During the passage of the multiple stories culminated from the Close Encounters column there were many times when investigating officers sure could have used a few more hands to assist several times but were unable to do so because the “extra hands” were also tied up on other situations needing immediate resolution.
That situation should not be permitted.
There is no excuse for having to place any officer in this City in a more dangerous exposure without proper back-up.
The SFPOA has always taken a strong stand as far as officer safety is concerned.
We had, in fact, a situation years ago where a Police Chief was going to allow recruits on the streets with a uniform but no gun . . .After a somewhat contentious hearing at the Police Commission we finally convinced them that “flying solo” was not a good idea and would not be tolerated.
Now, because of the personnel shortage the Department is experiencing, officers have to be extremely aware of their exposure to danger on every call.
Consider the case recently involving Officer Luis Archilla, Officer Keneth Enderson, and Officer Matthew Seavey while they were working together as a crime prevention team from Co H and were investigating a carjacking where an 86-year-old woman had a gun pointed at her while being robbed.
The officers were able to recover the stolen vehicle and locate and arrest the felony suspect who pointed a gun at our victim but they probably could have used a few extra hands that are no longer available to assist in the investigation.
After-all, the suspect did have a gun!
Officer Shablinskiy and Officer Bouroukounda saw a car apeeding down Harbor Road and followed . The vehicle committed several traffic infractions and finally stopped.
The officers checked out the driver who was extremely nervous and took off running the first chance he had. His track and field ability, if you want to call it that, was abysmal and he lost his bid to escape.
Nevertheless his reasoning made sense to him at the time — since he couldn’t safely abandon the 9mm, fully-loaded, semi-automatic weapon the officers re-covered under the floor mat of the car he was driving,. He had to leave it where he did.
“Criminal translation: “I got caught with a gun…”
It’s just a little past noon when Officer Kyle VanArsdale, Officer Omar Vaquerano, Officer Carroll Corbyn and Officer Brandon Newman are patrolling the Tenderloin Task Force (TTF) when they suddenly realized how close an individual in the area matched a suspect who recently stabbed his victim over 11 times in a brutal assault!!
Their suspicions were right and this time the suspect was relieved of the machete that he was carrying as the investigation resulted in the arrest of one of the most wanted felons in a long time.
Officer Kenneth Anderson, Officer Matthew Seavey, Officer Luis Archilla, Officer Brian Carew, with the assistance of Sergeant Michael Canning, went looking for an individual who was wanted for strangling his ex-girlfriend and also holding a handgun to her head as he accosted her.
Didn’t take long before they had this coward sharing a cell with someone who could fight back . . .
Talk about bad luck . . . The newest criminal entering a life of crime had a really bad day on his first “job”. He picked out a corner grocery store and slipped a note to the soon to be victim saying he was armed and not to try anything.
Well, no one could since the cash drawer got stuck and couldn’t be opened.
But then he violated another rule of criminal behavior. Don’t hang around when the initial try doesn’t work. This guy did just that by riding a bike around that was not only easy to pick out but was parked right outside of McDonald’s . . . now he’s giving a bad name to the rest of the criminal element in our great metropolis.
And that’s when Officer Francessa Murphy, Officer Jimmy Fowler, Officer Christopher Bishop, and Officer Dadhge, put an end to the suspect’s failed attempts and slipped a pair of handcuffs over his wrists for the trip.
Stay safe.
