A&E Television VP Laura Fleury: Crime 360

Laura Fleury

LAURA FLEURY
Vice President, Non-Fiction and Alternative Programming
A&E/BIO Channel/Crime & Investigation Network

Laura Fleury is Vice President of Non-Fiction and Alternative Programming at A&E Network. In this position, she plays a senior role in the development and production of nonfiction series and specials for A&E, Bio Channel and The Crime & Investigation Network. She has developed, launched and currently serves as Executive Producer for many of A&E’s most critically-acclaimed and top-rated series including MANHUNTERS: FUGITIVE TASK FORCETM and CRIME 360TM (both tied as the #1 justice series launches in network history) and PARKING WARSTM, all of which launched in 2008, the SWAT franchise launched in 2006, and THE FIRST 48TM, which launched in 2004 and is the top-rated nonfiction crime series in cable. She is currently developing a number of pilots for 2009. She also has developed and executive-produced new series for The BIO Channel, including the top-rated series in the history of the BIO Channel, I SURVIVED…TM, and THE INTERROGATORSTM which will launch in 2009. She has developed and produced numerous specials for AETN including First Person Killers, Miami City Vice, Bill Kurtis Special Reports, the A&E IndieFilms project Abused (short-listed for the Academy Awards), and Miami Manhunt.

In her previous roles as Senior Director, and prior to that, Director, Documentary Programming at A&E Network, she developed, launched and executive-produced several documentary series and specials to ratings and critical acclaim including 2-time Emmy-nominated Cold Case FilesTM, Minute-by-Minute, American Justice, Parole Board, Investigative Reports, Makeover Mamas, The Real Story, The Point and The Hunt. Awards include the Thurgood Marshall Journalism Award in 2002, and numerous Emmy nominations. Prior to that, Ms. Fleury served as a Supervising Producer for a number of A&E’s documentary specials and series, including A&E’s very first ‘real-life series’, LA Detectives, as well as Biography®, The New Explorers, Sea Tales, Treasure!, The Unexplained, Inside Story, The Planets and One-on-One with David Frost among others. Prior to joining A&E, Ms. Fleury worked in independent film production on scripted and unscripted films, including the award-winning documentaries BROTHER’S KEEPER and PARADISE LOST.

Crime 360

CRIME 360 premiered on A&E in March of this year. We specifically developed this show to build on the success of our ground-breaking hit series, THE FIRST 48, by evolving the genre again with CRIME 360 which brings real present-tense criminal investigations and cutting edge-forensic technology and high-end computer graphics together for the first time on television.

In each episode viewers experience the investigations first-hand with detectives and forensic specialists from around the country as they work to solve their cases with the added tool of state-of-the-art 3D laser scanners in their arsenal. These scanners allow investigators to measure, model and diagram crime scenes with great detail, precisely preserving the original scene so they can revisit it as they test out various theories and test evidence against it. We follow each investigation from beginning to end, unlike any other present tense show, so from the moment detectives are called to the scene, viewers are part of the investigation through until the end.

CRIME 360 is also revolutionary in the way it uses 360-degree digital photography and computer-generated imagery (CGI) visualizations to allow the viewer to experience these unfolding investigations, the evidence, and the detectives’ evolving theories in ways never seen before on television.

We were thrilled with the reception of the show’s inaugural season — it was the #1 justice series launch in the history of the network. Fans seemed to really appreciate how CRIME 360 takes real-life law enforcement programming to the next level-combining real investigations with real cutting-edge technology. Today, we’re releasing the first season on DVD.

Whether or not you saw the episodes when they were first aired the DVD set will get you ready for the premiere of season two.

By the way, episodes are also available for download on iTunes.

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You can visit Crime 360’s website here.

Be sure to visit The Graveyard Shift on Saturday December 20 and Sunday December 21 to see how you can win a DVD of Crime 360’s entire first season! This is so important I’m skipping Weekend Road Trip this week.

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What Does A Sheriff Do?

 

The duties of a county (or city) sheriff differ a bit than those of a police chief. In fact, not all sheriffs are responsible for street-type law enforcement, such as patrol. Remember, this may vary somewhat from one jurisdiction to another. In many areas the sheriff is the highest ranking law enforcement officer in the county.

Who is a sheriff?

1) Sheriffs are constitutional officers, meaning they are all elected into office by popular vote.

2) Sheriffs do not have a supervisor. They don’t have to answer to a board of supervisors or county administrator. However, any extra funding that’s not mandated by law is controlled by county government.

Sheriffs are responsible for:

1) Executing and returning process, meaning they serve all civil papers, such as divorce papers, eviction notices, lien notices, etc. They must also return a copy of the executed paperwork to the clerk of court.

2) Attending and protecting all court proceedings in the jurisdiction. A sheriff may appoint deputies to assist with all duties.

3) Preserve order at public polling places.

4) Publish announcements regarding sale of foreclosed property. The sheriff is also responsible for conducting public auctions of foreclosed property.

5) Serving eviction notices. The sheriff must sometimes forcibly remove tenants and their property from their homes or businesses.

6) Maintain the county jail and transport prisoners to and from court. The sheriff is also responsible for transporting county prisoners to state prison after they’re been sentenced by the court.

7) In many areas the sheriff is responsible for all law enforcement of their jurisdiction. Some towns do not have police departments, but all jurisdictions (with the exception of Alaska, Hawaii, and Connecticut) must have a sheriff’s office.

Sheriffs and their deputies have arrest powers in all areas of the county where they were elected, including all cities, towns, and villages located within the county.



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Perps, Vics, and Juvies, Oh My!

 

Police jargon (since I’m in Boston, that’s pronounced “jahgon”) is like an accent. It varies across the country. I urge you writers to do a little homework before you inject dialogue in your books that doesn’t ring true. A quick phone call to a police department’s public affairs office will normally provide you with the necessary information.

Public Affairs Officer David Crawford

When I was conducting the research for my  book on police procedure I had the opportunity to speak with police officers all across the country about this very topic. Here are a few examples of what I learned:

1) Perp – Not many police officers use the shortened form of the word perpetrator. In fact, most cops don’t even say perpetrator. Instead, they use the more common terms, suspect or ***hole. Listen to newscasts. You rarely ever hear an officer say, “We apprehended the perp at 0100 hours.” It’s always, “”We apprehended the suspect at 0100 hours.”

 

2) Vic – This is another one I’ve seen in books countless times. Again, not all cops use Vic when referring to the victim of a crime. Well, TV cops do, but not all real-life cops. Actually, some real-life cops refer to their police cars, if they’re driving a Crown Victoria, as a Vic.

What word do cops use when referring to a victim? That’s an easy one. They say victim, or dead guy.

 

3) Juvie – This is a nickname given to a place of detention for juvenile offenders, or to the actual troublesome kids. Again, not all members of law enforcement use this term. Many simply say juvenile.

The Bulletin Board

– Sgt. Josh Moulin, a regular contributor to The Graveyard Shift (high-tech and computer crimes), was featured on last Saturday night’s episode of Tru TV’s Most Shocking series.

– A&E Television’s 360 Crime Executive Producer, Laura Fleury, will be guest blogging on The Graveyard Shift this week. Please see yesterday’s post for details.

– Later in the week we will be announcing ways to win DVDs of Crime 360s entire first season!

– NYC Medical Examiner/Author Jonathan Hayes will be returning to The Graveyard Shift this week.

– Norfolk, Virginia’s police department just added 41 new recruits to their force of 772 sworn officers. Among the new officers are a 20 year-old mother who stands at an even 5 feet tall, and a 21 year veteran of the NYC Police department who came out of a 3 1/2 year retirement to sign up with the Norfolk department.

– San Diego Chief medical Examiner, Dr. Glenn Wagner answered the following question for VoiceofSandiego.org:

Forensic science has gained a higher profile over the last decade thanks to TV shows like “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.” Has that changed expectations?
“It comes up in court, certainly with the jury, the public and the press.

I end up doing a lot of public presentations, and the “CSI” issue is there. What I tell them is that what they see is largely representing technology that’s available, but none of us have the ability to solve crimes in 24 hours, and none of us have access, as far as I know, to holograms and some of the fancy stuff.

There’s also what’s described as the “CSI effect.” It refers to perceptions by the public sometimes, and juries in particular, about the level of evidence that needs to be presented in order to get a conviction.”

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Weekend Road Trip: Crime 360

 

The entire first season of Crime 360 will be available for the first time on DVD on Tuesday December, 16, 2008. Crime 360 is part of A&E TV’s line up of police/forensic reality television, such as The First 48 and Cold Case Files.

Anyone who’s ever attended any of my workshops and classes knows that I’m not a fan of many of the cop-type shows because of the absurd manner in which the networks portray crime-scene investigations, investigators, and forensics techniques. But, those of you who’ve heard me speak also know that I’ve always praised the show The First 48 for it’s very accurate portrayal of police detectives and how they actually conduct their investigations. Well, Crime 360 is another show I highly recommend for viewers who want to see how detectives solve homicides.

Why is all this so important to Graveyard Shift readers? Well, I’m pleased to announce and that A&E Television, Crime 360, and The Graveyard Shift are putting our heads together for a very special event especially for readers of this blog.

Check back often for details and a chance to win DVDs of the entire first season of Crime 360. Also, 360 Executive Producer, Laura Fleury, will be guest blogging on The Graveyard Shift next week.

By the way, all the A&E True Crime series on iTunes are on sale. For the next week (ending the 16th) you can download episodes of the following programs for only 99 cents per episode:

The First 48, Best of Seasons 1-4
Crime 360, Season 1
A&E SWAT, Season 3
Jacked!, Season 1

Click here for details and to visit Crime 360’s website. While you’re there please be sure to view the Crime 360 Top Videos. They are actual videos of forensic experts conducting DNA extractions from evidence, using narcocics field test kits, using Superglue to develop fingerprints, forensic entomology, and much, much more. This is great stuff for writers!

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Friday’s Heroes: Remembering The Fallen

Friday's Heroes - Remembering the fallen officers

 

Officer Timothy Abernethy, 43

Houston Police Department

 

Officer Abernethy was shot and killed on December 7, 2008, by a suspect who’d fled on foot after a traffic stop. During the pursuit Officer Abernethy rounded a corner where the suspect ambushed him, shooting the officer in the head. Officer Abernethy is survived by his wife, son, daughter, parents and siblings.

Deputy Brian Denning, 36

Sumner County Tennessee Sheriffs Office

 

Deputy Denning, a member of the 18th Judicial District Drug Task Force, was killed in an automobile accident on December 8, 2008, after completing a call.

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Thanks to ODMP

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Jan Brogan: Researching Cyberspace

Jan Brogan

Jan Brogan has been a journalist for twenty years. She is a former staff writer at The Providence Journal-Bulletin in Rhode Island and The Worcester Telegram and Gazette in Massachusetts and has worked as a correspondent for The Boston Globe. Her freelance work has appeared in Boston Magazine, The Improper Bostonian, Ladies Home Journal and Forbes Magazine.

Her first novel, Final Copy, which won The Drood Review of Mystery’s Editors’ Choice award, was named one of the best eight mysteries published in 2001. A Confidential Source (Mysterious Press, April 2005 ) received a rave review in The New York Times Book Review and was chosen by The Mystery Guild Book Club as an alternate spring selection. “Yesterday’s Fatal,” published by St Martin’s Press in May, 2007, was named a “Killer Book” by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association and one of the summer’s best reads by Northeast Public Radio.

Jan’s new book, Teaser, was released this week by St. Martin’s Press.

Her website is http://www.janbrogan.com/, and you can check out her blog at www.jungleredwriters.com.

Researching Cyberspace

Many mystery authors can get all the background they need through written research.

But for me, I can’t write about a subject unless I get a feel for it. I had to play Blackjack myself at the Mohegan Sun and interview a dealer to write the scenes that seduce my protagonist Hallie Ahern into a gambling addiction. I had to walk the impound lot with an insurance investigator and attend a seminar for patrolman on car crash forensics before I could write a book about automobile insurance fraud.

So when I decided I wanted to write about the dark side of cyberspace, in Teaser, I knew I needed more than Internet articles or child safety websites.

For Teaser, which is all about social networking going wrong in the hands of young teenage girls, I wanted to see what kind of creeps were out there. The journalist in me always wants to validate that the social ill I’m writing about. And even though its fiction, I still need a sense of mission.

I turned to a detective in the Portsmouth, NH Special Investigations Unit specializing in undercover Internet and narcotics operations.

One of the first things Kristyn told me was that she hated Dateline’s now-canceled To Catch a Predator show, which she says used tactics that were tantamount to entrapment. Although sexual predators were nabbed on camera when they arrived for their date with a child, they often escaped conviction.

Laws vary from state to state, but in New Hampshire, Kristyn needed a predator to initiate a meeting with one of her 13 or 14-year old undercover screen names before she could make an arrest. She couldn’t suggest anything sexual, but had to allow the subject to initiate all the seduction.

Sometimes this happened amazingly quickly. When she first started her undercover work, she had a predator as immediately for a date and was able to make an arrest the same day. Once, she had so many date offers that she had to put the guys off because she didn’t have enough manpower to make that many arrests in one day.

But more often, ferreting out predators was a time-consuming process that required both patience and caution

To avoid any hint of entrapment, Kristyn can’t haunt chat rooms with sexual content. She has to meet predators in neutral chat rooms dedicated to benign topics like celebrity worship or reality TV shows.

But she wanted to show me what the web was really like, so she took me to a now defunct chat room on sexual fetishes. There were four rooms dedicated to adults lusting after children. At two in the afternoon, we couldn’t get into any because they were all filled.

After a wait, Kristyn’s undercover screen name finally got a space and she connected with a guy whose sexual fantasies gave me nightmares for weeks. The stuff was so rough I can’t talk about it here, but to give you an idea, within five minutes, he sent us some lovely webcam pictures of what he considered his most important asset.

I got a little more than I bargained for this time with live research. But although this particular scene was too dark for my book, it gave me what I needed. I got some of the language of Internet seduction, some of the technology and what only can be described as Internet etiquette. The crime I wanted to write began to jump off the paper. Both the predators and the victims became real to me.

The sheer volume of the predators, as well as Kristyn’s own dedication to her work gave me the inspiration to write. No matter what plot I came up about cyber-sleaze, I would not be exaggerating the danger.

To watch Jan’s Teaser video please click the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEw5Tswct2E

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High-Tech Officer Safety

 

There’s nothing worse than not being able to see around the next corner, knowing there’s an armed suspect there and it’s your job to go in and and get him. Police officers and soldiers around the world are faced with this terrifying experience nearly every day. I’ve been in this situation several times. Believe me, it’s scary.

Back in the day, we either took a deep breath and did what we had to, or sent a canine in ahead of us, which was extremely dangerous for both us and our dogs. FYI – Most K-9 officers would be willing to take a bullet for their dogs, so the use of trained canines in these situations wasn’t always an option. Fortunately, someone came up with the idea of using technology, such as the two products I’ve listed below, to protect officers in these highly volatile situations.

The ReCon Robot was designed with officer safety in mind. When officers are in a dangerous situation and need to see what’s behind a barrier, such as a wall or inside a house, police officers can toss the ReCon Robot camera into the position where it’s needed where it will land, begin moving, and then upright itself. The robot is operated by a remote controlled joystick.

 

Telescoping camera poles are available in a variety of sizes and shapes, suiting many needs. In the photo below, the officers can safely search an attic space for an armed suspect without attempting to climb into the area, making themselves easy targets for the bad guy.

I remember friends of mine having to go through a very similar scenario several years ago. These very cool cameras weren’t available in those days, so my fellow officers couldn’t get into the attic safely. They tried once and were immediately met by a barrage of gunfire from a shotgun-wielding criminal. The scene was a very tense standoff for quite awhile before the SWAT team eventually terminated the threat by firing lots and lots of rounds through the ceiling. In case you didn’t know, drywall doesn’t stop bullets.

 

The officer operating the pole cam can watch the monitor that’s strapped to the back of his partner. The partner covers the opening with his weapon in case the suspect makes a threatening move.


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Holiday Gifts For The Protagonist Who Has Everything

 

Are you still searching for that special holiday gift for the protagonist who has everything? Here are a few suggestions.


 

Taurus 1911 .45 ACP

Price – Approximately $600

Large frame pistol

Holds 8 rounds in the magazine plus 1 in the chamber.

Barrel length: 5 inches

Overall length: 8 1/2 inches

 

Berreta 92FS 9mm with night sights

Price – Approximately $500

Holds 15 rounds in magazine plus 1 in chamber

Barrel length: 4.9 inches

 

Armalite AR24 Compact Tactical Pistol

Caliber: 9mm

Price: Approximately $580

Holds 13 rounds in magazine plus 1 in chamber

Barrel length: 3.89 inches

Overall length: 7.46 inches

Weight: 33.4 ounces

 

Smith and Wesson M&P .45ACP

Price: Approximately $750

Holds 10 rounds in the magazine plus 1 in the chamber

Barrel length: 4.5 inches

Overall length: 7.75 inches

Weight: 29.6 ounces (empty – no ammunition)

 

Smith and Wesson SW1911PD  .45ACP

Price: Approximately $1,400

Holds 8 rounds in the magazine plus 1 in the chamber

Barrel length: 4 1/4 inches

Overall length: 8 inches

Weight: 28 ounces (empty – no ammunition)

 

Smith and Wesson M&P15

Caliber: 5.56 mm/.223

Price: Approximately $1,800

Holds 10 rounds

Barrel length: 16 inches

Overall length: 35 inches

Weight: 6.5 lbs.

Front and rear folding sights

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Weekend Road Trip: Salem, Massachusetts

Then came the scarlet letter

 

Salem Witch Museum

Statue of Roger Conant, the first settler of Salem. This statue stands in the intersection in front of the Witch Musem.

A short walk from the museum led to some interesting discoveries.

Hawthorne Hotel

House of Seven Gables, home to relatives of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne visited the home many times as a child which gave influence for the book, House of Seven Gables.

Courtyard inside the grounds of the House of Seven Gables. The red building is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s childhood home. It was originally a few blocks from this site, but was moved to be a part of the museum.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s home until he was four.

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Friday’s Hereoes: Remembering The Fallen

Friday's Heroes - Remembering the fallen officers

Reserve Officer Curtis Jones, 74

New Orleans Police Department

Officer Jones was killed in an automobile accident on November 29, 2008, when his patrol car left the highway and struck a tree.

Officer Robert Davis, 26

San Antonio Texas Police Department

Officer Davis was clearing an accident scene when  he was struck by a patrol car that was responding to backup another officer. Officer Davis succumbed to his injuries on December 1st.  He is survived by his wife.

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I have not been able to maintain this site during my ongoing illness. Therefore, I’d like to take this time to express my condolences to the families of the fallen officers listed below who lost their lives during my time offline.

Sheriff Brent Lee

Deputy Nick Pham

Officer Alex Del Rio

Agent Samuel Hicks

Sgt. Timothy Simpson

Sgt. Monty Carmikle

Deputy Lawrence Canfield

Officer Charles Skinner

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