The Sisyphus Comments

Job Announcements, Recruiting and Young Workers

I want to remind all criminal justice agencies that we welcome your job announcements on the weekly CopCAST podcast. Just send the announcement to talkback@copcast.net and we will put it on the next show. I will also list your job announcement here on The Sisyphus Comments.

However, after reading and announcing a bunch of job opportunities, one of the things I have noticed is that some agencies aren’t preparing their recruiting announcements with today’s target audience in mind. There are a few issues that I believe every agency administrator should consider when putting together a recruiting program.

First, you must realize that the days of emulating the old Marine Corps slogan of “We are looking for a few good men” are over. There are not nearly as many good men and women out there who are interested in pursuing a career in the criminal justice profession and the competition for the best is very keen. Even the Marine Corps has retired that method of recruiting.

Next, sell your community, its history, climate, location, recreational opportunities and other quality of life factors. Don’t be afraid to mention the night life in the area. Remember, you are targeting the 20 somethings and many of them are more interested in social hot spots than the quality of the schools in the area.

Keep in mind that younger workers feel much less loyalty to institutions than the older workers you may already employ at your agency. Unlike your older workers who expect to earn their way up the ladder, younger workers have been raised in a culture of “immediate gratification” so they want responsibility and expect to have input right away.

Another factor to consider is that most high school and college curriculi now include a strong emphasis on group projects and teamwork. This has created a class of young people who are very social and if you can create a strong social environment at work, you can take advantage of this network-centric attitude.

Recruiting and training new employees is a very expensive endeavor. Agencies need to make retention more of a core responsibility for managers at all levels of the organization. You may even want to include recruitment and retention of employees in your supervisors’ job descriptions and as a point in their yearly performance evaluation. In fact, you could carry this a step further and make recruiting a factor in everyone’s performance evaluation. Issue job applications containing a “Referred By:” block to all of your officers and deputies and then reward them for helping to refer quality candidates.

Finally, always remember that mediocre recruiters seek out and attract mediocre applicants. If you truly want to land the best available applicants for your agency, put your best people in charge of recruiting, testing and hiring, to include performing background investigations. It takes the best to recognize the best!

In the words of Dennis Miller, of course that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Posted in Supervision | No Comments »

More Google Techniques

Here are a few more basic Google tricks to help you get the most out of your web searches. If you are doing a search and you want to match just Cardinal Academy use quotes as in “Cardinal Academy”. If you don’t want to use double quotes, you can use a dash to form a phrase match like Cardinal-Academy.

If you want to match Cardinal Academy but you don’t want to match training, use “Cardinal Academy” -training. In other words, you can use the minus sign to exclude terms.

Google is really pretty smart, particularly when it comes to spelling and synonyms. For instance, if you type in “oper labs” it will ask you if you meant “opera labs”. However, if you actually wanted to search for “oper labs”, just can just add a plus sign, like this “+oper labs”, to tell Google not to look for alternative spellings or synonyms.

You can type practically anything in the box and Google will try to return a valid result. Try typing in a UPS or FedEx tracking number, a flight number or something like “time in Zurich” and Google will return the result you would expect.

Google also has a great built in calculator. You can do pretty sophisticated calculations like logarithms. For instance, if you type in “log 5.0 x 106”, Google will return “log (5.0) x 106 = 74.0908205.” You can also do currency conversions by typing something like 5 dollars in yen. Google will return “five U.S. dollars = 605.15 Japanese yen.”

You can find definitions of words by typing in “define: [enter word].” In fact, if you type in any word, and look in the upper right corner of the window, you will see a “definition” hyperlink that you can click to get the definition.

This next tip is for lazy people (of course that doesn’t apply to anyone you know, right?). Suppose you need to develop PowerPoint presentation on crime prevention and you would like to have a presentation to start with. You can type “crime prevention filetype:ppt” and Google will return just PowerPoint files on crime prevention. This trick will work with most file types like .doc or .xml (don’t get excited, it doesn’t work for mp3 files).

Happy surfing!

Posted in Computer Advice | No Comments »

What To Do With Your Windows Computer!

As most of my regular readers know by now, my computer of choice is an Apple Powerbook. However, I have been trying to figure out what to do with my old Windows computer. It is such a pain to keep the virus protection and anti-spyware software up to date, not to mention the security upgrades. Fortunately, thanks to a friend of mine, I now have a solution . . .

Posted in Computer Advice | No Comments »

Alone In The Wilderness

I saw this short documenary a few years ago on PBS and I fell in love with it but it never dawned on me that it might be available for purchase. The other day I was browsing through Google Videos and the thought occurred to me to see if it was up there. Sure enough someone had posted it.

This one hour documentary is about Dick Proenneke, who retired at age 50 in 1967 and decided to build his own cabin on the shore of Twin Lakes, Alaska. The first summer he scouted for the best cabin site, and cut and peeled the logs he would need for his cabin. He returned the next summer to finish the cabin where he lived for over 30 years. Dick filmed his adventures, and Bob Swerer later turned the film into a video so we can all watch this amazing man build his cabin by hand.

I don’t know about the copyright issues but for the time being you can watch the movie via streaming video or you can download the video and the Google player.

View Alone In The Wilderness

You can also visit the official website where you can buy this documentary and a couple of follow-up documentaries, as well as a book based on Dick’s journals over 30 years.

Visit the Alone In The Wilderness Website

Posted in General Interest | No Comments »

Google Techniques You May Not Know

Google is so ubiquitous that it is listed as a verb in the dictionary. However, if you are just using it to do phrase searches, you are missing out on a lot of its power. Here are a few hints for getting the most out of your Google search engine.

If you are looking for specific information such as how high is Mount Everest, don’t enter it into Google in the form of a question. Instead use an asterisk to request the information in the form of a statement like, “Mount Everest is * feet high” (don’t include the quotes). Google will look for one word to replace the asterisk and it will return a snippet that highlights the information. You might also use this function in a statement like, “President Bush was born in *” and Google will return the year.

Another feature that might come in handy is the number range search. You simply type in a number then .. and a second number to find a something within the number range. You can use a slight modification of this technique to search for products within a certain dollar range. For instance, “dvd player $100..$300” will return sites that contain DVD players within the price range.

Another feature that a lot of people don’t know about is the movies search. Just type in the word “movies” and your zip code and Google will return a list all of the movies being shown in your area, along with the locations, number of screens, times and reviews.

You can also search for certain topics within a website using the “site:” command. For instance, you could type “site:cardinalacademy.org uniform” to return a list of any articles that mention uniforms on our website. Make sure you leave off the “www.” in the domain name so that Google searches all of the sub-domains. You can also use a “site:domain” search to limit your search to a certain type of domain. For example, “site:gov loans” will limit the return to only government sites that contain information about loans. This also works with any upper level domain like com, org, edu etc.

So grab your board (keyboard that is) and head out to do some surfing using these great new tips.

Posted in Computer Advice | No Comments »

LE Agencies Need Heavier Firepower

Law enforcement agencies across the country have been upgrading their firepower to deal with what they say is the increasing presence of high-powered weapons on the streets.

Scott Knight, chairman of the Firearms Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, says an informal survey of about 20 departments revealed that since 2004 all of the agencies have either added weapons to officers’ patrol units or have replaced existing weaponry with military-style arms.

CLICK HERE:

Read Full Story

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Are You Healthy? Thinks about it!

This week on CopCAST we will be telling you about a veteran officer of the St. Louis, Missouri Police Department who suffered a fatal heart attack after completing the department’s annual physical fitness test. Thinks about it!

This officer had been on the job for 30 years which meant he was probably about ready to retire and enjoy the fruits of his labors. Now he won’t get to enjoy the things that we all look forward to like doing the things he liked to do, seeing his kids get married and playing with his grandchildren. Thinks about it!

What are you doing to keep yourself fit enough to safely do your job and make it to retirement? Are you overweight and out of shape? Do you eat well balanced meals and avoid snacks? Do you exercise at least three days per week for a minimum of 30 minutes? Does your exercise routine include cardiovascular, strength and flexibilty exercises? Thinks about it!

If you work 25+ years as a criminal justice officer, you deserve to enjoy a long, healthy and happy retirement. Start by getting yourself back in shape. First, visit your doctor to make sure it is safe for you to being an exercise program. Next, start off slowly and build up over time. Just walking at a brisk pace is great exercise. Find a buddy that shares your goals and workout together. Pack your lunch and load it up with fruits and vegetables. You are in control of your body and what goes in to it. Thinks about it!

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Want Productivity? Hire Grumpy!

Psychologists from the University of Alberta have found that miserable people make better workers than happy ones. No wonder we are so productive at the academy.

Apparently, happy people waste too much time trying to be happy, while their pissed off co-workers simply get the job done.

I guess these findings call into question all of the time, effort and money that have been expended to ensure that we have a happy workplace.

Psychologists Robert Sinclair and Carrie Lavis led a group of researchers that studied four groups of workers building circuit boards on a production line.

Workers who described their mood as ‘sad’ did not produce any more work but they made half as many mistakes as happy workers. As a result less of their products failed quality assurance tests. Apparently, miserable people use work to distract themselves from their mood while happy people are more likely to regard work as an unwanted distraction – and a source of unhappiness.

The study’s findings are contrary to previous research on the subject which suggests happy workers are more productive.

Now you may wonder how workers feel about these findings. Well, we will never know since, as a result of this study, no one cares. So get back to work and quit reading these blogs on the internet!

Posted in General Interest | No Comments »

Declutter Your Desk

If you are a gadget nut like me, you have probably noticed that your desk real estate has gradually shrunken down to the point where you can barely move your mouse around. One solution would be to get rid of some of your toys . . . NOT! An alternative would be to find a creative way to expand your existing work area to accomodate your “necessary” gadgets. I wish I had thought of the cheap and innovative solution that Van Mardian came up with. Check out his website for some great organizational advice.

CLICK HERE:

Declutter Your Desk

Posted in General Interest | No Comments »

Wanda Schumaker Art Teacher of the Year

So I am not as efficient as I should be – but I eventually get the important things done . . . and this is an important job.

My wife, Wanda, was recently selected as the Elementary Art Teacher of the Year for the Southwest Region by the Virginia Art Education Association (VAEA). She was interviewed on the Roanoke Public Access television channel and was recognized by the Roanoke City School Board this week. I finally got around to posting the video on Google.

Click Here to watch the interview on Roanoke Public Access Television
Click Here to watch the school board award

Posted in General Interest | 1 Comment »

County Drops ‘Super Academy’ Plans

By Reed Williams, Roanoke Times – February 16, 2007

Roanoke County sheriff’s deputies will train in the county’s new public safety building on Cove Road, said Administrator Elmer Hodge.

For Roanoke County officials, the plan all along was to build a $5 million “super academy” to train the county’s police officers and sheriff’s deputies.

They hoped to find a legal way for the Roanoke County Sheriff’s Office to leave the Cardinal Criminal Justice Academy in Salem, but Cardinal refused to let the sheriff’s office go.

After months of argument between county officials and Cardinal representatives, talk of possible lawsuits and an attempt to have state lawmakers settle their dispute, the two sides finally reached an agreement for the sheriff’s office to withdraw.

Yet county officials now say they have taken the plan for the super academy off the table, partly because the Roanoke Police Department did not wish to participate. The city, which shares its police academy with the Roanoke County Police Department, plans to build its own new $5.5 million academy.

County Administrator Elmer Hodge, who previously had vowed to consider every option to make the super academy a reality, now says there is plenty of room for county police and sheriff’s deputies to train at the county’s new public safety building on Cove Road. County police and the county’s fire and rescue department moved into the facility last month.

“It’s going to give us the flexibility to train based on need,” said Roanoke County Sheriff Gerald Holt.

Holt has said that Cardinal’s offerings did not meet his deputies’ training needs, and he expressed hope that a county academy would enable his office to pursue more advanced training.

Sheriff Holt’s comments are “simply unfounded rhetoric.”

Cardinal director Rich Schumaker disagrees that the academy cannot meet Holt’s needs, calling the sheriff’s comments “simply unfounded rhetoric.”

“Our staff and cadre of instructors are among the finest in the state,” Schumaker wrote in an e-mail Thursday. “In addition, by any objective measure, Cardinal is also one of the best managed criminal justice training academies in the state.”

Cardinal officials had resisted the withdrawal of the sheriff’s office, with its roughly 110 sheriff’s deputies, because the tuitions of the academy’s other members likely would have to be raised. Under state law, the sheriff’s office needed a two-thirds vote of the academy’s governing council to pull out.

The council voted overwhelmingly against the idea in October, but the two sides reached an agreement last week to let the sheriff’s office leave.

Under the agreement, the sheriff’s office must pay the academy $45,000 per year for the next five years to cover the amount of tuition and state funding Cardinal will miss out on with the sheriff’s office out of the picture.

The Roanoke County Board of Supervisors ratified the agreement Tuesday, and Cardinal’s governing council voted Thursday in favor of it.

But another big hurdle remains: a statewide moratorium against starting any new police academy.

Although the county no longer plans to build a new facility, county officials say, the moratorium prevents them from offering certified training at a new academy at the public safety building.

So Holt and Hodge were off to Richmond again Thursday, lobbying state legislators against the moratorium that exists in state budget language.

That matter is expected to be resolved when the state budget is approved. The General Assembly session is scheduled to end next week.

Posted in Academy News | 2 Comments »

Child Booster Seat Training Video

Earl Hardy, from NHTSA, requested that the following information be forwarded to all interested law enforcement officers. He has included links to a child booster seat video that would be good for roll call training and a like to obtain additional information on this issue.

Since 2000, more than two-thirds of the States have strengthened their child restraint laws to require booster seat use by children who have outgrown their child safety seats, but who still cannot ride safely using adult seat belts. These booster seat laws have been enacted to better protect child passengers in the 4 to 8 age group. Nearly 1,700 of these children have been killed and more than 265,000 have been injured in crashes since 2001.

Knowing that law enforcement officers appreciate specially designed tools to facilitate the enforcement of new requirements, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is releasing a six-minute roll call video designed to assist officers in enforcing booster seat requirements during traffic stops. “Booster Seats – The Missing Link” provides meaningful details about the need for booster seat use and includes suggestions for effectively enforcing booster seat laws.

To view the new video, visit:

http://www.boosterseat.gov/video/NHTSA-ver2_pre.wmv

For more information about booster seat use and child passenger safety, visit:

NHTSA Booster Seat Website

Posted in Entry Level, In-service | No Comments »

Cell Phone Searches Incident to Arrest

Special thanks to Lt. Scott Schwarzer for forwarding the following memorandum from the Irving, TX Police Department that contains an overview of a case that was heard in the Fifth Circuit. I am attaching the a copy of the finding to this entry. Please be sure that you discuss this matter with your prosecutor before taking enforcement action based on this analysis. I removed the last two paragraphs of this document since conclusions were made that may not be appropriate for officers from other Circuits.

In an opinion issued by the United States Court of Appeals – Fifth Circuit on January 26, 2007, the Court clearly answered an important question about the legality of searching the contents (text messages and call records) of cell phones taken from a person you have arrested.

In United States v. Finley, Midland Police Officers and DEA agents arrested Finley in a motor vehicle shortly after he and his partner delivered methamphetamine to a police informant. When they arrested him, they seized a cell phone from his pocket, then delivered him to an address at which other officers were serving a search warrant. They questioned him about the delivery and other drug transactions, and believed his answers to be untruthful. During the questioning, a DEA agent began searching the phone’s call records and text messages, a number of which appeared to be related to drug trafficking, and confronted Finley with the incriminating messages.

Evidence of the text contents was used against the Defendant at trial after the Court denied Defendant’s Motion to Suppress the evidence. Defendant’s Suppression Motion was based on the argument that the search of the cell phone was unlawful because it had occurred without a search warrant. Ultimately, the Defendant was convicted in US District Court and appealed the conviction to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Court of Appeals found that the search was lawful, holding that:

“in the case of a lawful custodial arrest a full search of the person is not only an exception to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment, but is also a “reasonable” search under that Amendment.”

The Court went further to explain that:

“police officers are not constrained to search only for weapons or instruments of escape on the arrestee’s person; they may also, without any additional justification, look for evidence of the arrestee’s crime on his person in order to preserve it for use at trial.”

In a footnote, the Court addressed the issue of searching the phone after he had already been taken into custody and transported to another place:

“The fact that the search took place after the police transported Finley to Brown’s residence does not alter our conclusion. Searches and seizures that could be made on the spot at the time of arrest may legally be conducted later when the accused arrives at the place of detention. In general, as long as the administrative processes incident to the arrest and custody have not been completed, a search of effects seized from the defendant’s person is still incident to the defendant’s arrest. Although the police had moved Finley, the search was still substantially contemporaneous with his arrest and was therefore permissible.”

United States v. Jacob Pierce Finley

Posted in Legal Issues | 2 Comments »

News Broadcasts On Demand

For the last two years, I have been encouraging you to discover the world of podcasts, particularly the CopCAST podcast. Podcasts provide you with on-demand entertainment – for FREE!  Of course, two years is a lifetime in the high tech world and on line broadcasts have continued to improve.

Now, for your listening (and viewing) convenience, the three major networks are posting “videocasts” of their evening news broadcasts on line so you can watch them anytime.

CLICK HERE:

NBC – podcast.msnbc.com
ABC – abcnews.go.com
CBS – feeds.cbsnews.com

Posted in Useful Websites | No Comments »