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Hotel meth cookers fire shots at security staff www.privateofficer.com
TULSA, Oklahoma May 2 2011– Tulsa police have arrested one man and are looking for two more involved in a meth lab discovered at a Tulsa hotel
Police and fire crews were called out to the Tulsa Select Hotel around 9 p.m. Saturday on a report of a possible fire.
Police say three men, including 47-year-old William Flowers, were cooking meth in a room when it sparked a small fire. Officers on the scene say the cook did fire shots at security guards and then all three took off running.
Williams was later found hiding in some bushes at 4100 E. 51st Street. The two other suspects are still on the run.
Police found a working meth lab and a 9mm Ruger semi-auto pistol inside the room.
Source:Newson6
Budget cuts have schools hiring security instead of police www.privateofficer.com
Des Moines IA May 2 2011 The Ankeny school district is one of a few in the country to replace police officers with private security guards to patrol the hallways, security experts say.
Six employees of Per Mar Security Services – three of them armed – began their work at Ankeny’s schools in late March. While Ankeny police still respond to incidents at schools as needed, the switch marks a departure from the school resource officer program that has been in Ankeny since the late 1980s.
City officials said the community’s growth has created a need for more police officers to patrol the streets and conduct investigations.
Ankeny Police Chief Gary Mikulec said private security in schools could become more common as cities and school districts tighten their budgets.
“There’s going to be a fair amount of interest in how this works,” he said. “To my knowledge, this is not repeated in any other place in Iowa at this time.”
Five Per Mar employees work at Ankeny High School and one is stationed at Northview Middle School.
“I’m very confident in the service that’s being provided,” Ankeny Superintendent Matthew Wendt said. “This has been almost a year in the works – this was not an off-the-cuff decision.”
Mikulec and Wendt said the majority of problems at the schools don’t require police intervention.
District officials reported there were 24 incidents of misconduct at the high school – ranging from simple pushing or shoving to a fight or other violent behavior – during the 2009-10 school year. There were 19 such incidents at Northview.
Of those numbers, only eight involved injury to a student, district officials said. Mikulec said there are perhaps four to six fights a year that result in assault arrests. Police handle a total of 50 to 60 cases a year stemming from other situations, including drug and alcohol offenses and thefts.
District officials said any searches of students and their lockers will continue to be handled by school personnel with the assistance of police, if needed.
Local officials have said Ankeny students’ safety will not be jeopardized through the change.
Randy Evans, a local business development manager for Per Mar, said many of the guards have a military background, one is a sworn law enforcement officer, and another has a teaching degree. The security officers were selected by Per Mar and Ankeny district leaders, he said.
Ken Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services in Cleveland, Ohio, said the traditional security model – school resource officers paid for by both the school district and local government – remains common around the country. But he’s heard of perhaps a half-dozen districts in recent years that have contracted with private security firms.
Trump, who previously worked as a school security director in the Cleveland area, said he believes private security firms are adequate for overseeing construction sites, parking lots and office buildings.
It is a different situation, he said, “when you’re talking about putting individuals in a position of responsibility for the safety and security of children and teachers.”
But Mikulec said supplementing police presence in schools with security workers is not a new idea.
Some schools around the country hire security guards directly, and others – such as districts in Los Angeles, Detroit and Dallas – have their own police forces.
The Milwaukee district has had its own program of unarmed security guards since the late 1980s, said Eduardo Negron, director of school safety and security there. The district’s school resource officer program with the Milwaukee Police Department, which has six members, started in 2007.
The Milwaukee district’s security department includes at least two guards at each of 12 high schools and one at each of five middle schools, with additional staff assigned based on schools’ needs. Others are stationed at various non-school buildings in the district.
Negron, who previously worked for the Milwaukee Police Department, said the unarmed security guards are successful at monitoring hallways, interacting with students, and serving as eyes and ears for school officials and law enforcement. Police are called in when needed, he said, but “there’s a lot that can be done internally.”
While some nationwide experts said they have concerns about police officers being removed from schools, they acknowledged that districts and cities are facing tough choices.
Trump said programs such as security are more likely to be cut than classroom needs as schools try to save money, although Ankeny officials say the district’s contract with Per Mar is for roughly the same amount the district previously spent on security, including half the salary for two police officers to be in the schools, part-time campus monitors, and additional money to hire additional police for special events.
Cities’ finances are also pinched, and the number of grants for school resource officer programs is dropping.
“Local police departments, like local school districts, are facing major budget crunches,” Trump said. “They don’t have the resources to hire additional personnel.”
Kevin Quinn, spokesman for the National Association of School Resource Officers, said it is important to keep police in the schools. However, he said, police departments’ community-based programs face challenges when money is tight.
“Those are the ones more apt to be getting cut” rather than patrol officers or investigative services, said Quinn, who is a school resource officer in Arizona.
Quinn said the police officers stationed at schools around the country also give students a chance to interact with law enforcement on a casual level, “to be that role model and to be that mentor.”
Members of Ankeny’s new security team said that while they aren’t professional counselors or educators, they want to help students when they can.
Chad Bentzinger, program manager, said it will be important to build those relationships with the teens and direct them to the right teacher, administrator or law enforcement officer if they come to him with a problem.
“I would never turn away a student,” he said.
A group of Ankeny High School students said they aren’t concerned about the security changes.
But they have noticed additional oversight at the schools’ exterior doors and that the security team has stepped up checks of parking credentials for student vehicles.
Delbert Stevens III, a senior, said it doesn’t matter whether security at Ankeny High School is provided by private-company guards or police officers.
“It’s always been a good school,” he said, with few problems.
“I’m not really worried about my safety,” said senior Alli Wittick.
Ankeny resident Ann Wright said she and her husband, Doug, are pleased that Ankeny officials from the district and the police department came to an agreement on how to expand security in the schools.
“We appreciate the school and city working together on this important issue,” she said.
Source:Des Moines Register
NC teacher accused of exploitation of minor www.privateofficer.com
Metcalf has been charged with 3 counts of exploitation of a minor.
Craven County Superintendent, Larry Moser said Metcalf was a great teacher and “it’s unfortunate [and] all the indications we have at this point in time point to the fact that no Craven County students were involved with the charges.”
Metcalf has worked with the Craven County School System for 18 years.
School officials said they were told of Metcalf’s arrest late Thursday afternoon.
The news of the arrest came as a shock for staff and parents.
School officials said an incident like this is something they never like to hear, especially when it’s with a teacher who was liked by so many parents and students.
Officials with the SBI are investigating the case.
Metcalf resigned from his position Friday. He is being held under a $50,000 secured bond. He scheduled to make his first court appearance May 2nd.
Craven County Schools is reporting the matter to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, which will investigate further to determine whether to revoke Metcalf’s license to teach.
NJ substitute teacher arrested for impersonating student on-line www.privateofficer.com
Adam Domaradsky, 24, was arrested Friday on one count of unauthorized access of a computer, a third-degree offense, and one count of impersonation, a fourth-degree offense, following a nearly two-month investigation that involved Old Tappan police and the Computer Crimes Task Force of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, Shine said.
Bail was set at $10,000 with a 10 percent option.
The student learned the two Internet accounts were violated after classmates in the K-8 district began asking about the graphic nature of the dialogue the alleged victim was having with them, police said.
“They started asking questions on why this particular juvenile was being so graphically and sexually explicit in their Internet conversations,” Shine said. “The juvenile said, ‘I wasn’t even on the Internet during the times you’re talking about.’Ÿ”
An adult brought the student in to talk to Old Tappan police because they noticed the passwords to the accounts had been breached and changed, Shine said.
Passwords were altered more than once, and the student was able to correct it, but “then it was breached again,” Shine said
The investigation into how the accounts were able to be accessed and the passwords changed is ongoing. Detectives are also looking into whether other students may have been victims.
“There may very well be other things that we find out,” Shine said. “There is a possibility that he’s working in other school districts.”
Police have been in contact with William Ward, superintendent of the Old Tappan school district. “We don’t want this individual to come back,” Shine said.
Ward said late Saturday that he was sending an e-mail out to parents at the K-8 Old Tappan Public Schools district. “I have an e-mail going to parents this evening informing them of any information I have,” he said. “In addition to that, I will be in contact with the area superintendent.”
Ward said he doesn’t know where else Domaradsky may be teaching, but “he won’t be allowed to substitute in the school district.”
Just last month, prosecutors in Minnesota accused a man of hacking into Facebook and other computer accounts and stealing photos of women to post on adult websites, according to The Associated Press.
Timothy Peter Noirjean, 26, of Minnesota was charged with 13 counts of identity theft. Authorities said that from February 2010 through March 2010, he contacted women online and duped them into providing him with personal information that allowed him to hack their Facebook and other accounts.
He allegedly stole photographs of eight women – ranging in age from 17 to 24 – and posted those pictures on adult websites, according to the AP.
Shine said he doesn’t know how many people Domaradsky may have had contact with. He asked anyone with information to contact Detective Joseph Tracy at the Old Tappan police or their local law enforcement agency.
Source:NorthJersey.com
Police charge man with 700 counts of sex crimes against children www.privateofficer.com
Ronald Morgan, 48, of Ross Township, was arrested in Butler County, but his charges span across four counties here in Pennsylvania and in four other states as well.
Morgan tried hard to avoid Channel 11’s cameras when he was led out of the barracks Saturday afternoon.
Channel 11 asked if he had anything to say about the accusations and he did not.
Officers said he allegedly began sexually abusing a girl when she was 12 and the abuse lasted for years.
Authorities said they collected photos and videotaped evidence of the crimes.
Channel 11 went to Ross Township to talk with people in his neighborhood.
“Well the Internet and you know all the things going on in today’s world, it is sad, you can’t do anything anymore, you can’t trust anyone,” Chris Musser said.
The lead detective on the case said it’s the most charges he’s ever filed against a suspect.
Troopers are concerned there could be more victims who haven’t come forward.
Morgan was charged with more than 700 counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, sexual abuse of children, endangering the welfare of children, sexual abuse of children, possession of marijuana and cocaine, indecent assault and corruption of minors, police said.
Morgan was in jail Sunday morning on $500,000 bond.
Source:WPXI
