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.

 

Don't Let Your Emotions Get the Best of You

Working on difficult cases where the victim is young, or dead, or seriously injured, or portrayed in a horrible way can be a big issue for a lot of people who are going into this kind of profession. Victims are very easy to empathize with, and you begin to feel all of these emotions that really detract from you being able to deal with the case and find evidence in a way that doesn't make you so angry that you start making mistakes.  Keeping your emotions in check is a big part of working the police, or the FBI or any kind of law enforcement agency. And keeping your emotions in check doesn't mean you don't care or empathize with the victim, what it means is that you're doing your job to the best of your ability and not letting emotions take you somewhere bad where you cannot do your job to the best of your ability.

I have been mentally preparing myself since Thursday night. This coming week, I have the opportunity to work on a large child pornography case that is relatively new, and a huge deal, thanks to the amount of child porn they actually found on this guy's hard drive. I am going to have to look at this stuff. I'm going to have to go through it in order to help nail this guy to the wall, and make sure he never gets out of jail and hurts another child, or facilitates the hurting of a child.

Right now, I am angry at this man. I'm completely pissed that he could do something like this, and I despise the fact that he has hurt these children. But at the same time, I'm working towards stepping back and getting a grip on my emotions. I need to be able to help this case. Not hinder it. And you know, it really does suck. Thinking about what this man has done just makes me flinch with disgust and it makes me feel gross on the inside and makes my skin feel so oily and gross... but I have to put that aside and just take it one moment at a time and really help make a difference in this case. More to come.

Cool things that happen to me.

I'd like to let you all know that I am part of a confidential ongoing case that I currently cannot talk about at all. 

How to Hang Out at a Crime Scene

This is part two of my posting today. Because of a lovely thing that happened on patrol, (and of course my experience from Forensics class) I can tell you what REALLY happens at a crime scene and how to handle it.

1. The first officer there makes sure the scene is safe and keeps people from coming in who shouldn't be in there in the first place.
Communication is key. Everyone needs to know what is going on... that is, the law people. But         safety is first. Also, it's highly important that every person that enters the crime scene gets documented as being there. No random person can just ENTER.

2. The primary officer (WHILE WEARING GLOVES) surveys the scene and looks around while keeping safe.
The primary officer is in charge. Until someone higher up takes jurisdiction.

3. Tag the evidence with evidence numbers, make a sketch and make sure all the evidence shows up on the sketch.
It's very important to know what all the evidence is, and where it is. Because of evidence tampering, a jury needs to know that the police didn't plant anything when they made their search.

4. Photos of the scene are taken, as well as a video of the scene.
It is really important that everything is correctly documented. Court cases require air tight evidence with no mistakes. Otherwise we end up with a case like OJ Simpson's... where the man was obviously guilty, but the police fucked up big time. All photo and video evidence is done in RAW format, which means even in photoshop or editors, the originals cannot be changed.

5. Evidence is collected.
There are very specific ways to collect the evidence from the crime scene. In my forensic class, i learned that there are some pieces of evidence that can be put in plastic bags. However, in the real world, they always play it safe by using paper evidence bags instead.

6. The chain of custody must never be broken while moving evidence, opening evidence and sealing evidence.
I must keep saying and reiterating that the chain of custody is the most important thing. Anyone who touches, moves, opens, closes... anything from the crime scene, enters the crime scene, touches evidence... MUST sign off. Must put correct times and dates, must initial. It's all a very thorough process. 

7. Witnesses to crimes are very important. More important than you think. They can give you details that can help solve the case, or completely confuse you. And sometimes, these witnesses are the actual perpetrators of the crime.
But the process is long and rather tedious. Name, birthday, license. Then you get run through the system. They look at your B.O.P. which is a number that gives a good estimate on the number of crimes they have committed in the past. So many people have to be called, and the background of the person must be constantly checked to see if anything was missed. It's actually quite a boring practice.

Anything else you need to know... send me a message, send me a comment. I know the system. I know how it works and why it's important. :)

Reasons I don't want to work in a High School...

Today will probably be a multi-post day because already I have a lot to cover. Today, I went to the high school in the town that I am working in. It's a decent sized high school, and 300 people per grade. And there I met with the safety officer and the officer who deals with Juveniles... So what i did for the first two hours of my day was talk to him. About everything involving high school security, the idiots that go to high school, the dumb people that run the high school, how much the system sucks and a whole bunch of stories that I will share with you now... without names and personal details of course... because who needs those?

So going back to an older case, there is this girl... and she is an adult, and she is at risk of being charged with a felony... and yet, even though the DA is telling her to take this really good deal, she won't, because she is "evidently" really scared of the people she'd be flipping on... despite the fact that the police have offered her protection. But as dumb as not taking the deal is, there is something worse. The other girl involved in the crime is a juvenile. A Juvenile who now walks around her school like she's untouchable... a juvenile girl who has not had any charges brought against her, even though there are now TWO crimes she is a part of.
                                                                        Fair or No fair?
If you know me at all, you'll know that this pisses me off. Being a freshman girl in highschool does not excuse you from criminal charges. It does not excuse you from the law. It does not make you above the law. Lady Justice does not smile upon this case, or this girl. And neither do I. I assure you there will be more on this case to come, mostly because it bothers me and it's taking a long time to deal with.

Another thing with high school kids is, they don't learn. And they don't listen, even when you think they have a soul and you think that there is a good quality about them. They just... suck. So take this one kid, right? He gets caught with marijuana and so gets 20 hours of community service, the officer at the school does him a solid, and is helping him out with the community service and getting to know the kid. The kid does everything right. Later, the officer finds out that the boy is hanging out with the wrong kids. These are bad kids let me tell you. So, the officer tells the kid "Don't hang out with him, he's bad news". The kid says "well, i've known him forever." And then the kid gets a kind but stern lecture.
                                                         Can you guess what happens next?
About two weeks later, said kid gets arrested for assault. And who is he with at the time? The bad kids. You see what happens when you don't listen to people who know best and understand the law and have seen all this shit happen before? You get arrested. In high school. For assault.

Now... speaking of this bad kid... and this I swear to god is a bad kid. He doesn't want to go to school, so he doesn't. He deals drugs, he assaults people. And seriously man, he's gotten away with it for however long he's been at it. His parents think the sun, moon and stars shine out of his ass and refuse to ever believe he's done anything wrong. That's the first problem. The second problem is that no one has stuck this royal douchebag into a juvenile detention center... although.... this kid is now an adult. LET'S SEE YOU TRY THAT SHIT NOW SUCKER.

And now, I just want to list some stupid things kids at this high school have done. Stolen paper from the copier in the main office when secretaries were right there, tried to break back into the high school during school hours when he no longer had anymore classes that day, parked in a staff parking spot so many times that she got over $200 in tickets, attempted to get out of a signed contract by threatening to call their attorney (a school contract none the less), and many many more things.
                                                               Damn, high school kids SUCK.

But then you have to think about the policy of the school... and the police. It all sucks. The school won't do anything about delinquents if they don't do it on school property. Kids don't get really punished. Basically, you're living in a glass bubble where you can do no wrong. And then the school has some serious issues with attendance... like the situation where a kid ran away to Michigan and the teachers were still marking the kid as present in the class. Or the time when a kid attempted suicide and the teachers marked him as present in school when he hadn't been in school all day. This is what we call negligence and it's both wrong and disgusting... especially coming from the people who are supposed to be teaching these children.  Also, the school won't put in any surveillance cameras... even though most schools have... especially after Newtown. Schools should really want to protect their kids... and you know, in a wealthy area, this school should have so much more money to put towards school security.

Now... a quick rant.

NO 16 OR 17 YEAR OLD BRAT NEEDS A BRAND NEW CORVETTE/MERCEDES/AUDI/ PORSHE ETC. YOUR KID WILL CRASH THAT CAR WITHIN TWO YEARS, AND THEN, YOUR ALREADY HIGH INSURANCE WILL GO UP. IF YOU'RE GOING TO BUY THEM A CAR, GET THEM A NICE USED CAR THAT WON'T RAISE YOUR INSURANCE BY THE COST OF ANOTHER CAR. YOUR BRAT IS NO DIFFERENT THEN ANY OTHER KID AND NEEDS TO LEARN THAT INSTEAD OF YOU TEACHING THEM TO BE MORE MATERIALISTIC THEN THEY ALREADY ARE. SHEESH. 

End Rant.

Let's have a discussion about commuting...

Commuting is a pain in the ass for everyone. It's especially a pain in the ass for me. I commute 1.5 hours one way, and 1.5 hours back. Every Thursday for June, every Thursday and Friday for July etc. You get the point. And it's even more of a pain when the person living in your house... who has a car... is too "busy" with herself to come get you from the train station (which is 5 minutes away) at 530, once or twice a week. It's kind of sad too, because, well, isn't that what friends do?

But I seem to have a savior this week. Chris King. Friend. Wonderful person. Great RA. He offered to drive  me to the train station. IN THE MORNING AT 630. But also come and pick me up at 530 later that day. Like, who does that? A true friend, that's who. I appreciate this so much... so freaking much. It feels nice to know that someone is going to help me out instead of just being lazy about everything and sitting on the computer all day and only caring about them self....

Anyways, I got a ride. I'm happy about it. It makes me feel good that someone in the world isn't a douchebag who ignores other people in need. We can't all be rich and have cars you know. Some of us have shitty commutes to work and really need to catch a break on part of it. When you start spending 35-40$ a day to get to work, you'll understand what I mean. It's long and it's hard, but I still do it and it's worth it. It's just wonderful to know that there are real friends out there who want to help, and will help because they're good people.

Day One of Being Olivia Benson

Today was day one at the Crime Lab. And of course, like every good Law&Order SVU fan, I was channeling my inner Olivia Benson. Now, this is not an SVU unit, but they do work with some... less than appealing evidence. Sexual assault via internet and smartphone, child pornography, potential rape... I got to read the files, review the cases and then talk about them to someone very high up in the chain of command.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start with the beginning of the day. Anyone who knows me knows that I am rather scared of trains... if I am on them alone. And my commute... well, it requires 3 trains. Two commuter rails and the T. It's about a 2 hour commute. Surprisingly, it's not that bad. I can use that time to study in my GRE book. So, it's really not all that bad. Although the guys at the station seem to think it was pretty bad. I don't really think so because most of the time I'm just sitting still and waiting most of the time. And it gave me time to calm my nerves about being on a train. Because like i've said, trains are scary.

Now, the first thing I did was meet everyone and explore the building. I met the dispatchers, the detectives, the secretaries... I saw the cells, where people get booked and where evidence is kept (I also saw the largest evidence bag that i have ever seen... it was half my height!). But overall, it was pretty simple.

The next part of the day was going to a computer forensics lab. In this lab, I got to help with a phone dump. A phone dump is when a phone in evidence is given to the Forensics unit, and they take all the information off of it using some pretty cool software and then all the information is put onto the computer. Something very important I learned is that if you delete something, the file is still there. They can still get the file with this software and you don't even know it. ESPECIALLY with I-phones. We dumped an I-phone and I swear to god you knew everything in about 15 minutes. Locations, pictures and videos that had been deleted etc. You need to be really careful about what you text, what you take pictures of, and what the settings are on your phone. If the NSA scandal didn't scare you, this will. The police can get anything they want off your phone in less than an hour. Whether or not you have deleted it in the past. Of course they need a warrant, but if you've done something wrong, it's really not that hard to get one. So be careful about what you put on your phone.

Now that i've given you that obvious little piece of advice, you should know that working with detectives and within a crime unit isn't... always fun like you see on the TV shows. Every day isn't fast paced criminal catching, in fact, it's a lot of paper work and writing affidavits and just bumming around waiting for things to happen. Now, some days you're on your feet constantly, doing everything, meeting everyone, doing whatever you can to be a help to the detectives and officers.

I'm very excited and happy to be working here and getting all this new experience. Over the summer, I will get to ride in a patrol car (and hopefully get to turn on the sirens), sit in on an interrogation, go on a stakeout and meet a DA. Lots of things to do, and so little time to do it! But hey. it's gonna be cool.