Fairfield Inn

Just having a look at last weeks shooting at the Fairfield Inn. A few of the things that come to mind.

First and foremost, a speedy recovery to the deputy and thanks that he was not injured more seriously than he was.

Secondly and much more important, remember when longshanks was running for sheriff and complaining that Sheriff Allsop was not training the deputies properly? Ddg sure does! After only two full terms in office and headed into his third, longshanks is directly responsible for the lack of training. So now the training has obviously regressed to a point where the deputies on the street are not being trained to handle an emotionally disturbed (ARMED) person call properly.

Here are some of the rules that were taught at the department prior to glick's regime taking over. They managed to keep deputies safe, for some odd reason.

First rule, everyone goes home at the end of shift, preferably in good shape. You and your partners are at the top of the list along with the uninvolved citizens. If you get hurt, who takes care of your family/loved ones? Who protects the citizens?

Second rule, A suicidal subject is considered homicidal. Whether it be suicide by cop, homicide of a loved one and then suicide, or taking out any of the responders before surrendering, dealing with suicidal subjects is a high risk call. No question.

Third rule, Lethal cover is in place before deploying less/non lethal force when confronted with a deadly force situation. You go one up on force, so the first rule will apply.

What is being taught for street survival there makes the experienced deputies wince. The various information that Ddg gets on the BS that passes for training now is scary. Almost as scary as the paranoid sergeant that continually preaches to his shift on a daily basis about all the bad people out there that will shoot them. Hey sarge, the real idea is to be prepared, not paranoid. Of course you are outstanding in your field, at least in your own mind.

Yes, it is not a nice world out there sometimes. Proper training and proper preparation can make all the difference. Unfortunately, the department will have to live with the training that is approved by glick. The buck does stop at his desk, not matter how he tries to spin it. Hopefully there will not be any other deputies getting hurt where it could be avoided.

New Promotions

Just as Ddg predicted, the new lieutenant promotion went to one of the sergeants that has spent more time brown nosing in the office than doing his job. Truthfully, that was not a hard prediction to make considering the amount of BS currently in play at the department.

So now the patrol division is up to two (count them) lieutenants doing a job that was done under former Sheriff Allsop with one lieutenant. Hey longshanks, don't give us that drivel about how things have changed and another administrative slot is needed!

A street sergeant that was also known for causing more problems than he solved was "promoted" to the personnel sergeant position. JH does, however, have the hooks into longshanks' regime, but will this cure his "wandering?"

As to the newly promoted sergeants, Ddg will reserve judgement. Their actions and character (or lack of it) will be duly noted and reported.

By the way, was there a promotion listing published of the elgible deputies/sergeants that actually applied for the open positions and their placement in the standings? Or was it just a smoke screen for the promotional process this time that involved out of department evaluations with longshanks making the final decision as usual?

A Few Good Supervisors

Being a sergeant is one of the hardest jobs to get and keep, that is if you do it right. Doing it right does not necessarily mean pleasing the sheriff. Doing it right means what it says. In this politically correct world, it means doing the right thing all the time, not just the politically expedient right thing.

An old retired guy once was told that "your job is to keep the sheriff out of trouble" when he made sergeant. This ORG took that as meaning that he needed to be sure that things were done legally and in the right manner every time, no exceptions.

Does that mean when someone has been a sergeant for some time that they have been doing the job right? Not necessarily, because the lack of leadership at the higher levels at the sheriff's office have, over time,  led to an erosion at the sergeant's level. When you have a sergeant that used on duty time (not personal time) to watch his child play soccer (leaving the shift short), when you have sergeants that were politically promoted (and in at least one case circumventing the written promotion process), when you have sergeants that spend more time playing politics in the office instead of spending the time supervising on the street, now you have a systematic failure that starts at longshanks' desk and works its way down through the captain, lieutenant, and sergeant levels to the street. When these shortcomings were brought to the administration's attention, they were promptly ignored as you cannot have the chosen ones getting in trouble, can you longshanks?

A professional sergeant is not concerned with the atta boys and the like. He knows that his job is to make the hard decisions at the first line supervisory level that need to be made when they need to be made. This is not done over coffee the next morning. He may not be popular by doing the job right, but he has the personal knowledge and satisfaction that he has done the job right, accolades be damned.

Look at the street supervision at the sheriff's office and you will see how few of the professional supervisors there really are.

Say It Ain't So, Joe

So now the newer patrol lieutenant is putting in his retirement papers. Heading for greener pastures, no doubt.

So that raises a question or two.

Does the department go on with one patrol lieutenant (like Sheriff Allsop effectively did) or is there another additional lieutenant to be promoted to a job that one qualified person could handle? Will the promotion go to one of the politically correct sergeants that are well known for spending more time on the lot kissing up than doing their assigned job of supervising the street deputies?

Does this retirement have anything at all to do with an off duty incident involving said lieutenant? Ddg hears that it is better to be pissed off than pissed on.

Openings for Supervisors

So the promotions once again rear their ugly head. Will it be like last time when the sergeant (CB) that was promoted anointed was not even on the sergeant's list? Will there be a politically correct selection in the top three that longshanks will give his nod to and prevent a repeat of the last anointment?

Will any deputy even remotely qualified decide to put their hat into the ring, even though their chance of making sergeant will be between slim and none?

Replacing Gerry Luce (Personnel) (political appointee)  with a sergeant position is nothing new. Replacing Luce with someone that would actually do the job and return telephone calls would be something useful.

Twenty years means WHAT????

So now, once your twenty years are in, you are no doubt called up to a departmental gathering before your peers to be honored and given a reminder of your twenty years of service to Laramie County. Twenty years that included running towards the bad guys instead of away from them, time spent away from family because law enforcement does not take a holiday, and dealing with situations that every day people would not have the ability, courage or stomach to handle.

You are thanked for your service and spoken of well by the administration that puts on these gatherings.

NO, it doesn't happen that way unless you are connected. Seems as though a street deputy that recently got his twenty years in also got a notice to check in at the front desk. There he received an empty award box from a records clerk to commemorate his twenty years. longshanks and his staff must have been too busy to give the empty award box to the deputy in person. Talk about an embarrassing lack of leadership abilities, but in this administration, that is nothing new.

Move Along, Nothing Here To See

Odds are that the recent decision by Judge Peter Arnold against former Laramie County Deputy Sheriff Sean Ringrose will be overturned at the Wyoming Supreme Court level. Judge Arnold has a long history of making the wrong decisions. This case will no doubt add to that history.

The judge wrote that "Ringrose displayed unsatisfactory work performance in not preventing Edwards from leaving the scene after the fight and .........."

Let's see judge, what is needed to keep someone from leaving a scene after a fight. Obviously the deputies there looked into/investigated the fight as no citations were issued or arrests made. So there was not any reason to keep Edwards at the scene for investigative purposes. Edwards was not arrested as the deputies would need probable cause (remember these two words judge, they may help you make the right decisions in the future) to arrest or detain Edwards any further. So Edwards, like any citizen not under arrest or investigative detention, was allowed to freely leave.

Ddg believes that Judge Arnold is just another ignorant political hack. Unfortunately he sits in a position that allows him almost unlimited power while he makes politically correct decisions. After all judge, could longshanks be wrong? Better to err on the side of the elected officials than to upset the local political apple cart, isn't it? Could that be why Judge Fenn reached a different decision in the same case with former Laramie County Deputy Sheriff Cook?

Sooner or later, the voters of Laramie County will decide that glick has been here too long. How many other deputies will be thrown under the bus by then? Too bad it will be a few years before longshanks comes up for another vote.