Active Shooters in Schools: Should Teachers Be Trained by Police Firearms Instructors?

by Doug Wyllie, !2/14/12, Police One.com Newsletter  It is truly a dark day in America. In a nightmarish attack at least 20 elementary school children were slaughtered by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Six adults were also murdered at that school. My heart aches. Merely writing about this incident is difficult. I cannot even fathom the feelings of the families of the victims and first responders now gathered at the tragic scene. My heart truly aches.   Stopping Killers from Killing our Kids In the aftermath of this incident, there will undoubtedly be a lot of pressure put on politicians at every level to propose and pass more stringent gun-control laws. That’s inevitable, but in my opinion it’s also missing the mark on a much more important issue. I’ve written extensively on the subject of arming campus cops, which to me should be a no-brainer. Incidents such as the tragedy today at Sandy Hook make me wonder if we need to go even further, by training, certifying, and arming American school teachers. Every school in the nation conducts two or three fire drills per year, despite the fact that not one single child has died from a school fire anywhere in North America in well over a half a century. Yet, we almost universally ignore the threat which really is claiming the lives of our kids — active shooters like some 20-year-old asshole whose name merits no mention in this space. Given the budget strain on most police departments, and given the fact that even those agencies which have lots of money and lots of cops are scaling back deployment of SROs, do you think that at least one teacher on every floor of every school in America be armed, trained, annually qualified, and ready/willing to end a deadly threat in their school? I think it merits serious consideration. I’m not alone in this thinking. I asked these questions of my dear friends and PoliceOne colleagues Dan Marcou, Dick Fairburn, and Ken Hardesty— each of whom has taught extensively the topic of active shooters. Marcou was quick to reply, “Doug, I believe in facing modern threats with modern solutions. I believe in armed pilots, armed teachers, armed judges, and armed fill-in-the-blank. I believe we need good people — who are good shots — who are armed in today’s world.” Fairburn added, “In my opinion, the answer is more guns and more trained sheepdogs. But some people in our country will immediately try to ban guns — inanimate objects, simple tools — rather than understand we need more people standing ready to KILL the sick bastards who would prey on our lambs.” Fairburn wasn’t done there. “We don’t have enough police officers to protect every school or school bus at our recession-degraded staffing levels,” he added. “So, I vote for training/equipping volunteer sheepdogs to protect our lambs. How about a nationwide corps of retired cops? They’re already trained/equipped and background checked.” Hardesty said, “Americans can no longer depend upon legislation to defend them from all who intend to do them harm.” Hardesty added that while he doesn’t advocate in any way taking the law into one’s own hands, he does advocate for people taking personal responsibility for their survival and well being. “Robert A. Heinlein was correct in the statement, ‘An armed society is a polite society.’ "Gun-free zones" are an open invitation for homicidal maniacs. Armed civilians of any kind — teachers included — will no doubt be met with trepidation. I believe some of the fears can be assuaged through a comprehensive selection and training process. Individuals selected must be mature, motivated, and above all else, volunteers. Prior to arming them physically, they must be armed mentally and indoctrinated with not only up-to date use-of-force law, but also with the unwavering mindset that their immediate action in the face of evil is saving the lives of others,” Hardesty concluded. Let’s Do Something About This My friends, the tragedy in Newtown is the third active-shooter event in an American learning institution THIS YEAR. In February, 17-year-old T.J. Lane murdered three students sitting at a cafeteria table before school. In April, a former nursing student named One L. Goh opened fire at Oikos University near the Oakland International Airport, killing seven people. A college. A high school. And now, an elementary school. All in 2012. Fifteen years ago (1998), the total number of child fatalities in American schools reached what was then an all-time high — 35 children died that year in gun- and non-gun related incidents. The next year, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 12 classmates and one teacher (wounding 26 others) before killing themselves in the school’s library. In 2007, Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people (and himself) on Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. The following year, it was Northern Illinois University. Yes, my proposal is provocative, and I do not make it lightly. The selection process should be rigorous and ongoing (the adage “selection is a never-ending process” applies here), and perhaps in the same way we arm our airline pilots, those involved in the program would be vetted volunteers. I ask you — should American law enforcement train and prepare civilian educators to take immediate action against armed attacks? Now that you have read the opinions of yours truly and some of my friends, add your voice to this discussion. Perhaps in 2013 we can create enough momentum on this concept that something actually gets done.

About the author Doug Wyllie is Editor in Chief of PoliceOne, responsible for setting the editorial direction of the website and managing the planned editorial features by our roster of expert writers. In addition to his editorial and managerial responsibilities, Doug has authored more than 600 feature articles and tactical tips on a wide range of topics and trends that affect the law enforcement community. Doug is a member of International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA), and an Associate Member of the California Peace Officers' Association. He is also a member of the Public Safety Writers Association, and is a two-time (2011 and 2012) Western Publishing Association "Maggie Award" Finalist in the category of Best Regularly Featured Digital Edition Column. Even in his "spare" time, he is active in his support for the law enforcement community, contributing his time and talents toward police-related charitable events as well as participating in force-on-force training, search-and-rescue training, and other scenario-based training designed to prepare cops for the fight they face every day on the street.

Newtown Shooting: Stopping The Active Shooter

by SWAT Officer Dan Marcou, 12/14/2012, Police One.com Newsletter “We interrupt this programming to report there are possibly 27 dead at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.” That’s what I heard this morning while I was updating my Active Shooter Power Point with the information on the Clackamas Mall Shooting for a presentation on January 10th at Iona College in New York. We’ve all come to know the names of places like Trolley Square, Fort Hood, Virginia Tech, Binghampton, Littleton, and Jonesborough... Like the Sonny and Cher song goes, “The Beat goes on and on and on and on...”   Guns didn’t pull their own triggers on these innocents. Some red haired bully did not cause these people to die by pushing a smaller kid down on the play-ground in the fifth grade. These tired old themes serve as a smokescreen, and have never brought the country one centimeter closer to stopping a single active shooter. Pay Attention Updated tactics have saved lives. Police officers have gotten better at responding to these incidents. Officers arrive and engage these shooters as soon as possible. The problem is, the public does not understand it can play an important role in preventing these shootings. Administrators at businesses, schools, post offices, hospitals think if the post their facility “No Gun Zone” they have done their part. Problem solved. All they have successfully done in the case of the active shooter is to facilitate a higher body count by designating the facility as a soft target. Instead, citizens need to realize evil always has and always will dwell amongst us. They must understand before there is a manifestation of evil deeds shooters act, talk, write, post, warn, threaten, promise and sometimes even predict in a threatening manner. These evil people that are the active shooters can be stopped long before someone dies by understanding that most shooters pass through a fantasy stage, planning stage, preparation stage, approach stage and implementation stage. When passing through these phases these shooters say troubling things, exhibit trouble behaviors, while the gather troubling equipment. Someone has always been there to see, but few pay attention and fewer still call the police. Schools teachers, doctors, lawyers, therapists, judges, shopkeepers, neighbors, and yes, gun dealers need to pay attention. Many of these incidents can be prevented by the simple act of calling the police when something just doesn’t look, sound, or feel right. Officers need to continue to arm themselves off and on duty, while training for this incident. It seems more likely than ever that you will face an active shooter in your career. Citizens that are paying attention can make the difference with one well timed and well placed phone call to prevent the active shooting incident. Otherwise officers must prepare themselves on duty and off to take that well-timed and well-placed shot to stop the active shooter. No Imaginary Solutions to Real-World Problems Mere minutes had passed before some hack was on the air and wasting oxygen talking about disarming Americans. Forget about it. It’s not going to happen in the United States of America. As they say, “That dog won’t hunt.” Americans will not allow themselves to be disarmed. Besides, if this was exclusively an American problem that could be solved by gun control, how does one explain the 18 dead killed by Mark Lepine at Universite de Montreal? What about the 77 dead before the muzzle of Anders Behring Breivik at Utoya Island? What about the 119 killed in Mumbai? These mass killings were committed by shooters who managed to arm themselves for their killing day in countries which have such stringent controls on firearms that many police officers are not allowed to be armed off duty (and sometimes even while on duty!). Other talking heads go on and on trying to determine who didn’t properly love the shooter, or who bullied the shooter into their hellacious act?

About the author Dan Marcou retired as a highly decorated police lieutenant and SWAT Commander with 33 years of full time law enforcement experience. He is a nationally recognized police trainer in many police disciplines and is a Master Trainer in the State of Wisconsin. He has authored three novels The Calling: The Making of a Veteran Cop , S.W.A.T. Blue Knights in Black Armor, and Nobody's Heroes.

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The Life of a Private Eye Ain't What You See In Old Movies

By Adam Kent-Isaac, Bloom Magazine, 10/18/2012

Despite what film noir would have movie-goers believe, being a private investigator is not all that glamorous of an occupation. At least not for local gumshoe Don C. Johnson. His office is not dimly lit and smoky; his waiting room is not filled with provocatively attired women; and he does not live life on the edge.

“Almost every aspect of the media portrayal is incorrect,” Johnson says. “Our day-to-day work is routine—writing reports, doing research online. There are no high-speed car chases, no gunfights. There’s nothing to be gained from putting lives in jeopardy.”

In fact, Don works predominantly with businesses and attorneys, doing background screenings and insurance-fraud investigations.

Johnson’s investigative career began with the Air Force as an intelligence analyst. One of a select group of airmen sent to Indiana University by the U.S. Department of Defense to study Russian at the height of the Cold War, Johnson was eventually deployed to a remote “listening post” in Turkey, where he intercepted Russian air defense communications.

After leaving the service, he worked as assistant to a theater union executive, investigating contract violations and administering claims. Then it was on to Burns International Services, an investigation company in New York City. After some time with a firm in Indianapolis, he set up shop in Bloomington, founding Trace Investigations in 1990.

After more than a quarter century as a professional investigator, Johnson finds some things have gotten easier. “You used to need a two-way radio in the field,” he says. “Now cell phones take care of that. Cameras are pretty much all digital these days and getting smaller. Thousands of images can be stored on a media card.” And the Internet has transformed the research process.

What remains unchanged is the need for persistent surveillance skills, he says. Lengthy car tailing and stakeouts are not uncommon; intense patience and focus are a must. If an investigator is “burned”—if the target spots him—he must simply make an exit and return to the hunt later.

Having charisma helps, too, especially in digging up leads. “You can’t coerce people to give you information,” says Johnson. “It takes good manners. Make them want to help. You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.”

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Junior Detective Solves Burglary in One Hour Through Facebook

By Daily Mail Reporter, 2 November 2012

It was a bit of detective work that even Sherlock Holmes would be proud of after a teenager tracked down a thief who burgled his family home - in just one hour.

Connor Kendall, 16, was told by police that there was little hope of ever finding the burglar who got away with a £1,000 haul - including a digital camera, camcorder, a laptop, and wristwatch - from his family home in Cornwall.

But he decided to take matters into his own hands and incredibly the amateur sleuth had things wrapped up in no time when he managed to track down the culprits himself.

Connor and three friends went into Bodmin near where he lives and began talking to local youngsters, friends and neighbours to find out if anyone knew anything.

After just 60 minutes of investigating the burglary, they discovered that someone was trying to sell his watch on a Facebook page.

Connor showed the page to police who arrested 22-year-old Jamie Fisher, from Roche, Cornwall - who has now been jailed for 28 months.

Connor said: "I contacted some of my mates and we found out that someone was trying to sell a laptop and cameras to people.

"We decided to go out and try to find the person who was selling them because they sounded like the things stolen from my house.

"We found some boys who said it was Jamie Fisher and the watch was on his Facebook. The whole thing took an hour."

Truro Crown Court heard Connor decided to take his own action after returning to his house and discovering the burglary on October 16. The kitchen window of the home was ajar and the back door unlocked.

Connor rounded up three friends Zak Landert, Jake Campbell, and Alex Long and began asking around until someone showed them the Facebook page.

Police gathered the information from their young helper and arrested Fisher, who admitted the burglary.

Connor’s father, water technician Kevin Kendall, 51, said: 'They went into town and asked people around their age if they knew whether the items were being sold somewhere.

 

"The name of Jamie Fisher came up and that was the case solved. The laptop is still missing but, thanks to Connor and his friends, everything else was found.
 

"It’s a bit of a worry thinking about him talking to people who might know criminals but they all did an excellent job and I’m very proud."

 

Fisher told the court he entered the property because he had no money and was not in receipt of benefits.

The court heard Fisher sold the laptop for £30 to buy cannabis but the other items were recovered.

The total value of the laptop, two digital cameras and the wristwatch Fisher stole was £960 - of which £330 worth was returned.

Sentencing Fisher to 28 months in prison, Judge John Neligan said: "You may have got away with it but for the young man’s detective work."

Private Investigators Duped by Clients on Restraining Orders to Lead Them to Victims

Alex White, Herald Sun, October 24, 2012

Private detectives admitted they were being duped by clients who were subject to restraining orders, and unwittingly leading the offenders to their victims.
The revelation sparked a call from Police Association secretary Greg Davies to amend privacy legislation to allow licensed investigators to access limited IVO information.

One investigator said he was approached by a man trying to track a woman living in a shelter in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

Another investigator said he turned down requests from a client who was later involved in a murder-suicide attempt with a former partner in the city's southeast.

"All these IVOs are recorded on a database and licensed practitioners should be able to access limited details to see if there is an IVO," Sen-Sgt Davies said.

"That will solve it. If we have people unwittingly tracking down victims for potential offenders it is counter-intuitive."

Harjan Investigators owner Wayne Edwards said investigators were forced to rely on their gut instincts when vetting clients.

"I get a lot of inquiries regarding locating ex-girlfriends or wives and the common question I ask is whether there are any active court orders between the parties, and in most cases the answer is no," Mr Edwards said.

"We have a duty of care, we are registered by the police but we have no control.

"I try to vet these people the best I can by asking various questions to help identify any possible red flags."

Women's Domestic Violence Crisis Service interim chief executive Janene Evans supported the call by the Police Association.

"We are constantly working with police and justice to improve the system and any change will be a benefit," Ms Evans said.

"The IVO system works in most cases but we need to stop this small minority of men who have no respect for the law."

A Victoria Police spokeswoman confirmed the names of both parties on an intervention order could not be released - even to private detectives - under current legislation.

"Legislation under the Victims Charter Act dictates that a victim's personal information is not to be disclosed by any person except in accordance with the Information Privacy Act 2000," she said.

"Victoria Police work within a strict legislative framework to ensure the privacy of victims is protected.

"Police want victims of any crime to have the confidence to come forward and report with the knowledge that their personal information will be protected and their safety will be upheld."

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For a free consultation, call us today at 480-318-9936 or for more information go to our website at www.azprivateeye.com.

Is the Private Investigations Industry Out of Control?

by PI Telegraph, September 22, 2012

I lament the article in today’s Daily Telegraph entitled ‘Private detectives are out of control in Britain’. Although the article, written by Jake Wallis Simons, a well-respected journalist and author, is an effective piece of persuasive writing; for me, the subject matter is somewhat tired and worn – an old chestnut which brings nothing new to the ‘table’ in respect of issues within our industry.

Whatever there is to say about the private investigation industry has already been adequately explored and analysed by public enquiries such as the ‘Leveson enquiry’. And as a consequence is in the process of being addressed by means of the implementation of a licensing scheme.

We are all more than aware of the previous activities of Southern Investigations as well as one or two other individuals that were employed by journalists; therefore to continue to bring their activities into play whenever a newspaper article is written only goes to show that Southern Investigations and those individuals are in the minority – illustrating that illegal activities are not the norm within our industry.

Contrary to what Jake Simons says, the reputation of the private investigation industry has by no means taken another turn for the worse this week; rather, it is the reputation of Southern Investigations that has slipped further into the mire. The majority of private investigators in the UK can still operate with their head held high knowing that what they provide is a valuable and entirely legal service to their clients.

As private investigators we are perhaps not familiar or comfortable in dealing with attention from the media. We naively believe that when we are contacted by a journalist for help with ‘their story’ that somehow it is a chance to get some PR – some free media exposure. Perhaps we will get a chance to appear on TV or maybe the name of our agency will appear in mainstream print.

Consider this before you ask an investigative journalist on a ‘ride along’: it is not the job of a journalist to act as your publicist. Why would a journalist, who is in search of a ‘scoop’, be concerned with your public image? Journalists are not there to write nice things about you or your agency – good news does not sell newspapers or hook viewers. Bad news and controversy is what sells news. The exposure that results from an ‘uninformed’ handling of the media very rarely results in positive PR – it more often than not ends in crisis for you and your business.

Next time you think to invite a journalist to ‘shadow’ you on confidential assignments or feel the urge to share your trade secrets – think again and be mindful that nothing is ever off the record.

Private Investigator Constable Campaign: Complaint Questions Legality of Expenses

by Lindsey Collum, Sep. 10, 2012, Arizona Republic News

Authorities say a self-styled border-sheriffs group that took steps to legitimize its support of a write-in constable candidate in Pinal County has not gone far enough.
 
Gila County prosecutors investigating a campaign-finance complaint against the group say that although Southwest Border Sheriffs is now a registered political committee, it missed an Aug. 31 deadline to submit an accounting of its expenses leading up to the Aug. 28 primary.

Bryan Chambers, chief deputy attorney for Gila County, set the deadline in an Aug. 22 e-mail to the committee’s chairman and treasurer. A copy of the e-mail was provided to The Arizona Republic as part of a public-records request. In the e-mail, Chambers cited state law enumerating what records the committee treasurer must keep and when they should be turned over.

“Pursuant to this requirement, please provide to me the name and address of every person or entity to whom Southwest Border Sheriffs made any expenditure advocating the election of Ryan Sudrick for Constable,” Chambers wrote to committee chairman Mike Presnell and committee treasurer Chad Elliget. He also asked for the date, amount and purpose of each expenditure.

In addition to Sudrick, Southwest Border Sheriffs endorsed Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, county-attorney candidate Lando Voyles and supervisor candidate Cheryl Chase. It also endorsed Republicans running for sheriff in Pima and Gila counties.

A campaign-finance violation is a civil penalty punishable by up to three times the offending amount.

The requirement stands despite Sudrick’s primary loss. He was among six write-in candidates seeking the Republican nomination for constable of the Apache Junction Justice Court. Ron LeDuc, whom county supervisors appointed in July to fill a vacancy, won the primary and will be unopposed in the Nov. 6 general election.

Records show Presnell and Elliget registered their committee with the Pinal County Elections Department on Aug. 17, after Chambers made multiple attempts to reach them by phone and e-mail regarding a campaign-finance complaint involving Southwest Border Sheriffs.

The group had been accused of paying for “hundreds” of signs for Sudrick posted in Apache Junction and the San Tan Valley area.

The complaint, filed by one of Sudrick’s competitors, questioned the legality of the expense.

At the time, Southwest Border Sheriffs was not a registered political committee with the state or county, and Sudrick had filed a $500 threshold statement, meaning his campaign wouldn’t spend or receive more than $500.

Anything more than that would have required him to file a statement of organization and submit campaign-finance reports.

Chambers was assigned the case shortly after the Pinal County Attorney’s Office sent it to Gila County for investigation, citing a potential conflict of interest.

Presnell wrote Chambers on Aug. 20 and said Sudrick had “no idea some of us would be buying and putting up his signs for his run for constable.”

“We have not even been billed for the signs yet and do not know what the total invoice will be,” Presnell wrote. “We in no way did this to influence any election what so ever. None other than to help Ryan out.”

Sudrick, a licensed private investigator, didn’t address whether he knew about the signs paid for by Southwest Border Sheriffs in e-mail records obtained by The Republic.

He responded Aug. 17 to Chambers’ two e-mails requesting campaign receipts and an explanation for what he knew about Presnell’s signs.

“I attached a pic of my order,” Sudrick wrote, referring to a $487.77 invoice for 40 small lawn signs and 1,000 postcards. “That’s all I have spent. Call me if you have any other questions. Thanks.”

Chambers said the investigation is ongoing.

Private Investigator Calls Colorado City Police Department the Most Crooked in the Country

by Gary Tuchman, CNN

The federal government is suing two towns that are dominated by the fundamentalist, polygamous, FLDS Church and its jailed leader Warren Jeffs.

According to the Justice Department sect members in Colorado City, Ariz., and Hill Dale, Utah have been forcing nonbelievers out. The feds call it discrimination and they want it to stop.

They say it's happening because FLDS members control everything that counts in these places from the town hall to the tap water.

CNN's Gary Tuchman recently visited Colorado City where the word of Warren Jeffs is akin to the word of God and where his cult-like religion is the law.

Colorado City, Arizona is a very unusual place. The desert town is the religious seat of the FLDS Church, which promotes and practices polygamy. And whose leader has been convicted of raping underage girls.

"The police force in Colorado City is, without a doubt, the most crooked police department in the country," said private investigator Sam Brower.

Brower is a private investigator who has dug into FLDS allegations for most of the last decade. He says the cops make the community increasingly unstable.

"I've never seen the tension so high," said Brower.

Tuchman wanted to ask the police about their support and allegiance to convicted pedophile and polygamist Warren Jeffs, but they didn't want to talk.

Mohave County is where Colorado City, Arizona is located. Tom Sheahan is the sheriff. He says his deputies can't trust the local police.

"They are doing only what the church wants to do and what their leaders tell them to do," said Sheahan.

When asked if their religion and their prophet is far more important than the laws of the state of Arizona Sheahan said, "That we know for sure."

With that in mind, the Arizona legislature took up a bill to dissolve the department known as the Colorado City Marshals Office and leave enforcement up to the sheriff.

Under the law, any Arizona police department in which more than half the officers were decertified by the state for corruption or crime in an eight year period would be dissolved.

Colorado City currently has six cops. Six other cops have been kicked off within the past eight years.

The state says each of those cops was decertified for different reasons, such as felony sexual conduct with a minor, bigamy, refusal to testify and answer questions at a grand jury and a deposition and seeking advice from a fugitive.

That fugitive being Warren Jeffs when he was on the FBI ten most wanted list. A letter recovered when Jeffs was arrested written by the former chief declared, "I am praying for you to be protected and yearn to be with you again."

The Arizona Senate passed the bill unanimously, but then something very surprising happened in the Arizona House. Representatives Nancy McClain, R-Bullhead City, and Doris Gooddale, R-Kingman, non-FLDS members who represent Colorado City in the legislature, took up the church's cause to keep the police department intact.

With their leadership, the bill died in a close vote. McClain and Gooddale say the bill is unconstitutional because they claim the city is being singled out. They also acknowledge they want to support their FLDS constituents who will cast ballots for them come election day.

Rep. McClain said, "things are changing up there and it just doesn't seem fair to go backwards in time when things are finally opening up."

That directly contradicts what Gary Engels sees. He's the primary investigator of the FLDS for the county prosecutor's office.

"Things are getting much worse up there. It's getting worse by the day. It's getting more fanatical," said Gary Engels, Mohave County investigator.

So where is Representative McClain getting her information?

"There's more commerce there. They are more willing to talk with people who are not members of the community so I see that as opening up, said Rep. McLain.
Tuchman reports that people come to him and say they're scared, there's no one to talk to. They want to get out. They're trapped. Their children are being taken away from them. The cops are doing nothing.

Tuchman asked Rep. Gooddale about that and she responded by saying, "No. No one has said that to me in any of the times I've been up there."

But it does happen, repeatedly.

This past February, Tuchman reported the story of David Bistline. Warren Jeffs had kicked him and many other men out of the church for not being faithful enough.

In the middle of the night Bistline's wife and seven children were told to leave him and they left the house with the local police standing by.

"Just about killed me. I just closed my eyes and I felt like my soul is out there just floating around somewhere," said Bistline.

When Warren Jeffs kicks people out of the church, their families are taken away from them. And the cops helped take their families away from them.

"That was five years ago," said Rep. Gooddale.

When Tuchman told Goodale that that was a few months ago because he had just covered a story about it Goodale said, "Well, we never heard about it."

Rep. Goodale testified to the other legislators that this is a very open community. One of her quotes was "when we come here. We go to the baseball games, the Little League games."

We can tell you from talking to people who were in the church that there has never been a Little League here in Colorado City. As a matter of fact, one woman in the church currently says she doesn't even know what the term Little League means.

After this story aired on CNN on June 26, 2012, 3TV's Mike Watkiss (who has covered Colorado City and Warren Jeffs extensively) joined Gary Tuchman for a discussion.

That segment can be seen here. This is the transcript:

O'BRIEN: Earlier tonight, I spoke with Gary Tuchman as well as Michael Watkiss, an investigative reporter for our Phoenix affiliate KTVK. He joined us by phone.

So, Gary, let's start with you. The way you describe it, it's almost as if a religious sect is actually running these towns. Describe what it's like when you talk to the residents.

TUCHMAN: Well, that's right, Soledad. Many of the people I talked to in these towns remind me of people I've talked to in Afghanistan and Iraq. Religion is more important to them than anything.

If their prophet, Warren Jeffs, who's now in jail tells them something, they do it. Including in the past when he's told 13-year- old or 14-year-old girls they have to marry men in their 60s, 70s or 80s. They do it.

Their families make everything move to make it happen. So it's the kind of situation we go there and try to talk to the people who are members of the FLDS. They run away from us.

They run away from us because they're scared to be seen with us. Because they could get in trouble if they talk to an outsider like myself.

O'BRIEN: Mike, I know you actually interviewed a couple who say that they were discriminated against. What story did they tell you?

MICHAEL WATKISS, KTVK TV INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER (via telephone): They got a home -- a young man was classic case. He worked as a young man working on work crews when he was about 8 years old. He left the community, was never compensated.

Finally, he was given a home when they started taking over the land trust. He was badly disabled on a work related site down in Phoenix. So he's disabled. He was never compensated for his work as a child.

He and his family were given a home. They're non-FLDS. The FLDS community didn't want them there and they refused to turn on their water and power. They've had this home for nearly four years and they still don't have water.

They have to haul water to their home. This while FLDS families can go in and get their water hooked up in a matter of hours. The community has started bottling water and selling it as a commodity while they tell this family they don't have water to give them to their homes.

It is the most egregious. You know, again, people who don't understand this or haven't followed this think this, you know, is this community run by a religion? It's absolutely run by a religion. People who are not of that religion are persecuted from sun up to sun down.

O'BRIEN: So Gary, we saw you trying to get the attention of the police chief who didn't seem to be coming to the door. What's your experience with the police departments in these towns?

TUCHMAN: Well, in years of going there, Soledad, I've tried to talk to the police and to government officials. They have never, ever consented to an interview except one time, the mayor of Hilldale, Utah, talked to me.

A few months later, he was kicked out of the church. I will tell you, it's very, very different as Mike says than any other place in the United States.

One encounter I had with one of the police officers there. I was trying to interview one of the residents near the post office in a public spot. The officer said, stop interviewing people.

I said, no, this is a public street. He said, stop interviewing people. I said, not this is public. He says, I will arrest you and take you in if you don't stop trying to do an interview.

I don't know where he would take me if he arrested me, but that put an end to that. That is not something a cop would normally say when you're doing interviews in a public street. But in the FLDS land, that's what they say.

O'BRIEN: Mike, I'm going to give you the last question if I can. Warren Jeffs, he's behind bars, but it seems like you're saying he is not out of commission.

WATKISS: Well, and Gary can attest to this. He's done some stories for your network. He has been kicking families, people, out just in the most brutal -- the disruption of families that he continues to orchestrate.

He's thrown hundreds of people out, just torn families apart and I think this shows you the power that he yields. He's behind bars and he continues to rip families apart.

They were screaming about the abuse of the Texas Rangers when they went and raided that compound in Texas. I would argue that Mr. Jeffs has done more damage to the family -- his own families in his own community than 30 raids on the compound could have done.

You know, this is a brutal man. It is a misogynistic culture. The core it abuses women and children and these guys have been policing the government forever. The cops are corrupt. Every layer of government is corrupt. The feds should have done this a long time ago.

O'BRIEN: Mike Watkiss and Gary Tuchman this evening. Thanks, gentlemen. Appreciate it.

Private Investigator In "Dirty DUI" Stings Pleads Guilty

by Vivian Ho, May 5, 2012, San Francisco Chronicle

The stardom-seeking private investigator at the center of an East Bay law enforcement scandal pleaded guilty Friday to seven criminal counts in an agreement with federal prosecutors.

Christopher Butler, 50, pleaded guilty to charges including extortion, robbery and conspiring to deal drugs during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Oakland.

Butler and Norman Wielsch, a former state Department of Justice agent who led an antinarcotics task force in Contra Costa County, were indicted last year. The two once worked together as Antioch police officers.

They were accused of crimes including stealing marijuana and methamphetamine from police evidence lockers to sell, embezzling cash and opening a massage parlor in Pleasant Hill that served as a front for prostitution.

Butler had sought fame - and a reality television deal - by hiring "Mommy P.I.s," attractive women whose job was to lure men into cheating on their wives.

But he was exposed for using actors to fake some of the stings. And he admitted in court to bribing a Contra Costa County sheriff's deputy, Stephen Tanabe, with cocaine and a gun to make drunken-driving arrests of men he was investigating - so-called "dirty DUI" stings.

Butler also admitted to carrying out a fake arrest of the teenage son of a client who suspected the boy was selling drugs, and setting up 75 to 100 illegal wiretaps as part of his private-investigator business.

Butler said he and Wielsch had stolen methamphetamine from police evidence lockers and sold at least a pound of the drug for $9,800.

He also admitted to conspiring with Wielsch to establish the Pleasant Hill brothel, and to collecting more than $10,000 from the business that allegedly went to Wielsch in exchange for protection for the operation from law enforcement.

Butler's sentencing is set for Sept. 11, and prosecutors would not say what term they would recommend. The drug charge against him carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum of life.

Wielsch, 51, has pleaded not guilty to similar charges and remains free on bail. Tanabe, who is no longer a sheriff's deputy, has also pleaded not guilty.

In the same courtroom Friday, an associate of Butler's, former San Ramon police officer and vice cop Louis Lombardi, was sentenced to three years in prison by U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong.

Lombardi had admitted to nine felonies, including stealing $40,000 in cash while on the job and pocketing drugs during searches.

Lombardi, 39, worked as Wielsch's second-in-command on the now-disbanded Central Contra Costa Narcotics Enforcement Team from 2005 to 2009. He was arrested in April 2011, two months after Wielsch and Butler, and pleaded guilty in January.

Lombardi admitted that Wielsch had once given him half a pound of marijuana, which he then sold to a confidential informant in Arizona and split the profits with his former boss.

In court papers, prosecutors depicted Lombardi as an opportunistic man who used the power of his badge to steal large sums of cash as well as petty items, including a bottle of whiskey and a pair of sunglasses.

But in court, prosecutors asked the judge for a lenient sentence, explaining that Lombardi was cooperating with law enforcement and accepted responsibility for his crimes.

Lombardi tearfully apologized to his family and to police officers for "destroying" the reputation of law enforcement.

"There's nothing I can do to bring that back," he said. "I'm deeply sorry."

Lombardi's lawyer, Dirk Manoukian, said the former officer had begun taking drugs as a form of self-medication after rupturing a disk in his back during a 2008 arrest. As part of his sentence, he must undergo drug treatment while in prison.

Armstrong, a former Oakland police officer, also ordered Lombardi to pay $7,500 in restitution to the city of San Ramon.

"It is a sentence that allows everyone to start healing and moving forward," Manoukian said. "Mr. Lombardi has worked very hard since being arrested to right the wrongs he committed."


Bill Gagen, Butler's attorney, said he hoped his client would receive a similarly lenient sentence. He said that the private eye has also cooperated with prosecutors, and that much of the case against Wielsch is due to the "candor of Mr. Butler."

Gagen said Butler had fallen in love with the spotlight - the "Mommy P.I.s" got him on the "Dr. Phil" show and brought a write-up in People magazine. "I think good judgment was just overcome by the desire for notoriety," Gagen said.

Butler was stoic during Friday's hearing. After he pleaded guilty, he removed his jacket and tie, handed it to his attorney and went with the U.S. marshal taking him into custody.

"As tough as it is, he's ready to pay the price," Gagen said.

Private Investigator's New Book Claims O.J. Simpson Is Innocent

by David Lohr, 4/2/2012, The Huffington Post

It's often said that the only certainties in life are death and taxes. But you can add "rehashing of the O.J. Simpson case" to that list -- at least for the last 18 years.

So it should come as no surprise that a new book has been published about the 1994 murders of Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman.

In 1995, a California jury acquitted O.J. Simpson of the killings. A civil lawsuit, later filed by the victims' families, resulted in a 1997 judgment finding Simpson liable for the deaths and ordering him to pay $33.5 million in damages.

The latest installment in the Simpson library is not another "If I Did It," in which the former gridiron great speculated on how he might have killed his former wife. Instead, the new book points the finger of guilt away from Simpson and lays the blame on his son, Jason Simpson.

"Everything we have in the book is documented. It is not theory or hypothesis. It is fact," renowned private investigator William C. Dear told The Huffington Post about his book, "O.J. Is Innocent and I Can Prove It."

Dear's 576-page "true account," according to Amazon.com, hit the shelves today, retailing at $18 for the hardcover edition.

In the investigation into the murders of Brown and Goldman, Jason Simpson was never considered a suspect or a person of interest. The 41-year-old lives in Miami, where he reportedly works as a chef. HuffPost was unable to reach Simpson for comment Monday because his phone had been disconnected.

But Dear said he has spent nearly two decades looking into the case and assembled a mountain of circumstantial evidence, which, he said, suggests that O.J. Simpson had nothing to do with the murders of Brown and Goldman.

"I flew out two weeks after the murders," he said. "I climbed over the back gate and walked the walkway to the front door, and that's when I realized O.J. could not have done it. But he was there. He was either there at the time or there afterwards [and] became part of the crime."

In his book, Dear claims that he has the knife used in the murders, along with photos and other evidence that suggest the true killer was Jason Simpson, O.J.'s son with his first wife.

"When I tell you we have the weapon -- we found the weapon in Jason's storage facility that he failed to make payments on. We know he carried it -- his initials were carved in the leather sheath," Dear said.

"We have emails from his former roommates that were in college with him. We have our suspect's diaries. We have his forged time card, and we have the vehicle he was driving on the night of the murders," said Dear.

The private investigator also claims to have photos of Jason Simpson wearing the knit cap that was found at the murder scene.

But why? Why would Jason Simpson kill Brown and Goldman?

During O.J. Simpson's trial, prosecutors alleged that the defendant was obsessed with his ex-wife, that he was prone to jealous rages and that he would stalk her.

Dear contends that Jason Simpson has his own demons and suffers from "intermittent rage disorder."

"Our suspect at the time was 5'11" and 235 pounds," Dear said. "He was 24 years old, and he was on probation for assaulting his previous employer with a knife. In addition to that, he's had three attempted suicides and has been in a psychiatric unit."

On the day of the murders -- June 12, 1994 -- O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown attended a dance recital for their daughter. Dear alleges that Jason Simpson was working as a chef in a Beverly Hills restaurant and had put together a special meal for the family. Brown, however, did not attend.

"You're dealing with a young man who just weeks prior had checked into a hospital where he said he was out of his medication and was about to rage," Dear said. "I have no doubt he had no intention of killing her, but [he] confronted her and, as a result, something happened."

Dear said the diaries he obtained, which were allegedly written by Jason Simpson, refer to the young man's obsession with knives and the problems he was purportedly dealing with.

One entry allegedly reads, "It's the year of the knife for me. I cut away my problems with a knife. Anybody touches my friends -- I will kill them. I'm also tired of being Dr. Jekyll [and] Mr. Hyde."

O.J. Simpson was unavailable for comment at the Lovelock Correctional Center in Lovelock, Nev., where he is serving a 33-year prison sentence. In 2008, he was found guilty of armed robbery and kidnapping for taking sports memorabilia from a dealer at gunpoint.

While the book's bombshell claims have not been proved -- authorities in California have yet to comment on them -- Dear insisted he can back up every allegation.

"I have been inducted into the Police Officer Hall of Fame as a private investigator, so my credentials are not [that of] some idiot guy just throwing it out there. My reputation is important to me. I would not say any of this without a great deal of backup," Dear said.

Dear also contended that he has managed to convince others that his theory has merit.

"I recently did a speech in front of 533 law enforcement investigators and prosecutors," he said. "The first statement I made was 'How many of you believe O.J. was guilty?' and everyone raised their hand. When [my speech] was over, I asked the same thing and only three people voted guilty. So when you get law enforcement and all these people to take that position, that's a pretty strong position."

Former County Attorney Andrew Thomas Disbarred

Written by John Rudolf, Huffington Post, April 11, 2012

A former top Arizona prosecutor and anti-illegal immigration crusader used his office to destroy political enemies, filed malicious and unfounded criminal charges and committed perjury and other crimes, a state legal ethics panel ruled on Tuesday in Phoenix.
The three-member panel voted unanimously to disbar Andrew Thomas, the former Maricopa County attorney, and his former top deputy, Lisa Aubuchon. Thomas was elected in 2004 and resigned in 2010 during his second term to pursue an unsuccessful run for Arizona attorney general.

"This is the story of the public trust dishonored, desecrated and defiled," the ethics panel said.

As chief prosecutor for Arizona's most populous county, which covers much of the Phoenix area, Thomas, a Republican, gained national prominence after joining forces with Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County's controversial sheriff, in aggressively pursuing, detaining and prosecuting undocumented immigrants.

A series of failed public corruption prosecutions, also closely plotted with Arpaio, proved Thomas's downfall. After the cases collapsed, a far-reaching independent investigation authorized by the Arizona Supreme Court revealed stunning ethical lapses, according to the scathing 247-page report by the review panel.

Thomas suffered from "profound arrogance" that led him into "ethical ruin," said the panel, headed by William O'Neill, the state's presiding disciplinary judge.

Thomas, aided by Aubuchon, "outrageously exploited power, flagrantly fostered fear, and disgracefully misused the law," the panel said.

In a decision read from the bench, O'Neill said the panel found "clear and convincing evidence" that Thomas and his deputy brought unfounded and malicious criminal and civil charges against political opponents, including four state judges and the state attorney general.

The charges were ultimately rejected by state grand juries or thrown out of court as meritless, but not before wrecking havoc on the lives of those targeted.

Thomas used his office to settle political scores and worked closely with Arpaio's office in the discredited prosecutions, said Bennett Gershman, a national expert on prosecutor misconduct who acted as a consultant for the ethics investigation.

"Anybody who disagreed with them, they indicted," Gershman said.

In one instance, Thomas brought criminal charges against a state judge with no evidence and no investigation, in order to stop the judge from filing an adverse ruling the following day in a corruption case. In another case, Thomas indicted a county official on more than 120 misdemeanor and felony counts, despite having clear knowledge that the statute of limitations for almost all of the alleged crimes had passed more than a year earlier.

Thomas and Arpaio are under investigation by a federal grand jury for possible civil rights and other charges, according to court documents obtained by the Arizona Republic in 2010. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Phoenix declined to comment on the grand jury proceedings.

Despite the harsh sanctions, Thomas remained defiant on Tuesday, declaring in a statement that his disbarment was the result of a "political witch hunt."

"Today, corruption has won and justice has lost," Thomas said. "I brought corruption cases in good faith involving powerful people, and the political and legal establishment blatantly covered up and retaliated by targeting my law license."

Thomas' claims of persecution rang false to Rick Romley, a fellow Republican who served as Maricopa County attorney for 16 years prior to Thomas's election to the office in 2004.

"There is no credibility in that statement," Romley said in an interview with The Huffington Post. "It really begs the question of whether or not he is delusional."

Romley, who led several major corruption probes during his tenure, applauded the ethics panel's ruling.

"It's absolutely clear that this wasn't a search for justice," he said of Thomas's contested prosecutions. "This is an issue of vindictiveness and a clear abuse of power."

Arpaio issued a statement on the disciplinary panel's decision, but did not leap to his former ally's defense.

"Today's decision no doubt is a disappointment to Andrew Thomas, his family and his colleagues," said Arpaio, dubbed "America's Toughest Sheriff" by conservatives. "He was a hard-working professional who served the people of this county for many years."

"As there are several lawsuits involving some of the same parties and issues involved in today's decision, it would be inappropriate for me to comment further," Arpaio said.

Conflict of Interest in Arizona Police and Sheriff's Deputies Private Security Employment

by JJ Hensley, Arizona Republic, March 20, 2012

Maricopa County sheriff’s Sgt. Michael Trowbridge said he felt obliged to obey a lieutenant’s command to take part in a four-hour photo shoot in December 2010.

The photo shoot was set up to promote Lt. Travis Anglin’s side business, which uses off-duty sheriff’s deputies to provide security services to Valley businesses and executives, department reports show.

The shoot at the home of one of Anglin’s clients included frames of Trowbridge in his patrol car. He was on duty throughout, later telling investigators he grew anxious as emergency calls went out in his area.

Anglin was demoted after that and other incidents, but he still operates his private-security company using off-duty deputies.

Countless officers in the state provide private-security services during their off-duty hours, earning millions of dollars each year patrolling construction sites as well as street fairs and other events. Often, officers run their own firms and employ co-workers and subordinates. They often work in uniform, using taxpayer-funded equipment and vehicles.

For municipalities and policing agencies, these off-duty security jobs can be a benefit and a crime-deterrent, as they result in a greater show of police force on the streets without taxpayers covering the cost of the extra hours. Outside of isolated incidents, few have questioned the work officers do in off-duty patrols.

Numerous recent episodes, though, raised questions about whether policing agencies do enough to track the significant time and money involved in off-duty patrols: Officers have been accused of collecting off-duty pay for patrols they did not perform or performed while on duty, and one officer was murdered during an off-duty job last year. The incidents spurred some agencies to re-evaluate whether they are doing enough to regulate the work.

Cities have an interest in ensuring that outside pay doesn’t compromise officers’ roles as legal enforcers and that officers aren’t working so many hours that they undermine their on-duty abilities.

Law-enforcement experts say many off-duty job arrangements are rife with potential for abuse or misuse of public resources, and they recommend that agencies track the work to limit liability.

An Arizona Republic review of 18 of the state’s largest police agencies shows that many lack adequate systems to track or even be aware of officers’ off-duty jobs, sometimes in spite of the agencies’ own policies that require they limit such work. And for agencies that do track officers’ work closely, that oversight comes with a taxpayer cost.

The examination of policies and employment records showed:

Twelve of the 18 agencies could not account in detail where their officers were working, how many hours they were working or for whom they were working. Only seven could track off-duty payments to officers. Just one-third could provide an exact tally of off-duty hours worked.

Wide variance in off-duty work policies. Some agencies have programs in place that require businesses to reimburse them for off-duty officers’ use of patrol cars and other equipment. Other agencies, like the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, forbid such use, but lack of oversight leaves it open to abuse, often sticking taxpayers with the tab for the use of public equipment like squad cars instead of the businesses that contract for the work.

Departments increasingly are assuming the costs of administering off-duty work programs for their officers in order to get a grip on how many extra hours they are working and to control whom they work for. But that comes at a taxpayer cost. Some departments now control the payroll functions for off-duty officers.

A national accreditation group considers it crucial for agencies to monitor off-duty work. “It lends itself to the potential for some sort of corruption,” said Steven Mitchell, a program manager overseeing Arizona law enforcement for the National Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.

Last year, off-duty work tracked by large agencies around the Valley and state totaled more than 200,000 hours and earned officers more than $4 million. But the true total is unknown because of poor tracking practices.

An increasing number of police agencies and at least one state lawmaker are trying to bring more control to the largely unregulated off-duty police industry following a series of events in the last year involving off-duty Valley police officers.

“You’re using taxpayer-funded vehicles to get to your private-security duties — and the taxpayer shouldn’t be funding it,” said Sen. Linda Gray, R-Glendale. Gray last year sponsored a bill to bar police officers from acting as private investigators, and she is sponsoring legislation this year that, though currently stalled, would similarly bar officers from operating private-security firms.

“It’s an unfair advantage to any other private security out there,” Gray said. “And when you have a supervisor who owns the security company asking subordinates to do surveillance, that is simply wrong.”

In the last year, other concerns have arisen those some officers working off-duty jobs have been wounded and murdered, criminally indicted and accused of improprieties:

One Buckeye officer was killed and another is still recovering from injuries in a shootout while the two officers were working security at a mercado in southwest Phoenix last spring. Even though the officers were off-duty at the time, Officer Rolando Tirado’s family received a full line-of-duty death benefit because he was taking police action at the time he was killed.

After an investigation by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, three Phoenix police officers and a former officer were indicted in 2010 on suspicion of fraud and theft for alleged roles in a scheme to get paid without performing security work at a south Phoenix housing complex. The case was later sent back to a grand jury, and though charges against the three officers were dropped, the former officer, George Contreras, was reindicted.

Two Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies were placed under internal scrutiny last year as investigators explored the relationship between the deputies, their security companies and work they performed for the Fiesta Bowl. Part of the probe focused on whether the deputies allowed sheriff’s personnel to work the after-hours jobs while they were still on the clock for Maricopa County. The investigation cleared sheriff’s Lt. Aaron Brown, a security-firm owner, of wrongdoing. But it led to Anglin’s demotion after investigators found he had abused his authority and county equipment by sending subordinates on hours-long errands related to his security firm. Investigators said Anglin harassed another subordinate, who also owned a security firm, by trying to get the other deputy to sell his firm to Anglin.

Anglin said last week that he’s proud of the work he’s done with his security firm and that the company allows him to utilize skills he’s gained in law enforcement to fill a need for private businesses and the community.

“The ability and desire for anyone to create and grow a business in this economic time embodies the American, entreprenurial spirit and should be fostered, praised and appreciated,” Anglin wrote in an e-mail. “A peace officer using a knowledge base to create a company does not directly translate to a conflict of interest, it solves problems.”

But the nature of some of problems off-duty work has caused was enough to force some law-enforcement agencies in the Valley to reassess policies governing the work.

Those policies are important to police accreditation organizations, which examine every department’s policies as a part of the accreditation process. Five Valley police agencies — in Chandler, Glendale, Peoria, Scottsdale and Surprise — have been accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, which endorses based on criteria including policies and standards; financial management and oversight; and adherence to constitutional requirements. The agencies reapply for the endorsement every three years.

Accreditation official Mitchell said tight controls on off-duty employment are among the factors considered. Accreditation is viewed as a seal of approval in that it gives taxpayers and other agencies confidence that the organization is well-managed and professional. It also can reduce liability.

“The tighter control they have over it administratively, the better off they are,” Mitchell said. “And if something goes wrong there, you got somebody to point to.”

Accusations of impropriety involving off-duty security work for the Fiesta Bowl were among the factors that prompted the Sheriff’s Office to revisit its off-duty work policies, Deputy Chief Brian Sands said. The agency is examining whether deputies should be allowed to operate private-security firms.

“Do we have a policy failure? I’m not going to say we do,” Sands said.

“What we’re looking at is, is there a propensity to create conflicts like you’re talking about? Already in our policy it says you’re not supposed to do this private business stuff on the job,” he said. “Those kinds of safeguards have been built into this in a lot of areas. We’ve got to look at each one of those areas.”

Experts are careful to note that an outright ban on moonlighting could be as damaging to good law enforcement as bad oversight. The practice, they note, provides an opportunity for uniformed officers in high-traffic and high-crime areas to show their presence and potentially act as a crime deterrent even when they are off-duty.

“If we have businesses out there that notoriously attract problems — it could be Circle Ks or parking lots adjacent to nightclubs — largely, it’s not even the business’ problem, it’s trying to keep control of what’s going on around that business, and that affects the whole neighborhood,” Sands said. “There’s obvious public benefits to all this, and it’s not just trying to get guys employed.”

Buckeye Police Chief Mark Mann said when he took over his agency in 2008, changing the department’s off-duty work policy was among the first items he took to the Town Council. Among the changes Mann implemented was a requirement for off-duty officers to wear their police uniforms when performing security work for private companies.

“We’re doing all that stuff where it brings revenue into the town, but it also shows them that they have that presence, that visibility,” Mann said. “Especially when they’re working like traffic details with ADOT.”

The Republic’s examination of agency policies found inconsistencies in tracking where and how often police officers put in extra hours for private pay.

Surprise police Cmdr. Terry Young said a revised off-duty employment policy could help his department’s administrators increase their oversight of officers.

Right now, the Surprise Police Department relies on supervisors to notice fatigue or other signs that suggest an officer’s off-duty work is affecting on-duty performance.

Young said the department is considering updating its policies with more definitive language that would require supervisor approval of every off-duty job, ensuring that officers obey restrictions that limit them to 24 hours of off-duty work each week.

“The performance of the employees, the conduct of the employees, I mean, we’re not going to let them go perform law-enforcement work anywhere unless we’re comfortable,” Young said. “They have to be fully trained and off of their field-training program. So their performance would be based on how we have trained them to conduct themselves.”

Relying on attentive supervisors and the honor system is not always enough.

The Phoenix Police Department was prompted to scrutinize its administration of the program only after some of its officers were indicted in what was alleged to be an off-duty work scam, and after the department was unable to answer certain questions posed by The Republic about top off-duty employers and wage earners.

“The attorney general’s investigation was the catalyst,” said Sgt. Trent Crump, a Phoenix police spokesman.

“We lacked sufficient internal controls over the off-duty program to administer the program effectively,” Crump said. “It’s hard to do an audit when you don’t have any data.”

The Phoenix Police Department began developing some of its new off-duty policies — including quarterly reports and regular inspections by supervisors — at about the time that the Attorney General’s Office began investigating allegations of off-duty misconduct by a handful of Phoenix officers. The probe was done at the request of Phoenix’s own internal-affairs investigators, who suspected the potential for criminal charges.

Three active officers and a former colleague were indicted in 2010 amid accusations that they pocketed thousands of dollars for off-duty security work that was never done at a south Phoenix housing complex.

The association that manages the complex near 48th Street and Broadway Road was trying to curtail a years-long crime epidemic. Managers contracted with former Officer George Contreras in 2005 to provide security. The complex’s managers filed a complaint with Phoenix police in 2007 alleging that the “off-duty” security force was actually composed of officers briefly checking while still on duty.

The case was sent back to a grand jury in July after a judge found that certain initial testimony might have violated the officers’ due-process rights. Contreras, who has denied wrongdoing, was the only one reindicted in November on fraud and racketeering charges.

The state’s investigation showed that as many as 25 other Phoenix officers were taking money for off-duty hours not worked. Investigative reports indicate they were not formally charged because the amounts involved were minor compared with the cases of officers who were originally indicted.

Crump said the agency’s internal investigation is ongoing. Some of the officers could still be found to have violated office policy, but there are no active officers who are suspected of criminal conduct related to security work at the condominiums.

“We’re not finding, across the board, what I would characterize as misconduct among those officers,” he said.

As agencies revisit their policies, they — and taxpayers — may find that instituting tighter controls comes at a cost.

The Peoria Police Department, for example, spent $180,000 on a computer system in 2006 to help manage its payroll. The system also makes automatic calls to officers about off-duty assignments, ensuring all officers have equal access to off-duty work instead of allowing a few employees to dole out assignments to favored co-workers or for favored off-duty employers.

It is a trade-off of sorts. Departments seem increasingly willing to spend public money to more carefully oversee off-duty employment of their officers — even providing payroll and accounting services for off-duty work through their departments — if it allows them to ward off abuses and to carefully monitor whom their officers work for and how much extra time they put in.

Phoenix police added new policies and upgraded the department’s technology after the attorney general’s investigation prompted a review. The department in 2009 instituted a policy that prohibits an officer from taking a lump sum from an off-duty employer and dispersing it to other officers who performed the work, said Lt. Tony Lopez, the department’s employment-services bureau coordinator.

In addition, the department requires officers to log in with dispatchers when they report for off-duty job work. It also created an off-duty database that requires dispatchers to enter the information for reports that supervisors review.

Some departments, such as Tempe, administer payment for off-duty work, which can allow off-duty pay to count toward government retirements. Cities generally justify such costs as part of their oversight role; government watchdogs may disagree.

“It certainly should not count toward the amount of an officer’s pension,” said Clint Bolick, vice president for litigation with the Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank. “This is totally private.”

Many agencies designate employees to coordinate off-duty work as part of their official assignment. But that does not always ensure adequate oversight.

The Surprise Police Department, for example, administers off-duty employment using computer programs and a collection of employees whose duties include coordination of off-duty work. Yet Young said the agency is unable to tell The Republic who the city’s most frequent off-duty employer is or which of its officers earned the most off-duty pay.

Young said private vendors schedule much of the off-duty police work for Surprise officers, and there were too many of them to track.

That was news to Mitchell, whose national association accredits Surprise as a police agency.

“We require the agencies to authorize and control (off-duty work),” Mitchell said. “If our assessors were there and they had a hard time finding records, they would have an issue with us.”

Surprise’s example notwithstanding, Mitchell said he believes centralized control of off-duty work makes sense, even when there is a taxpayer cost.

“From CALEA’s point of view, you want central control over what’s going on there — the officers are working the authorized amount of hours, for example, and their behavior on the job has some supervision going on there — all the typical administrative things you would want,” he said. “If they dedicate a person full time to do that, so be it.”

By contrast, the lack of reliable internal controls in agencies like the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office makes it nearly impossible for supervisors to enforce off-duty work policies, including those designed to keep deputies from working more than 24 hours each week in an off-duty capacity.

At The Republic’s request, the Sheriff’s Office produced more than 6,000 off-duty work permits filed by employees during the past five years. Sheriff’s deputies are supposed to seek approval for every off-duty job by filing a permit with their supervisors that includes employer name, insurance information, location and hours.

An examination of those records showed that deputies often simply wrote “varies” in the field where they were supposed to list the hours they worked or planned to work. Those permits were often valid for six months, leaving supervisors to trust that deputies were following the office’s loosely enforced policy.

Some of those who did list their hours accurately were clearly in violation of the agency’s policies. For example, Deputy Jeff Hanson filed permits several times a year showing he put in 40 hours a week working security at a Cave Creek arts festival after working 30 hours that week as a sheriff’s deputy. He was clearly in violation of agency policy limiting weekly off-duty work to 24 hours.

“That’s a supervisor’s failure there,” Sands, the sheriff’s spokesman, said. “If a sergeant has five to nine people working for him, he’s got to manage all their scheduling.”

Sands said there are benefits to the community when off-duty deputies and officers work at venues, such as Chase Field, because it allows the team or venue to pay the costs of having a professional police force.

“The side benefit is, our deputies earn a little bit of additional money, which they all need,” Sands said.

Anglin told the sheriff’s internal investigators his company, which recruited fellow deputies to work security jobs, grossed about $600,000 in fiscal 2010. The deputy Anglin was found to have harassed about selling his security company told investigators his business grossed between $150,000 and $200,000 a year depending on demand.

Fiesta Bowl records show payments to a company run by Brown, another sheriff’s lieutenant, started at $62,000 a year in 2005 and peaked at $500,000 a year in fiscal 2010. At that point, bowl officials terminated their contract with Brown’s company and began their own internal investigation into bowl spending.
Agencies re-examining their policies hope to balance the need for more control against the freedom of law-enforcement personnel to pursue off-duty work.

“We don’t want to bring in a policy that prevents guys from working off-duty, because that doesn’t do anybody any good,” Sands said.

Control, Sands said, should rest in the hands of a third party who cannot benefit from the largesse of off-duty employment, a conflict that has led to allegations of corruption in other agencies around the country.

“What you don’t want to have is one guy flagging all the off-duty jobs,” Sands said. “He becomes an illegitimate power broker.”

Sen. Gray sees the danger of creating illegitimate power brokers in law-enforcement personnel who occupy dual roles of police officer and security-firm owner. A legislative solution could be on the horizon, she said.

“It is a conflict of interest. Part of that is that if you’re a private investigator, you also, as a law-enforcement officer, have access to taxpayer-funded equipment,” she said. “There’s a demand for certified police officers to work off-duty, and that’s what it should be: off-duty.”

Four British Private Investigators Jailed

by Victoria Ward, The Telegraph, February 29, 2012

Campbell Smith, 53, a former British Army Intelligence officer had admitted offences of fraud.

Kingston Crown Court heard that he and three co-defendants, including a former Metroplitan Police detective, used a range of deceptive techniques to obtain bank account and mortgage details, medical records and information from the Police National Computer.

The information was then sold to clients including solicitors, insurance companies and foreign exchange brokers.

The four men, including Graham Freeman, 51, Campbell Smith's business partner, were sentenced in what was the first case of its kind to be prosecuted as a criminal fraud rather than a data protection offence.

Handing down custodial sentences to all four, Judge Andrew Campbell said: "I am quite satisfied that each one of you knew that if you were likely to face a charge that did face imprisonment."

He said that Campbell Smith, Freeman and former detective Adam Spears, 72, had all used "self confessed blagger" Daniel Summers, 32 to source information by using criminal deception.

"The result was that information was obtained, other people's bank details, credit card details, phone billing details and medical records.

"I make some allowance for the fact that some of the people you were seeking information about were themselves suspected of serious crimes.

"But that cannot excuse what you did. You were all charging for your services and in some cases charging considerable sums."

The judge acknowledged that although there may have been some evidence of phone hacking and of using a corrupt officer to obtain police records, they were not crimes to which the men had pleaded guilty.

There were loud sobs from the public gallery as Summers, from Teddington, west London, was sentenced to 12 months in jail for conspiracy to obtain confidential information by making false representations in 2007.

The court heard that Summers was the "lynch pin" who "hoodwinked, lied and cheated" his way into databases of large corporations and public agencies.

Spears, who the court heard had enjoyed a successful career in the police force and who had fostered several children, was sentenced to eight months and Freeman, who lives in Spain, to six months.

Campbell Smith, from Northampton, was also given a four month sentence, to run concurrently, for possession of live ammunition he had retained since his military service.

The investigator's links to the News of the World can only be published now that court reporting restrictions have been lifted.

He is being investigated by officers working on Operation Kalmyk, a Scotland Yard inquiry into allegations of email hacking carried out on behalf of the now defunct tabloid, following allegations that he hacked the emails of Ian Hurst, a former Army intelligence officer who worked in Northern Ireland for 12 years.

In 2006, a "Trojan horse" virus is said to have been planted on Hurst's computer which replicated emails and downloaded material relating to top-level IRA agent Freddie Scappaticci, known as Stakeknife, as part of a commission for the News of the World.

Campbell Smith is alleged to have been hired by another private investigator, Jonathan Rees, who in turn was hired by Alex Marunchak, an executive at the newspaper.

Mr Hurst is currently suing Campbell Smith, Rees and Rupert Murdoch's News International International for damages relating to the alleged hacking.

Christopher Graham, UK Information Commissioner, said following today's sentencing: "The scourge of data theft continues to threaten the privacy rights of UK citizens. We welcome today's sentencing but note that the outcome of the case underlines the need for a comprehensive approach to deterring information theft.

"The ICO will be receiving additional case material from Soca and would not rule out taking further action against the organisations that received information from these individuals if it becomes clear that they failed to comply with the requirements of the Data Protection Act."

Toni Imossi, president of the Association of British Investigators, said that Monday's convictions proved that regulatory control of investigations was “long overdue”.

He added: “As an unregulated industry, currently there is nothing to stop unaccountable and unscrupulous opportunists setting up and masquerading as private investigators. Organisations and individuals may hire their services, unaware that they are willing to break the law to obtain information and facilitate their income. The ramifications of this criminal activity are far reaching.”