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First On Scene: Now What? www.privateofficer.com
First On Scene: Now What? http://www.privateofficer.com
Atlanta GA Feb 24 2009By: Rick McCann
Private Officer News Network
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A stabbing at a college, a robbery at the mall, a heart attack at an office building and it’s a private security officer who will probably be the first on scene.
As more businesses and communities use Private Officers to patrol, secure and protect, there is an increasing reality that when a medical emergency, crime event or other incident requiring immediate response occurs, it’ll be a private person answering the call first and law enforcement coming showing up secondary.
Once the call has been dispatched and the security officer arrives on scène in a primary role, now what?
Besides standing around being just another onlooker or directing traffic or looking confused, there are many duties that the private officer has once on scene.
1. Get Call Clarity- Once the call is dispatched, try to get as much detail about the incident as possible. A man down doesn’t always mean a medical call. It could be a crime scene instead and the man could be a victim of a shooting or stabbing and you may find yourself first on scene in the middle of an armed confrontation, assault or homicide.
If you’re being radio dispatched and the dispatcher is uncertain to the call circumstances have them call back and get more details of the call.
2. Agency Assistance-As soon as the call for help comes in, call 911. Make sure the appropriate assistance, be it fire, medical or police is on their way.
I have heard of colleges and malls waiting to place those calls until a security officer can get on scene and verify the incident.
This is both dangerous and risky.
The majority of private security are unarmed and the level of training is not sufficient to address violent incidents alone.
If a security department fails to call for assistance on a medical call and the person dies because of untimely care, the department will likely face liability issues.
Also, a call of a man with a gun, an assault, mugging etc could easily escalate to the security officer being assaulted, stabbed, shot or otherwise injured trying to detain the suspect and back up would not be on the way.
IMMEDIATELY CALL for assistance!
3. Slow Approach-When arriving to any call, whether by foot, car, bike or other vehicle, the private officer should approach slowly, taking in the scene and monitoring with all six senses.
Don’t Run In! Listen to the sounds, look at the scene, the people and the surroundings, and be prepared for confrontations, bloody scenes, severally injured persons and sometimes chaos.
4. Access The Situation-Determine Priorities-Once you’re sure that the scene is safe to enter and determine what the incident is, now decide what needs to be done first, second, third and so on.
In the case of a medical emergency, even if you are not an emergency medical technician or paramedic, there are still steps that you can take to render some level of first aid.
While some employers restrict their personnel from providing any type of first-aid due to liability issues, the Good Samaritan act will cover any reasonable aid that you give.
Remember your ABC’s.
In a crime scene situation, round up witnesses and corral them in one area, careful not to illegal detain anyone who does not want to stay, secure the scene and don’t let people in or out of the scene and take control of the situation until police arrive. Don’t move or touch anything!
5. Don’t Just Stand There! Do something!
This could be crowd control, traffic control, roping off the scene, getting additional information especially suspect description from witnesses and relaying as quickly as possible to the police. When officers arrive, ask them what they need you to do next and follow their instructions and assist as best as you can.
While the level of training, experience, and employer’s policies will dictate the actions of the private officers once on scene, there will always be a degree of responsibility and prudent steps that should be taken. We have an obligation once we respond to take some type of action and to help in any manner that we can. This does not mean be a hero and get yourself killed. It means think and act reasonably and prudently.
There is an obvious expectation by the employer and those that we protect for the security officer to respond to a situation as quickly as possible and to take some type of action to help rectify the problem, catch the bad guy or to medically assist the person having a stroke, heart attack or in some other way injured.
This is why the National Association of Private Officers recommends that all levels of private security personnel be trained in emergency response, incident management, first-aid and CPR, some level of self-defense and basic security officer duties and responsibilities along with some general criminal and civil law training.
A good rule of thumb to protect yourself and others and to limit any form of liability is to respond and act within the scope of your training, company procedures, and the law.
6. Paperwork-The call isn’t over until you have taken good notes and included all of the who, what, where, when, how and why in your notebook and completed a detailed, accurate written report. Regardless of how minor you think the incident was or your dislike for writing reports or even that the company doesn’t really care if a report is written, write it anyways!
Cover all basis’s and do a thorough job at writing what happened and what you did and this will cover you and your employer from liability should any type of litigation be filed. The report could also become state evidence in a criminal trial so be careful, detailed and truthful in your account of the incident.
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Man charged in arson of Kroger store www.privateofficer.com
Man charged in arson of Kroger store http://www.privateofficer.com
A 38-year-old man has been arrested and charged with setting a fire at the Kroger store on Westport Road yesterday.
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Police officer charged with rape and incest www.privateofficer.com
Police officer charged with rape and incest http://www.privateofficer.com
Delaney said Martinez was allowed to change out of his police uniform before he was booked and placed in the police lock up.
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Mother and daughter arrested for plotting murder www.privateofficer.com
Mother and daughter arrested for plotting murder http://www.privateofficer.com
dallasnews
Kenneth Hughes was at work early Monday when detectives asked him to come to Dallas police headquarters and answer some questions: Did he and his wife and daughter have trouble getting along? Were there problems within the family?
Hughes, 57, says that he told them no. Afterward he learned what the questions were about. Officers were arresting his wife of 33 years and their daughter, who they said had tried to hire someone to kill him.
“It just floored me,” Hughes said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Tammie Lafawne Lewis, 31, and her mother, Shirley Bilbrey Hughes, 56, were booked into the Dallas County Jail about 10 a.m. Each is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail and faces charges of solicitation to commit capital murder. Police say they planned to collect on Kenneth Hughes’ life insurance policy.
When detectives told him his wife had confessed, Hughes requested to speak with her but was told he couldn’t. Later he explained what he might have said to her.
“I guess I’d ask her if it was true and ask her why,” he said. “I don’t understand.”
Hughes and his wife lived in a three-bedroom brick house in Garland. Lewis, the elder of their two daughters, moved in last year with her 10-year-old son after a divorce.
Hughes said he got along well with his wife, who looks after infants at a child-care center.
“She’s the best-natured woman you’d ever see,” he said. “She gets along with everybody. We very seldom ever argue.”
Hughes said he and his daughter, who works on a loading dock for a delivery company, have had their troubles since she moved in, but none were significant.
“Same things as when she was a kid,” he said. “She knows to pick up after herself. Just such things as that.”
Police say that on Sunday, Lewis contacted an unnamed witness, offering him $25,000 to kill her father. The witness contacted investigators, who sent an undercover officer with him to make the deal.
About 4 a.m. Monday, Lewis met with an undercover officer in the parking lot of a Dallas shopping center. She gave him a pistol as collateral and to serve as the murder weapon, police say. She said she wanted it done as soon as possible, and afterward she and her mother would pay the fee out of Kenneth Hughes’ life insurance settlement, police say.
For years, Hughes has worked as a dispatcher for a waste company. He has a $200,000 life insurance policy and $200,000 more in accident insurance, he said. “She knew I had it,” he said of his wife. “We have to renew it once a year.”
Police did not detail Shirley Hughes’ involvement in the alleged plot, except to say she admitted conspiring with her daughter. Relatives were shocked the mother would be accused of such a crime.
“When we heard about this, I told my husband, ‘You’ve got to be kidding; she was framed or something,’ ” said Debbie Bilbrey, who is married to Shirley Hughes’ brother. “Because Shirley wouldn’t do that.”
Police confirmed Monday they had never been called to the Hughes home in the 2700 block of Cedar Elm Lane in Garland.
Bilbrey said the Hugheses had problems like any couple, but none seemed serious.
“She worshipped that man,” Bilbrey said. “She used to make me so mad because she’d fix his plate and carry it to him every night for supper. I kept telling her you’re spoiling him rotten.”
Bilbrey had less to say about Lewis.
“I don’t know, I think she just went to the wayward side or something,” she said. “I don’t want to say anything bad about her.”
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Former officer charged with counterfeiting money www.privateofficer.com
Former officer charged with counterfeiting money http://www.privateofficer.com
stltoday.com— A man is charged with counterfeiting money during a time when he was a Wellston police officer, federal prosecutors said Monday.
David L. Dausman, who lives in Collinsville, was indicted last week on charges of making and possessing counterfeit currency and forging the seal of a federal agency.
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Missing teacher and student found in W. Virginia http://www.privateofficer.com
Holyoke Police Chief Anthony R. Scott said the teacher, Lisa Lavoie, of Ludlow, is being held on a charge of enticement.
“Then it became an issue of waiting for the court system, for (Hampden District Attorney William M. Bennett) to get a warrant,” Sullivan said. Bennett obtained the warrant about 9 p.m. last night based on information gathered in Holyoke about the boy and teacher and the nature of their relationship, Sullivan said.
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Bomb comment at airport lands man in jail www.privateofficer.com
Bomb comment at airport lands man in jail http://www.privateofficer.com
When police at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport asked Jake Lee, 41, what was in his bag, he replied, “It’s my bomb,” according to an arrest affidavit.
scan found the bag contained a solid mass, and security officials tested the outside of the bag for nitrates. The tests came back positive, but officers did not see wires or objects that looked like detonators, according to the affidavit.
Finally, Lee told police the solid mass was bean paste, which is sometimes used in Asian cuisine. Lee said he didn’t know why he told authorities he had a bomb.
Lee was arrested and charged with making a false alarm or report, a state jail felony that is punishable by up to two years in jail.
Lee was released form the Travis County Jail on $2,000 bail.
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Employee guilty in $540,000 embezzlement www.privateofficer.com
Employee guilty in $540,000 embezzlement http://www.privateofficer.com
pawtuckettimes.com — A woman who was described as being “like a daughter” to her former employer and his wife was led away in handcuffs from Superior Court on Monday afternoon to begin serving a sentence for embezzling over $540,000 from the couple’s business.
Rhonda L. Hastings, 40, was sentenced on Feb. 13 by Superior Court Judge Susan McGuirl to 20 years in prison on one count of unlawful appropriation of more than $1,000 and one count of access to a computer for the purposes of fraud. She was ordered to serve two and a half years at the Adult Correctional Institution and two and a half years on home confinement, with the remaining 5 years suspended with probation.According to Beryl Kenyon, spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s Office, Hastings had originally been charged with three counts, including larceny over $500–a felony. However, she pled guilty to the other two counts in December of 2008 and the felony charge was dropped.As part of the sentencing, Hastings was also ordered to make restitution for the $540,000 once she is released from prison.Hastings is accused of embezzling over $540,000 from her longtime employers, Joseph and Joann Pietrantonio of Johnston. She had worked as bookkeeper for the couple, who formerly owned two Dollar Depot Plus stores, one on Smithfield Avenue in Pawtucket and the other in Cumberland.According to Joseph Pietrantonio, Hastings took the money over an approximate 20-month period. He said she began slowly, taking cash and delaying payment to vendors. She then allegedly gained unauthorized access to a $270,000 line of credit that Pietrantonio had with Bank RI, and began using it to cover the money she was embezzling, he said.Pietrantonio said he had trusted Hastings, who had worked for him almost 20 years, including at a former gift shop business he had owned and as a store manager for the Dollar Depot Plus stores. He said he only began to notice that something was wrong when the stores’ armored car pick-ups, that had always occurred twice a week, were reduced to once a week or once every other week.
Both Joseph and Joann Pietrantonio said they had always had a close relationship with Hastings and her family. “We never had children of our own. We considered her like a daughter,” said Joann. She added that Hastings had spent some holidays with the couple and had admitted that they “were like second parents to her.”
Joann added that in 2003, Hastings told her employers that she was suffering from stage four cancer, which turned out to be untrue. The couple said she maintained a convincing ruse that included doctor visits and treatments, furthering drawing on the couple’s sympathy.
Joann Pietrantonio said the cancer story came into play frequently as the couple were catching on to the embezzlement and began to question Hastings and press her for records and explanations, Oftentimes, Joann said, when asked to supply a document, the young woman would say she felt ill from her cancer treatments and suddenly retreat to the ladies room.
The Pietrantonios said that they later found that Hastings was using the cash to support a quietly lavish lifestyle. She had moved to a farm in Holliston, MA, where she kept over 60 dogs and other livestock. She made renovations on the property, and also reportedly purchased a motorcycle and other vehicles for herself, a boyfriend a others, they said. “The money is all gone,” Joseph said.
In addition, Joseph Pietrantonio said he discovered that Hastings was buying expensive presents for some of the other Dollar Depot Plus employees, allegedly to buy their silence. These included, he said, tickets to sporting events, limousine rides, catered parties and even a car for one individual.
The Pietrantonios said that by the time the embezzlement was discovered, so much had been stolen that they were forced to close the two Dollar Depot Plus stores. Joseph Pietrantonio said that in addition to Hastings’ actions, he also blames Bank RI personnel for not checking more carefully into the line of credit and the transactions that were taking place. He said he has lawsuits pending against both Bank RI and his accountant, who he did not name.
According to Rhode Island State Police court records, on Feb. 15, 2006, detectives from the Financial Crimes Unit, assisted by members of the Massachusetts State Police, arrested Hastings, at her home at 415 Concord St., Holliston, Mass., as a fugitive from justice due to a warrant for unlawful appropriation over $1,000. She waived extradition and was returned to Rhode Island State Police headquarters, where she had been arraigned and released on $25,000 personal recognizance.
The first count that Hastings was charged with included a misappropriation of funds that occurred between Jan. 1, 2004 and Sept. 30, 2005, according to the Attorney General’s Office. After further investigation, she was also charged with a second count of fraudulently using a computer from Jan. 1, 2005 through Sept. 30, 2005, to draw down on the line of credit in order to cover the massive shortfalls in the operating expenses and payroll for Empire Merchandising Corporation, doing business as Dollar Depot Plus.
On Monday, the Pietrantonios sat in the front row of Judge McGuirl’s courtroom to witness the execution of Hastings’ sentence. “I feel violated. I trusted this girl,” Joseph stated, just before the proceedings started. Joann added, “And she never once said she was sorry.”
Hastings, appearing with her attorney, was asked by Judge McGuirl if she wanted to address the court. She did so briefly only to thank McGurl for giving her some extra time to make child care arrangements. Then, she was placed in handcuffs and led out, offering a slight smile of acknowledgement to her father and another relative sitting in the courtroom.
When contacted about the Pietrantonio’s lawsuit against Bank RI, spokesman Stephen Hourihan said he was aware of the case but it is the bank’s corporate policy to not comment about any matters involving pending litigation. -30-
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Armored truck robbed in Virginia Beach www.privateofficer.com
Armored truck robbed in Virginia Beach http://www.privateofficer.com
VIRGINIA BEACH VA Feb 24 2009By: Brett Davis
Staff Reporter
Private Officer News Network
www.privateofficer.com
Police said that a heist was reported Monday at 2:24 p.m. at the Bank of America at 281 Independence Blvd.
Investigators say that an armored truck was making a delivery of money when two armed men robbed the guard and took an undisclosed amount of cash according to police spokeswoman Margie Long.
Investigators think the two men left one vehicle in the bank parking lot and departed in another, she said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Solvers at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.
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