Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 4018 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: MARCH 2016 T he recent attacks by two active shooters in San Bernardino, California brought lots of praise for the heroism shown by the police officers who responded. In terms of day to day policing, however, some say the agency is losing ground against crime and criminals due to budget issues. In San Bernardino, the average response times have jumped by 75% since 2010. “We had a guy who came in here with a bag, loaded it with what he wanted and walked out the back door,” Linda Sutherland told re- porters with The New York Times. She runs the downtown Fun Corner costume shop with her husband, Steve. “We called the police, and they said: ‘We can’t ar- rest him. We don’t have the resources.’” Nick Gonzalez, who heads the Arrowhead Neighbor- hood Association says it’s not the cops’ fault. “You have the bad guys moving in and the cops trying to keep them in line, but it’s an impossible task,” he said. “They can’t com- pete.” Local police officials take issue with those character- izations of the agency as essentially hamstrung, but Detective Wicks, a 12-year veteran, says an increase in calls for service and a loss of personnel have forced the agency to focus only on the most serious crimes. The problem is that San Bernardino is bankrupt. That means any attempts to deal with the issues have to be approved by a bank- ruptcy judge. Chief Jarrod Burguan is trying to restructure the department. He’s hired more civilians on the cheap to replace sworn officers who worked desk jobs. Burguan wants to increase the size of the force to 320 officers and upgrade the nearly obsolete computers and the fleet. “We’ve kind of stabilized,” Eric McBride, the deputy chief said. “We were thrust into the limelight a bit, and people said: ‘Hey, those San Ber- nardino guys were kicked around. But they per- formed,” McBride said. But the creditors that ac- tually control policy in San Bernardino are not likely to take any of that into consid- eration when they’re asked for money. When Stewart Neff was hired at Penn State back in 1966, he probably never ex- pected to set any records. But the 70-year-old Penn State Police lieutenant re- cently celebrated an as- tounding 50 years of service to the University. Neff is a a self-proclaimed country boy from Warriors Mark, Pennsylvania. He started out wanting to be a teacher. He had every intention of becoming one when he graduated from Tyrone Area High School. But then his wife had a baby and he needed to put food on the table rather than pursuing a degree. “I kept coming to Penn State and looking for a job,” Neff said. “I was always over in Willard Building at the employment office, where human resources was then, and in the mean- time I could have collected unemployment and didn’t. I worked for my father in the morning, and in the afternoons I worked at the Weis store. I did odd jobs for people because it’s just the way my family was – you worked for what you got.” Neff’s been at it so long his starting salary was $1.68 an hour working in the university’s food service. Then, in April 1966, a job came open in campus pa- trol and Stewart applied. “I was hired on as a dis- patcher and worked in that job for about two years. Then the opportunity came up for a foot patrol job. So I applied for that. It was nice; people took you under their wing and showed you the ropes.” The 1960s, very much like the second decade of the new century, was a turbulent time for campus cops. “Right about that time there was a fair amount of unrest around campus. It had to do with the Viet- nam War and the scientific research in support of it,” Neff recalled. Today, Neff is a lieuten- ant in event management, coordinating the police presence at events at the Bryce Jordan Center, Rec Hall and elsewhere on cam- pus. He’s also in charge of Penn State Police’s vehicle fleet, and he is a HAZ-MAT technician. “I’m pretty fortunate that through the years I’ve worked with a good group of people who looked out for one another,” he said. “Lieutenant Neff has al- ways had the same high energy and drive for all of the years I’ve known him,” said Tyrone Parham, former director and chief of Uni- versity Police, who worked with Neff for 25 years. “He is a hard worker and well known throughout campus and the commu- nity. I congratulate him on this significant accomplish- ment and wish him many more years to come.” That’s right – Neff has no plans to retire anytime soon. And that’s what you call some serious staying power. 50 years Heroes work on shoestring budget Lt. Stewart Neff is not going anywhere My longevity is due to my good timing. – Tony Curtis The San Bernadino Police Dept. has performed with distinction during one of the worst acts of violence in recent memory. But despite all that, the city is downsizing its police force and hiring civilians to do the jobs of sworn personnel.