Montgomery County police officer guilty of time card fraud www.privateofficer.com

Rockville MD Dec 29 2010 A former Montgomery County police sergeant was found guilty of felony theft Monday for falsifying her timecard and getting paid for days she didn’t work.

Jacqueline Davey, 39, of Bowie joined the department in July 1993 and most recently worked as a patrol supervisor, officials said. Authorities identified 22 days for which Davey logged hours on her timecard but for which there was no sign that she was on the job, prosecutors said.

Under an agreement with Montgomery prosecutors that was approved by Judge Thomas L. Craven, Davey was sentenced to probation before judgment. The terms of her probation called for her to pay the county $5,000 in restitution, and she delivered a certified check Monday. As part of the agreement, she will not have a theft conviction on her record.

During a hearing in Montgomery Circuit Court, Assistant State’s Attorney Bryan Roslund said that a supervisor had noticed problems with Davey’s timecard in 2009 and that an investigation was launched.

In one instance, Roslund said, Davey did not report for a scheduled shift Oct. 25, 2009, yet her timecard showed she had logged 10 hours. Another time, he said, Davey was given permission to take leave on a Tuesday morning for another job, but her timecard showed a 10-hour workday.

Roslund said police checked Davey’s computer account, department cellphone records and door access card, among other documents, to determine whether she was working. They found at least 22 occasions between April 1, 2008, and Nov. 30, 2009, when she said she had worked but didn’t.

Roslund said the pay Davey received for hours not worked wasn’t the only benefit; she also accumulated annual leave and sick-leave hours.

“This unused sick leave would have been added to the defendant’s years of service, allowing her to retire earlier than if she had used sick leave on the days she did not work,” Roslund said in court. “By not using annual leave on the days in question, the defendant stood to get a larger payout check when she retired.”

Davey, who pleaded not guilty, said she did not agree with the account presented by prosecutors. But she agreed that if a jury heard the state’s evidence, it could find her guilty.

“She agrees that’s what the state would have produced,” her attorney, Paul Stein, said in court. “She does not agree to those facts.”

Craven found that there was sufficient evidence to prove guilt.

Source:Washington Post

Police fatalities up 37% in 2010 www.privateofficer.com

ATLANTA GA Dec 29 2010 (AP) – Two officers in a remote Alaska town were ambushed as they chatted on a street. A California officer and deputy were killed by an arson suspect with a high-powered rifle as they tried to serve a warrant. Two other officers doing anti-drug work were gunned down by men along a busy Arkansas highway.

These so-called cluster killings of more than one officer helped make 2010 a particularly deadly year for law enforcement. Deaths in the line of duty jumped 37 percent to about 160 from 117 the year before, according to numbers as of Tuesday compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a nonprofit that tracks police deaths.

There also was a spike in shooting deaths. Fifty-nine federal, state and local officers were killed by gunfire in 2010, a 20 percent jump from last year’s figures, when 49 were killed. The total does not include the death of a Georgia State Patrol trooper shot in the neck Monday night in Atlanta as he tried to make a traffic stop.

And 73 officers died in traffic incidents, a rise from the 51 killed in 2009, according to the data.

Craig Floyd, director of the Washington-based fund, said the rise in fatalities could be an aftershock of the nation’s economic troubles as officers in some communities cope with slashed budgets.

“We’re asking our officers to do more with less. We’re asking them to fight conventional crime, and we’re asking them to serve on the front lines in the war against terror,” he said.

Last year’s toll of 117 officers killed was a 50-year low that encouraged police groups. But this year’s total is more the norm than an anomaly: The number of police deaths has topped 160 five times since 2000, including 240 in 2001. The annual toll routinely topped 200 in the 1970s and before that in the 1920s.

The deaths were spread across more than 30 states and Puerto Rico _ with the most killings reported in Texas, California, Illinois, Florida and Georgia. The two law enforcement agencies with the most deaths were the California Highway Patrol and the Chicago Police Department, each with five.

Ten of the shooting deaths came from five tragedies in which several officers were shot and killed in groups.

The cluster shootings started in February, when authorities say a Fresno County, Calif. deputy was shot by an arson suspect who had vowed to kill investigators and himself rather than go to prison. The killing led to a daylong gunbattle during which a police officer was also shot and killed. The gunman later killed himself.

In March, San Juan authorities say two park rangers serving as guards at Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural Resources were gunned down by invaders who jumped a fence during an attempted robbery.

Two West Memphis police officers doing anti-drug work in May were shot to death by two men wielding AK-47s along an Arkansas interstate. The suspects were later killed in a shootout that injured the local sheriff and a deputy at a crowded Walmart parking lot.

In June, authorities say a man wanted for writing a bad check shot and killed two Tampa, Fla., police officers after he was pulled over at 2:15 a.m. And in August, a man was charged with killing two officers chatting in front of his home in the tiny Alaska village of Hoonah.

Maria Haberfeld, a professor of police science at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the rise of community-oriented policing over the last few decades has also had the unintended consequence of lessening the public’s respect for officers.

“It’s a cascading effect of the people thinking police are here to serve and protect them on an individual basis” instead of acting as an arm of the government, she said. “We spend hours teaching children about Shakespeare and history, but we don’t devote even an hour a week to the role of police in creating the world in which we live.”

The uptick in traffic deaths also troubled analysts.

The research didn’t reveal what led to many of the traffic deaths, partly because local departments often don’t keep complete records of those fatalities, said Floyd. But he said it suggests that more research is needed to investigate possible driver fatigue and distracted driving.

“We’re asking citizens not to talk and text on their cell phones, but we’re providing officers with laptop computers and cell phones and radios,” he said. “That means taking their attention from the road. Are we putting too many distractions in police vehicles?”

Club security nabs man with drugs www.privateofficer.com

BENTON, Mo.Dec 29 2010 — A Haywood City, Mo., man is in the custody of the Scott County Sheriff’s Department after a brief struggle Saturday when authorities reportedly found him in possession of marijuana at Mr. C’s Night Club in Sikeston, Mo.
Sheriff Rick Walter said in a news release that his deputies Sgt. Branden Caid and Cpt. Gregg Ourth came into contact with Aaron Peet, 21, at the nightclub where he allegedly was in possession of several bags of marijuana.
Caid was working security at the club and was asked to assist staff in checking patrons for weapons and contraband before entering the establishment, according to a probable-cause affidavit. Peet was also allegedly holding alcohol in a pants pocket, which is not allowed in the nightclub. Peet was being held on a $15,000 bond and is set to appear today before a Scott County Circuit Court Judge Scott Horman.

Source:Southeast Missourian

Arlington police officer killed during domestic incident www.privateofficer.com

Dallas TX Dec 29 2010 A police officer and two other people were found dead Tuesday night at a south Arlington apartment complex.

The officer, who was working alone, had been dispatched about 7:30 p.m. to take a domestic-violence report at the Arbrook Park Apartments in the 3800 block of Mahonia Way, near Interstate 20 and Collins Street.

Police spokeswoman Tiara Ellis Richard said the suspect in that offense was not expected to be at the apartments.

After a second call reported shots at the complex about 8 p.m., police found the officer and two other people dead inside an apartment, Richard said.

Police did not identify any of the victims, pending notification of their families.

They also did not say whether the assailant was among the dead.

Officers had closed access to the sprawling apartment complex and told motorists trying to enter the property to come back hours later.

“Any time you lose an officer … it’s hard on the department, it’s hard on the city as a whole,” Richard said. “These are people who day in and day out, they go out and do their job and they’re doing it to protect citizens here. It’s a hard loss for anyone, especially during this time of year.”

This is the second line-of-duty death of an Arlington officer this year. Officer Craig Story, 34, a motorcycle officer and a seven-year veteran, died in January in a crash with a school bus on South Cooper Street near West Inwood Drive.

Source:Dallas News