Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "ridealong"

A Tragic End to a Former SacPD Officer

2010-05-03T00:34:31Z

I have come to the conclusion that most local new outlets do not commit enough resources to the difficult task our Sacramento Police Department faces everyday: maintaining order in a large modern city comprised of many different neighborhoods. I wouldn’t attempt to postulate if the lack of committed media resources is due to design or a natural evolution, but I have found it lacking for quite sometime, and have begun to use other methods to gain information on local Police activity. Since the first day of it’s inception I have read Sacpd.org’s Daily Activity Log. I have found it to be a fascinating read, full of stories and crimes you may not hear about on the television news. Many times I will see the a story on the Daily Activity Log regurgitated on the Sacramento Bee’s web site many hours after first appearing on Sacpd.org, only to then be copied almost verbatim on the T.V. newscast the next day. Going straight to the horses mouth, so to say, removes the filters that pick-and-choose the most sensational stories to feed to viewers, and allows me to paint a better mental picture of what our city’s fight against crime really looks like.

Another tool I’ve come to use recently is an Ipod app called “5-0 Radio Pro” which allows me to monitor the Sacramento Police Department’s main radio channel. With this tool I have heard numerous fascinating events, as they happen, live over the streaming internet feed; From DUI arrests to Domestic Disturbances, potential probation violations to all-out manhunts. I also listen to the mundane events like traffic control for weekend charity races and numerous other acts of civil service. When I hear “Air-1”, the police department’s helicopter, flying near my house, I turn on my Ipod to find out information about the situation. If I hear sirens coming from the main streets around me, usually I can follow the events as they happen, in real time. I highly recommend this app.However, reading the police blotter the day after an event and listening to the police radio from the comfort of my home is hardly the end of the story.

About a month ago I decided to take the next step and I applied for and was accepted into the Sacramento Police Ride-A-Long program. The Ride-A-Long program is pretty much just what it sounds like: for about six hours I was going to be allowed to sit in a police cruiser with an officer as he or she went about their daily business. This was to be a first-hand look at what our police force deals with regularly. I say “was” because unbenounced to me, the day I was in for was going to be anything but regular.

In the pre-dawn hours of May 1st 2010 I drove myself to the William J. Kinney Police Facility on Marysville Boulevard, the home of the North Sacramento and Natomas Police Districts. My instructions were to arrive at the facility a half an hour before the beginning of the Day Shift, which was to start at six a.m. Once greeted at the facility by an officer, I was told to wait in the roll call room to meet the officers who would be working that shift. The roll call room reminded me of a class room: bulletins on the walls with confirmed gang members mugs shots, charts and graphs displaying statistical crime data, a podium from which the shift commander would address the officers, and tables and chairs facing that direction.

As the officers arrived one by one into the roll call room, a noticeable buzz was in the air. The officers seemed to be a little preoccupied. A few started to speak about the discovery of a gun at a disturbance the night before. Another officer reaffirmed that he had completed a thorough search of the house, and that there was no gun when he searched it. Yet another deducted that the gun must have been hidden in a nearby car that remained unsearched. I was beginning to get a feel for the atmosphere of the room. I was witnessing a genuine and frank discussion of the previous nights events, and the people talking to one another seemed to show a mutual respect and level of professionalism that put me back. I don’t know what I was expected, but I was pleasantly surprised by everyone’s demeanor. Then the lieutenants walked in for the morning briefing.

The topic of the morning briefing was about an former Sacramento Police Department officer who had brandished a gun the night before. Her name was Jeanette Areiz, and in a matter of hours she would be dead at her own hand. Apparently she was arrested the day before for a number of felonies, the most important one being a 273.5, which is Domestic Violence. As the lieutenant went on, a tragic picture began to emerge. Officer Areiz retired from the force a few year prior, after a fall down a stairwell on-the-job left her permanently disabled. A disk in her lower back was injured, and she had to undergo surgery to have a titanium disk implanted. To help with the injury she was on some pretty serious pain-killers, which may-or-may-not come into factor later.

Jeanette and her domestic partner both had prior arrests for Domestic Violence on one another, and officers comments amongst themselves about the “cycle of violence” that comes with that. I felt a sense of helplessness in the officers comments when they discussed Domestic Violence. It seemed like all they could do was react to it, and that there was nothing they could do to prevent this crime. What could they do? It is not an officers job to make sure we’re all in healthy relationships. All they do is pick up the pieces when problems erupt.

After Jeanette was arrested, the lieutenant went on to say, she posted bail within a hour and made her way back home. At that time she contacted a current member of the Police Department and made suicidal threats. That officer, in fear for her friends well being, alerted the department and a call went out to do a welfare check at her residence. Officers were advised that she sounded to be under the influence of alcohol, and to approach with caution. Sure enough, when officers arrived at the scene around 10 pm the night of April 30th, Jeanette emerged from her garage with a gun to her head, and advanced on officers. I got the feeling that if not for the fact that she was ex-SacPD, she easily could have been shot right there. The officers showed an incredible amount of restraint and took their own safety into risk in efforts to defuse the situation, and retreated to fall-back positions to buy time and hopefully allow tempers to calm. Despite their best efforts, this was in vain.

Jeanette retreated to her home, and officers set up a perimeter far enough away from her house to be just out of sight. A morning shift officer took it upon himself to begin writing a warrant so Police could extract her from her home for her own well-being, and because she had committed further infractions of the law by brandishing the weapon in the presence on officers. I could tell that while the officers were worried about Jeanette’s welfare, they feared the outcome would not be favorable. As the warrant was being written, I headed off with my ride-a-long officer to relieve those who were on the perimeter from the graveyard shift. We sat for about half a hour, just out of sight of the house with five other officers nearby.

At this point I was being told over and over again that this was a big part of police work: waiting. We sat and we watched. We hoped that Jeanette was asleep in her home, possibly passed out from drink. The plan was to wait until the warrant was completed and hopefully peacefully take her into custody. I was told that it the warrant could take up to six hours to complete, and that it was going to be a boring day. That’s when Jeanette went and changed everything.

Suddenly a call came out on the radio: “Subject has come out the house with a gun.” I muttered an expletive I can’t repeat here. “Is that right now?” I asked the officer I had been sitting next to, just chatting with mere moments before about the weather and local life. “Yep.” he replied. “You better get out.” I got out of the car and he and the other cops nearby closed in on the house. Jeanette retreated inside her home. The stand-off was on.

Within what seemed like a few minutes, a flurry of police commanders, negotiators, and a SWAT team arrived. Police dogs and even a robot were on their way. A community “Club House” was commandeered and became the police’s tactical center. Everyone seemed focused on bringing the distraught woman out her home safely. Pretty soon word was spreading that she was sending text messages to her loved ones, saying that she was sorry but she “had to do this”. Officials became worried that they were not going to be able to entice her to come out and disarm. The time was about 8:15 a.m.

I have to admit, at this time I felt extremely fortunate. I had signed up for this ride-a-long to see the street work police perform in their cruisers. Instead I was treated to witness a play-by-play account of our cities finest navigate a delicate situation first hand. The coordination between the negotiating team, area commanders and SWAT was truly amazing. We should be so lucky as to have men and women such as I saw working for us in our fair city. Even as police officers would come up to me and apologize for the less-than-standard ride-a-long I was experiencing, I could not help but respond to them by thanking them for allowing me such incredible access to the inner working of a stand-off. These people had nothing to hide and it was evident by the manner they treated me and the amount of freedom they allowed me during this whole ordeal. I was in the shadow of many important figures and not once did I feel unwelcomed or like a burden. I want to thank everyone on the scene that day for that.

Unfortunately, around 11:00 am, after making contact with Jeanette via telephone a sound was heard coming from inside her home that sounded like a single gunshot. Police deployed a robot to her front door and gained entry to the residence. Upon entry the robot camera viewed everyone’s worst fear: it appeared that she was laying on floor , suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. All the efforts of the men and women that morning were in vain, as the pain of one person’s problems became too much. Although she was still alive at the time, Jeanette would die that night at the hospital. The tragic end to a surely complicated story, one that no amount of training or police hardware can prevent.

I signed up for the ride-a-long program hoping to gain further insight to my city and it’s daily tribulations. Instead I bore witness to the end of a citizens life and the amazing efforts of our police department to save it. I walked away from this experience with a deeper respect for of city’s protectors, and the comfort that they are there for us when we need them.

The Day in the Life of a K-9 Officer

2009-04-20T02:45:23Z

Here is an actual example of how it goes…Officer is on routine patrol. Officer runs a plate of an occupied vehicle with 3 subjects inside. The vehicle comes back stolen. Officers perform a vehicle stop. Car keeps going which turns into a pursuit. The pursuit continues for about 3-5 miles after which the subjects stop and bail out. Officer loses the driver who then calls for K9. Officers set up a perimeter and hold. They are waiting for the experts. Canines have the ability to detect scents from miles away. They have a scent cone that they follow until they find the area that is strongest. Once they find the strongest scent, they hit on it. Officers found two of the passengers and took them into custody. The driver was still outstanding. The driver thought he could ditch the K9 by hiding inside an industrial-sized BBQ outside of a Texas BBQ restaurant. The dog hit on the BBQ and was able to decipher the suspects smell amongst the ash, dried BBQ sauce and charcoal. When officers opened the top, he was hiding in the fetal position. He cried, “Don’t let that dog get me, I’ll do anything you want!”

They are the most loyal partners an officer could have. They don’t chatter or disagree, and they would take a bullet for their partner. They are the canine partners. The Sacramento Police Department currently has 11 dogs assigned. Nine of the dogs do routine patrol, and the other two are especially trained in ordnance (explosives), and narcotics.

The dogs that the Sacramento Police Department select are highly trained, and are chosen for their drive, temperament, working ability and physical soundness. Handlers continuously train the dogs at their new K9 training facility which is over an acre in size. It includes a 15,000 sq. ft. training field for obedience, control work, and apprehension training along with an area for a new challenging agility/obstacle course, yet to be built. Adjacent to the field is a large paved area that can be utilized for K9 training involving code 3 (red lights and siren) driving, felony vehicle stops, and vehicle retention and deployment training. We are also working on acquiring donated vehicles and building structures for narcotics and explosives detection and search training. It is at this facility that the K9s and their handlers will train in as realistic conditions as possible so that they can better perform out on the streets of Sacramento.

Officer Rick Osborn has been with the Sacramento Police Department since October 1979. He is the most veteran officer in the unit, who started his tenure as a K9 officer in 1987, and has had three K9 partners; Koda, Devo, and his current partner, Jerry Lee. He told me about a burglary call he responded to at downtown business. The suspect had smashed a window of an “adult” clothing store. After several announcements to clear out, Devo was sent in. Devo began biting a mannequin lying on the floor. Officer Osborn began to call Devo away from the mannequin and scolded him when, to his surprise, the “mannequin” began to scream. The suspect had taken off his clothes, and put on a short skirt and halter top. He then lay down on the ground and pretended to be a mannequin that had fallen over.

Rollo is the first Dutch Shepherd our department has used. Coincidently, his partner, Officer Linda Matthew is our first female K9 handler. Linda says of Rollo, “When I first got him, I was a little unsure of him. He doesn’t look like your typical police dog, like the other big, German Shepherds. He only weighed 56 pounds and looked like a cross between a ‘dingo’ and a ‘jackal.’ His face was small and he had these huge ears that didn’t fit his head. Besides handlers who are familiar with this breed, no one knew what he was. Not only am I the only girl in the unit, I’m the only one with a goofy looking dog. Now I have fun with it and tell people that he is a German Coyote, or an American Jackal.”

Matthews adds, “Being a K9 handler is definitely not a glamorous job. A ‘normal’ day for me now, is being covered in dog hair within the first five minutes of my shift, driving a car that smells like a wet dog in the winter, and often having dried dog slobber on my uniform. I routinely clean up vomit (Rollo gets carsick if I take corners too fast), pick dog hair out of my Starbucks, and have to listen to my partner bark in my ear all night. In the summer my partner drools on me when he is panting and in the winter he intentionally waits to shake-off inside the car on a rainy night. He even unzipped my backpack and chewed up my hairbrush, ate my lunch, and chewed the knob off the radio in the car! Having conversations with other handlers about dog stools is a ‘normal’ conversation to me now. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want any other partner. He never complains, loves to go to work and would do anything he had to to protect me.”

Just as Matthew said, the dogs love to go to work. On their days off, they go home to the officers’ home and integrate with their families. These dogs are very versatile. Every dog on our department is gentle towards children. We wouldn’t have them unless they were. But when they go to work, they are all business.

Aaron Thompson and his partner “Hutch” have been together since 2005. Thompson says, “A zero-to-60 call in about 2 minutes is pretty typical for K9. One minute you and your partner are apprehending a parolee-at-large (PAL) suspect, and 30 minutes later we are at a recruitment poster photo shoot.”

Officer Dustin Smith joined the Sacramento Police Department 1995. He started working with his partner “Apollo” in 2004. He recalls a vehicle stop in the south area where a PAL fled from police. Several K9 teams responded to the area to conduct a search in a perimeter. During the course of the search, officers learned that the PAL was possibly hiding in a residence. All of the residents were removed from the house and officers gave an admonishment that they were sending the dog in. A male subject exited a bedroom and immediately surrendered to Officer Smith (smart man). This, however, was not the intended PAL. The detained male advised that there was no one else in the house. Several more admonishments were made about the presence of the dog. Apollo quickly discovered the intended PAL hiding underneath a bed in the living room. After he was taken into custody (not so smart man), the PAL told Officer Smith that he was surprised that the dog had found him. When Smith asked him why, the PAL told him that he had taken a shower to get his scent off him so that the dog wouldn’t find him. Little did the PAL know there is nothing a person can do to hide their scent from a dog. Smith said, “You can’t control your human scent. Humans have ‘skin rafts’ that shed off your body. Even jumping in a river won’t make a difference. The skin rafts ‘hover’ above your body, on top of the water. They will not float down the river.”

Most of the dogs are cross trained as well. In addition to working patrol, the Sacramento Police Department has dogs that are trained for detecting explosives and weapons, and others for finding narcotics.

Officer Frank Reyes, an 18-year veteran has a partner named “Gator.” Gator is trained to sniff out narcotics. He is an 8-year-old black Labrador Retriever who has worked with Reyes since 2001. He has located hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of narcotics during the course of his duties. He’s found narcotics in dryer vents, stereo speakers, under car seats, you name it. There is no place Gator can’t detect drugs. Even the mere residue will set him off. When he hits on an area, he begins scratching, wagging his tail, and “hollers” to alert Reyes to look further. Once he discovers the stash, his only reward is “the towel.” Reyes rolls up a hand towel and tapes it close. Playing tug-o-war and catch with Gator, coupled with multiple “good boy” and “atta boy” is the best prize Gator could ever ask for.

To see these wonderful K9 teams in action, please join the Sacramento Police Canine Association on October 24th and 25th for the end-of-year Police Canine Trial sanctioned by the Western States Police Canine Association. The competition is a two day event with a narcotics portion on Friday the 24th, and the Patrol portion on Saturday the 25th. The competition will be held at Dan McAuliffe Field located just south of Sacramento State University. Friday’s event will begin at 5:00 p.m. Saturday’s event will begin promptly at 8:00 a.m. and will conclude at approximately 4:00 p.m. with an awards banquet to follow at the Sacramento State Alumni Center.

Log on to the Sacramento Police Department K9 website by going to www.spdk9.org. There you can read each officer’s biography and see photos, great videos, about upcoming events, and even stories like the one where K9 Officer Smith delivered his own baby at the side of the freeway on the way to the hospital!

A Day in the Life of: A Graveyard Officer

2009-04-12T17:03:38Z

When working the night shift, the term “graveyard” comes to mind. Even though the term seems morbid, according to the battery of officers I spoke with, it wasn’t so bad.

In law enforcement, the night shift is usually between the hours of 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. This shift deals with a whole different sub-culture than that of the day shift. Not only is the clientele different, so are the crimes that they commit. Most crime escalates during the night, and when you add a full moon, it is even more of a circus. Medical personnel also agree that a full moon contributes to busier shifts.

Some people prefer the night shift, especially those with children. What other shift can one work where they see their children off to school, pick them up, be there for dinner, and leave around bedtime.

One of the negative aspects to working the night shift is the sleeping. You can line your windows with foil, turn the white noise on, wear an eye cover and turn off the telephone; but it takes some getting used to. One officer I spoke with said that he used to put a mattress in his closet so that it would be dark enough to sleep. Another said that he hung a blanket and made a tent around his bed every morning.

Officer Donald Schumacher has worked the night shift for five years. He says that the graveyard shift is the best shift to work as an officer. There is less traffic, tighter team camaraderie cooler nights, and a good balance of calls for service versus time to do other things like traffic stops.

Officer Schumacher says, “Graves has its own variety of crime. There are different types of crimes that occur on the night shift.” He then said that night shift is difficult on everything including weight loss, sleep deprivation, and hard on the significant other. He then added, “ I belong to a very exclusive group of people who get to end their day with the sun coming up, and I have always been very proud of that.”

Sergeant Chris Taylor worked the night shift for three years. When asked what helped him sleep during the day, Sergeant Taylor said that working out helped. “I’d work out really hard after my shift. I’d then drive home and fall into bed.” Sergeant Taylor added, “ As a police officer, there was a lot to do on graveyard. The hard thing about the night shift is never seeing the sun.”

Sergeant Patrick Kohles works the night shift in the east area. He says, “I think it (nightshift) is the best work in the department if you have to work patrol. The work is fun. I also think the teams are a lot closer with one another because we don’t have access to many of the other resources that are available on other watches. The officers and supervisors develop a stronger bond with one another, which often carries over into their personal lives.”

Sergeant Kohles said that he personally doesn’t have any issues with the sleeping itself, but says that sleeping during the day during the work week, then resuming “normal” sleep schedules on his days off, is hard on sleep patterns. He adds, “Overall police work is a wonderful and gratifying career. It allows you to help people who are sometimes less fortunate and might be down on their luck.”

The overall consensus with most officers I spoke with agreed that what you lose in sleep, you gain in job satisfaction.