Showing posts with label Journalists Kelly-Jamie Kelly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Journalists Kelly-Jamie Kelly. Show all posts

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Carroll Co. Md. Times: “Training Day Citizens Police Academy,” By Jamie Kelly, Nov. 17, 2002




Residents get hands-on experience at Westminster Citizen Police Academy

Lori Graham didn't go to jail after she beat a police officer with a baton.
Instead, she graduated with flying colors. Graham was part of the first class to go through the Westminster City Police Department's Citizen Police Academy. She and five others spent nine weeks learning what police officers do. From the first class on Oct. 1, she learned things she never knew about the police department.

But there's no contest for her favorite part of the class. She liked the trip to the shooting range the best, she said. The class had a chance to visit the police training facility in Sykesville and fired a police service pistol.

For many in the class, it was the first chance to fire a pistol. Graham had shot a pistol before, but that was a revolver, not a semi-automatic pistol like police carry. The firing range also had a computer training program called Range 2000. Class members carried a pistol that fired a laser beam. A computer projected different training scenarios on a large screen, similar to a video game, and an officer in the back of the room controlled how those scenarios turned out.

[…]

Update – editor’s note: February 7, 2016 - Someone asked me about the Westminster Citizen Police Academy that we had in Westminster when I was in the mayor’s office. It was a great program. I guess ran it course. I do not know why it was discontinued and I am not aware of when it discontinued. If I recall, we started it shortly after I got into office in May 2001 and if I remember correctly, it stopped shortly after I lost my election in May 2005.

There were some great folks involved. Folks like Randy Barnes, Lori Graham, Tony Ott, Pat Bassler, Jim Pullen, Tom Kowalczyk, Wayne Mann, Mike Bible, and the like. Jamie Kelly wrote one of several great articles and Ken Koons took one of my favorite pictures taken when I was in office.

As for the cops, courts, and crime beat, the Carroll County Times continues its great coverage. Today’s stories are written, in part by Heather Mongilio

I always said that if you can avoid getting totally creeped-out, cops, courts, and crime was a great beat for writing stories. I loved it years ago when it was my assignment. Go here for more stores: http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/news/crime/

Cops, courts, and crime was especially a good beat for those of us who grew-up reading detective stories or “In Cold Blood,” by Truman Capote, or “To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee… and southern gothic literature.

Other examples of authors of the southern gothic genre of writing include William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty, Truman Capote, and Harper Lee. Tennessee Williams is said to have described the genre as stories that reflect “an intuition of an underlying dreadfulness in modern experience.”

I found this article on my website, but sadly, the link to continue reading the rest of the article by Jamie Kelly no longer works. So I restored the rest of the article here. If I have erred, and someone knows of a link for the rest of the story, simply be in touch and I will take care of it.

[…]

Students had to make spilt-second decisions about whether to shoot. Usually, they were right, but some decisions were tougher than others.

One scenario involved a domestic dispute where the husband refused to put his baby down.

He pulled out a gun, and the students had to decide whether to shoot him.

Graham called the scenarios a revelation. She didn't realize how quickly an officer's job could go from routine to dangerous. Nor did she realize how adrenaline would affect reaction times or shot accuracy.

It also made her senses feel sharper, but she thinks she was quicker to make a decision than she normally would be. When she felt like her life was in danger, even in a simulation, she wanted to protect herself. And, she said, she may have overreacted sometimes, especially by shooting too much.

During the simulations all of the students shot what seemed like a lot of rounds, but Capt. Randy Barnes said they weren't that much higher than average.

He said the average shoot-out involving police only lasts a few seconds, but five to seven rounds are fired.

Most of the shots fired - a lot in some cases - happened within hundredths of a second of each other. But, she said, she could hear each and every one distinctly.

Graham was invited to apply to the Citizen Police Academy, partially because she was active with the Lower Pennsylvania Avenue Committee. The committee was formed to help stop crime and drug traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue.

As executive secretary of Dutterer's Flower Shop and the daughter of the owner - the shop has been in her family since 1919 - she grew up on the avenue, and now she lives there.

She got to see that up close when, as a part of the program, she spent a Saturday evening riding and walking with a Westminster police officer.

The night she spent with the officer was McDaniel College's Homecoming. She had a chance to see officers break up a few scuffles and look for public drunkenness and underage drinking while riding with Cpl. Thomas Kowalczyk.

"He would explain the 10-codes to me - the codes officers use to convey information, 10-4 for example - so I knew what was happening," she said.

On the way back to the station, he spotted a car that looked suspicious. The car was alone in a parking lot at nearly 2 a.m.

He found two juveniles who had snuck out of their houses.

Graham said she was fascinated by the differences between real-life policing and television cop shows, where every case takes exactly one hour. Really, she said, officers jump from call to call and each call can be different.

"One second, you have to be the nice, kind police officer talking to people on the street, and the next you have to be the tough law enforcement guy dealing with people who shouldn't be on the street," she said.

That's where training comes in. Officers are taught the ladder of force. It starts with verbal commands - officers call it verbal judo - and progresses to physical force, pepper spray, use of the baton and finally deadly force.

Students in the Citizen Police Academy had the chance to experience several different rungs on the ladder of force.

In one class, Barnes dressed in a red, padded suit and mimicked attacking the cadets. They used a padded baton to fend him off.

His head, neck, spine, and chest were off-limits for the baton because hitting those areas could cause lethal damage.

But students did hit those areas, usually accidentally.

Barnes said that was an example of how skilled police have to be with the baton. He also said police have to know when the fight is over.

"It's like going from 10 mph to 100 mph in a second," Barnes said, "but then having to slow down from 100 mph to 10 mph just as quickly."

Graham said that during the entire fight with Barnes, which lasted a little longer than a minute, she had no idea what was happening, other than that he was attacking her and she was defending herself.

"If that had been a real attack, I don't think I could have described him to police," she said. "All I could focus on were his hands."

And she was sore the next day from all the hits she gave and received.

But the entire class wasn't about hitting police officers and shooting their guns.

Much of the time was spent in the classroom, but the training was hands-on.

Students learned how to conduct field sobriety tests. Officer Jim Pullen showed the class how to judge if someone is intoxicated through the tests officers use all the time.

Graham said she had no concept of what went into a DUI stop.

"All I knew is what I'd read in the paper - that someone was charged," she said. One night students got to see real drunkards and try out the field sobriety tests.

Off-duty Westminster police officers drank beer and Pullen drove them to the new District Courthouse to take field sobriety tests.

The tests measure balance and motor skills, and officers use the results in court.

A drunken person will react in very specific ways, as Pullen told the class, and the students saw for themselves.

The tests fascinated Graham because she said she was naive about how the body would react to alcohol and what someone who was drinking could and couldn't control.

And she was interested by something else people can't control - fingerprints.

Lt. Wayne Mann of the Criminal Investigation Division taught students how to dust for fingerprints at a crime scene. Then the students fingerprinted each other.

Graham said the process was much easier than she'd imagined, but it was occurring in a classroom, so that helped.

That same evening, Detective Laurin Askew spoke to the class about drugs.

He showed the students pipes, syringes, and bags people use to take and package illegal drugs. All the items he showed the class had been seized in various raids in Westminster. He also showed them samples of different types of drugs.

The sheer amount of drugs seized amazed Graham.

She recognized some of the packaging, though.

She said she used to find the tiny, resealable bags used to package crack cocaine in the alley by her shop. That's been happening less and less, though, she said.

She credits the increased patrols on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Sgt. Mike Bible, community education officer for Westminster police, was so pleased with the way the class came together, he decided to offer the academy again.

He said six people who didn't know each other started to function as a team, and that was part of the intent.

"It was kind of like the real police academy," he said.

And if nothing else, it made Graham more aware of her surroundings.

Not long ago, she was out on her porch, talking to neighbors. She saw a car she didn't recognize drive past twice.

Before, she said, she probably wouldn't have even noticed it.

But since the academy, she has become more observant. She looked inside the car as it drove by and made a mental note of its license plate.

She thinks her new found powers of observation will be helpful to her neighborhood and to the police.

"I won't call the police and say, 'There's a guy walking down the street and he looks strange.'"

But no matter how hands-on classroom training is, it's no substitute for on-the-job training.

Chief Roger Joneckis told the class about a commercial he saw years ago where, after a civilian had spent time riding along with police, the officers turn to the man and say, "Now it's your turn."

And on Nov. 16, it was their turn.

For their last class, students went through real training scenarios.

They handled a domestic dispute, possible drug activity on a playground and a traffic stop.

Beyond their training, Bible only offered one piece of advice.

"Expect the unexpected," he told them.


©Carroll County Online 2002 
+++++++++++++++
Baltimore Sun Carroll Eagle: 
Tumblr: Kevin Dayhoff Banana Stems www.kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/
Kevin Dayhoff is an artist - and a columnist for:
Smurfs: http://babylonfluckjudd.blogspot.com/
Google profile: https://profiles.google.com/kevindayhoff/

E-mail: kevindayhoff(at)gmail.com

My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/


See also - Kevin Earl Dayhoff Art www.kevindayhoff.com: Travel, art, artists, authors, books, newspapers, media, writers and writing, journalists and journalism, reporters and reporting, music, culture, opera... Ad maiorem Dei gloriam inque hominum salutem. “Deadline U.S.A.” 1952. Ed Hutcheson: “That's the press, baby. The press! And there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing!” - See more at: http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/#sthash.4HNLwtfd.dpuf
+++++++++++++++

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

GREEN & GLOVER EXTRA: Fox News' Megyn Kelly pregnant

GREEN & GLOVER EXTRA: Fox News' Megyn Kelly pregnant

http://tinyurl.com/czcj8w Washington Times

By Stephanie Green and Elizabeth Glover Monday, April 13, 2009

Fox cub?

The lady spies have learned that Fox News "America's Newsroom" anchor Megyn Kelly is expecting her first child in October.


“The 38-year-old Ms. Kelly” has been rumored to have been linked with Carroll County’s own Jamie Kelly in the past. See: http://tinyurl.com/cpmqpnJamie Kelly and Megyn Kendall link rumors denied

Then again, Mr. Kelly was also to have been rumored to have had a liaison with Katie Couric also… http://tinyurl.com/cywrzbKatie the cougar Couric goes triathlon

So far, no rumor has ever stuck to the elusive, well-dressed, and erudite Mr. Kelly – and now that he has removed himself to Iowa, it has, unfortunately, been increasing difficult to keep tabs on him…

Meanwhile, Ms. Megyn Kelly has since moved on from whatever relationship she may have had – or not have had – with Mr. Kelly and has since “married her husband Doug Brunt last year.”

Mr. Kelly, who is well known for decorum, maintaining confidences and keeping his month shut – has hardly ever uttered a word.

Well, not quite, in an exchange in researching, “Jamie Kelly and Megyn Kendall link rumors denied.” Mr. Kelly did emit a denial…
Is it all just a coincidence? Then how does one explain this photo
that has recently surfaced?

“Photoshop” says Mr. Kelly.

“That’s just crap and you know it, responded Mr. Kelly.
“There is no truth to the rumor that I’ve hooked-up with Megyn Kendall – or
Kelly, or whatever her name is,” waxed Mr. Kelly.

As for this latest development, so far Mr. Kelly has stayed true to character and not commented. So who knows if he feels melancholy or blue over the whole situation?


Read the rest of the report by Stephanie Green and Elizabeth Glover here: http://tinyurl.com/czcj8w

20090413 Fox News Megyn Kelly pregnant
Kevin Dayhoff Art: www.kevindayhoff.com (http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/)
Kevin Dayhoff: www.westgov.net Westminster Maryland Online www.westminstermarylandonline.net http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/

Saturday, April 14, 2007

20070413 Katie the cougar Couric goes triathlon


Apparently it was only a magical coincidence that Jamie Kelly and Katie Couric were "photographed" together recently at a Broadway outing to see “The Year of Magical Thinking.”

Katie the cougar Couric goes triathlon

April 13th, 2007

Hat tip: “Couric New Boyfriend 17 Years Her Junior

When the buzz surfaced that Katie Couric had a new hunky love interest in her life, many in Carroll County were curious if it was our own Jamie Kelly of the Carroll County Times.

And my goodness, heaven only knows that Ms. Couric needs something positive in her life these days

As you are aware rumors were flying last January that linked Jamie Kelly with Megyn Kelly of Fox News.

If there was anything to that rumor – it was never proven. As it has also been recently revealed that Mr. Kelly is NOT the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s child…

Nevertheless, phone calls to Jamie Kelly and his publicist requesting a comment on suggestions in the community that link him with Katie Couric - were not returned.

Now comes the New York Post with another theory as to the boy-toy in Katie, the cougar’s life in an article by Mark Bulliet and Jennifer Fermino on April 12th, 2007, “Katie Cougar: New Love Is 17 Yrs. Her Junior.”

Who cares about ratings when you've got your very own hunky triathlete on the mark and ready to go?

Katie Couric's dishy new boy toy is a good-looking, physically fit, almost 33-year-old from Manhattan's East Side with a posh pedigree.

Brooks Perlin — son of financier Sanford Perlin of Darien, Conn. — has been running around with the perky anchorwoman-turned-cougar for several months, according to a source.

"These are two private people and I respect that," said Sanford Perlin Wednesday when reached at his office at Kleos Capital Management.

His mother, Anne Perlin, 68, didn't want to comment on her son's new 50-year-old girlfriend.

"I don't believe in any meddling in people's personal lives," she said.

When pressed, she added, "It's a lovely story and I hope we don't ruin it."

[…]

Last July, Perlin competed in the Greenwich Cup triathlon - where he swam, ran, and cycled - and finished in an impressive one hour, 19 minutes and 16 seconds.

Read the rest here: Katie Cougar: New Love Is 17 Yrs. Her Junior

I just hope this doesn’t give my wife any ideas about trading me in for a couple of twenty-five year olds…

####

Sunday, January 7, 2007

20070103 Jamie Kelly and Megyn Kendall link rumors denied


Jamie Kelly and Megyn Kendall link rumors denied

January 3rd, 2007 – January 6th, 2007

It what can only be understand as “news” to a certain someone in Mr. Jamie Kelly’s life; rumors of a link between Fox News Channel journalist Megyn Kendal and our own Jamie Kelly of the Carroll County Times, were vigorous denied by Mr. Kelly in a recent phone call.


Avid readers of the Carroll County Times are usually aware when various members of the local paper’s news staff go missing from time-to-time.


And it was not unnoticed that Carroll County Times city desk editor Jamie Kelly took some time off recently


Then, as a coincidence(?) it was announced as the new year began, that Fox News Channel personality Megyn Kendall has changed her name – to Kelly.


Hmmmm.


FishbowlDC reported that she changed her name back to her maiden name.


Could this be a ruse to put us off the trail of a breaking news story right here at home in Carroll County? Inquiring minds want to know.


First, on June 22, 2006, there was an oblique link between Jamie Kelly and Megyn Kelly…


But rumors really began flying as early as last July 28th, 2006, when it was rumored that Mr. Kelly was spotted with Ms. Kendall at the Cafe Milano in DC eating pizza.


Ms. Kendall “was wearing a tight white strapless summer dress and looked gorgeous. She also is sporting platinum blonde hair now. She sat in the corner seat at the bar on the left as you walk into the bar area.”


And Mr. Kelly, well, he was dressed in his usual young journalist attire; jeans, blue shirt – with the shirt tail hanging out, a new brown and yellow stripped sweater. Reports were that he looked rather dapper.


And then, the day after Christmas, Ms. “Kendall (was spotted) at the Pentagon City Nordstrom… She was wandering around men’s furnishings talking on her cellphone. She’s very attractive (not just hot for D.C.), but she definitely looks older in person than on t.v. She also has a smoker’s voice that’s kind of sexy on t.v., but not so much in person.”


Well, we all know that Mr. Kelly is a clothes-horse and loves Nordstrom.


Is it that Mr. Kelly, who has recently been feeling a bit under the weather, has been running himself ragged in his double-life?


Is it all just a coincidence?

Then how does one explain this photo that has recently surfaced?


“Photoshop” says Mr. Kelly.


“That’s just crap and you know it," responded Mr. Kelly (with a smile.) “There is no truth to the rumor that I’ve hooked-up with Megyn Kendall – or Kelly, or whatever her name is,” waxed Mr. Kelly.


Meanwhile, Jeff Bercovici and John Cook posting on “Radar Online” has reported upon a possible link between Ms. Megyn Kelly and Brit Hume.


For months, a rumor has been circulating among TV news insiders in Washington, D.C., and New York that Brit Hume, Fox News Channel's managing editor in Washington and host of prime-time hour Special Report, has been having an extramarital affair with a younger colleague. The object of his alleged attentions: Megyn Kendall, a general-assignment correspondent who has been with the network since 2004.


There is no evidence to suggest that the rumors are true. Of the half-dozen sources who relayed the allegation to Radar, none could claim first-hand knowledge, and several Fox insiders said they believed it to be false. Still, the whispers have grown so loud that Hume and Kendall have been forced to deny them repeatedly to curious colleagues. (One Fox source said Hume seemed genuinely amused and somewhat flattered to be linked by gossip to the attractive and much younger Kendall.) A Fox spokesperson also flatly denied it, and suggested it was being "shopped around" by enemies of the network.


(Well, one thing is for sure, here at Soundtrack, we know that we totally made-up a connection between Jamie Kelly and Megyn Kelly because, well, we just couldn’t help ourselves. Mr. Kelly is way too much fun and besides, it was too good a coincidence and a wonderful photoshopping opportunity.)


For now, we’re going to take Mr. Kelly at his word. But we’ll keep our ears to the ground and you’ll be the first to know if we find any additional information on this story of intrigue and wonder.


####

Thursday, June 22, 2006

20060622 A picture suggestion for Jamie Kelly



A picture suggestion for Jamie Kelly

June 22, 2006

A picture suggestion for Jamie Kelly’s weekly blog spot on the Carroll County Times.

Jamie Kelly, over at the Carroll County Times, knows what he is doing and has been working hard at bring the Carroll County Times into the electronic media age.

Jamie has been attempting to get a live blog thing going every Monday at 12 noon for an hour. Why not give it a try?

Meanwhile Jamie, lose the picture you have on the web-site. The Carroll County Times has some of the best photographers in the mid-Atlantic region, so what’s up with the ugly picture?

Attached above-right is an example of a better picture to put on your blog site.

Hey, just trying to be of some help.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.

E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org

####

8:48 PM | Original KDDC Permalink

Sunday, May 9, 2004

Carroll County Times: Fire marshals to start inspecting buildings again

Carroll County Times: Fire marshals to start inspecting buildings again

By Jamie Kelly, Times Staff Writer Friday, May 07, 2004

Update: Yes the kink is dead and has been removed. Thanks to the reader who called it to my attention. I searched in vain for a working link. Until then, I’ll put the rest of the story-up and hope that no one complains… Just saying…

It's been seven years, but the state fire marshal's office is going to start inspecting buildings again.

Allen Gosnell, deputy chief state fire marshal, said the state office approved hiring two civilians to inspect new buildings. The purpose, he said, is to free up the deputy state fire marshals to do investigations. The inspections stopped because fire marshals had too much other work to do, he said.

The deputy fire marshals are trained law enforcement officers, Gosnell said, and they have to investigate fires in Carroll, Frederick and Howard counties. Last year, they investigated 162 fires regionwide, he said. Seven years ago, they kept getting called away from inspections to investigate fires, he said, so they stopped doing them.

One of the inspectors will also work on catching up on all the businesses that haven't been inspected, Gosnell said. He said he didn't have an exact count of how many buildings there were, but said they probably numbered in the hundreds.

Mike Maring, chief of permits and inspections for the county, said the fire safety inspections will work the same way other building inspections do: He notifies the fire marshal's office, they inspect the building, and if they approve, he issues an occupancy permit.

Yes the kink is dead and has been removed. Thanks to the reader who called it to my attention. I searched in vain for a working link. Until then, I’ll put the rest of the story-up and hope that no one complains…

The civilian inspectors will coordinate with the county's permits office, Gosnell said. Both of the men are experienced, he said, and are certified in fire inspections.

"They're at the top of the trade," he said.

The inspections serve two purposes, Gosnell said. First, they make sure there are escape routes for all the people using the building.

There are regulations that dictate how many exits buildings need to have, he said, as well as how large the exits need to be. The inspectors also look at how easy it is to get through the exits, Gosnell said, to make sure people will be able to use them.

The second part of the inspections looks at fire prevention, Gosnell said. The inspector will look at any potential fire hazards, as well as whether the building has properly functioning smoke detectors.

If the inspectors find a violation of code, the business has 15 days to fix the problem, he said. He said the business can also appeal the decision to him, and he'll come out and look at the problems.

"We want to work with them to make the occupants safe," he said.

Leon Fleming, Carroll County Volunteer Fireman's Association/county liaison, said he thought the new inspections would help to prevent fires. Baltimore County has a similar program, he said, and it has reduced the number of fires by pointing out hazards before they cause any damage.

He said he hoped county firefighters could go along with the inspectors, so they could get a sense of what the buildings look like, how large they are and any hazards that might be there.

That, he said, will help them fight any fire that might happen there.

http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/2004/05/carroll-county-times-fire-marshals-to.html

+++++++++++++++
Kevin Dayhoff is an artist - and a columnist for:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevindayhoffTwitpic: http://twitpic.com/photos/kevindayhoff
Kevin Dayhoff's The New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/ = www.newbedfordherald.net

Tumblr: Kevin Dayhoff Banana Stems www.kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/
Smurfs: http://babylonfluckjudd.blogspot.com/
Google profile: https://profiles.google.com/kevindayhoff/

E-mail: kevindayhoff(at)gmail.com
My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/
+++++++++++++++

Monday, November 18, 2002

Carroll Co. Md. Times: “Training Day Citizens Police Academy,” By Jamie Kelly, Nov. 17, 2002




Residents get hands-on experience at Westminster Citizen Police Academy

Lori Graham didn't go to jail after she beat a police officer with a baton.
Instead, she graduated with flying colors. Graham was part of the first class to go through the Westminster City Police Department's Citizen Police Academy. She and five others spent nine weeks learning what police officers do. From the first class on Oct. 1, she learned things she never knew about the police department.

But there's no contest for her favorite part of the class. She liked the trip to the shooting range the best, she said. The class had a chance to visit the police training facility in Sykesville and fired a police service pistol.

For many in the class, it was the first chance to fire a pistol. Graham had shot a pistol before, but that was a revolver, not a semi-automatic pistol like police carry. The firing range also had a computer training program called Range 2000. Class members carried a pistol that fired a laser beam. A computer projected different training scenarios on a large screen, similar to a video game, and an officer in the back of the room controlled how those scenarios turned out.

[…]

Update – editor’s note: February 7, 2016 - Someone asked me about the Westminster Citizen Police Academy that we had in Westminster when I was in the mayor’s office. It was a great program. I guess ran it course. I do not know why it was discontinued and I am not aware of when it discontinued. If I recall, we started it shortly after I got into office in May 2001 and if I remember correctly, it stopped shortly after I lost my election in May 2005.

There were some great folks involved. Folks like Randy Barnes, Lori Graham, Tony Ott, Pat Bassler, Jim Pullen, Tom Kowalczyk, Wayne Mann, Mike Bible, and the like. Jamie Kelly wrote one of several great articles and Ken Koons took one of my favorite pictures taken when I was in office.

As for the cops, courts, and crime beat, the Carroll County Times continues its great coverage. Today’s stories are written, in part by Heather Mongilio

I always said that if you can avoid getting totally creeped-out, cops, courts, and crime was a great beat for writing stories. I loved it years ago when it was my assignment. Go here for more stores: http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/news/crime/

Cops, courts, and crime was especially a good beat for those of us who grew-up reading detective stories or “In Cold Blood,” by Truman Capote, or “To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee… and southern gothic literature.

Other examples of authors of the southern gothic genre of writing include William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty, Truman Capote, and Harper Lee. Tennessee Williams is said to have described the genre as stories that reflect “an intuition of an underlying dreadfulness in modern experience.”

I found this article on my website, but sadly, the link to continue reading the rest of the article by Jamie Kelly no longer works. So I restored the rest of the article here. If I have erred, and someone knows of a link for the rest of the story, simply be in touch and I will take care of it.

[…]

Students had to make spilt-second decisions about whether to shoot. Usually, they were right, but some decisions were tougher than others.

One scenario involved a domestic dispute where the husband refused to put his baby down.

He pulled out a gun, and the students had to decide whether to shoot him.

Graham called the scenarios a revelation. She didn't realize how quickly an officer's job could go from routine to dangerous. Nor did she realize how adrenaline would affect reaction times or shot accuracy.

It also made her senses feel sharper, but she thinks she was quicker to make a decision than she normally would be. When she felt like her life was in danger, even in a simulation, she wanted to protect herself. And, she said, she may have overreacted sometimes, especially by shooting too much.

During the simulations all of the students shot what seemed like a lot of rounds, but Capt. Randy Barnes said they weren't that much higher than average.

He said the average shoot-out involving police only lasts a few seconds, but five to seven rounds are fired.

Most of the shots fired - a lot in some cases - happened within hundredths of a second of each other. But, she said, she could hear each and every one distinctly.

Graham was invited to apply to the Citizen Police Academy, partially because she was active with the Lower Pennsylvania Avenue Committee. The committee was formed to help stop crime and drug traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue.

As executive secretary of Dutterer's Flower Shop and the daughter of the owner - the shop has been in her family since 1919 - she grew up on the avenue, and now she lives there.

She got to see that up close when, as a part of the program, she spent a Saturday evening riding and walking with a Westminster police officer.

The night she spent with the officer was McDaniel College's Homecoming. She had a chance to see officers break up a few scuffles and look for public drunkenness and underage drinking while riding with Cpl. Thomas Kowalczyk.

"He would explain the 10-codes to me - the codes officers use to convey information, 10-4 for example - so I knew what was happening," she said.

On the way back to the station, he spotted a car that looked suspicious. The car was alone in a parking lot at nearly 2 a.m.

He found two juveniles who had snuck out of their houses.

Graham said she was fascinated by the differences between real-life policing and television cop shows, where every case takes exactly one hour. Really, she said, officers jump from call to call and each call can be different.

"One second, you have to be the nice, kind police officer talking to people on the street, and the next you have to be the tough law enforcement guy dealing with people who shouldn't be on the street," she said.

That's where training comes in. Officers are taught the ladder of force. It starts with verbal commands - officers call it verbal judo - and progresses to physical force, pepper spray, use of the baton and finally deadly force.

Students in the Citizen Police Academy had the chance to experience several different rungs on the ladder of force.

In one class, Barnes dressed in a red, padded suit and mimicked attacking the cadets. They used a padded baton to fend him off.

His head, neck, spine, and chest were off-limits for the baton because hitting those areas could cause lethal damage.

But students did hit those areas, usually accidentally.

Barnes said that was an example of how skilled police have to be with the baton. He also said police have to know when the fight is over.

"It's like going from 10 mph to 100 mph in a second," Barnes said, "but then having to slow down from 100 mph to 10 mph just as quickly."

Graham said that during the entire fight with Barnes, which lasted a little longer than a minute, she had no idea what was happening, other than that he was attacking her and she was defending herself.

"If that had been a real attack, I don't think I could have described him to police," she said. "All I could focus on were his hands."

And she was sore the next day from all the hits she gave and received.

But the entire class wasn't about hitting police officers and shooting their guns.

Much of the time was spent in the classroom, but the training was hands-on.

Students learned how to conduct field sobriety tests. Officer Jim Pullen showed the class how to judge if someone is intoxicated through the tests officers use all the time.

Graham said she had no concept of what went into a DUI stop.

"All I knew is what I'd read in the paper - that someone was charged," she said. One night students got to see real drunkards and try out the field sobriety tests.

Off-duty Westminster police officers drank beer and Pullen drove them to the new District Courthouse to take field sobriety tests.

The tests measure balance and motor skills, and officers use the results in court.

A drunken person will react in very specific ways, as Pullen told the class, and the students saw for themselves.

The tests fascinated Graham because she said she was naive about how the body would react to alcohol and what someone who was drinking could and couldn't control.

And she was interested by something else people can't control - fingerprints.

Lt. Wayne Mann of the Criminal Investigation Division taught students how to dust for fingerprints at a crime scene. Then the students fingerprinted each other.

Graham said the process was much easier than she'd imagined, but it was occurring in a classroom, so that helped.

That same evening, Detective Laurin Askew spoke to the class about drugs.

He showed the students pipes, syringes, and bags people use to take and package illegal drugs. All the items he showed the class had been seized in various raids in Westminster. He also showed them samples of different types of drugs.

The sheer amount of drugs seized amazed Graham.

She recognized some of the packaging, though.

She said she used to find the tiny, resealable bags used to package crack cocaine in the alley by her shop. That's been happening less and less, though, she said.

She credits the increased patrols on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Sgt. Mike Bible, community education officer for Westminster police, was so pleased with the way the class came together, he decided to offer the academy again.

He said six people who didn't know each other started to function as a team, and that was part of the intent.

"It was kind of like the real police academy," he said.

And if nothing else, it made Graham more aware of her surroundings.

Not long ago, she was out on her porch, talking to neighbors. She saw a car she didn't recognize drive past twice.

Before, she said, she probably wouldn't have even noticed it.

But since the academy, she has become more observant. She looked inside the car as it drove by and made a mental note of its license plate.

She thinks her new found powers of observation will be helpful to her neighborhood and to the police.

"I won't call the police and say, 'There's a guy walking down the street and he looks strange.'"

But no matter how hands-on classroom training is, it's no substitute for on-the-job training.

Chief Roger Joneckis told the class about a commercial he saw years ago where, after a civilian had spent time riding along with police, the officers turn to the man and say, "Now it's your turn."

And on Nov. 16, it was their turn.

For their last class, students went through real training scenarios.

They handled a domestic dispute, possible drug activity on a playground and a traffic stop.

Beyond their training, Bible only offered one piece of advice.

"Expect the unexpected," he told them.


©Carroll County Online 2002 
+++++++++++++++
Baltimore Sun Carroll Eagle: 
Tumblr: Kevin Dayhoff Banana Stems www.kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/
Kevin Dayhoff is an artist - and a columnist for:
Smurfs: http://babylonfluckjudd.blogspot.com/
Google profile: https://profiles.google.com/kevindayhoff/

E-mail: kevindayhoff(at)gmail.com

My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/


See also - Kevin Earl Dayhoff Art www.kevindayhoff.com: Travel, art, artists, authors, books, newspapers, media, writers and writing, journalists and journalism, reporters and reporting, music, culture, opera... Ad maiorem Dei gloriam inque hominum salutem. “Deadline U.S.A.” 1952. Ed Hutcheson: “That's the press, baby. The press! And there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing!” - See more at: http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/#sthash.4HNLwtfd.dpuf
+++++++++++++++