SWAT Role Playing

This morning I participated in a SWAT role playing scenario. I was a hostage in a church overrun by a radical environmental group. Hostages were taken to two parts of the church. Along with two other hostages, I was held in an interior children’s room in the huge church. The SWAT team located us, shone a light into the room through a window and negotiated with the hostage taker on a cell phone. Since the cell phone reception wasn’t that good, they delivered a landline via a robot, and one of the hostages picked it up and brought it into the room for further negotiations. Later, coffee was delivered outside the room. I went to pick it up and escaped, running screaming down the hall to where a SWAT member frisked me and cuffed me. I was then questioned about what was going on in the room. Once it was determined that I wasn’t one of the hostage takers, I was released.

Citizens' Police Academy Finale

For the final session of the citizens’ police academy, we learned about the communication center. Callers can be located when they call 911 from land lines or cell phones. The one problem is voice over IP (VoIP). If someone moves and doesn’t change the physical address in the VoIP account there is no way to find the new location when 911 is called. As an example if someone moves from Denver to San Francisco without changing the address, a 911 call will be picked up in Denver and not San Francisco. When a 911 call comes in from a cell phone, a signal can be sent back to the cell phone to triangulate its location if the cell phone is on and the battery is operational. One of the problems with cell phones is that the communication gets many false 911 calls when the call is accidently activated from a pocket or purse. The dispatcher has to listen carefully to determine if this is an accidental call or has been placed by someone who doesn’t want a perpetrator to know that a call has been placed.

Citizens' Police Academy Latest

At last night’s session of the citizens’ police academy we learned about police communications, felony car stops and SWAT. In Boulder County a simple code system is used rather than the more complex systems in some parts of the country. For example, Code 0 is danger and code 2 is a traffic stop. Felony car stops involve arresting one or more people in a car who are suspected of committing a felony. Three police cars are placed in a triangle formation to cover the suspect’s car. One at a time people in the car are order out, handcuffed and placed in the back of a patrol car. Members of SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) go through extensive initial and ongoing training (approximately 240 hours a year). In dealing with a hostage situation the priorities of life are in this order: 1. Hostage, 2. Witnesses/bystanders, 3. Other officers and support personnel, 4. SWAT members, 5. Suspect.

What a difference a day can make.

Tuesday was sunny and warm with the autumn colors shining in Boulder. Wednesday a blizzard hit with a foot of snow. Quite a contrast.

Memory

We all start encountering interesting blips of memory as we get older. Here was one that happened to me. I was in my home office updating my financial records with mileage traveled for an author event presentation that day but couldn’t remember the mileage, so I went out to the garage to look at the odometer. When I came inside, the phone rang and after taking the call, I returned to my office and began working on a writing project, completely forgetting about the mileage (this is what my wife and I refer to as the intervening thought). Twenty minutes later I saw my expense folder and recalled that I needed to update the mileage. But by then I had forgotten the mileage amount I had seen on the odometer, so I had to go back out to the car a second time to look at it. At least this time I recorded it while I remembered and before another event interrupted me.

Citizens Police Academy - next round

Last night at the citizens’ police academy, we heard from a crime scene investigator. One interesting tidbit—a DNA profile can now be determined from as little as ten cells from a suspect. The second speaker covered animal control. An owner of a dog can be cited if a dog attacks or approaches in a menacing manner even if it doesn’t bite. The third speaker was a school resource officer. She described the importance of knowing the schools and the students. She deals with teenage drama all the time. A minor can be interviewed as a witness or a victim without a parent present, but there needs to be a parent present if a minor is a suspect and rights are read.

Break from Writing

I took a break from writing to go visit our son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons in Iowa. We visited an apple farm, bought goodies, went on a tractor ride and got a picture of the family with pumpkins. Now it’s back to writing in the morning.