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Dumb cops being produced by academy

Academy Functions Well at Training But Rookies Often

"Feel Their Oats" and Overstep Authority

To the Editor:

While I have been retired and away from Southern Maryland for a few years I have maintained many close contacts with people still working there. In the article about the Police Academy producing 'dumb' cops I have to take exception with your verbiage.

To my personal knowledge the Southern Maryland Criminal Justice Academy has a excellent staff of instructors assigned to it by the three Sheriff's of Southern Maryland. They devote many hours to the academy for which they are not fully reimbursed by their agencies for. That is a fact of life in training in any academy anywhere. Officers who are not good instructors, or don't have a keen interest in training just don't last long in training. While student officers are undergoing training at the academy and during their Field Training Officer period after graduation they are extremely closely monitored at all times. Once they are turned loose by their respective agencies from their Field Training Officer and placed on patrol the degree of supervision drops greatly. This is the norm throughout law enforcement all over the country. They do receive a much higher degree of supervision than do veteran officers but can, and do, make rookie mistakes. In the heat of being on a scene of a critical call I would not be the least surprised that a rookie would make a mistake. It could be the result of a rookie "feeling his oats" and overstepping his authority.

I would hope that your reporter/photographer immediately approached a supervisor on the scene and reported the officers improper actions. If this was done that I would fully have expected the on scene supervisor to have corrected the problem and followed it up with counseling of the offending officer. If not then in your capacity as editor I would hope that you contacted the Sheriff of Charles County and brought the whole situation to his attention. In reading your article I noticed that you had spoken with Major Montminy. You failed to mention if he took any action or not so I couldn't comment on the even any further.

I have often commended your reporting of the news as you have seen it. In this instance I have to express my disappointment in your usage of a inflammatory headline that maligns one, if not the best, of the finest law enforcement academies in the entire State of Maryland. I would encourage you to do a follow up story on the Southern Maryland Criminal Justice Academy. I am confident that Sheriffs Tim Cameron and Mike Evans will both follow up themselves as I know they are keenly interested in the Academy and have demonstrated their interest by assigning excellent instructors to the academy.

Respectfully

David B. Wright

Lt #86 Ret.

Former Director of SMCJA

(Editor's Note: When rookies from this academy continually demonstrate their lack of training by their illegal behavior, its time to hit the nail on the head. The three Sheriff's of Southern Maryland need to take action as bringing these repeated acts 'to their attention' have not corrected the situation. These Sheriff's will now have to provide us with a plan to properly train officers in the academy as well as provide in-service training to those on the job or they will face a lawsuit. If we do not act to protect our Constitutional rights we can no longer rely on these police officials to do it for us. Our photographers have been assaulted by police officers, had their cameras illegally confiscated and only returned after supervisors were called, have had prior restraint illegally conducted in the most egregious way by being ordered not to take photos or video, all in violation of the Constitution. In short, when your Constitutional rights to gather news are being violated by the police, don't bother calling 911 or even calling the Sheriffs. We will follow up with news stories as to actions taken to properly train these law officers or arrange for a proper academy to send their officers. We have even had officers order photographers not to take photos because they could be terrorists. The only ones committing acts of terror in this region have been these bozo cops. Dumb Cops? Feeling their oats? What a load of crap. No newspaper in America supports law enforcement more strongly than this one or routinely tells our readers of top cops at work. That doesn't mean that when cops shoot dogs or people that we will simply lay down our pens and cameras and say gee whiz. If a cop has dispatched a bad guy with good cause, then we say good shooting. But it better be a good shoot. Shooting at unarmed dogs is always baloney especially when the dog is tethered and all the bozo cop had to do was back up. What was that cop scared of? What was Officer Dumbo at the Mall scared of? It is possible that the investigators would have liked to review the video and stills of our photographer at this scene. If these Sheriffs can't figure out what to do, we shall let a Judge explain it to them.)

Article on Dumb Cops Offensive to Charles County Police Officers

To the Editor,

I read your article written by the bold and rude Kenneth C. Rossignol named "Southern Maryland Police Academy Continues to Turn Out Dumb Cops" and was very offended and disturbed by what I read. You scrutinized a whole region of police officers because of one "rookie" officer's inexperienced actions. Yes, that officer did not have the right to dismiss the media from their right to take pictures, video, etc., but to call Charles County Police Officers demeaning names such as "Dumbo", "Idiot", or "Bozos" is so disrespectful and offensive. These officers protect and serve the lives of this region and yeah you, Mr. Rossignol, an A**hole writer like yourself. You have no idea what the men and women of Law Enforcement endure everyday they are at work. They risk their lives for jerks like you, and when one officer gets wrapped up in a moment like the mall shooting, you take that one officer's actions and blow it up into an offensive article against all Southern Maryland Law Enforcement. People like you who publish demeaning articles about law enforcement aide in the ever growing disrespect from the young generation of this community towards police officers.

As far as the Southern Maryland Police Academy? Many great Law Enforcement Officers have graduated from that program and have helped changed the community in a positive way, so don't base one rookie's stepping over authority as an example of an "untrained" and "inexperienced" police academy. People make mistakes, and yes, Police Officers are human too, and being in a high stress criminal scene can make some rookie officers cross the line of authority. The media did have the right to do whatever you all needed to do to get your story, but don't offend a whole community based on your little incident with a rookie officer. You have made the "St. Mary's Today" very distasteful to read and it's too bad that you have writers like Mr. Rossignol who write articles that are repulsive and offensive to the community.

Mr. Rossignol, You obviously need to go back and get training on how to write your stories in a more mature and professional manner.

Emili Zywusko

Charles County Resident

Pomfret, MD

(Editor's note: You have had your say and we stand by our article. You clearly are a new reader as you haven't seen the 20 years of positive coverage of Charles County officers. But when a public official violates the Constitutional rights of the media, and this happens over and over again, then it is proper for us to ask those in charge to correct the situation as well as to inform our readers of their acts to prevent our readers from learning of the news. That we do so with flair and slang is consistent with our editorial focus of being blunt. We have likely had far more experience with what law officers go through on a day to day basis than you and we have gone to great extents to relate that experience to our readers. We will not, however, make them sacred cows to please your desire to sanctify them. Police officers earn respect from young people by doing a good job, not as a result of news coverage which fails to tell the whole story. Our past coverage has included the illegal arrest by a Calvert officer of a Washington Post reporter, Annie Gowen, who was released from custody after supervisors became aware of the arrest. The Post reporter was simply trying to do her job to inform her readers of a police operation.)

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