MAY 2023 - Blues Vol 39 No. 5

The BLUES 1

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FOUNDED IN 1984 

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MICHAEL BARRON 

founder & publisher 

MICHAEL BARRON 

editor-n-chief 

REX EVANS 

senior editor 

JESSICA JONES 

creative editor 

LT. JOHN KING (RET) 

copy editor 

RUSTY BARRON 

outdoor editor 

DR. TINA JAECKLE 

contributing editor 

DARYL LOTT 


SAM HORWITZ & JOHN SALERNO 

contributing editors 

BILL KING 


OUR CONTRIBUTORS 

SNEJANA FARBEROV 

light bulb 

OFFICERS ON GHOST PATROL 

warstory 

BRADLEY NICKELL 

aftermath 

STEVE POMPER 

DANIEL CARR 

BILL CAREY 

CHRIS DONALDSON 

AUDREY KORTE 

ELYSE CARMOSINO 

DAVID SULLIVAN 

BRIAN HURD 

contributing writers 

The BLUES is published monthly by Kress-Barr, LLC, PO Box 2733, League City Texas 77574. The opinions 

expressed in some articles, op-eds, and editorials are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion 

of The BLUES or its parent company. Rebuttals or submission of news articles and editorials may be 

submitted to: The BLUES @ bluespdmag@gmail.com. The entire contents of The BLUES IS copyrighted© 

and may not be reprinted without the express permission of the publisher. 

4 The BLUES The BLUES 5

FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESK 

yrs. 

What AI/CHAT has to say about 

Gun Violence in America. 

The following conversation was 

with an AI Bot named Chat/GPT. If 

you had any doubts as to whether 

the creators of Chat/GPT were 

radical left-wing democrats, you 

won’t by the time you finish reading 

the questions I posed to the AI. 

Needless to say, I don’t agree with 

any of the responses to my questions. 

These answers are typical of 

a Democrat seeking more gun control. 

I agree we need to find a way 

to stop mass killings in this country. 

But there are over 400 million 

guns in the hands of Americans. No 

new gun laws are going to change 

that. I’m writing this intro, because 

several of our readers thought 

this editorial was my stance on 

guns and gun control. Far from it. 

But it’s important that we know 

what AI is thinking. AI is going to 

control this world someday, and 

like a Terminator movie, we better 

stop Skynet from taking us all out. 

Please email your comments to: 

bluespdmag@gmail.com. 

QUESTION TO CHAT GPT: Can 

you provide a list of potential 

people who might become a mass 

shooter in the US? 

CHAT GPT: I’m sorry, but I cannot 

generate a list of potential people 

who might be a mass shooter. It is 

not ethical or appropriate to make 

assumptions about individuals and 

their potential for violence based 

on factors such as their race, ethnicity, 

religion, or any other personal 

characteristics. Additionally, 

it is important to remember that 

the vast majority of people who 

possess these characteristics do 

not engage in violent behavior. If 

you or someone you know is concerned 

about potential violence, I 

would encourage seeking help from 

mental health professionals or law 

enforcement. 

QUESTION TO CHAT GPT: What 

can America do to stop mass 

shootings? 

CHAT GPT: The issue of mass 

shootings is complex and multifaceted, 

and there is no easy solution. 

However, there are a number of 

steps that America can take to reduce 

the incidence of mass shootings: 

1. Strengthen gun control laws: 

One of the most effective ways 

to reduce the incidence of mass 

shootings is to implement stronger 

gun control laws. This could include 

measures such as universal background 

checks, waiting periods, and 

restrictions on the sale of high-capacity 

magazines and assault 

weapons. 

2. Improve access to mental 

health care: Many mass shooters 

have a history of mental illness, and 

improving access to mental health 

care could help identify and treat 

individuals who may be at risk of 

committing violent acts. 

3. Increase school security: 

Schools can implement measures 

such as security cameras, metal 

detectors, and lockdown drills to 

reduce the risk of mass shootings 

on campus. 

SGT. MICHAEL BARRON RET 

4. Address social and economic 

issues: Many mass shooters have 

experienced social isolation, economic 

hardship, or other forms of 

marginalization. Addressing these 

underlying issues could help prevent 

individuals from turning to 

violence. 

5. Encourage responsible reporting: 

The media can play a role in 

reducing the incidence of mass 

shootings by reporting responsibly 

on these events and avoiding sensationalism 

that may inspire copycat 

attacks. 

It is important to note that reducing 

the incidence of mass shootings 

will require a sustained and comprehensive 

effort from all segments 

of society, including government, 

law enforcement, mental health 

professionals, educators, and community 

members. 

QUESTION TO CHAT GPT: How 

many guns are in the hands of 

Americans? 

CHAT GPT: As an AI language 

model, I do not have access to 

real-time data, but I can tell you 

that estimates for the number of 

firearms in the hands of Americans 


as of 2022 vary widely, with some 

sources estimating that there are as 

many as 400 million guns in circulation. 

It is important to note that 

estimating the number of guns in 

the United States is challenging due 

to the lack of a national gun registry 

and the fact that many firearms 

are owned illegally or not registered. 

QUESTION TO CHAT GPT: How 

would stronger gun laws help if 

people already own the guns? 

CHAT GPT: Strengthening gun 

laws can help to reduce the incidence 

of gun violence in several 

ways, even if people already own 

guns: 

1. It can make it more difficult for 

criminals, terrorists, and other dangerous 

individuals to obtain firearms. 

Stronger background checks, 

waiting periods, and restrictions 

on the sale of high-capacity magazines 

and assault weapons can all 

help to prevent firearms from falling 

into the wrong hands. 

2. It can help to reduce the availability 

of firearms. By implementing 

buyback programs or restricting 

the transfer of firearms between 

individuals, for example, the number 

of firearms in circulation can be 

reduced over time. 

3. It can help to reduce the lethality 

of firearms. Restrictions 

on high-capacity magazines and 

certain types of firearms can help to 

limit the damage that can be done 

in the event of a shooting. 

4. It can help to reduce the risk of 

accidental shootings. Stricter laws 

around safe storage of firearms and 

requirements for training and education 

on firearm safety can help 

to prevent accidental shootings, 

particularly involving children. 

While it is true that stronger gun 

laws may not eliminate all gun violence, 

they can help to reduce the 

overall incidence of gun violence 

and mitigate the impact of shootings 

when they do occur. 

QUESTION TO CHAT GPT:: What 

is an Assault Weapon? 

CHAT GPT: The term “assault 

weapon” is somewhat controversial 

and has been used in different ways 

by different people and organizations. 

Generally, the term refers to 

a type of firearm that is designed 

for rapid fire and has features that 

make it more suitable for military-style 

operations, such as a 

detachable magazine, a pistol grip, 

and a folding or telescoping stock. 

These features can make the firearm 

more deadly and increase its capacity 

to fire rapidly and accurately. 

In the United States, the term 

“assault weapon” is often used to 

describe semi-automatic rifles that 

have certain features, such as a 

pistol grip or a detachable magazine, 

and can fire rapidly. However, 

the definition of an “assault weapon” 

can vary by state and by law, 

and there is no universally accepted 

definition. 

It is important to note that not all 

firearms that are sometimes referred 

to as “assault weapons” are 

used in mass shootings, and not 

all mass shootings involve “assault 

weapons.” However, many advocates 

for stricter gun laws argue 

that banning or restricting access 

to “assault weapons” can help to 

reduce the incidence and lethality 

of mass shootings. 


causes a person to become a shooter 

aimed at killing people? 

CHAT GPT: The causes of mass 

shootings are complex and multifaceted, 

and there is no one single 

factor that can fully explain why 

an individual may turn to violence. 

However, research has identified 

several risk factors that may increase 

the likelihood that someone 

will engage in mass shooting or 

other forms of targeted violence: 

1. Mental illness: While most 

people with mental illness do not 

commit violent acts, some research 

suggests that certain mental health 

conditions, such as psychosis or 

severe depression, may increase the 

risk of violence. 

2. Trauma and abuse: Individuals 

who have experienced trauma or 

abuse, such as physical or sexual 

abuse, neglect, or exposure to violence, 

may be more likely to engage 

in violent behavior. 

3. Social isolation and disconnection: 

Individuals who are socially 

isolated, lack meaningful connections 

to others, or feel excluded or 

marginalized may be more susceptible 

to extremist ideologies 

or other belief systems that justify 

violence. 

4. Access to firearms: Easy access 

to firearms can make it easier for 

individuals to carry out violent acts. 

Research has shown that states 

with higher rates of gun ownership 

have higher rates of gun deaths, 

including mass shootings. 

5. Ideology or belief system: Some 

individuals may become radicalized 

by extremist ideologies or belief 

systems, which can encourage violent 

behavior. 

It is important to note that while 

these risk factors may increase the 

likelihood that an individual will 

engage in violent behavior, they do 

not necessarily mean that someone 

will become a shooter. Additionally, 

many individuals who possess these 

risk factors do not engage in violent 

behavior, and it is important to 

avoid stigmatizing individuals with 

mental illness or other risk factors. 


state has the most mass shooting to 

date? 

CHAT GPT: According to data 

compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, 

which defines a mass shooting 

as an incident in which four or 

more people are shot, regardless of 

whether they are killed or injured, 

the state with the most mass shootings 

in the United States between 

2014 and 2021 was California, with 

a total of 32 mass shootings during 

that time period. 

It’s important to note that the 

definition of a mass shooting can 

vary and that there are other ways 

to measure gun violence, such as 

the total number of deaths or injuries 

resulting from gun violence in 

a given state. It’s also worth noting 

that mass shootings represent 

only a small portion of gun-related 

deaths in the United States, with the 

majority of gun-related deaths being 

the result of suicide, homicide, 

or accidental shootings. 


states have the most restrictive gun 

laws? 

CHAT GPT: The states with the 

most restrictive gun laws in the 

United States vary depending on the 

specific gun laws being considered. 

However, some states that are often 

cited as having particularly strict 

gun laws include: 

1.California: California has some 

of the most comprehensive gun 

control laws in the country, including 

a ban on assault weapons, a 

requirement for background checks 

on all gun sales, and restrictions on 

high-capacity magazines. 

2. New Jersey: New Jersey has 

a range of gun control measures 

in place, including a requirement 

for firearms purchasers to obtain 

a permit, a limit on the number of 

handguns that can be purchased in 

a month, and a ban on high-capacity 

magazines. 

3. New York: New York has a 

variety of gun control measures in 

place, including an assault weapons 

ban, background checks on all 

gun sales, and a requirement for a 

license to carry a handgun. 

4. Massachusetts: Massachusetts 

has a range of gun control laws in 

place, including a requirement for a 

license to possess a firearm, a ban 

on assault weapons, and a limit 

on the number of guns that can be 

purchased at one time. 

5. Connecticut: Connecticut has a 

variety of gun control measures in 

place, including an assault weapons 

ban, background checks on all 

gun sales, and a requirement for a 

permit to carry a handgun. 

It’s important to note that gun 

laws can vary widely by state, and 

that some states with more permissive 

gun laws may still have effective 

measures in place to prevent 

gun violence. Additionally, there is 

ongoing debate about the effectiveness 

of gun control measures in 

reducing gun violence. 


city has the most gun violence? 

CHAT GPT: The city with the most 

gun violence in the United States 

varies depending on the specific 

type of gun violence being considered. 

However, according to data 

from the Gun Violence Archive, 

which tracks incidents of gun violence 

across the country, the city 

with the most reported shootings in 

2021 was Chicago, Illinois. 


gun control is in place in Chicago? 

CHAT GPT: Chicago has a range 

of gun control measures in place 

aimed at reducing gun violence in 

the city. Some of these measures 

include: 

1. Firearm Registration: All firearm 

owners in Chicago are required to 

register their firearms with the city. 

2. Background Checks: All gun 

purchases in Chicago are subject 

to a background check, including 

private sales and transfers. 

3. Gun Dealer Licensing: All gun 

dealers in Chicago are required to 

obtain a license from the city, and 

the sale of firearms is heavily regulated. 

4. Assault Weapons Ban: Chicago 

has banned the possession, sale, 

and transfer of assault weapons 

and high-capacity magazines. 

5. Concealed Carry Permit Requirement: 

In order to carry a concealed 

firearm in Chicago, residents 

must obtain a permit from the 

state, which requires a background 

check and firearms training. 

It’s important to note that while 

Chicago has some of the most comprehensive 

gun control laws in the 

country, the city continues to struggle 

with gun violence. Addressing 

gun violence in the city will require 

a comprehensive and multi-faceted 

approach that takes into account a 

range of factors, including poverty, 

inequality, access to firearms, and 

mental health. 

QUESTION TO CHAT GPT: So 

even though they have strict gun 

laws, they still rank the highest 

in gun violence so then it seems 

tougher gun laws don’t work like 

politicians say they do? 

CHAT GPT: It is true that despite 

having some of the most comprehensive 

gun control laws in 

the country, Chicago continues to 

struggle with gun violence. This has 

led to ongoing debate about the effectiveness 

of gun control measures 

in reducing gun violence. 

Moreover, while Chicago has 

relatively strict gun laws, the state 

of Illinois as a whole has more 

permissive gun laws compared to 

some other states, which could also 

contribute to the prevalence of gun 

violence in the city. 

Overall, addressing gun violence 

in the United States will require a 

comprehensive approach that takes 

into account the many factors that 

contribute to this issue, and that 

includes a range of interventions 

aimed at preventing gun violence, 

such as community-based initiatives, 

economic and social interventions, 

and evidence-based gun 

control measures. 

So that’s what AI/Chat GPT has 

to say on the matter. BE AWARE of 

AI and what future we have for our 

kids and grandkids if AI controls 

their lives. 


FROM THE SENIOR EDITOR’S DESK 

TPCA Conference 

yrs. 

Under 65 Healthcare Options? 

We have you covered. 

Well, my friends, I just returned from 

the 2023 Texas Police Chief’s Conference, 

and I gotta say, it was something. 

This year’s conference was held in Ft. 

Worth at the Ft. Worth Convention 

Center. Even better was the host hotel, 

the Omni-Fort Worth, was where 90% 

of us stayed it was just across the 

street. 

Chief conferences are always a good 

place to see old friends, make a new 

one or two, and of course see the look 

in the eyes of every New Chief attending 

their first Chief’s Conference. 

All wide eyed, taking in everything. 

Listening to every word. Stopping by 

every Vendor’s booth. Trying to figure 

out what exactly it is they are supposed 

to be buying. 

The million-dollar question at most 

conferences, “What exactly are we 

gonna get outta this madness?” And, 

hey you gonna eat that? 

There is always SOMETHING to learn 

at EVERY conference I have attended in 

the nearly ten years as a Chief of Police. 

It could be policy related, liability 

reconfiguring, use of force issues, or 

communications. There’s always something, 

you just gotta look. 

This year’s Texas Police Chief’s Conference 

was no different and it didn’t 

disappointment. The “Keynote” speaker 

was the former Washington D.C. Capital 

Police Chief who had the misfortune 

of being the Chief on January 6th. 

Poor fella, by the time his presentation 

was over you were like “Yep. He was 

the fall guy. For BOTH sides of the 

fight!” 

Seriously, there was NO way that guy 

could’ve come out unscathed and ole 

Pelosi was determined from before the 

incident even began, he was going to 

be the one sacrificed by the Government 

and the entire Nation. Enough of 

that. What happened, happened. 

As for the vendors…well, I’ve seen 

lots of cool “toys” over the years. This 

year was no exception. My department 

is going to do complete overhaul of our 

Fleet and Body Camera systems. After 

meeting with a vendor on the exhibit 

floor, we sealed the deal and ordered 

some equipment. But there really 

wasn’t a lot of time allowed for walking 

the vendor floor. Note to ALL CON- 

FERENCES, you really need to schedule 

time for us to walk the floor and see 

all the vendors. That’s what they are 

paying for and one of the primary reasons 

we go to conventions. One day of 

exhibits doesn’t cut it. It was a bit of a 

disappointment for both the Chiefs as 

well as the vendors. 

The food, you ask. Well folks I’ve 

just got to say, IT WAS AWESOME! The 

folks at the Omni-Ft. Worth know how 

to feed a group of people from out of 

town and make them all feel welcome. 

And full. There was chicken fried steak. 

Loaded mashed potatoes. Gravy. Bacon 

and onion infused green beans…Lord 

have mercy, we ate good. Now, on 

the last day…Friend, the folks from 

either the TMPA or TML I think it was, 

put on an outside dinner that was like 

none other. There was everything from 

Texas BBQ to fresh Texas seafood. It 

was awesome. And for the grand finale 

of the food discussion… They served 

Dutch Oven Chocolate Brownies with 

vanilla ice cream. (told you…we ate!) 

Finally on a very serious note. There 

was the “Great Bomb Threat of the ’23 

Conference” this year. FWPD and various 

other agencies all responded and 

did a good job doing what we all do. It 

was a funny moment during a serious 

issue though. 

We noticed all the servers immediately 

leaving the Hall while we were 

breaking for lunch. (Cops noticing the 

flow of food and drinks have stopped 

CHIEF REX EVANS 

was Clue No. 1) The second clue came 

when we looked towards the staged 

and noticed all the mucketty mucks 

who comprise the Board, huddled up 

together. I said to the 7 or 8 Chief’s at 

my table, “I was a Fireman long before 

I was a cop. I am going straight for 

desert now, gentlemen. We’re about to 

get toned out of this room! 

And we did. For about the next hour 

and a half, a large swath of Chiefs and 

their entourages stood outside (thank 

God it was a beautiful day) and talked 

shop. We laughed, cut up and carried 

on like old friends and colleagues 

do. Then the all-clear arrived and we 

strolled right back in like nothing ever 

happened. 

Last note- There is an alcohol related 

facility located on the first floor 

of the Omni-Ft. Worth. Designed in 

true western culture of course. Inside 

this area, there was an atmosphere 

of friendship, lighthearted fellowship 

and true, sincere human interaction. 

On the heels of that time frame called 

a Pandemic, it was so good to see 

people laughing again. Talking again. 

Living again. All in all, it was a good 

conference. Old friends, food and a 

nice place…We really couldn’t mess 

it up too bad, even if we tried! I mean 

Chiefs and all, I get it. But we pulled off 

having a pretty good 72 hours or so!!!! 

That’s all, folks! I’m 10-8 

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BILL KING 

monthly blog 

yrs. 

A Weekend on the 

National Mall. 

On Good Friday, I traveled to 

Washington, D.C., to attend the 

interment of a friend’s mother 

at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Cheryl and I took the rest of the 

weekend to hang around the National 

Mall. Let me tell you what 

we saw. 

We saw thousands of our 

fellow Americans in every flavor 

you can imagine. From Americans 

with almost no melanin in 

their skin to those rich with it. 

Americans who had come here 

from every corner of the globe, 

many in their traditional garb. We 

saw dozens of interracial couples, 

many with their beautiful 

children whose faces reflected 

their combined heritage. We saw 

Americans being unfailingly kind 

to each other. Laughing, smiling, 

sharing where they were from, 

what they had seen, what they 

planned to see. We saw them 

volunteering to take families’ 

pictures for each other so entire 

families could be included in the 

shot. 

We saw people stopping military 

personnel and thanking them 

for their service. We saw Americans 

standing at the Vietnam War 

memorial with tears streaming 

down their faces. We saw tourists 

at Arlington stopping and removing 

their hats or saluting as our 

funerary procession passed. We 

saw people poring over the words 

of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, 

many I suspect for the first time 

reading the greatest speech ever 

written in the English language. 

What we did not see was the 

toxic polarization that the media 

constantly tells us is tearing our 

country apart. We saw almost 

no hats or t-shirts with political 

slogans. There were no protests. 

There was no one arguing or 

yelling at each other. All we saw 

were thousands of our fellow 

Americans basking in the pride of 

their remarkable country and its 

history. 

Our visit to the National Mall 

once again reminded me of 

the fundamental goodness and 

decency of the American people. 

We allow ourselves to be 

seduced in doubting this truism 

by a media fixated on showing 

us the relatively rare examples 

of Americans who are not good 

and decent. I wish all of us could 

remember that, as Hans Rosling 

said in his book “Factfullness,” 

what we read and see in the media 

is “filtered through the mass 

media [executives], which love 

nonrepresentative, extraordinary 

events and shuns normality.” 

It also once again underscored 

to me how unworthy our current 

government is of the extraordinary 

people it is supposed to 

BILL KING 

represent. Unfortunately, we have 

allowed it to become the captive 

of two corrupt, power-mad political 

parties, which are attempting 

to wreck our constitutional order 

and allow extremist minorities 

to rule. A danger about which 

almost every Founder warned us. 

Dramatic reenactments of the 

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 

have attributed a quote to Japanese 

Admiral Yamamoto on the 

victory: “I fear we have awakened 

a sleeping giant and filled him 

with a terrible resolve.”* The 

American people are long-suffering, 

and most are disinclined to 

actively participate in politics. But 

at some point, the two incumbent 

parties are going to exhaust the 

American people’s patience and 

find that they have awakened a 

giant filled with a terrible resolve. 

*There is no historical record 

that Yamamoto actually spoke 

these words, but historians have 

found several quotes to this effect 

in his diaries. 


GUEST COMENTARY 

Cops Pursuing Criminals 

Damned if they do, and damned if they don’t. 

Many states like Illinois, 

Washington, and Oregon have 

recently passed radical leftist 

anti-police laws disguised 

as “police reform.” They have 

nothing to do with “reform.” 

They are about altering or 

abolishing legitimate, traditional 

law enforcement because 

the anti-cops don’t like it. 

People are also criticizing 

new police anti-pursuit laws. 

With weak support for cops 

from their feeble leaders, anti-police 

activists have gotten 

away with blaming cops when 

innocent people are injured or 

killed during police pursuits. 

But the anti-cops also blame 

the police when they fail to 

pursue a criminal who later 

kills or injures an innocent 

person. 

In my book, De-Policing 

America, I wrote, “Hey, politicians! 

Stop making cops the 

bad guys!” I used the relatively 

innocuous example of politicians 

passing mildly oppressive 

laws that turn cops into pseudo-parents 

of adult Americans. 

These were usually 

“do-something” laws that put 

citizens in unnecessary conflict 

with cops. Like when Washington 

State created a law that 

people must keep a litter bag 

in their car, or the officer could 

cite them. 

And it’s gotten much worse, 

going from minor litter bagtype 

laws to major allowing 

felons to run from the police 

laws. 

With the proliferation of fake 

“police reform” laws, cops are 

put in bad positions, restricted 

from doing police work as 

it should be done—as it used 

to be done. And the people are 

noticing. The radical left, anti-police 

politicians don’t seem 

to want cops catching the bad 

guys. They assert they’re looking 

out for public safety, which 

they say is put at risk by police 

pursuing criminals. 

This may be true, but ultimately, 

forgetting that the 

cops are damned, if we do, 

the responsibility for the consequences 

of a vehicle pursuit 

must remain with the damned 

criminals who initiate pursuits. 

And the penalties for putting a 

community at risk by attempting 

to elude or escape from 

police should be steep enough 

to serve as a deterrent. 

Remember, the police aren’t 

chasing criminals for infractions 

or misdemeanors as the 

yrs. 

Steve Pomper 

media so often report. “Police 

pursue driver for running a stop 

sign” or chase a “shoplifter for 

stealing sunglasses.” Nope. The 

cops are pursuing suspects for 

the felony crime of running 

from the police. 

As bad as the consequences 

of a pursuit can be to innocent 

victims, when the bad guys 

know they can drive away and 

police won’t chase them, they 

do. And, you know what? They 

still hurt and kill innocent victims. 

For example, the consequences 

of damned if we don’t (pursue) 

are on the minds of Tacoma 

P.D. officers in Washington. 

According to Frank Sumrall 

at MyNorthwest.com, “Amber 

Goldade, a resident of Tacoma, 

lost her 12-year-old daughter, 

Immaculee after she was killed 

when struck by a man driving 

a stolen truck in January 2022. 

Goldade told legislators last 

month she blames the state’s 

police pursuit law for the death 

of her child, claiming if not for 

the current law, the man might 

have been detained the week 

before.” 

Determining what would or 

would not have happened in a 

given police situation is always 

challenging. There are often too 

many variables to be sure. But 

it’s hard to argue Immaculee’s 

mother doesn’t have a point. 

After all, she’s arguing that the 

nightmare she’s experiencing is 

what law enforcement warned 

the legislature would happen 

if they passed their anti-police 

legislation. 

As Goldade explained to 

Jason Rantz on his KTTH Radio 

show, the man accused of 

killing Goldade’s daughter had 

allegedly stolen the truck from 

a landscaping company he and 

some accomplices had allegedly 

burglarized. Both felonies. 

Tacoma police located and 

followed the truck, but when 

they tried to stop the driver, 

he kept driving. But state law 

would not allow them to pursue 

the suspect. Goldade said, 

LE AGENCIES 

“If the man was able to be pursued 

and get caught, then he 

could have been in jail where 

he belonged because he was a 

convicted felon. He was already 

out of jail, and he missed 

a court date from a prior [offense].” 

After passing these anti-police 

laws, the state legislature 

has spent significant time 

predictably backtracking in an 

attempt to remedy their avoidable 

“mistakes.” These circumstances 

even forced tyrant, 

anti-police Gov. Jay Inslee to 

sign some legislation altering 

or nixing some of the defects in 

the new laws. 

Currently, the legislature is 

attempting to pass “a police 

pursuit bill…” that will lessen 

limitations placed on cops for 

pursuing suspects. The Senate 

CALL FOR 

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barely passed it with a 26-23 

vote. The final bill passed the 

House Committee on Community 

Safety, which Goldade described 

as “extremely weak and 

watered down” (which, coincidentally, 

also describes many of 

Washington’s anti-police legislators). 

State Senator Simon Sefzik, 

joining Goldade in an interview, 

said he hopes to restore the bill 

to its original, more potent version, 

as it returns to the House. 

Sumrall wrote, “Sefzik has been 

a vocal supporter of removing 

the state’s hyper-strict police 

pursuit laws, including writing 

an op-ed for the Cascadia Daily 

News stating many of these 

tragedies are preventable.” 

A description that will haunt 

Amber Goldade for the rest of 

her life. 

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yrs. 

Chris Donaldson 

Biden makes big deal of inviting black 

teen shooting victim to the White House. 

Snubs grieving Nashville parents. 

Joe Biden seems to be determined 

to go down as the most 

divisive Democrat leader since 

Jefferson Davis and on Tuesday, he 

announced that he had spoken to 

the black teen victim of a shooting 

incident in Kansas City last week 

and that he had invited 16-year 

Ralph Yarl to the White House, a 

courtesy that he never saw fit to 

publicly extend to the families of 

the six victims of a mentally disturbed 

transgender murderer who 

shot up a Christian elementary 

school in Nashville last month, or 

to anyone else that he couldn’t use 

to pander to a key element of his 

party’s base. 

The shooting of the youngster by 

an 84-year-old white homeowner 

after he allegedly rang the doorbell 

at the wrong residence has 

been exploited by Democrats and 

their winged monkeys in the media 

to whip up renewed hysteria over 

what has been claimed by some 

to be an incident rooted in racial 

animus. And never one to miss out 

on pouring gasoline on the fire, the 

race baiter-in-chief made a big 

deal over the phone conversation 

with the wounded teen and the 

invitation to the nation’s capital to 

meet with him personally. 

“Last night, I had a chance to call 

Ralph Yarl and his family,” Biden 

wrote on Twitter. “No parent should 

have to worry that their kid will be 

shot after ringing the wrong doorbell. 

We’ve got to keep up the fight 

against gun violence.” 

“And Ralph, we’ll see you in the 

Oval once you feel better,” he added. 

Biden’s big announcement caused 

quite a stir on Twitter where users 

expressed outrage over the great 

divider’s selective treatment when 

it comes to victims of violence. 

After lying to the American people 

that he would be a unifying presence 

if elected, Biden has gone on 

to repeatedly inflame racial tensions 

which, since the dismal tenure 

of Barack Obama, have been going 

in the wrong direction, reversing 

decades of progress and all but actually 

spitting on the grave of slain 

civil rights leader Martin Luther King 

Jr. who had a dream that one day, 

people would be judged not by the 

color of their skin but rather by the 

content of their character. 

And Biden has been a truly repulsive 

character during his White 

House tenure with only one of many 

examples earlier this year being 

his brazenly false assertion that 

there are white folks who still want 

to celebrate the lynching of black 

people and take pictures of their 

bodies. 

“With white crowds, white families 

gathered to celebrate the spectacle, 

taking pictures of the bodies 

and mailing them as postcards,” 

Biden said on the occasion of a 

White House screening of the movie 

“Till” which is about the Chicago 

teen who was brutally murdered 

by Mississippi racists back in 1955. 

“Hard to believe, but that’s what 

was done. And some people still 

want to do that.” 

The deliberate destruction of 

race relations in America is sad 

and tragic but it’s only guaranteed 

to get worse with the most pivotal 

election in the nation’s history 

rapidly approaching and Biden and 

his fellow Democrats needing an 

inflamed and energized black electorate 

to retain their grip on power. 



“Police Violence” 

It is myth or reality? 

For nearly two decades the term 

“police violence” has bothered 

me. The term just never sounded 

right and never made any sense. 

Like nails on a chalkboard or 

grown men watching professional 

wrestling – something about it 

just didn’t seem right. The term 

strikes a cringe worthy level of 

dishonesty cloaked in the most 

awkward of white, woke virtue 

signals pulled from the most uninformed 

anti-police echo chambers. 

Since the vast majority of use of 

force (including shootings) by police 

officers is in direct response 

to them being attacked while 

carrying out legitimate lawful 

duties – wouldn’t a more accurate 

term be “violence against police”, 

“police response to violence”, 

“police self defense”, or “police 

reasonably trying to not get shot 

in the face by violent maniacs and 

utilizing lawful force options to 

achieve that goal”? 

I have loosely been kicking 

around these ideas for years and 

was motivated to write some of 

them down after listening to Drew 

Breasy Uncuffed on the On Being a 

Police Officer podcast (hosted by 

Abby Ellsworth). 

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THIS 

TOPIC 

I get that this might be too much 

common sense for anti-police 

activists but broken down to its 

most basic level – if a police officer 

is attempting to make a lawful 

arrest and the individual fights 

with or attacks the police officer 

and the police officer utilizes force 

in order to defend themselves and 

continue the lawful arrest – that is 

not the fault of the police officer. 

This scenario is the fault of the 

badly behaving man who is in the 

process of breaking multiple laws. 

The term “police violence” 

should be utilized for situations 

were police use of force is unlawful. 

For example, when speaking 

about the George Floyd or Walter 

Scott cases – that would be reasonable 

use of that term. However, 

why should a situation be labeled 

or classified by academics and 

media pundits as “police violence” 

when the use of force is lawful, 

reasonable, justified, and within 

the limits of policy and training? 

HANDS UP – DON’T SHOOT 

(ALSO, DON’T LIE) 

For example – in 2014 Ferguson, 

MO police officer Darren Wilson 

shot and killed Michael Brown 

– after the 6’4’’ and 300 lb Mr. 

Brown committed a violent felony, 

resisted arrest, tried to grab the 

officer’s gun, and was actively 

attacking the officer. Not only 

did independent local and state 

yrs. 

Daniel Carr 

investigators find that the officer-involved-shooting 

was lawful 

but so did a grand jury – as well 

as a subsequent investigation by 

the Department of Justice (DOJ). 

The DOJ concluded that the shooting 

was lawful and reasonable 

and declined to file any charges. 

Also remember this was President 

Obama’s DOJ – led by Attorney 

General Eric Holder. Neither man 

has historically been on the side 

of police officers and there was 

mounting political pressure to 

charge Officer Wilson. 

So, this is literally a case where 

everyone that has investigated 

it has concluded that the shooting 

was lawful – yet still this is 

listed as an example of “police 

violence” and even in 2020 NBA 

players wore the phrase “hands up 

don’t shoot” on the backs of their 

jerseys – even though the DOJ 

found that: Mr. Brown never said 

those words, never had his hands 

up, and was actively attacking 

Officer Wilson when the shooting 

occurred. 

See why it is problematic and 

dishonest to classify lawful police 

use of force incidents as “police 

violence”? 

Michael Brown attacked Officer 

Wilson and tried to grab his gun. 

This was an example of “violence 

against police” where thankfully 

the good guy came out on top. 

That is the truth and we should 

not be afraid to say it. Those who 

choose to reject this reality are 

akin to Q’Anon worshipping election 

deniers. #TrustTheScience 

“END POLICE BRUTALITY” 

Like the phrase “black lives matter” 

the phrase “end police brutality” 

is not controversial. Literally 

no one is “pro police brutality” and 

every reasonable person believes 

that every life matters and that 

notion is thankfully cemented in 

U.S. law – that we all are required 

to be treated equally under the 

law. 

People who hold signs at protests 

and exclaim “end police 

brutality” on social media literally 

have zero opposition. This is 

a good thing. We are all on the 

same side here. Police brutality by 

definition is illegal and immoral. 

Everyone should be (and generally 

are) opposed to it. However, the 

dishonesty here is two-fold: 

Anti-police activists pretend 

that some people are pro-police 

brutality. 

Anti-police activists enjoy lumping 

all police shootings and use of 

force incidents into the category 

of “police brutality” no matter 

what the facts of the individual 

cases are. 

Every police use of force incident 

should be thoroughly investigated 

and judged on the specific 

set of facts and circumstances. A 

police officer in Rhode Island who 

utilized lawful force should not 

have their case be mixed in with 

an unlawful police shooting incident 

that happened 2000 miles 

away. 

Placing any blame or linking 

anything negative to police officers 

who use reasonable force 

in response being attacked or to 

overcome resistance from lawful 

arrest is akin to blaming the 

victim of domestic violence for 

being beaten. Sure, you can blame 

the victim if you want – but the 

problem will continue to persist 

until the offender is forced to stop 

their unlawful actions. 

STATS, EVIDENCE, AND COM- 

MON SENSE 

In 2021, 1053 people were shot 

and killed by police officers. 

632 of the people shot by police 

were listed as armed with a “gun”. 

155 of the people shot by police 

were listed as armed with a 

“knife”. 

Only 32 of the people shot by 

police were listed as completely 

“unarmed”. 

Therefore, only .03% of all 

police shootings involved an 

“unarmed” person. 

*It should also be noted that 

“unarmed” does not necessarily 

mean that these individuals were 

not dangerous or did not pose a 

deadly threat to police. For example, 

an “unarmed” offender who 

is in the process of trying to bash 

the officer in the head in an effort 

to steal the officer’s gun is (and 

should be viewed as) an immediate 

deadly threat by the officer in 

the moment. 

A quick look at this data indicates 

that only 3% of people who 

are shot and killed by police were 

unarmed at the time of the shooting. 

So, in 97% of cases when police 

officers utilized deadly force 

– the offender was armed with a 

deadly weapon. 

The idea that there is an epidemic 

of “police violence” plaguing 

our society is far less plausible 

when facts and evidence are 

introduced into the discussion. 

Dishonest anti-police activists 

rely on the lies of their loyal followers 

and on the ignorance of 

well-meaning citizens, who simply 

do not know any better. 

FINAL THOUGHTS 

There are some instances where 

police officers use excessive force 

and commit crimes while on-duty. 

Those cases (like all police 

use of force incidents) should 

be thoroughly investigated and if 

the legal standard is met those 

officers should be arrested and 

prosecuted. There should be no 

tolerance for police brutality. 

However, the vast majority of 

police use of force incidents are 

objectively just simply not examples 

of “police brutality”. Use of 

force by police officers is almost 

always in response to individuals 

who are attacking police or resisting 

lawful arrest – and police 

officers respond in kind with proportional 

force options. 

I am simply demanding that 

there be separate categories for 

these incidents. If a police officer 

commits a criminal act while 

using force – we will classify that 

as “police violence” and if a police 

officer does not commit a criminal 

act while using force – we 

will classify that as “lawful police 

response to being attacked.” 

And if anyone in the media or 

government intentionally misgenders 

these cases – the involved 

police officers should have the 

ability to seek damages. 

This article originally appeared 

at The Police Law News Substack, 

reprinted from lawofficer. 

com. 


AROUND THE COUNTRY 

yrs. 

Communication coverage wherever you are! 

SPRINGFIELD, OH. 

Springfield Township police officer Timothy J. Unwin, a former 

Hamilton patrol officer, died in a double-fatality accident early 

Friday morning in North College Hill in Ohio. 

Unwin was responding to “an 

officer needs assistance” call. 

Police Chief Rick Bley said in a 

press conference the 31-year-old 

was responding just after midnight 

to assist when the crash 

occurred. 

“This is an extremely emotional 

and sad day for the family and 

friends of the two men who died, 

as well as the entire Springfield 

Twp. Police Department and for 

our community as a whole,” Bley 

said.The chief said the Hamilton 

County Sheriff’s Office is investigating 

the accident and identified 

the other driver as 50-year-old 

William Dunson. 

Unwin had been a Hamilton 

police officer for nearly two years, 

being appointed to the job on Aug. 

5, 2019, according to the department. 

He resigned in May 2021 

to take the job with Springfield 

Twp. Unwin completed his OPOTC 

police officer training in 2016, 

two years after graduating from 

Cincinnati State. He is also a 2009 

graduate of Harrison High School. 

Hamilton Avenue was closed 

between Clovernoll Drive and 

Centerridge Avenue near Ronald 

OFFICER TIMOTHY J. UNWIN 

Reagan Highway in North College 

Hill for about five hours as 

crews worked to clear the scene. 

WCPO reported Unwin’s cruiser 

was “almost unrecognizable,” and 

the other vehicle was also heavily 

damaged. 

Hamilton Police Chief Craig 

Bucheit said the community’s 

thoughts are with all impacted. 

“While Tim’s time here was 

brief, his impact was significant in 

terms of the lives he touched and 

the many relationships he forged,” 

he said. 

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost 

offered his condolences to Unwin’s 

family, fellow officers, and 

the Springfield Township. 

“Civil society depends on selfless 

sacrifice, sometimes the 

ultimate sacrifice,” he said. “ We 

should never take their service for 

granted.” 

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yrs. 

LAFOURCHE PARISH, LA. 

Detective Sergeant Nicholas Pepper was killed when his patrol 

car was rammed by a suspect’s vehicle. 

Sheriff Craig Webre has identified 

the deputy who died after 

a suspect rammed the deputy’s 

vehicle early Sunday morning. Detective 

Sergeant Nicholas Pepper, 

44, was pronounced dead at a 

local hospital on Sunday. The suspect 

is in custody, and Louisiana 

State Police is handling the crash 

and criminal investigation. 

“Nick epitomized all that is 

honored and revered in a peace 

officer,” said Sheriff Webre. “The 

tremendous outpouring of love 

and gratitude from the community 

is truly appreciated. I ask that you 

continue to keep Sergeant Nick 

Pepper and his family, as well as 

our Sheriff’s Office family, in your 

thoughts and prayers.” 

The initial investigation by 

Louisiana State Police revealed 

an officer with the Houma Police 

Department attempted to stop 

a vehicle for a traffic violation. 

The suspect fled at a high rate of 

speed. Police pursued the suspect 

and, at some point during 

the pursuit, the suspect stopped. 

Officers attempted to negotiate 

with the suspect who sped off and 

rammed into Sergeant Pepper’s 

unit which was stopped nearby. 

Sergeant Pepper sustained fatal 

injuries as a result of the crash 

and was later pronounced dead at 

Thibodaux Regional Health System. 

The suspect was taken into 

custody and transported to a local 

hospital with moderate injuries. 

Nicholas Pepper began his career 

at the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s 

Office on October 15, 2007. He 

served his entire career in the investigations 

division, most recently 

as a supervisor in adult investigations. 

He was an integral part 

of nearly every major criminal investigation 

in Lafourche Parish for 

more than a decade. Prior to his 

LPSO career, he spent time with 

the Houma Police Department and 

the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s 

Office, part of a law enforcement 

career that spanned nearly 24 

years of service. Pepper’s wife, 

Christie, is also employed through 

the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s 

SERGEANT NICHOLAS PEPPER 

Office as an investigator for the 

Lafourche Parish District Attorney. 

He also leaves behind two daughters, 

Patience and Gracie, and a 

son, Nicholas Jr. 



yrs. 

CAMERON,WI. 

Chetek Police Department officer Emily Breidenbach and Cameron Police Department 

officer Hunter Scheel were killed during a traffic stop that escalated into a 

shootout. 

By Audrey Korte 

The Chippewa Herald 

ber former Police Chief Robert 

Breidenbach,” the Pardeeville Fire 

Department wrote on Facebook. “Our 

thoughts are with the Breidenbach 

family, the family of the other fallen 

officer involved, and all of our law 

enforcement brothers and sisters 

who put it all on the line everyday 

they wear the uniform.” 

“Emily Ann I’ve known you since 

you were ten when my pops (Tim) 

married your mom. You have always 

been a shining beckon of light,” Karen 

Yonke posted on Facebook. “You have 

always lived life with such adventure 

and treated everyone around you 

with dignity and respect. From the 

silly vibrant 10-year-old to the girl 

who made a stand in high school 

to shave her head to the beautiful 

woman you were. You will be remembered 

and thought of daily. Every 

time I hear a bike pass my house 

I will remember. Mama Sue and all 

who know Emily, I am truly sorry for 

all of our loss.” 

Authorities said Perry, the suspect 

in the vehicle, had a warrant for his 

arrest and police had received a 

report about “concerning behavior.” 

According to online court records, 

he had a limited criminal history. He 

was convicted of two misdemeanor 

cases from 2020 in Barron County 

involving disorderly conduct. His most 

recent address was listed as New 

Auburn. 

According to a DOJ press release, 

at 3:38 p.m. Saturday, Breidenbach 

stopped a vehicle in the village of 

Cameron and gunfire was exchanged. 

Breidenbach and Scheel both were 

hit by gunfire and pronounced dead at 

the scene. The suspect from the incident 

was taken to a hospital, where 

they later died. 

The location of the shooting on 

County Highway SS is the main road 

between Cameron and Chetek. 

DCI is leading the investigation 

and is assisted by the Barron County 

Sheriff’s Office, Rusk County Sheriff’s 

Office, Wisconsin Department of 

Natural Resources, Wisconsin State 

Patrol and Wisconsin State Crime Lab. 

DCI will provide reports to the 

Barron County district attorney for 

review at the conclusion of its investigation. 

CAMERON, Wis. — Police officers 

and family members from Chetek and 

Cameron gathered early Monday to 

pay their respects as the bodies of 

their fallen colleagues were transported 

from Barron County to Minnesota 

for autopsies. 

On Saturday, Chetek Police Department 

officer Emily Breidenbach and 

Cameron Police Department officer 

Hunter Scheel were killed during 

a traffic stop that escalated into a 

shootout. 

The Wisconsin Department of Justice 

Division of Criminal Investigation, 

which is investigating the incident, 

identified the driver of the vehicle as 

Glenn D. Perry, 50. Perry was transported 

from the scene by ambulance 

to a hospital where he later died. 

The bodies of Breidenbach and 

Sheel were taken to Minnesota for 

autopsies as part of the ongoing investigation 

into the incident. 

Camryn Gosdeck shared on Facebook: 

“It is with a heavy heart to 

share that my love, my soulmate, and 

my best friend made the ultimate 

sacrifice doing exactly what he was 

meant to do, help others. Hunter 

Timothy Scheel meant so much to so 

many people and left anyone he encountered 

with a laugh and a smile.” 

OFFICER EMILY BREIDENBACH 

Gosdeck said Scheel also served in 

the Army National Guard and volunteered 

to serve in Afghanistan. 

“I am absolutely heartbroken and 

never knew I could feel such an immense 

pain as having my other half 

ripped from me. My heart hurts for 

him, for his family and anyone who 

had the pleasure of knowing him,” 

Gosdeck said. “Please keep Hunter 

and the Chetek officer and their 

families in your thoughts and prayers. 

Please thank your first responders 

and veterans when you see them. 

Please hug your loved ones tight. 

And please show kindness in every 

encounter you have.” 

OFFICER HUNTER SCHEEL 

Emily Breidenbach was engaged 

to be married and was the daughter 

of former Chetek Police Chief Robert 

Breidenbach. Chetek Police Chief 

Ron Ambrozaitis said Breidenbach 

was the department’s K9 therapy dog 

handler and had been with the force 

since 2019. 

“Our love and condolences go out 

to both families and all those with 

whom they served,” Ambrozaitis said. 

“We, as a law enforcement family, 

will do everything possible to continue 

to provide support and comfort to 

Hunter and Emily’s families. They will 

be missed by everyone.” 

“Many in Pardeeville may remem- 



yrs. 

NEW ORLEANS,LA. 

New Orleans police officer Trevor Abney, shot in the head in the line 

of duty more than two years ago, has died from that injury. 

Trevor Abney, 34, died Sunday 

night in his Slidell-area home of 

complications from the cerebral 

gunshot wound. For more than 

two years, the decorated police 

officer, firefighter, Army veteran, 

husband and father lived with a 

.40-caliber, full metal jacket bullet 

lodged in his brain. 

“That’s not just pure luck,” Abney 

told WWL-TV in 2021. “For it to 

wiggle its way around all that and 

not cause massive hemorrhaging, 

there’s something else going on 

there. So I’ve definitely been doing 

a lot more praying that I did 

before.” 

Abney was one of two officers 

wounded in an Oct. 30, 2020 

ambush by a French Quarter 

pedicab passenger. He and fellow 

NOPD officer Brooke Duncan IV 

were driving a police cruiser on 

St. Philip Street near Royal Street 

when Donnell Linwood Hassell, 47, 

a visitor to New Orleans, opened 

fire with a .40-caliber handgun, 

seemingly without provocation. 

Duncan sustained cuts to his 

arm when the cruiser’s windshield 

shattered, and Abney was 

shot below his left eye. Though 

the bullet remained lodged in his 

brain and blinded him in that eye, 

Abney was discharged from the 

hospital five days after sustaining 

the life-threatening injury. 

Police apprehended Hassell after 

a foot chase through the French 

Quarter and booked him on two 

counts of attempted murder of a 

police officer. Bond was set at $1.5 

million. Hassell, a military veteran 

from Georgia, entered a dual plea 

of not guilty and not guilty by reason 

of insanity last September. His 

attorney, Stephen Hebert, had no 

comment on the pending trial. 

District Attorney Jason Williams 

said Monday he is “absolutely” 

considering new charges against 

Hassell now that Abney’s death 

has been deemed a homicide. 

Donovan Livaccari, a spokesman 

for the local Fraternal Order of 

Police lodge, expressed his condolences. 

So did Mayor LaToya 

Cantrell. 

“He was a good guy, and we 

search for people like him all 

the time to fill the positions and 

needs,” Livaccari said. “We as a 

community need Trevorz, and it’s 

a shame we don’t have him any 

more.” 

Abney, who lived in Slidell and 

attended Northshore High School, 

was an Iraq War veteran who 

worked with St. Tammany Fire 

Protection District No. 11. He joined 

the NOPD as a recruit in 2015 and 

worked in its 8th District, an area 

OFFICER TREVOR ABNEY 

that includes the French Quarter 

and surrounding areas, where 

he served with distinction until 

he was wounded, according to 

a statement from NOPD interim 

police superintendent Michelle 

Woodfork. 

“During his eight years with the 

department, Officer Abney received 

a commendation for exemplary 

performance in the line of 

duty that saved the life of a citizen 

as well as the Purple Heart Medal 

for injuries received in the line of 

duty,” she stated. 

Shawn Abney, Trevor Abney’s 

brother, said his family is reeling 

from the loss. 

“It’s tough,” he said. 

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yrs. 

GLENWOOD, MN. 

Pope County Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Owen was shot while responding 

to a domestic call in Cyrus Mn. 

GLENWOOD, MN — Deputy Joshua 

Owen was shot and killed on 

April 15 while responding to a domestic 

abuse call in Cyrus. He died 

on his 44th birthday. 

Friends, family, and community 

members are mourning the loss of 

Deputy Owen. 

He spent nearly 12 years with the 

Pope County Sheriff’s Office. 

“April 15, Pope County law enforcement 

lost a brother,” said 

Pope County Sheriff Tim Riley, 

while getting choked up. “Deputy 

Owen had a heart as big as his 

stature... he leaves behind a wife 

and a son. He loved his family, his 

brotherhood, and his community.” 

Prior to joining the sheriff’s office, 

Owen served in the military. 

He met Scott Kowski while serving 

in the Minnesota Army National 

Guard. 

“When I found out that this 

had happened... not knowing any 

details, I texted him and I said, 

‘Please tell me you’re not working 

tonight’ and never got a response,” 

recalled Kowski to photojournalist 

David Peterlinz. 

“You have that bond that a lot 

of people don’t understand just 

because it’s... we have each other’s 

backs and you kind of trust them 

like brothers and sisters and it’s 

blood. It’s a different type of family,” 

Kowski said. 

After Kowski heard of Owen’s 

death, he said he dug out an old 

hard drive with pictures from their 

time together in Iraq. 

“It actually brought some smiles 

to my face just seeing the fun pictures,” 

Kowski said. “Josh was one 

of those guys that had that humor, 

attitude. He always had a smile on 

his face. No matter what we were 

doing, he always would chuckle.” 

Kowski recalled the conversation, 

saying, “’Hey, you know what? We 

need to get together...” If could say 

one thing now, I would say don’t 

wait to do it. Because you never 

know what tomorrow brings.” 

DEPUTY JOSH OWEN 



yrs. 

NYSSA, OR. 

Nysaa Police Corporal Joe Johnson was murdered while 

investigating a violent suspect threatening residents. 

Nyssa, OR – Nyssa Police Department 

(NPD) Reserve Corporal Joseph 

“Joe” Johnson was murdered 

in the line of duty on Saturday 

while investigating a report about 

a violent suspect threatening people 

and damaging property near a 

local residence. 

Malheur County District Attorney 

Dave Goldthorpe said the incident 

occurred at approximately 8:30 

p.m. on April 15, the Malheur Enterprise 

reported. 

Goldthorpe said the NPD received 

a report of an incident involving “a 

violent individual” who had allegedly 

threatened several people 

and damaged property near a residence 

in Nyssa. 

The suspect was later identified 

as 36-year-old Rene Castro, The 

Malheur Enterprise reported. 

Cpl. Johnson, 43, was responding 

to the area when he learned Castro 

had fled in a vehicle. 

He soon spotted the suspect vehicle 

and “began a pursuit through 

the city,” Goldthorpe said. 

The chase continued to the area 

of Locust Drive and Third Street, 

where Castro abruptly pulled up 

at a home, The Malheur Enterprise 

reported. 

Cpl. Johnson then pulled off the 

road and stopped his patrol car to 

make contact with Castro. 

“Immediately upon making the 

stop, an armed subject [believed 

to be Castro] began shooting at 

Officer Johnson,” Goldthorpe said. 

“There was no time to return fire 

before Officer Johnson was fatally 

hit.” 

Malheur County Sheriff’s Office 

(MCSO) deputies and members of 

the Oregon State Police (OSP) were 

already responding to the scene after 

being alerted about the pursuit 

and arrived to find the wounded 

corporal, the Malheur Enterprise 

reported. 

Castro had fled the scene and 

has not been apprehended. 

“EMTs were on scene in record 

time, with the Malheur County 

Sheriff’s Department right behind, 

but Officer Johnson was already 

deceased,” Goldthorpe said. 

The corporal was still inside his 

vehicle when he succumbed to his 

wounds, according to KTVB. 

Investigators found Castro’s 

CORPORAL JOE JOHNSON 

abandoned SUV less than two 

blocks away from the scene of 

the attack, the Malheur Enterprise 

reported. 

The manhunt for Castro continues. 



yrs. 

BATON ROUGE, LA. 

NTSB report finds La. police helicopter 

flew erratically before crashing into field. 

By Elyse Carmosino 

The Times-Picayune | The New 

Orleans Advocate 

BATON ROUGE, La. — In the moments 

before last month’s deadly 

crash, a Baton Rouge police 

helicopter erratically changed 

speed, altitude and direction 

before plummeting into a nearby 

field, federal investigators said in 

a report released Wednesday. 

The findings confirm a story told 

by publicly available flight data, 

which suggests something went 

wrong before the aircraft crashed, 

killing both officers on board. 

Veteran officers Sgt. David Poirrier 

and Cpl. Scotty Canezaro died 

March 26 when the helicopter they 

were piloting in pursuit of a hitand-run 

suspect went down near 

Erwinville in West Baton Parish. 

In its preliminary report, the 

National Transportation Service 

Board confirmed that the pair 

radioed dispatch and ground units 

that they were joining the chase 

and had been requesting updates 

on the suspect vehicle’s movement 

and location before going 

silent around the time the chase 

was called off. 

At that time, data shows, the helicopter 

“executed a shallow left 

deviation” to the south of Highway 

190 before turning left again, at 

which point the aircraft’s turn rate 

increased before undergoing a series 

of turns and altitude changes, 

the report says. 

Despite the fact that BRPD called 

off the pursuit around 2:35 a.m. — 

and the FAA’s report showed the 

helicopter crashed shortly after 

— the West Baton Rouge Sheriff’s 

Office was only alerted to the 

incident around 11 a.m. after the 

family of one of the pilots requested 

a search. 

According to the NTSB report, 

the family reported that the officer 

had not returned home after they 

noticed his cellphone was sending 

signals from a remote area in 

West Baton Rouge. 

BRPD spokesman Sgt. L’Jean 

McKneely has said the department 

is conducting its own investigation 

into what occurred, adding 

that the agency is working with 

the Baton Rouge airport and the 

Federal Aviation Administration to 

determine “why there was such 

a lapse in time” before BRPD was 

made aware of the crash. The 

department said it was grounding 

night flights while it investigated. 

After the incident, the FAA initially 

determined that the helicopter’s 

tail rotor hit a tree, causing 

it to crash upside down. However, 

the agency revised its preliminary 

report days later to say the cause 

of the crash was unknown. 

Available flight data using 

FlightAware, which maps an aircraft’s 

movements every 15 to 20 

seconds, shows that the helicopter 

ascended sharply and seesawed in 

speed during its final moments. 

The NTSB’s report confirms the 

helicopter’s chaotic ascent using 

data from a more precise onboard 

device called an Automatic 

Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, 

or ADS-B. The ADS-B broadcasts 

information every second to 

ground stations and other aircraft 

about its aircraft’s GPS location, 

altitude and ground speed — the 

speed of an aircraft relative to the 

surface of the earth. 

Several pilots told The Advocate 

it’s impossible to know what went 

wrong until the federal investigation 

is complete. But they said 

the sharp changes in speed and 

altitude could have resulted from 

a mechanical failure or clouds 

causing the pilot to become disoriented. 

As part of their separate ongoing 

investigations, the FAA and the NTSB 

will study data from an onboard 

flight tracker that broadcasts 

and records information about 

an aircraft’s location, altitude 

and ground speed every second. Investigators 

will also study wreckage 

that was removed from the scene. 

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yrs. 

LOS ANGELES, CA. 

LAPD officer killed in traffic collision while driving home from work. 

LOS ANGELES – An officer with 

the Los Angeles Police Department 

who was driving home from work 

overnight died early Saturday after 

crashing into the back of a semitruck 

that was stalled in traffic on 

the 210 Freeway in Glendora. 

The collision occurred about 

2:30 a.m. in the eastbound lanes 

of the 210 Freeway near Grand 

Avenue. The California Highway 

Patrol said a semi-truck being 

driven by Michael John Denmon, 

51, became disabled in the number 

three lane of traffic after stopping 

for several minutes due to a prior 

traffic collision up ahead on the 

freeway. The CHP was already 

nearby conducting a crash investigation 

when the off-duty LAPD 

officer struck the disable truck 

from behind, KTLA reported. 

According to the CHP, Denmon 

had activated his emergency hazard 

lights in order to warn traffic 

approaching from behind him. 

“Upon arriving on scene, CHP 

personnel determined that it was 

a major injury collision,” said CHP 

Sergeant Joel Holly. “At this point, 

the initial cause for the collision 

is still under 

investigation, 

however it 

appears that a 

rear end was 

involved.” 

A short time 

after KTLA 

broadcast the 

story, LAPD 

identified the 

deceased 

off-duty officer 

as Baldemar 

Sandoval, 38, 

who worked 

out of of 

LAPD’s Central 

Division. 

In a tweet, 

LAPD Chief Michel Moore said the 

department is grieving “our loss 

of a Peacemaker.” 

“With great sadness, I share that 

earlier this morning, a police officer 

on his way home from work 

was involved in a traffic collision 

on the 210 Freeway,” Chief Moore 

said in a statement. “I send my 

deepest condolences to his family, 

loved ones and friends as we 

mourn this tragedy.” 

Sandoval’s body was escorted 

to the Los Angeles County 

Medical Examiner’s Office by 

his peers on Saturday morning. 

Fellow law enforcement personnel 

were visibly shaken as 

the officer’s body, draped in an 

American flag, was removed 

from the coroner’s van and into 

the office. 



CALIFORNIA 

California Looks to Take Away Citizen’s Rights to Cooperate With Police. 

In the West Coast’s constant 

string of efforts to keep the police 

officers of a community away 

from their community, California 

had decided to try to revoke 

consent searches. To try to understand 

the reasons for this effort, 

one must enter into the mind of 

the Utopian politician or activist 

who thinks that the police are 

always the enemy and people, 

including suspected lawbreakers, 

should be left alone. 

To be sure, there is a fundamental 

right to go about one’s business 

with minimal government 

interference. As Justice Brandies 

once put it “The makers of the 

Constitution conferred the most 

comprehensive of rights and the 

right most valued by all civilized 

men—the right to be let alone.” 

We also understand the concept 

of our “social contract” between 

the public and its governance, 

first postulated in the 16th century 

wherein some personal freedoms 

are subrogated for the protection 

of all. 

These protections, without 

which our freedoms would be 

limited by those with physical 

and economic power, are in turn 

limited by the Constitution and the 

laws instituted by elected representatives 

of the people. If the 

reader will indulge a few more 

sentences of our civics lesson, it is 

clear that throughout history, both 

in the U.S. and any civilized nation 

or tribe since man gathered in social 

units, one of the first functions 

of community governance is the 

exercise of police power. Whether 

appointed as a career or as an 

obligation of able-bodied citizens 

subject to action from the hue and 

cry of a night watchman, there 

have always been peacekeepers 

empowered by law. 

yrs. 

Importantly, a concept at risk of 

being forgotten, our American law 

enforcement is predicated on the 

principle that the people are the 

police, and the police are the people. 

Most prominently articulated 

by Sir Robert Peele, the founder 

of the London Metropolitan Police 

whose Peelian principles are 

a model for modern policing, it 

means that every citizen has an 

obligation to act as a peacekeeper. 

Part of that principle is embodied 

in laws that still exist in most 

states that require a citizen to 

obey a request from a police officer 

to assist in an emergency. The 

old west’s Sheriff’s Posse is another 

example. The common law 

concept of a citizen’s arrest is still 

active in most jurisdictions. Notably, 

a concept forgotten by those 

antagonistic to the very existence 

of police agencies is the requirement 

in every U.S. jurisdiction that 

a citizen must submit peaceably 

to a lawful arrest. 

As we examine the series of 

recent legislative and policy decisions 

that contradict years of 

acceptable police practice, it is 

clear that rather than strengthening 

communities to engage in 

peace-keeping, the gulf between 

the responsibility of citizens and 

their appointed protectors has 

widened. Efforts to eliminate 

citizen’s arrest laws, stand your 

ground laws, and constant efforts 

to limit citizens’ right to possess 

firearms all move toward making 

only the official agent of the government 

as peacekeepers. 

Further reducing proactive 

police interactions are laws that 

prohibit police from pursuing 

suspects, removing reasonable 

use of force tools, eliminating 

qualified immunity (but only for 

police, not prosecutors, judges, or 

politicians), legalizing jay-walking, 

legalizing narcotics use and 

possession, making felonies into 

misdemeanors, eliminating stops 

for traffic violations, and now 

California’s efforts to prohibit 

its citizens from consenting to a 

search by law enforcement. 

The debate on the merits of California’s 

proposal is unfolding but 

Assembly Bill 93 would eliminate 

consent as a valid search by a law 

enforcement officer. The first answer 

to defend against unwanted 

police searches is to answer “No” 

when an officer asks permission 

to search one’s car, person, or 

home. No new law is needed. If 

the officer is relying entirely on the 

person’s consent, then no lawful 

search can proceed and the person’s 

refusal cannot be a factor in 

establishing legal grounds for the 

search. 

A search based on articulable 

facts that give an officer probable 

cause may proceed without consent, 

with a preference for obtaining 

a warrant if circumstances 

allow. But Assemblyman Isaac G. 

Bryan, the author of the bill, thinks 

the police shouldn’t be asking for 

assistance in investigating matters, 

and citizens shouldn’t be 

answering. Bryan is an outspoken 

advocate of defunding the police 

and diverting money from law 

enforcement. It is one thing to distrust 

police as a political stance, 

but this bill distrusts citizens and 

takes away their right to participate 

in lawful police investigations. 

The proposal is not merely 

an insult to law enforcement, it 

is an affront to the very nature of 

community peace-keeping and 

individual responsibility. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joel F. 

Shults, Ed.D, is a retired police 

chief, an award winning writer, 

college professor, trainer, and 

first responder chaplain. He is the 

author of several law enforcement 

related books and articles. Shults 

currently serves as a municipal 

judge and a coroner’s investigator 

in rural southern Colorado. 

Joel can be found on twitter 

@retiredsorta, and online at 

joelshults.blogspot.com, and 

streetsmartforce.com. 

We are ready for 2023! 

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Responder owned and operated 

THEME studio in the Country! 

38 The BLUES The BLUES 39


SANDY,UT. 

Utah Trooper makes split-second decision to stop wrong way driver. 

yrs. 

IHIA 

29th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM 

August 6 - 11, 2023 OKLAHOMA CITY 

By Bill Carey 

Police1 

SANDY, Utah — A Utah highway 

patrol trooper is being hailed as a 

hero after crashing head-on with 

a wrong-way driver to save other 

motorists. 

Sgt. Chad McCoy had finished his 

shift Tuesday in Salt Lake County 

and had crossed into Tooele 

County on I-80 on his way home, 

KTSU reported. 

“I’ve had him call me before on 

his way home and say ‘Hey I’m going 

to be late. I’m on a crash.’ So, 

in my head that’s what I heard,” 

said Trooper McCoy’s wife Nicole. 

“And then I was like, ‘Wait a 

minute, you just said you were in 

a crash.’ And I was like, ‘Did you 

have a tire blow?’ And he was like, 

‘No, I was in a head-on,’” she said. 

Trooper McCoy said he noticed 

cars moving to the right and then 

a truck facing the wrong direction, 

traveling at a high rate of speed. 

McCoy had only seconds to decide 

how to stop the driver. 

“I just tried to get the best angle 

that I could to try and get them 

to stop,” he said. Dash cam video 

shows the collision. McCoy received 

praise for his actions but 

insists he was just doing his job. 

“I just see myself as a regular 

trooper. I really think we all have 

that mindset,” he said. “We all 

come to work every day, just trying 

to keep people safe.” 

McCoy added that he is grateful 

to come home to his wife and four 

children. 

AUGUST 

7 - 11 

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Training For: 

• Detectives 

• Crime Analysts 

• Prosecutors 

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Before 4/30/2023 

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INTERNATIONAL HOMICIDE INVESTIGATORS ASSOCIATION 



yrs. 

DALLAS,TX. 

Texas trooper survives crash and rehab to return home. Physical therapist Bridget Denicola 

said she had never seen a patient with such a high pain threshold and determination. 

By Bill Carey 

Police1 

DALLAS — Texas Department 

of Public Safety Trooper Curtis 

Putz has returned home after a 

crash in January that left him 

with injuries so severe his survival 

was uncertain. 

On January 31, winter weather 

had frozen North Texas and 

Trooper Putz was working at 

the scene of an accident on 

Interstate 45 in Navarro County, 

WFAA reported. A car slid into 

Putz and pinned him underneath. 

It took 90 minutes over 

icy roads to get him to a hospital. 

Putz suffered fractures in his 

pelvis, hips, ribs, hands and 

legs, and nerve damage in one 

leg. He endured several surgeries 

and painful skin grafts. 

“He was very broken when he 

came in,” said physical therapist 

Bridget Denicola, who 

worked with him once he finally 

reached the rehabilitation center 

at Baylor Scott & White in 

Dallas. 

Baylor Scott & White therapists 

say they have never seen 

a patient with such a high pain 

threshold and such determination. 

“I always knew from day one 

the moment I met him, there 

were two goals: Get back to 

Tash and the kids, and get back 

to work,” said Denicola. 

After 81 days of painful recovery, 

Putz was discharged and 

returned home. 

“Words cannot describe what 

I feel right now. I’m so happy to 

be going home, so thankful that 

I am still here today,” Putz said 

during a press conference at 

the rehabilitation center. 

He thanked Denicola and the 

staff who helped him recover, 

the surgeons who saved his life, 

the troopers who watched over 

his family for 11 weeks, and his 

wife and his faith. 

Outside the rehabilitation center, 

law enforcement lined up 

with Baylor Scott & White employees 

to applaud and cheer 

as Putz, his wife and three kids 

walked to the waiting SUV for a 

police escort home. 

“It has been 81 days since the 

crash that took your voice off 

our airwaves on January 31, 

2023,” said a dispatcher’s voice 

over the radio. “Congratulations 

on going home to finish your 

recovery with your beautiful 

family.” 



NOW HIRING! 

How Many COPS are Needed? 

yrs. 

By David Sullivan 

In the scheme of things I found 

this a challenging subject. Policing 

is not a “cookie cutter” operation 

and the number of officers needed 

to secure the safety of cities 

across the country varies considerably. 

There is no formula or 

guideline that serves as a source 

of reference. 

The number of officers a city 

needs is continually discussed and 

debated with three officers for 

every 1,000 citizens being the popular 

consensus: kind of a one size 

fits all. Based on that premise and 

the 2019 population of 197 million 

people living in incorporated cities 

in the United States, about 653,000 

police officers would be needed 

to protect just our cities alone, 

separate from federal, state, and 

county law enforcement agencies. 

As of 2019, there are approximately 

443,000 police officers, 

or 2.3 per 1,000 citizens, serving 

in municipalities. I could not find 

a source supporting, or opposing, 

three officers per 1,000 citizens as 

a hard fast number. 

The number of police officers 

a department actually needs is 

complicated and varies from city 

to city. One particular city has 

2.26 officers per 1,000 citizens and 

a crime index of 449, significantly 

above the national crime index 

of 270. Another city of equal size 

has only 1.22 officers per 1,000 

citizens and a crime index of 208, 

well below the national index. 

Three other cities have almost 5 

officers per 1,000 citizens yet all 

three have a crime index double 

or nearly double the national average. 

So the assumption that three 

officers per 1,000 citizens can 

satisfy all cities is unrealistic. The 

crime index is the number of offenses 

per 100,000 citizens police 

departments report to the Federal 

Bureau of Investigation (FBI). 

Before determining the variables 

related to any city’s policing 

needs, we have to address the 

controversy following the 2014 Michael 

Brown incident in Ferguson, 

Missouri and the more recent 2020 

death of George Floyd during an 

arrest attempt. 

Politicians, feeling pressure, 

began to “de-fund” police departments 

in favor of a new “Department 

of Public Safety.” Now, 

more than two years later, with no 

feasible strategy for de-funding, 

cities are experiencing a rise in 

crime, the exodus of major businesses, 

community safety issues 

and a severe shortage of police 

officers. 

There is no single issue that 

determines police officer numbers. 

Each individual city should 

examine multiple factors specific 

to that city. In most cases no one 

factor should outweigh another in 

determining officer numbers. The 

police chief and command staff 

are responsible for evaluating the 

department’s goals, strategies 

and objectives and deciding where 

officers are assigned throughout 

the department. Generally, the 

Patrol Division would have the 

highest percentage of officers. 

In addition to licensed police 

officers, the department will also 

have civilian employees in administrative 

and support positions 

where officers are not necessary. 

However, problems can arise 

when city administrators decide 

that budget cuts are necessary 

and civilian employees must be 

let go. The position must still be 

filled so now a police officer is 

reassigned to fill the vacant position 

with that officer will likely be 

pulled from the Patrol Division. 

When determining staffing 

needs, all cities have one thing in 

common; the collective knowledge 

and leadership of the command 

staff and that knowledge 

must result in the most effective 

management of police officer 

personnel. President Theodore 

Roosevelt said, “Do what you can 

where you are with what you’ve 

got”. Police operations must be 

based on crime trends, intelligence 

gathering, critical public 

safety issues and 911 calls for 

police services and which of those 

calls can be satisfied with just a 

phone contact between the officer 

and caller. 

One factor, determined by 

statistical data, is the number of 

officers assigned to the Patrol 

Division who respond to the community’s 

emergency needs and the 

citizen’s most frequent contact 

with the police. Ideally it should 

be 55% to 60% of total available 

officers, more for some departments, 

less for others. 

Other factors include total 

population, demographics and 

population density relating to both 

multi-family and single-family 

residences along with the total 

square miles of the city. Even the 

median household and per capita 

income can have a bearing 

on crime and in turn the number 

of officers needed. Unfortunately 

there’s no single solution. For 

some cities the number of officers 

per citizen works while officers 

per square mile is a better fit for 

other cities. 

City operations can impact 

crime in both positive and negative 

ways. The degree to which the 

city addresses the infrastructure, 

confronts slumlords, the effectiveness 

of code enforcement, the 

availability of safe parks and recreational 

facilities, and municipal 

court convictions can all factor 

into police officer numbers. 

The Violent Crime Control and 

Law Enforcement Act of 1994 

introduced Community-Oriented 

Policing with the goal of bringing 

together the police department, 

city services, the news media and 

the citizens to address quality of 

life concerns with crime issues 

the focal point. The most obvious 

factors, and most subtle factors 

for determining the number of 

police officers needed should have 

already been discussed, evaluated, 

and settled between the police, 

city leaders, the citizens and media 

support. Unfortunately, Community-Oriented 

Policing failed, 

and viable partnerships never 

came to fruition. 

Even attempts to form positive 

community/police relations have 

met with limited success. And it’s 

most likely going to be the budget 

that determines the number of 

officers hired void of any community/government 

coalition. As long 

as the issue of police numbers 

continues to go unresolved, police 

departments and their officers 

will continue to be the convenient 

scapegoat. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

My name is David Sullivan and 

I’m a retired 26-year Air Force 

veteran where I was a hospital 

laboratory director and the 

superintendent of the Bacteriology 

Department of the Air Force 

laboratory training program. I 

got into policing with the Dallas 

Police Department at the age of 

48 and was in the Northeast Patrol 

Division until I retired again 

at the age of 65. At the age of 76 

I returned to policing again with 

the Lakeview Police Department 

serving the cities of El Lago and 

Taylor Lake Village, Texas as a 

patrol officer. I retired once again 

at the age of 82 after serving six 

years. I have a Bachelor of Criminal 

Justice Degree from Midwestern 

State University in Wichita 

Falls, Texas. I published a book 

titled The Police The Public and 

Crime which is no longer in print. 

I’m working on a second book 

titled Beyond the Donuts. 



NOW HIRING! 

Calif. PD offers $75K signing bonus to 

new officers, largest in the country! 

yrs. 

LET’S GET TRAVELING! 

By Bill Carey, 

Police1 

Your Dream Vacation Begins... 

from the moment you start planning! 

in San Mateo. 

stantial signing bonus will attract 

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The Alameda 

diverse candidates, increase 

“Community policing is about 

building relationships,” said Joshi. staffing and allow the department 

And what better way to begin than with a professional who has 

Police Department is offering what 

to police proactively rather than 

most likely been there, done that, and knows how to get you the 

may be the largest signing bonus in covering three or four neighborhoods 

because of a staffing short- 

“In a perfect world, you get all 

best experience for your budget. 

reactively. 

the country to attract new officers 

“It’s hard to do that when you’re 

and fill long-standing vacancies in age.” The department is operating the candidates and then you’re 

the department. 

at a 30% staffing deficit that Joshi able to select the best,” he said. “I 

Alameda Police Chief Nishant calls dangerous. 

don’t want to compete with anyone. 

Joshi said the bonus is more about Officers are now working mandatory 

I want to be at the top.” 

reform-minded policing than putting 

overtime because of the Money for the bonus will come 

money into officers’ pockets, shortfall. The city currently has from the department’s budget. 

The Mercury News reported. Bonuses 

only one police officer assigned to Officers are required to commit to 

Rudy Rodriguez 

in neighboring cities range from traffic enforcement. 

the city for five years to earn the 

(903) 941-8024 

$5,000 in San Francisco to $30,000 Joshi believes that the sub- 

full $75,000. 

rurodriguez@cruiseone.com 

46 The BLUES Veteran Owned Business The BLUES 47


yrs. 

ACROSS THE US 

WIDOW OF SLAIN MN DEPUTY 

SAYS GOVERNOR NOT WEL- 

COME AT FUNERAL 

The widow of Pope County, MN, 

Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Owen who 

was killed in the line of duty on 

Saturday night has told Minnesota 

Gov. Tim Walz he is not welcome 

at her husband’s funeral. 

Deputy Owen’s wife, Shannon, 

confirmed to Alpha News that 

when Gov. Walz called to offer his 

condolences, she told him not to 

show up on Saturday because “he 

does not support law enforcement.” 

Her family also stands by the 

decision and said Deputy Owen 

would want it that way. 

Funeral services for Owen will 

be Saturday at the Minnewaska 

Area High School in Glenwood at 

10:30 a.m. 

Deputy Owen died Saturday after 

being shot on his 44th birthday 

while responding to a domestic 

assault call in the town of Cyrus. 

TYRE NICHOLS FAMILY FILES 

$550M LAWSUIT AGAINST CITY, 

MEMPHIS CHIEF, AND FORMER 

OFFICERS 

The family of Tyre Nichols, the 

man who died three days after 

Memphis police officers beat him 

following a Jan. 7 traffic stop, 

has filed a $550-million lawsuit 

naming the City of Memphis, Police 

Chief Cerelyn Davis, the five 

officers involved, two additional 

officers, and three fire department 

employees. 

The suit, filed Wednesday 

morning in the U.S. District Court 

for the Western District of Tennessee, 

alleges negligence by the 

city in hiring Davis, along with 

asserting Davis’ culpability in lax 

hiring processes, and the development 

of the SCORPION Unit’s 

“oppression style of policing” 

and poor training, reports the 

Commercial Appeal. 

The lawsuit claims the City of 

Memphis should have been aware 

of Davis’ ties to the Atlanta Police 

Department’s RED DOG Unit 

stating, “Much like the RED DOG 

Unit, SCORPION Unit officers were 

encouraged by the chief of police 

and supervisors to engage in 

searches and seizures when there 

was no basis to do so in violation 

of the Fourth Amendment.” 

Former Memphis police officers 

Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, 

Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin III 

and Desmond Mills, Jr. have all 

been charged with one count of 

second-degree murder, aggravated 

assault-acting in concert, two 

counts of aggravated kidnapping, 

two counts of official misconduct, 

and one count of official 

oppression, court records show. 

The five officers had been fired 

by Davis, who said they were 

directly responsible for “physical 

abuse of Mr. Nichols.” 

IOWA OFFICER LOSES FIN- 

GERS DEPLOYING SPIKE STRIP 

TO END PURSUIt 

An Indianola, IA, police officer 

lost some of his fingers while 

deploying spikes to end a vehicle 

pursuit earlier this month. 

At around 8:00 a.m. on April 1, 

Sgt. Scott Dwyer was attempting 

to stop a female suspect in 

a high-speed chase barreling 

towards Indianola at 90 miles an 

hour. 

The deployment did not go 

as intended. Windy conditions 

caused the spikes to blow around 

and get caught underneath the 

suspect’s vehicle. 

Dwyer told WHO13, “When they 

got caught under the vehicle it got 

caught under and what I believed 

happened is that cord came up 

and severed my fingers.” 

Dwyer was rushed to a local 

hospital as other first responders 

searched for the missing pieces of 

his hand. “They brought my fingers 

into the ambulance but unfortunately 

they weren’t able to put 

those back on,” Dwyer said. 

GRANT HELPS OHIO SHERIFF’S 

OFFICE OUTFIT 100 DEPUTIES 

WITH BODY-WORN CAMERAS. 

By Denise G. Callahan 

Journal-News 

BUTLER COUNTY, Ohio — The 

Butler County Sheriff’s Office has 

a three-year, $401,712 contract 

to outfit about 100 deputies, and 



possibly other staff, with new 

Axon body cameras, and the program 

should be operational by the 

end of 2023. 

The county commissioners have 

approved the contract with Axon, 

a cost that is being supplemented 

with a $168,053 grant from the 

state. Sheriff Richard Jones asked 

the state for $280,089 to implement 

the program but few who 

applied got their full ask. 

For years, Jones has been vehemently 

opposed to the technology 

for a number of reasons, but 

he told the Journal-News “times 

have changed” and “they’re going 

to make it so you can’t get grant 

money if you don’t have these 

cameras eventually.” 

“When they first came out, I was 

not in favor of them because it 

was so expensive, just not for the 

cameras but storing the data and 

personnel to manage this,” Jones 

said. “That’s all changed now, the 

data management has gotten 

easier, and we can look at what 

others have done, and we don’t 

have to reinvent the wheel.” 

The sheriff put out a request 

for proposals and received offers 

from three vendors, Chief Deputy 

Anthony Dwyer said “the only 

vendor that met all of our requirements” 

was Axon. He said they 

still have a long way to go before 

deputies can clip the cameras on 

their uniforms. They are working 

with Axon on the details of rolling 

out the program, but they should 

be deployed by the end of the 

year. 

There are 320 sworn officers 

who could potentially wear the 

recording devises, including patrol, 

the jail, detectives, school 

resource officers and others so 

Dwyer said they need to determine 

who should be prioritized. 

Then there is the matter of training. 

He said they have a draft 

policy — which was required for 

the state grant — that establishes 

guidelines for their use. 

The contract is for three years, 

but Dwyer said they are trying to 

stretch it to five. 

This was the second time Jones 

applied for state money, the first 

time he also asked for $280,089 to 

implement the program but was 

unsuccessful. He said transparency 

isn’t an issue with his agency, 

but he knows in this day and age 

there are people constantly accusing 

the police of wrongdoing, so 

the videos can be helpful. 

“I don’t know if it’ll make us 

more transparent, but we’re already 

transparent with everything 

we do. It’s what it is, and it will 

please some people and some 

people it will not please no matter 

what you do,” Jones said. “If 

you have photographs, if you have 

video, you have statements, in 

these big cities it still doesn’t matter, 

they still have riots, they still 

burn parts of the city down, they 

still don’t believe it. We’re already 

transparent, maybe this will make 

some feel that we’re more transparent.” 

MICHIGAN STATE POLICE 

LAUNCHES 911 TEXT PROGRAM 

The Michigan State Police will 

be testing a pilot program in 

which 911 callers are sent a text 

yrs. 

informing them of how long it will 

be before a trooper arrives. If the 

anticipated arrival time changes, 

then they receive an update notification. 

Earlier this week the Michigan 

State Police (MSP) launched a 

test program in which 911 callers 

are notified by text that a trooper 

has been dispatched, provided 

an estimated time of arrival, and 

given updates if the trooper is delayed 

in the response. It is a pilot 

program rolled out Wednesday 

morning that will be tested for 

90 days with callers across four 

counties in mid and southwest 

Michigan. 

“Utilizing technology to provide 

our customers with real-time 

updates and seek their feedback 

on our service delivers on our 

commitment to modern policing,” 

says Col. Joe Gasper, director of 

the MSP. “We strive to provide the 

best customer service experience 

to each person we interact with 

and by using automatic text message 

notifications and satisfaction 

surveys we’ll be able to not only 

provide better customer service, 

but also make adjustments based 

on direct customer feedback.” 

MSP divides patrol responsibilities 

across 31 posts within 

seven districts. Lt. Rene Gonzalez 

explains the new text program 

launched at the Lansing post 

that covers Eaton County and the 

Marshall post that covers Branch, 

Calhoun, and St. Joseph counties. 

Following the pilot period, consideration 

will be given on whether 

to purchase and deploy this 

technology at all MSP posts. 

Gonzales says the technology is 

provided through PowerEngage 

and SPDR Tech and it is automated 

through the dispatch system, 

meaning the 911 operator does not 

have to send the texts individually. 

However, texts will not be sent on 

certain types of calls. 

“Calls of a sensitive safety 

matter would not receive a text 

message. For example, a domestic 

violence call, we would not 

text back the caller because there 

could be a chance that they made 

that call secretly and the offender 

doesn’t know that they called 

the police,” explains Gonzalez. 

“Or maybe an armed robbery. If 

someone’s experiencing an armed 

robbery, we wouldn’t send them 

a text. The offender may still be 

on scene, so we don’t want them 

to know that they have made that 

call.” 

For the calls where a text would 

not endanger a caller, the person 

will receive a text notifying them 

that a trooper has been dispatched 

and providing the ETA. If 

the trooper’s arrival time changes 

because he or she had to be routed 

to a priority call, a text update 

will be sent to the caller providing 

the new anticipated arrival time. 

“It’s practical and it’s just very 

simple. I think it helps the person 

that calls 911 with the stress level 

of when we’re going to be there,” 

Gozales adds. 

MSP also hopes to gather feedback 

from 911 callers through 

the pilot program. Following the 

conclusion of the incident, cellular 

911 callers in the four-county area 

will receive a text message within 

24 hours. They will be invited to 

take a short satisfaction survey. 

According to MSP, feedback 

collected from the survey will be 

used to recognize good customer 

service, provide insights into 

areas that can be improved, and 

guide decision making to improve 

customer service. Positive feedback 

will be shared to encourage 

employees, boost morale, and 

recognize outstanding service. 

“We want to improve the service 

that we’re giving to the citizen, so 

that’s why we’re trying this. It’s another 

way that we can give them 

better service,” Gonzalez says. 

Text Example 1 

“Your call to the Eaton County 

Dispatch Center has been 

assigned to a trooper from the 

Michigan State Police Lansing Post. 

If your situation changes and you 

no longer need assistance, please 

update dispatch at 517-543-XXXX 

using this reference number (CAD 

event number).” 

Text Example 2 

“Your call to the Eaton County 

Dispatch Center has been 

assigned to a trooper from the 

Michigan State Police Lansing Post. 

While you wait for trooper(s) 

to arrive, please gather a recent 

photo of the missing person, 

compile a list of any identifying 

physical characteristics, when you 

last saw the person, and any relevant 

conditions that might affect 

how a trooper interacts with the 

missing individual. If your situation 

changes and you no longer 

need assistance, please update 

dispatch at 517-543-XXXX using 

this reference number (CAD event 

number).” 

SAN DIEGO TRYING TO PER- 

SUADE OFFICERS TO RETURN 

Last fiscal year, the San Diego 

Police Department lost 241 officers, 

a 51% increase from the year 

prior. Another 138 officers have 

already left this year. 

On April 3, a letter was reportedly 

sent to former San Diego 

police officers, asking them to 

“consider again being part of the 

team,” and to “be a part of the 

police department that is dedicated 

to serving and collaborating 

with our community,” NBC San 

Diego reports. 

Shortly after these letters were 

distributed, images of the letter 

were posted to a social media account 

used by former and current 

San Diego police officers. 

The letter states that incentives 

to return include a 5% pay increase 

in 2023 and 2024. It also 

states that COVID vaccines are not 

required and entices former officers 

with specialized assignments 

in the K-9 Unit and SWAT team. 

Paul Cappitelli, a retired Sheriff’s 

Department captain and 

police practices expert said, “My 

sense is they are not going to have 

a ground swell of people that are 

going to say ‘Great, I am going 

to come back for an extra 5% or 

10%.” 

CALIF. CITY COUNCIL AP- 

PROVES $50K HIRING BONUS 

FOR NEW POLICE OFFICERS 

By Sage Alexander 

Times-Standard 

ARCATA, Calif. — As Arcata 

Police Department officers work 

overtime to cope with low staff, 

a $50,000 hiring bonus for new 

officers was approved Wednesday 

by the city council. The council 

approved increased hiring bonuses, 

funds for department improvements, 

and a retention bonus 

unanimously at a meeting, with 

Mayor Sarah Schaefer absent. 

“For me, this is a pretty easy 

decision,” said council member 

Stacy Atkins-Salazar at the meeting. 



She said that when she discussed 

concerns with constituents, 

the vast majority involved 

issues that could be helped with a 

fully staffed police department. 

“APD is working incredibly hard 

and stretched dangerously thin,” 

she said. 

According to a staff report, there 

are currently 19 officers in the 

department. The department is 

budgeted for 27 officers. 

While the city is currently training 

cadets, they will not be independent 

officers until April 2024. 

The bonus is targeted toward fully 

trained, employed police officers. 

New officers would receive 

$30,000 within the first nine 

months of employment, for a total 

of $50,000 two and half years after 

being hired. A yearly retention 

bonus of $7,500 is included for 

current officers, for three years. 

The previous hiring bonus offered 

by the city was $15,000. 

Tabatha Miller, finance director, 

said at the meeting the department 

is relying heavily on 

overtime to deal with the staffing 

issue, which is expensive. She also 

confirmed a comment by Kimberly 

White was partially true, that the 

city had not had to pay the vacant 

salaries and thus had some flexibility 

in the budget to pay for the 

bonuses. 

KIM POTTER, EX-COP WHO 

SHOT DAUNTE WRIGHT, TO BE 

RELEASED FROM PRISON. 

By Bill Carey , Police1 

MINNEAPOLIS — Kim Potter, the 

former Brooklyn Center police 

officer who was sentenced to 

two years for the fatal shooting of 

Duante Wright, is expected to be 

released from prison on Monday. 

Potter fatally shot Wright during 

a traffic stop in April 2021 after 

firing her service weapon instead 

of her TASER. After being shot, 

Wright drove away from the scene 

and crashed his vehicle a short 

distance away, where he was pronounced 

dead, Fox 9 reported. 

Potter was sentenced to two 

years after being convicted of 

second-degree manslaughter. She 

served 16 months in prison and 

will serve the remaining months 

of her sentence on supervised 

release. 

Hennepin County District Judge 

Regina Chu said it was “the saddest 

case in my 20 years on the 

bench.” 

“I recognize there will be those 

who disagree with the sentence. 

That I granted a significant downward 

departure does not in any 

way diminish Daunte Wright’s 

life. His life mattered,” Chu told 

the Star Tribune. “To those who 

disagree and feel a longer prison 

sentence is appropriate, as 

difficult as it may be, please try 

to empathize with Ms. Potter’s 

situation. Officer Potter made a 

mistake that ended tragically. She 

never intended to hurt anyone.” 

yrs. 

2 INDIANAPOLIS OFFICERS 

SHOT IN GUN BATTLE; SUSPECT 

KILLED. 

Associated Press 

INDIANAPOLIS — Two Indianapolis 

police officers wounded in a 

Thursday gun battle that left the 

suspect dead are expected to survive, 

a deputy chief said. 

The shooting involved officers 

who were members of the Indiana 

Crime Guns Task Force, a joint effort 

among central Indiana police 

agencies charged with identifying 

and removing illegal weapons 

from the community, Indianapolis 

Metropolitan Police Department 

Deputy Chief Christopher Bailey 

said during a news briefing. 

Following a brief pursuit around 

12:40 p.m., the officers were shot 

by a 46-year-old suspect armed 

with an AR-15-style rifle who also 

“riddled” a police patrol vehicle 

with bullets, Bailey said. They 

were among four officers who 

shot at the suspect, he said. 

The injured officers were 

brought to a hospital by other officers 

and are expected to survive, 

Bailey said. 

Their names and that of the 

suspect were not immediately 

released. 

“We are fed up. The community 

should be fed up with it. We have 

two officers who are lucky to be 

alive today,’’ Bailey said, his voice 

rising in anger. 

A passenger from the suspect 

vehicle fled but was apprehended 

for questioning, he said. 

NYPD ROBOT DOG, DRONES 

ASSIST FIRST RESPONDERS IN 

NYC PARKING GARAGE COL- 

LAPSE RESPONSE. 

NEW YORK — When areas 

of a collapsed parking structure 

proved to be unsafe for first 

responders, a robotic dog and 

drones were deployed to help 

with the response. 

On Tuesday, a parking garage 

collapsed in New York City, killing 

one worker and injuring five 

people. 

The robotic dog was able to enter 

the collapsed structure and go 

into areas where it was unsafe for 

first responders, WBAL reported. 

As the robot dog made its way 

into the rubble, it provided information 

to first responders about 

the condition of the structure. 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams 

said the body of the man killed in 

the collapse was discovered by 

the robotic dog, which was deployed 

by the New York City Fire 

Department. 

“We did not want to send 

people inside there. We couldn’t 

even send a cadaver dog in there, 

because that cadaver dog would 

have gone in there and could have 

potentially had a collapse and 

harmed someone,” Adams said 

during a news conference. 

Just last week, New York City 

officials unveiled three new hightech 

policing devices, including a 

robotic dog that was first leased 

in 2020. The city’s contract for the 

device was cut short after critics 

ridiculed it as creepy and dystopian, 

the Associated Press reported. 

“If we didn’t have that robotic 

dog, we would have placed those 

firefighters in jeopardy,” Adams 

said. 

The robotic dog wasn’t the only 

new technology used to aid in 

the rescue — drones provided a 

birds-eye view of the collapsed 

structure. 

“They’re able to stream the video 

directly to our phones, to our 

command center and this is the 

first time we’ve been able to fly 

inside in a collapse to do this and 

get the information,” FDNY Chief 

of Fire Operations John Esposito 

said to WBAL. 

NYPD OFFICER STRUCK IN 

THE HEAD IN BRAZEN DAYTIME 

ATTACK 

By Thomas Tracy and Janon 

Fisher 

New York Daily News 

NEW YORK — An NYPD cop was 

bashed in the head with a bottle 

and then pummeled in an unprovoked 

attack from a stranger on 

a Bronx Street, wild surveillance 

video shows. 

The victim and her NYPD partner 

were standing in front of All Car 

Service on 231st St. in Kingsbridge 

when the attacker, wearing blue 

jeans and a hoodie, approached 

just before 2 p.m. Monday, the 

video obtained by the Daily News 

shows. 

Police sources say the pair of 

cops were conducting inspections 

of illegal smoke shops. 

Suddenly the attacker pulled 

a bottle out of his pocket and 

unprovoked whacked the female 

officer in the back of her head, the 

video shows. 

The assailant continued his 

attack, grabbing the victim’s long 

black hair and then delivering a 

few roundhouse punches to her 

face and body. 

Her partner absorbed some of 

the blows as he started to wrestle 

with the assailant. Two other men, 

who sources say are New York 

City Sheriff’s officers working with 

the NYPD, joined in and tried to 

ward off the attacker, the recording 

shows. 

As the three men were busy 

trying to subdue the assailant, the 

battered victim ran between two 

parked cars and then turned back 

to watch her partner wrestling 

with the man. She is assigned to 

the 114th Precinct in Queens but 

was detailed to a special unit for 

investigating smoke shops, sources 

said. 

The assailant, Jose Garcia, 45, 

was arrested and charged with 

assault, obstruction of government 

administration, resisting 

arrest, menacing, weapon possession 

and harassment. 

The attacked officer was taken 

to St. Barnabas Hospital, where 

she was expected to recover. 

Garcia’s arraignment was pending 

In Bronx Criminal Court Tuesday. 

MASS. PD RETURNS TO 24- 

HOUR COVERAGE AFTER NIGHT 

PATROLS WERE PREVIOUSLY 

ELIMINATED. 

By Luis Fieldman 



GREENFIELD, Mass. — The 

Greenfield police resumed 24- 

hour service as of Sunday. 

Patrols and responses by the 

Greenfield Police Department 

had been reduced due to staffing 

shortages and budgetary constraints 

since March 1. Massachusetts 

State Police stepped in with 

coverage between the hours of 3 

a.m. and 7 a.m. 

Greenfield police announced on 

the department’s Facebook page 

Sunday that 24-hour coverage 

would return, albeit with potential 

delays in responses due to continued 

staffing shortages. 

“We are happy to announce as 

of today we are back to serving 

our community 24 hours a day,” 

the department wrote. “We would 

like to thank the Massachusetts 

State Police for their assistance 

covering between the hours of 

0300-0700 for the past six weeks 

and their willingness to assist 

our detectives in the upcoming 

months.” 

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Department 

will assist the Greenfield 

Police Department with coverage 

“until we can staff our department 

to safe levels,” Greenfield 

police wrote on Facebook. 

“Due to our continued staffing 

shortages, you still may experience 

delays in non-life threatening 

or non-active property calls 

for the near future,” the post read. 

Police Chief Robert Haigh and 

Mayor Roxann Wedegartner made 

a surprise announcement about 

the end of the night shift and an 

eight-hour gap in service at a Jan. 

18 city council meeting. A week 

later, however, they amended the 

plan and said Greenfield police 

will no longer patrol or respond 

to 911 calls from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. 

State police set up a mobile 

command center outside of the 

Greenfield Police Department’s 

headquarters on High Street in order 

to cover the gaps in overnight 

service. 

At a March 22 meeting of the 

city’s Public Safety Commission, 

four new police recruits were 

recommended to the mayor to be 

officially hired. During the meeting, 

Deputy Chief William Gordon 

said all four were given conditional 

offers of employment. 

At least one recruit, Victor 

Placinta, already had part-time 

certification from the Massachusetts 

Peace Officer Standards and 

Training (POST) Commission, and 

with a waiver for full-time certification, 

had a chance of being 

on patrol duty as early as April 1, 

according to Gordon. 

Another recruit, Cameron Johnson, 

already a full-time certified 

POST officer, was required to go 

through field training with the 

Greenfield police. Gordon said he 

could be “on the road by himself 

anywhere between four and 12 

weeks, depending on the speed of 

his training.” 

The path to patrol for the other 

two recruits will take a little longer. 

“The other two you probably 

won’t see on the road for about a 

year, maybe next January,” Gordon 

said. 

A $375,000 federal grant awarded 

to the city of Greenfield will go 

toward funding the new hires. 

yrs. 

‘TOP SHOT’ LAPD OFFICER 

SUES CHIEF, DEPARTMENT OVER 

SOCIAL MEDIA DEMAND. 

By Melody Gutierrez 

Los Angeles Times 

LOS ANGELES — A LAPD officer, 

whose sharp-shooter social media 

posts drew widespread attention 

after she was involved in a 

fatal shooting, filed a discrimination 

and retaliation lawsuit Tuesday 

against Police Chief Michel 

Moore and the department. 

LAPD Officer Toni McBride 

alleges that Moore blocked her 

promotions because she refused 

to remove from her social media 

feeds videos of her at shooting 

competitions or training at firing 

ranges. In the lawsuit filed in 

federal court, McBride claims that 

Moore told her that she had to delete 

her social media accounts or 

“he would destroy her career.” 

McBride, who is seeking more 

than $5 million in damages, has 

been on medical leave since November 

due to “severe physical 

symptoms caused by and exacerbated 

by the stress,” according to 

the lawsuit. 

A LAPD spokesperson declined 

to comment, citing pending litigation. 

McBride’s social media posts 

garnered attention in 2020 after 

she shot a 38-year-old man holding 

a box cutter six times, killing 

him. McBride and her partner had 

been responding to a collision on 

San Pedro Street near East 32nd 

Street involving several badly 

injured motorists whose vehicles 

had been struck by a truck driven 

by Daniel Hernandez. A toxicology 

report found Hernandez had 

methamphetamine in his system 

at the time. 

McBride repeatedly commanded 

Hernandez to drop the weapon, 

according to videos captured by 

McBride’s body-camera and by 

witnesses with smartphones. 

When Hernandez advanced toward 

her, she shot him twice, and 

then fired another two shots when 

he attempted to get up. Her final 

two shots came as he was rolling 

on the ground. 

After the shooting, McBride told 

investigators she felt Hernandez 

posed a risk to bystanders in the 

area. 

The Los Angeles Police Commission 

found McBride broke department 

policy by continuing to 

shoot Hernandez during the fatal 

encounter. The commission found 

McBride’s first four shots were 

justified, but her fifth and sixth 

shots were not. 

California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s 

office cleared McBride of wrongdoing 

based in part on the “expert 

opinion” of a controversial police 

use-of-force consultant. Bonta’s 

office took over the review of the 

shooting after former Los Angeles 

County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey 

recused herself. 

McBride’s father, Jamie Mc- 

Bride, is one of nine directors of 

the powerful Los Angeles Police 

Protective League, the union that 

represents rank-and-file officers 

in labor and discipline issues. The 

L.A. police union has raised money 

for Lacey’s campaigns. 

The younger McBride earned 

“Top Shot” in the LAPD police 

academy and was the youngest 

in her class when she graduated 

at 20 years old, according to her 

lawsuit. She said in the lawsuit 

that she has competed — and won 

— target shooting competitions 

all over the country, which she 

regularly chronicled on her social 

media accounts. 

In the lawsuit, McBride’s attorney 

said it was not the Hernandez 

shooting that caused the police 

chief to block McBride’s career 

advancement opportunities last 

year. 

“Chief Moore told Officer Mc- 

Bride that he wanted her to cease 

posting videos on social media,” 

according to the lawsuit. “He said 

that Officer McBride needed to 

‘choose between being an LAPD 

officer’ or posting social media 

videos.” 

McBride contends her posts are 

“virtually identical to dozens of 

videos regularly posted by male 

officers. But when it comes to 

Officer McBride, Chief Moore told 

her he didn’t like the ‘image they 

present,’” according to the lawsuit. 

Have a news story you’d 

like to share with 

The BLUES? 

Send it to: 

bluespdmag@gmail.com. 




Thousands of officers converge on Washington DC in May 

of each year in what is considered one of the most powerful 

events in the United States. The goal of National Police 

Week is to honor and celebrate these officers, including 

those who made the ultimate sacrifice. It is a week of 

tears, pride, recognition, and camaraderie. As we prepare 

for this year’s ceremonies, it is important to revisit the incredible 

history behind National Police Week in order to 

better understand its symbolism and meaning. 


“When a police officer is killed, it’s 

not an agency that loses an officer, 

it’s an entire nation”. 

Chris Cosgriff, Officer Down Memorial Page Founder. 

According to www.policeweek.org, in 

1962, President John F. Kennedy signed a 

proclamation which designated May 15 as 

Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week 

in which that date falls as Police Week. In 

1994, a subsequent proclamation by President 

Bill Clinton directed that the flag be 

flown at half-mast on Peace Officers Memorial 

Day. Currently, tens of thousands 

of law enforcement officers from around 

the world converge on Washington, DC to 

participate in a number of planned events 

which honor those that have paid the ultimate 

sacrifice. The Memorial Service began 

in 1982 as a gathering in Senate Park of approximately 

120 survivors and supporters of 

law enforcement. Decades later, the event, 

more commonly known as National Police 

Week, has grown to a series of events 

which attracts thousands of survivors and 

law enforcement officers to our Nation’s 

Capital each year. The National Peace Officers 

Memorial Service, which is sponsored 

by the Grand Lodge of the Fraternal Order 

of Police, is one in a series of events which 

includes the Candlelight Vigil, which is 

sponsored by the National Law Enforcement 

Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) and seminars 

sponsored by Concerns of Police Survivors 

(C.O.P.S.). National Police Week draws in 

between 25,000 to 40,000 attendees. The attendees 

come from departments throughout 

the United States as well as from agencies 

throughout the world. This provides a unique 

opportunity to meet others who work in law 

enforcement.” 

Since 1791, when the first police death was 

recorded, there have been more than 21,000 

law enforcement officers killed while on 

duty. There are currently 21,541 names engraved 

on National Law Enforcement Officers 

Memorial in Washington, D.C. 3. The 1920s 

were the deadliest decade in law enforcement 

history, when a total of 2,480 officers 

died, an average of almost 248 a year. The 

deadliest year in U.S. police history was 1930, 

when 310 officers were killed. During the last 

10 years, the average number of police deaths 

per year dropped to 151. The U.S. has close to 

18,000 separate police agencies, each with 

their own internal structures and regulations. 

This includes federal agencies, local police, 

sheriff’s departments, and college campus 

police forces. 


SCHEDULE OF EVENTS 

Tuesday, May 9 through Saturday, May 20, 2023 

National Law Enforcement Museum OPEN each day from May 9-20, 2023 

Thursday, May 11, 2023 

National Police K9 Memorial Service 

Friday, May 12, 2023 

Police Unity Tour Arrival 

Washington Nationals vs New York Mets 

Saturday, May 13, 2023 

Candlelight Vigil 

Sunday, May 14, 2023 

Shomrim Society Memorial Service for Fallen Jewish Law Enforcement Officers 

The 29th Annual Pipeband Memorial March and Service, 

Organized by the National Conference of Law Enforcement Emerald Societies (NCLEES) 

Washington Nationals vs. New York Mets 

May 14-16, 2023 

C.O.P.S. National Police Survivors’ Conference and C.O.P.S. Kids/Teens Program 

Monday, May 15, 2023 

Annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service 

Wreath Laying and Stand Watch for the Fallen 


C.O.P.S. 

CONCERNS OF POLICE SURVIVORS 

SCHEDULE AND AGENDA 

CLICK BELOW TO VIEW LIVE UPDATES 


NASHVILLE 

Whether you want to be or not. 

No cop starts out his or her day, saying I’m going to go be a 

hero today. No one wants to walk into an active shooter scene, 

walk past innocent victims lying in pools of blood, to track down 

a deranged killer and take them out. It isn’t what you want to do, 

It’s what you have to do. And you don’t have hours or minutes to 

think about it….you have milliseconds. 

Having the mindset that your only job is to stop that shooter 

from taking one more life even if it means losing your own in 

the process, is no doubt the single most difficult job facing cops 

today. And unfortunately, it’s becoming an everyday reality for 

hundreds of police officers around the country. Last month, in 

both Nashville and Louisville, that’s exactly what happened when 

officers didn’t wait, they acted. 



. 

NASHVILLE 

Covenant School Shooting 

NASHVILLE 

On March 27, 2023, at approximately 10:13 am. 

Nashville Metro PD received an in-progress active 

shooter at the Covenant School in Nashville. 

The shooter, identified as Audrey Hale. Hale, a 

28-year-old from the Nashville area, was a former 

student of the school. 

Surveillance footage shows Hale driving to the 

school in a Honda Fit. Dressed in camouflage-style 

pants, a white T-shirt, a red cap and a black 

vest, Hale shoots out the glass of a side door and 

crawls through the opening to access the building. 

The shooter was armed with two AR-style guns — 

a rifle and a pistol — as well as a handgun, investigators 

said. 

Metro PD arrived at the school within minutes of 

the first 911 call. 

Body camera footage released Tuesday shows 

officer Rex Engelbert arriving at the school, grabbing 

his weapon from the back of his vehicle and 

encountering a woman who appears to be a staff 

member. 

She tells him, “The kids are all locked down, but 

we have two kids that we don’t know where they 

are.” She also describes the layout of the school 

and says children are upstairs. 

Engelbert, Officer Michael Collazo and another 

officer form a stack begin searching the school’s 

first floor as an alarm blares. They check several 

rooms, including what appear to be classrooms. 

Some doors are locked, and the rooms are dark. 

Muffled gunshots can be heard in the background, 

and Engelbert and the other officers rush 

upstairs to the second floor. 

The gunshots grow louder, and Engelbert enters 

an atrium and encounters the shooter standing 

near a window. Engelbert fires four times, and the 

shooter falls to the ground. 

Body camera footage from a second officer, 

Michael Collazo, shows him entering the school on 

the first floor with a group of other officers. 

Collazo and the other officers reach the second 

floor, where one says, “We’ve got one down,” as 

loud gunshots are heard. 

He is just a few steps behind Engelbert as the 

group enters the atrium. 

After Engelbert shoots Hale, officers rush the 

suspect, and Collazo fires four more times. 

Soon after, Audrey Hale, 28, was dead. Armed to 

the hilt with weapons and ammo, Hale had just 

fatally shot three students and three adults. The 

victims might have multiplied were it not for the 

quick work of these officers. 

They each said, I was just doing my job. I’m not 

a hero. But the truth is, you are heroes, and this 

world needs more heroes and less scumbags. 

Collanzo is a Marine Corps veteran who once 

rushed into action after a Christmas morning terror 

bombing. Collazo, a nine-year veteran of the 

police force, was among the first responders at the 

2020 bombing that injured eight in the Tennessee 

capital. 

“[He’s] obviously very brave, braver than I ever 

imagined,” his sister, Deanne Collazo DeHart, told 

the outlet. “He really does love his job. 

“When I sit and think about all the training and 

all the different classes that he does, and all the 

family events that he’s had to miss because of 

training or leaving to go through this training or 

this class,” DeHart said, “it all really does pay off.” 

DeHart said watching her younger brother head 

directly towards danger in the bodycam footage 

amazed her. 

“From the big sister point of view, I’m blown 

away — truly blown away,” she told NewsNation. 

“I knew my brother was brave. It wasn’t until I saw 

the video that I really processed how brave.” 

Collazo, who was born and raised in Nashville, 

joined the Marines out of high school and also 

Pictured are: Top Row - William Kinney, Evelyn Dieckhaus, and Hallie Scruggs. 

Bottom Row - Katherine Koonce, Mike Hill, and Cynthia Peak. 

served as a SWAT team paramedic, Nashville Police 

Chief John Drake told Fox News. 

In 2020, he rushed to the scene after Anthony 

Quinn Warner, a demented 63-year-old conspiracy 

theorist, detonated a bomb in his RV around 6:30 

a.m. Christmas Day. 

The blast killed Warner and damaged dozens 

of downtown buildings, including an AT&T facility 

that took out power over large swaths of Nashville. 

Meanwhile, Engelbert, a four-year police department 

veteran, received a department commendation 

just one week earlier for “precision 

policing” after two busts that recovered dozens of 

stolen credit cards and took a handgun, meth and 

fentanyl off the streets. 

“The seizures took two dangerous felons 

who had multiple outstanding warrants off the 

streets of downtown Nashville,” the department 

said in a statement Thursday. 

Yes, both men, true heroes in every sense of 

the word. But let’s not forget all the other men 

and women of the Nashville Metro PD, who also 

entered that school with the same exact intention. 

Putting their own lives on the line to protect 

innocent lives. For they too are just as heroic 

and brave as their fellow officers who had to 

take out a wacko transsexual bent on destroying 

lives. 


LOUISVILLE 

Old National Bank Shooting 

LOUISVILLE 

Not two weeks later, on April 10, 2023 , a 

25-year-old gunman and former bank employee, 

Connor Sturgeon, opened fire inside a conference 

room on the first floor of the Old National Bank in 

downtown Louisville. 

Three Louisville Metro Police officers were shot 

and injured when they approached the front of 

the bank. Ambushed by the gunman, who layed 

in wait inside the glass doors of the bank. Interim 

Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said 

April 10, 2023, will be forever etched into the city’s 

memory. 

“Our freedom to live in safety and conduct 

business with peace of mind was challenged,” 

she said. “But be assured, it is a challenge that the 

men and women of LMPD are prepared to face and 

conquer just as was demonstrated by the heroic 

actions of our first responders to the Old National 

Bank.” 

Here’s what played out that morning. 

About half an hour before opening for business, 

employees at the Old National Bank branch near 

the Ohio River in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, 

gathered for a morning board meeting. 

There was Thomas Elliott, the bank’s 63-yearold 

senior vice president; Deana Eckert, a 57-yearold 

executive administrative assistant; and Juliana 

Farmer, 45, who moved to Louisville two weeks 

ago to take a job as a loan officer and help her 

daughter, a single mom with four children. 

There was Joshua Barrick, 40, a senior vice 

president of commercial real estate banking. And 

James Tutt, a 64-year-old commercial real estate 

market executive and a big-time booster of the revitalization 

of the old urban neighborhood where 

they worked. 

Within a minute, the five bank employees would 

become casualties of a distinctly American phenomenon 

– the mass shooting. 

The Monday morning rampage by a member of 

their own work family was particularly personal 

for Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg: He not only 

lost a close friend in Elliott but had himself survived 

a workplace shooting last year at his campaign 

headquarters. 

“It is painful,” Greenberg said, “for all of the 

families I know.” 

It is a pain that extends far beyond the city 

bordering Indiana – best known for hosting the 

renowned Kentucky Derby and manufacturing the 

iconic Louisville Slugger bat that’s part of the history 

of the national pastime. 

The mother of the gunman, 25-year-old Old 

National Bank employee Connor Sturgeon, was 

among the 911 callers on Monday. Her son, she told 

the dispatcher, was heading to the Old National 

Bank branch on East Main Street. He had a gun and 

apparently left a note found by a roommate, she 

said. 

“I need your help. He’s never hurt anyone. He’s a 

really good kid,” the mother insisted. 

“We don’t even own guns. I don’t know where he 

would have gotten a gun.” 

The call was made at 8:41 a.m. Monday. 

“He’s never hurt anyone,” the mother said. 

“Please don’t punish him.” 

It was too late. The first 911 call about the bank 

shooting had come in three minutes earlier. The 

gunman was already inside. 

“You’ve had calls from other people? So, he’s 

already there?” 

“Yes,” the dispatcher said. 

Should she go to the bank, the mother asked. 

Stay away, the dispatcher advised. 

Sturgeon was killed by officers shortly after 

he fatally shot the five bank employees and then 

fired at them, wounding Officer Nickolas Wilt. The 

26-year-old rookie cop was shot in the head 10 


LOUISVILLE 

Old National Bank Shooting 

days after graduating from the police academy, 

leaving him in critical condition. Seven others were 

injured. 

“I just swore him in, and his family was there to 

witness his journey to become a police officer,” 

Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel, the interim police 

chief, said of Wilt. 

The motive for the rampage is unclear. The 

shooting was live-streamed on Instagram, compounding 

the horror. 

The gunman fired the weapon inside the bank 

for about a minute and then appeared to wait a 

minute and a half before police arrived, according 

to a city official. 

“Good morning,” a bank worker said to the gunman. 

“You need to get out of here,” the shooter told 

the woman on the live-stream, which was eventually 

taken down by Instagram’s parent company 

Meta. 

The gunman then tried to shoot her in the back, 

but the safety appeared to be on and the weapon 

needed to be loaded, the official said. 

Once the shooter loaded the weapon properly 

and took the safety off, he shot the worker, the official 

said. She was hit in the back of the shoulder 

and survived. 

The first 911 call came from a woman who 

worked at a different branch of Old National Bank. 

She witnessed the shooting on video. 

“How do you know you have an active shooter on 

site?” the dispatcher asked. 

“I just watched it. I just watched it on a Teams 

meeting. We were having a board meeting,” she 

said. “I saw somebody on the floor. We heard multiple 

shots and people started saying, ‘Oh my God,’ 

and then he came into the board room.” 

Rebecca Buchheit-Sims, a manager with Old National 

Bank, later told CNN she virtually witnessed 

the shooting on her computer during the Microsoft 

Teams meeting. 

“I witnessed people being murdered,” she said. “I 

don’t know how else to say that.” 

Another 911 caller whispered. She said she 

worked at the bank. She was hiding in a closet. 

Gunshots echo in the background. 

“I know who it is,” she said. “He works with us.” 

Someone else called 911. They were on the fourth 

floor of the downtown building, hiding under a 

desk. 

Another caller to police demanded, “Get here 

now! We need somebody now!” 

01:37 - Source: CNN 

On the morning of his 10th day on the job, Wilt 

and his training officer, Cory “CJ” Galloway, drove 

to the riverside Preston Pointe building – which 

houses the bank on the first floor. 

It was 8:41 a.m. when their patrol car pulled up 

outside Old National Bank – on the other side of 

the street from Louisville Slugger Field, home of 

the minor-league Louisville Bats. The officers had 

been dispatched three minutes earlier to a report 

of shots fired. 

Gunshots exploded inside the building. 

“Back up, back up, back up,” one officer shouted. 

The squad car backed up slightly, according to 

their body camera video, which was released 

Tuesday. Some parts of the footage were blurred 

out. 

Galloway got a rifle from the trunk. 

“Cover for me,” he told his partner. 

The gunman waited in the bank lobby. Officers 

could not see through the building’s dark glass 

panes. In a photo taken from surveillance video, 

the shooter – wearing a blue shirt, jeans and 

sneakers – is holding a rifle. The floor is strewn 

with broken glass. 

Gunshots thundered in the background, according 

to the video. Wilt was shot in the head as he 

ran toward the shots, police said. Wilt was seen 

following Galloway up the outside steps to the 

bank. The video cut off before he was hit. 

Galloway, who was also shot, is seen taking fire. 

He fell, got back up and retreated to a safe position 

down the steps behind a planter. Officers talk 

about how they can’t see the gunman and that he’s 

shooting through the bank windows. 

“The shooter has an angle on that officer. We 

need to get up there. I don’t know where he’s at. 

The glass is blocking him,” Galloway said. 

Sirens wailed in the background. 

Galloway took cover and waited for backup. At 

times, he moved from one side of the concrete 

planter to another, aiming his rifle at the elevated 

lobby and trying to get a shot. 

“He’s shooting straight through these windows 

right towards the officer,” said Galloway as reinforcements 

arrived. 

At 8:44 a.m. Galloway unleashed a hail of 

bullets into the lobby. The broken windows, shot 

out by the gunman, enabled him to pinpoint the 

shooter. 

“I think he’s down!” Galloway shouted. “Suspect 

down. Get the officer!” 

Galloway stepped slowly into the building, 

through the shattered lobby windows. He aimed 

his rifle as broken glass crunched under his feet. 

Galloway then approached the shooter, who 

was down on the glass-strewn floor next to his 

rifle. It was 8:45 a.m. Monday – four minutes after 

the officer responded to another mass shooting 

in America. 


WHAT MAKES A 

TRUE HERO 

in Law Enforcement Today? 

By Dave Edmonds, 

Reprinted from Police1 

Sociologists and behaviorists 

are frequently interested in how 

we psychologically attribute 

character traits to one another. 

One such area of empirical study 

is the attribution of heroism. 

The status of hero is achieved 

not only through action, but 

also through the perspective of 

others. In other words, if one 

accomplishes the most heroic 

act, yet nobody knows about it, 

he or she is not yet a hero (well, 

perhaps to oneself). It is through 

the marriage of heroic action, 

plus the witnessing of it, plus the 

hero attribution by another, that 

one “becomes” a hero. So, being 

a hero is really a very dependent 

condition. 

That’s one version, at least. It 

gets a bit more unwieldy because 

as far as some are concerned, 

heroism can be imputed 

to individuals simply because 

they belong to a certain sector 

of society. For people who think 

this way, they don’t need to see a 

heroic act in order to bestow the 

title. For example, law enforcement 

is a career that is frequently 

linked with the word “hero.” 

Some think that all cops, for the 

selfless acts they are willing to 

do, are de facto heroes. The fact 

that cops are willing to lay down 

their lives is a selfless condition, 

and this condition obviates the 

need for a heroic act. 

It’s good that a part of society 

is willing to revere its selfless 

servants this way. Even so, law 

enforcement is not lacking for 

daily heroic acts. Rather, what’s 

lacking is the observation of 

these acts. 

MOST HEROIC ACTS IN LAW 

ENFORCEMENT GO UNNOTICED 

Most day-to-day heroic acts 

in law enforcement occur without 

the benefit of observation. 

While putting a sudden end to 

a high-profile, sensationalized 

violent act gets noticed (and attributed), 

our day-to-day work, 

when done well, is full of unnoticed 

heroics that have equal, if 

not greater, consequence. 

This is true not only because of 

the unheralded crime-stopping 

that you do, but also (and probably 

more significantly) because 

of the crime preventing you do. 

The cop who focuses on the 

career criminals on his beat is 

a life changer. For example, by 

making “lesser” parole violation 

busts, you forever change the 

life histories of many certain-tobe-next 

victims. A detective who 

doesn’t let a child molester’s 

defenses wear him out and stays 

in the interview room for those 

extra hours to get a confession 

has no doubt prevented more 

molestations. Like a fig tree naturally 

bears figs, career criminals, 

pedophiles and other habitual 

crooks naturally bear their own 

fruits. Victims are what they 

make. It’s their nature, and they 

don’t stop by themselves. Putting 

career criminals, pedophiles 

and other habitual crooks away 

means stopping worse crimes 

before they start, and thereby 

changing untold lives forever. 

GOOD POLICE WORK CHANG- 

ES HISTORY 

This type of police work is 

some of the most valuable we 

can do. For what it does for 

individuals who would have 

otherwise been victims, and for 

society as a whole, preventing 

the next sensational armed robbery 

or horrific sex crime is even 

more valuable than ending one 

in progress. This type of work 

literally changes history, and it’s 

one of the reasons this job is so 

great. By doing our daily jobs 

well, we are unwittingly committing 

“upstream” heroic acts. 

Just because they are never noticed 

or attributed, that doesn’t 

lessen their effect or value. Indeed, 

the fact that such acts are 

unattributed makes them even 

more noble. 

Dealing with crisis day after 

day and year after year can 

numb us to the value of our role. 

It can be better appreciated if 

you personalize it: If somebody’s 

good upstream work, though 

you never knew about it, directly 

prevented a life-changing tragedy 

within your family, what 

benefit (“value”) would that act 

have to you and your family for 

the rest of your lives? When you 

do your job well, you are directly 

having that effect on untold 

others. Not knowing the specific 

“who’s” or “what’s” has nothing 

to do with the actual value of 

these acts. They truly are heroic 

accomplishments, sans the attribution. 

As our careers advance, we 

tend to downplay the nobility, 

honor, value and selflessness of 

our day-to-day work. Or, because 

of discouragement, becoming 

comfortable, or because 

of a loss of purpose, we can 

even recede from this good and 

noble fight. But in doing so, we’re 

yielding to the steady decline in 

cultural values, where there are 

fewer and fewer moral heroes 

of any type. By giving in, we’re 

actually adding to that decline. 

Hero status may never come 

your way. Yet you add to your 

stature and reveal your character 

when you remain willing 

to anonymously strive selflessly 

for the sake of those you’ll never 

know. In doing your best, you 

are giving real people their best 

hope for a better destiny. So, 

resolve to do your best and press 

on. 

Believe in your role in society 

and work that way. As a hero. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dave 

Edmonds is a retired Sonoma 

County (CA) Sheriff’s captain and 

founder of 360ARMOR, a free, 

online, membership-based police 

fitness and wellness organization. 

His 30-year career included 

assignments in and leadership of 

patrol, violent crimes/homicide, 

SWAT, sexual assault, polygraph 

and more. He has taught police 

supervision, management, and 

leadership at the university level. 

Dave is interested in LEO fitness 

and wellness on all fronts. He 

invites you to join him and other 

like-minded LEOs at 360ARMOR. 



new products 

yrs. 

FIRST Cash Back 

Save Money Buying Hunting 

and Fishing Gear with FIRST 

By Rusty Barron 

I discovered a great way to always 

get my hunting and fishing gear 

cheaper, anytime of the year I decide 

to buy it. Two of the retailers 

on the new FIRST Cash Back app 

are Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s, 

and both offer 5.4% cash back on 

every purchase when you check 

out using your FIRST app. This is a 

brand-new offering from The BLUES 

that we are beta testing and will 

soon be available to everyone. I 

wanted to explain how easy it is 

to use and once you do use it, you 

will find over 300+ other retailers, 

restaurants, and other places you 

normally shop & dine with, and you 

can save money every time with 

them too. Once you download the 

app for $1.99 there will be no more 

costs to use it, only savings. You 

will use the app as your form of 

payment just like you would with 

your credit card. When you download 

the app, you will load your 

favorite card credit that will be 

actually paying for the purchase and 

in addition to you still getting your 

miles or credits that your favorite 

credit card gives you, you will also 

be earning additional cash back 

from the 300+ merchants because 

you are a First Responder or family 

member of a First Responder. 

So here is how it works. Let’s 

say you are at Bass Pro Shops and 

purchase $117.07 worth of stuff. You 

proceed to the cashier and when 

they give you the total, you pull out 

your phone, 

open the app 

and click 

on Bass Pro 

Shops logo in 

your favorites 

and tell the 

cashier you 

will be paying 

with a digital 

gift card. 

Then you type 

into the app 

the amount of 

the purchase, 

1-1-7-0-7 and 

hit next button. 

Instantly 

there is a 

digital gift 

card shown 

on your app 

that you show the cashier. They 

scan the barcode, and the transaction 

is completed. It’s that quick 

and easy. Then you’ll notice you’re 

getting back $6.32 from Bass Pro 

because you are a First Responder, 

and it stays in your “available cash” 

on your app until you choose to use 

it at any of the 300+ merchants in 

the app. So, every time you use the 

app to pay for your purchase you 

will earn more cash back and at 

any time you can use your available 

cash to pay for all or part of your 

next purchase through the app. It is 

really the same as pulling out your 

credit card and handing it to the 

cashier but by using the FIRST app, 

you are earning cash back. I find 

this a very cool benefit for you and 

your family members, and it is all 

because you are a First Responder 

and a FIRST member. Bass Pro and 

Cabela’s offer 5.4% cash back and 

that is about the average across all 

the merchants in the app. Some 

more, some less and it is always 

shown next to the brand name how 

much they are offering. I can’t wait 

until we are ready to launch it to 

everyone and if you want to be 

added to the list of those First in 

line to get the app or even be one 

of our Beta Testers, click on the link 

below. 

SIGN UP HERE 



new products 

yrs. 

BIOFIRE SMART GUN 

THE FUTURE OF FIREARMS. 

Biofire ‘smart gun’ with fingerprint and facial 

recognition unlocking system hits the market. 

BROOMFIELD, Colo. – The 

Biofire Smart Gun is the world’s 

first biometric firearm, a 9mm 

handgun designed from the 

ground up to be always locked 

while remaining instantly 

accessible to the owner. Biofire’s 

revolutionary Guardian 

Biometric Engine uses facial 

and fingerprint recognition to 

unlock the firearm for up to 

five authorized users, and to 

lock the moment it leaves your 

hand. The Smart Gun only fires 

for the people you choose, so 

your firearm is much less likely 

to cause a tragic outcome in 

the hands of a child, criminal, 

or anyone else. 

MAKING CHILDREN SAFER 

IN AMERICA 

Last year, the New England 

Journal of Medicine report 

revealed that firearm-related 

accidents, homicides and 

suicides are the primary cause 

of death for children and teenagers 

in the U.S. The Biofire 

smart gun is expected to hit the 

market in 2024. Some believe 

that when it does, it could significantly 

help curb the crisis 

American children are facing. 

One of the main advantages of 

Biofire’s smart guns is that they 

can dramatically reduce the 

risks of suicides and accidental 

shootings at home. The biggest 

impact will be seen in the areas 

of accidental shootings and 

suicides. According to a medical 

journal article published 

in the JAMA Network in 2021, 

over 40% of American children 

claimed they could access their 

parents’ “secured” guns within 

two hours in a recent survey. 

Therefore, this technology can 

benefit responsible gun owners 

by increasing safety and reducing 

the likelihood of tragic accidents, 

especially with young 

children who may not understand 

the dangers of firearms. 

REDUCING THE CRIMINAL 

IMPACT OF STOLEN FIREARMS 

In addition, smart guns can 

also help reduce gun theft. 

Traditional guns can be stolen 

and easily sold on the black 

market,contributing to crime 

and gun violence. However, 

smart guns that require biometric 

or electronic authentication 

contain a built-in theft deterrent 

and are impossible for criminals 

to use illegally if they are stolen. 

HOW DOES THE NEW 

SMART GUN WORK? 

Biofire’s proprietary Guardian 

Biometric Engine uses integrated 

fingerprint and 3D facial 


ecognition systems to make 

sure only authorized users can 

arm the firearm. . Authorized 

users can instantly unlock the 

firearm just by picking it up - 

no codes, buttons, or gadgets 

required. Several prominent 

firearms and safety influencers 

have been able to test the 

Smart Gun already. Here’s one 

detailed review by Ian McCollum 

of Forgotten Weapons 

[LINK]. 

HOW WILL THIS AFFECT 

MASS SHOOTINGS IN AMERICA? 

Since many mass shootings 

are carried out using legally 

obtained firearms, it is unlikely 

that this smart gun alone will 

effectively prevent mass shootings 

in America. However, many 

minors do misuse their parents’ 

firearms to commit school 

shootings and mass shootings. 

This new smart gun’s locking 

mechanism could potentially 

have stopped a school shooters 

likeAdam Lanza, who used his 

mother’s firearm to murder 26 

people at Sandy Hook Elementary 

School in 2012. 

WHO MADE THE SMART GUN? 

Biofire is a team of gun owners, 

engineers, and parents 

developing innovative new 

solutions to keep their loved 

ones safe based near Denver, 

CO. Biofire’s CEO, Kai Kloep- fer, 

began work on the Smart Gun 

more than almost 10 years ago. 

After raising millions in venture 

funding and building a team 

of nearly 40 top engineers and 

other experts, the Smart Gun 

itself finally emerged from 

stealth and publicly launched 

for reservations on April 13th, 

2023. 

BOTTOM LINE 

The introduction of this new 

smart gun by Biofire could offer 

a solution to some of the issues 

surrounding firearm safety and 

gun violence. Its fingerprint and 

facial recognition sensor can 

absolutely help reduce accidental 

shootings, gun theft, and 

the use of firearms by criminals. 

While this new technology may 

not solve the issue of mass 

shootings, it can still benefit 

responsible gun owners and 

increase safety for everyone, 

especially at home with kids. 

“We’re not claiming that the 

Biofire Smart Gun is going to 

prevent every instance of firearm 

misuse. But we do believe 

this tool can help prevent some 

firearm suicides, accidents, and 

injuries from occurring,” Kloepfer 

said. 


yrs. 

MAY 

1-5 Detective and New Criminal Investigator *BY PATC Rio Rancho, NM 

1-5 2023-LEIU/IALEIA ANNUAL TRAINING EVENT LAS VEGAS, NV 

2-3 Managing the Property and Evidence Room *BY PATC Salina, KS 

2-4 Sexual Deviant Offenders *BY PATC Desloge, MO 

9-11 GREAT LAKES LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING CONFERENCE GRAND RAPIDS,MI 

9-11 2023 North American Use of Force Symposium: Lessons Learned Scottsdale, AZ 

10-11 BORDER SECURITY EXPO SAN ANTONIO,TX 

10-11 Basic Drug Investigation By LLRMI Geo, TX 

16 Advanced Search & Seizure by Blue to Gold (Live Stream Available) Lufkin, TX 

17 Duty to Intervene by Blue to Gold (Live Stream Available) Lufkin, TX 

17 Real World De-Escalation by Blue to Gold (Live Stream Available) Lufkin, TX 

22-24 Cellular Technology, Records, and Analysis Southlake, TX 

22-24 Pat McCarthy’s Street Crimes - Real World Training Arlington, TX 

22-24 IACP TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE SALT LAKE CITY 

22-26 Advanced Homicide Investigation/Violent Crime course Anchorage, AL 

JUNE 

5-7 Leadership 101 - Professionalism Defined (TX New Sup.) McKinney, TX 

6-8 Reid Technique of Inv. & Advanced Interrogation Denton, TX 

12-16 OTOA ANNUAL CONFERENCE SANDUSKY, OH 

13-16 Reid Technique of Inv. & Advanced Interrogation Austin, TX 

18-22 IABTI IST CONFERENCE PONTE VEDRA, FL 

19-23 Detective and New Criminal Investigator *BY PATC Denton, TX 

26-29 NSA NATIONAL SHERIFF’S CONFERENCE GRAND RAPIDS,MI 

27-28 37TH ANNUAL POLICE SECURITY EXPO ATLANTIC CITY,NJ 

27-30 INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CAMPUS LE ADMINISTRATORS ORLANDO,FL 

28-JULY3 NASRO ANNUAL CONFERENCE AURORA,CO 

JULY 

11-14 Cognitive Interviewing and Analytic Interviewing Humble, TX 

13-14 Child Abuse Investigations Denton , TX 

17-18 Proactive Leadership Humble, TX 

17-21 Basic Instructor 1014 Texas City, TX 

18-21 Reid Technique of Inv. & Advanced Interrogation Houston, TX 

24-27 53rd Annual Texas Narcotic Officers Association Training Conf. San Marcos, TX 

AUGUST 

1-4 Reid Technique of Inv. & Advanced Interrogation Kileen, TX 

2 De-Escalation #1849 Texas City, TX 

7-11 Interview & Interrogation for New Detectives BY LLRMI Georgetown, TX 

7-11 Rolling Surveillance presented by LCI Services Texas City, TX 

8-11 Reid Technique of Inv. & Advanced Interrogation Dallas, TX 

14-16 Pat McCarthy’s Street Crimes - Galveston, TX 

14-18 Detective and New Criminal Investigator *BY PATC League City, TX 

15-18 Chop Shop Investigations presented by LCI Services Texas City, TX 

16-17 Leadership for Front-Line Supervisors Denton, TX 

18 Statement Analysis® Interviewing Techniques Dallas, TX 

22-23 Overdose Investigations Course Georgetown, TX 

28-31 National Internal Affairs Investigators Assoc (NIAIA) 

Annual Training Conf 

Fort Worth, TX 

SEPTEMBER 

11-15 Force Science Certification Course Houston, TX 

19-21 WZ Criminal Level I Investigative Interviewing Techniques McKinney, TX 

19-22 Reid Technique of Investigative Interviewing 

& Advanced Interrogation 

OCTOBER 

Denton, TX 

21-22 Homicide Investigations Seminar Denton, TX 

22 WZ Criminal Investigative Interviewing Techniques 

Advanced Workshop 

22 WZ Criminal Level II - Advanced Interviewing Techniques 

Workshop 

25 Bulletproof Courtroom Testimony by Blue to Gold 

(Live Stream Available) 

McKinney, TX 

McKinney, TX 

Fort Worth, TX 

25-27 Proactive Leadership Waxahachie, TX 

25-29 Detective and New Criminal Investigator *BY PATC Crowley, TX 

26 Advanced Search & Seizure by Blue to Gold Denton, TX 

27 Advanced Traffic Stops by Blue to Gold Denton, TX 

28 Advanced Criminal Investigations by Blue to Gold Denton, TX 

2-4 FTO for today’s recruits and Pgm. Mgr. McKinney, TX 



Ft Worth, TX 

4-5 Extracting the Truth-Advanced Interview and Interrogation Denton, TX 

5 Forensic Statement Analysis - Deception Detection McKinney, TX 

10-12 Pat McCarthy’s Street Crimes Lufkin, TX 

14-17 IACP CONFERENCE & EXPOSITION SAN DIEGO 

16-18 Leadership 101 - 

Professionalism Defined (TX New Supervisor) 

McKinney, TX 

16-20 Detective and New Criminal Investigator *BY PATC Rockport, TX 

19-20 Advanced Forensic Statement Analysis 

Deception Detection 

McKinney, TX 

22-26 TCOLE TRAINING CONFERENCE CORPUS,TX 

23-24 Covert Surveillance *BY PATC Texas City, TX 



Rockport, TX 

Send your calendar listings to: 

bluespdmag@gmail.com 


CENTRAL TEXAS 

POLICE CHIEF AND SHERIFF'S ASSOCIATION 

yrs. 

TCPA Invites 

You To 

Join Us! 

THE 22ND ANNUAL 

SATURDAY, MAY 13TH 

LAKE STILLHOUSE 

FOR MORE INFO CONTACT BILLY: 

254.718.7275 

SPRING CLASSIC 

$200 ENTRY FEE PER TEAM 

INCLUDES BIG BASS 

Texas Crime Prevention Association 

48th Annual Conference 

July 9 - 13, 2023 

Hilton Dallas/Rockwall Lakefront 

2055 Summer Lee Dr. 

Rockwall, Texas 75032 

GUARANTEED 

for 1st place 

Plus One Place Paid 

for Every 10 Entries 

The Central Texas Area Police Chief’s and Sheriff’s Association 

presents an OPEN BASS TOURNAMENT. It will be held on Lake 

Stillhouse, May 13th, 2023. The Tournament Headquarters and 

Weigh-In Site will be at Stillhouse Marina. Tournament hours will 

be from 6:00 AM until 3:00 PM. Entry FEES will be $200.00 Per 

Boat. Big Bass guaranteed $500.00. 

Early registration will begin April 1st, 2023 at Tightlines PFT in 

Killeen, and at Marine Outlet in Temple until May 12th, 2023. You 

can register on Saturday May 13th, at Stillhouse Hollow Marina, 

beginning at 4:30 am. 

PROCEEDS FROM THIS TOURNAMENT WILL GO TO SPONSOR THE CHIEF’S 

AND SHERIFF’S ASSOCIATIONS’ ANNUAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND. 

TCPA invites public safety personnel, crime 

prevention practitioners, and organizations 

with crime prevention products or services to 

network at the largest event in the southern 

U.S. focused on suppressing criminal activity! 

Register Online Today! 

tcpa.wildapricot.org/conference 


HONORING OUR FALLEN HEROES 

POLICE OFFICER TIMOTHY JAMES UNWIN, III 

DETECTIVE SERGEANT NICHOLAS PEPPER 

SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP POLICE DEPARTMENT, OHIO 

END OF WATCH FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2023 

AGE: 31 TOUR: 9 YEARS BADGE: N/A 

Police Officer Tim Unwin was killed in a vehicle crash at the intersection of Hamilton Avenue and Centerridge 

Avenue in North College Hill.He was responding to an “officer needs assistance” call when his patrol car collided 

with another vehicle shortly after midnight. Officers from multiple jurisdictions were responding to the call 

when the crash occurred. The driver of the other vehicle was also killed in the crash. 

Officer Unwin had served with the Springfield Township Police Department for two years. He had previously 

served with the Hamilton Police Department for two years and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office for five 

years. 

LAFOURCHE PARISH SHERIFF’S OFFICE, LOUISIANA 

END OF WATCH SUNDAY, APRIL 2, 2023 


Detective Sergeant Nick Pepper was killed when his vehicle was intentionally rammed by a suspect during a vehicle 

pursuit on Louisiana Highway 1, near Kleinpeter Road, in Thibodaux at about 4:00 am. Officers and deputies 

pursued the vehicle until it stopped near Lafourche Crossing. As officers issued commands to the subject, the 

man suddenly accelerated and intentionally drove into Sergeant Pepper’s car. Sergeant Pepper was transported to 

Thibodaux Regional Health System where he succumbed to his injuries. 

Sergeant Pepper had served with the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office for 15-1/2 years and had served in law 

enforcement for 24 years. He had previously served with the Houma Police Department and the Terrebonne Parish 

Sheriff’s Office. He is survived by his wife, two daughters, and son. 

86 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE The MAGAZINE BLUES 87


POLICE OFFICER EMILY ANN BREIDENBACH 

POLICE OFFICER HUNTER TIMOTHY SCHEEL 

CHETEK POLICE DEPARTMENT, WISCONSIN 

END OF WATCH SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 2023 

AGE: 32 TOUR: 4 YEARS 10 MONTHS BADGE: 614 

Police Officer Emily Breidenbach and Police Officer Hunter Scheel of the Cameron Police Department were 

shot and killed during a traffic stop at Wisconsin Highway SS and 13th Avenue in the Village of Cameron at 

3:38 pm. Officer Breidenbach and Officer Scheel pulled over a vehicle for a warrant and welfare check on the 

driver. The subject was armed, and gunfire was exchanged. Officer Breidenbach and Officer Scheel succumbed 

to their wounds at the scene. The subject was transported to the hospital where he died. 

Officer Breidenbach had served with the Chetek Police Department for over four years and previously served 

with the Stoughton Police Department. She is survived by her parents, brother, her fiancé, and his four children. 

Her father was the Chief of Police for the Pardeeville Police Department. 

CAMERON POLICE DEPARTMENT, WISCONSIN 


AGE: 23 TOUR: N/A BADGE: 608 

Police Officer Hunter Scheel and Police Officer Emily Breidenbach of the Chetek Police Department were shot 

and killed during a traffic stop at Wisconsin Highway SS and 13th Avenue in the Village of Cameron at 3:38 

pm. Officer Scheel and Officer Breidenbach pulled over a vehicle for a warrant and welfare check on the driver. 

The subject was armed, and gunfire was exchanged. Officer Scheel and Officer Breidenbach succumbed 

to their wounds at the scene. The subject was transported to the hospital where he died. 

Officer Scheel was a United States Army National Guard veteran and served with the Cameron Police Department 

for one year. He is survived by his mother, stepfather, father, and three sisters. 



SENIOR POLICE OFFICER TREVOR ABNEY 

DEPUTY SHERIFF JOSH OWEN 

NEW ORLEANS POLICE DEPARTMENT, LOUISIANA 

POPE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE, MINNESOTA 

END OF WATCH SUNDAY, APRIL 9, 2023 


Senior Police Officer Trevor Abney succumbed to complications from a gunshot wound sustained on October 

30th, 2020. He and his partner were stopped at the intersection of St. Philip Street and Royal Street when 

a passenger in a passing pedicab opened fire on them without provocation. Officer Abney was struck in the 

left side of his face, and his partner suffered cuts to his arm from the shattered windshield. Officer Abney was 

transported to the University Medical Center New Orleans where life-saving measures were performed. Doctors 

were unable to remove the bullet, which remained lodged in his brain and blinded him in the left eye. He 

succumbed to complications of the wound on April 9th, 2023. Officer Abney was a United States Army Iraq 

War veteran and had served with the New Orleans Police Department for seven years. He is survived by his 

wife and parents. 



Deputy Sheriff Josh Owen was shot and killed while he and another deputy attempted to arrest a man for 

domestic violence in the 400 block of Stromen Street in Cyrus at about 7:30 pm. Deputies, as well as police 

officers from the Glenwood Police Department and Starbuck Police Department, had been dispatched to the 

house for reports of a domestic violence incident. The officers were attempting to place the man into custody 

when he opened fire on them. Deputy Owen and the subject were both fatally wounded. The other deputy and 

the Starbuck officer were injured. The incident occurred on Deputy Owen’s 44th birthday. Deputy Owen was 

a Minnesota National Guard Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran and had served with the Pope County Sheriff’s 

Office for almost 12 years. He is survived by his wife, son, and parents. His father is a retired law enforcement 

officer. 



CORPORAL JOSEPH JOHNSON 

DEPUTY SHERIFF ASSON HACKER 

NYSSA POLICE DEPARTMENT, OREGON 



Reserve Corporal Joseph Johnson was shot and killed near the intersection of North Third Street and Locust 

Avenue following while making a traffic stop at about 8:20 pm. He was responding to reports of a violent 

man damaging property at a home and threatening its occupants. During the response, he encountered the 

suspect driving away and conducted a traffic stop. The subject immediately exited his car and opened fire, 

fatally wounding Reserve Corporal Johnson before he had a chance to return fire. The subject abandoned his 

vehicle, fled the scene, and was arrested two days later. Reserve Corporal Johnson had served with the Nyssa 

Police Department for almost five years. He had also served as a corrections officer with the Oregon Department 

of Corrections for 15 years and currently worked as a civilian employee for the agency. He is survived by 

his wife and two children. 

VANDERBURGH COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE, INDIANA 

END OF WATCH THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2023 

AGE: 33 TOUR: 3 MONTHS BADGE: N/A 

Deputy Sheriff Asson Hacker died as the result of exertional sickling and sickle cell trait while participating in 

defensive tactics training at the Southwestern Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in Evansville. He began to 

feel ill while undergoing the training and was transported to a local hospital where he passed away. 

Deputy Hacker had only served with the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office for several months. He is survived 

by his wife, four sons, parents, three brothers, and two sisters. 


Ghost Patrol: The scariest 

things cops have seen on 

the beat. Part 2 

By Police1 Staff 

Most cops will tell you they’ve 

seen it all. It’s the nature of the 

job to be exposed to virtually 

everything America has to offer 

– from the weird to the hilarious 

to the disturbing. But what 

about the paranormal? 

We asked our audience to 

share the scariest, strangest, or 

most unexplained thing they’ve 

seen in their career, and their 

stories were downright spooky. 

Check out our roundup of the 

best responses, and if you think 

you can top these, share your 

story with us bluespdmag@ 

gmail.com. HERE IS PART 2 

ALL ALONE 

I was the Sgt working overtime 

graveyard at a now-demolished 

substation. It was my lunch 

break and I heard someone open 

the door at the other end of the 

building and heard footsteps. I had 

the light off in my office because 

the hall lights more than lit it up. 

I saw someone in the door and 

when I turned to look, it was a 

shadow figure standing in the 

doorway as if to say “Hi Sgt!” It 

wasn’t something I saw out of the 

corner of my eye and it was there 

for a couple of seconds and then 

went on towards the lieutenant’s 

office. Later when I asked the guys 

if they have ever experienced 

anything strange at the substation, 

they responded “that’s why 

we don’t come back until the sun 

comes up.” I found out about other 

experiences that others had and it 

was similar...I’m still a skeptic, but 

I can’t explain what I saw. — Paul 

Jacobs 

GOOD CONVERSATION 

I was working at our jail and 

while doing my watch tour I was 

heading into medical and heard 

two people having a conversation 

and thought it was two inmates 

in a cell talking. I went to the first 

cell and there were no names on 

the door so I didn’t look in. I went 

to the next door and it had one 

name on it. I opened the hatch 

to look in and there was a guy 

in there. I didn’t say anything at 

first to him but as I was closing 

his hatch, he asked me if I could 

move his neighbors over because 

he was alone and would like some 

company. I then went over to the 

previous door and checked in the 

window just in case someone 

didn’t put the names on the door. 

I looked in and nobody was in 

the cell. I went back to the guy in 

the other cell and asked him if he 

had heard people talking and he 

stated yes they had been talking a 

lot. I informed him that there was 

nobody next door and got out of 

there. — Scott Rowlison 

THE BOY ON THE BENCH 

Worked security in a med center 

after retirement. Opened the place 

one morning at 0500. As I passed 

an alcove, for an instant saw a 

boy about 9 years old, brown hair, 

striped shirt sitting on a bench 

and then he was gone. Anyway 

out of embarrassment, I never 

told a soul about it. I had eight 

retired detectives working for me 

and one day I was having a conversation 

with one of them. Very 

sheepishly he asked me if I ever 

saw anything strange in the place 

when I opened in the morning. 

When I asked him why, he said 

that he saw a young boy wearing 

a striped shirt sitting on a bench 

and then he was gone. The same 

location where I saw the kid. 

Other things that happened were 

coffee pots being knocked over 

and footsteps late at night when 

closing. Later found out that the 

med center was located adjacent 

to the most haunted cemetery on 

Staten Island. — Buddy Smith 

RURAL ENCOUNTER 

I work on county roads and I 

had a Signal 100 at 03:00 and my 

closest bathroom was 30 minutes 

out. So, I pulled down a dark gravel 

road and started my business. 

I felt like someone was watching 

me. Looking toward the rear of my 

unit and approximately 20 feet 

beyond my rear bumper I saw a 

shadowy figure standing there. 

I stop and zip up (not finished) 

and yell out to what I thought 

was a person. I got no reply from 

the figure. I start to apologize to 

the figure – thinking this was the 

landowner coming to see who was 

peeing on their driveway – but no 

response. 

I then go into tac mode and demand 

them to show their hands 

and identify themselves. But no 

answer. I finally get smart and use 

my light to see who it was and 

as light passes over the area the 

figure was gone. Keep in mind this 

conversation was about 20 seconds 

long and I just saw something 

there. I look around and I hear no 

running through the brush. I turn 

to get make into my unit and I 

take one more look back and see a 

shadowy figure move towards me 

from where I last saw it. Needless 

to say, I got in my unit and sped off 



ecause bullets were not going to 

stop this spirit. — T.J. Riggs 

SOUND THE ALARM 

The jail had a notorious ghost, 

Sara Ware, who would play with 

the lights and set off alarms. Most 

of the alarms are panic alarms 

in locked offices where switches 

actually had to be pushed and slid 

into a slot to activate. It got to 

the point where the officers were 

afraid to go into the courthouse 

for an alarm. — Aimee Reynolds 

HIND LEGS 

One year our department started 

receiving complaints of headstones 

being knocked over in the 

city cemetery, around Halloween. 

The chief advised us on the midnight 

shift to spend our extra time 

around the cemetery to catch the 

person(s) causing damage. Me being 

sneaky, I found a good hidden 

observation point about a block 

away. There were two major welllit 

streets providing fair lighting in 

the cemetery. For several nights 

I would from time to time stop 

and check the cemetery with my 

binoculars and only patrol the 

cemetery at the start and end of 

my shift (as usual). 

One time checking the cemetery 

I spotted something that looked 

like a cat walking on its hind legs. 

I watched it walk approximately 

10 feet between headstones and 

lost sight of it. I rushed over to 

the area in my patrol car turning 

on my spotlight, alley lights and 

takedown lights. Couldn’t find a 

thing but a track through the dew 

on the grass that dead-ended 

at a headstone. To this day I can 

remember how it moved and its 

outline in my binoculars. Creepy. 

I’m an avid hunter and I’ve done 

plenty of hunting at night. I am 

very familiar with all the animals 

in my neck of the woods and I 

have never seen anything like it. — 

Arthur Rigsby 

HOME 

Several years back, my partner 

and I were looking for a kidnapping 

suspect in some abandoned 

houses. Around 0330 we go to 

check a house in a very rural 

and remote part of the county. 

The house is extremely large and 

creepy-looking. We make entry 

and find the inside of this house is 

like something out of Tim Burton’s 

nightmare. There are walls going 

halfway up and stopping. There 

were doorways barely big enough 

to stick your head through and 

opening up into massive empty 

rooms. Every time we thought 

we’d made it to the top floor, we’d 

find another staircase leading up. 

Finally, we make it to the attic and 

find all kinds of crazy stuff drawn 

on the walls. Needless to say, we 

finished clearing the house and 

got out of there. — Kevin Thompson 

ENTRY TOOLS 

I responded to a suicide as the 

co-lead detective. A male had 

hung himself in the tree in the 

backyard. We checked the residence 

and it was locked with a 

deadbolt thrown on both entry/ 

egress doors. I called for entry 

tools and a supervisor for a 

breach because the decedent’s 

girlfriend was not accounted for 

and they lived together (possible 

murder/suicide). 

Several patrol officers and I 

were standing at the back door 

of the house (south side) which 

had been checked multiple times 

waiting on entry tools. I look at 

the door and there’s a gap in the 

frame and see there’s no deadbolt 

thrown anymore. I check the door 

and it’s now open. 

We clear the residence and no 

one is inside. I even had them 

clear the attic space. 

Inside the door that “magically” 

opened were multiple notes to 

family members from the decedent. 

We all walk outside and are 

waiting on NOK to arrive and try 

to walk back in. The door is secured 

again with a deadbolt. 

It should be noted no one had 

keys and there were key locks on 

both sides of the door. 

The lead and I were now discussing 

how we were gonna have 

to call for entry tools and again 

the door was open. No one going 

near it. 

I again had the residence cleared 

and no one inside. 

The lead detective and I did not 

go back into that house that day. 

— Rob McGinley 

A CALL FOR HELP 

Calls for service coming from 

a vacant household twice a night 

for about a week. The voice on 

the phone sounded like an elderly 

at-risk lady with Alzheimer’s 

barely audibly saying “Please help. 

Please help.” Totally unresponsive 

to our calls. Confirmed with my 

shift sergeant that the house’s last 

resident was a daughter taking 

care of her mother who was dying 

from stage two lung cancer. Definitely 

sent a shiver down my back. 

— Dalton Hostetler 

PAPERWORK 

One cold winter night around 

0300 I was parked in a dark parking 

lot doing paperwork behind 

a Kmart. Suddenly someone or 

something banged on my driver’s 

side window 2-3 times, obviously 

scaring the hell out of me, but it 

happens. Except there was nobody 

there. Business wall 8-15’ 

to my right, 10’ solid fence to my 

left, and 100’ open space front 

and back. Nothing but my own tire 

tracks in the blanket of fresh snow 

and no marks on my window or 

ground indicating a snowball or 

such. I even got down in the snow 

and looked under my car. Still a 

bit anxious whenever I drive back 

there. — Troy Peterson 

POLICE1 READERS RESPOND 

• I was working receiving and 

release when we had an inmate 

released to a state mental hospital. 

When he was given his release 

clothing he looked toward 

me with a thousand-yard stare 

and said, “Why don’t you just do 

it?” I asked what he meant; with 

zero inflection and staring right 

through me, he said, “I know why 

you’re here. Kill me already and 

get it over with.” There was no 

one else in the holding tank, however, 

I looked over my shoulder 

to make sure no one had entered. 

No one had. When I placed him in 

handcuffs he suddenly focused on 

me as though just noticing I was 

there. He said to me, “He’s going 

to kill me, don’t let them take me!” 

He survived the transport but it 

was definitely creepy. 

• I was a new cop and my FTO 

and I were on a residential street 

in the middle of the night. We 

found a car positioned perpendicular 

to the road, and the driver 

seemed to be trying to get turned 

around but just kept moving back 

and forth. We contacted the driver 

who was a female in her early 

20s. She was lucid and coherent. 

She asked me how to get to a 

nearby neighborhood called Joaquin 

Muerietta, but she was being 

somewhat evasive in her answers 

to my questions. Eventually, she 

reluctantly told me her family was 

being held hostage and the only 

way she could get them released 

would be to complete missions for 

the CIA. I figured she was on drugs 

or just crazy. My FTO was a DRE 

and he determined she wasn’t 

on drugs. OK, so she’s just crazy. 

Then she told me she had a device 

in the car, which was like a handle 

with an arrow on the top of it. 

She said if she held the device, the 

arrow would glow when it was 

pointed in the direction she was 

supposed to go to “continue her 

mission.” I asked if I could examine 

the device and she said sure. 

I decided to humor her and held 

the device out while slowly turning 

in a circle. To my shock, the 

arrow suddenly brightened when 

it was pointed toward the Joaquin 

Murietta neighborhood…and 

only when it was pointed in that 

direction. She had an expression 

on her face like, “See? I told you 

so.” I had never seen a device like 

that before or since. My FTO was 

freaked out, and he told me “She’s 

not committing any crimes so let’s 

get out of here.” So we left. To 

this day, I have no idea what was 

actually happening there. 

• I was a patrol deputy in a 

small Texas Panhandle town in 

the 1990s. One winter night after 

a good, solid snowfall I was 

down the alley behind the business 

district checking for open 

doors, when I saw a woman at 

the far end of the alley – about 

a block away – standing in the 

middle of the alley, looking my 

direction. White female, long dark 

hair, wearing a long black evening 

dress, but no coat gloves or anything 

like that. 

It was after midnight, achingly 

cold, so I called, “Miss, are 

you OK?” She looked at me, then 

turned and stepped into what I 

knew was a recessed area behind 

one of the stores, so I got back 

into the cruiser and drove down 

there, expecting to find the dock 

door open, and the kids of the 

owners hanging out. 

The dock doors weren’t open. 

None of the doors were open, 

and the only thing in that little 

recessed area was a black cat sitting 

on the gas meter. As I grabbed 

the flashlight and started looking 

around, figuring I was about to 

find an intoxicated girl passed out 

in a snowdrift, the cat hopped off 

the meter, rubbed against my leg 

and wandered off down the alley. 

Then I realized that not only was 

there not anyone passed out in the 

snow, my footprints were the only 

ones in the fresh snow. 

And when I say my tracks were 

the only ones in the snow – the 

cat didn’t leave prints either. And I 

wasn’t new to the tracking game 

– I’d tracked children across dry 

caliche before that. I got back into 

the cruiser and high-tailed it back 

to the office, told the dispatcher 

about it, and she said, “Oh, her. 

She’s been showing up for about 

20 years or so. No one has a clue 

who she is. You see the cat, too?” I 

hadn’t said anything about the cat. 

Freaked me the hell out. 


WORDS BY OFFICER BRADLEY NICKELL 

I Don’t Need No Stinking Seatbelt. 

The Crown Vic patrol car was 

demolished in a collision with a 

Ford F-250. The 45-mph impact 

caused damage seemingly out of 

proportion to the speed. 

The atmosphere in the briefing 

room was jovial and relaxed. 

Everyone from the rookies to the 

salty vets were eager to hit the 

road and begin their shifts. The 

old guys liked poking fun at the 

younger ones and the sergeants 

made sure it didn’t get too much 

out of hand. It was double-squad 

night, meaning we’d field twice the 

number of cops on the street. On 

most nights we staffed single-officer 

patrol cars, but double-squad 

nights gave us the luxury of partners 

and having instant backup on 

hot calls. 

It was September 30, 1993 and 

I’d been a cop in Las Vegas for 

about a year and a half. I’d been 

working with my partner, Officer 

Fred Garcia since I graduated from 

field training and we were on the 

graveyard shift, or “the yard” as 

we called it. The yard was the best 

place for young, ambitious cops to 

cut their teeth and figure out the 

best ways to do good police work. 

After briefing, Freddy and I went 

out to our Ford Crown Victoria 

squad car and readied it for the 

night. After loading our gear and 

deciding who’d drive for the first 

half of the shift, we headed out 

into the dark of the evening, ready 

to take on the worst Las Vegas 

could offer. Freddy made fun of 

the flattop haircut I’d gotten before 

work; it was all the rage then 

and I thought looked pretty good. 

About an hour into our shift, 

we’d handled a disturbance 

call and some routine stuff. We 

stopped at a 7-Eleven store for a 

cold drink because even though it 

was late September and long after 

the sun was down, it was still in 

the 80’s outside. I figured a Slurpee 

would do the trick … and that’s the 

last thing I remember from that 

night. 

PERSPECTIVE 

During this time in my career I 

was young, eager and paid very 

close attention to how I practiced 

officer safety. I intentionally never 

wore my seatbelt in the patrol 

car. The popular thought was, “I 

don’t want to be strapped to a big 

metal coffin if I’m ambushed or 

facing an armed confrontation.” I 

worked in some rough parts of Las 

Vegas and dealt with a lot of really 

bad actors. I was convinced going 

without my seatbelt could save my 

life by letting me exit the patrol 

car as quickly as possible. 

Over 20 years later, I fully under-stand 

the reality. More cops 

die every year in car collisions 

than from armed assailants. The 

numbers prove that seat-belt 

usage offers a greater chance of 

surviving a wreck than not wearing 

one might have in an ambush. 

Back then I never wore a seatbelt. 

DAMN DRUNK DRIVERS 

Around 2300 we were dispatched 

to a call involving a 

drunk, belligerent man with a 

knife. It was an urgent call, but 

not enough to warrant running 

Code 3. Freddy was driving us to 

the call and out of nowhere — 

wham! — a heavy-duty Ford F-250 

4X4 smashed into the front passenger 

side of the patrol car. We 

were doing about 45 mph, which 

doesn’t seem like much, but once 

you’ve seen what 5,000 pounds 

of metal hitting another 5,000 

pounds of metal does at 45 mph, 

it’s really quite shocking. 

The impact with the police car 

actually caused the engine of the 

F-250 to be torn from the frame, 

landing in the roadway. 

Freddy lost control of the patrol 

car and we veered through the 

oncoming travel lanes, over a curb 

and through a Slumpstone block 

wall. The impacts from the truck 

and the wall crushed the front of 

the patrol car, with most of the 

damage on my side. The truck that 

hit us rolled over at least once, 

and the engine was ejected from 

the engine compartment. The 

truck came to rest, spilling fuel 

that quickly started to blaze. 

Even back then, engineers were 

designing vehicles to absorb much 

of the energy in collisions and 

direct it away from the passenger 

areas. The crush damage on the 

Crown Vic was clear proof of their 

good work. The downfall of the 

car was no passenger side airbag. 

Airbags were fairly new in the 

auto industry and passenger side 

air-bags weren’t standard. The 

front end of the car was pushed 

back toward me so far that when I 

moved forward during the impact, 

the right side of my face struck 

the merciless metal handle of the 

passenger side spotlight. 

HUMPTY DUMPTY 

After the crash, Freddy stumbled 

from the car and looked back 

at me. I was unconscious and 

trapped in the crushed car; blood 

pouring from my face. Freddy 

immediately called for help and 

it was mere moments before an 

army of cops arrived. Someone extinguished 

the truck fi re and discovered 

the dead driver — reeking 

of alcohol. The passenger in the 

truck was injured and extremely 

drunk. 

Freddy injured his knee in the 

crash and thankfully it was nothing 

too serious. Rescue crews had 

to use their power tools to cut me 

out of the smashed patrol car. I’m 

told I was conscious at this point 

and somewhat hostile with rescue 

personnel — a common occurrence 

for people with severe head 

injuries. I’m also told medics didn’t 

think I’d live through the night. So, 

rather than lose time waiting for 

an air ambulance they loaded me 

up and off we went to the trauma 

center. 

Bradley’s head struck the passenger 

side spotlight handle. He 

sustained severe head injuries and 

needed facial lacerations stitched. 

In spite of his injuries, he was back 

on duty in just two months. 

The trauma doctors worked 

quickly to figure out just how bad I 

was. Obvious injuries included my 

right eyelid split in two, a fractured 

orbital bone with unknown 

damage to the eye itself. A couple 

dozen stitches from a plastic 

surgeon married the pieces of my 

eyelid back together. A few dozen 

more stitches closed some gaping 

cuts in my right arm. 

Evidence of internal head injuries 

called for an X-ray and 

CT scans revealing 11 facial/head 

fractures, brain hemorrhaging and 

a basilar skull fracture with air 

bubbles entering the brain cavity. 

At that time, significant basilar 

skull fractures usually resulted in 

death. One of the world’s greatest 

neurosurgeons at the time, Dr. Lonnie 

Hammargren, was called in to 



take lead on the head trauma and 

brain injury. 

REVELATION 

Through all of this, I’ve been told 

I was conscious and mostly alert. 

But to this day, I have no memory 

for about three days of that time. 

One of my first post-crash memories 

is the thing that caused the 

most pain: a dark colored bruise 

running diagonally from my left 

hip to my right shoulder. I thought 

maybe I’d been slammed up 

against the dashboard during the 

crash. I asked one of the nurses 

what the bruise was from and she 

said, “Honey, that’s from the seatbelt 

that saved your life.” 

I was confused. It didn’t make 

sense. I never wore a seatbelt. But 

this was incontrovertible evidence 

I’d been wearing one during the 

crash. When I saw the pictures of 

the crash, there’s no denying I’d 

have been a goner had I not been 

belted in. I probably would’ve gone 

through the windshield like a piece 

of sirloin through a meat grinder. 

Normally never wearing a seatbelt, 

for some reason, Bradley 

had it on prior to impact. He still 

doesn’t remember putting it on, 

or why he would have. It saved his 

life. But alas … he still spilled his 

Slurpee! 

I hadn’t been expected to live, 

let alone ever work as a cop again. 

But I got well and returned to full 

duty a couple of months later. 

Ironically, I went to a medical aid 

call and the on-scene paramedics 

were the same ones who’d been to 

my crash. They looked like they’d 

seen a ghost when they saw me. 

I didn’t remember them but they 

sure remembered me. They told 

me their story from that night and I 

thanked them for saving my life. 

I gained a firsthand understanding 

seatbelts save the lives of 

police officers more often than any 

other piece of equipment we have. 

I’m not downplaying the threats 

we face from bad people with bad 

intentions, but statistics from the 

FBI and the National Law Enforcement 

Officer’s Memorial Fund don’t 

lie — crashes kill more cops than 

bad guys do. 

My hopeful wish is anyone who 

reads this story — especially you 

cops too — makes a conscious and 

logical decision to wear their seatbelt 

if they don’t already. In Vegas, 

professional gamblers play the 

odds and stay away from hunches 

or unproven methods. You should 

do the same. Play the odds and be 

a survivor. Be a professional. Don’t 

let something you have control 

over end up being what takes your 

life. 

ALL FIRST RESPONDERS & VETERANS 

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A BADGE OF HONOR 

healing our heroes 

YOUR BRAIN DRAWER 

It doesn’t matter how much time 

you have on the job as a First responder. 

Triggers begin from the 

day you take the oath to protect and 

serve others. 

Take look back at who you were 

prior to raising your hand in that 

oath. Look at how you reacted to 

certain situations, and how you 

may have changed. In some cases, 

for the worse, and maybe some for 

the better, but a change has taken 

place. 

Your mind remembers all interactions, 

every sound, sight, smell, and 

touch. Which is sometimes quickly 

dismissed as “Déjà vu” but other 

times sparking a reaction to a past 

action. The brain will compartmentalize 

these encounters to protect 

us. Trauma being one of those compartments. 

The brain can place the bad things 

which we have seen or may have 

been victim of in a folder inside 

your “brain draw” This allows the 

file to be secured so you can move 

onto normal daily activities. A first 

responders’ life can cause these 

draws to become full very quickly 

causing the “Brain draw” not 

to close securely. We all know if 

we leave something open, certain 

things can leak out or become 

accessed easily. This happens with 

many first responders. The easy 

access to these draws, denies our 

Pre-First Responder coping and reasoning 

skills to be pushed aside for 

a more direct, sometimes inappropriate 

response to the active issue. 

Let’s look at sounds. When someone 

who has been exposed to many 

domestic violence incidents or 

heated confrontation events, any 

type of argument has the potential 

to become highly agitated. It could 

be the tone, the voice inflection, 

word, or phrase. Your brain will 

remember this, access the file in 

which it first heard, causing your 

guard to go up making you react in 

the same manner you did the first 

time you heard it. This is called the 

protection factor. It’s your brains 

way of letting you know danger 

is close or immanent. As a First 

Responder we go into protection 

mode everyday of our careers. In 

some cases, 30 plus years of wearing 

a suit of armor. We are conditioned 

to take control of every 

situation, because in the field it can 

be the matter of life and death. 

The brain doesn’t know that you 

are having an argument with your 

spouse over an overcooked dinner, 

all it hears or may recognize are the 

same inflection or tone once heard, 

immediately accessing the draw, 

continuing the file, containing the 

domestic dispute you responded 

to 10 years ago, where you were 

jumped from behind and had to 

use violent force to stop the attack 

to protect your life. This may have 

work well on the street, but not as 

well in a dinner issue. Arguments 

with a spouse should be handled 

in a much calmer fashion with 

more compassion and a less heated 

response. We need to learn the 

difference. 

Visual triggers can also have the 

same effect. We as humans are very 

visual by nature. We take in everything 

around us. We see things and 

store things we don’t even remember 

seeing. When we walk through 

a park, we not only see the people 

in the park, but we also see trees 

and birds, paths and benches, trash 

yrs. 

SAMANTHA HORWITZ & 

JOHN SALERNO 

cans and water fountains. We will 

remember the things that stand 

out and dismiss the other things as 

irrelevant. We retain only certain 

objects in our short-term memory 

and store everything else away in 

the Brain Draw. Now if there were 

colorful trashcans along the path it 

may stay in the short term as a topic 

of conversation, but if they were 

typical trash bins you would most 

likely dismiss them and place them 

into long term memory. As first 

responders, we sometimes view the 

most horrific events moving through 

them in a robotic way during our 

shift dismissing them into our longterm 

memory like the discarded 

trashcans. If one of those trashcans 

continued a noticeable stench 

permeating from it, and someone 

talked about a bad smell, your brain 

would access the Brain draw with 

the bad smell of the trash bin in the 

park as a recollection. 

I can go on, but I am sure you see 

the picture. We need to begin and 

notice the changes within ourselves 

when we feel our anger begin to 

rise, or as we begin to slip into a 

depression state of mind. Ask ourselves, 

what happen in the last 5 or 

10 minutes that may have triggered 

these emotions. Why did I suddenly 

go from happy to sad, or calm 

to anger? What was the reason, 

and/or the trigger placing me in 

my current state of mind. You will 

find many of these times, it was a 

sensory trigger that has accessed a 

past memory. 

What this does, it compromises 

your coping mechanisms, blocking 

your ability to handle certain situations 

in a more reasonable way. 

Keeping you safe and in control of 

the situation. 

Arguments with your spouse 

should never turn into a violent 

rage. Seeing a car accident should 

never put you into a deep depression, 

and a plane flying over your 

head should not make you duck for 

cover. 

It’s great to have the protection 

factors and skills we have learned 

and experienced, but it is equally 

damaging if those same protectors 

are not controlled or managed 

allowing us to enjoy the normal 

beauty of what life has to offer. 

Now let’s reflect, Life as a First 

Responder holds many responsibilities 

when it comes to the public 

and their health and safety. We are 

willing to lay down our lives in our 

missions to help a stranger, but we 

must look in the mirror and re-introduce 

ourselves, to ourselves and 

afford ourselves that same level 

of responsibly we give others. Its 

ok to give back to yourself. Its ok 

to take a break. Its ok to feel. You 

are allowed, just give yourself the 

permission. 

It’s not ok to deprive ourselves, 

our spouses, family, and friends to 

the person you truly are. The person 

before the oath, the person before 

the job, the person before the trauma. 

I am giving you the permission to 

be that person again. You owe it to 

Yourself. 

Ret. NYPD 

John Salerno 

A Badge of Honor 

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DARYL LOTT 

daryl’s deliberations 

yrs. 

Memorial Day 2023 

I’ve always considered Abraham 

Lincoln the ceremonial last casualty 

of the Civil War. The burden 

he carried throughout the war was 

unmatched by any other president 

before or since. Many believe he was 

our greatest president, but I ultimately 

bestow that honor on Washington 

because he was the “Father of Our 

Country” in every respect. Lincoln is 

a very, very close second. Lincoln’s 

assassination was a bitter blow to 

the country. So much so, that it overshadowed 

what I consider to be the 

last casualties of the Civil War. 

The Civil War was the foremost 

catastrophe to ever land on our 

continent. The warriors used modern 

weaponry and Napoleonic tactics to 

mow down an entire generation of 

Americans. No family escaped the effects 

of the war. Diseases fermented 

in a land where germ theory and the 

actual causes of afflictions like Cholera 

and dysentery were unknown. 

Simple scratches resulted in lost 

limbs or lives due to infection. The 

four pillars of public health (clean 

water, sanitary sewers, antibiotics, 

and vaccines) were all sorely lacking 

or nonexistent in our country. 

Most times, the young men who 

comprised the legions that marched 

through the South on both sides of 

the conflict had never seen so many 

men in one place at one time. Towns 

built for hundreds suddenly housed 

tens of thousands with predictable 

results to any 21st Century reader. 

Corinth, Mississippi was such a place. 

It was a small town with a rail junction. 

It had no paved or stone roads, 

shelter from torrential rains, or any 

other means to support a gathering 

of any size. Corinth soon became a 

death trap for any army guarding 

the vital railroad that connected the 

western confederacy with the Gulf of 

Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. 

As malignant as Corinth was, it did 

not hold a candle to the prison camps 

of both sides. Initially, there were 

huge prisoner exchanges because 

neither side could maintain camps 

without staggering death tolls. 

Places with names such as Andersonville 

and Camp Douglass became 

synonymous with death by disease. 

The guards were also susceptible 

to the onslaught of merciless pestilence 

with many of them dying 

inside the wire. Despite the success 

of the prisoner exchanges, General 

Grant believed the prisoner exchange 

concept was benefiting the South 

disproportionately. In his bloody 

calculus, he saw that the South could 

not produce more soldiers than the 

North due to the huge population 

disparity. Therefore, he consigned the 

unfortunate prisoners of both sides 

to fates worse than battlefield death 

behind the wires of filth and contamination. 

In his defense, Grant believed 

that his no-exchange policy would 

shorten the war and save lives in the 

long term. 

The war ended with the feared 

monstrous loss of prisoners’ lives. 

Scenes of camp liberators encountering 

gruesome prison camps 

would haunt the nation’s memory in 

nightmares without end. Desperate 

families, North and South, longed 

to get their husbands, brothers, and 

sons back home. One such case of 

repatriation of Northern soldiers and 

former prisoners of war marks what 

I consider to be the grisly finale of the 

bloodiest event in American history. 

DARYL LOTT 

In the aftermath of Lincoln’s assassination, 

the country was in mourning 

and shock. On April 23, 1865, the 

little Mississippi River town of Vicksburg 

was home to a parole camp that 

released rebel soldiers back to their 

respective homes. The town also 

housed a Union facility that processed 

newly released prisoners from 

Andersonville and Cahaba prisons. 

Again, the numbers of men assembled 

in Vicksburg was far too many 

to remain healthy. Federal authorities 

were attempting to move men out 

of Vicksburg as quickly as possible. 

Grant delivered a death blow to the 

town when he destroyed it in July 

1863. By the time federal authorities 

used it to process prisoners of both 

sides less than two years later, not 

much had changed. 

On this April day of 1865, a steamboat 

was docked in Vicksburg having 

its boiler plating repaired when Union 

officials made the captain an offer 

he couldn’t refuse. The steamboat 

captain earned a huge federal contract 

to move 2000 U.S. soldiers out 

of Vicksburg north to St. Louis where 

a large federal hospital could provide 

treatment and surgeries to the 

former POW’s. The steamboat was 

designed to hold just over 300 people 

in addition to the cotton bales it normally 

moved between New Orleans 

and St. Louis. 

The steamboat captain concluded 

the patching of the boiler and took 

on the 2000 men, which severely 

overloaded the boat. As the ship left 

Vicksburg, it turned north, its formidable 

side wheels churning through 

the murky Mississippi water. Two 

thousand men looked north with the 

hope that only free men can know. 

Hearth and home were only a short 

distance away. The water level was 

high as the snowmelt of Minnesota 

poured into the “Father of Waters.” 

The men were crammed together 

much tighter than they were at 

Andersonville. They could endure 

hardship a little longer as some of 

them were able to sneak peaks at 

the springtime agricultural countryside 

rolling past them. Many recalled 

their own farms that needed tending 

to avoid another year of crop failure. 

Black smoke billowed from the 

twin stacks indicating how effortful 

the steam engines were laboring to 

plow against the powerful current. 

The steam pressure was building as it 

should have to provide full power to 

the overloaded ship. It started with a 

little tear in the recent patch. As the 

wheels turned relentlessly toward 

Memphis, the little tear initiated a 

catastrophic explosion. The stricken 

ship shattered lives and limbs as it 

cast her crew and precious passengers 

into the fiery sky. In perhaps the 

cruelest twist of fate ever inflicted 

on American families, 1195 men were 

killed in a blazing inferno on the 

Mississippi. 

After suffering for months or years 

in deadly filth, prisoners considered 

themselves saved from the clutches 

of death. Desperate families had 

finally received the miraculous news 

their loved ones were safe and headed 

home at last. In a brief instant, the 

happy relief turned to gut wrenching 

heartbreak. The devastating loss on 

top of the beloved president’s assassination 

shoved the country deeper 

into the abyss of despair. 

The steamboat Sultana remains the 

greatest maritime disaster to ever 

strike the United States. Due to the 

changing course of the mighty Mississippi, 

the wreckage of the Sultana 

now lies under a soybean field in 

Arkansas. 

On Memorial Day 2023, I remember 

the Sultana’s lost 1195 Americans 

and their suffering families as the 

last great sacrifice of the Civil War. 

May God bless all Americans who 

sacrificed their lives on the altar of 

freedom and their Gold Star Families 

who suffer more than anyone should. 

Thank you for the liberty your service 

and venerated offering bequeath to 

the rest of us. 

Illustration credit: Photo of Vicksburg 

Riverfront Murals, Artist Robert 

Dafford 

Please address comments or thoughts 

to: DarylLott.Texas@gmail.com 



HONORING FALLEN HEREOS 

yrs. 

“Honoring our fallen heroes 

through running while providing 

financial support to the families 

of our fallen Heroes, 

First Responders injured in the 

Line of Duty and Safety 

Equipment to K9s in need.” 

Zechariah 

Cartledge: 

a True American Hero 

AS OF 1/29/23 

Total Grants Awarded to Injured First Responders: 42 

Total Amount Awarded: $377,500 

Total Funds Awarded to Families of Fallen Heroes: 34 

Total Amount Awarded: $272,301 

Funds/Equipment Awarded to K9 Officers: $29,682.32 

Total Amount of Grants Given: $669,483.32 

- - - - 

2023 Run Tracker: 

Total Miles Run in 2023: (as of 4/28/23): 78 

- Zechariah - 34 

- Jayden - 5 

- Andrew - 10 

- Giuliana - 3 

- Anthony - 6 

- Morgan - 19 

- Theresa - 1 

Total Miles Run in 2022: 325 




Overall Miles Run: 1,505 

Overall Miles Run (K9’s): 64 

- - - - - - - - - 

2022 Run Stats: 

Total Miles Run for 2022 Fallen LEO’s (Non COVID-19): 135 

Total Miles Run for 2022 Fallen Firefighters (Non COVID-19): 80 

Total Miles Run for Non-LODD/Suicide: 13 

Total Miles Run for 2022 Fallen Canada LEO’s: 3 

Total Miles Run in 2022 for Fallen COVID-19 Heroes: 18 

Total Miles Run for 2021 Fallen LEO’s: 21 

Total Miles Run for 2021 Fallen Firefighters: 2 

Total Tribute Runs by State/Country: 17 

States/Cities Zechariah has run in: 

Florida - Winter Springs, Lake Mary, Clearwater, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, Orlando, Temple Terrace, Blountstown, 

Cocoa, Lakeland, Daytona Beach, West Palm Beach, Starke, Melbourne 

New York - New York City, Weedsport • Georgia - Cumming, Augusta, Savannah 

South Carolina - North Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Sumter • Pennsylvania - Monaca 

Illinois - Springfield, Naperville, Glen Ellyn • Texas - Houston (2), Fort Worth, Midland, New Braunfels, Freeport, Madisonville, 

Irving, Sadler, San Antonio • Kentucky - Nicholasville • Arkansas - Bryant, Hot Springs, Springdale, Prairie Grove 

Nevada - Henderson • Kansas - Overland Park • California - Mt. Vernon, La Jolla • Arizona - Mesa 

North Carolina - Concord, Raleigh • Virginia - Norton, Richmond • Tennessee - Bristol, Bartlett 

Oklahoma - Stilwell (2) • Delaware - Milford • Maryland - Towson • Minnesota - Arden Hills • Indiana - Sullivan, Spencer 

Mississippi - Grenada, Olive Branch • Missouri - Springfield, Rolla, Joplin • Iowa - Independence, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids 

District/Countries/Territories: 

Washington D.C. • Puerto Rico - San Juan 

108 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 

The BLUES 109


blue mental health 

Providing a Lifeline: 

Call for Backup 

Throughout my career I have 

connected with some of the 

most inspirational individuals 

who have left a legacy of positive 

change through their mission 

to improve mental health and 

provide ongoing support to law 

enforcement officers. One such 

person is David Edwards who 

continues to offer a lifeline to 

officers throughout the nation. 

It is my honor to share his story 

this month. 

David R. Edwards is the founder 

and president of Call for Backup, 

a nonprofit organization 

that provides confidential peer 

support, resiliency training, and 

a free suicide awareness and 

prevention program for first responders. 

Call for Backup was 

originally started as a campaign 

from Humanizing the Badge, 

which recently merged with the 

Relentless Defender Foundation, 

and is now known as Project 

Humanize. David has over 40 

years of experience in education 

and public speaking, and is presently 

employed by the Monroe 

Department of Public Safety in 

Michigan as the agency’s Wellness 

Officer. David is a member 

of the Association of Traumatic 

Stress Specialists, the American 

Academy of Experts in Traumatic 

Stress, and the International 

Law Enforcement Educators and 

Trainers Association. 

Humanizing the Badge was 

originally born out of three separate 

efforts to provide support 

and encouragement for police 

officers who were struggling 

under the weight and stress of 

the job. In 2014, David founded 

a Michigan nonprofit called The 

227 Project - 227 was the badge 

number of his son Matthew, a 

police officer who was shot and 

killed in the line of duty on July 

23, 2010 in their hometown of 

Taylor, Michigan. David’s other 

son Mike (who is better known 

as “Mike the Cop” on social media) 

began making humorous 

videos on Vine and also started 

a blog called CopLife. Around 

that same time, a police officer’s 

wife from the Texas panhandle 

(Elizabeth Ogden) wrote a viral 

article on Facebook called “Dear 

Officer, I See You” and started 

a Facebook page called The 

We See You Campaign. The “I 

See You” article was written in 

response to several high profile 

police incidents and the subsequent 

attacks on police officers 

across the country such 

as the ambush killing of two 

NYPD officers on December 20, 

2014. Mike saw what Elizabeth 

had written, and Elizabeth also 

yrs. 


became aware of Mike’s work. 

They ended up connecting and 

ultimately forming a partnership 

that became known as Humanizing 

the Badge. 

Meanwhile, David was still 

focusing his local efforts on 

providing critical incident training 

and response and serving as 

a chaplain at the department his 

son Matt had been employed. 

Early in 2016, Mike and Elizabeth 

asked David to come on board 

at Humanizing the Badge to 

lead in the formation of a team 

that could provide confidential 

peer support online for officers 

and their family members as 

life continued to become more 

difficult for law enforcement 

everywhere. Within a year, The 

227 Project changed its name to 

Humanizing the Badge, allowing 

the organization to grow as 

a nationwide nonprofit. While 

David assumed a leadership role 

as president of the organization, 

both Mike and Elizabeth held 

executive positions on the Board 

of Directors and continued to 

actively participate in the daily 

operations. Several initiatives 

were created, including the provision 

of workshops, seminars, 

and one-on-one support for 

first responders and their family 

members in the aftermath of 

tragedies and a suicide awareness 

and prevention campaign 

named Call for Back Up. In the 

fall of 2020, a new campaign 

was launched with another article 

on Facebook that went viral 

– Dear Officer: #WeNeedYou. 

David wrote that article in response 

to the record number of 

resignations and early retirements 

of police officers across 

the country, and the campaign 

was started to remind officers 

that they are needed, respected, 

and supported by millions of 

people across the country. People 

looking for a peer to speak 

with confidentially can connect 

with this resource by sending a 

message to the Call for Backup 

Facebook page at m.me/callforbackup.org. 

Those looking for 

information about online or live 

training programs can send an 

email to contact@callforbackup. 

org. 

David offered the following 

additional insight, “The unfortunate 

reality we face today 

is that while a number of organizations 

are advocating for 

changes in the way police departments 

approach the mental 

wellness needs of their officers, 

the officers themselves are still 

skeptical. According to research, 

about 80% of officers believe 

that there is still a stigma associated 

with reaching out for 

help for mental and emotional 

needs that is perpetuated by 

their peers. In other words, the 

culture of law enforcement (and 

other uniformed services) is 

such that officers convince themselves 

that they should be tough 

enough to handle the stresses of 

the job, including critical incidents, 

without having to seek 

treatment. Those who do seek 

treatment are often viewed (or 

view themselves) as weak or ineffective 

and approximately 90% 

of officers believe that this stigma 

is perpetuated by their own 

department. Anything we can 

do to help reduce the level of 

stigma associated with mental 

health in our ranks is better than 

ignoring the issue as has been 

the case for much too long”. 


NOT SO BRIGHT AWARD 

Light Bulb Award 

yrs. 

NEW MORON: MAYOR ELECT JOHNSON 

TWO MORONS! 

Both the incoming and outgoing mayors of Chicago are both idiots. 

That’s why their city has the worst crime rate in America! Chicago’s 

mayor-elect warns against ‘demonizing’ rampaging teens after unrest. 

By Snejana Farberov 

Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon 

Johnson responded to this weekend’s 

violent “teen takeover” of 

the Windy City’s downtown area 

by urging the public not to “demonize” 

the hordes of rampaging 

young people who set cars on 

fire, clashed with cops and damaged 

private property. 

Johnson, a progressive Democrat 

and former teachers union 

organizer who was elected mayor 

earlier this month, released a 

statement Sunday reacting to the 

disorder in his city that resulted 

in a shooting and more than a 

dozen arrests. 

“In no way do I condone the 

destructive activity we saw 

in the Loop and lakefront this 

weekend. It is unacceptable 

and has no place in our city,” 

Johnson stated. “However, it is 

not constructive to demonize 

youth who have otherwise been 

starved of opportunities in their 

own communities.” 

He continued: “Our city must 

work together to create spaces 

for youth to gather safely and responsibly, 

under adult guidance 

and supervision, to ensure that 

every part of our city remains 

welcome for both residents and 

visitors.” 

Johnson, 47, added that it is his 

goal as mayor to “improve public 

safety and make Chicago livable 

for everyone.” 

Two nights of unrest, which 

were organized on social media, 

saw packs of out-of-control 

teens clash with cops, brawl 

with one another, vandalize 

property, and break into and set 

cars on fire. 

One video showed several 

youngsters jump and dance atop 

a city bus. 

Johnson urged the public not 

to “demonize” the hordes of 

rampaging young people.Twitter/@Brandon4Chicago 

Chicago police said two minors, 

ages 16 and 17, were 

wounded when someone in 

the crowd on East Washington 

Street opened fire. 

No arrests have been made in 

that incident. 

The incoming mayor’s response 

to the teen-led chaos was met 

with a swift backlash from conservatives 

on social media. 

“Chicago is so screwed,” wrote 

Collin Rugg, co-owner of the 

right-wing news outlet Trending 

Politics. 

“Incredible statement to those 

who saw the videos of violence 

and destruction. ‘Don’t demonize 

youth,’ for a little pop-up riot. 

It’s actually YOUR fault they did 

this,” tweeted Mike Cernovich, a 

conservative conspiracy theorist. 

Other critics warned that 

Johnson’s reaction to the unrest 

a month before his inauguration 

did not bode well for Chicago’s 

future. 

“Chicago about to fall to Detroit 

& Baltimore levels of ruin,” 

one user wrote, while another 

predicted: “Chicago will see 

more of this with Brandon Johnson 

as mayor. The exodus of 

businesses, residents and visitors 

from downtown is only going to 

get worse. Lawlessness is becoming 

rampant.” 

Chicago’s outgoing Mayor Lori 

Lightfoot also released a statement 

addressing the “teen takeover.” 

She said that while many of 

the youngsters gathered to have 

a good time and enjoy the unseasonably 

warm weather, she 

conceded that some were involved 

in “reckless, disrespectful 

In a statement, Johnson condemned the violence, but 

cautioned against vilifying the teens themselves, saying, 

“It is not constructive to demonize youth who have 

otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own 

communities.” Johnson called on Chicago officials to create 

more spaces for youth to gather safely under adult 

supervision, which he said is part of his “comprehensive 

approach to public safety.” 

and unlawful behavior.” 

“As I have said before, we as 

a city cannot and will not allow 

any of our public spaces to 

become a platform for criminal 

conduct,” Lightfoot wrote. “Most 

importantly, parents and guardians 

must know where their 

children are and be responsible 

for their actions. Instilling the 

important values of respect for 

people and property must begin 

at home.” 

The rampage was organized 

on social media.Twitter/@ 

EndWokenessHordes of teens 

clashed with police.Twitter/@ 

JuanSmith1776 

As many as 1,000 teens converged 

on the Chicago Loop for 

“Teen Takeover.”Twitter/@heyFA- 

Tabbot 

OLD MORON: OUTGOING MAYOR LIGHTFOOT 

Outgoing Mayor Lightfoot issued a statement after the 

chaotic weekend, saying, “Parents and guardians must know 

where their children are and be responsible for their actions.” 

She added the Chicago Police Department assured her it will 

make “the necessary adjustments to address these teen 

trends issues as we move into the summer months.” 

Police responded and turned 

away many minors from the 

park. But a witness reported that 

despite increased police presence, 

cops “were still outnumbered.” 

At least 15 people, among them 

six juveniles, were arrested in 

connection with the unrest. Most 

reportedly were charged with 

reckless conduct. 


THE OPEN ROAD 

2023 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 20th Anniversary 

Edition First Drive: On the trail to six figures. 

Can Jeep catch whales with these pricey Wranglers? 

By Brian Hurd, Auto Blog 

The Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Anniversary 

Edition returns for 2023, 

this time marking two decades 

since the package first debuted 

way back on the TJ. Jeep marked 

10 years of the Rubicon with the 

first Anniversary Edition in 2013, 

and the fundamental approach remains 

the same this time around: 

More than a sticker package, 

but not enough to be a separate 

model in its own right, and American 

Expedition Vehicles (AEV) is 

getting in on the action with an 

upgrade kit. Let’s dive in. 

The core bits of the package 

are identical whether you opt for 

the 4xe or 392, but those are your 

only two choices — the V6 and 

four-cylinder Rubicon variants 

aren’t invited to the party. Exterior 

upgrades include a unique grille 

treatment, various badges and 

decals, a grille guard, BFGoodrich 

All-Terrain T/A KO2 tires (more on 

those momentarily), an integrated 

front trail camera, steel rock 

sliders, a Gorilla Glass windshield 

and some other bits here and 

there. 4xe models get a halfinch 

suspension lift and standard 

33-inch tires; the 392 includes the 

Xtreme Recon package, which 

gets you a 2-inch lift and 35-inch 

KO2s. Inside, both get the telltale 

Rubicon red leather interior, 

all-weather mats and integrated 

auxiliary switches. 

To make things a bit more interesting, 

AEV is offering a “20th 

Anniversary Level II” package that 

incorporates massive 37” tires (Hi, 

Bronco Raptor!) alongside a pile of 

AEV add-ons, including a 2.5-inch 

lift with Bilstein shocks,17-inch 

Savegre II wheels and an upgraded 

axle ratio for the 4xe (4.56:1, 

which is offered from the factory 

on the Rubicon 392). Combined, 

AEV says its upgrades improve the 

Rubicon’s vital off-road stats to 

the tune of 14.2 inches of ground 

clearance; 37.1 inches max water 

fording; and approach, breakover 

and departure angles of 50, 33 

and 43 degrees, respectively. 

While the Rubicon’s fundamentals 

really haven’t changed in 20 

years, the car market certainly 

has. Available exclusively on the 

Wrangler Rubicon 4xe and 392 

models, the 2023 Rubicon 20th 

Anniversary Editions will start 

(yes, start) at $71,380 and $92,690, 

respectively (including $1,795 for 

destination). 

If that wasn’t eye-watering 

enough for you, the AEV Level II 

package adds another $22,978 

(4xe) or $21,130 (392; yes, the V8 

package is cheaper). Both of those 

prices are inclusive of something 

called an “upfit logistics charge,” 

which sounds an awful lot like 

a destination charge by another 

name. You’re reading that correctly; 

An AEV Level II Rubicon 392 

Anniversary Edition is a $110,000 

Wrangler. 


ADS BACK IN THE DAY 



ADS BACK IN THE DAY 


THERE ARE NO WORDS 

parting shots... 

yrs. 

... pardon our humor 


yrs. 

Your Source for 

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Air Bear announces the arrival of 

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www.airbear.aero | bearsintheair@airbear.aero 


124 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 125

yrs. 

Starting in 2003, Cop Stop Inc. Opened with a vision and goal to service first responders; “Our everyday 

heroes.” Catering mainly to Police, Fire, Military and EMS, but also open to the public, Cop Stop 

offers a variety of products, gear and apparel. Open and operated by Rick Fernandez, a former officer 

of 10 years, he prides himself on maintaining the highest standards of customer service. Cop Stop understands 

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who walks through our doors. At Cop Stop we offer quality products at great low prices. With access to 

over hundreds of brands and products, and constantly adding more, we are confident we can fulfill your 

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“If you provide good service and a fair price, customers will talk about you and come back. 

It’s that simple!” Rick Fernandez 


126 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 127

yrs. 

INTRODUCING THE PEPPERBALL VKS PRO 

Key Management & 

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All of our KeyWarden Security 

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The VKS PRO offers many features including: lightweight yet robust enough to handle any optional 

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129 The BLUES 

128 The The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES 129

yrs. 

PLANET FORD IN SPRING, 20403 I45 NORTH, 

SPRING TEXAS 

Planet Ford on I-45 in Spring, Texas has been 

the No. 1 Ford Dealer in the greater-Houston area 

for over 20 years.* Our Ford dealership earns 

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makes our clients and their vehicle needs our top 

priority. Planet Ford is part of the award-winning 

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support and gives back to the community, from 

local charity events to sponsoring schools and 

veteran programs. Learn more at PlanetFord.com. 



yrs. 

Supporting Law 

Enforcement in 

TEXAS 

Inset: Dan Rooney ProForce President 

Firearms and Tactical Equipment for Law Enforcement Professionals 

800-367-5855 



SPOTLIGHT ON 

ProForce’s commitment to providing excellent customer 

service is a key element in the company’s success 

throughout the western United States. As a relative newcomer 

in the state of TEXAS ProForce has been welcomed with open 

arms by the law enforcement community. 

ProForce’s relationships with top industry manufacturers 

and vendors, as well as their sales volume, allows them 

to negotiate better pricing to meet the budgetary needs 

of law enforcement agencies. While some vendors may 

not always have product availability in a timely manner. 

ProForce’s industry relationships and direct contact through 

vendor representatives, the sales team is able to suggest 

and provide alternatives to meet specific requirements of 

agencies, ensuring that the agency’s needs are always met. 

“ 

Working with PROFORCE through the 

bidding and purchasing of the M&P 2.0’s was 

very easy and simple. We added the ACRO red 

dot along with the holster and the light. This 

purchase was simple and easy. 

The troops love the improvement to the 2.0 

and the red dot. 

Lt. Socha. Austin PD. 

“ 

#X300U-A #13353 #200691 

The company features an excellent selection of high demand 

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Proforce takes great pride in distributing high quality public 

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Agency demonstrations, test and evaluation 

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Call (800) 367-5855 

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visit our website 

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SEND US AN EMAIL 

SCAN THE QR CODE 

High Speed Gear ® is dedicated to building 

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CALL US TODAY FOR PRICING! 

800-367-5855 

>> PRODUCTS & SERVICES

yrs. 

4807 KIRBY DRIVE • HOUSTON, TEXAS • 713-524-3801 

12722 HWY. 3 • WEBSTER, TEXAS • 281-488-5934 

AUTO FACELIFTS is located on the South Side of 

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RIVER OAKS CHRYSLER, DODGE, JEEP & RAM 

Alan & Blake Helfman are the named and primary 

sponsor of The BLUES. For over 65 years the 

Helfman’s have supported local area law enforcement 

and supported The BLUES since our first issue. 

There is simply no better dealership in Houston 

to purchase your Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, 

Ram or Ford product. The sales team provide 

honest, no BS pricing and their service department 

ranks among the top in the nation. 

Call Alan or Blake Helfman at 713-524-3801 when 

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CENTRAL POLICE SUPPLY is your source 

for the best in police equipment. Based 

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CENTRAL POLICE SUPPLY has been 

serving Houston law enforcement for 

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customer service and quality products. 

CENTRAL POLICE SUPPLY is 

located at 1410 Washington Ave, near 

downtown Houston, but you can 

purchase everything you need online 

at:https://www.centralpolice.com/ 


NOW HIRING 

LE job positions 

University Park Police Dept. Get Info Asst. Chief of Police 05/24/2023 - 5pm 

Copperas Cove Police Department Get Info Police Officer 05/02/2023 - 5pm 

Westworth Village Police Department Get Info Police Officer 05/01/2023 - 5pm 

Saginaw Police Dept. Get Info Police Officer 06/01/2023 - 5pm 

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Dallas County Marshal Service Get Info Peace Officer - Corporal 05/09/2023 - 5pm 

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Garrison ISD Police Department Get Info Chief Of Police 05/26/2023 - 5pm 

Alvin Community College Get Info Police Officer 05/01/2023 - 5pm 

Llano Police Department Get Info Police Officer 05/07/2023 - 5pm 

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Cuero Police Department Get Info Patrol Officer 05/22/2023 - 5pm 

Central Texas College Police Department Get Info Police Sergeant 05/19/2023 - 5pm 

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Tarrant Co. Sheriff's Office Get Info Deputies 06/26/2023 - 5pm 

Marlin Police Department Get Info Police Patrol Officer 06/02/2023 - 5pm 

Stanton Police Dept. Get Info Patrol Officer 05/29/2023 - 5pm 

Real Co. Sheriff's Office Get Info Deputy Sheriff 06/03/2023 - 5pm 

Bastrop County Sheriff's Office Get Info Patrol Deputy 06/04/2023 - 5pm 

Marlin Police Dept. Get Info Police Patrol Officer / Police Recruit 05/04/2023 - 5pm 

Lindale ISD Police Dept. Get Info District Police Officer 06/01/2023 - 5pm 

Trinity Valley Community College Get Info Campus Police Officer 06/04/2023 - 5pm 

Aransas Pass Police Department Get Info Police Officer 06/04/2023 - 5pm 

Lewisville Police Dept. Get Info Police Recruit 05/04/2023 - 5pm 

yrs. 

New Braunfels Police Department Get Info Police Officer 06/03/2023 - 5pm 

City of Valley Mills Police Department Get Info Patrol Officer 06/03/2023 - 5pm 

Chapel Hill I.S.D. Police Department Get Info Police Officer 06/04/2023 - 5pm 

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Alvarado ISD Police Department Get Info Police Officer 06/06/2023 - 5pm 

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Dallas Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 06/06/2023 - 5pm 

Baylor University Police Dept. Get Info Lead Public Safety Officer 05/10/2023 - 5pm 

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Bell Co. Constable Pct. 4 Get Info Deputy Constable II 06/12/2023 - 5pm 

Onalaska Police Department Get Info Police (Peace Officer) 06/11/2023 - 5pm 

Burleson County Sheriff's Office Get Info Detention Officer 06/11/2023 - 5pm 

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City of Waxahachie Police Department Get Info Police Patrol Officer 05/03/2023 - 5pm 

Conroe ISD Police Dept. Get Info Police Officer 06/12/2023 - 5pm 

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City of University Park Police Dept. Get Info Police Officer 05/20/2023 - 5pm 

Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Get Info State Police Officer / Investigator 06/16/2023 - 5pm 

Kyle Police Department Get Info Police Officer 05/12/2023 - 5pm 

City of Killeen - Municipal Court Get Info Deputy City Marshal 06/17/2023 - 5pm 

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Temple College Get Info Police Officer 06/10/2023 - 5pm 

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Port of Corpus Christi Authority Get Info Police Officer 05/07/2023 - 5pm 

Caldwell Police Department Get Info Police Officer 06/18/2023 - 5pm 

Argyle ISD Get Info Chief of Police 05/21/2023 - 5pm 

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Memphis Police Department Get Info Police Officer 06/20/2023 - 5pm 

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Galveston Police Dept. Get Info PO Exam - Galveston Convention Center 07/21/2023 - 9am 

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Burnet Police Dept. Get Info Police Officer 06/27/2023 - 5pm 

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Reagan County Sheriff Get Info Patrol Deputy 06/25/2023 - 5pm 

Montgomery ISD Police Department Get Info Chief of Police 05/15/2023 - 5pm 


STATEWIDE VACANCIES FOR JAILERS 

Winkler County Sheriff's Office Get Info Jailer 05/03/2023 - 5pm 

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Tarrant Co. Sheriff's Office Get Info Detention Officers 06/26/2023 - 5pm 

Hood County Sheriff's Office Get Info Jailer 06/04/2023 - 5pm 

Keller Police Department Get Info Detention Officer 06/01/2023 - 5pm 

STATEWIDE VACANCIES TELECOMMUNICATION OPERATOR 

City of Plano Get Info 9-1-1 Call Taker 05/01/2023 - 5pm 

Saginaw Police Department Get Info Telecommunicator 06/01/2023 - 5pm 

DeWitt County Sheriff's Office Get Info Telecommunicator 05/10/2023 - 5pm 

Travis County Sheriff's Office Get Info Telecommunicator 05/04/2023 - 5pm 

City of College Station Get Info Public Safety Telecommunicator 05/21/2023 - 5pm 

Madison County Sheriff's Office Get Info Dispatcher 05/26/2023 - 5pm 

Dallas County Sheriff's Office Get Info Communication Technician 05/31/2023 - 5pm 

Tarrant Co. Sheriff's Office Get Info Dispatchers 06/26/2023 - 5pm 

Tarrant Regional Water District Get Info Communications Specialist III 06/03/2023 - 5pm 

City of Plano Get Info Communications/911 Call Taker 06/04/2023 - 5pm 

City of Lewisville Get Info Public Safety Dispatcher 06/05/2023 - 5pm 

Lago Vista Police Department Get Info Dispatcher 06/10/2023 - 5pm 

Burleson County Sheriff's Office Get Info Telecommunications Officer 06/11/2023 - 5pm 

Keller PD Get Info Public Safety Dispatcher 05/05/2023 - 5pm 

Corsicana Police Department Get Info Telecommunicator 06/16/2023 - 5pm 

Kyle Police Department Get Info Telecommunicator 05/19/2023 - 5pm 

STATEWIDE VACANCIES OTHER 

Dallas County Marshall Service Get Info GLOA Security Officer 05/09/2023 - 5pm 

Baylor University Get Info Security Officer 05/09/2023 - 5pm 

Nolan County Sheriff's Department Get Info Criminal Investigator 05/05/2023 - 5pm 

Nolan County Sheriff's Office Get Info Maintenance Manager 05/05/2023 - 5pmX 

College Station Police Department Get Info Technology Services Specialist 05/20/2023 - 5pm 

Tarrant Co. College LEA Get Info Coordinator II 06/04/2023 - 5pm 

Tarrant Co. College LEA Get Info Admin. Asst. 06/04/2023 - 5pm 

Baylor University Get Info Security Officer 06/03/2023 - 5pm 

Irving Fire Department Get Info Fire Prevention Specialist 06/06/2023 - 5pm 

Keller Police Department Get Info NETCOM Manager 06/25/2023 - 5pm 

138 The BLUES The BLUES 139



austin officers 

austin dispatch 


ALDINE I.S.D. 

POLICE DEPARTMENT 

JOIN OUR TEAM 

APPLY AT 

WWW.ALDINEISD.ORG 

EMPLOYMENT BENEFITS 

• Sick Leave 

• Paid Vacation 

• Paid Holidays 

• Personal Days 

• Teacher Retirement System 

STARTING SALARY $51,000 WITH NO EXPERIENCE 

ALDINE ISD PD OFFERS 

DEPARTMENT BENEFITS 

• Uniforms Provided, Including Duty Weapon 

• Department Provided Training 

• Starting Pay Depends on Qualifications / Experience 

• TCOLE Certification / Education Pay 

SPECIALIZED DIVISIONS 

• Criminal Investigation Division 

• Emergency Response Team 

• Honor Guard 

• Gang Task Force 

• Community Outreach Division 

• K-9 Division 

FOR MORE INFO CONTACT 

SGT. HALL AT (281) 442-4923 

#AldineConnected 

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS 

• MUST BE 21 YEARS OF AGE 

• MUST HOLD AN ACTIVE TCOLE PEACE OFFICER LICENSE 

• MUST COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING: 

• PASS PHYSICAL AGILITY TEST 

• BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION 

• PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION 

• DRUG SCREENING 



October 15 

WATCH FOR NEW TEST DATES 


Cuero Police Department 

Montgomery County’s 3 rd Largest Law Enforcement Agency 

• $50,363 minimum starting salary 

• Certification pay: 

Int - $1,600, Adv - $2,400, Mstr - $3,700 

Opportunity 

multiple divisions including 

Investigations, Patrol, and 

K-9 services 

FULL-TIME POLICE OFFICER 

Growth 

100+ annual training hours, 

promotion opportunities, 

Field Training Officer 

• Competitive insurance & benefits 

• Teacher Retirement System (TRS) 

• 20 paid leave days & 12 paid holidays 

Balance 

overtime pay, comp time, 

most weekends off, prior LE 

experience pay 

Now Hiring for Patrol Officer Position 

Department Benefits 

13 Paid Holidays 

2 Weeks Paid Vacation 

Certification Pay 

100% Insurance Paid for Employees 

Retirement 2 to 1 match (20yr Retirement) 

FSA for Employees 

Longevity Pay 

Equipment & Uniforms Provided Including Duty Weapon w/ Red Dot Sight 

Take Home Vehicle Within City Limits 

10 Hour Work Shifts 

Membership Paid to Local Gym 

Department Provided Training 

Off-duty Security Opportunities 

Cell Phone Stipend 

Starting Pay Depends on Qualifications 

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT 

HTTPS://POLICE.CONROEISD.NET/DEPARTMENT/ADMINISTRATION/EMPLOYMENT/ 

Requirements: Must be TCOLE Certified or currently enrolled in an accredited Police 

Academy and pass a background investigation. 

152 The BLUESpolice.conroeisd.net 

CISDPolice @CISDPolice 

The BLUES 153 

Email TCOLE Personal History Statement to sellis@cityofcuero.com


Forney ISD 

Police Department 

NOW 

HIRING 

Police Officers 

Description 

School-based police officers work 

with school administrators, security 

staff, and faculty to ensure the safety 

and well-being of students at various 

campuses. This officer works as the 

main security arm of a school. 

Experience 

SBLE Experience preferred 

Demonstrate the ability to 

teach & engage with youth 

Requirements 

U.S. Citizen 

Accredited High School Diploma 

or equivalent 

Valid Texas Peace Officer License 

Valid Texas Driver's License 

Two or more years of college or 

advanced training preferred 

Positions starting 

at $29.89/hr 

Retention Stipends 

Clothing Allowance 

Health/Childcare Incentive 

Paid Training 

Lateral Entry 

APPLY ONLINE TODAY! 

www.forneyisd.net 


GALVESTON 

COUNTY 

SHERIFF’S OFFICE 

Seeking Individuals Who Are Interested in a Rewarding Career in Corrections 

Begin Your Career Today! 

GALVESTON COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE ESTABLISHMENT OF ELIGIBILITY 

Position: Corrections Deputy I 

Bureau/Division: Corrections/Jail 

Title/Rank: Corrections Deputy/Deputy I 

Reports to: Sergeant - Corrections 

Starting Salary: $51,250.00 

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES 

Maintains the security of the facility by conducting security checks, settling disputes, and performing cell searches and 

inspections; conducts outside perimeter checks. 

Preparation and proper completion in the documentation of inmate records. 

Issues inmate meals, clothing, linens, and personal items. 

Supervise inmate programs (recreational, legal, health care, visitation and religious services) 

Prepares reports on jail and inmate activities, enforce inmate handbook rules. 

Supervises inmates performing such assignments as cleaning and maintaining the jail facility and continuously observe 

locations and activities of inmates. 

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS 

• High School / GED Certificate and must be at least 18 years of age. 

• Must be a U.S. Citizen and resident of the contiguous United States for a period of time sufficient to conduct a 

background investigation. 

• Must be able to work days, nights, weekends, holidays and mandatory shifts when needed. 

• Must be able to work during natural disasters and or under declarations. 

• Must possess a valid Texas driver's license and an acceptable driving record as determined by the Galveston County 

Sheriff's Office in effect at the time of application. 

• Must have favorable employment history. All information given regarding past employment will be thoroughly checked. 

• Must have a stable credit history. 

• Must possess good computer skills and demonstrate comprehensive reading and comprehension skills. 

• No conviction above a Class B Misdemeanor or a Class B misdemeanor within the last 10 years nor have been on or 

currently on court-ordered community supervision or probation for any criminal offense and no Family Violence 

convictions of any level. 

• Applicant must pass all phases of the required testing. 

• Must be eligible for licensing by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) for the position applied for, if not 

presently licensed. 

TO APPLY 

An applicant interested in any of GCSO position shall first download, complete and return 

the Application Packet, per the instructions on the downloadable form. 

The Application Packet can be found at SHERIFF.GALVESTONCOUNTYTX.GOV 


JOIN US 

VISIT SHERIFF.GALVESTONCOUNTYTX.GOV TO APPLY! 

The Galveston County Sheriff’s Office is an Equal Opportunity Employer 

CONTACT US 

409.763.7585 : SO.EMPLOYMENT@GALVESTONCOUNTYTX.GOV




FOR A LIMITED 

TIME. 

The Harris County 

Precinct 4 

Constable’s Office is 

accepng 

LATERAL DEPUTIES 

The Harris County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office is searching for lateral 

transfer depues to be sworn in on September 14, 2023. 

Whether you have recently rered, looking for an opportunity to 

expand your current skill set or relocang to the Houston, Texas area, 

Constable Mark Herman would like to welcome you to our family. 

The physical and wrien test will be waived and up to 14 years of 

service will be credited for Lateral Transfer Depues. 

To Apply Contact 

Recruing at 

832-927-6229 or visit 

www.constablepct4.com 

STARTING SALARY up to $68,184.00 

Plus Thousands In Incenves Per Year 

Master Peace Officer $6,000.00 

Drug Recognion Expert $2,700.00 

LATERAL DEPUTY 

Bachelor’s Degree $3,180.00 

Accident Reconstrucon $2,700.00 

And many more 


WE ARE 

HIRING! 

BENEFITS 

• Free basic Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance for 

employee 

• Free basic Life insurance 

• Long Term Disability (LTD) 

• Affordable Medical, Dental and Vision benefits for 

eligible family members 

• Flexible Spending Accounts 

• 10 paid holidays per year 

• Generous Paid Time Off (PTO) including 10 vacation 

days and 13 sick days per year accrued biweekly 

• Paid Parental Leave 

RETIREMENT 

• Harris County matches your investment at 225% 

• 7% of your salary is invested pre-tax in your 

retirement account 

• Retirement Vesting after 8 years 

• Eligible upon earning 75 points (age+years of service) 

SALARY SCALE 

INCENTIVE PAY 

CLASSIFICATION SERVICE HOURLY ANNUAL 

DEPUTY I 0-47 $26.23 $54,558 

DEPUTY II 48-83 $28.07 $58,386 

DEPUTY III 84-119 $29.73 $61,838 

DEPUTY IV 120-155 $31.23 $64,958 

TCOLE CERTIFICATION 

ANNUAL 

Intermediate $1,560 

Advanced $3,420 

Master $6,000 

EDUCATION 

ANNUAL 

Associate Degree $1,320 

Bachelor Degree $3,180 

Master/Doctorate $4,500 

LATERAL DEPUTY 

REQUIREMENTS 

• Must be a licensed Peace Officer by the Texas Commission on Law 

Enforcement (TCOLE) in good standing 

• Must be currently employed as a Peace Officer (any break in service 

will be considered on a case-by-case basis) 

• Must have a minimum of 12 consecutive months experience as a 

Peace Office at any one agency 

• Must successfully pass the HCSO Physical Abilities Test (PAT) 

• Meet HCSO firearms qualification standard 

• Must pass a thorough background investigation (criminal 

background check, fingerprinting, personal interview, etc.) as 

required by TCOLE 

• Must pass a physical and psychological evaluation as required by 

TCOLE 

• Valid driver’s license and liability insurance (Texas by start date) 

• Eyesight must be correctable to 20/20, normal color, and peripheral 

vision 

• Correctable normal audible range in both ears 

• A two (2) year minimum commitment to Patrol before being eligible 

to transfer to other Bureaus 

TO APPLY 

For additional information contact 

Harris County Sheriff’s Office Recruitment Unit 

(713) 877-5250 

Now Hiring 

OFFICERS 

TCOLE Certified Peace Officers 

Hutto ranked one of the 

safest cities in Texas. 

Our fast-growing City shows a trending decrease in crimes based 

on four offenses from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting. 

Additional Pay 

+ Education Pay up to $175/month 

+ Specialty/Certication up to $260/month 

Highlights 

Top-of-the-line Equipment 

and Technology 

Beards and Tattoos Allowed 

No Written Test for Most Lateral Officers 

To learn more or apply, visit or scan 

https: //linktr. ee/huttopd 

Benets 

Retirement 

2-to-1 City match with TMRS 

Take-home Patrol Car 

For officers living within 25 miles 

Starting Salary 

$62K to $81K 

Annual Leave Accruals 

12 paid holidays, 80 hrs vacation, 96 hrs sick leave 

Multiple Positions Available 

A wide variety of units and assignments available 

Sign On Bonus! 

$5,000* 

DEPUTY V 156+ $32.78 $68,182 

Questions? Email: PDrecruiting@huttotx.gov 

168 The BLUES 

Bilingual Pay $1,800 

Harris County 

The BLUES 169 

@HCSOTexas 

HCSOTexas HCSOTexas @HCSOTexas 

Tenure agreement required. 

Receive up to fourteen (14) years of credit for time served! (Restrictions apply) SCAN THIS CODE 

Sheriff’s Office


L A P O R T E 

P O L I C E D E P A R T M E N T 

Lateral Police Officer 

Starting Pay $ 62,416. to $73,775. 

Effective October 1, 2022 

No prior experience required. High School diploma or GED required. 

Possession of Class C Texas Driver License. 

Must possess a TCOLE License or be enrolled in accredited Basic Peace Officer Academy. 

Certification Pay (bi-weekly): 

$46.15 - Intermediate Peace Officer 

$69.23 - Advanced Peace Officer 

$92.31 - Master Peace Officer 

Education Pay (bi-weekly): 

$46.15 - Associates Degree 

$69.23 - Bachelors Degree 

$92.31 - Masters Degree 

Employee Benefits: 

Medical / Dental / Vision Insurance 

Longevity Pay 

Tuition Reimbursement 

TMRS Retirement (2 to 1 match) 

ICMA Deferred Compensation/Roth IRA 

$1,000 Physical Fitness Program 

Weapon Purchase Program 

Take-home Vehicles 

Specialized Divisions: 

SWAT / Bomb Squad 

Bike Patrol 

Criminal Investigative Division 

Crime Scene Unit 

Drone Pilots 

School Resource Officers 

Traffic/DOT Officers 

Police Area Representatives 

Apply online at 

www.laportetx.gov/jobs 

Paid Leave Benefits 

15 days vacation (Civil Service) 

15 days sick leave 

Military Leave 

9 observed holidays per year 

2 employee holidays per year 

Bereavement Leave 

Comp Time 


Welcome Aboard 

League City Police Department 


LONGVIEW POLICE DEPARTMENT 

JOIN OUR 

$65,709-$67,685 

Based on Population and Experience 

TEAM 

2-TIER HIRING 

INCENTIVE 

STARTING SALARY 

$60,085 

$3,000 

25 YEAR STEP PLAN 

$60,085 - $84,308 

STEP INTO YOUR FUTURE 

Insurance 

120 Hours Vacation 

11 Paid Holidays 

80 Hours Sick Leave 

20-Year Retirement Plan 

2/1 City Match TMRS 

Beards & Tattoos Allowed 

Academy Pay 

Equipment Provided 

Excellent Training Provided 

Speciality/Cerification Pay 

Community Support 

Plentiful Outdoor Activities 

NEW POLICE STATION 

COMING 2023 


MEMORIAL VILLAGES POLICE DEPARTMENT 

Serving the Villages of Bunker Hill, Piney Point and Hunters Creek 

POLICE OFFICER 

The Memorial Villages Police Department is currently looking for experienced officers who are 

self-motivated, innovative, enthusiastic and love working for a community that supports them. 

5+ Years Patrol Experience Required 

Hiring Bonus $1,500 

Night Shift Differential $3,600 

E.C.A $1300 

Bi-lingual Pay 

Education Pay 

Intermediate, Advanced, Master 

Peace Officer Certification Pay 

Healthcare, Dental and Vision Insurance 

100% paid for employee, 75% for 

spouse/dependents. 

Paid long-term disability and Life Insurance 

for employee, additional life insurance 

available for spouse/dependents. 

Health Savings Account with Department 

contributions up to $4,200 annually. 

TMRS Retirement 7% w/ 2:1 match (20 yr). 

457 Deferred Compensation Plan with 

employer contribution of 2.5% of annual 

salary. 

Tuition Reimbursement 

Longevity Pay up to a max of $2,400 

annually at 10 years of service. 

12 Hour shifts with every other Friday, 

Starting at $83,459 up to $94,164 

Scan for more 

information 

W W W . M V P D T X . O R G 

178 The BLUES 

11981 Memorial Drive – Houston, Tx 77024 

713.365.3700 

The BLUES 179


____________________________________________________________________________


MAKE A 

DIFFERENCE 

IN YOUR 

COMMUNITY 

We are looking for outstanding individuals to 

join our team! As a Pearland Police Officer your 

mission will be to prevent crime and disorder, build 

partnerships within the community, and positively 

impact the quality of life for all our residents. 

CITY OF PEARLAND, TEXAS 

• Competitive Salary • Outstanding Training 

• Career Advancement • Exceptional Benefits 

The City of Pearland is one of the fastest growing 

communities within the region. Pearland is located 

approximately 20 minutes south of Downtown Houston 

and the current population is approximately 130,000 

residents. 

JOIN OUR TEAM 

HIRING POLICE OFFICERS AND CADETS 

$5,000 Hiring Incentive for T.C.O.L.E Certified Police 

Officers who qualify with at least 2 years of experience. 

TEST DATE: 

SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 8:30 A.M. 

Register by: April 12. 

WATCH FOR UPCOMING 

Pearland Recreation Center & Natatorium 

4141 Bailey TEST Road, DATES Pearland, TX IN 77584. 2022 

Doors Open: 7:15 a.m. No admittance after 7:45 a.m. 

Candidates must park in the north parking lot. 

SOCIAL DISTANCING MEASURES WILL APPLY 

• Attendance limited to first 150 arrivals 

• Mandatory temperature checks 

• Masks required, hand sanitizer available 

• Candidates seated 6 feet apart 

184 The BLUES For additional information and to register for an upcoming Civil Service Exam, The BLUES visit 185 

pearlandtx.gov/PDCareers

PORT HOUSTON 

POLICE DEPARTMENT 

WE ARE 

HIRING 

SIGN UP TODAY! www.porthouston.com/careers-2 

BENEFITS: 

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance 

eligible first day of employment 

• Wellness Program 

(can earn up to $600 credit per year if requirements met) 

• Enrollment with Calm App for Wellbeing 

• Defined contribution plan (401a) 

– Employer Sponsored 

• Deferred Compensation Plan (457 Plan) 

– Employee Contributions 

• Vacation 

• Sick Leave 

• Paid Holiday 12 days/year 

• Life and Accidental Death and 

Dismemberment Insurance 

• Short Term and Long-Term Disability Benefits 

• Flexible spending account (FSA) 

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) 

• Pet Insurance 

• Legal and Identity Theft Protection 

• Tuition Reimbursement 

Up to the IRS annual limit and a maximum lifetime 

reimbursement of $25,000 

• Onsite Credit Union – Port of Houston Credit Union 

Are you looking for a career with meaning? 

Do you want to make a difference in a highly 

supportive community? 

Join our team at Port Houston! 

STARTING PAY* 

$60,000 up to $71,000 

REQUIREMENTS 

• Must be 21 years old 

• Must have 2+ years of police officer 

experience 

• Must have valid Texas Driver’s License 

• Must be a U.S. Citizen 

• Must have an honorable discharge 

from the military (if applicable) 

• Must never have been convicted of a 

Class A Misdemeanor or above 

EMPLOYMENT 

TESTING 

Employment is contingent on passing 

any post-offer pre-employment 

screening as listed below: 

• Criminal background check 

• Motor Vehicle Record check 

• Drug screening 

• Physical exam 

• Psychological exam 

SCAN 

QR CODE 

TO APPLY 

• Not been convicted of a Class B 

• Additional as required 

* Salary depends on experience 

misdemeanor within the last 10 years 

• Must have a GED or high school diploma 


SPRING BRANCH ISD POLICE DEPARTMENT 

WE’RE 

HIRING 

DEPARTMENT 

HIGHLIGHTS 

55 officer department 

44 square mile district 

47 schools 

35,000 population 

24/7 Patrol 

We want you to preserve, protect, and defend our future. 

Starting Pay $63,000 (TCOLE Basic Peace Officer certification with no experience) 

Patrol & Onsite Officers (HS/MS) 

Gang Officer 

Mental Health Officers 

Community Relations Officer 

Emergency Management 

Criminal Investigations 

K-9 programs 

Language pay 

Shift differential pay 

Intermediate, Advanced and 

Master Peace Officer 

certificate pay 

Paid time off 

Ample overtime opportunities 

*All equipment provided including duty weapon 

**Training opportunities available 

Apply online today. springbranchisd.com/join-our-team 





STARTING SALARY 

$56,160 $57,824 $60,008 $62,400 $64,792 $67,184 $69,680 $72,384 $74,880 $77,480 $80,080 

High School Diploma 

or G.E.D. 

Minimum age of 21 

Must hold a valid 

Texas Driver’s License 

Current valid TCOLE 

certification 

At Hire 

At 

6 mos. 

end 

year 1 

end 

year 2 

end 

year 3 

end 

year 4 

end 

year 5 

end 

year 6 

end 

year 7 

end 

year 8 

end 

year 9 

GET STARTED 

LOCATED 5 MILES WEST OF 

DOWNTOWN AUSTIN 

$3,000 


198 The BLUES

MAY 2023 - Blues Vol 39 No. 5

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