with armed robbery, aggravated assault, possession of a short-barreled shotgun, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, wearing body armor and a mask while committing a felony and shooting within 1000 feet of people.

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Thieves use GPS to locate stores by; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

NORTH ANDOVER – Police said three alleged thieves from south of Boston found their way around north of Boston using GPS in their getaway car.The two men and a woman tried to cash a bad check at the Stop & Shop Supermarket at 757 Turnpike St., in North Andover Monday night, Detective Lt. Paul Gallagher said yesterday.One person was caught at the store, while the other two escaped, but they were stopped in their car by Middleton police near the Middleton police station on Route 114.In the car, police found a TomTom Global Positioning System with the addresses of eight Stop & Shop Supermarkets, among them stores in North Andover, Peabody, Beverly, Danvers, Reading and Woburn programmed into it, plus the home address of one of those arrested, Gallagher said.Gallagher said the store manager called police at 8:45 p.m. to report a man and a woman were at the store courtesy booth attempting to cash a check. The check, for $498.75, was drawn on a Meridian Bank account out of Great Neck, N.Y., and was issued by a “J.D. Wilson Construction Co., of Brooklyn, N.Y.” and was made out to a Christopher Bleuel, Gallagher said.No such construction company exists, Gallagher said.Virginia Simmons, 53, of Quincy; Glenn LeShore, 44, of East Weymouth; and Christie Rallie, 39, of Dorchester; were charged with forgery of a check, uttering a false check, attempting to commit a crime, and conspiracy, Gallagher said.LeShore also was charged with driving after revocation of his license for being a habitual traffic offender, Gallagher said.Gallagher said when store security approached Rallie and Simmons at the courtesy booth, Simmons left the store and got into a white Ford Taurus that left the parking lot and traveled toward Middleton.Chief Richard Stanley and Officer Daniel Quinlan responded to the store and Stanley put out a broadcast for the car, which was stopped in Middleton.A store security officer detained Rallie until police arrived, Gallagher said.Rallie was found to be in possession of false identification in the name of Christopher Bleuel, of Bronx, N.Y., and a second false identification in the name of Christopher Bond, of Flushing, N.Y., Gallagher said.The store security officer told police he had received information that a group of people have been cashing forged checks at several of the stores in Massachusetts and New Hampshire since Dec. 1, and that they had just attempted to cash checks at the Danvers and Peabody stores and that they might be coming to North Andover.
The store security officer said all area Stop & Shops were advised to call the North Andover police if they had cashed any checks from J.D. Wilson Construction Co. as Rallie, Simmons and LeShore, all unemployed, were carrying several hundred dollars in cash, Gallagher said.At their arraignments in Lawrence District Court yesterday, Judge Michael Brooks set $2,500 cash bail for Simmons and LeShore, and released Rallie without bail, according to court clerk magistrate Keith McDonough.The trio were ordered to return to court on Dec. 20, he said.

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Driver shoots up red light camera www.privateofficer.com

KNOXVILLE TN. DEC. 10, 2007 A $50 citation could multiply into a penalty including jail time and thousands of dollars in fines and damages, after a Knoxville man told police he shot a red-light camera to avoid a ticket.
Forty-seven-year-old Clifford Edward Clark III is in jail, charged with felony vandalism and reckless endangerment. Police say he shot and disabled the red light camera on Broadway near I-640 early Sunday morning.Redflex is the company that maintains and installs Knoxville’s red light cameras. They have more than a thousand cameras in 20 states, and they say they’ve never had one shot at with a hunting rifle.”We had officers that were in the area. They overheard gunshots,” KPD spokesperson Darrell DeBusk said. “They started to investigate, and that’s when they found a vehicle leaving a business and trying to leave really quickly.”Surveillance video from Pittman Automotive’s parking lot cameras show officers stop a silver mini-van driven by Clark shortly before 2:00 am on Sunday. “They also found out that he had a rifle. They found 3 shell casings in the parking lot,” DeBusk said. “They found a spent shell casing in the gun. They also found the red light camera had been shot four times.”According to police reports, investigators found a Ruger M77, Mack II 30-60 Rifle, and a new box of bullets with four missing. Police say one of the bullets went clear through the camera’s casing.”You’ve got to think about the danger that he put the public in,” DeBusk said. “He was shooting a rifle at a camera with cars driving by.”When questioned, Clark told police a reason he’d shoot the camera.”He made a statement that he was upset about getting a red light camera ticket,” DeBusk said.Investigators say they have no record of Clark ever getting a citation from a red light camera. However, records are only current up to November 20th. If Clark was caught by the cameras after the 20th, that information will not be turned over to Knoxville Police until later this week. If cited by a camera, he would have been fined $50.”The penalty he’s going to pay is going to be far greater than the $50 citation,” DeBusk said.Meanwhile, a repairman worked on the camera on Monday. A Redflex spokesperson says it should be operational Monday night. Christina Weeks with Redflex says there are actually 3 cameras in each unit. Weeks says the damage to the unit is extensive, but she doesn’t have a dollar amount yet. Redflex will pay to repair the camera, but those costs could be passed on to Clark if he is convicted.Clark is in jail on an $8,000 bond.

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Cops hunt deer, not criminals on duty www.privateofficer.com

SMITHFIELD, N.C. Dec. 10, 2007 — Police detectives are hunting some unusual suspects for the second year in a row this fall — white-tailed deer accused of decimating plants in one of the town’s well-heeled neighborhoods.
A trio of detectives took to the woods in recent weeks for an in-town police hunt that is rare, if not unique, in the region. Last year, they killed 25 deer in the woods near the manicured lawns of South Smithfield, where a growing population of deer munches on tender plants and shrubs such as hostas, azaleas and acuba.
The hunt is again stirring some opposition among residents.
“They’re supposed to be fighting criminals, not pansy-eaters,” said Jim Wilson, whose 30 acres adjoins the town land where police hunted last year with rifles and silencers.
State biologist Joe Folta said he’s never known of such a hunt in the 11-county district he oversees for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.
Folta had recommended that Smithfield hire bowhunters or specially licensed sharpshooters, though he said there is no state law barring the police from hunting the woods instead.
But if the solution is rare, the problem is not, Folta said. Contact between deer and people is increasing as neighborhoods take over wild land, creating pockets near homes where hunters can’t thin the herds.
Grazing in neighborhoods strengthens the herd as the animals nibble from corn piles left by deer sympathizers and nutrient-rich residential shrubs.
“The deer are using these urban areas as refuges,” Folta said. “We’re adding to the nutrition that allows them to produce more offspring.”
Years of complaints from South Smithfield residents reached their height last year, when the town planned to let locals hunt in the 300-acre area behind the neighborhood. The idea earned support at public meetings, where locals railed against the marauding deer, but it was abandoned because of concerns over liability.
“We didn’t want to risk having every Tom, Dick and Harry out there,” Town Manager Pete Connet said. “We’re trying to err on the side of safety.”
At the direction of the town council, Connet exempted police from the town’s ordinance against discharging firearms so the police could carry out the hunt.
Several council members live in the quiet neighborhood of stately homes bounded by U.S. 301 and the wooded area along the Neuse River. So does state Rep. Leo Daughtry, whose wife was a vocal proponent of hunting the deer.
Retired Dr. Thomas M. Johnson, standing in front of his electric-fence-enclosed garden on a recent morning, said he doesn’t mind police out hunting on the public dime.
“I didn’t care how they did it,” said Johnson, who has caught images of deer ravaging his hydrangea on a tree-mounted, motion-sensitive camera. “I just wanted some of these deer gone.”
But the neighbors aren’t all so enthusiastic. Wilson, perhaps the hunt’s most vocal opponent, lives just a few doors from Johnson. He said he has seen police breaking their own safety policies by hunting during school hours and without bright orange gear.
His 11-year-old son plays in a clubhouse near the property line, and he and his wife worry that they don’t know when police are out hunting. The officers recently started calling him as a courtesy, but other neighbors are not notified.
The officers hunt during their normal workday, in between their investigative duties. Connet stresses that the officers chosen for the job are experienced hunters. One, narcotics officer Greg Whitley, has a degree in wildlife management.
Whitley said the neighborhood’s proximity to the fertile woodlands of the Neuse River basin will always attract deer — and dissent among neighbors over how to deal with them.
“In any urban or suburban area that has this type of habitat, people and animals are going to have these kinds of conflicts,” he said.

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Former police officer called hero at church shooting by; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

Colorado Springs Co. Dec. 11, 2007 A former Minneapolis Police Officer was the security guard who shot the gunman that entered New Life Church in Colorado Springs, ending a shooting spree that started at a missionary center earlier in the day.
Jeanne Assam once worked for the Minneapolis Police Department in the Fourth and First precincts in the late 90s. A police union official said she left the department because of personal reasons.
The gunman was identified as Matthew Murray, 24, who was home-schooled in what a friend said was a deeply religious Christian household. Murray’s father is a neurologist and a leading multiple-sclerosis researcher. Five people — including Murray — were killed, and five others wounded Sunday in the two eruptions of violence 12 hours and 65 miles apart.
The first attack took place at Youth With a Mission, a training center for missionaries in the Denver suburb of Arvada; the other occurred at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs.On Sunday at New Life Church, a gunman wearing a trench coat and carrying a high-powered rifle opened fire in the parking lot and later walked into the church as a service was letting out.
Assam, a church member who volunteers as a security guard, shot Murray, who was found with a rifle and two handguns, police said. However, investigators said he may have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Assam said she believes God gave her the strength to confront Murray, keeping her calm and focused. “It seemed like it was me, the gunman and God,” she said at a news conference.
The two people who were killed at the church were sisters Stephanie and Rachael Works, ages 18 and 16, and they frequented the training center.The pastor credited Assam with preventing more bloodshed. “There could have been a great loss of life yesterday, and she probably saved over 100 lives.” Boyd said the gunman had a lot of ammunition and estimated that 40 rounds had been fired inside the church, leaving what looked like a “war scene.” About 7,000 people were in and around the church the time of the shooting, Boyd said. Security had been beefed up after the shootings hours earlier in Arvada, he said. The church had a total of 15 to 20 volunteer security officers inside at the time of the attack, he said. Some members of the congregation reacted with compassion and forgiveness, in keeping with their faith. New Life, with a largely upper middle-class membership, was founded by the Rev. Ted Haggard, who was dismissed last year after a former male prostitute alleged he had a three-year cash-for-sex relationship with him. Haggard admitted committing unspecified “sexual immorality.”

The two people killed at the missionary center were identified as Tiffany Johnson, 26, and Philip Crouse, 24. Johnson, who grew up in Chisholm, Minn., loved working with children and wanted to see the world, said family friend Carla Macynski. “Tiffany was a well-liked, easygoing 26-year-old. She was friendly, adventurous and a definite leader,” Macynski said as she choked back tears. Johnson had traveled to Egypt, Libya and South Africa with the missionary group. Crouse, of Alaska, was a former skinhead who went through a dramatic spiritual conversion at 18. He had helped build a foster home at a Crow Indian reservation in Montana, said Ronny Morris, who works with a Denver chapter of the mission. “Whenever somebody asks me to give a specific situation where a kid’s life has been changed or transformed, I always think of Phil, because he had such a radical transformation of life,” said Pastor Zach Chandler in Anchorage, Alaska. Youth With a Mission was started in 1960 and has 1,100 locations with 16,000 full-time staff, said Darv Smith, director of a Youth With a Mission center in Boulder.

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Vegas firefighters assault casino security by; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

Vegas firefighters assault casino officers by; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

Las Vegas, NV. Dec. 11, 2007

Fire officials publicly acknowledged that two Clark County firefighters have been arrested in connection to the assault of a security officer at a casino.
Colin Kelly and Jahanfard Ali were arrested shortly after 2 a.m. Friday at the Red Rock Casino. Police said they beat a security officer, whose name has not been released yet at one of the bars after they were confronted. Police also did not disclose the nature of the confrontation but we do know that the firefighters caused injury to the casino officer and was taken into custody afer additional officers and police were called in.
The security officer was taken to an area hospital and released.
Kelly and Ali have been charged with assault and battery. They are on paid administrative leave pending the completed investigation. Both firefighters have worked for Clark County since 2001.

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Teacher arrested for porn in classroom www.privateofficer.com

Substitute teacher arrested for porn in classroom www.privateofficer.com

BIXBY, Okla. DEC. 11, 2007 — A Bixby High School substitute teacher who was considered a favorite of students is accused of showing pornography to freshmen and sophomores on at least one occassion.
Thirty five year old Michael S. Carson was arrested and charged this today with seven misdemeanor counts of displaying harmful material to minors.
School Resource Officer Erik Smoot says the incident allegedly occurred November 30th in a math class and is unsure if it has happened previously.
Smoot alleges that Carson began talking to some of the boys and showed them some pornographic material he had on a cell phone that included obscene pictures.
A student reported the incident, but more witnessed it.
Carson wasn’t in custody tonight and the Tulsa resident couldn’t be reached for comment.
Smoot says he was employed through Kelly Temporary Services in Tulsa.

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PRIVATE OFFICER FRANCHISES AVAILABLE www.privateofficer.com

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ATLANTA GA. DECEMBER 11, 2007

PRESS RELEASE- MASS DISTRIBUTION

There’s a new concept in an old business and excitment and buzz is already in the air even though the official announcement has yet to be made.
As the increase need for a better way to provide uniform security services grows, and the security business itself expands into multi-functions and services and areas of responsibility, the PRIVATE OFFICER Corporation is announcing today that starting January 15, 2008, Franchises will be available.
PRIVATE OFFICER will offer an all inclusive business that will include multiple streams of incomes and expansion ability by providing Uniform Services, Patrol Services, Specialized Emergency Response Teams, Housing Authority Officers, Alarm Response,Special Events, Bodyguards, Investigations and an Alarm Bureau.
Franchisees will not have to operate all of the components of the PSO business but may choose which services to offer to their particular area of coverage.
The difference between starting a security company on your own or being part of the franchise system can be easily seen, Paul Steed, Vice President of Operations said. Alone, you have to guess at everything and try to succeed through trial and error. There is a lot of liability and responsibility in the security industry today and you really can’t just put a uniform on and start a business these days Steed continued. With the Franchised business you will have a tried and true method and an operations guideline and a coach who will be there with you each step of the way as you build your business.
Each franchisee will recieve several types of upfront training including certification as a Class 3 Private Officer (advanced security officer) as well as an Operations 101 Training class in Atlanta Georgia. In addition, the Private Officer team immediately works with the franchisee in all areas of the start up including market review, marketing, contracts, human resourses and getting the local office up and running.
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A new website will be on line by January 15, 2008 that will outline more details about this exciting franchise!

Churches mixed over armed security www.privateofficer.com

Charlotte N.C. Dec. 11, 2007 Jeanne Assam was armed when services started at New Life Church – a policy that had been in place for a few years.
It turned out, according to Senior Pastor Brady Boyd, to be a fortuitous choice because Assam likely saved many lives when she shot a heavily armed gunman entering the church.
But having an armed presence inside a place of worship isn’t necessarily a common practice, both because of feelings about weapons in a church and insurance liabilities.
Dale Annis, chief executive officer for Church Security Services, said he has consulted with churches across the country and found that few want to have guns on site during services. Annis said that the expense of training and keeping permits current along with the insurance make it cost-prohibitive for some smaller churches.
Annis, a retired police officer, started his Bakersfield, Calif.-based business about four years ago when he noticed an uptick in violence against churches.
His company helps churches adapt security plans for violent events such as the one in Colorado Springs, and he said he believes that any church the size of the 10,000-member New Life needs to have armed security on site.
“If you’re over 2,000 in membership, you’re crazy not to have armed security,” he said. “When you get to that size, you really have no idea who is walking through your doors.”
That’s part of what prompted The Potter’s House not only to have an armed guards on its campus, but also to hire a security director.
Dallas-based Potter’s House has nearly 20,000 members. Its security director, Sean Smith, said it began arming guards about eight years ago when Bishop T.D. Jakes started receiving death threats.
Smith said that high-profile pastors such as Jakes are significant targets and not having a well-trained armed force on site would put lives at risk.
But drawing weapons is a last resort, Smith said.
“We are not preaching the Rambo techniques,” he said. “We’re preaching smart techniques that you could even use in your own home.”
Still, there isn’t across-the-board support for guns in churches.
Saddleback Valley Community Church, the home base for Rick Warren, has about 20,000 people who attend the Lake Forest, Calif., megachurch, and security there isn’t armed.
Warren’s chief of staff, David Chrzan, said that putting guns in the hands of an on-site security staff would seem to be a last resort in trying to protect the congregation.
“Where do you go from there – two armed guards, three armed guards?” he said. “At that point, you’re just adding artillery.”
It reminded Pastor Brad Strait of South Fellowship Church in Littleton of the role that monasteries played in Europe during the Middle Ages, when travelers relied on the walled sanctuaries to protect them at night because the roads were unsafe.
Strait doesn’t have armed guards at his church, but he said he understands why some may decide to go that route.
“We live in an era where we’re more afraid,” Strait said. “There are people who come in to the mall or a school or a church with the sole purpose of hurting other people, and that’s happening at a much more frequent rate than before. That makes us nervous.”
Church shootings – in fact church violence – isn’t a new phenomenon and dates back to the Civil Rights era when churches in the South were bombed.
More recently, at a church in Baton Rouge, La., a man shoot four people and killed his wife.
A year before in Milwaukee, a gunman fired nearly two dozen shots during a church meeting at a hotel where he killed seven.

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Private police use different rules to arrest and detain by;Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

Private police using different rules to arrest and detain www.privateofficer.com

New York, N.Y. Dec. 11, 2007 Steps from the pantyhose section of Macy’s Manhattan store sits a cool, halogen-lighted room containing two chain-link holding cells. People, some of them minors, are led to this room every day, where they are body-searched, photographed and then handcuffed to a long steel bench.
An interrogation occurs, and a verdict is made as to whether or not they tried to steal. Their Social Security numbers are punched into a national database, and they are turned over to the police or they are freed. Almost all of them sign confessions and are asked to pay private penalties — five times the amount of whatever they stole.
This private jail, and the policing system that governs it, is replicated to varying degrees in other department stores across the nation with a twofold purpose: to stop shoplifting and to recoup some of the billions of dollars lost to theft every year.
Last year, more than 12,000 people moved through detention rooms in 105 of Macy’s stores, including more than 1,900 at the Manhattan store, in Herald Square. Only 56 percent of those people were sent to the police. The company, though, says that over 95 percent of those detained confess to shoplifting and quite a few pay the in-store penalty before leaving. The Manhattan store lost $15 million to theft last year.
The operation is legally authorized, and, retailers say, necessary: private police fill the void left by public police too burdened to chase small-time thieves. Private police also save retailers legal costs by helping them settle shoplifting cases directly with the perpetrators .
But the elaborate systems like the one at Macy’s in Manhattan — which includes 100 security officers, four German shepherds, hundreds of cameras, and a closed-circuit television center reminiscent of a spaceship control room — have highlighted a concern shared by a range of people, from civil libertarians to individual shoppers who have been detained, and even to some law enforcement officials.
Whether guilty or innocent, these critics say, those accused of shoplifting are often deprived of some of the basic assurances usually provided in public law enforcement proceedings: the right to legal representation before questioning, rigorous safeguards against coercion, particularly in the case of juveniles, and the confidence that the officers in charge are adequately trained and meaningfully monitored.
Private security operations in the retail world, like those in gated communities, amusement parks and sports stadiums, have grown in number over the last three decades yet remain largely shrouded from public scrutiny.
”The issue of private security guards is a difficult one,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. ”On the one hand, stores have an interest in protecting their business. But on the other hand, security guards have neither the training nor the same legal obligations as police officers and the danger of interfering with individual rights is huge.”
Some retail chains have less-elaborate detention areas, using storage rooms or offices instead of jails, and some stores have more direct and regular dealings with police. Wal-Mart’s policy, for instance, is to always contact the police when its security guards detain a suspected shoplifter, a company spokesman said. But aggressive policing is a daily staple of the retail industry, with most major retail stores employing some version of the detention and civil recovery procedures used by Macy’s.
”That’s standard operating procedure in virtually every store in America,” said Dr. Richard Hollinger, a sociologist and criminologist at the University of Florida who compiles information about theft-prevention tactics from stores nationwide for a yearly report.
Law enforcement officials in New York, including the state attorney general, said they knew very little about the details and scope of the kind of security operation being run at Macy’s. Officials in Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office were not aware of any complaints against retail security operations, but have investigated other forms of private policing and said the practice can lead to serious problems.

BEHIND THE SCENES
Macy’s officials said the recent charges against them were reckless, and they ardently defended their security practices as lawful, professional and exacting in their ability to weed out thieves among innocent shoppers. To counter allegations of unfairness, the store allowed a reporter wide behind-the-scenes access to its Manhattan store, the company’s flagship.
To tour the store is to appreciate the immense security challenge faced by Macy’s, as well as the potential for intimidation among those detained.
Plainclothes ”detectives” roam the 10 selling floors, keeping in contact with uniformed guards by radio. The movement of shoppers is tracked by over 300 cameras, some controlled by joysticks, as security workers watch images on dozens of closed-circuit television monitors.
Those shoplifting suspects caught and detained are taken to ”Room 140,” which features a long steel bench bolted to the linoleum floor. A dozen handcuffs hang off the bench from chains. In two holding cells, roughly 5 feet long by 5 feet wide, wooden benches bear the etchings of former detainees. ”Not worth it,” reads one.
Macy’s policy is to call the police if anyone requests legal representation or asks to be set free immediately, but most people prefer to settle the matter privately, officials said.
No department store is legally required to provide the same safeguards as are the police. Legal experts say that retailers are held to a standard somewhere in between that of the police and that of citizens making an arrest — a standard known as merchants’ privileges, which allow stores around the nation to detain people on suspicion of shoplifting without police involvement.
”We at Macy’s East are sensitive to the fact that we’re not a police force operating in the criminal justice system,” said Thomas Roan, group vice president for security at Macy’s East. ”Therefore we raise the standard for detention” above the one used by the police to detain and question people.
The jail is not excessive, Mr. Roan said, given the number of altercations with shoplifting suspects. In the last four months, 25 people have assaulted security officials, 10 of whom required medical attention, Mr. Roan said. In about half of all apprehensions, weapons are recovered, including knives and guns, he added.
But the main reason for such a sophisticated system is to fight the enemy of theft. Some 60,000 people pass through the flagship store every day — and on heavy shopping days, double or triple that number. About $100 million was lost last year to thieves in the 105 stores in the Eastern United States that make up Macy’s East.
As a result, Macy’s spends roughly $28 million a year on security — $4 million at the flagship store alone.
In an attempt to recover some of the loss, Macy’s has a target of $1.4 million in civil penalties it expects to receive this year — the same amount received last year. To achieve that, it uses a formidable weapon used by stores around the nation: civil recovery statutes.
These laws allow retailers to hold shoplifters liable for the cost of catching them and for the losses they cause, charging penalties even if an item is recovered in perfect condition. In New York, the statute is especially powerful, allowing stores to demand five times the value of the item stolen, whether or not there is a confession, and to pursue that claim even if the case is tried criminally and thrown out.
”Retailers have abandoned the criminal justice system because they know the system is not interested in them as a victim,” Dr. Hollinger said.
But it is the manner in which Macy’s enforces its pursuit of shoplifters, backed by these statutes, that is at the heart of the dispute between Macy’s and critics of private security. A Five-Step Approach
The store has a program to train its guards to follow five steps before detaining a person: they must watch the person enter a department, select merchandise and conceal it; then maintain unbroken surveillance to establish that the item is concealed; and then watch the person attempt to leave the store without paying.

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YouTube fast becoming police investigative tool www.privateofficer.com

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

YouTube fast becoming cop’s new investigative tool www.privateofficer.com

FAYETTE GA. DEC. 11, 2007 A few hours after six suspects broke into a Fayette County gun shop early Wednesday morning and stole about 80 weapons, their heist was on the Internet as a YouTube video.
The video is grainy, and the action is speeded up so that the thieves seem to sweep in and clean out the place in about 15 seconds as the room fills with smoke from a gas grenade set off by the store alarm.
As of Friday afternoon, about 3,800 people around the world had watched the video on YouTube.com. So far, though, the clip had generated no tips from the public, said Lt. Belinda McCastle, spokeswoman for the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.
Still, the video moved metro Atlanta law enforcement maybe a little closer to the cutting edge. Police departments in Canada, Florida and Massachusetts have also previously posted crime videos on YouTube.
Police say it’s a quick way to distribute surveillance videos to the media and other law enforcement agencies and reach the public through an increasingly popular medium.
Josh Shelton, the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office detective who uploaded the surveillance video from the break-in at Autrey’s Armory on Bethea Road, said the idea was a natural.
“I’m the department’s computer forensic investigator, and I’m a big fan of getting information out there quickly,” Shelton said Friday. “Originally, my plan was to call other agencies, but then I thought of YouTube.”
There was another reason. The quality of still images taken from the video was so poor, it’s hard to make out facial features.
“So I wanted to show the video because I thought people might recognize the way somebody moves or a body type,” Shelton said.
The burglars broke into the store around 4 a.m., and Shelton had the surveillance video by 5 a.m.
He gave the clip a name — “Autrey’s Armory” — appended a telephone number for people to call (770-716-4777), added search words that would lead browsers to the clip — robbery, burglary, gun, store, theft, range, crime, police, sheriff, glock, sig, sauer — and had it posted it on YouTube by 9 a.m.
By YouTube standards, the video is hardly a hit. “Is Europe a Country?” a video from the TV show “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” has more than 3 million hits.
And one of the Web’s most popular law enforcement videos, “Don’t Tase Me, Bro!” — which shows a college student getting zapped by security cops at a John Kerry speech — has 284,000 hits.
Shelton said that’s fine by him. “Any lead we get from this will be good. Be sure to put in your story that we increased the reward from $1,000 to $2,500

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off duty officer assaulted working security www.privateofficer.com

Off-duty police officer working security assaulted www.privateofficer.com

Charlotte N.C. Dec. 12, 2007 Early this morning, CMPD Officer H. A. Peterson was injured while working an off-duty security job at the Walgreen’s located at 4701 South Boulevard.At 1:42 am, a suspect (shown photos) entered the store and stole a large quantity of cologne and ran out of the store. Officer Peterson pursued the suspect out of the store and witnessed him get into the front passenger seat of the suspect vehicle. The vehicle was being driven by a second black male suspect.Officer Peterson ordered the suspects to stop. He reached into the open window in an effort to apprehend the suspect. The vehicle drove off at a high rate of speed, dragging Officer Peterson. Officer Peterson sustained a fractured skull, a concussion and multiple abrasions to his face and body. Officer Peterson was admitted to Carolinas Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. He is listed in fair and stable condition.Witnesses described the suspect vehicle as 4-door and dark in color. Possibly a Ford Taurus, Hyundai or a Nissan.

Suspect # 1 is described as a black/male with a dark complexion, approximately 20 years of age, 5-9 to 5-10 in height. He was wearing a white NIKE ball cap with a dark brim and a dark colored NIKE “Swoosh” on the front. He was also wearing a dark green jacket/coat over a dark shirt with a white design on the front and blue jeans. Suspect # 2 is described only as a black/male.Anyone with information about this incident or the identity of the suspects is asked to call Crime Stoppers 704-334-1600 or Detective Mario Soares at 704-353-1751.

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School security helps nab gun toting trespasser www.privateofficer.com

Denver Co. Dec. 12, 2007

Denver police have arrested a suspect who reportedly entered Montbello High School carrying a gun, officials say.
A school security officer spotted the person who was not authorized to be in the school, Denver Public Schools spokesman Alex Sanchez said. As the security officer began to approach this person, the suspect then fled, he said.
Police were called at 9:54 a.m. and were on scene quickly and chased the suspect down and arrested him, Sanchez said. The school was placed in lockdown while authorities searched for the gun, he said.
No weapon was found, said Detective John White, Denver police spokesman.
The identity of the suspect has not been released. There is no information as to his intent or why he was carrying a gun on school grounds or even what he was doing there at all.
Montbello was taken off lockdown at 2:08 p.m., Sanchez said.

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Potential juror enters court with a sword www.privateofficer.com

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Potential juror enters court with sword www.privateofficer.com

NEW YORK N.Y> Dec. 12, 2007 — A man reporting for jury duty was arrested when security discovered that his cane concealed a 2 1/2-foot sword and a 6-inch dagger, police said.
Vladislav Lisetskiy, 40, was arrested Monday at Brooklyn Supreme Court as he attempted to pass through security, police said.
The cane “attracted attention because of the way it looked,” said Maj. Luz Bryan, commander of courthouse police. “It had two metal bands. It’s an indication that something is concealed. My officers noticed it right away.”
New York state law prohibits concealed blades or knives.
“He kept saying that he didn’t know it was illegal,” Bryan said.
Lisetskiy was charged with misdemeanor criminal possession of a weapon.
There was no immediate indication if he had an attorney.

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