The IFPD Goes International

IFPD Officer Scott Ockerman poses for a picture with a delighted student from Tokai-Mura during her visit to the Idaho Falls Police Department on Friday.

CSI Technician Krissy Gittens uses a black-light to demonstrate how certain types of chemicals and materials can be used to find evidence at crime scenes.

IFPD Detective Rome Stiffler helps a student try on SWAT gear during their visit to the Idaho Falls Police Department.

The Idaho Falls Police Department has all kinds of visitors (some we enjoy more than others) but this morning, we welcomed extra special visitors - students from our sister-city, Tokai-Mura Japan.

We, of course, pulled out all the stops to impress them as we showed them our crime lab, our patrol cars and lots of cool gear. Thanks to CSI Krissy Gittins, Officer Scott Ockerman and Detective Rome Stiffler, we also showed them that we have some great people who work here.

Among us, we cover a variety of languages from around the world, but today we came up blank. Lucky for us, we didn't need to be fluent in Japanese.

Robberies Solved

Excellent investigative work by Idaho Falls Police and the Bonneville County Sheriff's Office led to the arrest of three juveniles this morning and another just a few minutes ago in connection with the robberies at the Common Cents store on West Broadway and Los Albertos Restaurant on East 17th Street as well as the Gun Shop burglary on North Holmes.

The crime spree started when they decided to crash a stolen truck into the Gun Shop to get - you guessed it - guns. They later used these guns for the two hold-ups. The suspects charged inside wielding guns during the early morning hours of July 20 and 21. In the photo above, you can see one of them cleaning out the cash register, while the other covers - more or less.

There were some really cool technologies deployed that helped crack the case. I'd love to tell you about them and the incredible inter-agency cooperation across states, but we'll have to wait for the judicial process to run its course. Detectives continue to investigate other suspects that have been identified.

City Considers Texting Ban

Most people understand that texting and driving is a bad idea, but some wonder if we should pass an extra law making it illegal. I say “extra” because we already have inattentive driving laws.

The public's wondering may come to fruition as the Idaho Falls City Council is considering an ordinance banning texting while driving.

There are a couple advantages to a texting law. First, officers may be a little quicker to write an infraction rather than slam someone with the more expensive “Inattentive Driving” which carries stiffer penalties and adds more driving points. It would also be a primary offense requiring no supporting evidence such as drifting or impeding traffic. Some like the idea of passing a texting law to “make a public statement” hoping that many people will comply because it’s the law.

On the downside, enforcement is trickier. How does the officer know if the person is texting or dialing? The enforcement side could be easier by requiring hands-free operation of cell phones, but most people don’t like the idea of restricting talking on cell phones which isn’t nearly as dangerous as texting while driving.

The “making a public statement” with a law that is unenforceable has an unintended consequence. I’m generally opposed to passing unenforceable laws because it degrades the respect for the rule of law. In this case, it’s a little of both. The law wouldn’t be completely unenforceable, but it would be tough to enforce. Case-in-point. my daughter can shove her hand in her purse and covertly text her friend while carrying on a seemingly intelligent conversation.

Others don’t like the nanny state approach of passing “one more law to interfere with our lives.” This parallels the argument that texting is no different than reading a book or putting on make-up while driving. Are we going to outlaw that too? The counter is that texting is a risky behavior endangering other drivers that it is similar to drunken driving. We don’t wait until the crash happens to punish drunk drivers because the risk is so high and the cause & effect is so direct.

I polled the police officers on our department and the results might surprise you. 19.2% supported a texting law because:

1. They liked the infraction option

2. They thought texting while driving is just too dangerous

But a whopping 80.8% opposed it listing the following reasons

1. Difficulty of enforcement

2. There is already a law that covers it (Inattentive Driving)

3. The desire to keep government from over-reaching

If you have an opinion, I’d like to hear it. Better yet, let the City Council know how you feel.

Department Tightens Budget Belt

The Police Department is not immune from the budget crunch but we’ve found ways to tighten our belt, including filling certain positions with non-sworn officers - a.k.a. civilians.

It’s expensive to hire, train, and equip police officers and so by taking advantage of a few recent retirements and replacing them with the non-gun carrying type; we’ve been able to trim $64,000.

We’re saving $44K by replacing our property custodian and another $20K by hiring a civilian CSI Investigator – just like on TV. By the way, did you know that most CSI investigators don’t carry guns or make arrest, including Las Vegas? But I digress.

Civilianizing doesn’t work for most positions on the police department, but it does work for a few. East Coast police departments tend to have police officers do everything from sorting records to storing evidence. West Coast police departments tend to have police officers do things that only police officers can do and hire non-police employees to do the rest.

What difference does it make? Gun-carrying police officers typically cost more, not only in salaries, but in training and equipment. It takes about $100,000 to train and equip police officers to the point they can act independently. The cost to keep them proficient and maintain core training is a couple thousand dollars a year and the cost to keep them equipped an additional $12,000 per year.

The down side is there is less room to maneuver for police officers wanting (or needing) a break from working the street. The plus side; however, is most cops aren’t wired for sorting records and storing evidence. Non-cops that have the desire and aptitude are usually better at it. Case in point: As a captain, I took a run at the multitasking test we required of dispatch recruits. Let’s just say, I wouldn’t have been considered an ideal candidate.

It makes sense to have police officers do the things they do best and leave other functions for the specialist. My son, Jason, is a doctor specializing in Otolaryngology . I’d trust him to do a stapedectomy on my inner ear, but I wouldn’t want him working on my car. I won’t tell you about the time he ran it out of oil…

The Decision to Enter

Most people understand the Walters’ shooting was justified. But, one person recently asked me why we had to go in the house in the first place. Couldn’t we have just gassed him out like we did Elawadly?

Certainly, if we had known Walters was going to grab a gun and shoot us, we would have used other tactics, but based on the information we had at the time, the officer’s tactics were sound.

Unlike Walters, Elawadly was a known murderer on the run. He knew we were after him for killing a man and we knew he knew it. We had him cornered knowing he had little to lose. We deployed the SWAT Team and he was safely taken into custody after we shot tear gas through several windows of the house.

On the other hand, Walters took off during a traffic stop saying “see ya” after the Idaho State Police officer told him he had a warrant for a minor offense.

Walters fled to his home, parked his white pick-up truck on the lawn and quickly bailed out of the cab running into the house and shut the door with police hot on his trail. Officers, seeing Walters through the door, talked to him trying to coax him out as he held it shut. Eventually, we forced our way in.

The officers had no idea he would react the way he did. They didn’t even have their weapons drawn until after Walters shot Officer Reynolds.

As a side note, the investigation shows that ISP had a caution transmitted with the warrant classified as “Violent Tendencies” and one of their officers voiced this. Our officers didn’t hear the statement. However, even if they had, it would not have changed their approach.

Cautions attached to warrants are routine and include two word statements such as “Armed/Dangerous”, “Escape Risk”, “Sexually Violent Predator”, and “Suicidal” to name a few. In this case, the caution read “Violent Tendencies” relating to a 1988 case when Walters was charged for minor assault after threatening to hit someone with a garden tool - later reduced to Disturbing the Peace.

I did a quick poll with some of our officers and even though they log these cautions in the back of their minds, they don’t assume they are safe because the warnings are absent. But neither do they assume a person is a risk to a law enforcement officer because they were charged with a threat 23 years ago.

We have a well-trained SWAT Team and are very willing to deploy it when the situation calls for it. The shift commander who gave the green light on the entry, Lieutenant Royce Clements, also happens to be the SWAT Commander and is well trained to make that call.

In this case, like so many cases officers routinely deal with throughout the year, we have someone trying to get away from the police. They aren’t being aggressive or violent. They are just trying to get away. The situation with Walters started out as a routine case of eluding, but he unexpectedly turned on police and shot Officer Malin Reynolds in the chest.

Based on the facts known at the time, the decision to enter the house was appropriate.

2 Robberies in 2 Days

This is the second robbery in two days. Help us catch these punks. They pointed a gun in the clerk's face and took cash, beer and cigarettes from a Common Cents store on West Broadway early Wednesday morning.

The suspects are described as two Hispanic males. One is about 5 foot 7 inches tall, 160 pounds with short black hair wearing a black t-shirt, black shorts and a dark cloth over his face. The second suspect is described as 5 foot 5 inches tall, 140 pounds with short black hair wearing a light colored hoodie.

The first man came into the convenience store, located at 1940 W. Broadway, sometime before 2:45 a.m. pointing a handgun at him and demanding money from the cash register. As the suspect took the money from the cash register a second man with a handgun came into the store and stole a case of beer and two cartons of cigarettes. The first man also grabbed some Bic lighters before the two suspects left the store on foot.

I hope that anyone who recognizes the individuals in the video will help us make an arrest. Call us at 529-1200 or if you want to be anonymous, call Crimestoppers at 522-1983.

Oh, and just in case you're wondering why we didn't just arrest them when we took the video, we got the video from the store security camera. -- yes, some people ask those kinds of questions.

We Love Our Ballistic Vest

Idaho Falls Police Officer Malin Reynolds' life was saved by this vest after a suspect shot him point-blank in the chest.

When Officer Malin Reynolds was shot in the chest last month, I received kudos for having changed the policy to mandatory wear on ballistic vests a few months prior. Under this policy all officers who are primarily first responders are required to wear a ballistic vest.

Prior to the mid-1980s vests were not standard issued. In fact, officers had to purchase their own if they wanted it. Officer Ken Knoelk purchased a vest when he first started in 1982 at the cost of $75. To this day he says it’s one of the best investments he ever made because ultimately it saved his life after he was shot by an armed robbery suspect in 1985. Once ballistic vest were provided by the police department, most officers chose to wear them.

The change to mandatory wear was a good move. But in fairness, the reason for taking a look at the policy in the first place was driven by a change in grant rules requiring some type of mandatory wear policy in order to receive 50% funding for the $19,000 spent on vest annually. Each vest cost about $950 and is replaced after the 5-year warranty expires.

That said, the money obviously isn’t the deciding factor in mandating that officers wear ballistic vest. If an officer is taken out of the fight, they can’t help their partner or the people of Idaho Falls. In Malin’s case, after being shot, he immediately came back fighting as he continued to help protect his fellow officers from being shot too.

No Left Turn

No-Left-Turns were installed on Hitt Road south of 17th just before Thanksgiving Black Friday. We took a quick look and compared the same time periods for the last few years for the specific locations where the barriers were installed. Impressive results:

11/2007 – 05/2008 3 injury accidents

11/2008 – 05/2009 2 injury accidents

11/2009 – 05/2010 3 injury accidents

11/2010 – 05/2011 0 accidents - nada, none, zilch

It's been an inconvience for some shoppers, but considering the cost and pain of injury accidents, I think it was well worth it. Idaho Falls and Ammon are working together for a permanent solution. More on this later.

By the way, I spot checked compliance today. Out of 50 cars turning onto Hitt Road, 49 of them got it right. Pretty good. We'll see if we can provide written reminders to the rest.

Pages