SNSO Star November/December 2014

the SNSO STAR From the desk of

November/December 2014 WWW.SHAWNEESHERIFF.ORG

Sheriff Herman T. Jones

By now you may have probably heard or noticed Undersheriff Maple’s departure from SNSO. He was provided with a vocational opportunity that was very difficult to deny. I am astoundingly grateful that he elected to unite with me and our Command staff during his tenure. We will truly miss his attributes of professional leadership, personal contacts and keen specialty with social media and fire trucks. I wish Undersheriff Maple the very best in his next employment endeavor. I hope to have the Undersheriff vacancy filled in the near future.

Thank you all for the steady and concerted effort with the CALEA reaccreditation process. This process involved a tremendous amount of team effort and the fruits of your labor are evident by the positive results of the on-site review. CALEA sets our agency in a standard second to no other sheriff's office in Kansas. Again, thank you all for the professionalism you displayed during this time.

Our world as we know it has changed considerably over the last 10-20 years. Consequently, this past year has presented our agency and law enforcement across the nation with some very challenging times. Without a doubt we have experienced greater demands to exhibit

professional conduct toward the public we serve. Recent incidents like those in Ferguson, MO and New York City where police action resulted in tragic death of citizens. I realize the complexities of these incidents can cause any one of us to think about the possibilities of that happening in our own community.

First, I want to believe our established community relations have help deter public demonstrations in a fashion similar to what has been shown across the nation. Secondly, key elements of open communication, transparency and mutual respect are paramount to working with citizenry in a positive manner. We do not live in a perfect society but working toward perfection and admitting our mistakes (on both sides) will go far in establishing and maintaining harmonious community relationships.

We desire to appropriately respond to matters of conflict and disorder. I’m confident of our sustained training and positive interaction with the citizens of our community has been affirmative toward a harmonious relationship.

Needless to say, I admire all of you for continuing to stay focused on arduous demands of the job, especially under the shadow of recent events.

And the actions of officers

guided by these values will increasingly generate a more respectful, appreciative perception of police in the eyes of the public.

I am grateful for your invariable dedication for serving this community.

With that, our duty and motive to service may be challenged yet I witness daily examples of unwavering selfless acts by men and women from the SNSO. Your exhibition of daily duty gives me great pleasure of being associated with all of you. Not only are these sentiments felt by me but by others from around this community. The complexities, personal sacrifices and emotional toll of our profession may not be widely known to the general public but your honorable deeds are reflected in your respect for people you serve. I thank you for working to be the Shining Stars that you are.

Please allow me this time to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with joy and success. Be well and stay safe.

Inside this issue

Major

2

Chaplain

2

Investigations

3

Services

4

Communications

6

Employee Holiday Open House Saturday-January 3rd anytime between

11:00am & 4:00pm 3700 SE Elm Cove Drive, Berryton

Major Phil Blume

As many of you may have heard recently, the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office has made or is in the process of making some significant purchases for the 2014 budget year.

Unfortunately, those purchase requests have been met with some obstinacy from some governing members. This Office is purchasing some new vehicles for our Operations division, which we have not purchased in over two years, body worn cameras, which we have been evaluating for some time and the pre-purchase of fuel.

There are specific items that we must have to function, vehicles and fuel are a necessity. This agency drives approximately 1.8 million miles every year. The vast majority of those miles are attributed to vehicles assigned to the Operations division. Again this profession necessitates some hard driving and we put a lot of demands on our vehicles, fortunately we have an outstanding mechanical staff that keeps us functioning, but eventually these vehicles must be replaced. 70,000 miles on a law enforcement vehicle is not the same as 70,000 miles that an average citizen would put on their car. We know that costs of a new vehicle compared to the costs of an aging fleet and the bottom line is there is a price regardless, but there are substantial fewer issues with a newer fleet.

This agency does seek to be responsible with tax dollars. When purchasing vehicles we typically purchase off of the state contract this contract is usually set towards the end of the calendar year. By being judicious, we find the least expensive vehicles to meet our needs. This has been beneficial to our agency and the county overall. Since 2002, the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office has provided 36 used vehicles to other county departments for their needs and since 2005 the Sheriff’s Office has returned over $250,000 to the county general fund from vehicles that have been sold at auction. We have practiced responsibility when it comes to spending.

The Sheriff’s Office for some time prior to the events of early August 2014 has been testing and evaluating body worn cameras and negotiating for the best financial deal. We did come to a resolution and were able to negotiate a deal with Taser for the Axon camera system for a five year agreement. I think the advantages of having this system do not have to be explained. We do live in an era of distrust to public officials in large part to our own doing, but body worn cameras are a small component that the general public overwhelmingly supports. Again this is a decision made by management of this agency to be responsible to the wants and need of the citizens that we serve.

Finally, the Board of County Commissioners of the County of Lincoln, Kansas vs. Nielander and Jackson provides very clear direction on the authority of elected county officials. Nothing in that decision eliminates our obligation to be responsible to the citizens of this county and we have and will continue to do so.

Chaplain’s Corner Chaplain John Hansen “Christmas” The Reason For The Season Then the angel said unto them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."

Luke 2:10-11

Wishing all a Very Merry Christmas & A Blessed New Year.

-your chaplain & family

Sympathy Janelle Barnes-Mother Kyle Soldani-Great Grandmother Debra Perez-Step-mother Kyle Runyon-Grandmother Debra Hoffer-Grandfather in-law

November 6, 2014 Sheriff Jones received the prestigious Kansas Sheriff’s Association, Sheriff of the Year. Sheriff Jones was nominated by SCECC Shift Supervisors Melanie Mills-Bergers and Dawn Frey.

KSA Director Sandy Horton said “ Sheriff Jones was selected not only for what he does on the local level but for his involvement in Law Enforcement for the entire State of Kansas.

Investigations Lieutenant Sam Leone

Greetings and Happy Holidays from the Investigations Division! It’s been a busy end to the year, starting with personnel changes and absences. To begin with, Captain Higdon is recovering from knee surgery (AGAIN), so he has been sorely missed in the division. I’ve tried to maintain the continuity of his office, albeit at a different volume, and look forward to his return. In November, Corporal Roberts and Deputy Adams were selected to fill 2 Detective positions.

All of the candidates showed drive and desire, so it’s good to see such interest for an investigator’s position. Detectives Roberts and Adams will eventually be assigned to 2nd shift Detectives, we wish them the best in their new positions. With Detective Adams’ departure from the Offender Registration Unit, Deputy Previty was selected to fill the void in that office. Again, the interest in that position was admirable, as the selection came from a qualified pool of candidates. Deputy Previty will no doubt have to hit the ground running to keep pace with the tempo of ORU, but we are confident that she will be just as effective in monitoring compliance and getting registrations completed for the agency.

Congratulations to all new CID members!

On November 2nd, we responded to a call in NE Shawnee County and discovered a homicide had taken place. That call has put CID into a frenzy of investigative activity. Detectives Mummey and Kasl traveled to Connecticut in an attempt to interview a potential suspect in the case. Obviously this has spread the division quite thin, but we’ve had the assistance of everyone in the agency, and some outside partners, like the US Marshall’s Office and the Topeka Police Department. We’ve been very fortunate to have the help of Deputy Mitch Johnson, who has spent a lot of time translating and interpreting for us (Spanish speaking witnesses and suspects).

We continue to follow up on any possible leads and examination of all evidence collected.

We are in full swing of the holiday season in NE Kansas, and that includes criminals’ ‘shopping’ season we typically see this time of year. It is absolutely imperative we remain alert and attentive when it comes to shopping, storing and safeguarding our property.

We’ve all heard “lock it, remove it, lose it” over and over, but we’re going to continue to send that message to all citizens, family and friends. Please do your part to educate and be an example of someone who works hard at not becoming a victim.

Finally, I want to extend my thanks to the men and women of the Criminal Investigations Division for their hard and tireless work they’ve all contributed to in the last few months. Although I am no longer surprised, I am continually amazed at the competence and dedication of my coworkers throughout the division and agency. Happy Holidays to you and your families!

The agency Chili/Dessert contest is January 14, 2015

Congratulations to Deputy Malary Pittz and Dalan Calahan Lila December 1, 7lbs 8oz

Last years winners! Vicki Gideon-Mauer won the Chili contest, Michelle Barnes won the Dessert contest.

Deputy Wright taught a Life Skills lesson to 8th graders at Rossville Jr/Sr High, December 19th.

Services Captain Michael Kolbek A lot of positive events have transpired over the course of the last couple of months both for the agency but more specifically for the Services Division, highlighted below: First and foremost, our CALEA onsite assessment was conducted in November. As a Tier One CALEA Accredited agency we were responsible for compliance with 189 standards for the years 2012, 2013, and 2014. While the accreditation process is familiar to most, what you may not know is that the assessors from CALEA initially looked at 116 “mail off” files prior to coming here. Aside from 1 clerical error on an ISSR (Individual Standard Status Report) and one proof too many in a file there were no discrepancies found. Once the assessors arrived here and looked at the remaining files only one small tweak was needed for a policy. All of these “corrections” were made resulting in our agency going 189/189 standards compliance. While the Services Division has the responsibility for the program it is the entire agency that produces the proofs to show our compliance. Each of you played a key role in making this happen. Noteworthy however were the efforts of Lt. Vest and Deputies Pittz and Lechner. Lt. Vest was the driving force to make this all happen and come together. Pittz came in late in the game and picked up on the processes, and especially mastered the ISSR creations necessary for each file. Lechner hit it out of the park by finding much needed proofs and scanned hundreds of documents for us. Thank you all very much for getting us through this. Officially we will find out our reaccreditation status in March 2015 however the Team Leader who writes the final report gave us every indication that we would be reaccredited.

Shortly after our on site assessment, on December 1st Deputy Pittz gave birth to a baby girl, Calahan Lila Pittz, 7 lbs 8 ozs. and 20.5 in. Both mother and baby are doing fine.

Congratulations Mallory and Dalan.

Over the course of the last month or so the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office has made several significant purchases from our budget. While it is not my intent to steal the Sheriff’s thunder I feel it is important to provide some insight into these purchases from my perspective (which very likely is no different than the Sheriffs). The decision to purchase Dodge Chargers was initially purely a fiscal decision (about 100K less than an Interceptor or Tahoe package) but after looking at the specs for the Charger and the available all wheel drive and the 5.7 liter Hemi V-8 option it became not only a fiscal decision but also one of practicality for our personnel pushing these patrol cars around the county at all hours of the day and night in oftentimes conditions that are brutal. As I’ve said to some of you (or at least those who would listen), I have pushed old Crown Victoria’s, Caprices, Luminas, Tahoe’s, and Interceptors and even the Detectives Dodge Avengers through the snow and in my opinion the Charges are worth another try due to the many changes from the previous Chargers we purchased. Again, my opinion, and I might be wrong.

As you are all aware as well we purchased Axon camera systems for our agency. Interestingly we looked at 45 units but after examining our budget and some outstanding negotiating skills by Capt. Hoobler with Axon we were able to sign a contract for 70 units. The total cost over 5 years was in the neighborhood of $318,000, the bulk of which is data storage. We are developing the policy for the use of these cameras right now but it appears that the “delay” in fielding them will be with the company who is to provide user training as part of the purchase contract. Hopefully by early 2nd quarter 2015 they will be fully implemented and in use.

Much discussion lately as well about the new uniform purchases. We will spend about $144,000 plus on these new uniforms for the initial outfitting of all agency personnel. Personally I look forward to the change and believe it has been a long time coming. Lt. Askew has worked tirelessly on this project and while the committee put a lot of effort into the process he has been the one pushing to get it accomplished. Aside from a minor setback with the shirts recently I remain optimistic that we can remain on schedule for a March-ish 2015 deployment. The new Uniform Classification policy is completed and has been ran up the flagpole for finalization as of this writing.

We drive our cars approximately 1.8 million miles each year. This year using end of the year monies we prepaid for $170,000 in fuel for use in 2015. Not nearly as much as we were able to do using 2013 carryover into 2014 but still a significant amount. With the fuel prices appearing to be moving downward, this prepayment and the amount we budgeted for 2015 hopefully puts us in a better position financially otherwise.

Services continued To an extent we are charged as division commanders to be visionaries. This look into a crystal ball at what the future can and does hold for us as an agency is much different than what I dealt with on a daily basis in most of my previous assignments.

Unfortunately there are variables that we cannot control such as the budget, those unexpected events that occur that cost a lot of money, etc. Our methods to address these variables/unknowns require us to manage our monies in such a way that leaves us no alternative but to wait until close to the end of the fiscal year to make purchases of items that are needed but that are not necessarily supported in our budget. I believe that we made very solid purchases to put us in a much better position for not only next year but for years to come. Once the Sheriff’s budget is set he can spend that money as he sees fit to run the day to day operations of the agency…I believe we have done that.

Of course, you can have all of the fancy equipment with all the bells and whistles and still fail miserably without quality people to operate this equipment. We have that here at SNSO. I wish that I had the ability to increase everyone’s pay but unfortunately I do not. I oftentimes wonder what keeps you here working for the low pay that you work for, usually without complaint. You get up and come to work every day despite bad weather, time of day/shift, weekends, holidays, illness, and you do amazing things for each other and our community. We truly are like a family. We have disagreements, we get mad at each other, sometimes we disappoint one another but in the end we are there to take care of each other and get the job done…and yes, despite these differences we continue to move forward toward making this a better community to live and work in.

No, Lieutenant Vest you cannot telecommute...

I hope everyone has a good holiday and Merry Christmas. Be safe.

Captain Kolbek

December 11th we celebrated our good friend Stoney's Birthday!

Communications Captain Lance Royer

Lt. John Ostenson is continuing to seek viable Communications Specialist applicants to fill vacant positions. He is not alone in this effort, as he has received several referrals from Communications Specialists, Deputies, and others in the agency. Other candidates have come from career fairs that he has attended, with the assistance of SS Melanie Bergers, CSI Kali Specht, and CSI Jacque Stewart. Shawnee County Human Resources also continues to send applications to us. As you may remember, Tim Hrenchir, a reporter with the Topeka Capital-Journal, wrote a frontpage article describing the current situation of the Shawnee County Emergency Communications Center entitled, “Call of Duty.” This article was in print on Wednesday, October 22, 2014. It was very nicely written and also included a side story of CSI Molly Pisocki. That news article generated interest from another applicant, who was hired a short five weeks later. Much activity is taking place behind the scenes to recruit and hire quality candidates who possess the unique skills it takes to do this type of gratifying, yet very difficult work. We are currently in the infant stages of working with WTI (Washburn Institute of Technology) to explore the possibility of developing offered coursework specific to 911 Dispatch Centers in the Topeka area. This would greatly enhance our ability to identify viable, qualified Communications Specialist candidates.

The Shawnee County P25 radio project, although mostly completed, has a few areas remaining to wrap up. More than 750 Shawnee County Sheriff and Topeka Police radios were cycled through follow up reprogramming on October 2830, 2014, at MTAA, where drive-through facilities were available. Wind porting microphones were installed at the same time. Senior Communications Systems Engineer Jim Chambers, Communications Engineer Marion Brown, Communication Technician Kyle Soldani, and I were assisted in this massive project by Lt. Ostenson, Sgt. Todd Good, Cpl. Errin Mahan, and OAIII Glenda Anderson, who is with SNSO Inventory. Simultaneously, the new Fire Station Alerting (FSA) was being installed in Communications and in the various city and county fire houses. FSA went live the first week of November, with a few issues noted to resolve. A schedule will be developed in the near future to complete follow up fire radio reprogramming in early 2015, along with updating other fire radio issues. Shawnee County Parks and Recreation switched to the P25 system on December 9, 2014, and Topeka Traffic Engineering will switch by the end of the year.

The New World MSP project is moving forward. During the past two months, SNCO Department of Corrections continued to work on data mapping and system security. Topeka Fire I.T. and Shawnee County GIS were working to integrate Topeka Fire response quadrants with GIS mapping. Representatives from Shawnee County and City of Topeka I.T., SNSO and TPD Records, SNSO Process, and the SCECC gathered December 8-11, 2014, to train in and test NCIC forms for use when the new system goes live in Spring 2015. More detailed testing will be needed in the future.

Congratulations to CSI Eli Kennedy, who was qualified to work independently from trainer on November 22, 2014. He has been working with us since April 4, 2014.

Welcome to our new CSI, Allison Mueller, who joined the SCECC team on December 1, 2014.

SCECC welcomed back CSI Angelica Huber as an intermittent employee on December 15, 2014.

On Thanksgiving, November 27, 2014, some of our Communications Specialists and a Topeka Police Officer made sure a Topekan had Thanksgiving dinner. A woman who was homebound was to have received a Thanksgiving meal delivered to her from the Expocentre Community Thanksgiving dinner. By some mix-up, dinner had not been delivered, and she called dispatch to inquire if someone might go to the Expo and see if dinner delivery was still a possibility. TPD Officer Alex Voss went to the Expocentre, only to be told there was no food left. Upon receiving this information, CSI Lacey Mulford, CSI Sondra Hamilton, CSI Gabriella Gonzalez, and CSI Alexis Bone prepared a plate from the Communications’ Thanksgiving dinner for the citizen and made arrangements for Officer Voss deliver the food to her at her home. The recipient expressed her significant gratitude to Officer Voss while he was there and also later in a thank you note to all who made Thanksgiving dinner possible for her. SS Dawn Frey, who was supervisor when this occurred, said she was heartened to see this kind of spontaneous generosity, even when our division has been experiencing the staffing and overtime challenges it has of late. Thank you to all who made Thanksgiving a brighter, warmer, and healthier holiday for one Topekan!

On November 4, 2014, SS Sara Roberts reported that the SCECC placed second in the Xybix Best Decorated 911 Communications Center contest (see picture.) Sara said, “Thank you for those that helped decorate and those that put up with the decorations. We placed 2nd in the Xybix Halloween contest. Next year we are going for ghoul (gold)!!”

Xybix is based in Littleton, Colorado and specializes in production of 911 center dispatch stations. Xybix provided SCECC furniture replacements in 2009.

Communications continued

October 2014 Fastest Fingers:

November 2014 Fastest Fingers:

Overall: Heather Gerhardt

Overall: Sondra Hamilton

First Shift: Julie Sewell

First Shift: Amber Fowler

Second Shift: Sara Roberts

Second Shift: Erin McKeon

Third Shift: Dawn Frey

Third Shift: Trista Roberts

In October, SCECC answered 28,909 calls, 46% of them in less than two seconds.

In November, SCECC answered 25,885 calls, 42% of them in less than two seconds.

Captain Lance Royer receiving his certification in Information Technology Project Management Methodology on November 18, 2014 from Jim Clark, Chair of the State of Kansas Information Technology Advisory Board in a ceremony at Landon State Office Building.

Communications celebrating Halloween. Pictured left to right: CSI Jacque Stewart, CSII Trista Roberts, and SS Sara Roberts.

The scary guy is a “fake head.”

Mounted Posse members Pat and Patty patrolling West Ridge Mall with Legs and Shilo over the holidays.

Santa’s Helpers aka: Communications have been busy keeping everyone safe in Shawnee County! All 3 shifts participated in an Ugly Sweater contest, 1 winner was picked from each shift and given a Starbucks gift card! (the drink of choice in Communications) Pictured from left to right: 1st shift winner Sara, 2nd shift winner Erin, and 3rd shift winner (middle) Trista.

D.A.R.E. Graduates from North Fairview Elementary receiving their certificates of completion from Sheriff Jones and Corporal Kampsen, December 18th.

The Communications Division Christmas Tree