Not Barney Fifes

I feel the need to explain why I haven’t recently been posting many incidents in which I was involved. The fact is, I don’t have that many more to tell that you that you most likely wouldn’t find boring.  I’ll now write about current police issues, current societal issues, and my fiction writing.

The various jurisdictions in which I worked were small or relatively small and located in the Midwest. We didn’t have as many crimes or as exciting crimes as in the big cities like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago etc. like we see on TV and in movies.  We spent most our days and nights providing service to and protecting the residents and visitors in our communities. Much of that important work was very routine, and yes, at times boring. Occasionally we did get involved in dangerous or wild and crazy situations, as I have mentioned in many of my previous posts. Good investigative and good police work is necessary whether you do it several times a week or only once or twice a year. You train, you practice and you hope you do it right, that no one gets hurt, that you don’t get sued and you go home at the end of your shift. Please don’t get me wrong, I loved my work.

The novel I just completed and the next two I plan to write in this trilogy are about investigations concerning fictitious mysterious crimes that occur in a fictitious mid western city of about 25,000.  Hard working committed officers in these smaller jurisdictions haven’t received as much attention in our literary collections as the big city cops.

Sincerely,

Sally S

Responsibility

I feel compelled to comment on an incident that occurred earlier today in the Kansas City area. A three-year-old little boy was reported missing to the authorities at about 5:00 o’clock this morning. According to the news reports, he had not been seen since 9:30 last night when his mother put him to bed. When she got up this morning at about 4:45 he was not in their apartment. The child was only wearing his pajamas and no shoes or slippers and the temperatures were in the single digits with a wind-chill.

Many police officers from several departments as well as the fire department were involved in the search.  Fortunately, the young boy was found safe in a nearby apartment building at about 8:00.

It was also reported that this child had previously ran away and was found in unlocked cars in the area.

Why hadn’t his parents done something to prevent a recurrence of his leaving on his own? Maybe a door lock located higher on the door, beyond his reach even with the help of a chair? What about a lock that could only be opened with a key that the parents kept in their possession at all times. Admittedly, that would be a fire hazard, but a 3 year old child running around outside in the cold and with no adult for protection is not safe either.

I can only fathom the cost of the search. Some officers probably worked beyond their shift, which would involve overtime pay costs. Gas was burned in many patrol cars, ambulances and fire trucks.  It was extremely cold for the officers walking around looking for the boy. Yes, it is their job, but to expose anyone to such a frigid morning, when it could have been avoided, just doesn’t seem right to me.

To me, the crux of this incident is that life is fragile and should be protected. We all need to take more responsibility for our actions and for those we are entrusted with their care.  Additionally, the national, state and city financial resources are not endless.

As a society, how do we encourage and force people to take responsibility? For their actions concerning their personal safety? For their actions as a parent concerning their children’s safety?

Sincerely,

Sally S

Women in Crime Solving II

The two books I mentioned in today’s earlier post were about woman police chiefs.  It got me to thinking about women in high-ranking law enforcement positions.  I did some research on the Internet to see how many we actually have. I just marvel at how much easier this was than when I researched topics for both my undergrad and graduate work. I can just sit here in my recliner in my comfys.

In a 2001 survey, women made up only 12.7 % of the force on municipal police departments with 100 officers or more. In the same survey, when they looked at law enforcement officers in all city, county, and state agencies and departments women made up 11.4 % of the cumulative total.  Of that combined total only 9.6% of sergeants and lieutenants were women and 7.3% of captains and above were women. (“ Police Chief” magazine of the International Association of Chiefs of Police Jan 2013)

What do the preceding percentages mean?  We need to increase the number of female officers in order to increase the pool of captains and above to promote to Chiefs. The same article cited the two major barriers that exist in some departments to the recruiting and maintaining female officers to be sexual harassment and poor maternity leave policies.

According to a 2009 Chicago Tribune article there were 212 female police chiefs in the United States, which made up 2% of the police chiefs in this country.

As a culture, would we benefit from having more women in law enforcement? Should the ratios reflect that of our population? Do we benefit from having female police officers? How as a society do we get more young women interested in pursuing careers in law enforcement?

Til next time,
Sally S

Women in Crime Solving

I apologize for not regularly maintaining this blog, but I have been preoccupied working on my current novel. Guess I should say first novel. Hopefully in the next week or two I can insert a few excerpts to stimulate your taste buds to want to read more. My book concerns a female police sergeant in a fictitious city in Kansas who, in her daily duties of solving crimes, solves mysteries. Enough for now about my book.

There are two authors that write about strong women in high-ranking law enforcement positions that you want to catch their latest offerings:

The book Broken Trust written by Linda Rodriquez will be released May 7. This is her second book concerning Campus Police Chief Skeet Bannion. I read her first book Every Last Secret concerning Chief Bannion and enjoyed it. 

Linda Castillo’s first book Sworn to Silence in her sworn to silence series was made into a television movie for Lifetime entitled “Amish Murder” and will be airing the evening of February 4^th. I enjoyed the book very much, as I did the other three books in the series, and am anxious to see Chief Kate Burkholder solve her mysteries on screen.

Til next time,
Sally S

The New Year

Hope everyone had a safe  holiday season and New Year celebration. In the coming year I am going to include fiction excerpts from my mystery novels on this blog. I  have finished writing my first novel and hope to have it published soon. I plan on starting the second novel very soon. I will keep you updated on the status of my writing.