Why this is not a "speed trap" town.

For those of you who are being told this is a speed trap town: There are only 11 speeding tickets as of this date for the year(the 154th day of the year). That comes out to 1 speeding ticket every 14 days (2 Weeks)...that is NOT what speed traps do.

Statistics for the year:

http://bloomfieldpd.weebly.com/statistics-and-ordinances.html

Burglaries and doing YOUR part!

As many of you know, one of our businessmen in town had a burglary in the early morning hours of Sunday, May 16th. We have evidence that we have collected and analyzed. We have interviewed and questioned dozens of people and new leads have arisen. I am confident that this case will be closed from an investigative standpoint in the very near future.

I would like to dispel a few myths by pointing out some facts:

1. There was an officer on duty and on active patrol when this incident occurred.

2. Business, Church, and School doors are still checked on a regular basis.

3. This was not a robbery. It was a burglary.

While it really doesn't make much difference to some whether it was a robbery or a burglary, I would urge them to look up the definition of both. I would rather be burglarized than robbed from the aspect of which is more traumatizing and more dangerous.

4. There is no "burglary ring" in Bloomfield. This was an incident perpetrated by one individual.

There was an individual who reported last week that his 4 wheeler was stolen off of his front yard. He stated that for 5 days he did not notice whether it was gone or not. He also stated that he left the keys in the ignition.

While we do our best to patrol the streets at night to prevent these things from happening, if people do not take an active step towards securing their own property there is little we can do to stop a theft from being committed by someone who is determined to complete the crime. All we can hope to do is clean up the mess afterward. Which, by the way, this department has a very good record of doing.

Keep in mind also that a lot (and I do mean a lot) of these types of crimes are committed statewide by juveniles. A police officer can not question a juvenile about a crime. The questioning must be done by an appointed juvenile officer. This can limit the scope of an investigation.

In the meantime, please do what you can to support your police department if nothing more by prayers. Pray for your community....and lock your vehicles and doors at night and when you are gone.

Thanks,

Chief

"Come on, this is Bloomfield!

This morning I had a lady in a local convenience store stop me to ask me a question.

She asked me if I thought our department was getting a little…”slap happy.”

I asked her what she meant and she stated that she had observed an increase in traffic stops and then she said….”Come on, this is Bloomfield.”

I would like to point out that our officers do not stop cars without any legal reason at all. That would be unethical and illegal. We also do not manufacture reasons to pull over cars. If I ever caught an officer doing this he would be fired. If a car is pulled over it is because there was a violation committed. It is our job to advise, warn, and sometimes issue citations to the people who are committing these violations.

If I see a person driving without a license plate light on at night - do I HAVE to stop them? NO. Officers try to use their discretion when stopping cars. At the same time I ask you to look at it like this: If an officer sees a car being driven with a broken license plate light (a legal requirement) and they do not stop them, the officer is not doing their job. Period! I am not recommending that my officers stop every car for a broken license plate light. I am merely pointing out that it IS there job to do so.

In response to, “Come on, this is Bloomfield,” I would like to make a few points.

1. Our job is to enforce the same state statutes as all the other municipal, county, and state agencies in Missouri are mandated by law to enforce.

2. The Bloomfield Ordinances are in essence the same as every other city in Missouri, including St. Louis and Kansas City. These are the basic ordinances that involve traffic enforcement and the keeping of the peace.

3. We take the same oath of office as every other sworn law enforcement officer in Missouri.

In response to, “Come on, this is Bloomfield,” I would like to ask the following questions to a few people:

What makes you or any other person who lives or works in this town so special that they are above being stopped for any violation? Why should we selectively enforce the law just because “This is Bloomfield?” Give me one legal and ethical reason.

While some of you may say that this is not the attitude we need in our town I would also like to point out that this is the type of attitude that is required to enforce the law fairly and firmly.

Instructors, Make your beds!

The BPD has recently attended several training sessions. I attended an OC instructor course in June.

In August, Officer Wheetley and I attended the Missouri Highway Patrol Academy and took an instructors course in radar and laser.

We stayed in their dorms. We learned that even the visiting officers have to follow some of the rules that apply to the cadets. We even had to make our beds!

Officer Wheetley is shown on the right making his bed. I had already made my bed, as you can see. As you can tell, I did a pretty good job. I just know when my wife sees this I will be making our bed every morning. Oh well!

They did feed us though and it was quite a show to watch the recruits routine in the dining hall. I got tired of hearing, "Sir, Good morning, sir!"

During WWI some of the soldiers that fought on the oversees fronts were called doughboys. There are many theories as to why they acquired this name, some of which can be traced to the mid 1800's. One of the ideas is based on some of the concoctions these men would cook up in their foxholes and bunkers. One of which, I am told, is the doughnut.

After WWI these soldiers returned home to find jobs in factories, offices, construction companies and....police departments. A good many of the veterans, especially of of Irish descent, found themselves working in the large police departments of cities like New York, Boston, St. Louis, and Kansas City.

Working the foot beat on a midnight shift can be grueling and tiresome work. They didn't have energy drinks back in those days and it was hard to stay awake sometimes. There was a simple solution to the problem of boredom mixed with fatigue.

The only thing open in the early morning hours in those days was the local bakery. The night officers would stop to enjoy some conversation with the folks that ran these places. While they were there they would enjoy a fresh doughnut and a hot cup of coffee. Think about it. Stimulating conversation, Sugar, Carbohydrates, and Caffeine! What more could be asked for?

The rest is history...

By the way....I don't eat doughnuts very often and most of my fellow officers do not either. Most officers these days are better educated about nutrition. Don't get me wrong, I still like a good cream filled one every now and then but not too often.

I refuse to buy them or eat them while in uniform.

What is a cop? Written By Preston Wood and Delivered by Jack Webb

To hear Jack Webb's delivery: http://www.geocities.com/jdcurtman/whatisacop.mp3.mp3

"It's awkward having a policeman around the house. Friends drop in, a man with a badge answers the door, the temperature drops 20 degrees.

You throw a party and that badge gets in the way. All of a sudden there isn't a straight man in the crowd. Everybody's a comedian. "Don't drink too much," somebody says, "or the man with a badge'll run you in." Or "How's it going, Dick Tracy? How many jaywalkers did you pinch today?" And then there's always the one who wants to know how many apples you stole.

All at once you lost your first name. You're a cop, a flatfoot, a bull, a dick, John Law. You're the fuzz, the heat; you're poison, you're trouble, you're bad news. They call you everything, but never a policeman.

It's not much of a life, unless you don't mind missing a Dodger game because the hotshot phone rings. Unless you like working Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, at a job that doesn't pay overtime. Oh, the pay's adequate-- if you count pennies you can put your kid through college, but you better plan on seeing Europe on your television set.

And then there's your first night on the beat. When you try to arrest a drunken prostitute in a Main St. bar and she rips your new uniform to shreds. You'll buy another one-- out of your own pocket.

And you're going to rub elbows with the elite-- pimps, addicts, thieves, bums, winos, girls who can't keep an address and men who don't care. Liars, cheats, con men-- the class of Skid Row.

And the heartbreak-- underfed kids, beaten kids, molested kids, lost kids, crying kids, homeless kids, hit-and-run kids, broken-arm kids, broken-leg kids, broken-head kids, sick kids, dying kids, dead kids. The old people nobody wants-- the reliefers, the pensioners, the ones who walk the street cold, and those who tried to keep warm and died in a $3 room with an unventilated gas heater. You'll walk your beat and try to pick up the pieces.

Do you have real adventure in your soul? You better have, because you're gonna do time in a prowl car. Oh, it's going to be a thrill a minute when you get an unknown-trouble call and hit a backyard at two in the morning, never knowing who you'll meet-- a kid with a knife, a pill-head with a gun, or two ex-cons with nothing to lose.

And you're going to have plenty of time to think. You'll draw duty in a lonely car, with nobody to talk to but your radio.

Four years in uniform and you'll have the ability, the experience and maybe the desire to be a detective. If you like to fly by the seat of your pants, this is where you belong. For every crime that's committed, you've got three million suspects to choose from. And most of the time, you'll have few facts and a lot of hunches. You'll run down leads that dead-end on you. You'll work all-night stakeouts that could last a week. You'll do leg work until you're sure you've talked to everybody in the state of California.

People who saw it happen - but really didn't. People who insist they did it - but really didn't. People who don't remember - those who try to forget. Those who tell the truth - those who lie. You'll run the files until your eyes ache.

And paperwork? Oh, you'll fill out a report when you're right, you'll fill out a report when you're wrong, you'll fill one out when you're not sure, you'll fill one out listing your leads, you'll fill one out when you have no leads, you'll fill out a report on the reports you've made! You'll write enough words in your lifetime to stock a library. You'll learn to live with doubt, anxiety, frustration. Court decisions that tend to hinder rather than help you. Dorado, Morse, Escobedo, Cahan. You'll learn to live with the District Attorney, testifying in court, defense attorneys, prosecuting attorneys, judges, juries, witnesses. And sometimes you're not going to be happy with the outcome.

But there's also this: there are over 5,000 men in this city, who know that being a policeman is an endless, glamourless, thankless job that's gotta be done.

I know it, too, and I'm darn glad to be one of them."

From Episode 96 - "D.H.Q. -- Night School" (Written by Dick Morgan)

Officers Killed so far in 2009

Total Line of Duty Deaths: 33
Accidental: 1
Automobile accident: 10
Duty related illness: 1
Gunfire: 11
Heart attack: 1
Struck by vehicle: 3
Vehicle pursuit: 1
Vehicular assault: 5

By Month:
January: 10
February: 7
March: 12
April: 4

By State:
Alabama: 1
Arkansas: 1
California: 6
Florida: 3
Georgia: 1
Massachusetts: 1
Minnesota: 1
Montana: 1
New Mexico: 1
New York: 2
North Carolina: 1
Ohio: 1
Pennsylvania: 5
South Carolina: 1
South Dakota: 1
Tennessee: 1
Texas: 4
U.S. Government: 1

Average tour: 10 years, 9 months

Average age: 38

By Gender:
Female: 0
Male: 33