View from the cop: Crime & punishment
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AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2006 > February
February 2006
Odes to going corporate, Barney Fife
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I haven’t had to start a new job in over 26 years so this transition to the new Sandy Springs department has, to say the least, been interesting in many different ways. I’ve been on the job for one week now. Everything has been really good, but there is one side effect that I believe no one saw coming.
Everyone in the city of Sandy Springs government is new. So many new acquaintances. When you start a new job and are among new faces in the workplace, what is the one thing you do around other people?
Smile. Smile a lot.
Yep. I’ve been smiling almost non-stop for over two weeks. Children, listen to me. When your mother says: “If you don’t stop making that awful face, it’ll stay that way forever.” Well, apparently there’s something to it.
Since that first day, a rather grotesque version of what should be a pleasant look has grown to my face and I can’t get off. When you meet someone for the first time, its OK to smile but, frankly, I think I’m starting to scare the other people in the building.
(The neighbor’s cat died the other day. I went over to express my sympathy. It didn’t go well.)
I admit I have never been among nor comfortable around the corporate environment. Police people are a bit different and, as I am finding, not easily mixable with normal folk.
First of all, we wear guns. It makes a lot of the people nervous. We got an e-mail from the safety guy about workplace violence. They worry about people bullying us. We haven’t seen any problems.
Standard operating procedures are very different in the corporate environment.
For instance they really like doing flow charts and printing other charts just for simple things.
For instance, I asked where the bathroom was. The next thing I knew I was watching a PowerPoint presentation followed by the very popular video “Bathroom Etiquette” narrated by the late Broderick Crawford.
I like the corporate people. They have a lot of rules. though. They like you to use happy words to show others how happy you are in this company. As you know, happy people are nice and they tend to be more helpful. I like the happy words and I try to use them often but the effect is lost after they see the guns and hand grenades on my belt.
Corporate people like balloons. They like balloons because balloons, for some reason, are an important element in the fiscal strategy of most big powerful businesses. In Alan Greenspan’s 2001 annual report he wrote: “Over 750 major commercial real estate corporations reported a significant rise in housing starts due to balloons.”
After a few days we moved from the really corporate area to the semi-corporate area of the Sandy Springs city Hall complex. We now have a row of cubicles where we can be in our own area. We’re close enough to the nice people but now we can retreat to the back end of the row of cubicles and say (%$&$^$!!) in a low tone when we want. You can tell where our cubicles are. The balloons are wrapped in crime-scene tape.
Tribute to Barney Fife
Don Knotts died Sunday at 81. “One-bullet Barney Fife” was one of the most beloved characters known to the ranks in law enforcement agencies across the country. There were a lot of police officers, over the years, with some Deputy Fife in them. Most of them young gung-ho and naive.
None were completely like him but his mannerisms and predicaments he got himself into were, in some form or fashion, recreated by many a rookie. He was the Elvis of police nerd-isms.
In his honor, the entire Sandy Springs Police Department, all 11 of us to date, wore a bullet in our pocket Feb. 27 and proclaimed it “One-bullet Barney” day.
As I am sure that Barney Fife’s picture will forever don the walls of precincts everywhere, I am equally sure that sometime this week many a dry-cleaning owner will scratch their heads after finding a bullet in someone’s laundry.
For now, it’s time to get back to work. Crime is up. Time to nip it in the bud, folks.
Part 2: Common sense, being alert
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
More advice on how to avoid being a crime victim (see previous post):
Personal protection
— Think about where you are going and what time you’re going to be there. Don’t just decide to go to the ATM after dark when you can do it earlier.
— Don’t use walk-up ATMs, especially after dark.
— Don’t walk in areas you are not familiar with for instance, after events such as concerts, games, etc.
— Safety in numbers. Go somewhere with a friend.
— Don’t wear loose clothing and secure you purse using a shoulder strap. Tuck the purse under your arm.
— Keep your money and credit cards in your front pocket so that if you’re robbed of your purse, you won’t lose as much. Better yet, the smaller the purse, the less it attracts attention to someone who wants to steal it.
— If someone pulls a weapon and demands your purse or wallet, give it to them.
— When you get to your car, get in and go. Don’t hang around talking on the cell phone or whatever else that can wait.
— I suggest that you buy and carry pepper spray. Get the good stuff that shoots about a 10-foot stream. Have it in your hand when you’re in an area that leaves you vulnerable.
— Have it discreetly on you as not to advertise it.
— Don’t be afraid to use it.
— If you use it, it takes a couple of seconds to hit the membranes. Use a lot of it, not short bursts of pepper gas.
— Don’t abuse the would-be attacker while he rolls around on the ground. Call the police.
Personal attack
This is the hardest part of prevention to give advice on because it involves the possibility of deadly force. Women particularly are targeted for sex crimes that often result in injury or even death. It’s easy to tell people what they should do in an event of a personal attack but most advice is given in the best case scenario which is rarely the case.
Having some prior information and doing some advance (recon) can make the world of difference. Fundamentally, the rapist needs to get the victim from a public place to a private place to commit the crime. It could be a car, or a side street, a stair well in a building or in your home. Never assume this can’t happen. Think about what you’re doing and where you’re going AHEAD of time. Don’t get yourself isolated or walk alone in the city or in places you’re not familiar with, especially after dark.
Never accept rides and watch what you accept as a drink from a stranger. We see many cases of victims who were drugged. The last thing they remember was accepting a drink from someone they didn’t know or just met. Check the Web for more advice. Go to any search engine and type in PERSONAL PROTECTION and pick up some tips you probably didn’t know.
Above all, use common sense and don’t be afraid of inconveniencing yourself to change a schedule or habit for safety’s sake.
Remember, bad guys have check lists
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s time for your quarterly reminder that you do have control over your destiny a bit if you will take some time and think about things that a lot of people never think about.
There has been a rise in street-level crime over the past 12 months, mostly in this general area. Many pedestrian robberies occur when the victim gets out or into a car parked in a medium- to large-size parking lot or isolated in some way, for example, at a bus stop after dark.
The victim is most often approached by one or two people and robbed at gunpoint of a wallet and cell phone. In some cases they take the victim’s car. If the robbery yielded credit cards, they’re used immediately, often at a nearby department store.
Pedestrian robberies are meant to take only a few seconds. One minute is a long time for either the victim or robber. The robber has to worry about someone coming along and seeing the crime. He also has to consider that the longer he is in contact with the victim, the less his advantage with the surprise and intimidation factor. (Sooner or later the victim is going to get mad.)
The victim’s safety, of course, is in jeopardy and will be until that contact is broken. Although both people are on different sides of the crime, the goal for each is a short meeting.
You read stories occasionally where the victim or witness turns the tables on the bad guy and takes control and saves the day.
I saw a video recently of the man, waiting on his pizza, tackling a robber who was standing at the counter, with a gun, robbing the clerk. The witness was behind and to the side of the robber, sitting in a chair alongside the front window of the store. As the customer rushed the bad guy, he tackled him just before he could turn around with the gun. It worked out very well for him.
I’m sure a lot of criminals who use a gun aren’t prepared to shoot someone but then again, you better believe that some are. If the robber had turned a half-second earlier, he would have had a clear shot. That man’s fate would have been in the hands of the bad guy.
Think about that part of it and don’t forget to think about all the people who would be affected if you are buried next week. All I’m saying is don’t get caught up in all the hero stuff until you think it through. Most of the time the crime springs so fast that you clearly do not have the advantage. Don’t risk your life for a few seconds of video-time on the 11 o’clock news.
I don’t know what the odds are, but I’m sure that at some point in our lives, we’ve all been involved in or near someone involved as a victim or bad guy. Wrong place at the wrong time stuff. How many of you can think back and remember a time or two where you were in one place that, if you were a little bit up there or back yonder, you could have been in deep — well, mud.
Not counting police stuff, I remember several incidents. Once in high school I was driving home on a cut-through street from Doraville to Chamblee. I heard something and slowed down to try and figure out what it was. I stopped my car just short of an intersection and saw one of those things you remember in slow motion, like when the Six Million Dollar man ran anywhere, only without the irritating tattering noise that accompanied it.
The cops were chasing a car. They were flying and crossed over a set of railroad tracks sitting on top of a small incline. I’m sure they were anywhere from 80 to 100 mph. The bad guys crested the hill and went airborne, ala Dukes of Hazzard, and flew over the intersection about 10 feet in front of me, landing abruptly into an apartment building. (They obviously didn’t know the street dead-ended at the apartments. The three men inside did live to tell about it however.)
The wheels of their car were about the same height as the windows in my car as it flew past me meaning that I was 10 feet from a bad night. (Another near-death experience involved my escape from the enemy during the Battle of Tijuana when I was in the Navy. … well, let’s move on.)
The moral of the story is this: Use common sense.
Crime prevention involves a lot of information that can easily become obsolete; especially now that technology advances at such a rapid pace. It’s impossible to remember all the things that you could do to prevent this and that. What you need to remember are some absolutes of committing a crime.
Cupid or stupid: It’s crunch time, guys!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Valentine’s Day is a national holiday designed to either get your butt out of trouble or get it into a whole lot of trouble. It is the annual “I am so sorry and so stupid at the same time but hopefully you’ll think this is somewhat cute and not hate me or worse leave me especially if there’s alimony involved — no wait, I didn’t mean that last part, although alimony would be a real bummer” day.
To the credit of most men, Valentine’s Day sneaks right up on you with only eight to 12 weeks of warning. Sure the stores replace the Christmas decorations with big giant hearts around Jan. 2 or so but there’s a lot of stuff going on that distracts you from your natural instinct to buy a variety of different things that are mostly red.
As unforgiving as it is, you need to take into account that January was mostly dominated by the college bowl games and the NFL playoffs capped by the mother of all commercials, the Super Bowl, which we’re not supposed to refer to it by its trademark name so we’ll just call it Bob.
Well, after the Bob, There’s a whole bunch of stuff going on like the Russians cut off gas to Ukraine and we shot a rocket to Pluto that will cover threebillion miles and take nine years, which seems like a long time to me. If you’re in space and you don’t have wind as a problem, why can’t they travel at the speed of 20 zillion times the speed of light? By the time it comes back nobody will notice it. They’ll be wrapped up in the news of the day and things like the Rolling Stones farewell tour 2015.
If that isn’t enough, it’s the start of NASCAR season again.
I don’t like to present problems without solutions, so carefully read this next part and act accordingly.
MAKE A VALENTINE’S DAY CHECKLIST
1. Rearrange your schedule
If you normally report to your parole officer on Tuesdays then ask your parole officer if you could do your check in on Monday instead. If this doesn’t work, you may opt to abscond for the day and then ask forgiveness on Wednesday by saying that you were doing your taxes and time got away or Dick Cheney shot you in the face and you had to go to the doc-in-the-box down the street.
Don’t forget to check her schedule too. Oprah is on from 4 to 5 p.m. and from what I can tell, you’re never going to compete with that.
2. Take into account your partner’s interest
As odd as it seems, some women don’t like skeet shooting, so take some time and offer to do something she likes to do without her having to tell you. Nothing says love like an impromptu visit to the Dollar Store.
3. Plan the evening
Now that you know the time frame you have to work with and what your partner’s interest are, plan the evening so that she will be filled with surprise after surprise. Find out which restaurants take reservations and what to wear. Nothing is more embarrassing than wearing a pair of flip-flops to a place where everyone else is wearing camouflage hunting boots. “Mood enhancers” may help set the tone. Candles are a good idea but be careful. (Let’s just say I had no idea grits were flammable.)
Headed for home
This is the part of the evening where you need to have done your homework. Remember, feng shui is not a karate movie. It’s the Chinese art of placement.
The ancient Chinese believed that everything is connected by the flow of universal energy. Feng shui (pronounced Fung shway or Feen shweer in Ball Ground) literally means wind and water.
The Wind is the Yang (active and dominant energy) and the Water was Yin (passive and receptive energy). Feng shui is the channeling of these two forces.
Early Feng Shui practitioners relied on this art to plan the placement of their homes, gardens, furniture and offices to achieve the optimum harmony and balance. In other words, there is a reason the Feng shui practitioners hang their velvet Elvises on the north wall facing the “Dogs Playing Poker” tapestry, directly in the energy path of the wicker fans on the wall exactly forty-three inches above the brass spittoon they got from Gatlinburg.
It is the mood, the vibes, all the things put together to make it a special evening. Once the work is done, just ride the wave of love. My advice at this point is to keep your mouth shut and be romantic. There’s a time and place to discuss her favorite NASCAR driver.
This ain’t it.
Neck braces, Bibles and long-lost pals
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As an officer of the law, one who crushes crime, one who walks the asphalt jungle — not me but others who I know — one of the things that I truly dislike and yet am constantly amused by is the inevitable phone call from the long-lost friend who, up to now, hasn’t given me the time of day in many moons.
“Hi, Steve. Hey, it’s Bob. I know it’s been a long time, whew … let’s see, uh, about 25 years? Wow. Anyway, I was just thinking about all the good times we had in school and wanted to give you a call and catch up. Uh, how’z it going?
“Bob?”
“Yeah, don’t play like you don’t know who is it, you crazy nut! Remember that time we skipped school and, you know, did all that crazy ‘skipping school’ stuff? Wow, those were good times huh?”
“Bob who?”
“How’s your mom and dad? Uh, hey listen man. I’m in jail for murder. Think you could talk to the judge for me?”
Police officers always connect with long-lost friends because long-lost friends keep connecting with them because they keep connecting with trouble. They call looking for the magic wand that makes the bad stuff go away. Some of the calls I received over the years were made from people whom I know, knew, knew of, friends of people I knew of, and just plain strangers.
They call for problems with:
— Parking tickets
— Handicapped parking tickets
— Impounded car that was parked under the big “No Parking-Tow Away Zone” sign.
Non-moving violations that include:
— No tag
— No insurance
— No license
— Having someone else’s license / fake license
— Suspended license
— License under revocation. (It’s like a suspended license on steroids.)
Moving violations including:
— Not stopping for: Red lights, stop signs, officers directing traffic, people.
Driving under the influence of:
— Drugs
— Alcohol
— Household cleaning products
— Airplane glue
They call after they get into trouble for little acts of irresponsibility such as shoplifting, running out on a bar tab and not paying the drug dealer or massage girl tab.
One guy called, asking if I still had any buddies with the DEA. Seems he got into trouble when the cops found a few kilos of cocaine in his trunk. He thought maybe I could put in the good word. (see Bible mention below)
There are two things that officers see more in court than anything else:
— Neck braces
— Bibles
The neck brace, of course, is the traditional visual support of one’s pain and suffering in traffic court. In most cases it’s legit — but in some, well … let’s say if I could get a permit to sell them outside the courtroom, I’d make a million bucks. The neck-brace ratio, however, has to be within range of the reason the “wear-ee” is in the courtroom in the first place.
The Bible is a non-verbal signal in the courtroom that the defendant is totally beyond any other kind of defense that anyone would believe. Lawyers representing them, at this point, try to have most of the fee in hand.
Judge: “Mr. Wilson, you’ve heard the testimony by the two-dozen witnesses who saw you with the gun, the smoking gun, which you had in your hand at the time you robbed the bank of the money they were keeping for the orphanage, run by the nuns who, without the money, would not be able to pay the rent and therefore, face certain eviction during the inevitable oncoming snowstorm. How do you plead?”
Wilson: “I’d rather not say, but I do have a Bible.”
As a rule, I am quick to tell those who ask for me to help out with their ticket that I can’t help them.
Why? Simple. I have kids who drive.
I save any favors or pleadings or begging for my kids. I have two older kids, both who drive, and both who, well, have driven badly at times. Badly enough to have been noticed and cited.
Beware of your children who call for no reason.
Daughter: “Dad? Hi. I just wanted to call to say hello.”
Dad: “Are you pregnant?”
Daughter: “No …”
Dad: ” Are you in a gang?”
Daughter: “No, I just called to see how you are.”
Dad: “Are you on drugs, a cult?
Daughter: “No.”
Dad: “Did you join Amway?
Daughter: “No, really, I’m fine.. I did get a ticket for speeding. The cop was reallymean. He told me that I was driving in a dangerous manner, or something like that. I couldn’t hear him too well with my I-Pod on and everything.”
Dad: “How many times have you gotten a speeding ticket?
Daughter: “Well, three if you count that one where I was driving my friend’s car. It shouldn’t count if you’re not driving your own car. That’s so unfair.”
Dad: “How many times did I go to court with you?
Daughter: “All of them if you count that time you fell to the floor in front of the judge and cried for him to strike you down now before your insurance rates went up again. That was really embarrassing. He did let me go to driving school, although it was really boring. I just need some help with the fine. Can you mail me something?”
Dad: “OK, I’ll send it tomorrow.”
Two days later:
Daughter: “Dad, I got the package but I don’t understand it.”
Dad: “What do you mean?”
Daughter: “I was hoping you’d send me some money to pay the fine.”
Dad: “Oh…”
Daughter: “What’s the deal with the neck brace and the Bible?”
With Sandy Springs PD starting today
This is the last installment of the weekly report until I get the new one set up. I’ll add all of the same contacts from the e-mail list.
The reports will cover the Sandy Springs area. It will take a little bit of time to get it going but I will continue the column and other bits of crime info as well as the normal amount of mindless entertainment.
Thanks for making this Fulton County project so productive and so much fun. Don’t forget that you can reach me through steverose14@yahoo.com and through this blog.
Stay in touch!
Near-fatal attraction
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A man said he got a call from a girl he recently met. The call came in just before 2 a.m. The woman said she was in a black Dodge Intrepid, parked outside on Glen Forest Drive. She wanted to talk to him.
He opened the door and saw the car. It drove up, turned around and drove passed. The victim said he heard a loud bang, similar to a gunshot. He and a witness returned to the house and called police. The report said he has only met the suspect once and barely knows her.
This is a good example of why all of us need to make a good impression on anyone we meet.
When life imitates cartoons
A man said that around 2:15 a.m. he was in a club and was on the way to the bathroom. He opened the door and said he got caught up in a fight-in-progress that started between some guys inside the bathroom. The fight was apparently moving in a northeastern direction, through the door and out into the hall.
The victim said he got sucked into the fight and was hit. It appears to be very similar to when Popeye gets into a fight just after eating the spinach. All that can be seen is a big cloud with feet and arms sticking out.
I think it was something like that.
Other things:
— A man said that he was assaulted on Monterrey Parkway by a juvenile who was angry over being fired from his job. The juvenile was arrested. He was released to a family member pending his hearing. — An off-duty officer had to remove a man from the DJ booth of a Roswell Road nightclub. The man refused, so the officer removed him and told him that he would have to leave. The would-be music maker refused to do so. The Marietta man, 32, was arrested for criminal trespass and taken to FC jail.
Sandy Springs, here I come
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Well, I guess it’s time to tell you that I will be retiring from the Fulton County Police on Feb. 9.
I will be taking a position with the new Sandy Springs Police as a public information officer. This means that I will be getting up in the middle of the night to say, on camera, things like “perpetrator” and “suspected perpetrator” and “possible suspected perpetrator” as well as other catchy police technical phrases like “that guy shot the other guy and then we locked him up.”
I’m not a late-night or early-morning person, so be sure to TiVo this under “comedy” or “bloopers.”
There will be some obvious changes. I will continue writing columns and e-mails both off of the e-mail network and for the AJC. As we get set up, we will continue to send reports as we do now, with the change being that those areas of unincorporated Alpharetta and Roswell will be under the direction of the Fulton Police Special Services Unit. They plan to continue to send crime reports for that area.
During any down time of weekly crime reports, I will be sending articles and reports on crime-prevention topics and other related trends and information that are of interest to readers across the metro area. With the past success of how these reports and information were received by the homeowners and businesses, it would be dumb not to continue.
For those of you north of the river, I will miss you! The strongest of programs have come from the northern part of the county, thanks to the efforts of the residents and dedicated homeowner’s groups.
I hope that the upcoming neighborhood watch system in Sandy Springs will have the same level of dedication. Please stay in contact! (I like the gossip about the usual suspects and perverts.)
For you in Sandy Springs, this is a great opportunity to embrace a new government and especially a new police department intending on providing the day-to-day service and response that has long been overdue. I look forward to the building phase.
I get a new badge and in two months, if everything goes right, a new gun. Bullets will be forwarded to me in late June.
I will be making some changes and probably offer some options for those who want to remain on the network for crime-prevention topics or day-to-day stuff. There is a lot to learn by seeing other’s mistakes. (Don’t forget crime is a risk-and-opportunity formula.)
For those of you who read for the “mindless entertainment” value, well, some things don’t change.
For those of you who have never seen a police department start up from scratch, well, I haven’t either, so I’ll be keeping a journal of the process and I’m sure it’s going to be interesting in some sort of way.
My retirement schedule is as follows:
I will retire at the end of the day on the 9th, a Thursday. On the morning of the 10th, I’ll report to work for Sandy Springs.
This means that sometime during prime-time television on the evening of the 9th, I’ll be retired meaning that I’ll start being retired during the local news at 5 p.m. I’ll continue to be retired during “Will and Grace” (NBC) and “Survivor /Panama” (CBS) and “Dancing with the Stars “(ABC.) I will be totally retired during “My Name is Earl” and “The Office.” I will also be retired during the showing of “The “Comancheros.”
The Comancheros stars John Wayne and Stuart Whitman as a Texas Ranger and roguish gambler, respectively. Reluctantly joining forces, Wayne and Whitman try to round up the “comancheros” — renegade whites who’ve aligned with the Comanche people in smuggling guns and whisky.
Ina Balin plays the daughter of comanchero chieftain Nehemiah Persoff, who meets Stu and the Duke when they’re captured by the renegades. But will she help them get out of their bind, or is she too loyal to her father?
Don’t know, but I do know that I’ll be retired during that whole movie.
In the works …
We are in the construction phase of my Web site (meaning I haven’t paid the guy yet.) I hope to have that up and going soon (meaning this lifetime.) In the meantime, my e-mail is steverose14@yahoo.com so if you need anything between work e-mails, then give me a buzz. Look for another report next week.
It’s been fun!
Get to know Lt. Rose
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My job:
I’ve been with Sandy Springs PD since February of 2006 after my retirement from Fulton County.
What I do:
I am in charge of Public Information and Community Relations which involves anti-crime programs, Neighborhood Watch, and other programs involving the community.
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