Information about NPSOAA FOCUS

The NPSOAA FOCUS is an online NewsMagazine for members and supporters of the National Police and Security Officers Association of America addressing timely issues concerning the professional occupational areas of law enforcement and security.  Our Online Issue Question: What have we learned?

What Have We Learned from this Near-Fatal Traffic Stop Encounter?  What can we learn?

What Have We Learned from Deputy Kyle Dinkheller's Fatal Traffic Stop Encounter?

Deputy Kyle Wayne Dinkheller
Laurens County Sheriff's Office
Georgia
End of Watch: Monday, January 12, 1998

Biographical Info
Age: 22
Tour of Duty: 4 years
Badge Number: 37

Incident Details
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: Monday, January 12, 1998
Weapon Used: Rifle; .30 caliber
Suspect Info: Sentenced to death

Deputy Kyle Dinkheller was shot and killed after pulling over a man on a rural road about 6 miles north of Dublin, Georgia. During the traffic stop he called in for backup. Before the backup arrived he was shot by the man with a rifle. He was able to return fire, striking the suspect in the stomach. The suspect was found during a search the next morning and taken into custody.

The entire incident was videotaped by a camera in Deputy Dinkheller's patrol car. On January 28, 2000, the suspect was found guilty of murder and was sentenced to death two days later.  As a result of his fatal Traffic Stop encounter, Deputy Dinkheller was survived by his expectant wife and 22-month-old daughter. Deputy Dinkheller's son was born in early September 1998.  What have we learned?

What have we Learned from The Vietnam War?  If you were there, Here is a Tribute to You.  Thank You and Welcome Home!

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Jail Suicides and Other Lockup Liabilities

Each year in our nation’s jails and holdovers, several hundred prisoners successfully commit suicide, and thousands more make some type of attempt.  Suicide is the leading cause of death in United States jails. In addition, large numbers of inmates suffer serious injury and often death at the hands of other inmates.  In each case, law enforcement faces the potential for civil litigation due to claims of negligence.  Suicide prevention is something that should be given high priority in the design or modification of any detention facility.  Current investigative research reveals that more prisoners today are concerned with other inmates harming them than they feared the isolation factor of being in a single cell.  Modern detention cells are designed for inmate protection.  The new cells have no exposed electrical outlets; no shower rods or curtains; and no sharp corners on benches or tables.  Another deterrent is the psychological effect of the inmate knowing the police or correctional officer could be watching at all times.  Modern facilities are designed with a center area that allows visible access to all cells.

In addition to suicide issues, all jail officers and administrators are more than concerned with inmate assaults, given the gang climate in most American jail settings. These and sexual assaults can often lead to litigation, resulting in municipal jurisdictions losing untold sums of money in civil cases where inmates are harmed in holding facilities even before appearing in court to be arraigned. The arresting officer is critical to the suicide prevention process. He or she should be aware of the emotional condition of the offender and relay this information to the booking officer, who continues the process, as, often possible suicide risks are not identified during the screening process. In addition to the presence of alcohol and drugs, at the time of incarceration, other suicide symptoms are Depression, Mood Swings, Crying, Withdrawal, Shame and Verbal Threats. The most common form of jail suicide is hanging when most suicides occurred 5 feet or less off the floor in a span of 720 seconds, using Bed Sheets, Shoe Laces, Belts, Neckties and Shirt Sleeves.  Other forms include Suffocation, Drowning, and Drug Overdoses.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Desperate people in incarceration situations will often attempt desperate ways to harm themselves.  Be Vigilant and Diligent! You can make the Life/Death Difference.

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A NPSOAA FOCUS on The Collecting and Hoarding of Animals

The animal "collector," sometimes known as a "hoarder," is a familiar person to us all. These "animal lovers" reside in almost every community throughout the United States, if not the world. You may even know someone like this, a person who tends to keep to themselves, someone who is always available to rescue a stray dog, cat or any animal in need. This may seem to be a selfless act of kindness until you enter the mind and home of a true animal collector. Animal collectors are people who, due to a psychological condition, honestly believe that any quality of life that they provide for an animal is better than letting that animal die. For collectors, one animal is too many and a thousand is not enough. They obsessively collect more animals than they can possibly care for, which results in the gross neglect of the animals within their care. They also tend to believe that they can care for their animals better than anyone else can and therefore shy away from finding the animals they rescue other adoptive homes.

A scientific study concluded that 76% of collectors/hoarders were female and 46% were 60 years of age or older. From this study it is estimated that there are 700 to 2000 cases of animal collecting in the United States annually and that in 80% of the cases animals were found dead or in poor condition.

The Cat Lady: Collectors are known to collect all species of animals, although the infamous stereotype is the "Cat Lady." Cat ladies are typically middle-aged to elderly, single or widowed women who spend all of their time and money feeding hoards of cats inside and outside their homes while they themselves live in filth, poverty, and squalor. They are known for their eccentricities and tend to shy away from human contact as they scour the neighborhood in search of animals in need of their help. One such case involved a 60-year-old woman who "rescued" some 589 cats and kept the cats in a house filled with their own waste, covered with fleas and suffering from ear mites as well as a number of other health conditions. This woman vehemently denied that she was a "collector": "I live in a nice house. I don't live in squalor" and "I'm not a crazy old lady." Of course, she failed to mention that she keeps her cats at a different residence than the one that she herself inhabits!

Filled to the Brim: All collectors seem to be in denial about the condition of the animals they keep. There was a recent collector case involving a woman who claimed to breed "show poodles." The neighbors finally called the police because of the foul odor emitting from her house. Everyone confronted with the case and anyone else would be sickened and appalled by the abuse and neglect involved in such a horrific scenario which plays out continuously during investigations conducted by animal cruelty agents, officers and investigators.  The collector in this case was a middle-aged woman who had literally filled her house to the brim with poodles -- letting them breed and inbreed until she ended up with at least 40 poodles in a tiny two-bedroom house. Since she never let them outside to go to the bathroom, layers upon layers of urine, feces, and newspapers stood two to three feet high throughout the home. The dogs were covered in their own urine and feces and their coats were severely matted from lack of care.

One dog had just given birth to a litter of puppies, yet she was so thin I could see every bone in her body. Old dogs, young dogs, and even puppies all suffered, living in deplorable conditions with no visible food or water. Emaciated dogs fed off the carcasses of dogs that had already starved to death. Others crouched in corners and hid behind furniture in fear from the lack of human companionship and socialization. Most of the dogs had been deprived of light for so long that when we opened the curtains to start our investigation and rescue, many of them yelped in pain as the sunlight hit their light-sensitive eyes. All of the dogs were emaciated, and many were obviously sick, yet the woman who "claimed" them as her own denied any wrongdoing in the care she provided for "her dogs."

Not Unusual: This is not an isolated or even an unusual case. Ask any animal control officer, SPCA humane police officer, or even most prosecutors and district attorneys, and they will all confirm that these cases are typical when it comes to animal collectors. Most times, collectors and hoarders think that saving these animals, at any cost, is better than having them dead." Animal collectors believe that all the animals depend on them and that no one can love the animals like they do. Code Enforcement personnel, who are often required to inspect property for code violations of tenants known for their propensity to collect animals. The grim results of a typical inspection are described by one such municipal employee: "I put on my “junkiest” jacket and light a cigar before I go in to mask the smell."

One familiar case involved a woman who had appointed herself a “savior” for stray dogs. To avoid prosecution, she kept the dogs she collected in regulation-size cages. She planned to let the dogs live out the rest of their natural lives incarcerated in these cages. As a result, the dogs were never let out to socialize or exercise with other dogs or with humans. As a result, they became what is known as "kennel crazy" -- a condition in which a dog manifests neurotic compulsive behaviors from being kept in a cage for too long a time with too little human interaction. The officer personally revealed that if he were a dog, "I'd rather be hit by a truck" (than to continue to suffer like the dogs or cats in these types of collector/hoarder cases).

Like every other professional involved in these cases, one never, ever hears an animal collector admit there was a problem with the care that they are or were giving their animals. "They truly don't see anything wrong."

A Death Grip on Denial: This mind-set seems to prevail amongst collectors. A District Attorney, who had assisted in the prosecution of a number of collector cases throughout the United States, further documented this fact, stating that collectors have a "death grip on denial." Here is, for example, a woman who was shown a photograph of one of the dogs that was seized from her care. The photo showed a dog so starved from lack of food that it was literally shedding its intestines and rectum. It was revealed that when the woman who "owned" the dog looked at the photo, her only comment was "I guess it did seem a little ill."

Not even animals used in agriculture are immune to the horrors of animal collecting. In one recent case some 300 goats living on an acre of feces, mud and urine were brought to the attention of the local humane society and the Humane Police agency. Although the goats' "owner" did not fit the prototype of your typical collector, a middle-aged attorney who works for a prestigious law firm, she was the first to deny the "collector" label she has been given. Instead, she claimed that "breeders need so many animals to develop championship strains. If people think this is overcrowding, they should check out the average (goat) dairy."

This well-educated, intelligent woman was unable, as most collectors and hoarders, to see beyond her illness. As a part of her complete denial she continued to claim that her goat husbandry practices had been "misunderstood." Yet most of her goats had upper respiratory infections as a result of overcrowding and some animals have been mud-caked for so long that they can hardly walk, and when they did, huge hunks of their hair fell off leaving raw flesh in its place. The attorney revealed that her only problem was with the animal cruelty investigation agency, which she wrongly claimed "thinks that no one should breed animals.” She claimed that it is and was their concerted effort to put animal breeders out of business."

Collectors and the Law: Every state has city and county ordinances that dictate how many animals a person may keep on the premises before a special license is required. However, collectors are furtive and tend to keep their animals indoors or out of plain sight, thus making enforcement of such ordinances very difficult. Laws and penal codes in many other states, mandate that any animal which needs immediate (veterinary) attention must be confiscated.

This puts a huge burden on the shelter staff of humane societies and animal control and cruelty agencies investigating collector cases, especially in areas where the feral cat and assorted animal populations have reached epidemic proportions and place an enormous financial obligation on that particular city or county resources to care for the animals being taken into its custody, and those which are not subject to a certain number of days until mandatory Euthanasia.

Although many cases are successfully prosecuted, the punishment is seldom severe – and very few collectors are punished beyond paying a fine. Even collectors whose animals have all been confiscated, and those who have been convicted of animal cruelty as the result of their collecting and neglecting animals, seldom stop this aberrant behavior. Most just move to another city, county or state and start collecting all over again. For example, a Maryland collector had 50 companion animals confiscated from her residence a few years ago. Two days later she had accumulated 20 more animals.

Personality Traits: Collectors fill up their lives and homes with animals so completely that they lose contact with friends and relatives. These people find themselves isolated and mentally dependent on their animals and they refuse to relinquish them regardless of the suffering it may cause the animals. Psychiatrists, psychologists, and other professionals have studied the habits of collectors. In their efforts to classify the collector mentality, a number of labels are used, but no one specific label prevails. Most consider collectors to be animal addicts whose behavior mimics that of a person with a substance abuse problem. Others feel that animal collecting is more symptomatic of an obsessive/compulsive disorder. The one thing that they all agree on is that collectors will continue to collect animals. Collectors have a mental illness and rarely, if ever, recover without intervention and psychological treatment.

A common trait relating to "animal addicts" reveals that their behavior is similar to that of substance abusers. She lists the following collector traits that coincide with traits of substance abusers:

* A preoccupation with the addiction

* repetition of the addictive behavior

* alibis for their behavior

* neglect of personal, physical, and environmental conditions

* claims of persecution

* presence of enablers who assist financially

* denial that the addiction exists

* isolation from the rest of society except for those who also deal in the addiction and

* abuse of animals through neglect

Enabling: When you drop off a stray, give pet food or money or even encouragement to someone who you think may be an animal collector, you are "enabling" that person to continue with his or her addictive, compulsive behavior. Enable means "to make able; provide with means, opportunity, power or authority (to do something)." By enabling them you allow them to continue to neglect and abuse the animals within their care.

Beware of Collectors: They are very skilled at getting the sympathy of true animal lovers. Do not enable someone you suspect of animal collecting by giving them money, food or support of any kind, as this will only encourage them to continue their obsessive behavior.

What to Look for: Collectors are not simply people who have a lot of animals. Collectors are people who have huge numbers of animals that are in poor condition. Very few collectors spay or neuter any of their animals, nor do they provide preventive or other veterinary care.  Collectors tend to stay isolated and are very defensive when questioned about the number of animals that they have or about the care that they provide. They tend to refuse to adopt out or part with any of their animals. Collectors tend to shy away from social interaction; they have dirty, unkempt residences; and they lack good personal hygiene.

What You Can Do:  Animal collectors, psychologically dependent on the animals they hoard, have addictive and/or obsessive compulsive disorders that compel them to collect animals.

Animal collectors truly do not have the best interest of the animals in mind when they "save" them.  All animals deserve adequate food, water, and access to the outdoors, as well as proper grooming and human companionship. If you know or suspect that someone you know may be an animal collector, contact the local authorities, such as the police, animal control agency, or a humane society and report your suspicions. If you see or witness animal cruelty or neglect, you can email your written complaint, including the exact address of the location, and enclose digital photos of the abuse you are reporting to the National Police and Security Officers Association of America’s - Animal Cruelty Referral Division at NPSOAA@aol.com. These reports will be referred to the appropriate state animal cruelty investigation authorities nationwide for action.

Traits of Animal Collectors:  Animal collectors are people who amass more animals than they can properly care for. Such persons generally fail to recognize or refuse to acknowledge that many of the animals in their custody are victims of gross neglect.

Animal Collectors Have: an apparent need to have many animals

* a "love for animals" combined with a failure to care for them responsibly

* a perception that reverence for life is synonymous with preservation of life, regardless of quality

* a hero-martyr complex, often receiving favorable publicity about the personal sacrifices made on behalf of the animals

* a need to control every aspect of the existence of animals in custody, often denying them veterinary care, exercise, and human companionship

* a stubborn refusal to part with any of the animals, be it through adoption of the relatively healthy or euthanasia of the sick

* an apparent inability to see the situation for what it is, often insisting that ill animals are healthy, that animals are perfectly happy in squalid surroundings, etc. * and a high rate of recidivism and a general return to animal collecting even after being convicted of cruelty to animals.

Warning Signs of Animal Collectors: Reasons for complaints about pathological hoarding of animals being brought to the attention of law enforcement and animal cruelty investigative agencies:  

* Unsanitary conditions

* Excessive numbers of animals

* Animals needing medical attention

* Odor

* Malnourished animals

* Accumulation of junk

* Odd human behavior

* Loose animals

* Damage to buildings

* Noise

How Animal Collectors Acquire Their Animals:

* Deliberate breeding

* Unplanned breeding

* Brought by public, unsolicited

* Purchased

* Sought from the public or strays taken in  

Animal Collectors' Living Conditions: Sanitary rating of animal hoarders' residences – Ranging from Minor to Major:  

* Reasonably clean and tidy

* Moderately cluttered and some trash or garbage, but no urine or feces present in living and food preparation area

* Heavily cluttered with trash and garbage, with unsanitary living and food preparation areas

* Noticeable odor with urine or feces confined to animal cages

* Heavily cluttered with trash and garbage, with unsanitary living and food preparation areas

* A strong odor and fresh feces or urine present in human living areas

* Heavily cluttered with trash and garbage

* A filthy environment with profuse urine or feces in living areas.

***This important awareness and training advisory could not have been provided without the assistance and permission of the Animal Protection Institute of which “Your”  NPSOAA serves as both members and supporters.

Thank You, API!  More API intelligence will be featured.***

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 NPSOAA Announcements

of Interest to NPSOAA Members and Prospective Members:

The NPSOAA staff has been involved in the investigative research of a topic area that affects not only families and citizens, but also law enforcement, security, the criminal justice system, and anyone who may at any time, need to place an ailing spouse, sibling, relative, friend or loved one in a nursing home. The topic we are addressing in this issue is Nursing Home Abuse.

On July 30, 2003, a congressional report revealed serious, physical, sexual and verbal abuse were “numerous” among the nation’s nursing homes.  The allied study found that 35% of nursing homes in the United States (or 5,926 facilities) had been cited for more than 10,000 instances of abuse over a two year period, from January 1999 to January 2001.  In more than 1,500 facilities, the abuse violations were serious enough “to cause actual harm to residents” or to place the residents in immediate jeopardy of death or serious injury.

In some cases, a member of the nursing homes’ staff was accused of committing physical or sexual abuse. In others, staff members were cited for failing to protect people from abuse by other residents. Instances of nursing home abuse appear to be on the rise. The percentage of nursing home facilities cited for violations has increased every year since 1996. 

The nursing homes cited by the congressional study for instances of abuse accommodated some 550,000 residents.  Nationwide, some 1.6 million people reside in more than 17,000 nursing homes, of which over 11,000 are for-profit businesses. A higher level of care is reportedly provided at Not-For-Profit facilities.

The NPSOAA, in an awareness effort relating to nursing home abuse, for the benefit of its members, all law enforcement, security, criminal justice and allied professionals, has researched and has fully endorsed a number of outstanding law enforcement and security training programs, including “NURSING HOME ABUSE INVESTIGATIONS” (Book) and its highly-recommended, accompanying 90-minute video seminar format “NURSING HOME INVESTIGATIONS”.

Nursing home personnel are supposed to protect the rights of nursing home residents, not make them abuse victims. Nursing home abuse can take many forms, including physical abuse, sexual abuse, financial abuse, and emotional abuse. When nursing homes are understaffed or caretakers fail to receive proper training and supervision on the job, seniors may not get the level of care that they need and deserve. The effects of nursing home abuse can range in severity from discomfort to serious injury, and even wrongful death. Bed sores, broken bones from falls, dehydration, and malnutrition are just a few of the life threatening conditions that can result from neglect and abuse in nursing homes.

Nursing home abuse can result in serious medical conditions for nursing home residents, including bed sores and broken bones. NURSING HOME INVESTIGATIONS includes detailed content that provides an overview of the types of nursing home abuse, as well as a list of warning signs that may indicate that abuse is taking place. It is important to note that nursing home abuse and neglect can be difficult to detect and may be missed if a concerned family member is not watching out for their elder relative. In some situations, a nursing home resident may be afraid to seek help because of threats made by the abusive staff member. In other cases, the victim may be physically or mentally unable to communicate that he or she is suffering from nursing home abuse.

If you are empowered with the responsibility of caring for an elderly parent or relative or friend, choosing the right nursing home is important. It is important that you ensure that the facility you trust your loved one’s care to is reputable and safe. Email npsoaa@gmail.com for further details.

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Assaults on Law Enforcement and Security Officers on the Rise

Over 65 thousand law enforcement and security officers are assaulted on the job every year. Sadly, not all of those attacks end up with the officer winning or even surviving. Even the most experienced officer may lose and need to regain control of his subject.

A strong offense is a good defense.

But in the real world, an officer may be taken by surprise at any time. He or she may not have the advantage in every situation, and there may be no instant help available from fellow officers. Having the ability to get out of a compromising position is a necessity for survival.

One mistake when confronting a criminal can be deadly. 

The NPSOAA Training Library highly recommends:

ESCAPE COMBATIVES: THE DVD

ESCAPE COMBATIVES: The DVD features DVD quality picture and Dolby stereo sound. Its easy to use menus let you play the film in its entirety or go directly to the lessons you want to review.  This DVD is state-of-the-art and will work with your home DVD player to play on your television, as well as on your computer.

ESCAPE COMBATIVES: The DVD addresses those situations and much more. It is a realistic training program that teaches officers how to respond whenever they're in the position of disadvantage. The defenses, counters, and escape tactics in this video are fast, effective and usable by officers in full uniform. The presentation teaches the defensive skills needed to survive worst-case scenarios, such as:

•           Escape from both frontal and rear choke holds

•           Escape from a side head lock

•           Escape from both frontal bear hug and rear bear hugs

•           Counters to shoulder and lapel grabs

•           Counters to both frontal and rear tackles

•           Counters to kicks, hooks and jabs

•           Counters to attacks with edged weapons

•           Counters to attacks with blunt objects

ESCAPE COMBATIVES: The DVD also includes GUERRILLA DRIVING: Counter Ambush Driving Tactics For Today's Mean Streets

Not long ago, the only people who needed to be concerned with defensive security measures were high ranking VIPs. Realistically speaking, no one is immune from such crimes today. In the real world, there is no difference between a carjacking and a kidnapping; between a smash & grab and an ambush; or between a drive-by shooting and an assassination. Violent crimes against law enforcement and security officers, and civilian motorists are reported daily as America's fastest growing crime wave spreads.

Let’s face it: If street thugs are going to shoot you for your car, you need to know how to stop them!

GUERRILLA DRIVING: The DVD contains the most effective tactical driving methods currently being used by professional drivers, federal agents and bodyguards. The evasive driving skills featured are routinely taught to police and security professionals who must deliver important passengers safely while under constant threat of attack.

•           Witness the secret driving techniques used worldwide to give police, security, military personnel, chauffeurs, and bodyguards the edge in crisis situations.

•           See dramatic footage shot from perspectives outside and within moving vehicles demonstrating how to perform evasive maneuvers.

•           Learn the basics of tactical driving including how to maintain vehicle control while hard braking; plus how to execute the J-turn and the Bootlegger turn.

 •          Discover the principles behind strategic, single, and multiple car ramming.

GUERRILLA DRIVING: The DVD will permanently change your driving habits after just one viewing. Because the urban driver now faces many of the same dangers and problems that high security drivers face. He or she needs access to the same information the professionals use to stop trouble before it starts. That is why this DVD has also been made as a public awareness presentation and available to its police and security members by the NPSOAA.

You may never need to use your car as a defensive weapon to save your life, but it’s nice to know you could!   For additional details, email npsoaa@gmail.com

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HELP WANTED:

SELF-EMPLOYMENT AND SECOND CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

According to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, state insurance fraud bureaus are being challenged to stop crime despite an environment that is stretching many of the state agencies thinner. State budget crises are clamping a vice on the budgets many fraud bureaus need to stay ahead of the scams that, in many cases, are growing in size, complexity, insurance money stolen and local citizens damaged. Yet, despite the odds, fraud bureaus are putting more heat on swindlers than ever, according to a study of 43 fraud bureaus.

This new investigative challenge has paved the way for current and former law enforcement and security officers, seeking a retirement or second career, not as a private investigator, but as an Insurance Investigator.

Within the insurance investigation profession, vast sums of money are dedicated to and spent on insurance claims, doctors, lawyers, trial defenses, research, reconstruction experts, and more.  It is a world sometimes filled with intrigue, sometimes unbelievable, and many times with mysteries that need to be unraveled, using the investigative skills you learned and honed during your law enforcement or security career.  It is also a rewarding field and career choice if you learn and develop the skills necessary to provide the expert services that are required.  It’s possible that you can become an Insurance Investigator.

It is not necessary to be a private investigator first.

Twenty-two years in the making, PRIVATE EYES HANDBOOK OF INSURANCE INVESTIGATIONS is written in a unique style that it will never need to be updated. It covers actual case histories on auto, auto theft, workers’ compensation, homeowner, medical malpractice, product liability and a host of other investigations.  This all-inclusive self-training handbook provides statement guidelines, diagrams, insurance terminology, forms, asset/subrogation research, and a complete list of many insurance markets.

In this 152-page self-training handbook, you will have available to you many of the secrets that would otherwise take countless years to learn. Much of what you will learn from its pages is not taught in any school, college or insurance courses.  The secrets come from extensive first-hand field experience accumulated over many years. 

If you learn the basics from this timeless 8 x 11 handbook and go on to develop your expertise, seeking the market, learn, and provide the best service, it can be a very lucrative and personally rewarding career.  Insurance companies have a lot of money to spend, and they would rather spend it wisely.  As an Insurance Investigator, you can enjoy the monetary benefits, but you must set goals, develop skills, and go after it!

PRIVATE EYES HANDBOOK OF INSURANCE INVESTIGATIONS will provide much of the knowledge you will need to proceed and accomplish this.  The rest is up to you.  For Information, Email npsoaa@gmail.com

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From The New Jersey State Attorney General

INTERNET FRAUD: An Historic Focus

COMMON SCAMS SPREAD FAR AND FAST ONLINE

John Kenneth Galbraith once observed that the man who is admired for the ingenuity of his larceny is almost always rediscovering some earlier form of fraud.

Nearly all of the fraudulent schemes found on World Wide Web sites and in e-mail are simply revised versions of tried and true telemarketing or mail frauds that have been fooling the unwary and the gullible greedy for centuries.

The schemes involve high-pressure sales tactics, refusal to provide written information, and unrealistic claims of potential profits or earnings. Perpetrators take advantage of the culture of benevolence and trust on the Internet, as well as the multitude of opportunities presented by instant access to millions of potential victims. Thus, the need to be vigilant and report wrongdoing is greater than ever.

The National Consumers League (NCL) operates the National Fraud Information Center, which estimates that there are 14,000 illegal telemarketing operations bilking U.S. citizens of at least $40 billion annually. Meanwhile, the proportion of fraudulent activity attributable to online schemes is growing almost exponentially. For example, Internet Fraud Watch (IFW), also operated by the NCL, reported that the number of Internet fraud complaints it received rose recently by 600 percent.

The Internet has created a whole new set of opportunities for defrauders and problems for law enforcement and security professionals. It is a powerful tool helping swindlers overcome their two greatest challenges: identifying victims and contacting victims.

What is striking is the size of the potential market and the relative ease, low cost and speed with which a scam can flourish over the Internet. Victims may never have the opportunity to see or even speak to the defrauder.

The Associate Director for Marketing Practices of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection, testified that online defrauders benefit from the very characteristics that make e-commerce grow: anonymity, the distance between the buyer and the seller, and the instantaneous nature of the transactions. She added, Fraudulent operators on the Internet take advantage of the fact that this marketplace is still a confusing one to consumers. Ms. Harrington emphasized the confounding speed of online scams.

With the Internet as the medium, everything happens more quickly. The business sets up more quickly. They change identities more quickly. I mean, you can throw up a new Web site in an hour. It just has moved things to kind of a warp speed. So you find that the life-span of one of these frauds is much shorter than might have been the case where the frauds turned out to rent office space, get phone lines, [and] do all of those sorts of things. We find more and more that these scams are operating out of homes.

Noting that fraud over the Internet requires access to some form of payment system, just as every other kind of fraud does, the FTC urged consumers to pay for their online purchases by credit card. She explained that consumers have important federal rights that protect them from being held liable for unauthorized and fraudulent transactions if they pay by credit card.

Why consumers must take extra care in cyberspace:

People sometimes get so excited about the novelty of the Internet that they lose sight of the same common sense that they would use if somebody knocked on their door in the middle of the night offering them something, and it was a stranger, or if they got a telephone call out of the blue from somebody that they didn't know.

There's a lot of talk about community on the Internet as though it's one big happy place with everybody dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and sharing information with each other, but in fact, just like any community, there are bad guys lurking in the alleyways. People need to be cautious. Its no reason not to use the Internet.

And actually, I think its ironic that, for instance, we see a decreasing amount of credit card use for payment compared to things like checks and money orders, and yet the credit card is the safest way to pay because of your legal dispute rights.

People may be so worried about giving their credit card information on the Net, even though with the encryption programs that are in place, its really, from what we can see, relatively safe. And they're not sufficiently worried about who it is that they are doing business with at the other end.

Online auctions alone are expanding e-commerce rapidly. Estimates that in 1999 online auctions connected 7.4 million buyers and sellers transferring goods worth $4.5 billion.  2010 is no different.

The independent firm, which rates Web sites for consumers, expected online auction sales volume to exceed $9 billion as far back as 2000. According to IFW, online auction complaints led all others with 68 percent of the Internet-related fraud complaints it received. Auctions also were first with 26 percent.

During the first six months of 1999, IFW received 5,287 auction complaints, surpassing the 5,236 it received in all of 1998.  IFW reported that 93 percent of payments in response to fraudulent Internet schemes were made offline by check or money order sent to the defrauding company. By and large, consumers failed to follow the safest course, which is to pay by credit card so that the charges can be disputed if there is a problem. Giving cash, a check or, worse, a bank-account number can make it impossible to get a refund from online vendors.

Once online, consumers are bombarded with unsolicited commercial e-mail (known as "spam") advertising everything from legitimate services to fraudulent investment schemes. Millions of messages can be sent out in a very short period.

Although schemers can easily purchase e-mail address lists from companies that do business online, they also can use harvester software to conduct worldwide searches of Usenet newsgroups, Internet directories and chat rooms in a very short amount of time.

In this way, they can collect thousands of e-mail addresses for individuals likely to be vulnerable to certain types of schemes.

Others pirate names and e-mail addresses from membership directories of Internet service providers. Spammers also use software that generates e-mail addresses at random. Thus, people can get spam even if they have never made online purchases or entered chat rooms.

Web sites abound offering both legitimate and fraudulent products and services. Since buying online essentially is buying sight unseen, the honesty of the seller is paramount. This is particularly important in the booming online auction business.

The rapid growth of e-commerce has significantly transformed the U.S. securities industry. In 1998, about 14 percent of all securities trades were conducted online compared with virtually no such transactions in 1995.

However, this understates the impact on the small investor because approximately 37 percent of all individual trades are now online, up from 17 percent in 1997. Three million people had online trading accounts in March 1999, a number expected to reach 14 million by 2001.

Online investing is generally a positive development, giving

investors unprecedented access to company and investment information and individual trading services.

As in other areas, however, the Internet has provided dishonest operators with an efficient medium to defraud investors. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reported a 330 percent increase in complaints regarding online investments in 1998.

Its Office of Internet Enforcement receives between 200 and 300 complaints every day, of which 70 percent allege Internet securities fraud. Many investors have not developed proper skepticism about the quality some of the information they encounter online.

Robust education is even more important for cyberspace consumers than it is for those buying in other marketplaces. The average consumer has difficulty distinguishing between legitimate Web sites and those that are scams. Anyone can put up on the Web a reputable looking site.

Criminals forge header information to mask their identities and locations. Some cyber-crooks use "throw away" accounts (easily created and discarded free accounts) and forged headers to make it appear that testimonial e-mail and postings come from many different people rather than from the crook himself.

COMMON FRAUDULENT SCHEMES

Common fraudulent schemes found on the Internet and elsewhere

include:

_ Online Auction Frauds. Sellers may not deliver items, or their value may be inflated. Sometimes shills drive up the bids. In early 1998, the National Consumers League placed auction frauds at the top of its list of Internet scams and cautioned consumers to investigate any auction site before placing a bid. The FTC, which received approximately 10,000 complaints about Internet auction fraud in 1999, has issued similar warnings.

Online auction buyers can guard against fraud by placing payments in escrow accounts rather than sending them immediately to the sellers.

Alternatively, using a charge card makes it easier to obtain a refund. Also, some auction sites, such as the popular eBay, sell fraud insurance. Ebay's Fraud Prevention Department takes complaints from its Community Watch program and proactively monitors and suspends accounts. Transgressors are referred to government authorities.

_ General Merchandise Rip-offs. These involve sales of everything from T-shirts to toys, calendars to collectibles. The goods are never delivered, or they are not as advertised.

_ Bogus Sales of Hardware or Software. Purchased computer

products may never be delivered, or they may not be as represented.

_ Shady Sales of Internet Services. There may be charges for

services that were touted as free, failure to deliver on promised services and false representations of services.

_ Work-at-Home Schemes. Two popular versions offer the chance

to earn money by stuffing envelopes or assembling crafts at home. However, nobody is paid for stuffing envelopes or craft assembly since promoters, claiming the work does not meet their "quality standards," usually refuse to buy the finished product.

_ Business Opportunity Scams. These promise significant income for a small investment of time and money in a business often a franchise. Some are actually old-fashioned pyramid schemes camouflaged to look like something else.

_ Chain Letters, Pyramid Schemes and Ponzi Schemes. Any profits are made from recruiting others, not from sales of goods or services to end-users.

_ Guaranteed Loans or Credit on Easy Terms. Some schemes offer home equity loans, even for those who lack equity in their homes. Others offer guaranteed, unsecured credit cards, regardless of the applicants credit history. The "loans" turn out to be lists of lending institutions, and the credit cards never arrive.

_ Credit Repair Frauds. Sometimes called file segregation, these schemes are pitched over the Internet and e-mail to consumers with poor credit histories. They lure consumers into breaking the law by creating fake credit histories with substitutes for their genuine social security numbers. Consumers pay fees as high as hundreds of dollars to the so-called credit repair companies. They are then instructed to apply to the IRS for a taxpayer or employee identification number, which is then substituted for their nine-digit social security number. Thus, the credit repair scams actually turn gullible consumers into criminals by advising them to use false identification numbers to apply for credit.

Scam operators also offer to clean up credit histories for exorbitant prices. The reality is that consumers can obtain information about their credit history and correct inaccuracies for free. If a credit report is accurate, it cannot be fixed. By federal law, credit repair organizations must give customers a copy of the pamphlet "Consumer Credit.74 File Rights Under State and Federal Law" before a contract is signed.

_ Advanced Fee Loans. These scams prey upon peoples desperation to obtain loans. Operators claim that for a fee they can find loans despite the victims poor credit history. They also claim to be able to provide favorable interest rates or other advantageous terms. Upon paying the advance fee, however, the victim never hears from the scammer again.

_ Employment Offers and Easy Money Schemes. Phony offers such as "Learn How to Make $4,000 in one day," or "Make unlimited profits exchanging money on world currency markets," appeal to the desire to get rich quickly.

_ Bulk E-Mail Scams. Victims are sold lists of e-mail addresses and software with the claim that this will enable them to make money by sending their own solicitations via bulk e-mail. However, the lists are of poor quality; sending bulk e-mail violates the terms of service of most Internet service providers (ISPs); virtually no legitimate businesses engage in bulk e-mailings; and several states have laws regulating the sending of bulk e-mail.

_ Health and Diet Scams. These bogus cure-alls are just electronic snake oil.

_ Get Something Free Scams. Consumers pay membership fees to "qualify" to obtain free items, such as computers or long-distance phone cards. After paying the fees, they learn that they do not qualify until they recruit other "members."

_ Fraudulent Stock Offerings and Market Manipulation. In investment fraud, perpetrators...

(1) create a classy-looking but phony Web page, complete with official-looking emblems, to lure investors;

(2) create enthusiastic endorsements from non-existent customers; (3) send spam to potential investors with a hyperlink to the phony Web site; and

(4) create phony online buzz about the investment in bulletin boards linked to the Web page, discussion forums, chat rooms, and sham or bribed newsletters. In market manipulation pump and dump schemes, individuals who own a company's securities spread positive but false information about the company to increase investor interest and drive up the price of the securities.

The individuals then sell their securities at a quick profit, while later investors face large losses when the price of the inflated securities declines.

One new fraud involves impersonating legitimate brokerage-firm Web sites. Investors believe they are sending money to the broker when, in fact, the address is a post-office box. When authorities detect them, the perpetrators merely shut down the Web site and impersonate the same or another brokerage firm using a different Web address and another post office box.

_ Stock Day-Trading Abuses. Stock day trading sometimes involves false advertising or failure to ensure that people have enough money to trade. Ordinary people can gamble on short-term changes in stock prices from firms trading floors or from home computers equipped with special software. It is very easy for day traders to make mistakes and lose a lot of money, even though they are not defrauded. With huge returns commonplace in the stock market, many people are no longer investing. They are gambling, which makes them more vulnerable to a con game.

_ Cable Descrambler Kits. For a small initial investment one can buy a kit enabling the receipt of cable television without paying the subscription fees. However, the kits usually do not work, and stealing cable service is illegal.

_ Vacation Promotions (Prizes, Certificates, Clubs, Etc.).

E-mail informs consumers that they have been selected to receive "luxury" vacations at bargain-basement prices. However,  accommodations are not deluxe and upgrades are expensive. If the seller can delay the travel for 30 to 60 days, it is harder for a buyer to get a credit-card refund. Consumers need to find out if the seller is a travel agent belonging to the American Society of Travel Agents, whose members subscribe to an ethics code and pledge to help resolve complaints. Also, the U.S. Tour Operators Association and the National Tour Association have a restitution fund to protect travelers against company bankruptcies.

_ Fake Scholarship Search Services. Consumers pay a fee for guaranteed assistance and merely receive a list of financial aid offices or nothing at all.

_ Page-Jacking. As many as 25 million of the roughly one billion pages on the World Wide Web have been page-jacked.

Perpetrators prepare a page that impersonates an innocent commercial or informational Web site and resubmit it to search engines with a false address. When Web users search for the original site, the sham site opens, often with pornographic material.

The page-jackers make money by selling ads, showing clients that they receive a large number of page hits. Of course, the hits come from unwilling users. Users attempting to back up the Web browser or shut it down are merely connected to more pornographic sites. Legitimate site owners have to ask search engines to remove access to the phony sites, a process that may not occur expeditiously enough to forestall significant losses of profit and reputation.

_ Sham Sweepstakes Prizes. The perpetrators demand payments before authorizing the release of prizes. Of course, the prizes never arrive.

_ Sound-Alike Charities. Schemers masquerade as legitimate charities to lure contributions from unsuspecting donors.

_ 419 -West African (Nigerian) Oil Profits Deposit Swindles.   Phony civil servants ask U.S. citizens for their bank account numbers so that they can assist in investing millions in oil revenues in return for a percentage of the profits.

The scheme dupes American investors out of $500 million a year, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The Service received 108,000 complaints nationally between 1997 and 1998.

_ Bogus Banks and Bank Instruments. Sham offshore banks, operating online, solicit deposits with offers of huge interest. They claim they can offer such interest because of low overhead. They also claim they can protect customers from government prying.

_ Fraudulent Offshore Trusts. These are marketed over the Internet as a means to evade taxation.

_ Affinity Frauds. They target certain religious or ethnic groups.

_ Cyber-Smears. Perpetrators post false information or fake press releases about companies on the Internet.

MAIL ABUSE PREVENTION SYSTEM

A voluntary group of systems administrators from around the

world, calling itself the Mail Abuse Prevention System, maintains a

Realtime Blackhole List of notorious spammers senders of unsolicited e-mail.

Appearing on the list, which started in 1997 and contains about 1,400 entries, marks generators of obvious junk e-mail as spammers. Enough Internet service providers refuse to deliver e-mail produced by those on the list to separate them from about 40 percent of the online world. By-and-large, this pleases the vast majority of Internet users since the overwhelming majority of spam comes from pornography sites or individuals pitching get-rich-without-working schemes.

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Police Responses to Officer Involved Shootings

This literature addresses two distinct issues related to the effects of shootings:

1) what officers experience during shootings and

2) what they experiences after shooting incidents. Where the first issue is concerned, the research indicates that officers sometimes experience sensory distortions such as tunnel vision, auditory blunting, and altered perceptions of time.

Where post-shooting responses are concerned, the literature reports that officers may experience a variety of short and long-term reactions that can include recurrent thoughts about the incident a sense of numbness, trouble sleeping, sadness, crying and nausea. Indeed, the existence of such responses has led mental health professionals who work with officers involved in shootings to identify them as a type of post-traumatic stress response, commonly referred to as "post-shooting trauma."

The research described in this report was undertaken to enhance understanding of both aspects of officers' reactions to involvement in shootings. It consisted of interviews with 80 municipal and county police officers who reported on 113 separate cases in which they shot citizens during their careers in law enforcement. The report offers a review of what previous research has reported about officers' responses, describes the research procedures utilized in the current work, provides sketches of the officers who participated in the current study and of the incidents in which they shot other human beings, details what the research disclosed about officers' experiences during and after their shootings, and concludes with a discussion of the academic and policy ramifications of these findings.

Research on the use of deadly force by police officers includes a limited body of literature that examines the consequences of involvement in shootings for officers who pull the trigger. This literature typically conjoins what are actually two distinct issues related to the effects of shootings:

1) what officers experience during shootings and

2) what they experiences after incidents in which they shoot. Where the first issue is concerned, the limited research indicates that many officers experience sensory distortions such as tunnel vision (perceiving but a small portion of what is present in the visual field), auditory blunting (the attenuation or exclusion of audible sounds), and altered perceptions of time wherein some segment(s) of the shooting are experienced in either slow or fast motion (see, e.g., Nielsen, 1981; Solomon and Horn, 1986; Campbell, 1992). Where post-shooting responses are concerned, the literature reports that officers may experience a variety of short and long-term reactions. In the immediate aftermath of shootings, officers may experience a variety of mental and/or emotional symptoms such as a sense of numbness, anxiety, and anger, as well as physical symptoms such as crying and nausea. As time passes, officers may lose their appetite, have trouble sleeping, experience recurrent thoughts or "flashbacks" of the shooting incident, feel guilty about injuring or killing another human, and/or experience a host of other longer-term responses to the shooting event (see, e.g., Nielsen, 1981; Solomon and Horn, 1986; Campbell, 1992). Indeed, the existence of such responses has led mental health professionals who work with officers involved in shootings to identify them as a type of post-traumatic stress response, commonly referred to as "postshooting trauma" (e.g., Hill, 1984; Nielsen, 1981; Stratton et al., 1984).

The research described in this report was undertaken to enhance understanding of both aspects of officers' reactions to involvement in shootings. It consisted of interviews with 80 municipal and county police officers who reported on 113 separate incidents in which they shot citizens dur ing their careers in law enforcement. The balance of this report is devoted to delineating what the data collected during these interviews tell us about how shootings affect police officers. It starts with a detailed review of what previous research has reported about officers' responses, describes the research procedures utilized in the current work, provides sketches of the officers who participated in the current study and of the incidents in which they shot other human beings, details what the research disclosed about officers' experiences during and after their shootings, and concludes with a discussion of the research and policy ramifications of these findings.

THE LITERATURE ON RESPONSES TO SHOOTINGS

Much of the literature on what officers experience during and after shootings consists of expository essays based on non-systematic research (e.g., Bettinger, 1983; Burris, 1985; Shaw, 1981). The few systematic studies that have been published provide a more detailed picture of how police shootings affect involved officers. Nielsen's (1981) study of 63 municipal, county, and state law enforcement officers who had shot suspects, for example, found that more than three-fourths of them experienced some notable perceptual distortion during the event (e.g., tunnel vision, auditory blunting). Nielsen further reported that during the first week following the shooting more than 90% of the study officers experienced at least one physical symptom, such as nausea, headaches, and general fatigue, and that nearly 90% of the shooters experienced at least one emotional or psychological symptom, such as depression, anxiety, or intrusive thoughts about the incident. Finally, while Nielsen did not quiz officers about physical, emotional, and psychological responses during any time frame but the first week post-shooting, he did ask them whether they experienced any attitude changes during the first three months following their shootings. Nearly 80% of the officers Nielsen studied reported that they had; increased apathy and cautiousness were the most frequently reported changes.

Stratton et al.'s (1984) examination of how involvement in shootings affected 60 Los Angeles deputy sheriffs offered far less information than did Nielsen's earlier work. Theyreported no data on reactions during shootings and provided only limited information on postshooting responses. Among the highlights of their findings is that the average deputy "occasionally" experienced recurring thoughts (flashbacks) about the shooting and had "some" problems sleeping during the week immediately after the incident. They further reported a modest decrease in the frequency of flashbacks and sleep disturbances that deputies experienced as time passed during the first three months after their shootings (Stratton et al. did not mention whether they measured deputies' reactions after three months). They also reported that 63% of the deputies surveyed either cried or experienced feelings of depression, anger, and/or elation1 at some (unspecified) point following the shooting.

Finally, they reported that 30% of the deputies indicated that the shooting affected them either "greatly" or "a lot," that 34% of them reported a "moderate" effect, and the remaining 36% reported that the shooting affected them either "a little" or "not at all."

A more detailed picture of how shootings can affect involved officers comes from Solomon and Horn's (1986) questionnaire study of 86 Rocky Mountain-area officers who had shot suspects in the course of their duties. They reported, for example, that during the events in which they fired their weapons, 83% of the officers experienced some sort of time distortion, 67% experienced some sort of auditory distortion, and 56% experienced some sort of visual distortion. Where post-shooting experiences are concerned, Solomon and Horn offered information about 18 specific emotional, psychological, and physical reactions that officers may have experienced. They reported, for example, that 58% of the officers felt a notable degree of anger in the wake of the shooting, 46% experienced substantial sleep difficulties, and 44% had bothersome intrusive thoughts. They used information about the 18 symptoms to create a "trauma rating" score for each study officer and asked officers to rate how well they had integrated the shooting into their life at the time the questionnaire was administered. Solomon and Horn then examined the relationships between these two measures of how the shootings affected the officers and the degree of support the officers felt from various quarters (e.g., fellow officers) following the shooting. They reported that the more support officers felt, the less severe their response. Finally, Solomon and Horn reported that the information they used to develop the trauma rating scores indicated that 37% of the officers surveyed experienced "mild"

1 They used a single indicator that asked the officers' whether they experienced any of these four things to develop this information.

post-shooting reactions, 35% experienced "moderate" reactions, and the remaining 28% had "severe" reactions. Unfortunately, the data they collected did not clearly delineate the time frame(s) during which officers experienced the various reactions they reported, so it is not possible from Solomon and Horn's study to determine how officers' reactions may have varied over time.

Two other studies that were published after Solomon and Horn examined officers' responses to shootings offered data on just one of the two major temporal components involved (i.e., reactions during shootings and post-shooting responses). The first, Gersons's (1989) brief study of 37 Dutch officers who had been involved in shootings, reported only on post-shooting experiences. Among the more salient findings reported were that 76% of the officers experienced recurrent thoughts about the event, 68% reported a sense of "hyper-alertness," and 43% of them had sleep disturbances. Gersons did not offer data on the timing of officers' postshooting reactions, so it is not possible to derive information on how they might have changed over time.

While Gersons's study was limited to officers' post-shooting reactions, Artwohl and Christensen (1997) limited their work to data on responses during shootings, with a focus on perceptual distortions. The most notable thing about Artwohl and Christensen's work is that the rates they report for many specific distortions are substantially higher than those reported in other research. While they report, for example, that 82% of the 72 U.S. officers they studied experienced tunnel vision, the highest rate previously reported is 44% (see Campbell, 1992, below). Similarly, where the y report a heightened visual detail rate of 65%, the only other study to report on this distortion (Solomon and Horn, 1986) reported a rate of 18%, and while the previous high for rate of auditory blunting was 51% (Solomon and Horn), Artwohl and Christensen report that 88% of the officers in their research experienced a diminution of sound.

The most comprehensive systematic research to date on how involvement in shootings affects law enforcement officers is Campbell's (1992) study of special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which indicted that FBI agents who are involved in shootings tend to have less severe reactions compared with their peers in state and local law enforcement.

Campbell administered a 16-page questionnaire, which he augmented with structured face-toface interviews, to 167 agents who had been involved in shootings in the years 1973-1989. He presented his findings in three main categories:

1) physical and emotional responses at the time of the shooting,

2) psychological responses following the shooting, and

3) physical and emotional responses after the shooting. Among the most frequent emotional and physical experiences reported during shooting events were a sense of disbelief that the event was occurring (37%), a sense of increased physical strength (46%), tunnel vision (44%), and auditory blunting (42%).

The instrument that Campbell used included items for agents to report on the emotional, psychological, and physical after effects they experienced during the first 24 hours, and then during the rest of the first week following their shootings. The instrument also asked agents to report any changes that they may have experienced in their attitudes or emotional states during the first six months after the shootings. For whatever reason, Campbell limited his presentation of the data on agents' post-shooting reactions to what they reported experiencing during the first week following the events. Highlights from this data include the information that at some point(s) during the first week:

62% of the agents experienced recurrent thoughts about the shooting,

29% had dreams about the shooting,

32% had problems sleeping,

24% were fatigued, and

25% had some sense of anxiety and/or tension.

Although Campbell presented no data on temporal variability in agents' responses, he did devote considerable attention to the role that post-shooting events played in agents' adjustment.

He wrote, for example, that many agents felt that certain post-shooting events had a negative impact on them: 27% stated that they worried a great deal about the Bureau's investigation of their shooting, and 20% identified the news media as a major source of aggravation. On the flip side of the coin, 60% of the agents believed that discussing their experiences with other agents who had been involved in shootings helped them to cope with their own shooting. Moreover, Campbell reported that agents who went through a systematic post-shooting mental health debriefing (the Bureau's "Post-Critical Incident Program") typically experienced fewer negative consequences in the wake of their shootings than their peers who did not.

While the extant literature offers a substantial amount of information about what officers experience during and after shootings, we still have a very limited picture of how shootings affect police officers. We know, for example, that perceptual distortions are a common occurrence during shootings, but we have virtually no information on the inter relationships between different types of distortions, how perceptions might change during shooting events, or how distortions might be associated with other phenomena. Similarly, while we know that some officers experience specific physical, emotional, and psychological reactions to involvement in a shooting, previous research has not clearly specified how officers' responses vary over time and we have little understanding of how post-shooting reactions might be associated with other factors. The research described below was undertaken to provide more information about issues such as these.

More Follows!

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The Role of a Security Officer on the School Campus or in the Private or Corporate Workplace is indeed a Challenging Profession for Anyone Seeking this type of Occupational Specialty.

Can You Be an Effective and Professional Security Officer?

Their job and primary responsibility is to serve their employer, to protect assets and company services as well as personnel, and enforce company rules with judicious discretion.

To accomplish these purposes, the Security Officer may be required to detain an offender for the police, to prevent bodily harm by controlling an aggressor, to safely orchestrate and oversee the evacuation of a school building or workplace in the event of a fire, bomb incident, a terrorist attack and even defend him/herself against an direct armed attack of deadly force.

He/She may be required to manage aggressive behavior, quell a violent domestic or employee confrontation, check the property and vehicles for threats, conduct threat assessments, or any number of security-related functions.

As A Security Officer or School Resource Officer:

1. Are You Mentally and Physically Equipped to Protect Life and Property?

2. Do you have the skills to Manage Aggressive Behavior or to quell a violent confrontation at your workplace?

3. Can you deal with members of the upset public in a non-lethal, non-violent manner unless reasonable force is required?

4. Do You Know the Difference Between Reasonable Force and Deadly Force?

5. Do You Know The Difference Between RESPOND and REACT?

6. Can You Conduct a Site Security Survey?

7. Can You Conduct a Workplace Threat Assessment?

8. Would You Know How to Handle a Cult on Campus?

9. Could You Effectively Manage a Critical Incident?

10. Can You Read and Understand the "Newspaper of the Street?"

11. Do You Know The SIX Elements of a Great Report?

12. Can You Help To Turn Your Area of Security Responsibility into a World Class Operation?

13. Can You Project a Professional Image?

14. Can You Help Fellow Officers in Time of Crisis?

15. Are you Properly Trained to Accomplish Security-Related Tasks Successfully and Effectively?

If You Are Currently Working in a School or Private Security Capacity and Cannot Answer All or Any of the Above Questions Successfully, CLICK HERE to E-mail the NPSOAA and Place the Words: "I Need To Be Properly Trained in Security" in Either the Subject or Body of Your E-mail Message.

The School Security Officer Must Help to Maintain the School Campus as A Safe Haven; Enforce Zero Tolerance to Drugs and Gangs, Sexual Harrassment, and Ensure that his/her Campus is Impervious to Crime.

The Professional School, Campus and Private Security Officer's Key and Foremost Responsibilities Include:

The Educational Community and the School Campus, including:

--Students

--Faculty

--Educators

--Administrators

--Support Staff

--Janitors

--Transportation Personnel

--Bullying and Intimidation

--Visitors and Visiting Guests

--Unwanted Visitors and Unwanted Guests

--Intruders and Perpetrators

--Designated School Property

--Threats to the Campus Community

--Fire Response

--Fire Intervention

--Fire Prevention

--Fellow School Security Officers

--Internal Buildings

--External Grounds

--Rooftops and Basements

--Grass and Foliage

--Hallways and Stairways

--Locks and Keys

--Windows and Doors

--Parking Lots and Vehicle

--Lockers and Closets

--Gymnasiums and Classrooms

--Computers and Audio-Visual Equipment

--Contiguous Streets on Campus

--Sidewalks on Campus

--Bomb Threats

--Hazards of All Types

And Much More!

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HIDDEN TRAPS

& SECRET COMPARTMENTS VHS 

Finally, here is a timely video training program that provides the highest degree of much-needed Personal, Vehicle, Residental and Building Search training tactics for the "Street Cop," Detectives and Investigators!

It's a fact of life!

Every day, law enforcement officers in villages, municipalities, cities, counties and state and campus law enforcement agencies, throughout the nation, are MISSING the Guns, the Drugs, and other Contraband they are looking for during their searches of Suspects, Vehicles, Homes, Apartments, Offices and Buildings! 

Any Police Officer, Detective or Investigator, when called upon to initiate, conduct or assist in a Personal, Vehicle, Home or Apartment, or other Building Search may be missing the most important contraband, including Drugs, Guns, Stolen Property, Edged Weapons and More.

While they may find SOME of the hidden crime evidence, they may be NOT find Much, Much More of what may actually be present on the scene!

The newly-released HIDDEN TRAPS AND SECRET COMPARTMENTS training video will give officers the much-needed training needed to  enhance their individual and collective search skills, which are required to find even the most well-hidden items in compartments, traps and other unique hiding places used by suspects, gang members, criminals, smugglers and drug traffickers.

The hidden compartments, some being electric or hydraulic switches in vehicles, the secret hiding places, and a host of seemingy obvious traps and accessories have always been there to help consumers to hide and protect their valuables from burglars, but now the criminals are using these traps to thwart the efforts of law enforcement officers to find and confiscate their caches of drugs, guns, edged weapons and other illegal items that would result in arrest and possible incarceration.

This high-quality video training tool, created by a veteran police officer for all law enforcement, is perfect for roll call, academy and in-service and personal training use, and is guaranteed to increase the effectiveness of any and all law enforcement officers when they need to conduct important searches.

It is vital that all law enforcement officers, detectives and investigators, especially those who serve Search Warrants and initiate high-risk drug, weapon and contraband searches in homes, apartments and vehicles be updated to the tricks, ploys and newest methods in active use by law breakers. 

HIDDEN TRAPS AND SECRET COMPARTMENTS is Not based on Theory, but on What Works in the field, on the street and during high-risk searches.  It includes an interview of an incarcerated inmate who vividly details how he thwarted the efforts of a law enforcement search team who awakened him a 2:00am with a search warrant, conducted their 3-hour search and left without the drugs and a large cache of weapons he had hidden in the most obvious of places, but were grossly overlooked by police, many of which could have seriously breached their personal safety.

The HIDDEN TRAPS AND SECRET COMPARTMENTS VHS video will ONLY be sold to:

--Law Enforcement Agencies and Academies,

--Individual Officers, Detectives and Investigators submitting a copy of their Agency ID card,

--Private Investigators submitting proper identification, 

--Security Personnel providing proper identification, and

--Corporate and Executive Security Professionals providing proper identification (Etc.)

Other individuals seeking to order  The HIDDEN TRAPS AND SECRET COMPARTMENTS VHS should first send a detailed e-mail uscccnii@aol.com  for instructions.

Why the Restrictions?

Because the content of this extremely vital training video is THAT Important!

In the wrong hands, this lessons learned, which are highlighted in this video ... could be used AGAINST law enforcement officers and result in lives lost!  

--When you view the contents of The HIDDEN TRAPS AND SECRET COMPARTMENTS video, You will fully understand the reasons for its restrictive accessibility!! 

--And, You will learn the more-than-obvious reason why this life-saving and thought-provoking video was created!!

--The HIDDEN TRAPS AND SECRET COMPARTMENTS video Can Save Your Life ... and Help You To Detect, Find and Confiscate the Drugs, Guns and other Contraband Hidden in both the Obvious and Not-So-Obvious Places of your object of search location.

--It will make the difference between whether you DO find what you are looking for ... or ... Whether You DO NOT find what you are looking for during a search of Suspects, Vehicles, Homes, Apartments, Buildings and More!

For more details, email npsoaa@gmail.com

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GANGSTA IN THE HOUSE

The audiobook, Gangsta in the House, is a collection of observations and conclusions made by a fifteen-year veteran police officer from Houston, Texas. The 4:43 Hour series begins with the prologue which is a graphic fictional account of a drive-by shooting and is based on a compilation of real life incidents.

This audiobook has two themes: One; gang members are seeking firm, fair, and consistent external discipline to help them decide where social boundaries are located, and Two; promises kept breed respect for the system while promises broken breed contempt.

Gangsta in the House features a conversational style, but does include a touch of humor. The subject is, however, very serious and relevant to today's social environment. The audiobook should take the mystery out of the gang experience and open doors to understanding why these young people do the things they do. An explanation about how gang members perceive the world differently than "normal" people and how that different perception occurs is offered.

The listener learns about the three big lies told by all street gangs to their members and how those lies help in recruiting new members and bolstering the image of the gang. Listeners also discover that most criminal street gangs fall into one of the five "families" of gangs and how to recognize these broad families. Girl Gangs, and the nature of the gang uniform and the purpose of graffiti are discussed in great detail.

The last three chapters of the series: Empowerment, Denial and the Cure formulate conclusions and detail specific suggestions for change in the way we deal with crime and punishment issues. The listener may be surprised by the nature and scope of these changes--particularly coming from a person of the Author's background. Gangsta in the House offers practical, common sense solutions for parents, communities, and governments that could effect gangs and crime in America and make our neighborhoods safer for us and our children.

Why are youth attracted to gangs?

Why is graffiti so important to gangs?

Why is denial such a big hurdle in dealing with gang issues?

Once in a gang, is it possible to get out?

Can gang violence be explained or understood?

What are the 3 big promises gangs make and how can parents prove them to be lies?

What can parents do if the suspect their child might be involved with a gang?

SIGNS OF OUR EVER-CHANGING TIMES...

TOP PROBLEMS WITH YOUTH: Then and Now

In 1940                                                         

Talking                                                          

Chewing Gum                                           

Making Noise                                            

Running in Halls                                            

Getting Out of Turn in Line                             

Wearing Improper Clothing                      

Not Putting Paper in Wastebasket              

Today in 2003

Drug Abuse 

Gangs 

Alcohol Abuse

Weapons in School 

Absenteeism

Crime

Vandalism

Theft

Violence

Disrespect

Harassment

Assault 

Teen Pregnancy 

And Much, Much More ... And Much Worse!

GANGSTA IN THE HOUSE - The 4:43 Hour Audio Series

is Accompanied by

GANGSTA IN THE HOUSE - The Book

and

DEMYSTIFY GANGS in a 93-Minute VHS Video Format

For More Information - Email npsoaasresearch@gmail.com