Bob G. says:

Trucks can be replaced…people cannot.
But I sure as hell do NOT want to be ANY of those thugs that did this (should Dan decide to “have a talk” with them some day soon).
One thing I found out w/ the FWPD…if any prints are found and they don’t show up in AFIS, it’s becasue they’re a juvenile.
(they don’t keep records of them…and I don’t know why)
We had a burglary when we first moved here, and detectives found GOOD prints…never heard from them again.

Hope you DO catch the punks!

B.G.

tim zank says:

That totally sucks… I remember you posting when he got the SUV…..Hope you get the pricks..

Janie says:

Sorry about this whole thing. It’s one thing to loose your truck but when it happens to your kids it seems to be worse. And then to have the FWFD screw it all up just seems like a knife in your chest.

J. Q. Taxpayer says:

Mr. Ritchie makes some interesting points but it may tell us far more about how the FWFD operates and maybe the entire city government. Normal companies, if sending an employee to long term training, assign their active work to other employees. Companies DO NOT shut down departments to the level they can not function for long term training.

I would wonder how long Mr. Johnson is being assigned to the Public Safety Academy to sharpen his skills. How many fire department employees are assigned to this?

Sadly the real truth of the matter is this act just did not warrent the FWFD from getting on it. It just did not rate high enough on their chart of what to work on.

Maybe someday we will read about some kid burning down a house and killing someone because he got away with it in burning a van of someone else he was pissed off at…..

The sad thing is if Dan did find out who did this and even pushed the kid he would be in jail facing all kinds of charges….

Phil Marx says:

It is obvious to me that there is major ineptness at play within the FWPD. Three example follow. I would be really interested to hear an explanation for any of this from Sergeant Ritchie.

1) I reported a forged check a couple years ago. The person answering the phone asked a series of questions, then they immediately sent an officer to my home who did nothing more than ask the same exact questions. He told me a detective would be assigned and get back to me. Apparantly, even after stating it to two different people, they simply lost my phone number. I finally got ahold of the detective and he said he’d call back after he had time to look into the matter. My bank began demanding to know what was going on with the police, so I called and left at least two messages before this detective called back to simply give me the report number. Then, a couple weeks later, he called back again to say that this type of crime was so low on the prosecutors list that it really wasn’t worth pursuing. It was a small amount of money, and my bank had refunded it to me by then, so it was no loss to me. But I couldn’t help but wonder why FWPD wasted so much of their time and mine when they had to know from the very beginning that it would go nowhere.

2) I was seated as a jurror on a murder trial here a couple years ago. The FWPD detective who testified for the prosecution in this case (Barry Intes, I believe) gave a pathetic testimony. Basically, he said “We had two suspects in custody. It appeared that both knew the victim. It appeared that both were involved in a drug deal with the victim at the time he was murdered.” He then went on to say that FWPD arrested and supported charging one of these guys with murder, but simply let the other one go – without giving any further explanation. This was so bizarre that our jury actually questioned him for clarification as to why the other person (who seemed to be just as guilty as the one charged) was let go. He had no answer for this.

I can tell you for a fact, that this was the sole reason that our jury deliberated for so many hours. It was pretty obvious that the guy being charged had either committed the murder or at least played a role in it. But the fact that they let this other guy go without any credible reason being given made the detective’s entire testimony questionable. I can tell you that during deliberations, convesations often went along the lines of “We know there’s something funny about how the police handled this. If they are lying or if they simply f**ked up with the guy they didn’t charge, how do we know they didn’t do the same thing with the guy who is on trial? How do we know that FWPD (or just this detective) didn’t have some type of personal grudge against this guy and had therefore decided to manipulate the testimony in furtherance of this?

In the end, we found the defendent guilty, but it was close. I can tell you without a doubt that if our jury had decided to let this murderer walk, it would absolutely have been the responsibility of the FWPD officer who gave such poor testimony during the trial. His supervisors and the prosecutors office should also have had enough sense to realize how big of an issue this would be, so they share in the responsibility (or rather, irresponsibility.)

3) Crack cocaine has openly been sold on the streets (and sidewalks, and people’s front yards) of my neighborhood for at least the entire thirteen years that I have lived here. The police seem to actually think that since the drug dealers run back to their houses for a few minutes when patrol cars pass by that the problem is solved. They seem to think that making one or two token arrests per year to showcase for the media is actually an accomplishment. When I call to tell them that a nineteen year old kid (who would later be arrested for selling drugs and assaulting an officer) is buying a gun right in front of my house, they simply ignore me.

I have had a lot of interaction with many FWPD officers at every level. I will say that most of the patrol officers are okay. The majority of them really seem to prefer helping people and solving problems rather than just throwing their weight around or making arrests. But the higher up you go, the more problematic it becomes. I have taken my issue directly to several members of the FWPD Command Staff and I can say without a doubt that they just don’t give a damn and/or they are just too stupid to realize what is actually going on.

Oh, I almost forgot that there is another possible explanation for this bizarre behavior, and that is that it could simply be that the people running this department are just too cowardly to do what they know needs to be done. And on that note, I’ll remind Sergent Ritchie and any other FWPD officer who might read this that the invitation for dialogue is always open.

marxpd01@ipfw.edu

Phil Marx says:

Dan;

Thanks for letting me add my long diatribe to your post. I try to keep my rants against FWPD corralled within my own blog, but sometimes it’s difficult. I felt that this post was somewhat related to part of the same problem which I am experiencing here, and I initially took Jim Ritchie’s response to be an evasion of responsibility on the part of FWPD.

After reading again, I realize that I may have been wrong. Ritchie was simply defending Tim Johnson. As to the problem which undeniably does exist, it is still open as to who should be held accountable. I am firmly of the opinion that the buck stops at the top, and all the problems within FWPD are justifiably laid on Chief York’s shoulders. He should have enough intelligence to know what is going on within his department, and he should have the courage to do what is necessary to fix the problems which exist there. It is my opinion that he (York) is seriously lacking in at least one of these areas.

Regarding whether Mr. Johnson holds any responsibility for the problem in this case, I would start by saying that he should have realized that this training would have disallowed him to fully focus on his regular duties. And he should have adamantly registered these concerns with his supervisors. If he did not do that, then he is at fault. If he did, then apparently those above him failed to heed his advice.

“Just following orders” does not cut it as an excuse. Granted the lower level employees within any organization have extremely limited ability to make those above them listen or to change policy. But to simply do as you are told without question, even when you think it is the wrong thing to do, is unacceptable for any person in any position. And when you are employed by an agency which is tasked with enforcing the law, this is a direct threat to the public’s safety.

Regardless, somebody at FWPD f****d this one up. The person who burned your son’s van would likely have been caught if they had been on top of things. Mr. Ritchie is simply saying that he does not think this is Mr. Johnson’s fault, but then who’s fault is it? It may be that people such as Ritchie and Johnson are low enough on the totem pole that they don’t even know the answer to this.

All I know is that we have five Democrats on City Council who are eager to spend money on just about anything that the Mayor wants. I think if Chief York went before them and said “We need extra $$$ to provide coverage for those who will be taking this training, and if we don’t get the money public safety will suffer” then this council would have quickly given out the money. I must have missed the meeting where Chief York said that. I do remember the one where he said cutting the unfilled positions from the budget would not hurt public safety though.

Apparently, Chief York was wrong. So was he misinformed by those below him, or is he just an idiot? If it’s the former, then I wonder how far down the problem goes and whether Mr. Johnson did in fact register any concerns here. If it’s the latter, then I understand to some degree why neither Mr. Johnson or Mr. Ritchie would comment. There’s no sense loosing your job when it probably wouldn’t affect the way the department is run anyway.