Stop, Or I’ll Fill You Full Of…Soap?

In the days before Tasers, stun guns, pepper spray, and law suits, police officers were often forced to resort to brute strength when taking down unruly criminal suspects. We worked hard in those days, chasing moonshiners, robbers, and killers, and wrestling with hulking redneck guys who fought for the sheer fun of it. We also played equally hard when time permitted. Practical jokes were common among the uniformed officers, especially during the late-night hours and early morning. Hey, we had to stay awake somehow.

I was reminded of those antics this past week when a new friend, a North Carolina officer (I’ll call him Ricky) and I were swapping old war stories. He told me about a practical joke he once played on a fellow officer that involved a patrol car and a live possum. But I’ll save those details for a future blog.

My story takes place quite a few years ago when I worked for the sheriff’s office. Our boss, the high sheriff, insisted that we, the patrol deputies, all come in off the road during Sunday visiting hours at the jail. He wanted us to stand by in the event that some sort of weird trouble erupted that couldn’t be handled by the, what I thought was a more than competent jail staff. More often than not, we spent the time hanging around drinking coffee and shootin’ the…well, you know what I mean.

We did manage to accomplish one productive thing during the four-hour visiting period – we had a jail trusty wash our patrol cars. Such was the case on hot Sunday in August when my captain and I caught the extremely boring jail watch. The trusty had just finished washing my car and asked the captain to pull his around to the wash area outside the rear gate. The inmate had high hopes of finishing both cars before afternoon lockdown – the regularly scheduled time of a hot and heavy game of spades.

 

The captain, seated at his desk, tossed his keys to me and asked me to move the car. He was busy fiddling with his sidearm. He had the revolver out with the cylinder open – six .357 rounds lay on the desk beside a bar of jail soap. I assumed he was cleaning the weapon. I wasn’t sure about the purpose of the soap.

I moved the car and stood outside talking to the trusty – a frequent resident of our jail – while he scrubbed my boss’s car. The prisoner was normally a nice, polite, elderly man who, unfortunately, did stupid things while hanging out with his best friends, Jack Daniels and Jim Beam.

The unsuspecting prisoner had just started to rinse the suds from the gleaming brown police car when the captain opened the rear door to the jail building. He pointed his service revolver at the trusty and called out his name.

The inmate looked up just in time to hear a loud BOOM! The captain Had fired a round and quickly squeezed off another. I heard each round slam into side of the car. The trusty dropped his sponge and ran. When I say ran, I don’t mean that he trotted. He sprinted like he was going for a gold medal. In a matter of seconds he rounded the corner of the complex and was completely out of sight. Gone.

I didn’t know what to think. It had all happened so fast. I looked at the captain who was now laughing so hard that tears were rolling down his pudgy cheeks. He turned to me and said, “Soap bullets. It was a joke.”

That explained the bar of jail soap on his desk. He had removed the lead from a few rounds and then pressed the cartridge openings into the bar of soap, filling the holes. Old school non-lethal weapons.

Reality set in quickly. Unfortunately the captain’s cruel prank had resulted in a full-fledged escape from jail. The poor man thought the captain was actually firing live rounds at him. I did too. The captain’s joke had backfired, badly. Now we were faced with a real dilemma. Did we alert everyone to the escape? Start a manhunt? Call out the dogs? The state police?

Then it hit us. We’d have to call the sheriff. Not good.

Even though I wasn’t involved, my head would roll just as hard. I immediately pictured myself in line at the unemployment office.

Luckily, before we made any calls we saw the trusty walking across the parking lot, headed back to the jail. The poor man was scared to death, but knew better than to leave for good.

The captain apologized to the prisoner, and as a peace offering bought him a carton of his favorite cigarettes. In fact, the captain supplied the trusty with cigarettes and cold soft drinks for the duration of his sentence.

There was never another soap bullet incident after this one. However, there’s always that thing with the pepper spray and the officer’s restroom…

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Author Terry Odell is giving away a copy of this fine book. Please visit Terry’s website for details.

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Weekend Road Trip: Gettysburg With Joyce Tremel

Gettysburg With Joyce Tremel

 

Little Round Top

Railroad cut where the victim in Joyce’s novel was found.

McPherson Ridge

McPherson Barn

Cemetery Hill

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Author Terry Odell is giving away a copy of this fine book. Please visit Terry’s website for details.

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Friday’s Heroes: Remembering The Fallen

Friday's Heroes - Remembering the fallen officers

Deputy Sheriff Shane Thomas Detwiler, 31

Chambers County Texas Sheriff’s Office

PoliceLink photo

Deputy Shane Detwiler was shot and killed on July 13, 2009 while searching a mobile home for a suspect who was involved in a shooting incident earlier in the day. The suspect, a former reserve police officer, was wounded during the exchange of gunfire. He, too, died.

Deputy Detwiler is survied by his wife, three children, his parents, and a sister.

Sergeant Joe Harris

Sandoval County New Mexico Sheriff’s Office

Sergeant Joe Harris volunteering in 2007.

ABQ Journal photo

Sergeant Joe Harris was shot and killed on July 16, 2009, while attempting to arrest a burglary suspect. The suspect also died during the exchange of gunfire.

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Shot in the Dark: Page Two From My Spiral Notebooks

Country roads. Dark, like tree-lined tunnels.

Speed. Telephone poles and mailboxes pass quickly. A blur.

Handcuffs swing from spotlight handle. Metal hits metal. Tap, tap, tap.

Winding curves. Driver training. Hit the apexes. Feed the wheel. Don’t cross your hands. Is it hands at ten and two, or three and six? Eyes darting from ditch to ditch, watching for deer.

Moon back lights trees. Tall gnarled fingers disappearing into a sky blackened by night. Blue strobe lights transform fog into winking, blinking azure cotton candy.

“Are we close?”

“No, not yet. We was a long ways in the country. Maybe three more miles.”

Radio lights blink in sequence. Dispatcher speaking in monotone. Stolen car on interstate. Disturbance in West End. Shoplifter at convenience store, Third and Bellview. More blinking.

“There. Right there. The body’s in the woods to your left. Drug him across the ditch right there. See where the weeds are knocked down?”

Entourage stops. Guns drawn. Flashlights.

Walking. Don’t disturb scene.

Gun belt leather creaking. Keys jingle. Twigs snap.

“Where’s the body?”

Shrug. “Thought it was here.”

Humidity high. Sweating. Vests like dense clay around torso.

Hours pass.

Spider webs.

Cadaver dogs. Noses to ground.

Mosquitoes. Hundreds of mosquitoes.

Sun sends night home for the day. Pushes through tree canopies like translucent yellow wands.

“I found it!”

Man – no, a boy – lying in leaves and pine needles. Eyes closed, mouth open. Hands bound in back by gray duct tape.

Insects in and out nose and mouth, like cars traveling the 101.

Flies everywhere. Sickening.

Cameras. Measuring. Gathering.

9mm casing in roadway.

Execution.

Gansta wannabes.

Interrogation.

“Didn’t know gun was loaded. Took it from Dad’s nightstand.”

“It was a joke. Honest.”

A joke.

“We just wanted to scare him.”

Teenagers. One dead. Four in prison.

Life sentences.

A joke.

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Weekend Road Trip: High Rock Lake, North Carolina

High Rock Lake, NC

 

Family of ducks hiding from the sunshine.

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Author Terry Odell is giving away a copy of this fine book. Please visit Terry’s website for details.

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Friday’s Heroes: Remembering The Fallen

Friday's Heroes - Remembering the fallen officers

 

Deputy Sheriff Monte (Leroy) Mathews, 35

Adams County Idaho Sheriffs Department

 

Deputy Leroy Matthews was killed on July 6, 2009 when a minivan swerved across the center line of the highway, striking his patrol car head on.

* Thanks to ODMP

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L.A. Deputy Shoots Teenage Boy: Justified Shoot?

 

How long does it take you to react when a bee lands on your nose? How about when a car suddenly pulls out in front of you? How long does it take you to hit the brake? Well, each of those scenarios are good examples of how much time a police officer has to assess and react to a threat to his life.

People are quick to judge the actions of police officers. Too quick. Just like the case of the South Carolina serial killer, Patrick Burris, an officer-involved shooting in Los Angeles has stirred quite a bit of controversy. However, the officers who shot Burris have a much stronger defense – the bad guy shot first. Personally, I think it’s a shame to have to use the word “defense” when referring to a justified shooting involving a police officer.

The L.A. case is a bit more convoluted than the justified shooting of Burris. In L.A., officers stopped four teenage boys who were suspected gang members. Officers then asked the kids to raise their hands and lift their T-shirts (this exposes any weapons carried in the waistband). During the stop, one of the boys, Avery Cody, ran. The police are adamant that the teenager brandished a gun and displayed it in a manner that clearly threatened the deputy’s life during the foot pursuit. The deputy fired at the boy, killing him. The weapon, a .38 caliber  revolver, was found near the boy’s body. Police say the youth was struck in the left side of his upper torso.

This is where the story begins to get weird. Witnesses (remember, this is Compton, a gang-heavy area) say that Cody was unarmed, never brandished a weapon of any kind, and was shot in the back by the deputy. The other boys say they were merely crossing the street when officers stopped them for no reason. According to their statements, that’s when  Cody ran and was gunned down by the officer.

Who’s right? Do police officer’s really gun down citizens?

Of course not. The witness accounts of this story are ridiculous. Investigators found Cody’s gun. The fatal wound was not in the back. And how credible are the statements of known gang members, especially statements regarding one of their own.

It’s unfortunate that a law enforcement officer has to go through the aftermath that’s associated with a shooting, especially a fatal shooting. It’s difficult enough to deal with the investigation and the condemnation from a good portion of the general public, but always second-guessing your own actions is a nightmare. What could I have done differently? Could I have done something that would have saved the kid’s life? What if I…?

You see, that’s what haunts those of us who have been in this situation. It’s easy for some people to be a Monday morning quarterback, spouting off what they would have done, or what the officer could or couldn’t do. Believe it or not, police officers do not want to hurt people.

You see, folks, no one could possibly tell those of us who have killed someone in the line of duty how or what to feel, how to think, or what questions we should ask, unless they’ve walked in our shoes.

And I’d trade those shoes with anyone, anytime.

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Author Terry Odell is giving away a copy of this fine book. Please visit Terry’s website for details.

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The Killing Of A Killer: Did North Carolina Police Respond Properly?

Confessions of a female serial killer

 

There has been lots of speculation floating around the internet regarding the so-called South Carolina serial killer and his recent death at the hands of police officers. The largest flurry of words, ideas, and theories have come from writers, especially mystery writers. The story is simply too odd to let pass, by the folks who make up tales like this for a living.

AP Photo Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office

Patrick Burris, a recently released prison inmate, has been identified as the South Carolina serial killer. Burris was shot to death by police officers who were investigating a breaking and entering complaint (B&E) on June 27. One of the responding officers was shot by Burris. Fortunately, he survived the wound.

The scenario began to unfold when a citizen called to report a suspicious vehicle matching the killer’s SUV in their neighborhood. They told police that one of the three people in the vehicle resembled the mysterious South Carolina serial killer. The citizen also reported that the suspect and two other individuals parked the SUV and went inside a neighboring house.

The potential for danger in this particular situation was extremely high. Why? Because Burris was a career criminal with a history of pre-disposed violence, especially toward family members. He was last convicted of being a habitual felon, with crimes such as blackmail, B&E, and theft contributing to his conviction and 2001 10 year prison sentence.

How do police respond to a citizen’s call such as this one? Well, they SHOULD treat each call as a potentially dangerous situation, especially one that came in with this much detail. And they KNEW this guy had already killed several people. He was a murderer for goodness sake.

But the truth is, after four of five dozen false alarms – panicked citizens flood police stations with possible sightings – it’s easy to let your guard down. I’ve done it, and it almost cost me my life, just as it almost cost one of the Gaston County, N.C. police officers, his.

I wasn’t there when the officers engaged in the shootout with Burris last Saturday, but I have been in a shootout, and I have answered many, many B&E complaints. Now, I’m NOT second-guessing the actions of the officers involved in this case. Not at all. Wouldn’t dream of it. But I do have questions, such as:

What should/could the officers have done differently to prevent one of their own from being shot? This is top priority, folks. Every officer must go home safe and sound. Protect the officers and safeguard the public. They must survive! Remember, only fools rush in.

Could the officers have avoided killing the suspect? I know, some would say “who cares” to that question. But it’s not an officer’s duty to dish out revenge.

Well, only the people who were there can know the answers to those questions. However, based on what we’ve read in the papers and seen on the TV news here in the Carolinas (if you can believe the media) – the caller stated that the suspect resembled the serial killer. Surrounding the house to prevent anyone from leaving and then calling for SWAT or more backup would have been a much safer approach than merely going inside the house. I don’t know of that option was available to these officers. Sometimes it isn’t.

I learned the “going in without waiting for backup” lesson the hard way when I and another officer began searching a house for a suspect in an armed robbery. We didn’t wait for backup because we knew the guy. In fact, we’d each arrested the man a few times in the past. He was a career criminal with a history of occasional violence. He’d served time for B&E, blackmail, and theft. Sound familiar? Yep, the exact same background as Burris.

Once inside the house we split up, searching and clearing each room. We’d give a shout of “Clear!” when the search of a room and closet came up empty. I entered the last bedroom on my side of the house and my gaze immediately went to the underside of the bed. It was the last place left where our suspect could conceal himself. I moved slowly toward the obvious hiding place with my Beretta pointed toward the target. Suddenly I heard a commotion behind me. I turned just in time to see my partner grab the suspect and yell, “Drop the knife!”

The suspect had been hiding behind the door and was about to stab me in the back when, fortunately, my co-worker had finished searching his half of the house and decided to help search mine. I made a foolish move that night. We knew the suspect was somewhere in the house, yet we went in when there was plenty of backup available. We could have surrounded the house, sent in our dogs, fired tear gas into the house…well, you get the idea. The same was possibly true for the North Carolina officers.

But make no mistake about it, the shooting was justified.

After answering so many calls that turn out to be nothing, some officers eventually do let down their guard. Officers are not trained that way, but they’re are human. And what do humans do? They make mistakes. And mistakes in law enforcement can be deadly.

 

* It seems this post has offended some police officers. Believe me, I am not second-guessing the actions taken by the officers involved in this case. I applaud each of them for their heroism. They did what they had to do, when they had to do it.

The questions posted above were posed to me by people from all over the country. I chose to post the ones relating to officer safety, something I taught for years at the police academy. I’m sorry if this blog offended anyone, but it is what it is, my honest attempt to help writers with their work. I am not a journalist.

Make no mistake about it. I am 100% on the side of law enforcement officers.

A few FYI’s…

A North Carolina sheriff expressed his concern that Burris had learned to become a better and more violent criminal during his latest prison sentence.

Bounty Hunter Paul Raymond remembers having to track down Burris years ago when he skipped bail on other charges. However, Raymond did express his surprise at the allegations of murder involving Burris.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Mildred May, a North Carolina resident who had once hired Burris to do some odd jobs around her property. She thought Burris was a very nice man.

Less than 1% of all murders are committed by serial killers.

North Carolina police are now digging into their unsolved case files to see if Burris could be a suspect in those crimes..

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Author Terry Odell is giving away a copy of this fine book. Please visit Terry’s website for details.

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Rhys Bowen: Sleuthing Without Forensics

Rhys Bowen

 

Rhys Bowen’s mysteries have been nominated for every major mystery award, including the Edgar for best novel, and she has won seven of them. She writes three series, including the Constable Evans mysteries, set in the mountains of Wales, and the Molly Murphy Mysteries, set in turn-of-the-century New York City and featuring a feisty Irish immigrant woman. Summer 2007 marked the launch of a new and very different series, this one about a minor royal in 1930s England. It has been described as Bridget Jones meets “Charade” as told by Nancy Mitford.

Sleuthing without Forensics

Like everyone else I’ve enjoyed Lee’s blog for all the good forensic tips and insights. However, unlike most of my fellow mystery writers, I can’t use them in my books. You see, I write historical mysteries. My mysteries are set in the first half of the Twentieth Century, not that long ago, so you’d think that police detection was already quite sophisticated, but that’s simply not true.

My Molly Murphy books take place in New York City in 1903, but my heroine and her police captain beau have very few forensic tools at their fingertips. And speaking of fingertips, fingerprinting had been discovered as a method of identification, but fingerprints were not universally collected at a crime scene, because a fingerprint had never been admissible evidence in court at this date. What the police relied on more was the Bertillon method. When a suspect was arrested a detailed series of measurements was taken of all parts of his anatomy-circumference of his head, length of arm to his fingertips and so on. These were all kept on index cards (I’ve seen them in the New York Police museum) and they were used to see if the person arrested matched anyone who had committed a similar crime. As you can see, it was a cumbersome system and one that could potentially mis-identify an innocent person, including an identical twin or sibling. But they claimed it was highly accurate and the police stuck to it until the first US murder trial to admit fingerprints as evidence in 1910.


I’ve used poisons and blood types these books as by 1900 scientists had perfected a way to detect even small amounts of arsenic, and an Austrian scientist had standardized the blood grouping system. In my latest Molly Murphy book, In a Gilded Cage, a hair is examined for traces of arsenic. But this is New York City. I am sure that murderers were getting away with-well, murder-in less sophisticated areas. And the poor cops in those days. There wasn’t even a really workable flashlight for tracking criminals after dark. And how did they take notes in the field, when permanent writing required an inkwell, pen and blotter? Fountain pens had been invented but they were way beyond the means of the average policeman. Even watches were luxury items. My heroine longs for one and has to rely on church clocks to keep her appointments.

It was even harder for my sleuths, who are both female. Women were not allowed in saloons. A woman loitering on the street alone at night would be arrested for prostitution, and try chasing a criminal in a long tight skirt, petticoats, and narrow pointy shoes.

My other heroine, Lady Georgiana, is living in Depression-era London. You’d think that detection work had moved ahead by leaps and bounds, wouldn’t you? But in those days detectives were dispatched from Scotland Yard, when summoned by local police, and local police were often not astute enough to suspect a clever murder. And male policemen did not take kindly to the intrusion of a female.

So how do my sleuths find their man, or woman? Good feminine observation helps. Women notice details, overhear conversations, pick up body language better than men do. And feminine intuition doesn’t hurt either, neither does Molly’s Irish luck!

Lady Georgie has her share of Celtic luck too.

Rhys Bowen’s new book, ROYAL FLUSH, starring Lady Georgiana, “the mystery world’s favorite penniless aristocrat” according to a review, is in stores on July 7th. Details of Rhys’s signing schedule can be found on her website, www.rhysbowen.com

Visit her website and mention this blog for a chance to win several great prizes-a basket of English teatime goodies and signed copies of the book.

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Author Terry Odell is giving away a copy of this fine book. Please visit Terry’s website for details.

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FOP: Fraternal Order of Police

 

The Fraternal Order of Police is the largest professional police organization in the U.S. It’s a group that’s 325,000 members strong from more than 2100 lodges. The FOP got its start in 1915, when two Pittsburgh police officers, Martin Toole and Delbert Nagle, had grown tired of working twelve hour days, 365 days a year. They’d also heard similar complaints from their fellow officers.

The two officers put their heads together and came up with the idea to form an organization to serve as the voice of all law enforcement officers. The group operates similar to a trade union, including lobbying Congress and other agencies. The FOP promotes legal defense for police officers, and it provides representation in labor actions involving officers

The organization provides a legal defense plan for its members. The plan pays for the legal defense for a member who’s facing proceedings involving administrative actions, civil defense, criminal cases, or administrative off-duty actions.

 

(From the FOP website)

The emblem adopted by the National Fraternal Order of Police is designed to remind the membership of the duties that are expected of them as a citizen, a police officer and a member of the lodge. The five-cornered star tends to remind us of the allegiance we owe to our Flag and is a symbol of the authority with which we are entrusted. It is an honor the people we serve bestow upon us. They place their confidence and trust in us; serve them proudly.

Midway between the points and center of the star is a blue field representative of the thin blue line protecting those we serve. The points are of gold, which indicates the position under which we are now serving. The background is white, the unstained color representing the purity with which we should serve. We shall not let anything corrupt be injected into our order. Therefore, our colors are blue, gold and white.

The open eye is the eye of vigilance ever looking for danger and protecting all those under its care while they sleep or while awake. The clasped hands denote friendship. The hand of friendship is always extended to those in need of our comfort.

The circle surrounding the star midway indicates our never ending efforts to promote the welfare and advancement of this order. Within the half circle over the centerpiece is our motto, “Jus, Fidus, Libertatum” which translated means “Law Is a Safeguard of Freedom.”

The Fraternal Order of Police is actively involved in their communities and charities such as Easter Seals, memorials for fallen police officers, Special Olympics, Torch Run, and programs for family members of police officers.

Members of the FOP must be regularly appointed, full time, sworn, active duty police officers. There are provisions for retired law enforcement officers, affiliate members, and associate members.

Other services offered by the FOP to its members are:

Education services

Freddie Mac financial education

Credit cards

Political Action Committee

Reference Library

Scholarships for spouses and family members of fallen officers

– Monthly dinner meetings, picnics, and other functions provide opportunities for officers and their families to socialize in a non-working atmosphere.

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Author Terry Odell is giving away a copy of this fine book (It’s the book below, not The Pig’s Picnic. Sorry). Please visit Terry’s website for details.

* My thanks to one of The Graveyard Shift’s loyal readers, SweetieZ, for sending us this photo:

I’ll bet she gets a purrrfect score on her police exam.

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