Ottawa County Sheriff - Ottawa County Deputy Sheriff Association

From the Muskegon Chronicle:

"Brian Ahlin thought he saw a large stick in the middle of 156th Avenue in Ottawa County Monday morning until it reared up and started attacking the side of his pickup.

"I was driving to my home on Polk Street and saw this SUV on the side of the road and I what I thought was a stick in the road," he said. "But as I got closer I said, 'That ain't no stick.' And then as I got closer I realized, 'Shoot, that's snake.' Then I got even closer and I thought 'That's a python!' Then, it started attacking the truck."

State Police Trooper William Coon of the Grand Haven Post was dispatch. When Coon arrived, he found a 7-foot-long python lunging at anything that moved, including himself.

"It's jaws were really wide open and he came after me," Coon said. "Even after being run over, it was still lunging."

Coon said he had no choice but to kill the snake. It took three bullets, including one to the head.

Click here to read the rest of the article from the Muskegon Chronicle

Monday morning two women were shoplifting at a T.J. Maxx store in the Lansing mall. When the two were confronted by the store security officer they pepper sprayed the poor fellow and took off. One of the suspects tried to run from responding Officers, but was found hiding behind a cardboard compactor at a nearby Goodwill store. She refused to provide the Officers arresting her with the location of her accomplice.

Unfortunately for her accomplice, Police were called back to the goodwill store a few minutes later by a goodwill store employee who told dispatchers he could hear a woman screaming and stuck inside the machine which was still running. The accomplice, Tyree Monique Tate, 26, of Delta Township, was extracted and transported to a nearby hospital and she died earlier this morning of her injuries, police said.

Click here for the full story from Wood TV8 (mosimage)

  Adeona is a free program created by some good folks at the University of Washington that will help you get your laptop back in the event it is stolen. Even better, unlike commercially available alternatives (ones you pay for) with Adeona your location is kep secret from everyone except those you wish to have access to it.

Adeona, when installed on your laptop, will send out random updates as to the I.P. address your computer is using to access the internet making it possible to track down the stolen machine if the thief accesses the internet with it (which of course he will).

Best of all, the data that is sent out is encrypted so only you can access it. The Mac version of the program even has a built-in utility to snap pictures of the bandit using the integrated webcam.

Click the "Read More" link to get started using Adeona

How would you rank the relative risk for officers and suspects suffering injury from these 5 force options:

• Empty-hand control techniques
• Baton
• OC spray
• Conducted energy weapons (Tasers)
• Lateral vascular neck restraint.

If you judged OC to be the safest and baton to be most injurious to both officers and offenders, you¹re in agreement with the findings of a new study of force encounters involving officers on a major municipal department.

The study, the first of its kind in Canada, was conducted by S/Sgt. Chris Butler of the Calgary (Alberta) Police Service and Dr. Christine Hall of the Canadian Police Research Center.

They analyzed 562 use-of-force events that occurred across a recent 2-year period as officers effected the arrests of resistant subjects in Calgary, a city of more than 1 million population. The threatened or actual use of firearms were omitted from the review, as were handcuffing, low-level pain compliance techniques like joint locks and pressure points, K-9s, and tactical responses such as chemical agents, flashbangs and less-lethal projectiles.

Click to enlarge

According to the article, the academy was designed to give the teens a safe environment for them to get a first look at emergency services careers — such as firefighting, paramedical and law enforcement. The academy was something the departments had wanted to put on for a few years, Gerencer said, but were unable to do it until this year.

In the academy teens had a chance to try emergency services tasks like high-angle rescue drills, which include repelling as well as using the "jaws of life" to tear the roof off a car and extricate the simulated victim of a car accident.

Although this years academy, the first, was kept small on purpose, Gerencer and Smith hope to expand to 15 students next year and add activities like simulate weapons scenarios.

Click here to read the article from the Grand Haven Tribune

The Force Science Research Center has in their latest news bulletin the answers to some important and sometimes controversial questions about how to conduct an investigation into officer involved shootings.

These answers are based on a new report by the Americans for Effective Law Enforcement (AELE) in its web-based Monthly Law Journal. The AELE is a leading educational organization serving law enforcement, and their scholarly journal regarding this article is available here.

The Force Science Center has broken down this paper into easy to read recommendations for Police Departments and Sheriff's Departments on how to conduct their next OIS investigation.

These recommendations are available by clicking the "Read More" link below.

If anything good can ever came from war it is that Law Enforcement, like many other industries, often benefits after it from advances in military technology and "field testing" of new equipment.  Given that, the current war in Iraq should be a huge bounty for Law Enforcement as our Infantry has been forced to shift from a traditional war role to one that is much more Law Enforcement like. 

This shift has fortuitously coincided with a strong push in the Army to replace the M-16 and shorter M-4 rifles that they have used since Vietnam.

Click the "Read More" link to read the rest of the article here and from Popular Mechanics.

Officer.com has a great article describing why our prosecutors don't object more when we want or expect them to. Not to say your prosecutor isn't just sleeping in his chair, but there might be a good reason why he lets some of those silly questions go.

Val Van Brocklin does a good job of explaining the legal reasons for whitholding an objection and the tactical reasons they might have to avoid giving a clever defense attorney an opportunity to attack you even further.

Click here to read the article from Officer.com

• Winning Courtroom Confrontations - A New Approach to Preparing Police Witnesses
• Trial Behavior: Presenting Insurance Company Witnesses
• Courtroom Bloopers

With the help of the Deputy Sheriff's Association of Michigan, Michigan's Local Corrections Officers and Reserve Deputies will no longer be restricted from "Weapons Free Zones" such as schools, hospitals and sports arenas.

P.A. 194 of 2008 will take affect on January 7th, 2009 and will allow CCW holding Corrections and Reserve Deputies this exemption. The relevant piece of the act is below:

(4) Subsection (1) does not apply to any of the following:
(a) An individual licensed under this act who is a retired police officer or retired law enforcement officer. The
ncealed weapon licensing board may require a letter from the law enforcement agency stating that the retired police
cer or law enforcement officer retired in good standing.
(b) An individual who is licensed under this act and who is employed or contracted by an entity described under
bsection (1) to provide security services and is required by his or her employer or the terms of a contract to carry a
ncealed firearm on the premises of the employing or contracting entity.
(c) An individual who is licensed as a private investigator or private detective under the private detective license
, 1965 PA 285, MCL 338.821 to 338.851.
(d) Any of the following who is licensed under this act:
(i) A corrections officer of a county sheriff’s department.
(ii) A motor carrier officer or capitol security officer of the department of state police.
(iii) A member of a sheriff’s posse.
(iv) An auxiliary officer or reserve officer of a police or sheriff’s department.
(v) A parole or probation officer of the department of corrections. 

Click here to read the rest of the law

The style of sagging pants riding down or below one's buttocks, which was popularized in the 90's by hip hop rappers and supposedly has it roots in prison where oversized uniforms were issued without belts, will be enforced in Flint under disorderly conduct and indecent exposure statutes.

Interim Police Chief David Dicks handed down a memo last week stating, ""This immoral self expression goes beyond freedom of expression." Dicks, 41, broke down his interpretation of the laws as such: Pants pulled completely below the buttocks with underwear showing is disorderly conduct; saggy pants with skin of the buttocks showing is indecent exposure, and saggy pants, not completely below the buttocks, with underwear exposed results in a warning.

As you might imagine the ACLU is already looking into Dicks' interpretation of the law and is expected to oppose it as they have in other municipalities around the country that have tried to ban the fad.

Rich Riley of the Detroit Free Press posted a funny look at this action and it's possible application to young ladies "hip hugger" jeans on his blog.

Read more from WZZM13 or the Detroit Free Press

The NY Times has an article about the proliferation of these types of laws available here.