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 (-:

What a great day, and the sun shined in our neck of the woods, too.  Enjoyed the day!

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Chapter 17

Catch up!

As I send these out I occasionally get a response from a brother officer.  I was sent the following by one of my favorite co-workers.

“20+ years have passed and you can still write faster than I can read. lol  I am enjoying the reading of your memories because many of them are the same as mine with a twist, same circumstances, different perpetrators and victims.

My biggest concern was the children at those incidents, especially if one of the parents was going to go to jail.   I can seldom remember a domestic that didn’t have some poor little kids in the back ground and scared to death.  Why oh why didn’t those type of people wait until they grew up themselves before having kids to suffer (many for the rest of their life) in one form or another.   I spent a lot of time trying to convince those kids to stay strong and eventually everything would work itself out.  Not much of a chance but we had to try and do what we could..

I covered John on a domestic one night and saw a perfect example of how an officer should deal with kids in that situation.  He got the kids out of sight (not sound unfortunately) of the parents but they continued to yell obscenities at each other.  John then stepped to where the kids and the parents could see him but not each other.  In a forceful voice (didn’t yell) he “asked” the parents if they would please be quiet for a few minutes.   He told them their fight had seriously scared their children and he would appreciate a few minutes of quiet so he could talk to them and make them feel better.  It worked like a charm on all parties involved and things went smoothly after that.  Evidently the dad had said he would go to jail when the wife called the police and that really scared the 6 year old.  He had the impression if dad went to jail he would never see him again.  The frosting on the cake was when John took dad to jail and as they went out the door the 6 year old told dad to be good and they would let him out of jail in the morning.

I was so pleased with John’s performance that I put an “at a boy” in his file.

One of my frustrations was that we never received Academy level training until recent years. It had to evolve but I still think of all of the lessons I had to learn the hard way and how much more effective I could have been as a police officer if I had that training sooner in my career.  Oh well we did the best we could with what we had.  It was sure a lot better than what our predecessors had.”

The State is doing much better about training officers for the real world.  The reason, of course is a 16 week academy instead of the 5 week academy the two of us, and many other officers, attended.  They have more time.

A lot of our ‘training’ was experience, both good and bad.  We learned on the job. 

I was fortunate in that I had some good training officers, worked for a pretty good department and we were serious about doing the best job we could.

A good example, for me anyway, was a day we received a call of a young man holding a gun to his head and saying he was going to commit suicide. 

We couldn’t rush the house; it could very well set it off.  We tried talking to him on the phone, but we weren’t getting anywhere.  Fortunately, there was no one else in the house, so he was endangering anyone else.

I go the bright idea of calling The Center for Living and asking to have a counselor come to our location and try to talk to the young man. 

I was refused, the reason being is that they didn’t go into scenes like this that were explosive, they always dealt with the people in the office after things had settled down.

I was upset with them, but it really wasn’t their fault either.  There just wasn’t any training for any of us to deal with this; and their policies were not to go into dangerous situations.

I don’t remember how we did it, but we eventually got the young man out of the house and placed him in the hospital as a danger to himself or others so he could get help.

I look back on situations like this and realize how fortunate we were and how fortunate the citizens were that our officers had good common sense and really did want to help people.

We may not have had as much training as we needed, but our heart really was in the right place.  Not that we were perfect, but we did our best and tried to learn after every incident and share that with our fellow officers.

Those of you that know me can probably sympathize with the comment, “you can still write faster than I can read.”

When I worked for the City my fellow officers called them Labrousseagrams.

After I was elected I wrote to a number of Sheriff’s requesting information on their jail policies.  I became known as that Sheriff that writes a lot of letters.

Our secretary was one of the most efficient people I have ever met.  She managed her time very well.

It was a good thing too; often we were short on clerical staff that manned the front desk during the day.  The secretary and the clerk responsible for the Civil Service of papers split day shift.

Both ladies had enough of their plate without being on the radio for four hours, but they did it.  However, the clerk who did the civil papers could do a lot of her work at the front desk; the secretary could not because it was confidential.

One day, towards the end of the month, when she had to do payroll and a million other things and had just spent half her day on the front desk, I could tell she was more harried that usual.

Now, I knew there wasn’t much I could do for her, but I asked anyway – her response, “quit writing so “expletive deleted” many memos.”  (Since she never cussed, that emphasized it more.) 

I really appreciated this lady.  She kept me on track on many issues, I really did listen to her on everything else, so I paid attention this time also.

We had just received a computer in our office.  It was hooked up to the mainframe, but, we hadn’t been taught how to use it, yet.

They did have a word processing program on it, so I learned how to use it, and from that point on I wrote my own letters and memos. 

Her replacement thanked her profusely!

One of the things that I didn’t include on my chapter regarding the City Manager was when he retired.

He had given outstanding service, many many extra hours; he had been innovated and did a good job of getting the most out of the money that formed the City’s budget.

I covered my appreciation of his work and leadership concerning the County wide 9-1-1 center, in my book Elected Through Terror he made it a lot easier for it to come into being by convincing the Council they needed to listen to and work closely with all of the emergency agency within the county – even if they were volunteers and could not contribute financially to the program.

When they began their search for a new manager, the council decided they needed to increase the City Manager’s salary by almost 50%.

I thought that was a slap in the face of the man who had led this city for a couple of decades.  If they had that kind of money they could have paid him more to show their appreciation.

The manager that replaced him, as far as I was concerned, couldn’t tie the man’s shoes, let alone do the job.  He didn’t last long – only a couple three hours as I recall; can’t remember why he left, but from where I was standing he never really clicked with the citizens.

The Councilman that was on the negotiating committee also helped me in many ways.  When I was in the City I had little contact with him.

He was a local businessman with a delivery company.  He had been on the City Council for a number of years and carried a lot of weight with the other members, as the passing of that contract shows. 

I respected him and knew he did what he felt was best for the City; I never saw any self-serving orders coming out of the Council for him – that wasn’t necessarily true of others.

The City Councilmen were 100% volunteers.  They were not paid for the many hours they served the City.

A year or so before I became Sheriff he was appointed to the Wasco County Board of Commissioners and then later elected to the board.  

The Commissioners are given a stipend, but it doesn’t begin to cover the hours they spend in serving the county.

In that capacity I worked with him on several projects had learned to admire and respect him even more.  He had good ideas and good advice.

As I write this I am winding down from spending Thanksgiving with a couple of my children and a son-in-law and having talked to the others by phone.

I am reminded of many holidays where I did not sit down to a normal dinner or gathering.  I was working.

I was fortunate, usually, to be able to spend Thanksgiving with the family.  For several years I would take a few days off both sides of this holiday and spend it with Carla’s family in Redmond.

I had covered enough accidents and the emotional aftermath during holidays that I never went anywhere on the day, or the one before or after. 

Especially Christmas.

When I became the shift supervisor I would let an officer have one of the two off, but not both UNLESS no one else wanted it.

Both are very family related holidays and I never considered it fair to allow someone to have both off, while someone else had to stay and work both.

The City was very good, though.  When we worked days, we divided the shift up according to how many were working.

Those of us with children got to go home for a couple of hours so they could be there when their kids opened presents.  We had portable radios and were subject to call out, but it didn’t happen all that often.

Those would then go back out and patrol while another went home and was with the family for a couple or three hours.

That way we always had a patrol out, backup ready to respond, but we could also enjoy the day a little bit.

Unfortunately we couldn’t do that for the rest of the group, the dispatchers had to stay on the radio until their shift was over.

Ours, of course, is not the only profession that has learned to adjust holidays, birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions.  Hospital staff and fire fighters, to name a couple, also remain at their station while their family tries to enjoy the day without them.

Copyright November 23, 2017 Art Labrousse

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Psalm 100:4-5  KJV  “ Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

⁵ For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”

I am thankful for my family and friends; for a wife that has put up with me for well over 50 years; for the country in which I call home; but most of all for the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on my behalf and the acceptance of that sacrifice by God.

Later, Art (-:

Almost ready for the family coming in tomorrow.  Turkey is brining, the salads are cooling down and just a few more things to do before we turn on the ovens and cook.

Carla put in a very long day today, but she is of that Lynds’ stock that don’t slow down. 

Have a good Thanksgiving!!

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Chapter 16

City Manager

The City of The Dalles has a City Council that appoints the City Manager.

The City Manager has a lot of power within the City.  He is literally the person that either directly hires personnel – usually department heads – or approves all other appointments.

The head of each department runs the department and makes decisions for and on the department.  However, the final authority is the City Manager and he could over rule their decisions if he wanted.

It is my understanding that the Charter for the city specifically states that Council is not to interfere with the day to day operations, nor has any real authority over any of the employees.  If they are unhappy with employees they tell the City Manager, if they don’t like his decision then they can find another City Manager.

Politics being what they are, there are some ways around that, but it must be done with care, careers can be damaged if someone makes a wrong step.

The City Manager I worked with was innovative and had firm control over the city employees.  Some of his decisions did not make many of our officers happy and his name was often spit out like a bad taste.  It was my understanding that many in the fire department were also unhappy.

The City Manager was the spokesperson for the City.  That is a decision that is jointly decided by the City and the manager, not all cities do that, and even our City has done both the Mayor as the spokesperson and the Manager being the spokesperson.

However, it is important that they all be on the same page so normally it is one or the other, not both.

I have always been management oriented.  While I was active in any Union I was part of, it was not because I was a Union person, it was because if someone was going to have a say over my working condition I wanted to have my input.

But, while I didn’t always agree with the City Manager’s decision I understood that he had a number of things on his table and from watching him I knew he was doing what he thought was the best he could for the City.

That was his job.

Earlier in this tabloid I mentioned that we had a 9-1-1 Center in the mid-1970’s.  I thought it was because the state was beginning to tax phones for the system for each government agency and they were using that money to offset the costs.

However, I since was informed that the state statutes and taxes didn’t actually become reality until 1981. 

The City Manager was a head of the game.  He found out that our phone company had the ability to do a 9-1-1 system (not all phone companies had that capability at that time.)

So, he began the process of converting an antiquated system to a more efficient system for the public to get emergency services quicker.  It also made it a lot safer for the Police Officers on patrol.

Now, instead of a Matron having to fit radio traffic in with everything else they were responsible for, the dispatcher could concentrate on the officer in the field and be ready at all times to both answer the radio and assist him with research, checking for warrants and if necessary getting him back up.

It took a while to get it to work, but work it did.

Unfortunately, when I took over the Sheriff’s Office they still had the Clerk doing everything including radio traffic.

That was no one’s fault; some of the county phone company’s did not, yet, have 9-1-1 capability.

It wasn’t until the late 1980’s that we joined with the City in a 9-1-1 Center; it really was a safety issue for the deputies.

The City Manager, both the position and the spokesperson for the City, took a lot of heat from city employees and certain people within the general public.

In the early seventies Public Employees were given permission to negotiate working conditions, wages, benefits and other issues with the management of the entity that they worked for.

Emergency workers, police and fire, were not allowed to strike.  If we couldn’t come to an agreement then we went to arbitration.  I had no difficulty with that requirement, it was reasonable; the public shouldn’t be without protection because we can’t come to an agreement.

The police officers decided to separate ourselves from the rest of the city employees.  City of The Dalles Police Officers formed an association. 

There were a number of attorneys out there that wanted to represent us.  I cannot remember the name of the person we hired, but he fit our department style very well, he wasn’t overbearing and wasn’t out for blood.  He just wanted to get us a good contract.

Originally the Sergeants were members of the Association, but the City challenged that, saying they were part of management.  The City won.

I was a PFC and I was one of two (maybe three not sure now) that was selected by our members to represent them on the negotiation team.

We met with our attorney who had a standard contract and then we personalized it for our department.

We submitted it to the City.  On the City’s side of the table were the City Attorney, a Councilman, the Mayor and the City Manager.

There was a lot of give and take.

In our research we learned that in comparable cities on the east side of the Cascade Mountains, we had the lowest pay; and considerably below some of them.

So that became a key issue for us. 

The other thing we wanted was a two year contract, with stair stepped pay raises; one raise in July the other in January. 

The City had negotiated a contract with the Fire Department and it was for just one year.  So, the council insisted ours would only be a one year contract.

They also stated that there would be no stair stepping.

Most of the issues were agreed upon, except for pay and the multi-year contract. 

I came up with a formula that would meet what the City wanted to give us in salary for the first year and then, I think, the same amount for the second year.

While the end of the year we would have a higher pay rate, it wouldn’t cost the City any more than they wanted to give that first year – however, it would give us a bit more money to base the second year raise.

I laid it on the table.

The City Manager was the lead on the City’s side of the table.  He reiterated that the Council was firm; they only wanted a one year contract and no stair stepping.

We talked about it a bit, when the Councilman looked at me and said, if we agree to this, will the rest of the officers vote for the contract?

Immediately the City Manager called for a caucus.  We had agreed that if either side wanted to step out and discuss an issue that they would call for a caucus and negotiations would stop until they came back in.

There was a long time before they came back into the room.

The Councilman looked at me and asked the same question.

I told him I couldn’t guarantee, but I was pretty sure they would.

They did.

The Councilman then got it passed by the Council.  It was one of the few times that they didn’t back the City Manager’s decision.

It was a fair compromise and I was glad that all agreed.

Through the years I had an opportunity to see the job the City Manager did.  Again, while I didn’t always agree with his decisions, I thought he did a good job.

Still, he was a lightning rod for anyone that disliked the policies of the City, whether it was employees or citizens there were some that were very vocal about their disagreement.

The City Council made a decision, during a particularly tense time, to ask citizens to write evaluations on the man and send it in to them.

Frankly, my first thoughts were they were throwing him under the bus, instead of supporting him they were encouraging criticism.

After a few years, I think that might not have been such a bad idea, here is why:

The one thing that I thought he was weak in was employee relations.  However, he had hired an Assistant and one of her duties, was employee relations. 

I was very concerned that the Council would be getting deluged by people who disliked him.  There appeared to be some kind of a push that was organized by someone.

So, what I did was take one of our evaluation forms, changed it a bit and wrote an evaluation on the man.

I pointed out what I thought was his good points and the fact I thought his weakness was employee relations, but pointed out that he had hired an assistant and gave her the responsibility of employee relations.

To me that showed that he knew it was something he was weak in and that he hired someone to take care of that deficit.

I submitted my evaluation to the Council.  When the time limit was up there was exactly two evaluations, mine and another – I can’t remember if it was positive or not.

Over time, I have come to the conclusion that maybe the Council had a good idea at that.

One of the things that does bother me is that people will complain and point fingers, but when it comes to standing up and saying what you think, and how you think it can be done differently, most people don’t do it.

They would rather complain than do anything that might put them under a microscope.  They can dish it out, but can’t take it.

While I realize that social media has changed that a bit; it is still a complainer’s way of venting off steam, without really having to put themselves out there.

But, I won’t get on my soap box as to how I feel about the use of those medias in spreading false information.

Copyright November 22, 2017 Art Labrousse

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1 Corinthians 15:56-58  KJV  “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Every Christian, no matter our circumstances, have God to thank for our salvation through Christ.

While everything else is nice, and sometimes needy, the most important thing we have to be thankful for is Christ’s death on our behalf.

Later, Art (-:

No sun today, in our neck of the world, foggy all day.

It seems a lot colder than the thermometer says, it penetrates to our very bones - gotta be the humidity. 

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Officers, Continued

I was at the Academy for a class when the subject of female officers came up.

A deputy was telling me that they had a physical test that included pulling a 150 pound sack off of a road.  It was to simulate having to drag a deer that was road kill off the road.

He started laughing and said they had this one female applicant that couldn’t pull it off; so she pointed to one of the other applicants, and said, help me move this bag off the road.

I said, the object was to get the ‘deer’ off the road, right?

He said yes.

I then said, she did it didn’t she?

He just looked at me.

But, it was a good lesson for me.  There was a time when they used to hire the biggest badest man they could find to walk the beats, because they needed to be able to handle arrested people who wanted to resist, all by themselves.

The requirements for police matched that requirement, they had to be tall, many at least 5’ 10” and others at least 6 feet.

But by the time I was hired, those requirements were being to find to exclusionary.  They excluded women and some nationalities that were on the average shorter than those requirements.

Amy was our first female officer.  I was assigned as her Training Officer.  We were working Graveyard.

We had some unusual contacts while I was working with her.  We made an arrest of a man who was coming along fine, until he realized one of us was a female.

It seemed he was embarrassed as it challenged his ‘manhood.’  Then the fight was on, he didn’t attack her, it was me he was after as if he had to prove himself to her.

It didn’t last long, we got him on the ground, cuffed him and then put him into the car.  The lodging in the jail was uneventful.

Back then there was still a respect for women, and that you didn’t hurt women.  So, even the ‘badest’ suspect showed that respect.

When a suspect would call her ‘ma’m’ or some other female term she would get upset and say, “I am a police officer, not just a woman.”

I have to admit, I didn’t fully understand her mindset and tried to talk her into not taking offense, and use it to deal with them.

There were very few women police officers in the state; she was one of the first.  Like a lot of females she HAD to prove herself capable of doing the job; she was a woman in a ‘man’s world’ and had to hold her own.

Unfortunately, they still do, no matter the job.  I have two daughters that work in dams, 50 years later, they are still having to prove themselves capable of doing the job.

The one muscle in the body that is most important to any police officer, is the tongue.  Most people will respond to an officer that can talk to them – not all of course and sometimes it just depends on the mood of the suspect, one day they would respond correctly, another time they would fight.

But, given the opportunity most suspects don’t want to fight.

Women have been dealing with men all their lives.  They have learned to talk to them, “manipulate” them into getting them to see things their way. 

We didn’t have special training for men, let alone women, on self-defense.  You were taught a couple of holds, but that was it.

Amy did okay, she was not the best female officer we ever had, but she was better than several of the men.  You could depend on her to do her job and be there as back up.

There was one time where there was a fight that she participated in and an arrest was made.  The suspect was a very large man. The other officer told me that he almost got beat up by the suspect, and Amy wasn’t much help.

He said she jumped in to try, he had no problem with that, it was just when she grabbed hold of his arm as he started to strike the officer the suspect lifted her off the ground.

He looked at her, put her back down and said, Oh, sorry ma’m and went to jail without further incident.

I asked him what he thought would have happened if it had been another male officer; he said the fight would have been on.

Then she did her job, I said.

Can’t remember if he fully agreed, but that was the only time I heard an officer complain that she couldn’t hold her own.

I can’t remember how many years she worked with us, it was at least three or four, or why she left.  But, she did fine while she worked for us.

The next female, Jane, that joined us rode with me the first day before she was assigned to a Training Officer.  It was day shift, and in the afternoon we had a fight call.

The initiating officer was dealing with the suspect when we arrived.  I got out of the car, told her to stand back, and went up to the other officer.  We had a bit of a wrestling match, but we took the suspect in the case to jail without further incident.

I got back to the patrol car and Jane asked a few questions.  She had noticed that I didn’t wear my hat when I got out, and the other officer wasn’t wearing his either; she wondered if that was because we thought there would be a fight.

I said, no, that might be a good idea, but there wasn’t a requirement that we wear the hat when contacting suspects, and I rarely wore it.

I did tell her that she would not be handling suspects the way I did.  I was almost 6 feet tall and heavy built.  She was barely 5 feet tall – but she was a woman and needed to use her mind and tongue to get the suspects to do what she wanted.

Again, that would be in most cases, there are times that more violent means may have to be taken in more serious cases.

She was one of the best officers we had, regardless of sex.  She eventually went to another department on the west side of the state where her boyfriend had gone before her. 

That department got a good officer.

We had a total of five females through the years while I worked there; they did fine.  Some better than others, but they proved their worth.

One of the things I saw, as I gained more experience, was that Rookies used the style of dealing with people that their Training Officer used for the first few months.  Eventually they would start developing their own style that worked for them.

As you work with other officers, you learn their style and habits.

I was reminded of that one day when I was interviewing a suspect I had gotten all the information I needed, but was still talking with him, when my backup got his cuffs out and handcuffed him.

We put the suspect in the car and I asked the other officer how he knew I was about to arrest the guy, he said you were rubbing your hands together; you always do that just before you arrest a person.

Talking about tells.  I would make a terrible gambler.

Police Officers are just like any other person in many ways.  Through the years we have learned that certain personalities and mindsets make for good officers.

The tests, the backgrounds that are done, the interviews and the probationary periods are all tests to see if this person is going to be a good fit for the department.

People can hide their true personality for only a short time, within a few months we could see their true personality, if different from what they have tried to portray.

It is an extremely stressful profession; it has one of the highest suicide rates of any profession.

We see people at their worst.  We see families torn up by violence, often following alcohol or other drugs.

We walk into situations where our lives are in danger, where weapons are available or even in the hands of suspects and in some cases we have to shoot to defend ourselves or others.

We investigate accidents involving young children, or the abuse and neglect of a child, often close in age to our own children.

We deliver horrendous news as we tell a person that their loved one has just been killed.

We deal with seeing the same horrors day in and day out.  Often it is the same parties in a whirl wind of calls that we can never fully succeed in helping someone.

It can change a person.  It can get to the point that all you see is that horror, and you wonder if there really are decent people in the world.

You can’t talk to people about what you have to do, because they don’t understand.  It is hard to maintain relationships outside the department because your shifts and days off are different from the general public.

When I went into the high schools and talked about the Police profession I always stressed three things.

First, because a person couldn’t be a police officer before they turned 21, I encouraged them to go to college – take courses they were interested in; it is easier to relate with people when you have a broader background.

Second, work in a retail setting or where you have to work with the public for a while.  Learn to work with people that may be upset because of the service, or their purchases, it will do you well when you have to deal with have to deal with irate people in your job in law enforcement.

Third, develop interests outside of police work.  Mine was the church, but it could be hobbies or organizations that they have a common interest.  Develop friendships of people that you are not likely to see committing crimes.

It is just too easy to get a jaded look at people when all you see are the worst.  While cynicism is helpful in dealing with suspects, it can become a problem in dealing with normal every day citizens.  

We need to realize that the people, the suspects, we deal with on a daily bases are not the norm.  Most people are law abiding and supportive of law enforcement.

Copyright November 21, 2017 Art Labrousse

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Ephesians 4:17-20  KJV  “ This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

¹⁸ Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

¹⁹ Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

²⁰ But ye have not so learned Christ;”

It helps when you realize that the problem with those that commit crimes have been blinded by satan.

We deal with a world that is imperfect, that the norm for those that do not know Christ is colored by that fact.

Believe it or not, it does help in the anger that we deal with when we encounter those individuals and the result of their criminal behavior.

Later, Art (-:

The sun decided to come out, again – after an almost half an inch of rain last night - in our neck of the woods.  Winds were whipping and the leaves were blowing as the day started warming up.

We had three visitors to the garden, a doe and twin fawns, they have become pretty brazen lately, they walked back up the hill going right by the yard fence.

Getting ready for Thanksgiving.  Carla has been working in the kitchen all morning, pulling out decorations to go on the window sills, etc.

Got the turkey, hoping it will thaw out without me having to use water, and the ham, kids are bringing a lot of the extras. 

With Deed and Teresa’s hours it is harder and harder to get us together – and that doesn’t include the rest of the family members who have pressing obligations and can’t make more visits.

Carla has to work very early on Wednesday, then back to work Friday morning – like a couple others – so travel, even if so inclined, is too much to expect.

Anyway, looking forward to being with those that will be able to make it.

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Chapter 15

Some Officers I Remember

In the course of my employment with the City of The Dalles, there were either 53 or 55 officers, can’t remember now, which, that left the department.

Some retired, some were discharged for cause, some didn’t make probation and some went on to other departments on the west side of the Cascades where salaries were much higher.

Many of those that left rose in rank in their new departments at least a couple became Chiefs of their department.

Police work is a challenging profession and very few are cut out for it.  Many burn out, many leave because they couldn’t afford to live on the salary, many just weren’t able to meet the requirements during probation, and unfortunately some were dishonest or made some very bad decisions and had to be fired.

The Dalles, like many small communities, became training departments for larger departments. 

The officer would go to the academy on our ticket, get his certification on our ticket, and then go to larger agencies with that certification in hand and be hired as an experienced officer.

To my knowledge all of those that left our department and went to another department stayed in the profession, they were good officers.

We had at least one that came to us from a smaller department, but that was a rarity for us.  That one stayed with the department and was eventually promoted to the well-deserved position of Chief and served the City well in that position for over twenty years.

When I came onto the department virtually every officer had either a second job or skill to raise money elsewhere, or the wife was working full-time.  It was the only way to make ends meet.

I took a cut in pay when I joined as well as a much lower benefit program.  Since Carla and I had decided she would stay home while our children were young, I took odd jobs.

I worked at a furniture store, a gas station and went back to work, part-time at Safeway’s.  There are times I still wake up in the morning and think I have to head down to the store to work, usually after some kind of dream.

But, I also believed that police officers need to be in the schools and need to be volunteers in the community.

I spent many hours in the schools; most of it was on my own time, because the City couldn’t afford an officer in the schools program.  I was on a number of volunteer boards through the years as well as being active in my church.

I was not alone in my commitment to the community; many of our officers were involved in some form or another in helping to make their home town a better place for their family and by extension the community at large.

Through the years the selection of officers became more formal.

When I was hired, I am not sure how much background they did.

I had applied for the Reserve Program and it was a few months before I heard anything.

One day we had a shoplifter at the store.  I chased him down while a clerk called the department.  I stopped the man who started to fight me, I took him down and a few seconds later a police car arrived and took him into custody.

Within a week I was called in and made a Reserve Officer.

As mentioned before I had to go through a physical agility test, which hadn’t been done before and a physical test that was standard procedure.  I then went before a Civil Service Oral Board, made up of people within the community that served on the City’s Civil Service Board and at least one officer.

I was then called to come in as a full-time officer.  I asked to give two weeks’ notice to the store and then started on the first of the month.

That first year I went from being the newest hirer to having five other officers hired after me.  For a seventeen member department that was a lot of turn over.

As time went on the department, as was most cities, developed a better screening program.  Not only were the test I went through conducted, but we added psychological tests and we sent officers out to do more thorough back ground checks, contacting the list of references in person and others that might know something about the applicant.

In trying to make the process quicker, and not having to wait for an opening in the department, we would announce that we were developing a list of qualified applicants.

Then when the applications came in we would give them the written test, and sometimes an officer’s oral board to develop a list of people to call and further investigate when an opening occurred.

We had a problem, we were on the east side of the mountains and our pay was lower.  In addition when a department advertises so they can create a list, vs. having an opening to fill most people don’t come.

We had several people that did come, but it was more to gain some experience in testing and going through the Oral Board and most of those that we felt were good prospects found other departments before we had an opening.

That does not mean we didn’t have good officers, we did.  Most of us that came to the department and stayed, came because we wanted to be on the east side of the Cascades and like this community.

We did have some interesting characters.

I can recall an officer, Jerry, who had applied for the Portland Police Bureau, but had been turned down.

He became an outstanding officer for our department, and retired here.

Departments have personalities usually in tune with the personality of the community they are serving in. 

While one department may have turned down someone, it doesn’t mean they don’t have potential, it just means that for that department it wasn’t the right fit.

In Jerry’s case it wasn’t the right fit.  Which was to our good fortune; but even then there was questions about him by some of the supervisor’s.

I had worked with this man for several weeks, even though I was still a year, maybe two, years on the department I became his training officer.

We worked Graveyard.  It seems when anything major came down it would be just him, me and maybe another officer – supervisors were not on duty.

We handled attempted suicides, assaults, resisting arrests and other incidents that the supervisor’s hadn’t seen. 

They had not seen him in action.  I had.  When we went into a tense situation it was like things slowed down for him.  Every move, every comment was well thought out and effective.

My reviews showed that; but the supervisors hadn’t seen what I had seen and were glossing over my comments.

When I was told they were concerned about him and were considering terminating his probation because they didn’t want to send him to the Academy, and then having to terminate him later.  They didn’t want to expend that much time and money on him.

The biggest concern they had was that he didn’t seem to be interested, he rarely asked questions.

We had just terminated another probationer because of similar actions.  However, that was warranted, the final straw occurred when his training officer made a traffic stop.

The standard procedure when a two man car stops a vehicle is the driver walks up to the driver’s door and makes contact.  The other officer is to walk up on the passenger side and take a stance where he is covering the first officer.

It doesn’t matter if it is a little old lady who appears harmless, that is the standard practice and this probationer knew that.

The training officer made the stop, the probationer was to back him up.  The driver of the car was hostile, it didn’t amount to much, but he was belligerent and giving the officer a hard time.

The officer stepped back to run the driver’s license and checks for warrants and saw his probationer, sitting in the car smoking a pipe.  He was gone the next day.

The supervisors were concerned that Jerry had the same attitude.  I assured them he did not and related a lot of the things I had put into his review.  I felt he was well worth saving.  Based on my evaluations and comments they went ahead and let him go to the Academy.

I was proven correct.  I did tell him the supervisors’ concerns and he said that when he came on he decided to observe and not ask a bunch of questions; it was just his way.

Through the years he proved to be a resourceful and effective officer.  We had cases where we weren’t quite sure if there was a statute covering conduct of a suspect when he would pull something out of his memory and come up with the charge.

We had a case where a man had been obnoxious in a bar and had been escorted out by the owner.  A few minutes later he came back in.  We were called and arrived at the bar, seeing the suspect backed up against a wall and the owner standing in front of him.

The owner just wanted him put out and din not file any charges at that time. 

Jerry took the lead, it was his area, and talked to the suspect telling him if he came back in we would arrest him for criminal trespass. While he was talking to him he noticed a bulge under his coat – so he frisked him.

The man had gone out to his truck and pulled out a hammer, putting it in the belt of his pants, under his jacket before going back in.

Jerry didn’t hesitate for a second, he charged the man with carrying a dangerous weapon with intent to use – a felony.

Later, several of us asked how he pulled that out, we all knew that anything can be used as a dangerous weapon (as opposed to a deadly weapon like a gun or knife, a dangerous weapon is anything else if used as a weapon could cause injury – like a hammer, but even an ash tray thrown at a person is technically a dangerous weapon – yep, it happened, and yep with the totality of the situation the person was arrested for that.)

He said, basically, it just came to him when he saw it.  Now, maybe one of of us, in time, would have thought of that, I for one hadn’t, but it shows how is mind works.

Jerry retired as a Sergeant, many years later.

To be continued:

Copyright November 20, 2017 Art Labrousse

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1 Corinthians 15:55-58   KJV  “ O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

It is so easy for us to lose confidence in ourselves when our work doesn’t seem to be doing any good.

When we pray or witness with others it is as if we are getting nowhere, no one is listening, paying attention or even cares it would seem.

But, the task for us is to be faithful, not to do the Holy Spirit’s work of speaking within the heart and soul of a person.

God is using us, and while we may never see the results of our labor, or at least not as we expect it, God does.

And that is all that matters.

Later, Art (-:

Very foggy in our neck of the woods this morning, couldn’t even see Cherry Heights from here – barely could see across the road.

The fog is lifting now, but the chill in the air this morning is still here this afternoon.

And, as I finish writing this the sun is shining through!!

Ken brought up a truck load of meat to split with several families.  Wasn’t able to spend a lot of time with him, but what little we had was nice; miss him and his family.

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Chapter Fourteen

Kidnapping of a Trooper

As I wrote Chapter 13 I was reminded of another chase, one I was ready to assist on, but didn’t actually get involved.

There was an OSP trooper that grew up in The Dalles and when he joined the State Police was assigned to The Dalles office.

He went to school with Norm.  Norm told me a few stories of how tough this guy was – one time he was in a fight with several individuals, and took them down swinging a chain; you wouldn’t know it to be around him, he was very unassuming, though quiet he had a good sense of humor, he was confident and you knew he knew is job and could handle himself, but he wasn’t cocky.

After graduation he joined the Navy.  He also accepted Christ before he got out.

I got to know him and really admired him.

In 1970’s vernacular, he was cool.

I read the book “Officer Down Code Three,” a book on mistakes made by police officers that resulted in the officer being seriously injured or killed.

As I was reading the book one officer in particular reminded me of the Trooper.  He was professional, made good arrests and didn’t make mistakes.

But, no one is perfect.  This officer, very experienced and walking a foot beat, made a mistake when being asked to remove an unruly patron from a bar.  The guy left, but came back a bit later.

The Officer told him he had warned him and now he was going to have to arrest him for going back into the bar.

He walked to the nearest call box (while rarely if ever used now a days, a call box was used by the police to communicate with the office – particularly before radios became every day, and even then many used them to keep those with scanners from hearing the calls and often showing up and getting in the way of situations.)

The officer was calling for the paddy wagon to take him to jail.

He had not handcuffed the man; while he had searched him for a weapon on the first contact, he did not on the second.  While the officer was inserting the key into the box and opening the door to the phone, the man pulled out a gun and shot him.

Trooper was just as confident and professional as this officer.

He had a confidence and demeanor about him that even criminals came to respect him.

I watched him stop a number of riders from an outlaw motorcycle gang on the freeway.  As it happened I was riding with another officer and he pulled over, on 6^th St. and conspicuously sat where the bikers could see us.

Trooper just walked through the group – not sure, now, how many, but it had to be in excess of ten – gathering their driver’s license as he did. 

He called in and had the dispatcher check them out on the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), via teletype, and none were wanted.  However, several had violations and he walked back down the line of bikes issuing citations to each offender.

There were no threats or angry bikers, they just sat on the bikes, accepting their citation if given, without saying anything.

I just shook my head, he was just good.

The incident I am about to relate was serious, and almost cost him his life – while he was saving at least one other person. 

This became an even more of a lesson to me having just finished reading the book less than a week before, what I was to see was a reinforcement of having to take care on any stop.

Trooper made a traffic stop on the Freeway, east bound, between Mosier and Rowena; both communities to the west of The Dalles and east of Hood River.

He walked up to the driver, got his license and ran it.  If I recall correctly he was suspended.

Trooper arrested him but as he started to take the man into custody the fight was on.

The man was a black belt and instructor in Karate.  Trooper was holding his own, but the guy got a hand on Trooper’s gun, it was still in the holster.

In the holster the State Police wore there was a pin like latch inside the holster so the Troopers could put their hand on the gun, poke through the trigger guard, push the pin in and pull the gun out.

Unfortunately, after a while the holster would become too flexible and the gun could be drawn without pushing the pin in – and that is what happened in the struggle.

The suspect got the gun out and pointed it at Trooper.

As they were struggling a truck driver was passing the scene; seeing the fight he pulled his rig over in the front of the cars, grabbed his gun and started heading over to help Trooper.

Trooper was in between the trucker and the suspect, the suspect started pointing his gun at the trucker, back and forth he went pointing to Trooper and then the trucker.

Trooper stepped totally in front of the suspect, turning his back on him and told the trucker to get back in the rig.  He didn’t want to, but he finally did as ordered.

While all this was going on OSP and 9-1-1 started getting calls about the incident.  We were not allowed to leave the city, we were told to standby at the far west end, but not to go on the freeway to help him.

Deputies from both Hood River and Wasco County were notified and in route as well as other Troopers.

The suspect ordered Trooper to get in the driver’s seat, he got in the back – at that time they didn’t use cages so he had full access to Trooper.

He ordered him to drive off.  They got to Rowena and the suspect ordered him to take the off-ramp and then go back towards Hood River.

No other officer was yet on the scene. 

Trooper convinced the suspect that he needed to contact his office by radio and let them know where he was – or they would be sending others to find out what has happened to him.

The suspect allowed him to radio out, and Trooper gave direction of travel as if the stop was over.  He used whatever code the State used to let them know he was in trouble.

He headed west bound and as they were approaching Hood River the suspect told him to cross the bridge.  Trooper took the exit and started towards the toll booth.

He could tell the suspect was somewhat distracted, so slammed the transmission into park and bailed out of the car.  The car was heading right to the toll booth with the operator jumping out to avoid injury – the car hit the booth, but I can’t recall how badly it was damaged.

Not sure which agencies, but the backup was there, ordered the suspect to drop the gun out the window and get out.

The suspect complied.

A little while later we were told that Trooper would be bringing the suspect into the Jail.  We met them there and stood by as he took him out of the car and into the jail.

I was still new, but it was a good lesson and reinforcement of my training for me.  Never take any traffic stop or anything else for granted, you just never know who is in that car.

No matter how good you are, you can be attacked and lose the fight – you have to always be careful.

While a lot of attacks take place at night and in areas that are isolated, this was in the middle of the day, with all kinds of traffic on the freeway, but it didn’t make any difference. 

Even in the most mundane of stops you have to remain on guard and on the alert, if you don’t you could die.

The department will give you a nice formal funeral, hundreds of officers will come to it, but that is little condolence to your wife and children.

Trooper was promoted to Sergeant and stationed in the Coos Bay area for a while.  Since my folks lived there I made a point to give him a call whenever I was there.

He was eventually promoted to Lieutenant and took over The Dalles office until he retired.

He never appeared to have problems from the kidnapping, of course what happens behind closed doors we are not often privy to; but back then no one thought of offering counseling.

You just sucked it up and went back to work.

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Galatians 2:20  KJV  “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

I don’ stop myself enough and ask myself, if you met Jesus right now, would you be embarrassed?

I accepted Christ, I am filled with His Spirit, I talk with Him every single day, but I still do things I know Christ does not approve of – yet, I am His representative on this earth and I need to remember that.

Are people seeing Christ in me, or am I interfering with that vision?

For 52 years I have been His child, yet, I am still learning, still having issues and yes, still sinning.

I need to remind myself more often Christ liveth in me: and act like it.

Later, Art (-: