For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been interested in law enforcement for quite a while. And the more I study criminal justice issues, the more I become fascinated with community policing. For those of you who don’t know, community policing is "a policing strategy and philosophy based on the notion that community interaction and support can help control crime and reduce fear, with community members helping to identify suspects, detain vandals and bring problems to the attention of police."

Some people don’t like the idea of community policing because they’ve been taught to mind their own business. But there comes a point where those people have to draw the line between minding their own business and standing up for the safety of the community. It’s my belief that people have a lot more power over crime than they realize, but they’ve been sucked into this lie that they should mind their own business.

This issue of community policing really hit home when I started going to Crossroads Bible College because it’s on a side of town that isn’t the greatest. Eastgate Mall sits abandoned right across the street from the college, down the street there’s a motel that’s been shut down by the city and fenced off, and there are houses in need of dire repair. But I started to really have an affection for the neighborhood when I started volunteering at Shepherd Community down the street, I really began to feel like I had some ownership in the community. When I did the Grace Staff Day of Service at Shepherd, I was able to see the community in which the Shepherd staff lived, how they were planting roots in the community and working to make their homes and community a better place.

I was in chapel the other day when our college president presented us with the "Faith-Based Covenant With the Community." It’s being done by the City of Peace Coalition and is between faith-based organizations and Marion County. I wanted to post it here on my blog so that you can see what some people are wanting to step up and do to help their communities. Maybe it will serve as an inspiration for you if you live in one of these communities or it may stir your heart to get involved with urban ministry. It’s a huge task, but with the community and police working together, we can make our neighborhood safer.

FAITH-BASED COVENANT WITH THE COMMUNITY

WE, as a faith community, enter into this covenant with the community at large to play our part in making Marion County safer;

WE reject deviant behavior that preys upon the young, the elderly, and defenseless in our community;

WE urge all people of goodwill, honesty, dignity, nobility, peace, hope, and love to stand with us as we refuse to accept this kind of behavior;

WE recognize that reducing crime in our community is a challenge that will require community, businesses, government, law enforcement, and all sectors of the faith community working in partnership;

WE call on our community to enter into covenant agreement with us in order to help us reduce violence in Marion County;

WE, as a faith community, will provide

1. Safe havens for youth.
2. Employ street outreach workers to directly interface with those involved or potentially involved in criminal behavior.
3. Organize and facilitate faith walks to continually remind our community that there is hope and alternatives to violence.
4. A connection to those in need of employment, resources, and social services.

WE call on Black Males and others to join us in this covenant by

1. Ending the senseless killing of one another.
2. Ending the phenomenon known as "deadbeat" dads.
3. Being responsible role models for their children.
4. Making a decision to be a positive on-going constructive presence in the lives of their children.
5. Working to eliminate the unlawful buying, selling, and use of firearms.
6. Putting an end to the glorification of gangster images.
7. Cease the unlawful buying, selling, and distribution of drugs in the community.

WE call on individuals in the neighborhoods to partner with us by

1. Getting to know your neighbors.
2. Joining, participate in and/or establishing crime/neighborhood watch teams.
3. Reporting crimes and criminal activity that take place in the neighborhood.
4. Join in the effort to eradicate abandoned homes, drug houses and dark streets.

WE call on parents and families to join us in this covenant by

1. Establishing a curfew for your children.
2. Making education a priority by encouraging children to stay in school.
3. Becoming aware of your child’s friends and activities.
4. Promoting and modeling abstinence and rejecting a culture of promiscuity; teen and unwed pregnancies.
5. Removing the images and glorification of gangster life in the household.
6. Making sure our children are safe and nurtured.

Tonight was our graduation from the Carmel Citizen’s Police Academy. As a class, we are so grateful for the Carmel Police Department who have been so gracious to us and have allowed us to be a part of their family (and we hope that continues!). Special thanks go out to Ann Gallagher, Patti McAllister, and Major Barlow. Thanks to Chief Fogarty, Assistant Chief Green, and all the divisions that taught us throughout these ten weeks.

Our graduation was a lot more than I had expected, mostly because I didn’t expect a graduation. Ha ha! We had a great dinner, gave out awards, and talked about what we liked about the class. It was a great wrap-up and was most definitely appreciated by all of us in the class.

It doesn’t end there though. Those who have taken this class before us have formed an alumni association, so we’ll be seeing each other again… not as often, but we’ll be seeing each other. I greatly enjoyed this time at Carmel PD and if you live in Carmel and are interested in taking the class, visit the Carmel Police web site. I know that other departments offer this too, so check your local department’s web site.

Well my friends, that’s all for now. Here’s our class picture, it was great getting to meet these great people!

Ahhh, week ten. We made it! I think that this week had to be one of my favorite weeks, just because it was more hands on. And when I look back on it, it feels like we just started yesterday!

Today we mostly talked about traffic stops and did “simulated traffic stops.” When you think about it, a traffic stop is typically the way most people encounter police officers. It’s also a good chance for the officer to find people doing things they shouldn’t: drugs, smuggling, driving without a license, etc.

Anyway, simulated traffic stops. We set up our little course behind the bank and paired up. We were told how to perform a traffic stop, what to look for, what we can/can’t do, etc. It was actually pretty fun having Ann (our leader) and the officer’s wife play the “bad guys.” We had a great time and instead of boring you with facts (which I find interesting, you may not), I am going to leave you with a couple of videos along with some photos. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Per department policy, I removed some of my pictures and video. Sorry!

Hi friends! Sorry about not posting an entry last week. We got introduced to the SWAT team and while there were a few cool things, I didn’t really find much to photograph.

We spent this week down on the Carmel PD shooting range, which if I had paid attention, I would’ve found it the first time I drove by it. If you’re ever by the wastewater treatment facility on 96th Street and Hazel Dell Parkway, you just might see the range north of that. Surprisingly, it didn’t smell that bad. God must have made the wind blow south instead of north towards us.

We started talking about the different types of force, how it’s used, etc. The rangemaster shot a couple tasers for us to show how it works. I think most of us were excited for the Laser Shot training simulation. Basically you stand in front a screen and a video plays a scenario. Watching the person, you decide when and if it’s the right time to shoot.

My first scenario was kind of a bust. It was a courtroom with a beligerent man not wanting to go back to jail. He shoved the bailiff and came running at me, I shot him three times in the chest cavity. Whoops! Turns out he didn’t have a weapon in this particular simulation… thanks alot Major Barlow! Ha ha!

The second simulation was a bit more difficult, it had me walking through a hallway of a school with multiple shooters… children shooting at me! The version that Carmel PD owns seems like a fairly simple version of the Laser Shot system. They take a Glock and put a laser sight in it, so when you shoot at the screen, it registers where you shot (think of it like a high-tech version of Duck Hunt). I was browsing through YouTube and found this video showing a more advanced version of the software used by the Army….

Well, that pretty sums it up. Next week we’ll be doing simulated stops, so we’ll get to drive a squad car and pull people over, it should be good times… now what did I do with that taser? Ha ha!

FUN FACT: Did you know that there’s a civilian version of the taser gun like the police use? It’s the Taser X26C. In Indiana, it is considered a deadly weapon if a civilian uses it without proper training.

Today we talked about Emergency Vehicle Operations (EVO) and was also introduced to the K-9 unit. The EVO portion of the class was pretty straight-forward and he went over a lot of basics.

I was most impressed with the K-9 Unit presentation. I found out that a lot of police dogs are actually imported from around the world. One of the dogs was from the Czech Republic, another was from the Netherlands, and one from Germany. Apparently the blood-line from those countries are of a much stronger breed which makes them excellent hunting/narcotics dogs. The K-9 trainer at Carmel PD prefers German Shepherds because they are the easiest to train and have more control.

We learned that you never want to mess with a police dog, as they’ve been trained very well. One time a man walked up to the K-9 officer and extended his hand to shake the officer’s hand… apparently the dog took this as a threatening move and bit the guy. The dogs are also very protective of their human partners. Let’s say the officer is doing a traffic stop and the person gets out and starts attacking the officer.  The officer carries a remote with them that can pop open the door and release the dog.

The dogs do a lot. There was one time in Cicero where a suspect was hiding out in an attic. They had the dog sit on a SWAT shield and two officers lifted the dog up into the attic to search for the suspect. Can you imagine that? Hiding out in the attic and all of the sudden you see a dog’s head pop up? Ha ha!

Unfortunately I forgot to bring my video camera, so all I have are still pictures. But I did find a video produced by the NYPD which can give you a better idea of the K-9 unit and show them in action. So enjoy the video and enjoy the pictures!

Today was a pretty good day for those of us in the Citizen’s Police Academy. We had our official class picture taken with the chief and assistant chief of police in front of the famous Carmel fountain.

After that we walked over to the Mobile Command Vehicle which they had set-up behind the firehouse. It was pretty interesting to hear about, as it has some pretty nice capabilities. I guess the best way to describe it would be to call it a mobile office. This thing is decked out with mobile communications which allows them to get work done without being tethered to their office or patrol car.

Need to have a video conference? There’s a camera in the back part of the vehicle. Need internet access? Plug in your computer and you’re connected. Need to set up a separate radio dispatch channel for an emergency? There are radios and room for dispatch to work.

The city bought this vehicle as a shared resource between the Carmel Police Department and Carmel Fire Department. Other agencies in the area may also request the vehicle as well, but Carmel has priority. You can find it at big events such as CarmelFest, Rock the District, PGA Golf Tournament. But it is more intended for times when Carmel PD or Fire may need to remain on the scene for a few days: major accident, homicide scene, crisis negotiation, etc.

The vehicle is essentially divided up into four sections. The front is obviously for the driver, the second part is for radio communication (and coffee, ha ha!), the third part is a noise-isolated room, and the fourth section is a conference area. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy:

The last half of the class was dedicated to the complaint process and special investigations/drug enforcement. The complaint process was pretty straight-forward, if you have a problem with an officer you can file a complaint and they will investigate. A lot of times the complaints are unfounded, for example, someone was mad they were pulled over. Of course, citizens can always file a complaint with the city attorney if they feel like the police department didn’t handle it appropriately. Basically, I learned that there are checks and balances within the system, but it’s important to know where to turn.

The special investigations division/drug enforcement was pretty fun to listen to, because when you’re listening to someone who has had years of undercover narcotics under his belt, he has some great stories. We learned a lot about the different types of drugs that are out there, their street names, effects, etc. He also passed around some of the different drugs so we’d know what they’d look like… and yes, we were careful and everything was accounted for.

Perhaps what I learned most from the officer telling us about narcotics is that it’s a problem, more in Indianapolis than Carmel. Indianapolis used to be a dot on the map for drug distribution, meaning that it would get to Indianapolis, but it wasn’t a big player. Indianapolis is now more of a hub, meaning it comes straight from Mexico to here… really makes you think.

Well friends, I had a lot of stuff thrown at me tonight and SO much information. If you want to learn more about drug enforcement and drug education, I’m sure you can search for it on the internet and come across some handy sites. As for me? I am off to bed. I hope you’ve enjoyed the pictures and a little bit of insight!

I will not be doing a post next week, since our class isn’t meeting due to spring break. But, stay tuned because our next class will cover Emergency Vehicle Operations and K-9 Demonstrations (I’ll try to take some video… we’ll see!). Take care!

Week five of Citizen’s Police Academy, woo hoo! Some of you may be wondering, “what about last week?” Well, last week was an interesting week for me as I was battling being sick, so I didn’t blog much. We also spent all of last week in the classroom, which was interesting, but I just didn’t have the energy to write about it. We talked about the department’s working with the Hispanic community, drugs and alcohol, and interdiction. I may write about it later, we shall see.

We spent this week in Operations Division. The Operations Division is primarily responsible for crime prevention, traffic enforcement, crime prevention, recovery of stolen property, more crime prevention, apprehension, accident investigations, even more crime prevention… you get the point.

Carmel has about 75 officers in its Operations Division. They usually work three days on, two days off, two on, three off. They work twelve-hour shifts that either run from 5 a.m. – 5 p.m. or 5 p.m. – 5 a.m.

For those of you who complain that Carmel writes a lot of tickets… you might be correct in assuming that. They made 19,843 stops last year and out of those they gave 11,770 warnings. I don’t have the exact number of tickets they wrote, but when I looked at the motorcycle officer’s ticket book, there were a lot more tickets than written warnings. But he did say that he does give people a chance to see the speed limit sign and slow down, the problem is that people aren’t paying attention and keep on speeding.

I think the part that I enjoyed most about the Operations Division was checking out the motorcycle and the police car. Officers Spillman and Williams were pretty awesome to let us check out their vehicles. Officer Spillman made several points to remind us that he is no longer the shortest one in his unit… so I’m guessing they’ve given him a hard time in the past.

Here’s a few pictures from our evening in Operations Division. I’ve also posted a video from YouTube of a motorcycle officer (not Carmel PD) doing a solo run on his motorcycle. Enjoy!

Week three of Citizen’s Police Academy and we’re all starting to feel like seasoned pros… okay, not really, but we can dream, can’t we? I was particularly excited about this week because we did crime scene investigations (CSI) and I knew that this week would be more hands-on.

We were led this week by Major Carey of the Criminal Investigations Division and some of his detectives. Which by the way, with the exception of the female detectives, almost half of the detectives are bald. That makes me wonder, is that some kind of unwritten code? They swore it wasn’t, but I’m beginning to think that the code is that to be a male detective you have to be bald or have buzzed hair. Ha ha!

So here’s the deal, we were given a mock crime to solve. Here’s the story (based on a true incident):

“During the late afternoon on March 9, 2009, a white man walked into CVS and handed a blue piece of paper to a pharmacy employee. The note demanded drugs and warned that he had a gun. Drugs were placed into a white plastic CVS bag and handed to the man. He ran out of the store and into a four-door car. The employee called 9-1-1 and noted the car headed northbound.”

The first thing we had to do was question the witnesses, so one detective played the pharmacy tech, while the other played the store manager. We asked the typical questions, “what was he wearing? Did you notice any scars or tattoos? Do you still have the note? Have you seen this man before?”

I think the detectives were having just as much as we were. When the detective (playing the CVS store manager) was asked how he managed to get from the back of the store to the front in time to see the get-away car he replied, “I ran track and did hurdles in college.” He then bust out laughing.

We were then divided up into groups of four and went to a few different “areas” of the investigation. The first for our group was fingerprints.

It was pretty interesting to hear Becky talk to us about fingerprints. She talked about how they’re able to get fingerprints depending on the type of surface, the type of skin a person has (some people have dry skin, doesn’t transfer well), and the different type of powders that can be used to get a latent print. So we were given different objects that had prints on them and were told to find the prints and put them on a card… I left this up to my trusty friend, Doug.

The next part of our investigation took us to the sally port (garage) where we were to search the suspect’s vehicle that had been recovered. We turned that car upside-down looking for any possible clue, making note of anything we could find. I even wanted to throw some crap in there for the next group to find, just to throw them off.

While we could’ve easily solved this case lifting prints off the car, the detectives told us that we were looking for physical evidence. We found two notes, a pill bottle, a gun, a pager, ski masks under the seat, and a bunch of other things. Amazingly, after looking at the car’s registration, we found out that the car was registered to the Carmel Police Department (someone’s got some explainin’ to do! Ha ha!).

When we asked if we missed anything, it turns out we hadn’t. I attribute this to Doug’s thoroughness, along with the other two guys (I mostly took pictures and observed).

Our next stop was interrogation… this was the fun part for me. I was quiet at first, let my partner ask all the questions. The person across the table from us was a detective, impersonating our suspect. Here’s how my interrogation went down:

ME: Well then explain to me the gun.

SUSPECT: What gun? I don’t know anything about a gun.

ME: We found a gun in your car man, what’s up with that?

SUSPECT: I dunno. You found a gun in there? The cops must’ve planted it there, last time I got pulled over they took my money.

ME: Don’t play dumb with me, the gun is registered to you! Your prints are all over it!

SUSPECT: Okay… well, yeah… that gun’s mine. But I still don’t understand why you pulled me over. I’m just minding my own business and you guys start chasing me! Where I’m from, Indianapolis, we run from the police.

ME: Well, you’re in Carmel now my friend, and you know very well that Carmel PD has nothing better to do!

(Cop starts laughing)

ME: Come on… I don’t even need a confession from you. I’ve got circumstantial evidence. Your car matches our witness’ description being in the area at the time of the crime, we find pill bottles from CVS in your car, along with a ski mask and a gun! It doesn’t help that the car is registered to Carmel PD and you’re wearing a Carmel Police badge!

At this point, we just all start laughing, I had him… I just started having fun with it.

Once we were done with the interrogation, we headed back into the training room and did one more exercise. Basically we were asked to remember the details of someone who had just walked into the room briefly and left… this was very difficult. So I just let Doug run with it… Doug used to work for a bank and was trained to remember such details.

After that we were finished with the mock scenario. I must say that it was a really fun time. We sat around and talked about how interrogations are handled, techniques used, and other things. Overall, it was a great night and gave me more appreciation for what the detectives do… they are a bunch of great men and women and we had a good time.

So today was week two of the Citizen’s Police Academy. I have to apologize that I don’t have any pictures today, after all, we sat in a training room and listened to presentations all night. I’m not complaining, just stating the facts.

Today we talked about Support Division. In Carmel, the Support Division has four lieutenants, one sergeant, six police officers, twelve civilians, and four chaplains. They are responsible for: accreditation, records, media relations, city garage, crime watch, school resource officers, DARE, training, hiring, and other things.

The two things that astonished me the most was the accreditation and training process. Anyone that has lived in Carmel or Northern Indianapolis has probably joked once or twice about Carmel PD. Often times you’ll see two officers pulled over behind a car or someone got pulled over for going a few miles over the speed limit (which hasn’t been true lately). But I have to say that the more I learn about this department, the more impressed I am with it.

These men and women put in a lot of time in training. Prior to heading to the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy, they spend time at Carmel PD learning the ropes. In addition to their initial training, the State of Indiana requires that officers have twenty-four hours of continuing law enforcement training each year which should include: firearms, defensive tactics, domestic violence, CPR, hazardous materials, Spanish, EVO (Emergency Vehicle Operations), ethics, law update, roll call training, and specialized training. Carmel spends 120 hours per officer, per year on training. This is five times more than the state recommendation.

I also learned that CPD is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA). First off, I think that agency needs a shorter name, we’ll call it CALEA for short. CALEA really sets the standard for operating procedures in police departments. It is not mandatory for a police department to join CALEA, nor does it really come with any rewards. In its most simplest form, I suppose we could compare it to a college accreditation agency. Colleges don’t have to be accredited, but if they want to do things in a professional manner that can be transferred across to other colleges, it’s a good idea. In the same way, departments of CALEA share standards: organization, management, administration, personnel structure, operations, etc.

One of the big things we talked about was officer recruitment and the interview process. It’s not so easy to get into the police department. First there’s the pre-application. One must not have any felony convictions, class A misdemeanors, or selected class D misdemeanors.

If the prospect passes the pre-application process, they’ll be asked to come in and take a written test administered by Institute for Public Safety Personnel. Then there’s the physical fitness standards. When you go to the law enforcement academy, there are standards to get in and then there are standards to pass. Right off the bat, Carmel expects their recruits to be able to pass ILEA physical fitness exit standards.

There are also firearm standards that one must pass in order to move on in the process. According to the recruiter, few fail the firearms testing, but it is still required.

I’m sure I probably missing some steps. But if the prospect is able to pass the pre-app, written, physical fitness, and firearms tests, they’ll make it to the next stage. Are you ready for this? Polygraph tests. All candidates who get this far in the process not only have an interview with an interview board, but they are also hooked up to a polygraph machine and asked questions. Surprisingly, around half of the candidates fail this test because of various reasons. Some contradict what they write on their application, others fail for other reasons.

If the candidate passes all these tests, then the department runs some background processes. They talk to friends, neighbors, do a home visit, talk to the candidate’s husband or wife (if applicable). They look at how the candidate handles themselves, how they keep their home, etc. Here’s a short clip from one of my favorite old shows that talk a little bit about the process….

Well, are you bored yet? I personally found a lot of this interesting. We covered some other things tonight include some more support division stuff, as well as talking about the chaplaincy and basic training. But in the order of keeping things short, I’ll stop for now.

I hope you’ll check in next week, we’ll be doing criminal investigations and crime scene stuff. Everyone has told me that it’s more hands-on, which means that I should have some pictures for all of you. In the mean time, keep your nose clean, kid.

So today was the first day for the 17th class of the Carmel Citizen’s Police Academy. I had heard of the academy through some friends and the newspaper, but I never made the time to go.

The whole purpose behind the program is a good one, it opens up communications between the police department and the citizens. It also give the citizens a view of law enforcement.

The program lasts 11 weeks and each week I will try to give some highlights. This week was an introduction. We met the police chief, some of the majors, the chaplain, and others.

Carmel has been growing and has grown from a police department of four officers to over 100 today. It’s even amazing how they’re outgrowing their headquarters. I’m beginning to think that we shouldn’t build one of the Keystone roundabouts and just build a new police headquarters.

Well friends, that was week one of the Citizen’s Police Academy. I wish I could show you more, but I didn’t take so many pictures this week. Stay tuned for more!