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Showing posts with label UVA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UVA. Show all posts

20100426

The Thin Blue Circle

Eons ago, due to the amount of Charlottesville officers assigned to Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement, I thought it’d be a good idea to cultivate a source in the city’s force. Anybody who pays attention to I HeArTE JADE is well-aware I’ve got one there.

From my relationship with him came an Albemarle policeman whom I incorporated into things -- which played out extra nicely since the Task Force also has numerous members deriving from the County Police Department. (He, ironically, knew me only because the other agency’s Police Chief, Timothy Longo, had at the time been behind the scenes gossiping about who specifically was operating this site; a twist I liken to that whole “Loose Lips Sink Ships” thing. So… hail to the Chief!)

With Jimmy Bunch being the sole detective from the University of Virginia PD in JADE, and Joe Fleming being its lone Virginia State Police investigator, I didn’t bother trying to get an “in” there or there. Shortly after BCI Special Agent Jason Trent invaded the scene, I halfheartedly re-evaluated the importance of the latter but right about the time I was seriously considering it might be necessary to have a spy in the State field, well, it’s not exactly an angle one can work from jail. Lesson learned; now “no source is unneeded” is right up there with my “no detail is too small” -- friggin’ top of my list.

Until I’d met my two darling cops, I’d assumed the local Police Departments and their respective employees generally liked each other, with maybe a mite of healthy competition thrown in for the hell of it. As it turns out, that isn’t really the case at all. It’s not even the case within JADE, a group of men who practically spend more time with each other than they do with their families.

Anyhow, sometimes it’s just the inner circle I’ve been recently talking to, or, more like, listening to, combined with a related event, rather than a genuine interest I have in any given lawman, that determine the entries I make here.

For instance, the other day a UVA patrolman -- like I said, “lesson learned” -- mentioned Jeff Maddra. I knew who he was talking about ‘cause this wasn’t the first time Mr. Maddra’s name had come up, and, actually, I’d done a cursory search on him previously and discovered this picture of him:


He looks like he should be cast as a character in Southland, doesn’t he?

Okay, then, the morning following that chat, I think it was, I happened to be in the clerk’s office at the Charlottesville General District Court/Police Department paying off fines and fees and costs, and any other word they can call it to get more money out of a person for the same conviction, when in strolls Mr. Maddra. Based on his attire -- a light-colored suit, dress shirt, dark shoes, and tie -- I figured he was taking care of his on-duty obligations while off-duty. Certainly no big deal.

Later, that evening, true to form, I dug up his Facebook profile, since of course he’d use a social network like every other badge-sporter seems to use. I saved it too, as it’s not unheard of for these guys to spaz and change or delete those accounts.

And now the entire nothing, about an individual I’m indifferent to, is all neatly integrated into a post.

See how that worked?

20090707

You Know He’s Ticked When He Doesn’t Call You Ma’am

For weeks I’ve been mildly musing about a letter Special Agent Jason Trent gave me that’s purportedly from the JADE Task Force Command Group. Actually, it isn’t the letter itself that’s on my mind but rather the people who comprise the group -- people who enigmatically didn’t sign or otherwise provide their names on said letter. I’ve found it incessantly puzzling why the missive merely closes like this:

JADE Task Force Command Group
Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation Captain
University of Virginia Police Chief
Albemarle County Police Chief
Charlottesville City Police Chief


I knew beforehand that Chief John F. Miller is with Albemarle County and Timothy J. Longo is the Police Chief of Charlottesville, and I recently learned the Chief of Police for the University of Virginia is Michael A. Gibson.


The only person I wasn’t sure about was the VSP BCI Captain. I gave that a quick look-up. Sheesh. There are seven possibilities.

I reasoned the best thing to do was ask someone who could tell me. Today I phoned Jason Trent. Holy crab, that man has gone pure hostile! Aside from straightaway flooring me with uncalled-for brusqueness he refused to give me the name of the Captain, choosing instead to sneer “you can use your Internet savvy to find that out.”

Excuze-ay-moi? You. Have got. To be. Freaking. Kidding. Me.

All right, jackhole. I will find out.

Which means I now must go nosing into the working lives of seven Law Enforcement men I primarily had not a splinter of interest in.

I’ve already established there’s just no way to ascertain from the Internet what Captain from the seven is the one connected to the JADE Task Force. I guess I’ll have to incur other savvies to figure it out.

Seven.
It’s too bad I don’t have the smarts to detect the obvious guy and start with him.

Rather than giving me a simple answer that would’ve been relegated to periodic echoes deep within the caverns of my brain exclusively, Mr. Trent’s thrown me a (potentially huge) project -- one I can share on I HeArTE JADE.

Way to go not giving me site fodder, sir.

20081105

Of Tags and Badges

A few Task Force members have vanity tags on their personal vehicles. Not all of them have an as obvious meaning as, say, this guy's. I wanted to know the significance of the number on one of their license plates and considered the possibility that it may be badge-related. This prompted me to get the badge numbers of all of the JADE officers. Since I'm all about finding out as much as possible about these guys, I can't believe I didn't think of doing this sooner.

I'm aware that police departments have caller ID. I didn't want to cause alarm with the local ones by asking for a string of badges all coincidentally belonging to members of the JADE Task Force. I also didn't think it wise to have my phone number keep showing up by calling several times during one shift. I opted for a sort of rotation.

I called the Albemarle County Police Department and City of Charlottesville Police Department as many times as necessary so as not to raise any red flags. I had no trouble with either department. I only needed to call the University of Virginia and Virginia State Police once each. Neither department was cooperative.

The lady who answered at VSP reminded me of an annoying five year old. No matter what I said, her response was "Why?" Ultimately she gave me a number but claimed she didn't know if it was correct or if it even belonged to the officer I named.

The woman who answered at UVA was just a delightful ball of pleasantness.

"I'm looking for the badge number of one of your detectives." I gave his name. She repeated his name as a question. I said "Yes." She asked me if I minded holding while she looked it up. I said I wouldn't mind. She came back on the line and gave me a two-digit number. I repeated the two digits as a question. She said "Yes." I thanked her, she wished me a good day, I wished her the same, and we hung up.

26 minutes later my cell phone rang. I didn't recognize the number on my caller ID but immediately noticed it started with 531 -- a common beginning for area law enforcement. I let it go to voice mail; the caller didn't leave a message. I waited 13 minutes and called it back. I got sent to voice mail. The recording didn't afford me a name but it did give me a familiar pager number. It belongs to the UVA detective. Apparently because I dared to ask for a public record, the see you next tuesday I'd spoken with supplied him with my private phone number.

A few days later a source provided me with a police document that also conveniently had all their badge numbers listed (although, admittedly, had I not already gotten them I probably wouldn't have known off-hand that's what they were). From the memo I learned that the number I'd been given for Detective UVA was a digit short.

I think probably UVA's Police Department believes it was acting in the best interest of its officer. However because of their paranoia and subsequent confrontational aggressive response, I wound up with more desirable information than I'd asked for.

Oh and, by the way, the tag that started this whole episode? Turns out it's not a badge number after all.