“Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos to the fly”

“Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos to the fly” The title is from Charles Addams, creator of the Addams Family cartons that began in 1938; spoken by Morticia Addams. It’s profound I think. As a police officer, I have hundreds of real life stories that fall under the chaos […]

Austin, Texas votes to defund their police department by about 1/3.

In June, the Austin, Texas city council voted unanimously to partially defund the Department. They didn’t reach an agreement on the details of the reduction at that time, although some members asked for a quarter of the annual budget to be cut for the next year. Now, the one quarter decrease talked about has turned […]

Portland riots continue after Feds follow though with agreed pull-out

Federal Agents that had been assigned to protect the Federal Courthouse in Portland handed over protection duties to Oregon State Police in a move to ease tension between the state and the US Department of Justice. The USDOJ and Oregon officials made a deal to remove the agents, after local and state administrators made the […]

A word of encouragement to my Brothers and Sisters in Blue during these trying times

People are burning police cars, burning police buildings, throwing just about anything they can at police; they burn neighborhood stores, deface them, loot them, in the name of “social justice”. For 32 plus years, I have worked as a police officer, and for 32 years, I have felt like I make a difference every day. […]

Seattle and Minneapolis both meet hurdles in the race to defund their police departments – although Minneapolis still eyes a complete disbanding of theirs

Seattle, Washington’s plan to defund their police department by 50%, hit some snags this week, as hundreds of residents spoke up against the defunding push. Hundreds of concerned citizens brought their positions to the city council budget meeting on Wednesday in an effort to stop the proposed the PD budget cut the council was vying […]

Portland fines the US Government $192,000, and counting, for un-permitted fence

Portland City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, Portland Bureau of Transportation’s head, stated that the fence the US Government set up around the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse was done without a permit, and is illegal. As Portland officials find it ok to burn Federal buildings, and throw rocks at Federal Agents, they certainly draw the line […]

Recovering fingerprints from human skin in real world situations shows some success, albeit extremely limited.

Recovering fingerprints from human skin was all but unheard of when I started working in the late 1980’s, however, recent attempts have found that obtaining viable fingerprints in real world situations shows some success, albeit extremely limited. Victims of homicide are often touched or moved by their killers; knowing this, but being powerless to obtain […]

Rioters in Seattle use an explosive device to blow an 8 inch hole in police building wall

For over 50 days straight, “peaceful protests” against law enforcement have occurred in Seattle, and as usual, they became violent as the day went on. Yesterday (Saturday), going into last night, looters and rioters injured 21 police officers, and set multiple fires, damaged buildings and five construction trailers. Several businesses were covered in graffiti, and […]

More than 2,000 people have been shot so far in Chicago, with no relief in sight

Chicago has already recorded 2,000 people shot this year, eclipsing the 2019 numbers that show a total of 2151 people shot – twenty-three people were shot yesterday, Tuesday, with four of them dying. Around 1:40 a.m. two males, 23 and 25, were shot in a drive-by shooting which resulted in non life threatening injuries to […]

Murder rates and shootings in major cities hit record highs for 2020

New York: Homicides for 2020 are up 21 percent from last year. Shootings are up by 46 percent from last year. Los Angeles: In June, they had an increase in the month’s first week by 250 percent in homicides, and a 56 percent increase in shootings for that period. Chicago: They record 1,508 shootings thus […]

“The ACLU will not let the government respond to protests against police brutality with still more brutality” cites the ACLU as they file multiple lawsuits against Law Enforcement

In the midst of the continued unrest that had followed the George Floyd incident, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed several lawsuits across the country against multiple law enforcement agencies in response to what they characterize as “attacks against protesters and media personnel.” The group also sued President Donald Trump, along with various […]

City of Portland Police Officer calls Black Lives Matter protesters hypocritical.

A City of Portland Police Officer, Jakhary Jackson, spoke out about Black Lives Matter protesters in the city, calling them hypocritical. Jackson stated that the protesters had fewer minorities in their “violent” crowd than the police officers they’re supposedly fighting against. Jackson said: “It says something when you’re at a Black Lives Matter protest, you […]

US Southern Border activity starts to pick back up after Covid quarantine slowdown

The slowdown of drug seizures at the southern U.S. border due to the Covid quarantines, seems to be over. US Customs and Border Protection recently released that their officers seized over 43,000 pounds of illegal drugs, worth about $92 million dollars in June; at the port of entry along the California-Mexico border alone. Earlier stats […]

Juvenile detention officer charged with facilitating escape of two violent detainees

20-year-old Jabar Taylor and 18-year-old Rashad Williams were being held at a juvenile detention center in Virginia, both convicted and waiting to turn 21 years old when they would be relocated in an adult prison, when a female staff member of the detention facility helped them escape. Both young men are still at large, while […]

Federal Government Proceeds with First Death Penalty in Seventeen Years: Murderer of Family Put to Death Tuesday

Daniel Lewis Lee is the first person executed by the federal government in over 17 years. Lee was convicted of killing an Arkansas family in the 1990s. His execution went forward on Tuesday after a one day stay of execution had been granted at the request of his attorney. Lee and an accomplice broke into […]

St. Petersburg police will no longer respond to “non violent” calls.

St. Petersburg, Florida police administrators have decided that armed police officers will no longer respond to non-violent non-emergency calls, and non-violent 911 calls. To fill that void, they are creating what they call the Community Assistance Liaison division, which they described as “a social service agency.” The administration believes that unarmed, Community Assistance Liaison Team […]

What are the basics of a Crime Scene Investigation

A major crime scene investigation may start the same way in every case, that is by first on-scene officers doing a preliminary search of the scene for victims and suspects, then protecting evidence until it can be properly documented and collected, however every scene is unique unto itself. Think of a thousand different scenarios; that’s […]

Longview, Texas loses a true public servant to cancer.

Officer Cedric Davis, Longview PD died of cancer June 19, 2020

Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered this date, 25 years ago, 1984.

Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman were murdered 25 years ago today, in front of her Los Angeles home. At about midnight on June 13th, a passerby phoned police, reporting a body on some steps leading to a home – upon arrival, officers found Nicole dead on the steps of her walkway, and […]

Arson Investigation Dogs Can Detect Traces of Gasoline Down to 1 Billionth of a Teaspoon

New research out of the University of Alberta – Canada, finds that dogs can detect gasoline in quantities as small as one billionth of a teaspoon. Canines have been used in arson investigations for about 30 years, beginning when the US ATF partnered up with the Connecticut State Police in 1986 to train an accelerant […]

Bonnie and Clyde; killed on this day, 1934

The infamous Bonnie and Clyde were killed by police on May, 23, 1934 near Sailes, Bienville Parish, Louisiana after one of the most intense manhunts of their time. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were wanted for multiple cases of murder, robbery, and kidnapping when police caught up to them. (Bonnie was actually married to a […]

A guide to Automated Fingerprint Systems, and information on how AFIS works

AFIS stands for Automated Fingerprint Identification System, and it is a biometrics system for automated fingerprint identification; the system consists of a database of fingerprint images used for criminal identification purposes, and is used worldwide. A very simple definition of a fingerprint impression is any impression of, or left by, the friction ridge skin of […]

Footprints and tire tracks, how do police match them to a suspect?

How do police develop, and collect, footprint and tire track impressions – and how do they perform forensic examinations on the impressions? Much like fingerprint impressions, footwear and tire impressions can be deposited on just about any surface; and just like fingerprint impressions, they fall into three basic categories. Visible (patent), latent, and plastic. Impressions […]

How to avoid telephone and computer scams; and some scams explained.

Scams, by phone, via social media, and by email, are more common than you might think, and unfortunately, many folks fall for them. Here is the latest to be reported in my town – this one is a computer scam, and it starts by sending you a pop-up message stating that your CPU is infected […]

Identifying latent fingerprints; a basic look at how police match fingerprints from a crime scene.

Identifying fingerprints is done almost at the touch of a button – at least that’s how it seems from watching TV. In real life, fingerprint comparisons can be a complex process, and quite difficult at times. The ability to accurately identify recovered fingerprints is critical in law enforcement, as a matter of fact, it’s invaluable. […]