Law Officers Combat Kinetics, Unarmed Panoply - L.O.C.K.U.P.

I just went through a one day defensive tactics refresher and our trainer brought a number of new maneuvers that he had just learned through the L.O.C.K.U.P. system.

This system fit my criteria for real world, officer useful, defensive tactics, in that it has simple moves that don't require continuous training.  An emphases of ending the offenders resistance in as quick of a manner as possible.  It allows for options based on the actions of the offender/resister from simple soft physical control all the way to lethal force.  And finally, a mistake does not put you completely in the resister's power.

It is something to consider.  It works. I have the bruises to prove it.  The following is an exert from Police Combat Web Site followed by a brief bio by the systems founder from the same site Lt. Kevin Dillion

 About LOCKUP ®

Created for law enforcement, security and military personnel, the L.O.C.K.U.P.® (Law Officers Combat Kinetics Unarmed Panoply)  program teaches arrest and control maneuvers for all levels of physical resistance and aggression. With a primary focus on techniques for UNARMED police combat, L.O.C.K.U.P.®, developed with over 60 years of combined law enforcement and martial arts training, combines dynamic arrest and control tactics with basic fighting skills and applications. The result is that police, security and military personnel can better  protect themselves and the public they are sworn to serve.L.O.C.K.U.P. ® teaches reliable and retainable empty-hand maneuvers that can be effectively deployed by trained personnel during violent physical altercations. It adapts specific fighting maneuvers to fit an officer’s physical and physiological change during these altercations, thus maximizing effectiveness of the combative movements. Incorporating numerous police combat concepts, techniques and maneuvers, L.O.C.K.U.P. ® is not based on any one martial art or fighting system. It is designed specifically for law enforcement to meet the needs for today’s “officer on the street” who receives limited training, wears restrictive uniforms and body armor, and is bound by laws, regulations and ethical values. - See more at: http://www.policecombat.com/sample-page/#sthash.ezl843f2.dpuf

Lieutenant Kevin Dillon (Ret) 

is a twenty-five year veteran law enforcement officer, retired from the Wethersfield CT Police Department, a suburb of the state’s capitol of Hartford, CT after serving as the Detective Bureau Commander for the past three years.  Lieutenant Dillon also has commanded the department’s patrol division and served as training supervisor. As a  SWAT team member since 1993, he served as an operator, Team Leader and Commander of the regional thirty-five member SWAT team (Capitol Region Emergency Services Team.) and remains a consultant with the team. 

Lieutenant Dillon is a National Academy graduate of the F.B.I.  session 223. He has also received certification from Force Science Institute in Analysis in Use of Force incidents.

For Your Consideration: Police Chief David Couper

About a year ago in my guest book I received a heads up on the work that Ret. Police Chief Couper is doing.  Looking into it, I see a fellow believer in Christ, a believer in higher education to obtained by law enforcement officers to be utilized within our profession and a passion to raise a great institution to even greater heights.

He has been the Chief of the Madison WI with a 20 year law enforcement background and now is ordained into the ministry in the Episcopal Church and serves at St. Peter's in North Lake WI.

His work is something worth checking out for anyone in our field, thinking about entering our field or just curious about law enforcement and its continued striving toward improvement.  I hope he keeps up the good work.


His Blog Improving Police

His Book Arrested Development: A Veteran Police Chief Sounds Off About Protest, Racism, Corruption, and the Seven Steps Necessary to Improve Our Nation's Police

And an interview with him:

Mustaches and Morale



Not a good look

 One of our officers is retiring after 25+ years on the job.  He has spent almost his entire career with a "Freddy Mercury" style thick mustache in place above his lip and under his nose.  As a tribute to him all of us at the PD has dedicated the month of January to him and in varying degrees of success (after weeks I have the beginnings of a mustache...the pejorative "porn star" keeps getting bandied about) we have all grown out our stashes.  It is not a good overall look, but it shows we care.

This is just a simple behind the scenes glimpse.




Psalm 126:2

Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”

The Little Things

I had a great time as a TFO and now back in Patrol I am struggling to stay focused and motivated.  The needle is starting to slip from "gruntled"  to "disgruntled".  God is in charge and his ways are always good.  I know when I look back at this time in my life I will see where he has stretched me, challenged me, grown me and fulfilled all his promises.  But right now, it is quite a task to maintain joy on the way into and back from work.

It is strange, it is the little things and not just the big things, I miss.  While no one would want to hear this "war story" the following video was part of my commute into work back in those days.  I always just thought it just was a cool length of street that I would never have traveled if I did not have to go to the Feb office.  It is nowhere near my department.  So its kind of a marker of where I was and where I am no longer.  I miss that street.

Psalm 105:8
He remembers his covenant forever, the promise he made, for a thousand generations,

Burglar Alarm Info-Gram

From: HomeInsurance.org

To account for...life or death on a traffic stop

I initiated a traffic stop on vehicle for failing to stop at a stop sign.  When I was able to curb the vehicle, the driver, female, immediately opened her driver's side door and put one leg out to exit her car.  In response, I kicked open my driver's side door, got both feet on the ground and had my hand on my Glock 22 in its holster.  I ordered her to stay in her vehicle and close the door.  She hesitated then slipped her second leg out of the door and turned slightly to exit her vehicle.  I pulled the Glock out of it's holster and pointed it toward her vehicle but kept it behind my driver's side door and out of her view.  I again ordered her to re-enter her vehicle, which she did, openly startled by both the volume and tone of my voice.  The traffic stop was completed without incident and a citation issued.

At the beginning of the traffic stop this driver was angry and was attempting to come back to my squad to demand why I was stopping her.  She further informed me that she thought that I was rude, mean and should not treat the public in that manner.  She then sped away without giving me an opportunity to provide her with a response.

The following video is one that I have seen many times for training purposes.  I hate watching it, even though through its use many Officers have been made safer.  This is why I try to take total command of a situation and why if I do not get compliance in two commands, I greatly ramp up my response, get control and backup.

I can always apologize to the soccer mom for being mean and yelling at her when her intentions are harmless.  But I can't apologize for anything if I am dead.

My prayers are with Deputy Kyle Dinkheller's family, friends and fellow police officers, while some time has passed since this incident, I do not doubt that the pain is still real.

Andrew Brannan was found guilty on January 28, 2000, for the murder of Dinkheller and was sentenced to death.  As of July 2012, he has not been executed and is still incarcerated in Georgia.  After being captured, Brannan was asked why he killed Dinkheller. His response was, "Because he let me."

It will be a good day when the State finally provides Brannan with the final and complete punishment he is due.  A punishment long over due.

Cool Squads

I had to clean up the side bars of the blog, since it was becoming a slow load.  As a result I had to let a couple of pictures float away from the side bar and into this one post.

Lotus Exige Squad Car

Hummer H2

1941 Plymouth Squad Car

Lamborghini

Porsche Concept Squad Car

1928 Ford Model A


And to balance out all the coolness...

Segway 

I hate dirty cops.

Law Enforcement is a unique profession in that the very, very, few of us that go "bad" tarnish the vast majority of ethical, moral and compassionate Officers serving the public every day.  When I worked in the private sector a ten percent employee turnover would have been considered fantastic and been rewarded with promotion and pay increases, if that happened in the Law Enforcement field it would be considered a plague.

Ethics, morality and performance standards and practices are in place to keep everyone safe and allow the successful end of a 30 year Police career.  I have always said that if every cop kept, to nothing else, to the ten commandments he/she would never have a permanent career problem.

Some examples of those of us who did fall off the reservation...would love to give each a swift kick in the crotch.

1.    BOYNTON BEACH — A Florida Atlantic University police officer responded to an online ad under the “escorts” section on Monday, where a woman called “Stephanie” promised that satisfaction was her main concern.  But something went wrong between the two, and the escort ended up handcuffed by the officer, before she was shot once in the abdomen and once in her neck.  Today, Jimmy Dac Ho, 47, is sitting in jail, while the woman — Sheri Carter — is in Delray Medical Center, paralyzed from her waist down.  Ho was placed on administrative leave on Tuesday, when the department learned of his arrest, said Deputy Chief Keith Totten, of FAU police. Ho turned in his letter of resignation this afternoon and it was accepted, FAU Police said.  Police say the shooting happened on Monday, when Boynton Beach Police were told by a friend of Carter that she was concerned about Carter’s well being. When police entered Carter’s home at the Marina Village condominiums in the 600 block of Casa Lona Boulevard, they found her shot and unconscious.  Subsequent interviews with neighbors revealed to police that Carter runs an independent escort service from her home and that she lists herself as “Stephanie” on Backpage.com, according to the police report.  Her last escort ad was posted on Monday, where she offers “a quiet, clean and discreet incall location.” The ad lists Carter’s phone number and guarantees that her photos are “100% real and accurate guaranteed or your time spent with me will be completely free!!”  Through phone records, detectives found that Ho was in contact with Carter prior to the last text message she sent at 4:21 p.m., to her boyfriend, where she said that her client was acting “weird and scary.”  When they knocked on Ho’s door, detectives noticed that he looked “worried,” according to the arrest report.  “The defendant quickly then blurted that it was self defense and that she struggled with him over the gun,” the detective stated in the report.  Ho told the detectives that he was a police officer and that he felt that Carter had “ruined his life.”  First, Ho told police that he went to have sex with Carter for money, the report states. Then, he said that Carter wanted money but he didn’t have any.  After waving his rights, Ho told police that he was scared that Carter was trying to rob him, according to the report. He said that he handcuffed her when he thought she was going to use a knife. When he tried to take the handcuffs off, she struggled and he shot her in the abdomen, according to the report.  “He said that he remembered a second shot, which struck her in the neck,” the detective detailed in the report.  When Ho allowed a search of his house, police found evidence taken from Carter’s home, the report stated.  In addition to attempted first-degree murder, Ho faces false imprisonment charges.  Deputy Chief Totten said that Ho had been an officer with FAU police since 2006. Although Ho has had incidents in the past, Totten said none “would lead us to believe that this was capable.”  Meanwhile, Pembroke Pines Police confirmed on Tuesday that Ho had been arrested by the agency in 2004 for battery “in reference to domestic violence.”

2.  A California Highway Patrol officer who fatally shot her husband two years ago in what she said was self-defense was charged with the man's killing on Tuesday, prosecutors said. Tomiekia Johnson, 31, of Compton, was arrested by Los Angeles Sheriff's deputies, according to the district attorney's office.  The officer had initially told sheriff’s homicide investigators that she retrieved a handgun and shot her husband once in the upper body after an argument erupted and he became verbally and physically abusive. Prosecutors, however, say she intentionally shot her husband, a father of two.  The shooting occurred shortly after 11 p.m. on a Saturday in 400 block of Amantha Avenue in Compton. The officer did not remain where she shot her husband but drove to her parents’ home and reported the killing from there. She was not arrested at the time of the shooting and was off-duty.  Sheriff’s homicide detectives, however, doubted the story especially after family members and friends of the 31-year-old barber at Platinum Cutz in Compton described him as a peaceful man not known to be violent. By contrast, witnesses told investigators the officer had a history of drinking heavily.  The couple had met through a local bowling alley, Cal Bowling Lanes in Lakewood.

3.  SUGARCREEK TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WDTN) - Sugarcreek Township police arrested a fellow officer Friday, after they said surveillance cameras captured him stealing DVDs, said Sgt. Mark White, Sugarcreek Township Police.  West Carrollton police officer Joseph Purnell and his wife Ashley were arrested at the Walmart on Wilmington Pike.  Both have since been released from jail. Charges are pending, and they're both expected to appear in court February 16, 2011.

4.  A San Francisco police officer was arrested Wednesday and faces two felony charges related to the theft of a vehicle registration sticker that the district attorney's office says he stole from a motorist during a traffic stop.  Officer Gregory Hui, 45, who also faces a misdemeanor embezzlement charge, had his bail set at $18,000, police said.  Hui was reportedly on patrol in the Richmond District in January 2010 when he pulled over a motorist for having a broken brake light, District Attorney George Gascón said in a news release.  During the traffic stop, Hui cited the driver for an improper registration sticker, according to the district attorney's office.  The officer, who has been on the police force for seven years, then confiscated the tag and put it on a car he co-owns, which had an expired tag, Gascón said.  "Police officers are sworn to uphold the law and protect the public," Gascón said in a statement. "When they violate the law and public trust, they must be held accountable, particularly when the allegations involve on-duty conduct. The law must apply to everyone equally."  Hui was suspended without pay on Dec. 17 while the police internal affairs unit investigated the incident.  He was charged with two felonies for fraudulent use of vehicle registration and a misdemeanor charge of "theft under the color of authority," police said.  Interim Police Chief Jeff Godown declined to address specific information related to the charges, saying the matter is under investigation and a personnel issue.  "That's all I can tell you," he said.

5.  The shadow of corruption over Prince George’s County government widened Monday with indictments against three county police officers and others on charges of trafficking bootleg cigarettes, alcohol and cocaine, just days after County Executive Jack B. Johnson’s arrest on charges of trying to conceal tens thousands of dollars payoffs from a developer.  The latest round of charges accuse Amrik Singh Melhi, 51, who owns several liquor stores in the area, of paying police officers to help ship untaxed alcohol and cigarettes in Maryland and Virginia. Among those charged in that case were Prince George’s Police Sergeant Richard Delabrer and Corporal Chong Chin Kim, officials said.  The indictment seeks the forfeiture of $3.5 million, 25 properties, 13 vehicles and money from 84 bank accounts that authorities say they traced to the crimes.  In a separate indictment made public Monday, authorties charged Prince George’s police officer Sinisa Simic of cocaine trafficking.  On Friday, Mr. Johnson was charged with witness tampering and destruction of evidence in an long-running federal investigation into bribes paid by real estate developers to county officials. Mr. Johnson, who has said he’s innocent of the charges, were released pending trial, with Mr. Johnson under electronic monitoring.  There’s no indication that the cases involving the police officers and Mr. Johnson are related, but the latest indictments come just days after U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein in Maryland said following Mr. Johnson’s arrest to expect more charges.  Mr. Johnson, nabbed by the FBI taking $15,000 from an unnamed developer Friday, later told his wife by phone to hide tens of thousands of dollars at his home in her underwear as FBI agents arrived.  Leslie Johnson, who was elected but not yet sworn into a seat on the Prince George’s Council, was also charged Friday. The FBI recovered $79.600 in cash from her underwear, authorities said in charging documents.  The county executive, a Democrat who previously was the county’s top prosecutor, also told his wife to tear up a $100,000 check from the developer and stash tens of thousands of dollars in cash in her bra, authorities said.  “Tear it up! That is the only thing you have to do,” Mr. Johnson told his wife, referring to the check, according to prosecutors.

Exodus 20

The Ten Commandments

 ¹ And God spoke all these words: ² “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
 ³ “You shall have no other gods before^[a] me.
 ⁴ “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶ but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
 ⁷ “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
 ⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. ¹¹ For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
 ¹² “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
 ¹³ “You shall not murder.
 ¹⁴ “You shall not commit adultery.
 ¹⁵ “You shall not steal.
 ¹⁶ “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
 ¹⁷ “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Good Police Work Nets Good Results

Police Work really is about keeping your mind open, observations sharp and your work ethic up.  I think its like any job in that the tasks become repetitive over time but a good Officer does not allow one incident to slip into the other and stays aware.  The big case or the treat to your life could come from your first traffic stop, the fiftieth, the hundredth and so on.  Here is a case of excellent police work by an officer that was aware and scored the big hit doing an mundane police task.

First the Link: http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/article_3b0ebd48-bec0-5b62-83d0-3cd13c6381fc.html

Indiana State Police find $1.6 million in cocaine hidden in car

By Sarah Tompkins sarah.tompkins@nwi.com, (219) 836-3780 | Posted: Saturday, October 23, 2010 12:00 am |(11) Comments

Two Chicago residents were charged Friday October 21, 2010 with dealing cocaine after an Indiana State Police drug bust the night before revealed more than a million dollars worth of cocaine in a hidden compartment of their car.

Driver Doris Reyes, 40, and passenger Carlos Lopez, 20, could face between 20 and 50 years in prison if convicted, authorities said.

Trooper Jerry George pulled over Reyes' vehicle about 9 p.m. Thursday for unsafe lane movement on the Indiana Toll Road in Portage and noticed some "indicators of criminal activity" that led to a search, authorities said.

Details of the indications were not released, though an officer said the individuals' stories did not match up. Police were told the car was heading to Maryland from Chicago for a family visit.

Portage police brought a drug-sniffing dog to the scene that identified narcotics were present.

"A vehicle search located an odd piece of metal at the rear of the vehicle with what appeared to be hinges," Trooper Jason Carmin said. "Further examination under the vehicle showed aftermarket work that appeared to be a hidden compartment. "

Two mechanical arms lifted the rear floor of the 2004 Ford Expedition, revealing about 14 kilograms of cocaine. Fourteen kilograms of cocaine equates to about a $1.6 million resale value on the street.

Chemically Burned Hands-Fun!

We were on the street in the very early morning hours when we needed to test the substances we seized.  It was discovered that we were all out of testing kits so one had to be scrounged up and it turned out to be one of the old Marquis Testing kits.

If you have never used these kits the are a short plastic straw with a small glass ampule on either end.  You pop the top put trace amounts of the illicit narotic that is to be tested into the tube, put the cap back on and then crush the top and bottom ampules.  If it turnes blue/purple you positively field tested cocaine or heroin, way to go guy!

Ok back to the story, I decided not to use the old kit and wait for some new ones to show up.  While this was happening I was rolling one of the little ampules around my fingers talking to the assembled and currently inactive group.  Now what you need to know is that this ampule containes concerterated Sulfuric Acid.  A very strong acid (or if your the Blues Brothers "Glue...strong stuff").  The glass on the ampule is thin so it can be crushed in your fingers, while its safely in the plastic straw (you know what going to happen next).  I was lost in thought trying to solve a minor problem when I put a little too much pressure on the ampule and *POP* it went, splashing my hand in acid and embedding a thousand tiny glass shards into my right hand.

Knowing that if I said anything or admitted my hands were burning off or someone realized what I had done, I would be reliving this moment once a month for the rest of my career to be capped off as a small vignette at my retirement party, I put a fake smile on my face, placed my left hand over my right (causing it to start burning with acid) and slowly, calmly walked to the bathroom.  I then proceeded to wash my hands.  At this point a little High School chemistry came back to me and I realized while my hands were clean they were still burning and turning yellow.

Start the frantic searching for some alkali! At the kitchenette I found some Comet Cleanser and after about ten washings the burning finally stopped.

The result, bright yellow streaks throughout my left and right hands and two burn marks.

See Law Enforcement is dangerous and...I am a dumb-ass. But I didn't get caught, but they did ask if I was obsessive-compulsive about hand washing.

You know your a cop when...

Yes I know this have been done to death but hey I can contribute just like the rest of the herd.  So here is a brief list of and in no particular order....

YOU KNOW YOUR A COP WHEN:

• You get onto a crowded elevator and turn slightly so that every eye is on you and you can watch every eye.

• You are the last to get to the table at the restaurant but your the first to sit down because everyone had to get back up so that your seat is against the wall and views the exits.
• Memories of the Fourth of July are not of parades, picnics and fireworks but they are of stupid drivers that would not follow your directions and drunken idiots that just plain couldn't.
• Halloween see above and add little kids running into traffic.
• That at one point in your career the midnight shift guy at the local convenience store is your best friend and you can't quite figure out just what country he came from. 
•  Your regular friends ask you to stop calling at 2:00am to find out how they are because work is slow.
• Waving to your wife when you are going to bed as she is getting up to go to work.
• Having to say, "Ma'am please put your top back on and sit down!"
• The only natural materials to touch your body is when the prisoner wants another blanket.
• On one day you take a class on how to shoot to be deadlier, the next day you take a sensitivity class to be friendlier.
• In the early 90's you were still writing reports with a pen and white-out.
• Your cell phone had voice-mail before your department did.
• Your grandmother had email before your department did.
• That dumpster diving is not a sport but part of your profession
• When times are good no one wants your job, when times are bad everyone tries to take your job.

and finally...sometimes the blue and black of the uniform matches the blue and black on your body.

More and More Job Security

Strangely, this store hit me rather viscerally.

Cops: Wife, three other women torture husband

August 3, 2009 12:13 PM | 67 Comments

STOCKBRIDGE, Wis. -- Three women who had affairs with a married man are accused of luring him to a motel where, joined by the man's wife, they tied him up and applied Krazy Glue to his private parts.

Therese Ziemann invited the man to a motel on Thursday, tied him up, promised a massage and then sent text messages to the other women, according to Calumet County prosecutors.

Once all the women were there, they confronted him about his infidelity, police say. Ziemann punched him in the face and glued his penis to his stomach with Krazy Glue, according to the criminal complaint.

The women fled the motel when the man started screaming, officials said.

Charged with false imprisonment are Ziemann, 48, of Menasha, Wis.; Michelle Belliveau, 43, of Neenah, Wis.; Wendy L. Sewell, 43, of Kaukauna; and the man's wife. The Associated Press was not naming the wife to protect the man's identity. 

Authorities say Ziemann punched the man in the face and glued his penis to his stomach.

The women are free on $200 cash bails.

-- Associated Press

Surveillance

Recently, we began a project that has both built in time constraints and is very surveillance heavy. So I have spent the last four days sitting in a car making sure my head is not above the window line for thirteen hours at a time.

A long time ago, the bad guys started watching for cars sitting around where they were "working" that would routinely come and go (Det. eating, going the bathroom etc). If the drug dealers saw this pattern, they would quickly shut down and disappear. In order to counter, their counter surveillance, we arrive in the early morning and stay, in basically one place, until night fall.

This week was the first week I have had of multiple stints of this type of surveillance. I can not remember when I have been this sore. Everything hurts and not like the R.E.M. song. I am still trying to figure out why after doing nothing for thirteen hours, it feels like I have been digging a ditch for those same thirteen hours. Plus, you have not lived till you have to create a bathroom schedule and pack three lunches keeping in mind that your food will be staying with you the whole time (I will not make a salami sandwich again...at the end my car smelled like a dumpster in the back of an Italian deli).

I did not think it was possible but I ran out of food, reading materials, people to talk to on the phone and people to send text messages. I have realized that I could never be a monk, I simply do not want to sent that much time with myself.

Anyway when you see surveillance on television or in movies, they have space, the bad guys show up quickly with their intentions clear and the protagonists do not smell of rotting sandwiches. I wanted to provide a slice of reality and I hope that my next assignment does not find me sitting in a cardboard box next to a warehouse (its been done).

Joel 2:20
"I will drive the northern army far from you, pushing it into a parched and barren land, with its front columns going into the eastern sea and those in the rear into the western sea. And its stench will go up; its smell will rise." Surely he has done great things.