Tag: MPD

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CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Organizers hold our city’s first “Zombie Walk” on Beale Street, with volunteers dressed up as the living dead. One of the participants hoped it would become an annual event and told reporters, “Memphis has never seen anything like this.” Actually, it looked pretty much like any Saturday night on Beale Street.

Greg Cravens

An ultrasound confirmed that the Zoo’s panda Ya Ya is indeed about to become a Ma Ma. Pandas rarely give birth in captivity, so if all goes well, the cub would be one of about a dozen pandas ever born in the United States. Meanwhile, the proud papa should be handing out cigars. What? Artificial insemination? Oh. Well, maybe whoever used the syringe — or however the heck they do it (we really don’t want to know) can do the honors.

Undercover police posing as truck drivers arrest 25 pimps and prostitutes at a truck stop on Lamar. “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” say Three 6 Mafia, and we learned it must be even harder for the women, since some of them wanted to charge the “truckers” only $20.

Ophelia Ford tells reporters she is not an alcoholic and then refuses to see her family when they drive to Nashville to help her out. Sigh. We’re pretty certain Ford will be in the news a lot in the next few months and not because of any work she does as a state senator.

More than a few MLGW employees have been making more than $100,000 a year with overtime pay — sometimes even doubling their already generous salaries. It’s just one thing after another at MLGW these days. Isn’t there another utility around here that we can use?

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CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Police have to use pepper spray to break up a large fight involving almost 20 students in the cafeteria of Northside High School. We had wondered if the quality of cafeteria food had improved since we went to school. Apparently not.

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Newly elected state senator Ophelia Ford is off to a good start. She’s been absent for most meetings, was caught on camera during a committee meeting ranting about death certificates and calling staff members “dumb,” and apparently tumbled off a bar stool at a Nashville hotel. Now it’s entirely possible that Ford has some medical issues — she claims to be anemic — but we didn’t think anyone could be a worse senator than her brother John. We were wrong.

Another Memphis landmark may be destined for demolition — well, partly. One of the original screens at the Summer Drive-in caught fire last week, and the owners say they will probably have to tear it down. We’ve heard it was going to be a hot summer for movies, but who knew this was going to happen?

The gleaming new Korean War Memorial is unveiled in Overton Park with appropriate pomp and circumstance. For some reason, this war is often overlooked by just about everybody — except for the hundreds of thousands of people who fought and died in it. The memorial is long overdue.

A Wal-mart customer — well, perhaps that’s not the right word — puts an expensive TV in a cart and pushes it right past the cash registers. Without bothering to pay. Why didn’t we think of that? Unfortunately for her, the security cameras pick up the license number of her car. Oh, yeah, that‘s why.

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The Cheat Sheet

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

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The Memphis police department reluctantly admits they have somehow lost track of precisely 62 registered sex offenders. This is rather disturbing news. What was the point of having us — uh, we mean them — fill out all those forms, and making sure they didn’t move anywhere near schools, and do all sorts of creepy things, if you can’t even keep track of them?

City officials in Munford, a community just north of here, staged a traffic accident at the local high school — complete with students covered in fake blood playing the part of injured or dead victims — so the kids would see for themselves the dangers of reckless or drunk driving. The police chief told reporters, “We hope this does have an impact on them.” So to speak.

The good people of West Memphis have started running promotional ads with the tagline: “So Close to Memphis, We Called It West Memphis.” The accompanying slogan is: “Think Outside the Bridge.” And the illustration just shows an expressway — apparently leading to West Memphis. It seems kind of sad that the only thing they could say about their city is that you can drive to it from another, larger city.

A bizarre custody case involving a golden retriever — formerly owned by a man who died without a will, and each of his divorced parents now wanting the dog — came to a quick end when the judge decreed that the two could share custody of the animal. Was that really so hard? Why can’t people work these things out for themselves?

A woman needing a kidney transplant places a classifieds ad in The Commercial Appeal and finds (we hope) a potential donor. Hmmm. If this works out, we may need to add a new category to our own Flyer Market on the Flyer Web site.

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CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Three teenagers are charged with using a homemade bomb — apparently a bottle filled with gunpowder — to blow up a portable toilet at a construction site in Eads. They are nabbed when a neighbor’s video surveillance system catches them in the act. Police say parts of the toilet are blown more than 300 feet away. They don’t say what parts, and we don’t want to know.

Despite all the hype, Three 6 Mafia put on a rather clean show at the Memphis In May Music Fest. In fact, the only real problems came from the showbiz veterans. Iggy Pop launches into a typically profanity-laced show, and “a whole lotta shaking going on” takes place during Jerry Lee Lewis’ performance — but in front of the stage instead of on it, when rowdy festivalgoers start fighting.

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A group of police officers admit they met after hours to arrange illegal shakedowns of drug dealers. The cops told fellow officers they were all going to choir practice. And everyone believed them? Well, the whole “stang” operation, as they called it, fell apart when one of the officers “sang” to federal prosecutors.

Zookeepers have artificially inseminated the panda Ya Ya and are now monitoring her every action to see if she’s pregnant. Apparently it’s hard to tell, so 24-hour video surveillance will help them determine any changes in what The Commercial Appeal describes as “her usual habits of bamboo eating, sleeping, and relieving herself.” Sounds like a nice life.

Acting MLGW president Rick Masson decides that former president Joseph Lee and former vice president Odell Horton won’t get severance pay. And taxpayers won’t have to pay Lee’s legal fees. That’s a welcome surprise. Call us jaded, but we had already prepared ourselves to see those things listed as line items on our next utility bill.

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What To Watch

Earlier this month, while walking to her car, a University of Memphis graduate student was stabbed in the thigh and robbed. Campus security cameras caught the attack on tape, and a few days later, Zachariah Judge and his girlfriend/accomplice Valerie Jones were arrested.

Though the camera was installed by the U of M, that crime-fighting tactic may soon spread across the city. Last week, Memphis mayor Willie Herenton requested the City Council earmark $700,000 in next year’s budget for a Memphis Police Department (MPD) Real Time Crime Center. The center would combine video surveillance with sophisticated data systems and software.

“We’ll have Sky Cop cameras, which have the capability of triangulating gunshots,” says MPD spokesperson Vince Higgins. “Say there’s a camera posted on Tennessee Street and a shooting occurs within a block of the Flyer office. A Sky Cop camera would sense where that shot came from. It would then turn to that area and that video would feed into the Real Time Crime Center.”

Officers stationed in the crime center headquarters, to be located at the Urban Child Institute at 600 Jefferson, will be able to watch the footage on a large video wall. Officers could even be dispatched to the location before anyone calls to report the shooting.

“The cameras are totally mobile. They’ll be posted throughout the city where the need is greatest,” says Higgins. “That will be determined at our weekly Blue Crush meetings when we’re pinning down crime hotspots.”

Other cameras designed to spot stolen car tags will be placed on patrol cars.

“The camera will read tags as it passes cars, so even if the officer is preoccupied, the cameras will notify the officer that the car or tag is stolen,” says Higgins.

But the Real Time Crime Center encompasses more than video surveillance. Using special software, police will receive instant information on recent criminal activity in a radius around a crime, existing crime patterns in the neighborhood, and a history of people with arrest records who may frequent the area.

“Investigators headed to the scene will have the ability to take that real-time information gathered from all those sources,” says Higgins.

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has been operating its $11 million Real Time Crime Center since 2005. The center draws information from New York state criminal records, parole and probation files, as well as city criminal complaints, arrest records, and 911 calls. MPD director Larry Godwin toured the NYPD facility last December.

With Blue Crush databases already in place, Higgins says much of the work for the local Real Time Crime Center is complete.

“Instead of buying someone’s software to get this started, we have people on our staff who are able to write the software specific to Memphis,” says Higgins. “We’re not buying a system that was used in New York and then trying to make it work in Memphis.”

Though Herenton requested $700,000 from the city, additional funding for the center is expected to come from grants.

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Q&A: Caroline Mason

On a recent episode of A&E’s The First 48, the camera zooms in on Detective Caroline Mason applying lip liner and sliding on stylish sunglasses.

“I gotta have my J.Lo glasses,” she says just before her Memphis Police Department (MPD) homicide team heads out to solve one of the city’s many murders.

On The First 48, a reality show in which investigators from a handful of major cities have 48 hours to arrest and charge homicide suspects, Mason is known as a chic investigator with a closet full of trendy clothing and too many shoes to count. But in Memphis, the 19-year MPD veteran is known for her high homicide solve rate.

The only African-American female in the homicide department, Mason was recently nominated for America’s Most Wanted‘s All-Stars, an online contest in which AMW viewers cast votes for their favorite first-responder.

Voting is open through April 15th on www.amw.com. The winner will be announced next month.

— by Bianca Phillips

Flyer: How did you become an officer?

Mason: I was going to school to be a nurse, and I got a part-time job at Ike’s on Park Avenue. A girlfriend of mine who worked in cosmetics said the police department was hiring. She said I could make $1,300 every two weeks. We applied, and we both got the job.

Why homicide?

I worked in Crime Stoppers for three years. It was right across the hall from homicide. I’d always go over there and ask the guys if I could see the pictures. They were always gruesome, and it just seemed like something I really wanted to do.

Well, a year after I came to the police department, a good friend of mine was murdered. I would go over there every day to see how they would try to solve it. That inspired me.

What’s your murder solve rate?

Out of the 20 or so cases I had last year, I only have one that remains unsolved.

On The First 48, you wear a special black blazer to interview suspects. Does it really help you get confessions?

It was kind of blown up by The First 48. [The camera crew] came to my house. They filmed inside my closet to show how I’m a shop-aholic. I love shoes and bags.

They wanted me to pick up a particular blazer and say, “This is my interview blazer. I get most of my confessions in that.”

Isn’t it kind of a depressing job?

A hard thing about dealing with death is that when I see that body out there on the street, I can’t look at it as a human being. I have to look at it as a science, because now it’s evidence. I have to figure out what happened to this person, why it happened, and who did it.

The worst part of that whole scenario is telling the victim’s family that their loved one has been killed at the hands of someone else. I actually have to do the notification myself. It’s heartbreaking.

Any other downsides to working homicide?

Last year, my son graduated from Dexter Middle to go to Cordova High School, and right when he went across the stage, I got called out. I missed going to dinner with him and the other boys.

If I go on a date, I always have to drive, because if we get a homicide, I’ve got to go.

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Identity Theft

It sounds like a scene from a mafia film: In a covert meeting, a drug-dealing, crooked cop agrees to sell information about a confidential informant to another drug dealer. But unbeknownst to the cop, the other dealer is secretly taping the conversation for the FBI.

Last week, the FBI arrested Thomas Braswell, an officer with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO), and charged him with bribery for allegedly selling confidential information. Pending an investigation, he was relieved of duty with pay.

According to the complaint filed with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Braswell received $500 late last month from an undercover informant posing as a coke and steroids dealer in exchange for the address, Social Security number, driver’s license history, and date of birth of another informant used in the SCSO investigations.

Braswell obtained the information through SCSO computers and read it out over the phone. All the while, the informant was taping the conversation. Several other conversations were also taped via telephone and during face-to-face meetings.

During one conversation, Braswell discussed his efforts to obtain steroids. Sheriff Mark Luttrell says it was Braswell’s drug involvement that prompted the FBI investigation.

“In this case, officers were working on some drug crimes. In the course of that routine investigation, this case came up involving [Braswell],” says Luttrell. “They just started following the leads. It wasn’t a situation where we started out targeting a particular officer.”

Though Braswell’s primary duties were those of a patrolman, he had access to the same informant database that drug and gang units have.

“There’s certain information that all of our law enforcement officers have access to,” says Luttrell. “It’s considered for official use only. That doesn’t mean it’s top-secret or highly classified. But there is an understanding that it’s considered to be sensitive information not to be released to the public.”

Luttrell acknowledges that Braswell could have put an informant in danger had he given that information to a real drug dealer. He says that informants range from “John Q. Citizen to someone with a criminal background.”

“Fortunately, we became aware of this in time. We were able to control it,” says Luttrell. “We just have to be very aggressive in responding to it.”

As a result, Luttrell says the SCSO will be beefing up lessons about handling sensitive information in their in-service training, the 40 hours of classes every officer takes annually.

They’ll also be looking at their system of storing confidential information.

“Anytime you have an event like this, you certainly look at your internal procedures to see if your restrictions are tight enough,” says Luttrell. “We’ll go through that routine process of accessing our security.”

Braswell is the third SCSO officer charged in a federal investigation since 2005. According to personnel records obtained by the Flyer, Braswell was cited for attempting to start a fight with another officer in 2004. He’s also been cited for improper handling of a traffic ticket, accidentally discharging his weapon in the prison ward, and crashing his police vehicle.

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The Cheat Sheet

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

A Memphis man calls the cops and tells them he was carjacked in a downtown parking lot. The police later find the car, and the driver tells them he didn’t steal it — the first guy loaned it to him. Turns out he’s telling the truth when the first guy ‘fesses up. Then both fellows admit they had been smoking crack all morning. Like we didn’t see that coming.

A controversy is brewing over Germantown’s official logo. The old version showed a horse and rider circled by a red “G.” The new version still has that “G” (green this time) but with an oak leaf above the words “Excellence. Every day.” We don’t know how much impact horses still have in a community that once had 15 mph speed-limit signs on Poplar for the four-legged creatures, but we do think the new logo looks like something you’d design for Vanderbilt.

The Memphis Zoo has asked Greg Cravens

Memphians to send get-well cards to their polar bear, Cranbeary, who broke a leg after tumbling into the deep moat in front of her compound. Zoo visitors say the female bear was pushed over the edge by her male companion during some roughhousing. We’ve had some dates that have ended up pretty much the same way.

Because of some unfortunate racial incidents, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is no longer an “official” fraternity at the University of Memphis and will not be “recognized” by the school for at least one year. We suppose that means SAE won’t be included in the school yearbooks, but since parties and other activities can continue at the fraternity’s privately owned house, we really can’t see how this will affect very much. If anything, the parties might be wilder than ever.

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Police Posers

When the Memphis Police Department (MPD) announced they were looking for more officers a few months ago, they hoped people would fill out an application.

But a couple of would-be officers have taken matters — and uniforms — into their own hands, posing as police and committing crimes. Early this month, two police impersonators were arrested in Memphis, while two others went free. MPD officials do not believe there’s any connection between the cases.

Rene Montgomery, 44, was arrested in Midtown on February 3rd after MPD officers spotted an unmarked Crown Victoria with Tennessee government tags entering the IHOP parking lot on Union.

As he stepped out of the car, the officers noticed Montgomery was wearing a blue police-style uniform. He wore a pistol and a badge, but his uniform lacked an MPD-logo patch.

“We had a couple of incidents reported late last year and early this year in regards to individuals posing as police and attempting to stop females,” said MPD spokesperson Vince Higgins. “We had one incident where a person was reportedly raped.”

The officers ran the car’s tags and determined the plate was stolen from a St. Jude vehicle. When they approached Montgomery, he flashed an ID from the Jericho, Arkansas, police department.

“We were able to debunk that,” said Higgins. “We even had Jericho officials come to the scene.”

Montgomery was arrested and charged with impersonation and driving with a suspended license, but Higgins said he’s under investigation for rape.

Less than a week later, MPD officers arrested 23-year-old Bartlett resident Ronnell Lawson in connection with a robbery in which he posed as a cop.

Lawson handcuffed a Latino victim, demanded his cash and car title, and threatened to have him deported.

“The victim was suspicious. We’ve been trying to educate the Latino community to report these incidents,” said Higgins. “Our police officers are not going to shake you down for money, and they’re not going to threaten to send you back to Mexico.”

Lawson is under investigation for involvement in similar robberies.

On February 15th, two men in plain clothes knocked on the door of a Whitehaven home and claimed to be officers sent there to search the house for drugs.

By the time the homeowner had been summoned, the men were in a 2000 Chevy Impala. The homeowner then noticed that the car did not have any police radios or equipment and called the police. The suspects drove off and were not apprehended. In all, nine police-impersonation cases have been reported in the past three months.

“We’ve had people use this M.O. in rape cases. We’ve had it used in robbery cases,” said Higgins. “Some people even use it to get free food.”

According to Higgins, police uniforms can be purchased at some local shops without proper police identification. Badges and equipment purchases, he said, usually require an ID.

“If you’re being pulled over and you don’t believe the car that’s pulling you over is being driven by a police officer, drive to the nearest precinct,” said Higgins. “Or utilize your cell phone and contact the police. Then, we’ll send real police.”

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Hitting Home

A flashy car and a cool badge apparently aren’t enough to attract a sufficient number of applicants to the Memphis Police Department (MPD), currently understaffed by about 100 officers.

But police officials hope the Memphis City Council’s recent decision to allow officers to live outside the city limits will help find applicants for vacant positions.

“For the past three to five years, we’ve just barely been keeping up with attrition, and if you add in the fact that we’ve been annexing and we just opened up a new precinct, we’re somewhere on the order of 90 to 125 officers short,” said Vince Higgins, public affairs officer for MPD.

The City Council voted last week to temporarily exempt police officers and paramedics from a 2004 referendum requiring all city employees to live within the city of Memphis. Officers and paramedics hired in the next two years can live anywhere in Shelby County.

Higgins says the problem isn’t finding applicants but rather finding qualified applicants who can pass the academic requirements, physical demands, and firearms tests required by police training. By expanding residential boundaries for new officers, MPD hopes to avoid lower training standards.

“In the past, [the department] has lowered the standards by giving waivers to felons, but we’ve found that to be counterproductive,” said Higgins. “I don’t think the citizens of Memphis want the standards lowered.”

Currently, the department doesn’t hire anyone with a felony background or anyone who has a DUI conviction on their record. Applicants must have completed two years of college or active military duty, pass a psychological exam, and be at least 21 years old.

Because the department is understaffed, some officers due for a promotion haven’t received it yet.

“We can’t promote sergeants because we’d be depleting uniform patrol,” said Higgins. “It’s a domino effect. Once we get more officers, we’ll have more latitude with the promotional process.”

But not everyone’s pleased with the change. City Council member Joe Brown voted against the measure because he didn’t feel comfortable changing something the citizens enacted by referendum.

He also worries that hiring outside the city limits will affect the applicant pool for positions at the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.

Before the 2004 referendum, Memphis police officers could live anywhere inside the county line. Officers hired before 1980 can live anywhere within a two-hour drive.