10 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: JULY 2017 NATIONWIDE What’s up in law enforcement across the U.S.A. THETOPTEN 1. Someone spilled the beans about your father-in-law’s in-ground pool and now everyone’s your best friend. 2. You responded to a call for a middle aged woman wearing a tube top and an adult diaper who refused to not sit on the bags of ice in the ice chest at a 7/11. (True story Bro!) 3. You got home and asked Sasquatch (your bulldog) “Hey bud – you wanna go for a walk?” And he gave you the “Wadda you freakin’ nuts?” look. 4. Dibs to the cruiser with the “good A.C.” is being determined by a shift-wide rock, paper scissors contest before roll call. 5. It’s really not all that hot but between the vest and the dark blue shirt your chest is 154 degrees Fahrenheit. 6. Rookies wondering why it’s so busy and old-timers explaining summer’s our “crazy time of the year.” 7. You responded to a call about a disturbance between a lizard and a squirrel fighting over a patch of shade near a puddle. 8. It ain’t the heat – it’s the stupidity. 9. You lost it and threatened the weather man from the local news station with “making terrorist threats” after he said, “And sorry folks, looks like this heat wave is just getting started.” 10. You wish global warming was a hoax made in China but it’s 101 degrees in Portland, Oregon at 4:30 AM. signs it’s the middle of summer Not interested Anyone that knows anything about law enforcement knows that untested rape kits are a big problem. In California, no one even knows how many untested kits exist, where the kits are or why there’s no interest in testing them. A new law, AB 41, would require local jurisdictions to report such data. The California State Sheriff’s Association thinks this is a waste of time. “At the end of the day AB 41 doesn’t do anything to help us investigate, bring people to justice or prosecution. It’s a reporting system,” Marin County Sheriff Bob Doyle says. “We’re not in the habit of just supporting bills that really aren’t necessary.” Friction In Florida, a recent article in the Sun Sentinel newspaper about the police response to the January 6 shooting at the Orlando airport has led to a war of words between the mayor and the sheriff regarding the sheriff’s report on the shooting and response. “Some of the assertions in the report are just untrue. They’re lies and they’re inflamma- tory,” Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief said in an interview with the Sun Sentinel. The mass shooting left five people dead and six wounded. The report from Sheriff’s Office officials described massive failures including the lack of crime scene management. The report also says no one knew who was in charge of the more than 2,000 law enforcement officials that responded. We’re broke again The City of Milwaukee will likely be cutting 84 police officer positions in next year’s budget, Mayor Tom Barrett said recently. “I do not want to have fewer police officers in this city,” Barrett told reporters. “I’m trying to do everything I can to find a way to avoid this.” But if it says “public” on it – as in “public safety” – it’s an endan- gered species. In addition to the police cuts Milwaukee may be forced to eliminate 75 firefighter positions, six public health nurses and 10 code inspector jobs as well as closing two more libraries. Will appeal In Omaha, Nebraska, Police Chief Todd Schmaderer says he will fire at least two of the four officers involved in the death of an unarmed man that has created more controversy in Oklahoma. “In this incident, despite our extensive training, we failed,” Schmaderer told reporters. Schmaderer said inexperience was a major factor in the man’s death. “It did not appear that anybody took charge of this call,” Schmaderer said. More drones As the ranks of police departments in most parts of the nation continue to thin out for a wide variety of reasons, policy makers and planners will likely try and make up for the loss of manpower by using more drones. At least 347 state and local police, sheriff, fire and emergency units in the United States are now routinely using drones, according to the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College. “More and more departments in the public safety space, particularly in law enforcement, are acquiring drones for a range of operations,” says Dan Gettinger. Hell yeah, you can get a picture! Rosario Dawson takes a moment to make someone’s day in New York City. (Photo by Josiah Kamau/BuzzFoto via Getty Images) Attn: Officer safety alert The bad news is that there are new drugs out there that can kill cops quick if they come into contact with the substances. We’re talking about Fen- tanyl and carfentanil. “I started talking weird. I slowly felt my body shutting down. I could hear them talking, but I couldn’t re- spond. I was in total shock. ‘No way I’m overdosing,’ I thought.” That’s what East Liver- pool, Ohio Police Officer Chris Green told reporters after he was almost killed after coming into contact with a tiny amount of fen- tanyl during a traffic stop and nearly died. He was saved thanks to naloxone but it’s critical that cops are aware of the threat. Check out the DEA web- site and others for details about how to protect your- self. And if your agency doesn’t use naloxone, this is a good time to be asking “why the hell not?”