Dayhoff Westminster Soundtrack

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Westminster Police Department Captain Randy Barnes graduates from FBI National Academy July 18, 2007 by Kevin Dayhoff

Dec. 23, 2015: I happened to see Randy Barnes recently. It was good to see him. It reminded me of this story I wrote about many years ago...

Westminster Police Department Captain Randy Barnes graduates from FBI National Academy July 18, 2007 by Kevin Dayhoff http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/2007/07/westminster-police-department-captain.html

Labels: Police, Westminster Police, Westminster Police Barnes Randy, Westminster Police Dept officers

June is the season when many friends and family come together to celebrate graduations. It was perhaps no different for friends, colleagues, and members of the Barnes family who celebrated Randy Barnes’ graduation on June 8.

All right, maybe it was a little different; for you see Westminster Police Department Captain Randy D. Barnes, at age 50, graduated last month on June 8 from the 229th session of the prestigious FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va., which began April 1. He was presented his diploma by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III. The academy, which began in 1935, has to date, had more than 37,000 persons graduate.

Captain Barnes graduated from Westminster High School in 1976, the year Chief H. Leroy Day retired and Sam R. Leppo was appointed Chief.

In the past he has taken classes at Carroll and Catonsville Community College, in addition to attending the Western Maryland Police Academy in Hagerstown, MD in 1980. He has also taken a long list of trainings, including courses such as Special Weapons and Tactics School, Investigative & Electronic Surveillance Training, Law Enforcement Executive Development, and Firearms Instructor School.

He has been with the Westminster Police Department 28 years. Much has changed since that hot summer day on August 7, 1979, when Captain Barnes reported for duty when the Westminster Police Department was still located in Westminster City Hall.

This was in the days before the department moved from its two-room office in City Hall to the basement of the Longwell Municipal Center in 1980. When Captain Barnes first joined the department folks taken in police custody were often handcuffed to the radiators in the office or locked in a storage room in the basement.

After the department moved to the Longwell building, its radio communication began providing 24 hour service from a dispatch center that was linked to a new concept called the “911 emergency system.

And in 1981 the department started a “Crisis Response Team.” Captain Barnes was part of that team that was shot at in a 15-hour barricade situation in town on January 30, 1984.

Today Captain Barnes is the Commander of the Field Services Bureau and the Incident Commander for the Carroll County Crisis Response Team. The Field Service Bureau consists of Patrol, K-9, Crisis Response Team, Traffic Safety, Parking Management, and Emergency Management.

The basic foundation of any successful and thriving community is public safety and in the last number of years the changes in the pursuit of public safety have been profound and precipitous.

And one thing that will remain constant in the future is that the changes will keep coming. It is in this light that Captain Barnes said he “jumped at the opportunity (to attend the FBI Academy.) It has been a dream to have the opportunity to go…”

In a recent telephone conversation the first thing that he mentioned is that he “couldn’t have done it without the support of his wife and children.”

As far as the constant changes and challenges facing law enforcement these day, Captain Barnes emphasized, “When you think that you have learned enough to be good at your profession that is when you must realize that there is so much more to learn… One of the major benefits of attending the FBI National Academy was the opportunity to network with law enforcement executives from all over the country – and the world for that matter.”

His dormitory roommate for the 10 weeks at the academy was a lieutenant (Bruce Banks) with the Illinois State Police internal affairs division.

“He was among 300 law enforcement officials from throughout the United States, as well as those from 25 foreign countries -- who attended” this academy session. Appointment of candidates to the FBI academy is a highly selective process. Less than 1 percent of the nation's law enforcement officials are chosen to attend the program,” according to a recent Westminster Eagle news brief.

Captain Barnes said this gave him ample opportunity for networking with other top law enforcement professionals and being exposed to “new ideas… and getting good ideas from other police professionals who are dealing with similar challenges (as Westminster.)

“The City of Westminster is not the Lone Ranger when it comes to many of the current law enforcement challenges we face. It was good to gather some insights into what has been tried and worked in other areas of the country facing similar challenges,” Captain Barnes explained.

Law enforcement today is all about ever-changing challenges… And “in an era of decreasingly finite resources the department needs to be constantly focusing on more training and exposing ourselves to new operating efficiencies and cutting edge technologies…”

The academic portion of the day at the academy went from 8 am to 5:30. After dinner, they studied, worked-out and ran to kept in shape, and used the time to work on research papers. His main paper for the session was on “Methods of processing latent fingerprints.”

“I selected courses which will (immediately) benefit Westminster citizens and the department,” Captain Barnes elaborated. The classes, which are academically accredited through its affiliation with the University of Virginia, included legal issues, advanced investigative techniques, police management, professional ethics, and fitness training.

As a result, “Captain Barnes earned undergraduate college credits upon completion of academy courses, which included the following: Legal Issues for Command Level Officers; Labor Law Issues for Law Enforcement Administration; Forensic Science for Police Administrators; Chemical Agents in Law Enforcement; Contemporary Issues in Police and Media Relations; Gangs, Developmental Issues, and Criminal Behavior; and Fitness in Law Enforcement,” according to a news release from Westminster Police Chief Jeff Spaulding.

Chief Spaulding, along with Major Ron Stevens are also FBI Academy graduates; having had the opportunity to attend while they were a member of other police agencies before joining the Westminster Police Department. Captain Barnes is the first police officer to attend the academy while with the Westminster Department.

Captain Barnes, a Lacrosse enthusiast, said “each week there was a physical fitness challenge. As the weeks would go by the physical fitness challenge would get more difficult. They were all named after characters, events, or features of the Wizard of Oz.”

They included “We’re Not in Kansas Anymore,” the “Tin Man Trot,” the Munchkin Run - 4.2 miles; Journey to Oz - 5.2 miles and finally, the Yellow Brick Road, a 6.1-mile run, once completed, they were awarded a yellow brick inscribed with “FBINA 229.”

One of the highlights of the FBI Academy experience was touring the Marine Corps Museum. Captain Barnes shared that one of the most emotional experiences occurred during Law Enforcement Memorial Week in the early of part of May.

Three buses of children of police officers who were killed in the line of duty in the previous year visited the Academy and the Marine Corps Museum. They were accompanied by 100 police motorcycle escorts from the departments in which the slain officers served. “I will never forget it,” said Captain Barnes.

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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

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Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Honestly, you cannot make this up – Baltimore Sun story by Luke Broadwater: “Baltimore mayor, other city elected officials to get raises”

“Baltimore mayor, other city elected officials to get raises”

Baltimore Sun story by Luke Broadwater December 22, 2015

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/blog/bs-md-ci-raises-20151221-story.html

“The paychecks of Baltimore's elected officials — including Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young and Comptroller Joan M. Pratt — are about to get bigger.

On Wednesday, the city's Board of Estimates, which includes those three officials, is set to approve pay raises for themselves and the members of the City Council.

Rawlings-Blake's salary is set to go from $167,000 to $171,000. Young and Pratt's pay is set to increase from $110,000 to $113,000.

According to a city law passed in 2007, the elected officials are entitled to a 2.5 percent raise if some city workers also get a raise in that year's budget. The raises go into effect Jan. 1.

Howard Libit, a spokesman for the mayor, said she plans to abstain from voting on her raise. He said officials are voting on the raises in public to be "fully transparent and disclose what's happening."

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Dec. 22, 2015 I ran the Wakefield Valley Trail with Sam Barber Adagio for Strings and Alvin Lee and Ten Years After

Dec. 22, 2015: Lonely is the runner, an old Marine that runs pathetically in the gray skies and drizzle

Disney Cruise in December 1997 with awesome celebrity guests…

Sunday, December 20, 2015

The view from under the Maryland bus. By Kevin E. Dayhoff Dec. 20, 2015

I spent time this afternoon with several of the police officers, known as the “Baltimore Six,” and their families, as part of efforts to help brighten their Christmas holiday.

By Kevin E. Dayhoff Dec. 20, 2015

Maryland Troopers Association Lodge #20 Chaplain

The views expressed here are not only correct but they are my views and mine alone – and the views of my upbringing – and my mother’s but I take full responsibility for my views. And please note that I take great pride in respecting the points of views of others who respect mine.

I spent time this afternoon with several of the police officers, known as the “Baltimore Six,” and their families, as part of efforts to help brighten their Christmas holiday.

This was the first time I had the opportunity to meet any of them in person. I met fine individuals and wonderful families. My heart – our hearts go out for them at this difficult time.

I guess that my many years of serving as an appointed and an elected official, as well as five-years as a chaplain for the Westminster Fire Department and Maryland Troopers Association Lodge #20, and 12-years as a newspaper reporter gives me a certain insight into the character of individuals.

I have been told by other police officers and public officials that have known some or all of the six Baltimore police officers; that these men and women in uniform have the hearts of dedicated public servants, who have worked tirelessly under very difficult circumstances to protect and serve.

In return, because it was politically expedient, certain public officials have thrown these men and woman under a bus in order to enhance their careers and cover-up their short-comings and inadequacies – and years of failed public policies and political leadership.

These officers and their families are our neighbors, friends, and part of our greater blue family.

They are all on a long journey. As sad as their current circumstances, today they were measured, thoughtful, reflective, but nevertheless upbeat, not only because they exuded a depth of character and personal integrity, but because they have been humbled by the incredible support they have received from the community.

I guess we have not been reading about the support they have received from the community because it does not meet with a pre-determined media narrative.

They will need more of our help in the future – and I may quietly reach-out and ask for your support.

We help these individuals because it is the right thing to do.

We help, simply because for those of us who have served the public in Maryland for years – it is only by the grace of God that it could just as easily be you or me under the Maryland bus.

All of us who served in appointed or elected office in Maryland or have served the public in Maryland know all too well that in Maryland you do not have to do anything wrong to wake-up one morning a scape-goat and thrown under a bus because it is convenient for a powerful individual of powerful organization or institution or simply good politics.

(I faced it just the other day when a powerful institution wanted to throw me under a bus. I was just doing my job as a volunteer. They saw that as a perceived threat. Fortunately the men and woman of the fire company stood behind me.)

Today, any one of us can be the victim of a news media account that is factual but does not tell the truth. Or the current pre-occupation with lies, damn lies and videotape.

In the race to the bottom that is Maryland, there is an unscrupulous political element that does not care about the welfare of individuals and families if it does not meet with their political narrative or quest for power.

In Maryland, no one has any immunity from being squished like a bug, just for doing your job, or standing-up for the right thing or standing-up to corrupt powerful individuals and institutions that wish to sweep its short-comings under the rug, with the explicit help of the Maryland elite-ruling class.

Always remember, that in the end; without public safety you cannot have a community.

It is at time like this that I recall the words of the German clergyman, Pastor Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)

"First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."

In Maryland, it is time that we stood-up for what is right. There is no better time than right now for standing-up for the Baltimore Six.

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The view from under the Maryland bus. By Kevin E. Dayhoff Dec. 20, 2015

The view from under the Maryland bus. By Kevin E. Dayhoff Dec. 20, 2015 http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-view-from-under-maryland-bus-by.html

I spent time this afternoon with several of the police officers, known as the “Baltimore Six,” and their families, as part of efforts to help brighten their Christmas holiday.

By Kevin E. Dayhoff Dec. 20, 2015 Maryland Troopers Association Lodge #20 Chaplain

Labels: Baltimore crime, Baltimore Six 20150501, Law Order, Maryland, Year in Review 2015