Congratulations to the 100th Graduating Class of the Johnson County Regional Police Academy

Last Friday evening, the commanders and I attended the graduation of the 100^th Class of the Johnson County Regional Police Academy at the Carlson Center of the Johnson County Community College (JCCC).  We had three recruits in this class. Our Honor Guard presented the Colors, while Shawnee Patrol Sergeant Ben Mendoza’s daughter Alyssa sang the National Anthem.  The Honor Guard and Alyssa represented our department very well.

In 1960s, Johnson County experienced enormous growth, and the Sheriff, along with several other Police Chiefs, decided a formal police academy curriculum was needed.  The late Johnson County Sheriff Fred Allenbrand, the former Overland Park Police Chief Myron Scafe, and the late Shawnee Police Chief Charlie Stump agreed to establish a formal academy specific to Johnson County.

In the fall of 1972, the first official regional academy was conducted on the campus of the JCCC.  The current academy facility, located on the west side of the college campus, was dedicated in October 2001. The academy’s curriculum is designed to meet and exceed the State’s requirements, as well as the unique nature of policing the Johnson County community.   

The Johnson County Regional Police Academy provides basic law enforcement training for officers from more than 30 Kansas agencies in the suburban Kansas City area. Successful completion of the 16-week academy results in certification as a Kansas Law Enforcement Officer. Recruits must be employed as a full-time law enforcement officer of an agency we serve before entering the police academy. The academy is operated in cooperation with the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center, JCCC, and the Johnson County Chiefs and Sheriffs Association.

In closing, I would like to congratulate Shawnee Police Recruit Justin Cobb.  Justin was awarded the Rick Staples Marksmanship Award and the Overall Achievement Award for his outstanding performance while attending the academy.  Justin, and his Shawnee classmates, Jennifer Pennington and Josh Bayless, now start their post-academy training before entering our field training program.

Smart Policing Right Here in Shawnee

We learned a few weeks ago that we were awarded federal funds to conduct a study of our implementation of the National Highway Traffic Safety Association's Data Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety (DDACTS) Initiative.  The purpose of the study is to determine what effect the DDACTS initiative has had on crime and traffic safety in the City of Shawnee. This award is a great honor for Shawnee and we are now a member of a select few law enforcement agencies that are testing solutions to serious crime problems in their jurisdictions.

  

The goal of these Smart Policing initiatives is to develop evidence-based, data-driven law enforcement tactics and strategies that are effective, efficient, and economical. These proven tactics and strategies will be a great benefit to law enforcement agencies as measured by reduced crime and higher case closure rates.  This is so important in these days of budget constraints and limited staffing.

According to the Bureau of Justice Assistance, “The Smart Policing Initiative (SPI) seeks to build upon concepts of “offender-based” and “place-based” policing. Several longitudinal projects in the United States and the United Kingdom have demonstrated convincingly that a small number of offenders commit a disproportionate amount of crime. It is also well documented that crime reports and calls for service often cluster predominately at specific locations or narrow, easily-defined areas, and that the most convincing research indicates that “place-based” or “hotspot” policing reduces violent crime and neighborhood disorder. These persuasive findings suggest that effective policing requires a tightly focused, collaborative approach that is measurable; based on sound, detailed analysis; and includes policies and procedures for accountability.

The consistent use of preventive and tactical tools that are rooted in a scientific knowledge base of “what works” should be promoted and integrated into daily police work.  Inculcating evidence-based policies and procedures in everyday police operations is critically important to an agency’s ability to provide quality law enforcement services.”  

Shawnee's Citizens' Police Academy 2011

This week we re-instituted our Citizens’ Police Academy.  It has been about twelve years since we last held this academy.  Various reasons were the cause for not programing this training, but most recently it was because of budget concerns.  We have talked about resurrecting the program in the past; and after becoming Chief, my staff and I made it a priority. We are saving overtime costs by having the commanders present as much information as possible, and the hourly staff are flexing their schedules.  Our Planning and Research Manager Greg Collins and Lieutenant Doug Orbin did the lion's share of planning to make this training happen.

The Citizens’ Police Academy is an opportunity for members of our community to see and experience the role of the law enforcement officer at a deeper level.  Participants in the academy will meet and interact with officers and see how the members of the Shawnee Police Department work to maintain a safe community for all who live in, work in, or visit Shawnee.  Over eight weeks, twenty women and men participating in this year’s academy will be presented information about the history of the Shawnee Police Department, police officer ethics, patrol operations, investigative procedures, support services operations, and many more topics.  A big hit from past academies is the day they meet at a local firearms range to fire the various less-lethal and lethal weapons we use to perform our jobs.

This year’s participants include two members of the Shawnee City Council, residents of Shawnee, and individuals who work at businesses in Shawnee.  One of the participants is a daughter of a retired Shawnee police officer who said she would like to follow her father’s footsteps and become a police officer in the future.  Isn't that too cool???

Master Police Officer Michael Sedars - August 24, 1981 to September 19, 2011

Last Friday, we had a great time sending off Mike Sedars at his retirement reception.  After thirty years, Monday, September 19, 2011, will be Mike's last day as a Shawnee police officer. During his years at Shawnee PD, Mike served as a field training officer, tactical team member; and in January 2002, he became a member of the department’s newly formed Traffic Safety Unit, and that is where he served out the rest of his career.  When I came on in 1987, everyone told me to look for Mike if I had any questions about traffic crash investigations.  They said he was the department’s crash investigations expert.  Throughout the past 25 years, I have come to know why everyone looks to Mike for help.  Mike would put aside anything he was doing to explain how to perform a crash investigative task, or in most cases, he would do the work for us.  Mike is a shining example of an officer who puts others before himself.  He is one of the reasons why the Shawnee Police Department is a great law enforcement organization.

Mike - Thanks for your dedicated service to your fellow officers, the City, and  Community of Shawnee; and all the agencies around us that you have assisted throughout your honorable career.  Have fun and enjoy your well-deserved retirement.

9/11/01 - Never Forget

Who doesn’t remember what they were doing on September 11th, 2001, around eight o’clock in the morning.  I had just left home with my wife Deb to drive her to KCI where she would board a plane to Chicago to attend a conference when we first heard the news on the radio that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center towers in New York City.  Minutes later came news that a second plane had stuck another World Trade Center tower, and now these actions were suspected to be acts of terrorism.  Soon the radio station reported that all airplane flights in America were grounded immediately, so we returned home and turned on the television to see the shocking video replays of the United Airlines commercial jets flying right into the sides of the North and South Twin Towers, and then as each tower collapsed to the ground.  Later it was learned that another commercial airliner had struck the Pentagon, and a fourth had crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.  Those are memories of chaos like I have ever experienced and ones I surely will never forget.

In the hours and days after the crashes, we learned of the bravery of the emergency services and security personnel, and other nameless heroes who gave their lives trying to protect and save others.  Today we remember all of those nearly 3,000 fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and other loved ones and dear friends lost as the result of those tragic events.   

That terrible day too was the deadliest day in US law enforcement history.  Of those lost that day, and in the days and years later, 72 brave law enforcement officers unselfishly have given  their lives as the result of those attacks in the service of their community.  Like other emergency services workers and the unnamed heroes who died during and after the terrorists attacks, these 72 courageous souls ran towards the danger with their brothers and sisters when most ran away.

Today we honor all of those who performed selfless acts of heroism on that fateful day.  On every September 11th, let us remember to commemorate in our own time, in the lives of our children, and in future generations – the stories and the memories of those we lost on that day and ensure that they will never be forgotten.

This morning, Deb and I, Major Moser, Captain Hisle, Captain Tennis, and Lieutenant Brim and his wife Shelee attended services at the Cross Points Church at their invitation.  This afternoon, members of the Irish American Club of Johnson County hosted a First Responders Picnic at Fire Station 72 for the Shawnee emergency services workers and their families.  Both events were fantastic and I very much appreciate the acts of kindness by both organizations on this special day of remembrance.

Cops and Robbers

This week was a busy one in Shawnee. We have been looking for a gentleman wanted for an aggravation robbery of a liquor store a couple of weeks ago. Robbery is a crime where one individual takes something from another individual by the use of force. The crime becomes aggravated when a weapon is used. Anyway…a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper kicked this guy’s car up on Friday midday and tried to stop him as he drove west on Shawnee Mission Parkway, but he got away…briefly. The robber ditched his car and took off on foot into a heavily wooded section of western Shawnee. A large-scaled manhunt ensued and lasted for several hours through 100° heat, but it was closed down several hours later after we failed to find him. But…because of some great police work earlier in the week, sources led us to him that evening where he was taken into custody without incident. Chalk one up for the good guys.

Speaking of good guys, Johnson County law enforcement has a ton of them. Unlike several other metropolitan areas in the Country, Johnson County police officers work very well together. Officers from Lenexa, Olathe, Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, KHP, and even the FBI’s Fugitive Task Force were working alongside Shawnee officers searching for this guy in the woods. This type of cooperation goes on behind the scenes every day between the uniformed officers, detectives, commanders, police chiefs and the Sheriff.

I'm Back...

Would you believe I was kidnapped and held hostage?  Would you believe my dog ate my blog notes (yep…every week for the past few months)?  I wish I had a great story on why I have not been posting these past two months, but the simple truth is it has taken a little more than I thought to settle in to my new job.  Meetings here and there, budgets to discuss and present, you know…the administrative stuff.  But things have calmed down and I can turn my attention to my blog.

I promised a look inside the Shawnee Police Department; and so I will start blogging at the end of the week to catch everyone up on what’s been going on.  This week our monthly department newsletter came out.  I wrote a bit about how historically the officers of the Shawnee Police Department have always had a zero tolerance for crime and bad actors in our community.  This type of attitude was most evident lately in a few instances of great police work by our members.  Recent examples like a road patrol officer tracking down and arresting a burglary suspect living in Shawnee; another road patrol officer obtaining a confession on a Missouri homicide case over the phone; and two road patrol officers driving to Kansas City, Kansas to arrest a domestic violence suspect who had just committed a crime against an ex-girlfriend.  These are just a few general cases of great police work that goes on in the background every day at the Shawnee Police Department.  This commitment to making of community safe makes me proud to be associated with such a great group of individuals.