June 2007 Issue

At 75, Joe Arpaio is serving his fourth term as sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz. It's a job he's held for 15 years, much to the delight of the voting population in the Phoenix area and much to the dismay of politically correct, civil liberties advocates who characterize his policies as cruel and the man himself as a dangerous dinosaur.

Interviewing a child is in some ways very similar to interviewing any crime victim but, in some ways, it's very different. The first hurdle is to get the child to open up.

As much as the Internet is savaged as a venue for pornography, gambling, and cybercrime, the World Wide Web is by far the most efficient information gathering tool ever invented. Historians a century from now may consider it more important in the expansion of human knowledge than the development of the movable type press.

Not long ago a good friend of mine was killed in an accident. He had gone to the academy with me, been my roommate, and later worked the beat next to mine for two years. We had the bond of on and off-duty friendship and adventures. In thinking of Sam I remembered the scariest building search I ever did.

During my law enforcement career I never had a malfunction or a problem with any of the Smith & Wesson pistols that I owned or was issued. Needless to say, I like Smith & Wesson pistols.

Research shows that approximately five percent of U.S. citizens have a serious mental illness. What this means for law enforcement is that approximately seven percent of police contacts involve a mentally ill person and 10 to 15 percent of incarcerated persons are mentally ill.

The name "Dragon Fire" implies ferocity and power during combat. Well, this ballistic vest is built to give as good as it gets.

As a Washington State Trooper, Kelly Kalmbach had been given her fair share of adrenaline jolts courtesy of other drivers. But few had come so close to taking her out as the driver of a white Cadillac that nearly clipped her patrol car around midnight June 25, 2006, on State Route 7 near Spanaway.

Gunshots still ring in your ears as you hunker down behind your patrol car. You know the armed suspect ran from his car into some roadside brush, but surreal red and blue flashes from your overheads make it difficult to focus on where he might be now. You see a muzzle flash as he fires again from the shadows.

The U.S. Supreme Court has said that "Because many situations which confront officers in the course of executing their duties are more or less ambiguous, room must be allowed for some mistakes on their part. But the mistakes must be those of reasonable men, acting on facts leading sensibly to their conclusions of probability." (Brinegar v. U.S.)

The Star of Reno shines no more. Luck ran out a long time ago for those who lodge at the Roulette Motel. And you'll find more grim than glamour at the Monte Carlo. Welcome to downtown Reno, Nev.