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| NEWS > 15 November 2006 |
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Slain woman's family upset by
CHICAGO: A slain woman's relatives were upset by the way police handled a 23-hour standoff in her apartment building that ended with a gunman killing the 22-year-old and himself.
Negotiators had tried for hours to coax Lance Johnson, 21, to release his hostage and end the standoff Thursday, said First Deputy Superintendent Dana Starks. But SWAT team members ended up rushing the third-floor apartment after the sound of a gunshot around 1 a.m. on Friday, he said.
"We have protocols and procedures we had been following," Starks said without elaborating. "At no time did the C... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Wilkes Barre Times-Leader - Wi
15 November 2006
This article appeared in the above title/site.
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To protect, serve and munch? F
WILKES-BARRE – A uniformed Wilkes-Barre police officer entered the Kidder Street Wendy’s on Sunday afternoon and ordered a single hamburger combo, without cheese, pickles and onions, a baked potato and a regular iced tea with lemon. The entire meal cost a little over $5.
The officer signed a receipt and waltzed out the door without paying a cent.
Can that greasy, made-to-order fast food hamburger – and the sides – buy police protection?
Steve Kepic thinks so. He’s the owner of Quality Served Fast, the parent company of 12 Wendy’s franchises in the Wyoming Valley, including the one on Kidder Street.
Kepic believes giving free food to the state and local police who patronize his store keeps them coming back. Their presence, he says, creates an illusion of security that puts employees and customers at ease.
“It’s something I did when I operated company stores in upstate New York, to say ‘you work really hard for us and make us safe,’” Kepic said. “It’s the cheapest form of security we have and it keeps our employees much safer.”
Paul Lindenmuth spent 25 years as a detective and during the 1970s worked as a special agent for the U.S. Justice Department investigating corruption in the Philadelphia Police Department. One of the questionable actions of those metropolitan police: favors for fast food.
Ethics issues surrounding the policy of gifting vary by police department. There are no state-level regulations against the practice, but Lindenmuth said accepting gifts can create a public perception that certain businesses curry favor with patrolmen because of handouts and freebies.
“Police are held to a higher degree of accountability than any other worker and they’re not allowed to accept any gifts whatsoever,” Lindenmuth said. “Some believe if an officer takes a free cup of coffee that it’s the beginning of the slippery slope. It opens them up to preferential treatment of the businesses that do this. It sends out a bad impression to people.”
Wilkes-Barre Police Chief Gerry Dessoye said officers in his department are allowed to take some free items from businesses as long as they don’t offer preferential treatment to those establishments. There was a spike in the practice of offering complimentary items following the Sept. 11 attacks because people wanted to thank an officer, Dessoye said.
Dessoye was unaware of Kepic’s policy that aims to keep officers coming and going. The chief plans to look into the Wendy’s policy.
“Do I encourage it? I do not,” Dessoye said. “But in order for it to be a violation of our rules and regulations it would have to be in exchange for favor; for protecting Wendy’s more than you’re protecting Burger King.”
Not all police administrators are keen on the idea of officers getting free swag. Kepic said he was asked by some departments to suspend the free-food program.
Wilkes-Barre Township Police Chief Robert Brozowski put a stop to the practice after growing tired of watching his officers enter the station with bags of free food from the scores of restaurants in the township’s retail hubs.
It is now written into the department’s standard operating procedures, and it prohibits officers from taking anything from businesses.
“I don’t even like if they get a cup of coffee for free,” Brozowski said. “A policeman makes a decent dollar, there’s no reason for them to go out there and chisel for food,” he said. “What happens is that something happens down the line and then they want a favor and you’re obligated.”
There is one risk in refusing to take something for free – something Brozowski, Dessoye and Lindenmuth all agree on.
If you refuse to take a complimentary meal, you’re likely to offend the owner or the server offering the good deed.
“It becomes, sometimes, almost insulting to the proprietor,” Dessoye said. “They wonder, ‘what do you think, I’m buying you with a hamburger?’”
In that case, Lindenmuth said it’s best for the officer to “overtip,” or to leave what they believe is an equitable amount on the table or counter before leaving.
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