March 14, 2010

Fighting Cancer Head On

Everyone expects that police should protect and serve their communities, but few citizens realize the lengths that some officers will go to in their efforts toward that ideal. For the past 4 years, Soldotna police officers have participated in a St. Patrick’s Day fundraiser which endeavors to raise money to combat childhood cancer. The event is sponsored by the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a national charity which funds cancer research. Officer Tobin Brennan was one of the originators of Soldotna’s St. Baldrick’s fundraising effort and was inspired by that fact that the young son of fellow Soldotna police officer David Bower was himself a cancer survivor.

In solidarity with the young cancer victims, St. Baldrick’s participants shave their heads, but instead of being bald due to the ravages of chemotherapy, fundraisers collect pledges from people who want to see them go hairless.

One of 9 St. Baldrick’s fundraisers in Alaska in 2010, the Soldotna event raised the most money, bagging over $33,000 in contributions for childhood cancer research. Of the 117 shavees at the City’s event, the 10 members of the Soldotna Police Team raised almost 25% of the event’s total receipts. Their pledges amounted to a generous $9,520 which is 8 times what they raised for the cause in 2009. During the 4 years that the fundraiser has been held, the Soldotna community has contributed more than $100,000 to the St. Baldrick’s campaign.

October 28, 2009

SOLDOTNA POLICE TO START DEATH-DEFYING SERVICE

Seeking to conform to current best practices of the law enforcement establishment and hoping to improve safety and life expectancy within their jurisdiction, the Soldotna Police Department will soon be carrying Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in all of their Police vehicles.

The new service is made possible by a $24,206 grant from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Formula Program of the U.S. Department of Justice. Each U.S. Police Department meeting a certain criteria was eligible to apply for an allocation grant: the amount of which has been predetermined based on their state’s population and crime statistics among other factors. The Soldotna Police decided to request their allocation for the purpose of acquiring defibrillators.  The grant was made possible as part of the government’s Recovery Act stimulus effort.

Soldotna’s goal is to improve rapid access to emergency cardiac defibrillation for citizens and visitors to the City.  Because Police cruisers routinely patrol the community, they may often be nearer the scene of an emergency when a 911 call is received, and therefore able to reach a cardiac arrest victim prior to arrival of an ambulance.  According to Chief of Police John Lucking, this is frequently the case in Soldotna. “One of the great advantages of having a local police department” said Lucking, “is its ability to focus on the needs of the community, In cardiac arrest, every second counts, and makes a difference in the ability of persons to survive otherwise fatal events. ” The American Heart Association considers rapid access to defibrillation the most important single factor in adult survival of cardiac arrest.

A study done by physicians at the Mayo Clinic and St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, and published in the June 2005 issue of Resuscitation studied the benefits of Fire Service, Police, and Paramedics being simultaneously dispatched to cardiac incidents over a period of 13 years. They discovered that Police were frequently first to arrive on the scene of an emergency, and postulated that in addition to Police being already in motion when calls were received, the increased maneuverability of Police vehicles provided an advantage over fire trucks and ambulances. The study further demonstrated that the shortest span between cardiac arrest and defibrillation was the most important critical determinant in the survival of cardiac emergencies.

While the Department sought the acquisition of AEDs as a way to further “Serve and Protect” City residents, Lucking believes that they also have a responsibility, as good hosts, to provide the level of care which travelers have come to expect in their own communities. “To do otherwise”, he says, “could leave visitors with a negative impression not only of Soldotna, but also of Alaska, and this could have economic repercussions in the important tourism industry which no amount of advertising could overcome…. Besides that,” he adds, “deployment of AEDs is an attainable technology and the right thing to do.”

In planning the program, consideration was given to several factors. After reviewing a number of abstracts on police use of AEDs the Department was particularly attracted to a Miami-Dade modality found outlined on the American Heart Association website. The program, which was reported in the August 7, 2002 issue of Circulation, Journal of the American Heart Association, reported a near doubling of the survival rate from cardiac arrest when law enforcement officers began carrying AEDs. The Miami-Dade model was different from other law enforcement programs in that it assigned the AED to individual officers rather than to vehicles. This policy provided a number of advantages to the program. When off duty, the officers tended to bring the AEDs home rather than leave them in an unused squad car. This allowed the officer to have an AED available in his neighborhood and potentially carry them to youth events or other off duty activities. In at least one case during the study period an off duty officer used the AED to resuscitate someone suffering cardiac arrest at a public event. This form of deployment also makes sense in an area where natural disasters like earthquakes are expected. In the event of a serious natural or manmade disaster where transportation routes are disrupted, these AEDs could already be in neighborhoods around the community in the hands of someone trained to use them.

 “Assigning the AEDs to the care of each officer rather than considering them duty tools will expand the opportunities for their utilization,” Lucking says. “That increases the chances that this equipment will someday be the critical component in saving a life, and that would be priceless.”

Central Emergency Services (CES) currently conducts first aid and CPR classes for Soldotna Police officers, and will continue to do so. This cements the relationship between the agencies which work side by side during an emergency to save a life. This also serves to foster unified medical control and provide an orderly continuum of care which should ultimately result in reduced mortality and morbidity from cardiac arrest in the community.

May 15, 2009

T.O.P. Honors

After what they describe as an “exhaustive and highly competitive review of applications submitted from around the world”, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) has announced that the Soldotna Police Department of Soldotna Alaska is the winner of a 2009 Innovation in Information Technology Award for Soldotna’s Technology on Patrol (TOP) project. According to the IACP, “the Innovation in Information Technology award highlights the achievement of an agency in implementing an innovative information technology that enhances the effectiveness of law enforcement”. The award will be presented to Soldotna Police Chief John Lucking on Monday, May 18th, 2009 at the 33^rd Annual Law Enforcement Information Management Section Training Conference and Exposition in Dallas, TX.

The goal of Soldotna’s TOP project was to enhance traffic enforcement efficiency by utilizing Smartphone technology to combine all of the attributes of vehicle mounted computers, cell phones, cameras and audio recorders into a single portable device, and put that into the hands of officers while they were on patrol and while out of their vehicles on crime or accident scenes. The project was made possible because of a grant from the Alaska Highway Safety Office. It is believed the technology will benefit offender prosecutions, promote officer safety, and improve operational efficiency. 

Patrol officers being able to transmit information queries wirelessly by encrypted text will reduce the risk of miscommunication and being able to receive data, like a driver’s license photo, with the query response will also reduce the possibility of errors in identity. Being able to accomplish these tasks while outside the patrol vehicle adds unique flexibility and is like riding the crest of the technological wave.

The TOP project utilizes feature rich, easy to carry Blackberry Bold Smartphones and Biokey’s state of the art encrypted, job-specific PocketCop software. In addition to the specialized access to criminal justice data, the Smartphone’s usual applications also have great benefit. Integrated calendars help officers manage meetings, appointments and court appearances and contact lists help keep important phone numbers at their fingertips. Internet access and email provide instant access to information and messages, and GPS mapping features on the phones can guide them to hard to find locations or help locate an officer in distress.

To insure against misappropriation of the devices or unauthorized access to sensitive information, the Smartphones boast redundant security features which make it impossible for an unauthorized user to activate the device. A special authentication token used in conjunction with login makes the Smartphone double encrypted and Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) compliant.  It is important to note that the project did not change the kind of information which could be queried by the officers rather it enhanced their efficiency by enabling them to access that information in a new more convenient way.

The Smartphone-based criminal justice technology has been employed effectively in several large cities in the lower 48 states, but Soldotna’s effort is the first attempt to use it in Alaska, and it demonstrates that handheld technology can be an affordable CJIS option for small law enforcement agencies.  A large factor in minimizing costs was Soldotna’s partnering with Anchorage for server space from which to launch the software. Anchorage’s use of another BioKey software product to run their vehicle mounted computers provided partnering advantages for both departments by reducing costs and improving purchasing power.

It is hoped that TOP will provide a roadmap for other Alaska public safety agencies seeking to embrace similar technology. Its flexibility has special advantages to any agency whose officers find themselves dealing with issues away from their vehicles, and it can bring to a foot patrol officer all of the benefits that vehicle mounted computers brought to motorized patrol.

The Smartphones are less expensive than vehicle mounted computers, and make it unnecessary for officers to also be assigned individual cell phones, cameras, and voice recorders. The Smartphones can also be tethered to a laptop computer so that officers can use the Smartphone’s wireless capability to transmit other types of files from vehicles when necessary. As Alaska prepares to implement uniform computerized traffic accident reporting procedures, Soldotna officers will have the equipment necessary to prepare those reports in the field and transmit them wirelessly to a central statewide depository just by tethering their laptop to their Smartphone. The Smartphones make it possible for officers to accomplish in the field many tasks that currently must be done at the station, and recent studies have shown that officers with access to technology devices in the field are more productive, and are able to spend, on average, an additional hour of each shift answering calls. According to Soldotna Police Chief John Lucking, “…More officer time on the street makes for a safer and better served community.”

“The tools of law enforcement are rapidly changing” says Lucking. “It is important that we strive as a Department to not only recognize the emerging technology, but also to make it our own.”

Kalie Klaysmat, who has helped to implement the TOP project, said that for her it was all about enhancing safety for the Officers. “When an officer doesn’t know the real identity of a person they are talking to, it can put them at a big disadvantage. TOP will remedy that.”

The IACP-iXP Excellence in Technology Award Program was created to recognize a law enforcement agency's superior achievement and innovation in the field of information technology. The program is an international competition that is open to local, tribal, state, provincial, federal and multi-jurisdictional law enforcement agencies. Applications were judged by a panel of experts from IACP committees and the IACP’s Law Enforcement Information Management Section. Applicants were judged in five categories: (1) technical merit; (2) level of innovation; (3) effectiveness; (4) ability to replicate; and (5) overall impact.

The IACP Law Enforcement Information Management Section makes Excellence in Technology awards in 3 categories: Innovation in Information Technology, Excellence in Law Enforcement Communications and Interoperability, and Response to Computer Related Crime. Four awards are given in each category based upon number of sworn personnel in the applicant departments.  Soldotna won in the small department (less than 50 sworn officers) division. The National Forensic Science Technology Center, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg (NC) Police Department, and the Gardena (CA) Police Department also won 2009 Innovation in Information Technology awards in other divisions.

April 14, 2009

Alaska’s Top Seatbelt Cop

Soldotna Police Officer Marvin Towel is the 2009 recipient of The Alaska Highway Safety Office (AHSO) Strategic Traffic Enforcement Partnership (ASTEP) Award for issuing the most seatbelt citations (359) in the State of Alaska during 2008. Towel was recognized “for his exemplary and outstanding contribution toward improved highway public safety for Alaskans” during a presentation ceremony at the Anchorage Hilton on April 14^th.  Presenting the award were AHSO Administrator Cindy Cashen, Alaska State Trooper Colonel Audie Holloway, Anchorage Police Department Chief Robert Heun, and Soldotna Police Department Chief John Lucking. The presentation took place in conjunction with the annual ASTEP Summit, a highway safety planning event attended by about 45 police officers and administrators from throughout Alaska.

According to Police Chief Lucking, motor vehicle safety is an important priority for the Soldotna Police Department.  “I am extremely proud of Officer Towell”, said Lucking. “He and all of the Officers of the Soldotna Police Department constantly strive to make a positive impact by promoting highway safety. This award is evidence of Officer Towell’s extraordinary efforts to keep people in our community safe. ”

Officer Towell has been employed by the City of Soldotna since 1998, but has over 30 years of experience as a law enforcement officer. He served in the military police , and in 1975 joined the Pinal County (AZ) Sheriff's Office as a deputy assigned to patrolling the Arizona dessert. Over the next 20 years Towell served a number of AZ law enforcement agencies, and rose through the ranks to become Chief of Police of the Parker, AZ, Police Department in 1989. In 1996 he was hired by La Paz County AZ Sheriff's Office as their Emergency Services Director and Environmental Crimes Enforcement Officer.

Towell is a graduate of the 181st Session of the FBI National Academy (1995) and is a current member of the FBI National Academy Associates, Alaska Chapter. He is a former member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and Arizona Chiefs of Police Association, He has Criminal Justice  degree from Cochise College at Douglas, Arizona and in December 2002, Towell received a Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice from Almeda College and University in Boise, Idaho.

According to the most recent available statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) just under 85% of Alaskans currently wear their seatbelts. That’s up from 63% of Alaskans who used   seatbelts in 2001, and above the national average of 83%. NHTSA also reports that states with stronger seatbelt laws and enforcement demonstrate higher seatbelt usage and “Seat belts, when used, reduce the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent.”

December 10. 2008

Officers Honored for Response to Tragedy

In a December 10th ceremony at City Hall, Mayor Peter Micciche recognized 4 Soldotna Police Officers for their performance in quelling a murderous rampage by a disgruntled employee of the Central Peninsula Hospital in an incident which took place on the day before Thanksgiving in 2008.

At approximately 10 o’clock on the morning of November 26th, 48 year old Joseph Marchetti entered the Hospital in Soldotna armed with a semi-automatic rifle and a pistol. He commenced firing his weapons targeting the bosses who had fired him the day before, and his actions resulted in injury and loss of life. Marchetti was later killed in the hospital parking lot following a stand-off with Alaska State Troopers and officers of the Soldotna Police Department.

Commendations of Valor were awarded to senior Officer Johnny Whitehead, Officer Tony Garcia, and Sgt. Robb Quelland. A Commendation of Exemplary Performance was given to Officer Victor Dillon.

Officer Johnny Whitehead was the first officer to arrive at the hospital and, with his rifle at ready, he entered the hospital alone and without hesitation to seek out and subdue the perpetrator. With assistance only from hospital security employee James T. Randolph, Whitehead made his way through the hospital until encountering an unresponsive victim of the gunman.

Officer Whitehead provided cover to that wounded victim while summoning medical aid from hospital staff. When a physician arrived to render aid to the victim, Officer Whitehead provided cover and security until additional medical aid arrived and removed the victim to the safe area of the Emergency Room. Once the victim was safely receiving care, Officer Whitehead, now in the company of Trooper Sergeant Eugene Fowler who had arrived at his location, continued to move through the hallways seeking the gunman who had invaded the facility.

When Officer Whitehead learned that the hospital doors were locked down, and that the shooter had exited the building, he and Sergeant Fowler exited themselves and took cover with the perpetrator in view.

When the gunman, though still armed with a pistol, put down his assault rifle and stepped away from it, Officer Whitehead took advantage of the opportunity, and with cover from Sergeant Fowler, risked his own life to retrieve that weapon away from the assailant’s reach and secure it in order to reduce further risk of violence.

Officer Tony Garcia made entry through the emergency room and proceeded through the facility to the north parking lot exit. Once in there, Officer Garcia took cover behind a concrete pillar from which point he could observe and cover the actions of the armed gunman who was by then outside the facility pacing in agitation and making threats toward the police.

While in that position, with concern for the students at nearby schools, Officer Garcia telephoned the Soldotna High School to assure the school was in lockdown and that students there were safe.

When the gunman began to move toward the street increasing the risk to citizens of the city at large, Officer Garcia followed him from cover with his weapon at ready until his line of fire became untenable.

Sergeant Robb Quelland assumed tactical command of the incident and while ever cognizant of the nearby threat continued to communicate throughout the event with other officers and with Dispatch to coordinate actions to their best effect. In the scope of his role as Tactical Commander, Sergeant Quelland sought non lethal methods by which to control the subject; and from a position of cover he repeatedly attempted to engage the perpetrator with verbal commands while the armed gunman paced and made threats.

When the gunman began to move toward the street, Sergeant Quelland followed him… moving from cover with his weapon at ready, providing protection to other officers and eventually taking a position behind parked vehicles. When an opportunity seemed to present itself, Sgt. Quelland prepared to deploy a non lethal method in an attempt to resolve the incident peacefully.

Officer Victor Dillon, who was off duty at the time, heard of the events occurring at the hospital, and responded there to offer his assistance to fellow officers. He reported to Tactical Command for assignment; and when asked to do so, promptly provided support by returning to the station to retrieve additional specialized equipment for deployment at the incident. In light of his actions beyond the call of duty officer Dillon received a Commendation for Exemplary Performance.

Officers Dillon, Garcia, and Whitehead received certificates of commendation at the ceremony. Sergeant Quelland received his certificate at a later date.