San Clemente Citizen Academy: Patrol Op's, High-Tech, and the Special Enforcement Team

Citizen Academy class 3 opened our eyes to the fundamentals of police officer training, high-tech tools of the trade, how officers implement that training, and in Part 2, the 24/7 partnership with super-skilled Sheriff canines.

San Clemente Community Liaison Deputy, Joe Bull, reminded us that police officers must be able to deal with any and all threats presented, sometimes without much time to call for reinforcements. “Many officers have paid the ultimate price,” he said. Consequently, training in both the classroom and the field is complementary and prepares recruits mentally and physically to respond to a broad spectrum of people and situations.

To set minimum selection and training standards for California law enforcement, the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) was established in 1959. Interestingly, the POST Program is funded primarily through the State Penalty Assessment Fund, which holds money generated from criminal and traffic fines. No tax dollars are used to fund the POST Program, according to the agency’s website.

California Government Code Sections 1029 and 1031 establish minimum peace officer selection standards. The code requires that every California peace officer be:

• Free of any felony convictions
• A U.S. citizen or permanent resident alien who is eligible for and has applied for citizenship (CHP officers must be US citizens at time of appointment)
• At least 18 years of age
• Fingerprinted for purposes of search of local, state, and national fingerprint files to disclose any criminal record
• Of good moral character, as determined by a thorough background investigation
• A high school graduate, pass the General Education Development test or have attained a two-year, four-year, or advanced degree from an accredited or approved institution, and
• Free from any physical, emotional, or mental condition which might adversely affect the exercise of the powers of a peace officer.  

A law enforcement applicant has to be squeaky-clean to get hired by the OC Sheriff Dept. Deputy Bull said prospective law enforcement officers must be prepared for a full investigation of all aspects of their personal lives, e.g., finances, overall health, physical and mental fitness. Additionally, drug screening, lie detector tests, family background, and personal credit checks are all part of the evaluation process, he said. Only 1-3% of Sheriff Dept. applicants are hired to become an active-duty, sworn officer.

Recruit training occurs at a new, 53,000 sq. ft. facility, the Orange County Sheriff's Regional Training Academy, located at the former Tustin Marine Corps base and jointly operated by the OC Sheriff Dept. and Santa Ana College. The facility opened in 2007.

The Academy includes a Tactical Training Center, complete with a replica neighborhood in which live action scenarios are staged to train and test recruits. Deputy Bull emphasized the importance of real-world simulations and the 85 instructional hours dedicated to arrest and control situations, in addition to motorist interdiction scenarios.

A primary goal of Academy training is not just to teach subject matter, but to create an extremely stressful environment so future officers learn to focus their thinking under duress and so their actions become automatic in the field.

Chief Coppock added this insight: “The Academy instructors break you down until you feel like dirt, then they build you up into a stress-resistant officer.” “But most of the job,” the Chief reflected, “is based on what’s in your brain and your heart, not exclusively muscle and strength.”

We listened to an audio recording of a conversation between a motorist and a San Clemente traffic deputy to illustrate a common situation to which officers are exposed. It went like this:

The officer pulled over a vehicle traveling at 58 mph in a 35 mph zone on Ave. Pico in front of San Clemente High School while school was in session. The motorist had several dogs in the car and they barked repeatedly during the interaction between driver and officer. The motorist was verbally out of control, screaming at the deputy, “Cops are bullies, bullies, bullies. You’re an a**hole!

The officer calmly asked her to provide her driver’s license and registration, then eventually asked her to step outside the car (likely because he couldn’t adequately converse because of the barking dogs).

I have to agree with the Chief’s observation. Listening to that audio recording, it was pretty apparent the bully wasn’t wearing a badge and the most demanding part of a deputy’s job is first and foremost, mental.   

Effective community policing relies upon officers talking to people in the field and getting to know members of the community. Those interactions, called “consensual conversations,” can make the community safer merely by sending a subtle message to people contemplating crimes, Deputy Bull said. If those less-than-honorable types know they’ve been recognized before they engage in illegal behavior, the officer’s awareness—and the would-be-criminal’s awareness of the officer--can thwart crimes before they occur.

Deputy Bull highlighted several types of dispatched calls and the challenges they create for officers: 

Domestic violence: Statistically, more officers are assaulted and injured during these calls than any other types. At least 2 deputies must respond to domestic calls because of the high likelihood of danger and physical confrontation.

Child abuse: Every officer has zero tolerance for people who abuse kids. Officers work in conjunction with Child Protective Services staff and sometimes, Juvenile Hall authorities. 

Drugs/Narcotics:

• Methamphetamine and heroin are present in San Clemente, said Deputy Bull.

•  Deputy Bull also said there’s lots of marijuana here in San Clemente. He also gave law enforcement’s perspective of California’s medical marijuana law, stating that distributors and users exploit the law beyond its stated intent. He read us the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, now codified as Calif. Health and Safety Code §11362.5, which states: 

“To ensure that seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes where that medical use is deemed appropriate and has been recommended by a physician who has determined that the person’s health would benefit from the use of marijuana in the treatment of cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine, or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief.”

• (Here's a question I pondered while writing this article: If pot relieves its user from being aware of nasal congestion due to a common cold, would that qualify for a marijuana prescription?)

Assaults/medical aid: Police officers are often the first responders to the site of physical altercations, so they’re frequently the ones who must administer CPR, etc., before paramedics arrive. Moreover, firefighters won’t enter an environment where their physical safety is threatened by violence, so deputies must control the situation before paramedical aid can be rendered.

Traffic collisions: San Clemente has relatively few major collisions, but there are occasional traffic fatalities. People in vehicles can present significant risks to officers. Deputy Bull relayed one example that involved him, personally:

Seeing a car parked near the wall of the Miramar Theater facing El Camino Real, Deputy Bull parked his patrol car nearby, then approached to evaluate the situation. That area is known to be frequented by problems, so he was pretty cautious. While investigating the parked vehicle, another vehicle driven by a drunk driver slammed into the patrol unit, narrowly missing Deputy Bull.

Expect the unexpected: Deputy Bull cited a couple of examples that underscored the need for officers to always be prepared for the worst, despite appearances to the contrary:

• 12-gauge shotgun masquerading as a Super-soaker squirt gun: 

He showed us a slide of the fully-operational weapon. Unless you were told what to look for, you wouldn’t recognize the device as a weapon (Apparently, that is eerily common. HERE is a photo with a similar story that made the news last spring).

• A 10-inch knife lodged in a wall: 

Upon arrival at a residence, responding deputies noticed a knife lodged into the drywall. That no-so-subtle clue alerted deputies to be on guard for a violent individual nearby.

We also learned about the Sheriff’s Special Enforcement Team (S.E.T.), which provides our town with 2 officers dedicated to special law enforcement in high crime areas and to crime waves that may be targeting the city (note: as we learned in a subsequent class, our town is occasionally the focus of L.A. criminal gangs whose members seek to commit crimes where they won’t be recognized on video surveillance systems. S.E.T. deputies focus on those types of bad-asses without diminishing the presence of cops on the street). 

According to the San Clemente 2010 Annual Police Services Report, S.E.T. is part of the Sheriffs’ proactive strategy to deter crime, rather than just responding to calls for service. S.E.T. deputies focus on known criminals, fugitives, and parolees. S.E.T. supports Patrol, Investigations, and Gang and Drug Enforcement units.

The S.E.T. also pursues law enforcement grants from higher-level agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, to facilitate collaboration across jurisdictions and thereby encourage compliance with County, State, and Federal laws.

City Police Services has received at least $30,000 in grant funds from agencies outside of San Clemente. Those extra funds were used for enforcement at San Clemente’s downtown bars, which supply patrons with what’s called “liquid courage.” While officers don’t wait for bars to close to pursue drunks, they instead deploy undercover cops to observe whether bartenders are serving alcohol to visibly intoxicated patrons. One such bar was the Beach Hut on N. El Camino Real, which lost its license to serve alcohol as a result of such violations.

The follow-up study to that ATF grant indicated crime dropped 45% in the downtown area once S.E.T. started its enforcement project. Numerous arrests were made possible by the extra funds, busting lawbreakers for narcotics, public disturbances, and Gang Injunction violations. (aside: I recall from my 2008 San Clemente Leadership class that a classmate asked why the city needs access to helicopters when we’re such a small city with relatively low crime levels. The helicopter officer at the time responded, “you have a lot of bars.”)

In addition to S.E.T., one of the most effective patrol efforts is our San Clemente Beach Patrol, which covers the sand from Poche to Cotton’s Point, including some parts of State Parks, and our secluded beach canyons.

The summer Beach Patrol is a quicker responder than street patrol deputies because Beach Patrol uses ATV's. According to the 2010 Annual Report, our beach patrol made more than 1,100 observed calls, compared to 240 assigned calls, including 2 felony arrests and 14 other arrests. So, their presence on the sand really makes a difference in public safety.

Deputy Bull finished up the evening with a tour of his patrol vehicle, complete with flashing lights (but thankfully, no siren). Readily apparent is the integration of technology with law enforcement.

The patrol unit seems like a cross between Adam-12 and Knight Rider. My classmates and I asked a lot of questions, so here’s a list of key features of the modern police patrol car:

Doors:

• No interior handles on the rear doors to prevent suspects from escaping once they’re inside.
• Plexiglas, rather than old-school, metal mesh separates the driver from the rear seat to protect the deputy from suspects spitting (or worse body fluid-based behaviors).
• Ballistic shields in front doors in newer patrol cars protect against smaller-caliber ordnance. The shields won’t stop all projectiles, but by providing enough protection to slow down, rather than stop, a bullet, the harm to the officer is diminished.

Lights:

• Door-mounted search lights (near the hinges on both sides of the car) enable an officer to illuminate something without getting out of the unit or orienting the vehicle to shine headlights on a target.
• Flashing roof lights: these things are seriously penetrating from close range. I had to look at the ground when they were on because they’re visually painful.

Communications:

• The onboard laptop enables officers to research records to determine if someone is or has been a parolee, escapee, or someone with a dangerous past. Officers can access DMV records, too. Officers can map all pending and active calls within a patrol area, if necessary.
• 800 MHz wireless radio on the officer’s belt as a radio PAC set. This technology allows the officer to use the car’s base radio system when he/she is outside the vehicle. All officer conversations are recorded.
• Low-Jack system 
• Satellite link and GPS form the communications backbone for patrol units.

Video Technology

• Video recording from the windshield is automatically engaged when the officer pulls someone over. Officers carry audio microphones with them that wirelessly synchronize with the video. Once the patrol vehicle is within a certain radius of the police station, the contents of the recordings are automatically transmitted to the station. The officer never has the ability to manipulate the recorded data, but he/she can later review the recording.
• Examples:

when a motorist is pulled over for a red light violation but believes that no infraction occurred, the supervising Sergeant can review the video recording to ensure the citation was appropriate;

video recordings can be reviewed to provide an accurate description of a wanted perpetrator who remains at large.

• Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) devices operate from all sides of the patrol car so that the officer’s eyes are no longer the sole detector of a particular license number. The ALPR scanner detects the plate and reads the display, then compares that data to known alerts and records and notifies the officer if a wanted (or stolen) vehicle has been detected.

ALPR systems can scan up to 8,000 license plates during the course of a single shift. Currently, the L.A. Sheriff Dept. has 17 mobile ALPR units deployed across several patrol stations as part of the ASAP program

An additional benefit to ALPR technology is the ability to manually input license plate numbers. For example, the L.A. Sheriff can immediately input a license plate number wanted in an Amber Alert; that feature enables any ALPR system in the county to get an Amber Alert hit should that vehicle be scanned. Note to readers—I strongly recommend reading the embedded ALPR link to learn more about this technology.

So, that's a basic overview of the latest tools patrol officers use while in the field. 

While some readers may see the use of advanced technology in law enforcement as tools of "Big-Brother," another perspective is that law enforcement has become more objective and efficient.

Clearly, technology has improved officers' ability to protect and detect both people and evidence in the public realm. That decreases perpetrators' wiggle room and benefits the community as a whole. 

As we will see in our week 7 tour of the OC Crime Lab, the detection of evidence and suspects has become increasingly science-based. That's making police work and prosecution of suspects more objective.

Ultimately, that scientific objectivity brings transparency to the criminal justice process and elevates the truth upon which our trust depends.  

Next up: Week 3, Part 2: Sheriff Canine Rhino takes a bite out of crime.