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Greenwich Post
:
Greenwich Beat
Apr 12, 2007
The following is a four-part series by Post
Assistant Editor Sara Poirier about the Greenwich Police Department's Citizens Police Academy, a free 11-week course taught twice a year.
Greenwich Post
:
Greenwich Beat
Jun 21, 2007
'CPA Warriors' unite one last time
When I was the first one called to the front of the room last Wednesday
night, a sense of pride and sadness filled me up as the end of a
fabulous learning experience came to an end. I was leaving a group I
had grown to love meeting up with each week, but was also thrilled with
the knowledge I’d gained and the inside look at the Greenwich Police
Department (GPD) that I had received.
It was graduation time for the Citizens Police Academy (CPA) — a time
to reminisce, reflect and don my Junior GPD badge that my sister found
randomly (unfortunately, they didn’t give any type of badge out at the
actual ceremony). The room at Town Hall filled with friends,
significant others, siblings, children, and even grandchildren, all
there to see us move our imaginary tassels to the other side.
When I first started the free class 11 weeks earlier, I didn’t imagine
all that I would learn. After all, this is Greenwich and nothing bad
happens here. Boy, was I wrong.
While we are fortunate to live in a community where, thank goodness, I
do not fear being carjacked at certain intersections and don’t hear the
banging of gunshots late at night, there are things that go on here
that make me pause and think anything really can happen anywhere.
Oh, the horror!
During our last official class, June 6, Detective Bill Weissauer laid
it all out ... blood, guts, you name it. As one of two detectives, he
said, in the Crime Scene Unit, he certainly loves his job. Showing
slide after slide of suicides and other bloody scenes, he would prepare
us for a particularly gruesome one by saying, “This next one is really
cool.” Word to the wise: When Detective Weissauer says that, turn the
other way.
I was so surprised to learn — although with the amount of pressure in
life today, especially among many wealthy people to stay on top, I
shouldn’t have been — that there are, according to Detective Weissauer,
somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 suicides per year in the
Gateway to New England. Let’s just say there are some places in town I
won’t be frequenting anytime soon.
As an avid CSI: Crime Scene Investigation watcher, I thought I was keen
on the process of DNA analysis and fingerprint matching, but those
Hollywood bigwigs did it again and pulled one over on me. DNA does not
take two minutes to analyze, and when you scan someone’s fingerprint
into a computer database, the name, picture, rap sheet, and last known
address of the matchee doesn’t magically appear in 30 seconds. And I
thought I knew everything!
In reality, Detective Weissauer said, DNA takes about 60 hours to
analyze, and that’s only if you’re doing that and nothing else. And the
Automated Fingerprinting Indexing System, known as AFIS, is only as
good as man or woman can make it; there are only so many hours in a day
that the detective assigned to duty can input the criminal data into
the system.
Greenwich SWAT
Although Greenwich police don’t actually call the unit SWAT — a term
and concept originally developed for handling high-risk police
situations in Los Angeles, Calif., in the 1960s — the idea behind the
Special Response Unit (SRU) here in town is the same.
One of two commanding officers of the 18-officer unit, CPA instructor
Lt. Jim Olencki was enthusiastic about the serious job he and his
squad do when he discussed it in class. In statistics compiled a year
ago, he said, there had been 15 robberies in an 18-month period and 10
murders in an 11-year period in Greenwich. The police department, Lt.
Olencki added, seizes about 50 guns per year.
Of all the specialized training the SRU does, I found it most
interesting to learn that it competes in the Connecticut SWAT Challenge
every year. After watching the 10-minute video created about the
challenge — which brings units from all over the state to compete in
various challenges and an obstacle course — I am seriously considering
going to watch the guys and gals in action come Sept. 3. (Yes,
spectators are allowed!)
While all the men in the SRU do it in addition to their regular duties
on patrol, etc., they should be commended for training to handle the
most dangerous of jobs. As Lt. Olencki said in one of the first CPA
classes, while civilians are trained to run away from danger, police
officers are trained to go toward it — definitely a brave and honorable
task.
Coming to an end
An unfortunate common thread in all that I learned throughout the CPA
course: Despite this being Greenwich — a town of wealthy and extremely
wealthy people by most accounts — the police department is understaffed
and underfunded, which doesn’t quite jibe with the idea that a place
like this should be ahead of the others.
While from everything I learned it seems as if Greenwich does have the
best working here, it needs more of the best. Low pay and traffic cop
duty on Greenwich Avenue are not encouraging incentives for new police
candidates. Would you want to go work in a great town like Greenwich,
only to have to direct traffic for people who should know when to cross
the street and look both ways, or cars, whose drivers should know to
yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk?
With the department already down many from its full complement,
wouldn’t it make more sense for those Greenwich Avenue cops to be using
their skills elsewhere? Just a thought.
An effort is already under way, courtesy of my classmate Neal Neilinger
and his wife, to help set up an annual police officer/firefighter gala
fund-raiser to help Greenwich’s finest and bravest do what they do
best. He’s also hoping to set up a scholarship endowment for their
children.
For anyone who thinks they know what policing in Greenwich is all
about, I urge them to send in an application for the fall CPA class,
where they, too, can become “CPA Warriors,” as Lt. Olencki called us at
graduation. Starting in the fall, Sgt. Mike Reynolds will be at the
helm, taking over for Lt. Olencki, but I know the class will be just as
intense, just as informative and just as good.
After sitting at home reading the
Greenwich Post’s
police blotter, or catching it online, why not be a part of the class
and learn what Greenwich cops are doing about what’s going on in the
community? After all, it’s your tax dollars hard at work.
Greenwich Post
:
Greenwich Beat
May 31, 2007
Things aren't always what they appear to be
When I first entered the room for a scheduled class on motor vehicle
stops, I was taken aback when a man dressed in a white jumpsuit with
the words “Ex-Con” on the front stood at the front of the room, said he
had raped and assaulted an elderly woman and was now doing this
presentation as part of his community service required by the police
department as a new resident of Greenwich.
Although not a professional actor, Det. Robert Brown could have — and did — fool me.
A 19-year Greenwich Police Department veteran, Det. Brown was not
really a former convict and was only pretending to be in order to drive
home a point: Nothing is as it seems. That theme was central to the
class he taught that night, and it became apparent when once again,
Officer Poirier reported for duty and I donned the plastic gun and belt
in a hands-on scenario.
Having spent two hours learning about what to do and what not to do
when stopping a car or approaching a suspicious vehicle, I thought I
had things pretty clear. When it came time to be the lead officer and
“approach a car” whose driver had been suspiciously sitting in it for a
long period of time, I did some things right (like shining the car
light into his side mirror and getting him out of the car), but I also
missed some key indicators that this guy wasn’t what he seemed (like
the knife sitting in the back seat and the bloody towel on the
passenger seat). Who was I to know that the guy had killed his wife and
left her at home?
Other takeaways from that class: Sobriety checkpoints, by law, have to
be noticed in the newspaper and drivers have to be offered an “escape
route” before getting there (what drunk thought of those laws?); if you
get the lights and sirens, pull over, park and turn on the car’s
interior lights; and according to state law, car dealerships are
setting new car owners up for trouble by putting their ad around
license plates. Sorry, folks, nothing is allowed to block the plate!
Another lesson learned: as Det. Brown said, “Cops deal in possibilities; civilians deal in probabilities.”
Watch your back
With one in five Americans having experienced identity theft, there’s a
strong possibility that I could be one of the 10 million Americans per
year that go through it. I’m hoping not.
Known, according to GPD Det. Mark Solomon, as the “lazy man’s crime”
where only 5% of cases lead to an arrest, identity theft is the fastest
growing crime in the United States. Theft victims spend about 600 hours
clearing their name, he said, at a cost of about $16,000 in lost wages.
In Greenwich, we were told, there are about three reports of such a
crime per week, and detectives here are solving a little bit more than
5%, but “not much higher,” the detective added.
A word to the wise: Safeguard your PIN numbers; watch for hidden
cameras at ATMs; check credit reports and bank statements as often as
you can, and notify the authorities as soon as possible if you think
something’s amiss.
On patrol
Safeguarding one’s identity is as important as taking care of valuable
treasures in the event of an emergency. The Cos Cob Fire Police Patrol,
an all volunteer group under the command of Chief Brian Kelly, helps
people do that, as well as runs traffic operations, provides scene
control, lighting and other support functions for the fire department.
The patrol officers and their leaders are the ones I’d want to call if,
God forbid, there were ever a fire and my precious pictures and flat
panel HDTV were in harm’s way.
The Fire Police Patrol is a way for people to give back to the
community and help in case of emergency when they don’t want to be a
full-fledged firefighter or police officer.
On the dock of the sound
When I think of Greenwich, I think of the 45 or so square miles of land
— from backcountry to Old Greenwich, to Pemberwick to North Mianus. I
never even thought — before May 23 — of the 25 square miles of
coastline that is also under the GPD’s jurisdiction. And while I knew that
boating was a big thing in town, I never thought that all that would
add up to $1 billion (that’s right, billion) worth of boats in
Greenwich waters.
That’s where GPD Sgt. John Brown and six officers who work four or five
months of the year in the little brick house down by the Island Beach
ferry come into play, patrolling the water to keep boaters and their
valuable vessels safe. With only seven officers in a full complement
(and the Marine Division is down one, according to Sgt. Brown) it seems
like getting more police officers trained to handle life waterside is a
necessity.
Next up: a police boat ride-along on a Sunday afternoon which, according to Sgt. Brown, is the busiest time of the week.
Greenwich Post
:
Greenwich Beat
May 3, 2007
Tasering someone isn’t as easy as it looks
OK, so getting zapped with the Taser à la La Toya Jackson on CBS’s now
defunct Armed and Famous wasn’t in the cards for the Citizens Police
Academy Class of Spring 2007, but watching and hearing what a Taser
does was shock enough, at least for this pain-phobe. Being the target
of the gun-like device, which is as loud as a gunshot, doesn’t seem
like much fun; it stops you in your tracks and renders your muscles
limp. After all that, emergency medical technicians have to remove the
prongs from your body.
In Greenwich, according to our instructor, Lt. James Olencki, more
officers use the Taser as a warning tool than actually fire it. If
someone waved a Taser at me and said I might get hit, I’d definitely
surrender.
That was just one of the lessons we learned during a class on use of
force. While role-playing (gun belt, plastic gun and all), civilians
became the cops and the cops became the bad guys. Watching as Lt.
Olencki — as a suspect in a perceived drunken bar dispute — fell to the
ground with a “knife” sticking out of his back five minutes into a
conversation with “police,” who thought he was just drunk, was
hilarious because it was fake. Had it been real, it would have been a
different story. Having to decide what level of force to use with a
suspect is tricky, and having to do it in the scenarios was even more
difficult. Do we go in there guns drawn? Does the suspect have a gun?
Is he or she pointing it at someone? Does the situation only require a
conversation? All those questions run through a police officer’s head
before coming upon a scene. Sometimes you never know what will pop up.
The ‘pharmacy’
A product of Greenwich High School, I have always been well aware that
drugs do circulate there. My naiveté kicked in, though, when an
undercover detective described it as a pharmacy and talked about things
such as “punch bowl parties.” At these teen bashes, kids bring a bunch
of random pills and pour them in a big bowl where others can grab some
and take them as if they were candy. During the discussion of criminal
patrol, officers also talked about a sting operation in which a
pill-pushing student was making money off his mother’s menopause pills,
unbeknownst to his customers. Go figure!
And while I knew that marijuana and cocaine were “popular” in this area
of the state, I was surprised to learn that heroin has made a name for
itself in town while crystal methamphetamine (talked about so much in
the news) hasn’t yet hit hard in this part of the country. If and when
it does, though, the undercover detective warned that it will be like
crack cocaine was in the 1980s — not a good thing.
Despite all that, according to the officers, traffic — not drugs — has
been the No. 1 concern of residents who take the townwide survey the
Greenwich Police Department (GPD) sends out. Drugs has been No. 2.
The lesson from the officers was enlightening; I learned more about
drugs than I ever thought I’d know — what they look like, how people
try to hide them in their cars and trucks. Along the “cocaine corridor”
that is Interstate 95, drugs have been found behind air bags,
surrounded by air fresheners in the hopes of deterring drug-sniffing
dogs, in door panels and in other seemingly crazy places.
Crash course
While now looking at every other car on the highway thinking, “Could
they have drugs?” I also am on the defensive, hoping to avoid a
collision. Having been in a serious accident on I-95 back in October,
when my car was totaled, seeing pictures of other people’s accidents
wasn’t necessarily my idea of fun. Three months of physical therapy and
a new car later, I know I was lucky.
Sgt. Brent Reeves said mine was one of 2,165 reported accidents in 2006 in Connecticut.
As Sgt. Reeves showed the class during his collision investigation
lesson all the tools needed to investigate an accident scene, it became
quite clear that police officers must carry a file cabinet with them at
all times; there’s so much paperwork for sometimes the smallest of
scenes.
The amount of math and formulas that must be learned in order to
properly judge who is at fault and where the point of impact was is
enough to make my head spin, but somehow the police seem to get it done
with the right training.
In Greenwich, there have been 18 fatal motor vehicle accidents (MVAs)
in the past five years. According to Sgt. Reeves, the most accidents
occur on the Post Road between Dearfield Drive and Milbank Avenue.
Since I live around there, I guess I’ll be taking the long way home.
My next column is May 31.
Greenwich Post
:
Greenwich Beat
Apr 12, 2007
Reporting for duty
Andy Taylor. T.J. Hooker. Rick Hunter. Sonny Crockett. Lennie Briscoe. Ponch.
They’ve all had their time to shine, protecting the mean streets of the big cities and small towns they were sworn (at least in TV land) to protect. Now it’s my time to serve (or at least learn how to serve) the mean streets of Greenwich.
As a recruit in the Citizens Police Academy, I’m going to learn how to slice and dice and tear the bad guys up ... or something like that. All right, so this isn’t the world of Frank Serpico, but it is the real deal — an intensive 11-week training course courtesy of the Greenwich Police Department. Judging from the orientation last Wednesday — where myself and 24 other wannabe cops watched as routine traffic stops can become dangerous, saw how intense the training at the state police academy really is and witnessed how cramped building a new police complex can make things at headquarters — it’s going to be a fun and informative ride.
When I first took the assignment to see what this four-year-old program is all about, I was obviously excited. As a crime enthusiast who catches every whodunit show, from the pretend to the real, I was eager to jump right in and see how it’s done in the town where I live. Counting Clue, Manhattan Murder Mystery and Once Upon a Crime on my list of all-time favorite movies, and with a course in forensic science à la Greenwich High School under my belt, taking a Citizens Police Academy course is right up my alley.
Under the direction of Lt. Jim Olencki and Sgt. Mike Reynolds, we’re going to learn about accident investigation, motor vehicle stops, police canine, crime scenes, use of force, crime trends and prevention, narcotics investigations, the special response unit, criminal law and the marine division. I can’t wait.
The best part: the ride-alongs. Not only does each member of my class get to ride in a police car with a supervisor for two hours, but new this session, we also get to ride in the marine unit’s boat on Long Island Sound.
With big binder in hand (apparently we get a lot of handouts), I’ll be attending class, Wednesdays from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
I’m hoping that through the overall course I’ll get a better understanding of what the Greenwich Police Department does on a daily basis, and maybe, just maybe, I’ll figure out why I really got that speeding ticket on Valley Road. Maybe going 50 in a 25-mile-per-hour zone really isn’t good.
Although last night’s class (covering use of force) happened too late to talk about in this week’s column, Lt. Olencki and Sgt. Reynolds said they were going to ask for volunteers, and you better believe that I was one of the first to raise my hand to take someone down. If I can’t be an actual police officer, I might as well play one in the newspaper.
Look for my next column on May 3.
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