The C-PACT Blotter

Even 400 miles away on a 24K dialup connection, there's no escaping the shock and sadness of emails about the murder of Cheverly resident Spencer Morris near his home on the Fourth of July.

Please attend the C-PACT meeting in the police station conference room at 7pm tomorrow to learn the latest. It's in times like these when the citizen-police partnership can reap the greatest benefits.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Morrises.

In the immediate aftermath, Chief Robshaw released the following:

Wanted for the homicide that occurred at Cheverly Avenue and Kilmer Street on July 4, 2009, at approximately 5:15 PM:

Black Male, 6-00 in Height, Slim Build, Light Complexion

After reviewing this case, the original argument that lead to the shooting may have started at the basket court at St. Ambrose. The victim was returning from that location prior to the shooting. After reviewing the facts, I believe some of our younger Cheverly residents may know who the suspect is or have heard details about the shooting from other neighborhood friends. Parents need to ask their teenagers/young adults if they know anything about this incident and call the police or Email me as soon as possible. This appears to be a targeted crime and not a random act. We will have increased patrols throughout the coming week and additional officers working O/T looking for leads. Crime Solvers is offering a $25,000 reward.

Don't get me wrong. Lots of police equipment is dandy: souped-up Mopar products, short-barreled rifles, helicopters like the one in Airwolf...

I can almost get myself over the Segway hurdle too. According to the manufacturer, officers gain better visibility up above the typical line of sight, the ability to cover lots of ground quickly without the fatigue of riding a bike, and the significant ice-breaking mojo afforded you when you're a 21st century centaur.

However when your police vehicle looks like a motorized lectern to which somebody taped disco lights and a Mr. Microphone, I've got to draw the line.

And "tactical"??!! The thing is made of ABS; it would offer slightly more protection from bullets than wet papier-mache.

Turn off the funky soundtrack on the first video and check the second one down, though; brother's got fairly mad skillz for a guy driving a podium.

We were asleep at the switch AND potential victims of credit card fraud during this year's National Police Week.

Excuses are lame.

Here's PoliceOne.com's coverage of the annual law enforcement commemoration, held every year right down the road in ol' DC.

May all the families find solace, and may all the officers rest in peace. Next time you see someone serving on the thin blue line, say thanks, eh?

Thanks to Chief Robshaw for the following piece:

CRIME IS DOWN. WHY?

Crime in the Town of Cheverly is down some 30% from the previous year at this time, amounting to the lowest 1st Quarter total since the Department first began keeping such statistics electronically in August of 1979.

Quantifying our success is the easy part. The more difficult task is offering tangible reasons as to why crime is down.

I believe there are five such reasons:

1. An Active Community Response – Far and away, the biggest determiner of any jurisdiction’s crime rate is the extent to which residents take an active interest and involvement in crime issues. The more often resident’s voice their concerns, call in the their complaints, and contribute to deterrence, the more likely it is that crime will be positively affected by these actions. The key to crime reduction in any jurisdiction is resident involvement, and the outstanding response of Cheverly’s residents has contributed greatly to current crime reduction efforts.

2. C-PACT and Cheverly Watch Programs – C-PACT, Cheverly’s Neighborhood Watch Organization, and Cheverly Watch, Cheverly’s resident radio program, have harnessed the power of resident involvement into an outstanding partnership with the CPD. What makes these programs work is that they are both proactive in identifying and addressing the causes of crime; they both take advantage of resident’s intrinsic knowledge of community and neighborhood issues; and, both programs have established unique and lasting lines of communication between resident and police officer.

3. Specific Enforcement Schemes – The Department has long realized that random patrol is not an effective crime deterrence mechanism. In lieu of such efforts, the Department instead pursues a policy of concentrating its main focus on specific “hot spots” or areas that generally create the bulk of reported crime. It is this policy that makes Task Force operations, plainclothes enforcement, and high-visibility deterrence so effective.

4. Police Department Staffing – For the past three years specifically, the Department has made great strides towards attaining a maximum compliment of officers and civilian employees. With full staffing, the Department has increased its investigative response capability and enabled the formulation of the current Task Force to address specific crime problems.

5. Code Enforcement Efforts – The “Broken Windows” Theory is promulgated on the belief that if one allows “broken windows” (i.e., abandoned autos, poorly maintained properties, litter, infestation, etc.) to go on undeterred, a message gets reinforced that the surrounding community is accepting of such chaos and the resulting escalation of damaging activities. Code enforcement efforts in Cheverly have been established to instead project an image that Cheverly is a concerned and active community of residents who will not tolerate such infractions, much less the presence of any crime.

What he said.

(Plus the fact that this blog emits magical crook-repelling rays.)

I'm with this guy.

Not sure how many of you remember Sanford Strong. I'm guessing right around, uh, nil. Too bad, because he is The Man.

Strong was the resident police expert on America's Most Wanted, back about sixty or seventy seasons ago. Unfortunately, he was so wooden he made William Shatner as Captain Kirk look like Lawrence Olivier.

His advice, on the other hand, was always spot on. Thankfully, Strong took to writing, a medium in which it's much harder to tell that he's made entirely of American Ash. The above book, which is out of print, is a dandy that this correspondent rereads on an annual basis. We recommend that you scour the interwebs or the libraries to find it.

Unfortunately Strong's website is rife with stills from early cheeseball AMW "recreations," including reams of distraught women and girls in the hyper-victim role. Boo. Hiss.

The book, however, is full of people who "mindset" their reactions to crime ahead of time and when push came to shove, generally kicked a$$. Taking the concept a step further to the testosterone-laden "warrior mind," may be for some of us too. (Not only does Master Floyd Soo have the worldview of a samurai, but his flying kick face is in good shape as well...)

Carry on, people.