Posted by cyd evans I saw an officer talking on a cell phone while driving a marked car yesterday. Don’t the same rules apply to police officers as the general public regarding only using hands free devices? Dear cyd evans, Police officers are to abide by the same rules of the road as citizens. However, there are some exceptions to these rules – for instance, when talking on a cell phone while driving, California Vehicle Code Section 23123 (d). This section does not apply to an emergency services professional using a wireless telephone while operating an authorized emergency vehicle, as defined in Section 165, in the course and scope of his or her duties. This translates to, if the offi

Posted by MartinM Hi,I suspect that my friend Is using drugs,I am almost sure he is using some kind of drugs.Should I report him? After all I am not 100% sure,but he has had some problems before. Thank you. Dear MartinM, It sounds like you have some concerns about your friend using drugs. You may be right. Have you discussed this with your friend? He may need help and police involvement may not be the best route. Your friend may need some intervention from friends and family. There are many drug and alcohol clinics in Sacramento and in the outlying region where your friend may seek help. If your friend is selling drugs or furnishing the drugs to others, then you should call the police

A Sacramento businessman is searching for clues that will hopefully lead to the return of his tools after thieves broken into his Downtown studio overnight and made off with thousands of dollars worth of equipment. Sometime between 6 p.m. Thursday night and 6 a.m. Friday morning, an unknown number of bandits cut a hole in the north side of the building that Reclamation Art + Furniture uses as its studio. Once inside, the burglars grabbed the table saw, nail guns, angle grinders, and other small construction tools that the business owner, Steven Tiller, uses to craft his beautiful and one-of-a-kind functional furniture pieces, mostly out of old and discarded materials. Tiller is hopeful t

The Sacramento Sheriff's K9 Association held a fundraiser and demonstration Sunday at Pet Food Express on Fair Oaks Blvd. Along with meeting the K9's, getting to rub a K9 belly and meet their handlers, goers had the opportunity to purchase the new 2012 SSDK9 calendar loaded with dynamic images of the dogs and their handlers by XSiGHT Photography and Video. Ike, one of twelve active K9’s in the unit, has seen his fair share of rough and tumble, part of the job as a K9. Deputy Pomerson, Ike’s partner and handler, related how Ike went over a fence after a bad guy and punctured a lung. With the punctured lung, Ike still latched on to the bad guy until deputies apprehended the perp. Ike’s ch

Posted by cherylwin Can I complete a restraining order on someone without providing my location? This is a person who was in prison for kidnapping me years ago and is now free and off parole as of yesterday. Dear cherylwin, It must be unnerving for you knowing that the man who once victimized you is out. Here’s what you should do. His parole agent should have already put those conditions on his parole prior to getting out of prison. You may want to call Parole and make sure the condition to stay away from you was added. He must only know your name and you don’t need to supply your address. If you see the man anywhere near you, call the police. If he attempts to contact you via telephone

Posted by bmclemons Hello Michelle.. Question.. I’m aware of a vehicle which obviously hit something when the driver was drunk not sure if it was a pole or something, but was able to make it back. The car is sitting in an apartment complex garage now for over 3 months and is completely totaled. Shouldn’t this be reported to either DMV or the authorities? Dear bmclemons, You could call the police department in your jurisdiction and report it as a suspicious vehicle. The dispatcher will ask you what the license plate is. It may be a stolen vehicle, or a vehicle involved in a crime. If it doesn’t have a plate attached to the vehicle, an officer can still be sent out to check the vehicle id

Posted by Jib916 Good Morning Michelle. I had a question regarding how you plan on handling the occupiers/campers camping in front of best buy and other big box retail stores for black Friday. If Sacramento has a no tent policy, isn’t it only fair that these peoples camping equipment shall be confiscated, just like the protesters? After all the law is the law. Any response would be greatly appreciated. Thank You Justin Buell Dear Justin, The “no tent” policy you are speaking about refers to occupying a camping space on city/county property. When people camp in front of stores in anticipation for stores to open or to get prime tickets at a box office, they are occupying space on priva

Posted by ron_lopez2011 Please extend my personal thanks to the officers involved in the arrest of Rasaan Zawadi. I hope you get his accomplices too. That story just bugged me to the core; thank you for what you guys do. Dear ron_lopez2011, Thank you Ron! For those of you who aren’t familiar with Rasaan Zawadi, he was one of two bullies who were shown in a viral video taunting and punching a handicapped woman in front of a South Sacramento store. Zawadi was seen harassing and punching the female victim several times. Another suspect, 19-year-old Donnell Wade, who was seen punching the female in the face and knocking her out, was also arrested for the crime. According to a recent press

Posted by ted bas Greetings! I enjoy reading these archive articles. Thanks. In my neighborhood, I suspect 3 individual who are, I believe, are in constant plans to rob empty home. One of them daily eye on certain vehicles which would have left their residence. I believes he communicates this to his partner and then determines who else is left behind on a house they plan to steal from. Yesterday I went out to the area where he usually observes. when he saw me, we walked away like guilty for some reason. Today, he is out there but in a more secluded area, eyeing or in a look out for some vehicle while he talks to his friend in the cell phone. Need your advice. I am willing to help to preve

Gang violence took what officials described as a drastic drop since July 2010, attributing the drop to Mayor Kevin Johnson’s gang-prevention programs initiated in June of 2010 and again after last December’s fatal barbershop shooting. Since implementing some of the measures, Lt. Bill Champion of the Sacramento Police Department said that the results have been effective. The number of gang-related firearm assaults has dropped by 60 percent, and the overall rate fell by 39 percent. In addition, there has been a 75 percent drop in homicide rates, and a 100 percent drop in non-fatal shootings. Community leaders gathered at City Hall Monday morning to discuss the mayor’s plan. Speakers, inc

Posted by logsmom08 Hi Officer Michelle! I am a renter in the Sacramento area. I live in a duplex and share the other half of the house with someone who has a ‘medical card’. My neighbors and I share a garage wall in our duplex and I am assuming that they smoke in their garage because when I walk in my garage, the stink about knocks me over. Do I have any rights to ask them to stop smoking in the garage or anywhere where I and my family can smell or be effected by it? Dear logsmom08, The best thing you can do about that is to speak with your landlord. Some landlords have their renters sign a marijuana smoking clause now. The law about smoking marijuana regardless if it is for medicinal

Posted by neighborwatch Hi Michelle, We recently had new neighbors move in the house behind ours. They have a few dogs, 2 of which are large pit bulls. The first thing we noticed were the dogs barking for extended periods of time, all hours of the night. The tenants are home, but seem to ignore the barking. Recently we’ve witnessed 3 instances where the largest dog is attacking the other dogs/other possible animals in their backyard. Vicious attacks which leave their deck stained with blood. The most recent incident involved the woman trying to separate the dogs, and she was thrown to the floor and screaming. I called 911 as I felt her life was in danger. Unfortunately I don’t know what

Sacramento Police Department press release: The Sacramento Police Department is searching for the second suspect, 19-year-old Donnell Wade, in the unprovoked attack that was captured on video. On October 12, 2011, the Sacramento Police Department was made aware of a video, showing suspects assaulting a female, which had gone viral on the Internet. We received calls from throughout the country inquiring about the investigation. Detectives assigned to the case discovered that patrol officers responded to an assault call on October 1, 2011, at approximately 12:11 p.m., near Center Parkway and Mack Road. The officers arrived and determined the suspects had fled the scene and the victim, a 42

Sacramento Police Department press release: The Sacramento Police Department arrested 21-year-old Rasaan Zawadi for the unprovoked attack on a female that was captured on video and believed to have been posted by the suspects. On October 12, 2011, the Sacramento Police Department was made aware of a video of an assault on a female that had gone viral on the Internet. We received calls from throughout the country inquiring about the investigation. Detectives assigned to the case discovered that patrol officers had responded to an assault call on October 1, 2011, at approximately 12:11 p.m., near Center Parkway and Mack Road. The officers arrived finding that the suspects had fled the scen

Posted by GARYA73 Is it illegal to video record an on-duty peace officer?   Dear GARYA73, In the State of California, it is legal to video tape a peace officer, if you are in public and have a legal right to be there. You must not impede the officer in any way while they are in the course of his/her duties. If a crime scene has been established, members of the public may not cross it, even to film. This may lead to contaminating evidence within the crime scene. This happens all the time. Everyone has a camera phone or a video recorder and officers are constantly being scrutinized. The other issue is that people often post their videos on social media networks. I am of the philosophy

Authorities said 20 protesters were arrested at about 12:45 a.m. Friday when they refused to leave Cesar Chavez Plaza, the site of the Occupy Sacramento demonstration. Both police and protesters described the arrests as peaceful. “They went without any problems or issues,” said Sgt. Andrew Pettit, spokesman for the Sacramento Police Department. “They were booked for failure to disperse after a lawful order.” Anthony Bondi, a spokesman for Occupy Sacramento, agreed. “It was completely violence-free,” he said Friday afternoon. “The protesters laid down and chose to be arrested.” Despite what some protesters said they think was an overbearing police presence, Pettit said units involved w

Despite budget reductions and recent layoffs in the police department, serious crime in Sacramento has dropped 18 percent over the last three years – the second largest decline in California among cities of similar size – according to a report that Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel presented to City Council Tuesday. Braziel told council members that the core mission of the Sacramento Police Department hasn’t changed since 2008 when he took charge. The mission, he said, is still “reduce crime, engage the community and provide excellent service.” What has changed, however, is the number of police personnel – 81 sworn officers were laid off in July – and a department budget reduced by $1

Posted by gigglebabe this may be silly but need some info My daughter looking for summer work decided to place a ad on craigs list. she received a replay from a guy and said he needed a personal assistant she was all caught up in making her on money she said she would do what ever it was he needed long story short her first task was to take these money orders and cash them , then western union the money, thought it was weird but told her the bank or post office would be able to tell if they were fake well they were, i just want to know that she wont be in trouble for taking them to the post office (they kept them and said they would be turned over to the investigators) and should we conta

Posted by Rocky427 We’ve own our home for 4 years and know almost all our neighbors very well. We get along with almost all our neighbors. The homeowners that lives across the street are a very kind and elderly couple who has 2 or 3 adult sons (in their late 30s to early 50s) that live with them. We’ve said “hello” to the family in passing, and has never had any problems with them. We’ve seen the police at that house late at night occasionally, and learn that there are problems between the family members. Last month, one of the sons (who is in his 50s) was pacing in front of his house. As we were coming back from our walk, he became very paranoid. He wanted to know why we were talking a

Posted by kvv2002 I have a friend who recently broke up with her ex and she would like to get her stuff back out of his mother’s house. Both the mother and son are being uncooperative and all my friend wants is her stuff. How can she go about getting her items, if they are unwilling and ‘playing games’? Dear kvv2002, This is a pretty common dilemma. She can either set up a meet time which is convenient for her ex and his mother to get your belongings or she can take the her ex to small claims court to get her belongings. The latter may be a long and expensive process but she could mention it if she gets resistance. Depending on what possessions were left there, it may not be worth the