Another pretty day in our neck of the woods.  Got another few loads of leaves in the wheelbarrow and put it on the roses.  I lost count of the number of trips after fifty, the elm tree does have a leaf or two with a few coming from neighbors.

We are still getting leaves from Robert for Carla’s garden, from the looks of it we should be able to bury the garden in leaves several inches deep.  Should build up the soil for her!

She is working a lot of hours this and next week, busy down at the store, the number of employee hours that corporate is allowing the store is almost double – and very warranted.

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Chapter 18

Crime Prevention

One of the most frustrating things for a Police Officer is that we usually get called after the fact, so instead of preventing something from happening, we end up investigating what has happened already.

In the late 1970’s Police Departments started developing Crime Prevention Units.

While that is a misnomer, they didn’t prevent crimes, persay, they did help to make people aware of how they could reduce their chances of being a victim of crime.

I can’t remember just when or how I became the Crime Prevention Officer for the City.  Part of it, I think, was that I was spending a lot of my own time in the schools and I knew how much that helped in developing good relationships between officers and students.

I was able to attend a Crime Prevention class at the Academy; while the concept was still in its infancy.

The larger agencies, Portland and Multnomah County specifically were able to obtain grants to fund the unit.

When I first attended the classes I was under the strong opinion, as were most officers, that it was the Police’s responsibility to stop crimes and citizens would be encouraged to call in suspicious circumstances and we would respond.

However, most of the people attending that class were citizens, not police officers.  The people teaching the classes were citizens that were part of their department’s Crime Prevention Units and actually did the lion’s share of educating the public.

By the end of the week I change my mind about how Crime Prevention should be established in a Police Department.

We needed to develop volunteers, train them and let them interact with the public to teach them how to reduce the possibility of their homes being burglarized and how to keep themselves and their family members safer.

I obtained permission from the Chief to visit departments of our size that had successfully created a Volunteer Unit and bring back ideas.

We did establish the unit.  We had a number of dedicated volunteers who spent many hours, they set up neighborhood watches, they taught people how to make their homes less likely to be burglarized among many other things.

The Dalles unit developed a safe home program for children that felt they were in danger.  We checked out those that were volunteering to be that home (we didn’t want predators with signs); that they would be home during school hours, especially before and after school.

The Unit was instrumental in developing a state wide program and many of our ideas were incorporated in the state program as well as our sign with minor modifications.

They became an intricate part of the department.  After I went to the Sheriff’s Office they continued to be a force within the community and even grew in their influence in the community.

We were one of the first, if not the first to develop a park and ride program for the Christmas New Year’s Eve Season. 

One of the Real Estate companies allowed us to use their office and phone bank.

Our volunteers would drive people who had been drinking from the bars to their homes in The Dalles.  Not a lot of people used the service but several did and it made the streets safer.

In the Fall of the first year I was in office the coordinator asked if I would be willing to participate in a locally televised program on the local cable company, sponsored by the Unit, to demonstrate how alcohol affects people’s ability to function.  The idea being that it might encourage people not to drink and drive.

He wanted me there because ‘everyone’ knew I did not drink alcoholic beverages.

He brought in three other people, the State Representative for our area, a local and popular business woman and the Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce.

In the interest of prevention I agreed to go through the illustration.  It was not a popular decision with some people in our church; some went to the Pastor with their concerns, he told me that he understood why I did it and tried to explain that to those who were upset.

I am not sure what everyone had, I had vodka and orange juice, I remember the business woman had wine.

The idea was to show that even though the drinks were different when you gave the normal amount of liquid the alcohol content and therefore the effect impacted a people just the same.

Far too many people think drinking beer isn’t the same as drinking a hard drink, however, it can be, depending on the amount consumed.

We were given the measured amounts every few minutes, can’t remember how long between, but it was timed to let us have a few minutes between drinks AND to give us tests to demonstrate our loss of control of normal functions.

After which we took a breathalyzer test to see what the level of alcohol was in our system.

It also showed how a person reacts, socially, when imbibing. 

The heavier a person is, the more alcohol he can take, in comparison with a smaller person.

The business woman became under the influence much faster than the rest of us due to her petite size.  While a gregarious person she became much more so as the evening went on.

The director started getting loud and obnoxious.  I was not happy with him at all.  I can remember one of the officers put his hand on my shoulder and said, it would be okay, don’t get upset – so, it showed the two of us and how alcohol affects us.

The director, a nice guy but tended to be the life of the party anyway, became louder and more obnoxious as the evening went on – I wanted to enforce the rules more, I was taking it seriously and he wasn’t, I think I would be a ‘mean’ drunk.

Each of us had drivers.  I knew that I couldn’t drive, I was impaired.  What surprised me was I never got about .04%, considered very low and well below the .08% where the law presumes the driver is under the influence.

There is a misnomer about what some people say about that .08%.

We often hear the media saying that a driver was above the legal limit by so much – in the case of a citizen driving there is no such thing.  For truck drivers, air plane pilots, minors and probably other professions there is a limit and anyone found above it will be prosecuted for being over the limit.

But for a citizen, they can be arrest for Driving Under the Influence with no alcohol.  The test is if the person is impaired and unable to function correctly.

A person who hasn’t eaten will absorb the alcohol faster and therefore can become impaired quicker than a person who consumes it with a meal. 

Medications can have a significant effect on how the body absorbs the alcohol, and one drink can be enough to make someone under the influence.  It is one of the reasons that many medications warn against taking and consuming alcohol.

Medications alone can make a driver impaired, one of the reasons we are warned not to operate vehicles when first taking a medication so we can see how it is going to impact us.

Then, of course, there are some medications that should never be taken if a person is to drive.  By the way, Marijuana is one of them!

All of these scenarios can become Driving under the influence, the amount of alcohol notwithstanding.

At .04%, I was in no condition to drive.

After the program was aired a couple of times, I received a call from the Co-coordinator.  He said the director wanted the program pulled because he looked so foolish and wanted my opinion.

I reminded him that I had taken flack for doing the program, but I did so because of the importance of what it was showing.  I also said it points out how it affects our personality and interaction with others.

Since I didn’t have cable I do not know if he took it off before it was scheduled or not.

When I first started in law enforcement the amount where a person was considered under the influence was .15%.

While DUII’s were dangerous, society was not like it is today, there really wasn’t the stigma on the impaired driver there is today – one of the better things that has happened.

Through the years the laws became stricter as people realized the toll drunk driving took on society.

But, that was to come in the future.

On my first DUII arrest I tried to not arrest the driver, even though he was clearly drunk – so here’s the story.

I was on Graveyard and this was shortly after midnight.  I was going up onto the hill patrol and the businesses on Kelly Ave. I came up behind a car that was having difficulty remaining in his lane of travel.

I followed him for a short distance and then pulled him over, radioing that I had a possible DUII. 

We always checked to see if they were on medication, were they sick, were they sleep impaired.  He was not, it was pure alcohol.

I got him out of the car and we went to the sidewalk to perform physical tests to see if he was impaired.

I looked into the car and saw his wife, and an older man and woman in the backseat, all three looked scared.

He failed the test, miserably. 

I asked him why he was driving while, from what I could see, others in the car were sober.

He said, “It is my car, no one drives my car but me.”

He told me that he had recently had a baby.  However, at that time he was unemployed and couldn’t afford to go out and celebrate, but tonight, after payday on his new job, he want to take his in-laws and wife out to dinner to celebrate.

I tried to talk him into letting one of the others drive and he was adamant it wasn’t going to happen.

He said he deserved to be arrested that he wouldn’t want a driver out there in his condition with his baby boy on the road.

My backup was John – I just looked at him and then he tried talking the man into letting someone else driver, he just wouldn’t hear it.

I arrested him, put him in my patrol car and told him we would call a taxi for his passengers and tow the car.

He said, “No, let my wife drive the car home.”  I had him repeat that, he did.

I talked to the wife, she hadn’t been drinking – none of them had, only the man.  She had been watching and listening and thanked me for trying to get him to let her drive home.

Even back then a DUII on your record was expensive.  The driver would be suspended, he could be fined a heavy amount, he could be sentenced to jail and his car insurance would go up, considerably. 

I took him to jail and lodged him, I don’t remember what he blew on the breathalyzer, but he was well over that .15%.

The next morning I made a point to be in the court room when he was brought up to court. 

The judge asked him if he plead guilty or not guilty – he pled guilty and told the judge the same thing that he had told me, he didn’t want drivers as drunk as he was to be driving when his baby boy was on the road.

The judge looked at me, I shrugged and told him we had talked to him before arresting him. He sentenced him to jail, but suspended the sentence, he did fine him, I am not sure how much and suspended his license.

Today these situations are handled much differently, and people know that to drive after drinking is not a good idea; if they are caught it is almost 100% guaranteed the driver will go to jail and the consequences are far more serious today than ‘way’ back then; over 50 years ago.

Copyright November 24, 2017 Art Labrousse

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Colossians 2:56-7  KJV  “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

⁷ Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.”

When we take this verse, seriously, we are reminded that every hour of every day we should be walking in Him.

There is no excuse, there are no breaks, it is expected of us every day of our life in Him.

Whether we are new in Christ or have been with Him for over 50 years the only thing different, is the longer we live with Him in our hearts, the more effective we are in our lives.

Yet, we all have struggles.  We all have times that we let Him down.  But we aren’t failures, we are still His children.

1 John 2:1  KJV  “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:”

He will build us back up and we will once again find our path and walk in Him.

Later, Art (-: