Is There a Meeting Tonight?

From our friends at FMG Publications, publishers of American COP, comes this great story:

When police in Dorset, Vermont, found a 55-year-old man sitting in his vehicle in the yard of a residence, he told them that he thought he was in a parking lot.  But it was no parking lot, and the man was charged with DUI.

Instead of a parking lot, the man had driven his vehicle into the yard of an historic landmark, the 1852 family home of William Griffith Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.

PL8 DB8

The ACLU, while legitimately looking out for the Constitutional interests of citizens, often gets its knickers in a twist over situations that are more theoretical than actual.  And so it is with the organization’s recent objections to the growing police use of license plate readers.

These electronic devices, already in use in a majority of jurisdictions, automatically scan the license plates of passing cars and flag them if they come up as stolen or associated with a crime.  But in the view of the ACLU, these readers are being used to “track the movements” of ordinary citizens.

While the potential certainly exists to use the data collected by these devices to track where a car goes, this potential has been present in our society for 110 years, ever since Massachusetts became the first state to issue license plates in 1903.  Anyone with a pair of eyes could track a car’s whereabouts.

In 1934, another Massachusetts first, the use of two-way radios by the Boston Police, further enhanced the ability of a car’s movements to be followed.

The ACLU expresses concern with the creation of a database in which motorists' travels are recorded and maintained, but the simple fact is, license plates have been required to be placed in public view for over a century.  For the entirely of that time a pen or pencil, or an ordinary camera, could be used to make a record.  That there now exists a method to read and verify license plates in a dramatically more efficient manner does not alter the fact that a car’s movements have been trackable for as long as anyone today has been alive.  Why the objection now?

It would be one thing if the police were putting into widespread use a device that could reach into your wallet and pull out your personal information as you walked by.  But we’re talking about license plates, which are out in the open on every car.

It has been demonstrated that the use of license plate readers has both lessened car theft and decreased the time needed to find a stolen car.  It has not been demonstrated that the devices are being used to “track the movements of innocent motorists,” as the ACLU contends.

As noted above, the ACLU legitimately protects the Constitutional interests of citizens.  But frequently it undermines its own effectiveness by railing against government intrusions that are more imaginary than real.

Using the photograph below, provided by our friends at Hemmings Motor News, we can track where the car bearing Massachusetts license plate 097A was in 1910...

To the Beach!

Yes, today is the first day of summer and we're getting ready to go to Atlantic City... for the 27th annual Police Security Expo.

It's our 27th year as an exhibitor; we were there for the first one, held in a hotel ballroom, we were there as the event grew and moved to Convention Hall on the Boardwalk, and we have been there in the years since it has been in the new Convention Center.

Stop by and see us in booth #1522, and pick up a copy of our brand-new badge brochure.  Get one of our free custom lanyards with a police whistle.  We'll have samples on display of badges, insignia, collar brass, pins, cases and wallets, and more.  We’ll also have our brochures for leather products, credential holders, and OC sprays, plus information on our full range of public safety supplies.

But you can only visit if you are a public safety professional.  The show is not open to the public, it is open only to those in the public safety sector.  There are no admission fees but attendees must register and present appropriate credentials.

Oh, the beach?  We’ll take a stroll on the Boardwalk and check it out, but this is a working visit for us.  See you there!

Baby You Can Drive My Car... Carefully

Chief Benjamin Fox of the Wyckoff Police Department near our old hometown clearly has a sense of humor... and an eye for detail.

To promote his agency’s crackdown on motorists who ignore the law governing yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks, Chief Fox and three of his officers recently put their tongues in their cheeks and re-created the iconic cover of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album.  The result was as intended: Plenty of media coverage, and plenty of attention to the issue.

Wyckoff may not be London, and Wyckoff Avenue may not be London's Abbey Road, but despite the suburban setting Chief Fox got the details right.  There is a new white VW Beetle parked where the original album photo had a then-new Beetle, and there is a black police vehicle where the original album photo had a black police van.  Chief Fox is dressed in a gray suit as was Paul McCartney, and is both barefoot (!) and carrying a cigarette as was Paul.  (In truth, Chief Fox is carrying a pen, not a cigarette.  Click the photo for an enlarged view.)

His officers (from left, Sgt. Robert Mckay, Sgt. Jack McEwan, and Lt. Charles Van Dyk) are each in police apparel that matches the colors worn by George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and John Lennon, respectively, on the original album cover.

As for Township Administrator Robert Shannon Jr., in the background at right with the bagpipes, well, we’ll chalk that up to artistic license.  There was a bystander at the right in the original photo, although that bystander had no bagpipes.  At the moment this photo was taken Mr Shannon was piping Yellow Submarine, which was from the earlier album titled Revolver.  So, again, artistic license.

With the photo the Wyckoff Police Department issued a press release that explained what is required of motorists at crosswalks and announced the agency’s enforcement campaign.

It is nice to see Chief Fox and his officers Come Together on Something like this.  The End.

End of the Road

In 2008 we first blogged about Carbon Motors and their ambitious plans to manufacture and sell a purpose-built police car.  In 2012 we blogged about Carbon Motors again, concerning their having been denied a $310 million Department of Energy loan under the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program.

It appears now that the denial of that loan dealt a death blow to Carbon Motors.  The company has allowed the lease to expire on their manufacturing facility, the employees are gone, and the company web site has been shut down.

Carbon had leased office and factory space in a former Visteon Corporation plant in Connersville, Indiana, and claimed to have taken thousands of orders for its its E7 diesel-powered police cruiser.  But at the end of March, the lease was not renewed.

After the DOE loan was denied, Carbon tried to raise addition money by unveiling a purpose-built riot van, but nothing further appears to have come of those plans.

Carbon Motors has sputtered to a stop before ever getting on the road.

That's a Fact

Recently, in a town not far from the home of the Badge Company of New Jersey, negotiations were completed on a new contract with the local police union.

As with all such contract negotiations, there were competing interests to be served, including the need to keep any increase in the municipal budget below the cap of 2% as directed by the governor.

The negotiations were handled by representatives of the union and representatives of the town, but with a distinction as noted by one of the town’s elected councilmen: “We did not use lawyers,” he said.  “They cost money.”

Can't-Stand-Up Routine

It sounds like a cheap joke:  How many police officers does it take to administer a breath test to a woman who then blows a .217, nearly three times the legal limit?

In Jonesboro, Arkansas, this week the answer is two, one to administer the test and one to prop up the woman, so drunk that she could not stand.

So drunk that she crashed her car into a house.

So drunk that she to attempted to continue her drive with the next available vehicle.

So drunk that the vehicle she selected was a child’s battery-powered Power Wheels truck.

 (Maybe she thought it was a Prius?)

Oh, one more thing:  So drunk that she had neglected to put on pants.