Human Beings Are Disgusting Creatures... at least some of the time

The case that affected me the most while working with the Detectives was a child pornography case. Officers recovered 50 hard drives worth of child pornography in one man's possession. The job of the detectives, and me... as their intern, was to go through all of the hard drives and find the 5 worst pictures or videos. How does one look through the thousands of horrible things on those hard drives and determine which 5 are the worst of the bunch? It was a long and arduous process which involved many disturbing hours of looking at things that should not under any circumstance, even exist in this world.

Child pornography should not only piss you off, but should make you want to hunt down these sons of bitches and castrate them, or torture them or lock them away forever.... so that they can never hurt a child again, and can never ruin another person's life. As I went through the material on these hard drives and saw the horrendous things adults force children to do, I felt a very distinct need to hunt down every person who owns, has distributed, or made child pornography and remove them from the face of the earth. My maternal instincts kicked into gear and I immediately wanted to rescue these tortured children. The worst part is knowing that most of these children will never be rescued from their life of hell and will continue to have to do these perverse things, until they are too old to be in child porn anymore. And what's even worse, is that many of these children will grown up to be abusers of children themselves, because that is how the cycle of violence works.

As my heart was breaking over these terrible acts, I noticed that the worst 5 on each hard drive had some similar characteristics. Massachusetts charges people more harshly if the pictures or videos depict certain things. There are 7 of these characteristics, but I only know a few. Bestiality, bondage, urination and incest are three of the characteristics that allow the lawyers to add more time to the offender's sentence. Disgusting, yes? Well, most of the pictures and videos chosen to show the jury had things like this on them. I was disturbed and upset. But in the line of work that I want to be part of, you cannot be bothered by things like that. You have to bear it, and get through the 50 hard drives, and have to understand that looking through all that material is the only way to put a criminal behind bars for at least a little while.

I won't get into it here because I don't want to rant to you all about how much I absolutely hate what goes on in the courts when it comes to people who rape children, who fantasize about raping children, and the people who put children through this for profit. I have very strong feelings that would get very mean, rude and horrible if I started getting into them.

But what i will say is this. The people who rape and hurt children should get the same sentence that murderes get. Instead of just removing the child from the earth, they subject them to violence, ruin their childhoods, their innocence, their lives. This means that these children are being murdered... but left alive to live with the scars, the lasting memories of what they went through. If that isn't cruel... I don't know what is.

Another Post About Phones.... You SHOULD read this.

Anything. I repeat anything you put on your phone can be seen again. This I promise you. Even things you think you deleted.

Today, we dumped an I-Phone of this shitty kid (excuse my language). Not only did he have over 1200 photos on his I-Phone, he also did not realize that he hadn't deleted incriminating evidence that the police can now use against him. There were pictures of him with brass knuckles and a couple other seriously incriminating pictures.


BRASS KNUCKLES ARE ILLEGAL WEAPONS.

So, not only did it take a while to sort through all his junky pictures.... (How many pictures of your girlfriend's nail polish and stupid text message conversations do you even need?!) but we were only looking for very specific things. To see if he was distributing marijuana, to see if we could put the brass knuckles in his hands, to see if he took any pictures at the scene of the crime.

Wanna know the best part? When you take pictures with phones, especially I-Phones for some reason, they take the latitude and longitude of the location where you took those pictures. That information is RAW data, and you can't change or remove RAW data. So this kid is basically screwed. Now, not only that, but you can get date, time, and any of those basic things you would want to know just from the picture itself. This also goes for facebook messages, videos, etc. He has provided the police with enough evidence to charge him... and they have evidence to back it up as well.

Basically, you should NEVER put anything online, or on your phone that you wouldn't want anyone to see. Especially the police. 

I am Wheel. Hear me Squeak.

So I am a part of the LEEP program. The LEEP program basically gives you money to do an internship over the summer, which is great. The internship that I have requires me to commute pretty far, and guess what. It's not cheap. So, I require the money from the LEEP program in order to get to my job two times a week. Sucks, right?

So I had to fill out allllllllll this paperwork. And I did. It was filled out and submitted before July even started. And then, on July 3, i get an email saying "I didn't get these last two pieces of paperwork from you", from my LEEP sponsorer person. Now, i had sent them in, and told her so. And forwarded the original messages back to her. This time she got them. However, she decided not to submit them to the financial office until July 8. Now, this seems like it wouldn't be a big deal.... but i needed the money to commute to work, pay for food, and for my utility bills. And because they weren't sending the money, i had to choose. Food, bills, or commute. I chose not to commute. (30$ per day) I missed an internship i love because the program that set me up with the internship wouldn't pay me on time.

So I started calling the LEEP office. Once a day, twice a day... but the head of LEEP was seemingly never there. Not at 9am, not at 11am, not at 230pm. It was seriously frustrating. I left several angry voicemails... and it took two weeks, but I finally got a response that said.... "We sent you the check, but your address doesn't exist." Let me tell you something Clark financial services... MY HOUSE EXISTS. I LIVE IN IT. IT HAS A NUMBER, AND I HAVE HAD PACKAGES DELIVERED TO ME. But no one had informed me that the check had come back to them. *I* had to call to find out that they had made the mistake, because they didn't think they had made one.

Moral of the story: Sometimes you have to be the squeaky wheel in order to get anything done.

Gun Permits

Gun permits are a really big part of working in a police station. Lots of people want gun licenses, FICs, etc. But is everyone qualified to even carry a gun? No. No they are not. Part of what I did today was input information into Pro4, the police department's archaic information system. Like... this thing is old school man. So basically, i was handed a large stack of forms and told, "Make sure all the information is right". So I did. When someone moves, gets a new phone number, a new license number, a new anything... you have to update Pro4 so that everything is accurate. Massachusetts is especially strict about gun licenses.

There are several things that you need.
-Your form, filled out with correct personal information.
           This is used to do a background check. if you fail the background check, you don't get a gun.
-A firearms safety class.
           To even receive the background check, one must first do a day long class on gun safety.
-Recommendations from responsible people.
          This is to make sure that you're not some crazy person with no criminal history who wants a gun.
-Luck.
           Once that is all done, the Chief of Police decides to grant, or not grant your request. Afterwards, you
           can get a gun, from the class that you were granted.

Talking talking talking 'bout...

Police officers love to talk and that's a fact. Walking into the station this morning, I was greeted by the Lieutenant, and two other officers in a conversation about what they do with mice after they catch them... because their kids are against them killing pests. Later, the conversation turned to hockey, and stories about the force's hockey team, and who played hockey, and who was insane and who was crazy... and then got into funny stories about retired officers.

You can learn a lot about people who like to talk and talk and talk. You learn about their personality, their family life, what kind of person they are. It's all private and yet none of it is, because all these guys are friends. When you work at a dangerous job, you learn to be friends with your co-workers real fast. You not only want them to have your backs, but you're gonna want company during those slow days where nothing is happening... and as a college student with friends, I can tell you that you talk to your friends. All the time. About pretty much everything.

And another thing. Police officers swear a lot. Not all of them, but the Lieutenant does. Everything is always "fucking shit" and "goddamn" and it's all woven into his sentences, because hey, his job is to protect, he deserves leeway on his bad language. But he NEVER EVER talks like that around his kids. Only when he's on the job.

AND THE STEREOTYPE IS TRUE! Well... less about the donuts, and more about the coffee. The officers and Lieutenant I work with have so much coffee, it's kind of unreal. But then again, they work very hard all the time, and are very tired. The coffee is to keep them awake. Makes sense now, doesn't it. (I find the officers eating pizza more than any other thing to tell you the truth).

Police Work Can Be Unfruitful At The Worst of Times

So, a couple weeks ago, I was part of a suicide case that was happening here. Now, it was pretty open and shut... except, now, the dead guy's car has gone missing! Now, the usual suspects have been found. The owner of the guy's apartment, and the Realtor who sells the apartments for the owner.

So far today, one of the officers and I went out on a ride to take a look at all the Wholesale car sellers in the area. We were on the lookout for this car, which needs to be found so that we can determine who sold it, why they sold it, and what's so important about the damn car.

It is ILLEGAL to sell someone else's car without their permission, or the permission of their immediate family... if that person happens to be dead. You don't get to just take it and sell it... even if the guy owed you money and committed suicide in the apartment you own. That's not how the law works.

These guys are pretty legit scumbags.

Don't be stupid. Follow the law or you'll get busted.

Stakeout 101

We've all seen the crime shows where you see the detectives looking all comfortable in their car while drinking coffee and they seem to be perfectly fine in whatever they're wearing, they're not complaining or having any real issues. Time seems so short and like it flies by like nothing is a problem. This is not what a stakeout is really like. Nothing like it. Using my own experience, I have created for you this list, so that when you go on your own stakeout, you'll know what TO do and what NOT to do.

Attire

Welcome to this special episode of "What Not to Wear.... on a Stakeout". You would think that this would be pretty straight forward, but it's really not to some people.

What not to wear...
-Uncomfortable clothing. You WILL be sitting in one spot for more than 3 hours.
-Bulky or heavy clothing. Again, you WILL be sitting in one spot for more then three hours. Try to be comfortable.
-Police clothing. You are on a STAKEOUT. The last thing you want to do is attract any unwanted attention, or the attention of the people you are staking out.
-Anything out of the ordinary. You'll wan to be able to blend in with a crowd. Even if you're just hanging out in your car.

What to wear....
-Comfortable clothing. Sitting in a car for three hours is already uncomfortable. Make it better on yourself.
-Dress for the weather. If it's hot, don't wear anything that you wouldn't want to be wearing outside that day. Not all cars have air conditioning.
-Dress casual. No one cares if you're wearing a nice business casual outfit. You're just shooting yourself in the foot by not dressing casually.
-Comfortable shoes. No needs for stif shoes when you can just wear sneakers and flip flops. This a stakeout. Odds you're gonna be chasing someone, little to none.

Equipment

What not to bring...
-Anything unnecessary. Seriously. This is pretty self explanatory category and covers a wide range of things. For example, you do not need to bring a cat, a baseball or a cast iron skillet with you.

What to bring...
-You WILL want to bring a pad (or several) of paper. You will want to take notes on some things.
-Lots of pens. You will drop them, you will somehow lose them in the car. No idea how or why, it just happens.
-Water or some sort of drink. You are going to want to stay hydrated. But don't drink enough that you'll constantly need to use the bathroom... especially if you're on stakeout alone.
-A snack or some food. Same kind of thing. You need energy to stay alert.
-Binoculars. You may need to see things that are far away. Surprisingly, if you're in a car, you're not necessarily visible to other people. Windshields have glares. That being said, don't bring the biggest pair of binoculars to the party. Smaller more easily concealed ones are better, especially if they have an image stabilizer.
-Your cellular device. You'll need o look normal if anyone spots you... also, it's good to keep in touch with your superiors and the rest of your team.
-Any kind of charger. Keep your electronics charged.
-Anything that could come in handy.

Attitude

 What not to think...
-"This will be a walk in the park." Sorry, but no. It will be hard to see things that you need to see, and that you need to write down... such as license plates numbers. They're hard to see on moving cars, and hard to write them down while you have to be looking at and seeing the next license plate number.... It's not easy.
-"This is going to be so exciting!" It's not going to be. You're there to watch and listen, not to make an arrest. You're going to be in that place, or car for over 3 hours, doing nothing but watching your target or taking notes, or license plate numbers. Do not expect to have any fun.
-"I'm going to see a crime take place!" Probably not. Sorry.

What to think....
"This could take a while." It can and it will. Police and Detectives will put in hundreds of stakeout hours into a single case in order to find people, get evidence and make a case. Be prepared to spend a lot of time on stakeouts.
-"I'm really helping with this case." You are helping out. Anything you see could be important. Not everything... but anything could be. You could find the car, see the act or the piece of evidence that helps crack the case.



Stakeouts are all about surveillance. Not about making the arrest. You are observing and collecting notes on the comings and goings. You are doing the boring part of police work, but although it may be boring, it is a necessary part of working certain types of cases... such as drugs and prostitution.

HOWEVER, THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF BEING ON A STAKEOUT IS ACTING NATURAL. YOU DON'T WANT ANYONE TO SEE YOU, OR MAKE YOU AS A COP. ACT. NATURAL. ACT LIKE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE THERE.