Good Job

12/31/07
LASO to Deputies: Don't Drink & Drive (Or Shoot)
Surprised they didn't include domestic violence stats in this article.

LA Daily News : Even as law enforcement officers swarm the roadways to nab intoxicated drivers this New Year's holiday, Los Angeles County officials said they also will be watching for any potential drunk drivers among the ranks of their own Sheriff's Department.

Despite a series of efforts, nearly two dozen off-duty sheriff's employees have been arrested on drunk-driving charges every year since hitting that peak in 2004 - up from an average 10 to 15 a year, according to an annual department review.

"The Sheriff's Department has taken a multipronged approach to address this, including increasing the disciplinary penalties for drunk driving off-duty," Office of Independent Review Chief Attorney Michael Gennaco said Friday.

"But so far, what they have tried has not decreased the level of arrests. So we are going to continue to watch it carefully and see if there can be some sort of a decrease in this troubling, off-duty behavior."

Officials with the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs could not be reached Friday for comment.

But Audrey Honig, the department's chief psychologist, said sheriff's officials have been working with Gennaco to address a "culture that supports the use of alcohol as a means of dealing with the stress of the job."

The department has formed a DUI task force of commanders and also recently increased the penalty for a drunk-driving arrest from a seven- to 15-day suspension to a standard 15-day suspension.

The department plans to send its 15,000 employees a message today, encouraging those who drink alcohol to find designated drivers and to store their off-duty weapons in a safe place.

The department also is developing a training video and is using special goggles that simulate the effects of alcohol to teach deputies how drinking impairs their ability to use their guns.

"You might speed 12 times and not get caught, but eventually we'll get you," Honig said. "The same is true with alcohol offenses. Your luck will run out, and you'll get caught. And the time no longer exists when another officer will excuse your behavior and let you go home."

Tony Bell, spokesman for county Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich - an outspoken supporter of the Sheriff's Department, said the supervisor wants to encourage the department to continue to reach out to deputies to address the issue.

"Obviously their efforts have been proactive in education and in increased penalties," Bell said. "These are measures that will reduce the number of deputies involved in these incidents.

"This will protect the public and discourage deputies from drinking and driving."

Gennaco's report comes as former sheriff's Chief Michael Aranda pleaded no contest earlier this month to a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated in his county vehicle.

Aranda of Palmdale was placed on three years of probation and ordered to attend an alcohol-education program.

In his report, Gennaco found more than half of drunk-driving arrests of sheriff's employees involved young deputies in their first assignment with the department, typically in the county's jails.

The department has hired hundreds of deputies in the past few years to reduce violence in the overcrowded jails and reduce crime in unincorporated areas and cities throughout the county that contract with the Sheriff's Department.

This year, more than 1,000 new deputies graduated from the sheriff's academy.

Among its anti-DUI efforts, the Sheriff's Department also is encouraging fellow law enforcement officers not to extend "professional courtesies" to sheriff's employees pulled over for driving while intoxicated.

In such cases, fellow officers often would waive an arrest and instead drive the intoxicated colleague home, Gennaco said.

"One thing that may be going on is that the days of professional courtesy where an officer would treat an off-duty officer differently have ended," Gennaco said.

"Unfortunately, some of these new deputies don't understand yet that those days have ended."

Gennaco's report examined 97 sheriff's employee arrests over five years, as well as 27 non-DUI incidents ending in arrests of employees for alcohol-related fights, disturbances and disputes.

A small fraction of the alcohol-related incidents involved brandishing or alleged brandishing of firearms by department members, Gennaco wrote.

The report follows a Daily News report last month that found a growing number of off-duty shootings involving the Los Angeles Police and Sheriff's departments.

Since 2000, sheriff's employees have been involved in 41 off-duty shootings. Last year, there were seven - up from four the previous year.

Concerns about off-duty drinking and shootings in the Sheriff's Department first arose in the mid-1990s when Special Counsel Merrick Bobb analyzed 28 off-duty shootings and found six involved deputies who had been drinking.

In 1996, a federal jury awarded $750,000 to the family of a Rowland Heights man who was killed by an intoxicated, off-duty sheriff's deputy.

"Off-duty firearms and alcohol don't mix," Gennaco said.

"While we don't endorse restricting off-duty weapons, for safety and security reasons, deputies have to understand that their judgment can be clouded when firearms and alcohol are both in the same room."

Honig said that while some of the recent cases have involved deputies brandishing firearms and badges while drinking, she said she doesn't recall anybody actually getting shot in recent years.

"That's a very positive thing because in years past, we had a significant number of alcohol-related offenses involving guns - only it wasn't brandishing, it was firing," she said.

"So a number of years ago, at least eight, we implemented a very concerted effort - and it took a couple of years to overcome - that if you are going to drink, then don't carry your firearm, period. Store it. It's safer for you, and it's safer for everybody else."

Honig said she is more concerned about the possibility that deputies who drink and drive can injure or kill other people.

"We've had some over the years where people have died and the sheriff's personnel has gone to prison," Honig said. "It periodically happens.
"The most common is a regular DUI. The second is a single-car spinout where they crash their own car, and the next is when they shoot somebody else but it's a minor injury.

"The least common is where it becomes vehicular manslaughter."

If you love you're MCSO Deputies that much, then go to the County Commissioners and take you're family and friends with you and tell them how underpaid we are and demand a pay raise for us Please! Please fight for us. Much respect to you! :cry:




Last time I checked, drinking and driving is a crime, and a serious one at that. I don't understand how the actions of the officer on duty "cost a fellow brother his way of living". I am not familiar with the facts of the case, but If the arresting officer gave the other anything that could have impaired his judgement and then he physically placed him behind the wheel, and then said drive away, yes then he is a bad guy. But I believe he was just doing his job.
Who are you reffering to when you say "rat", "scum","coward"? I think the only coward is you who hides behind a keyboard, and then you monday night quarterback the actions of a fellow brother for doing his job. I think you are angry because you are underpaid and you are having to live check to check. I am a citizen of Monroe County and appreciate all of the support that we get from the deputies. I would be more than happy to go into details where I have had nothing but positive encounters with deputies, and that is why I took the time to reply to your non-sense post. I really hope your not employed by Monroe County, and if you are, I really hope you were just having a bad day when you posted your thoughts on here. Have a better day. My intentions are not to anger anyone with this post, but it is to show that not all citizens in the Keys are Drunks, and we do appreciate the work you guys do. Unfortunately sometimes we make bad decisions, however when this occurs we simply have to suffer the consequences, not fault everyone else.

[/quote]


"Last time I checked, drinking and driving is a crime, and a serious one at that."

You are joking, RIGHT? A serious Crime? A misdemeanor, SERIOUS!!! Get a grip. I guess you treat an open container violation like a homicide. A armed robbery, with a firearm is a SERIOUS CRIME!!!

Go pack sand, ****$TICK!!

I work in sector 7 and my sgt. says for every out of town cop we arrest for DUI we get a free dinner @ brazelena! Were lookin' for ya! Come on down! Your the next contestant on we don't care who you are! Your going to jail! Were not going to jeopardize our careers for you. Get over it, get it out of your head forever. If you can't stand to go to jail for it, don't do it. You can always bounce at a bar, or flip burgers! But your just a stat to me loser.

I work in sector 7 and my sgt. says for every out of town cop we arrest for DUI we get a free dinner @ brazelena! Were lookin' for ya! Come on down! Your the next contestant on we don't care who you are! Your going to jail! Were not going to jeopardize our careers for you. Get over it, get it out of your head forever. If you can't stand to go to jail for it, don't do it. You can always bounce at a bar, or flip burgers! But your just a stat to me loser.

Wow, you and your Sgt. are real pieces of ! jeopardize our careers for you? Its a misdemeanor rookie boy!

[quote=WOW!!!!!]

Wow, you and your Sgt. are real pieces of $hit! jeopardize our careers for you? Its a misdemeanor rookie boy!

[/quote:140ke00h]

Your jeopardizing your own career, How about you stop drinking and driving. Keep up the good work MCSO. And by the way, Misdemeanors are arrestable offenses in the state of Florida, seems like its a little different in your little bitty hometown. :devil:

Well without being quite so harsh... Yes, we've had it happen before. Trying to help a brother out and bam! We've had friends of ours fired just for this very thing. The idiots went back for their cars and crashed. No, no one was seriously injured. Still, jobs were lost. Times have changed and you just won't see that kind of "courtesy" as we have before. Not for D.U.I.'s. Sorry...

Tell your friends 2 things...

1. Don't expect that kind of courtesy anymore.
2. They have these things now called CABS. Try em.

If you love you're MCSO Deputies that much, then go to the County Commissioners and take you're family and friends with you and tell them how underpaid we are and demand a pay raise for us Please! Please fight for us. Much respect to you! :cry:




Last time I checked, drinking and driving is a crime, and a serious one at that. I don't understand how the actions of the officer on duty "cost a fellow brother his way of living". I am not familiar with the facts of the case, but If the arresting officer gave the other anything that could have impaired his judgement and then he physically placed him behind the wheel, and then said drive away, yes then he is a bad guy. But I believe he was just doing his job.
Who are you reffering to when you say "rat", "scum","coward"? I think the only coward is you who hides behind a keyboard, and then you monday night quarterback the actions of a fellow brother for doing his job. I think you are angry because you are underpaid and you are having to live check to check. I am a citizen of Monroe County and appreciate all of the support that we get from the deputies. I would be more than happy to go into details where I have had nothing but positive encounters with deputies, and that is why I took the time to reply to your non-sense post. I really hope your not employed by Monroe County, and if you are, I really hope you were just having a bad day when you posted your thoughts on here. Have a better day. My intentions are not to anger anyone with this post, but it is to show that not all citizens in the Keys are Drunks, and we do appreciate the work you guys do. Unfortunately sometimes we make bad decisions, however when this occurs we simply have to suffer the consequences, not fault everyone else.

"Last time I checked, drinking and driving is a crime, and a serious one at that."

You are joking, RIGHT? A serious Crime? A misdemeanor, SERIOUS!!! Get a grip. I guess you treat an open container violation like a homicide. A armed robbery, with a firearm is a SERIOUS CRIME!!!

Go pack sand, fazugie$TICK!![/quote]


WOW...... you must be a defense attorney.. DUI not a serious crime.. lets see you have 4000 lbs projectile and your drunk off your behind and thats not serious. Let that person kill one of your loved ones and then see how u feel. That Deputy did what he had to do and im sure he had cause to do it. Obviously he was impaired enough to warrant an arrest. That Deputy did not ruin the officers life.... the officer ruin his own life. Come through my zone that way and ill arrest you to I dont care who you are or what you do. Good job deputy!!!

Hopefully a good attorney will defend the arrested officer in court.