Archive for June, 2009

Typically, Tuesday at the Sandy Springs Police Department is the first recovery day from Monday. We have a weekend backlog that takes a couple of days to clear.

If we have a major event like a homicide or a crime incident that draws a lot of media focus, it can take a whole day to get all the interviews done, paperwork sent to where it needs to go and follow-up calls returned. Everything else backs up.

Then there’s the voice mail. Here are some of the phone messages from a recent Tuesday morning:“Lt. Rose, I saw a police car drive down my street last night. I wanted to know if something was going on. I live on Roswell Road.

“Good morning. I collect police trading cards. I wanted to know if you would send me any that you have. Thank you.”  (No address or phone number given.)

“Hey! I just got out of jail and found out someone broke into my apartment. I think it was my ex-girlfriend.”

“Good morning. I called you about the police trading cards and realized that I …

Continue reading Tuesday is a catch-up day at the station »

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.” — Albert Einstein

I was reading a local publication and noticed a section where they did the “Man on the Street” interview, now known as the “Person on the Street” interview. The question was: “What are you going to do this summer?”

One response was from a woman (whose first and last names were printed) who said she was going to hang around, do this and that, and then take a big vacation in October. Officer Larry Jacobs, crime prevention guru, pointed out that if he were a burglar, he’d Google the last name (it was not a common name so Googling might have been fairly easy) and cross-reference that name with any address information and put it on the list of homes to case by going by in October.

You don’t really think about that, but when you see as many burglaries as we do, you begin to think that way So, start thinking that way.

As I was looking over …

Continue reading Crime & Punishment in Sandy Springs »

Monday at the PD is like Monday where you work, unless you’re a lumberjack. Or that beach bum guy who can put you on the fast track to wealth in no time.

[Bob in Toledo tried the new system: “I made two gazillion dollars in just seventeen minutes!! I don’t even have to do the work. My computer does it — selling stuff — I don’t even know what kind of stuff, but stuff on e-Bay and you know — other sites. It’s really cool! I accidentally sold two Philippine hookers to my lawn guy, but heck, mistakes happen.

“Anyway, I’m now this cool dude and I talk like the beach bum guy. I’m so cool. Uh, oh, wait a minute. My bank account just notified me that I made another quadrillion dollars while I was talking to you! Cowabunga!!!”]

No, no, no. Mondays are filled with e-mails and calls about all the tragedies of the weekend. Monday is good for about 100-150 e-mails. They range from neighborhood delinquents to confirmations.

Confirmations range from “my neighbor …

Continue reading Mondays aren’t fun for police, either »

Some of the recent reports filed with Sandy Springs Police:

REWARD OFFERED

Sandy Springs Police, Dunwoody Police and the ADL have combined to offer $7,500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of persons responsible for the vandalism to a home on Princeton Trace in north Sandy Springs.

The resident found that a swastika had been painted on a tree in her yard. Dunwoody PD recorded two vandalisms of similar nature.

Anyone with information regarding any of the incidents above are asked to contact Sandy Springs Police Criminal Investigation Unit, Sgt. John Mullin: 770-551-6952, or the Sandy Springs Police Tip Line: 770-551-3300.

ARREST
Officers were called to Harbor Pointe in response to an argument call. They knocked on the door. A man answered the door.

The man was smoking a joint when he opened the door. The look on his face was priceless. The man was arrested.

Silly, silly, man.

FORGERY, FRAUD AND I.D. THEFT

• 6400 block of Powers Ferry Road, 6/9: An …

Continue reading Crime & Punishment »

Here’s some good advice. The next rainy Saturday or Sunday that comes up, do this:

Get your digital camera, paper and a pencil. Go around the house or apartment and take a digital shot or video of your television, CD player — all those things that make you happy and would make you sad to see gone. Write down the serial and model numbers and transfer that information to your computer. Then copy that to a flash drive or a CD. And then maybe copy it to another flash drive or CD and keep it someplace away from the home in case of fire or alien invasion.

If this seems like too much work, then let me pitch a good reason why you should set the DVR to record “The Moose Whisperer,” “What Not to Wear,” and “Jon and Kate Plus the Divorce Lawyer” and get your camera and get to it. Once we recover stolen property, many times we can’t determine the owners. The evidence stays in the property room until someone claims it or it gets sold on down the line in an auction. This …

Continue reading Record your property in case it’s ever stolen »

This covers absolutely nothing of importance, but it struck me in conversation today. I was the victim of a needless buzzword.

“Reach out” is useless verbiage. It means the same as “call” or “contact” or “get in touch with” or whatever, but it sounds like it’s a “sincere” version of all that stuff I just named.

Reach out? It sounds like we needed the helping hand so they graciously “reached out” and saved the day.

I would think the opposite action to “reach out” would be to “reach in.” You could “reach in” and “pull our butts out of trouble.” If so, those are buzzwords that would at least have some meaning.

“Reaching out” has infiltrated into our office. I asked one of the guys to give another guy a call:

“Sure, I’ll reach out. I need to reach out to a couple of other people while I’m at it.”

Why can’t you just say “call?” It uses fewer syllables. What ever happened to the K.I.S.S. rule?

Here’s a Wikipedia …

Continue reading When you can reach out and impress, why just call? »

Sunday 9:10 a.m.
I’m sitting here on a Sunday morning, laptop in my — well, lap, as it should be — watching “CBS News Sunday Morning,” as I usually do, and trying to think about something to write about, and …

… I can’t think of anything to write about.

It happens. You go hours, and even days, without a single thought of anything that would remotely resemble something worth writing about.

Today I’m there.

You would think that police work would serve as a target-rich environment for “humorous fodder,” a term that sounded much better before I actually wrote it down. But, actually, “dumb crooks” stories are out there, all over the Internet, for us all to see. I’ll pass on dumb crooks today.

9:20 a.m.
Now that I’m into this by a few paragraphs, I still could not see a story on the horizon. So I started watching the TV again. I watched the “Sunday Morning” piece on Dave Matthews Band. I like them.

Maybe I should write about them. Maybe I should …

Continue reading No ‘dumb crooks’ stories today »