** Update **

Here is the news article from the drug bust that occured the other day in Richland County. This was the one we saw the evidence from at the Citizen's Academy.

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9753935

Citizen's Academy Week 2

After being cancelled last week due to snow (hahahaaha) I attended Week 2 of Richland County Sheriff's Citizen Academy. Tonight we had Captain Lynn Week's from the Victim's Advocate office and Investigator Brian Metz from the Internet Crimes Division as our speakers. Both were very professional and told us about the services they provide the community. During Investigator Metzs' presentation the RCSD drug team popped in with some evidence from a bust that occured earlier in the day. They showed us a kilo of cocaine, 2 bricks of marijuana and several semi-automatic weapons that they had confiscated that day in Richland County. Kind of opened alot of people's eyes in the room to see that yes, it does happen in our town.

I was surprised to see how much the Victim's advocate office does for the victims of crimes in Richland County. They offer a wide variety of services from counseling, to court representation, food, shelter, protection and many other things. You can check out more information at http://www.rcsd.net/inv/vicassistance.htm

Investigator Metz schooled us on the Internet and told us about various cases he had worked on over the years. He provided many tips on Internet safety and provided us with an informative CD that could be used to track your child's activity on the Internet. Also RCSD is offering free Internet safety classes to anyone in the community, more info can be found her http://www.rcsd.net/media/jan09/1-8-internetsafety.html

Overall an enjoyable night again. Up next week out topics will be Internal Affairs and Civil Process...

Jason

Dutch Fork Football Banquet

We went to Austin's football banquet last night and had a great time. Austin was awarded his first letter in football. Most importantly he was honored as 1 of 30 players who had maintained a at least a 3.0 since they started high school! Austin's current GPA is 3.4 and this is mostly honors classes. As proud as I am of his football accomplishments I know his academic aclomplishments will take him farther. The banquet was well put together and was at Gateway Baptist church in Ballentine. Shealy's BBQ catered the event and the auditorium was decorated in Dutch Fork Colors. Coach Kimrey gave a good speech and has held true to the same thing he told our team 16 years ago. His advice has always been 4 things in life that are important.

#1 Your Faith

#2 Your Family

#3 Your Education

#4 Football

It still rings true to this day. I know this seems like a brag post because it is...Congrats Austin, We're proud of you!!

SNOW!!

It's snowing this morning!! Just light, barely dusting anything but by gosh it's snowing....

back to work...haha

Misc. Thoughts

Wow, what a dramatic rescue and happy ending yesterday with that plane crash! That pilot deserves some serious praise for that! When I fly again I hope he's the pilot! Man it's cold here this morning...23 last I saw. My mom lives in Wisconsin and emailed me yesterday and said there low was -41 with the wind chill! I guess we have it better than we know. Not much going on this week, looking forward to the weekend and relaxing and watching some football. May ride up to Lexington County and sit in with one of my dispatcher friends and check that place out, we'll see.

My NFL Picks for this weekend

Steelers- 24
Ravens-14

Cardinals- 31
Eagles- 21

Also have a friend from The Palmetto State Rivals Message Board who is trying to win a contest online, please go here and vote so she can win!

http://www.brickfish.com/Pages/PhotosAlbums/PhotoView.aspx?picid=784031_49696282&=HP_all_PPIMEMAIL&isep=1&pbapi=1800262&pbvi=55804315

First Night of Citizen's Academy

Wow! What a cool experience last night. It was the first class of the Richland County Sheriff's Department Citizen's Academy. The class is held at Headquarter's on Two Notch Road and I arrived about 6:30 and we all took our seats in the Media Room. We got started around 7:00 and the class has about 20-25 people in it. We met Deputy Kevin Steegal and Deputy Steven Tapler who will be leading the class. Soon after we started Sheriff Lott came in and spoke with us and thanked us for being there. He talked alot about the department and how that everyone that works for him are one of his "kids". He talked about how they take physical fitness very seriously in the department and how the sheriff's department cannot do their job without the members of the community's help. He seemed very sincere to me and seems like he would be a good man to work for. We then went around the room and introduced oursleves and told why we were there. There were several employees from the records department and other positions in the Sheriff's office in attendance as well as several retired persons who were there to learn more and learn how to volunteer. When it came my turn I told them who I was and where I lived and that I was there to learn more and was thinking of a career change. I also commented after Sheriff Lott's speech I had some serious work to do on the physical fitness side of things if I ever wanted a job, this got some good laughs...

We were informed of what the CAT team does and basically they are the community's link to the Sheriff's Department. They are officers whose main focus is to work with the community and identify problems. They hold meetings, offer classes on crime prevention and numerous other things in the community. Their main mission is to to develop long term solutions for areas of Richland County with specific problems. We went through a presentation and they showed us pictures of the Departments website and told us a little about each member of the CAT team. Some things of interest are that the Department offers free home security checks. They will check on your home at least once a shift if you are out of town and request it. Also they will do a free home/business safety inspection of your home. All you have to do is call the Sheriff's office and schedule it.

At a participant's request Deputy Tapler showed us and explained everything on his duty belt and told us what it was like to get hit with the tazer. He actually showed us the video of him getting tazed during his training. It is required that all deputy's that carry the tazer see what it feels like during training.Deputy Steegal activated his tazer and that is the first time I saw one up close. That thing looked like it would do some serious damage. They also went in to some of the vice work they do and told us a couple of stories about running prostitution stings and a certain rookie hazing incident Deputy Tapler underwent on one bust.

Overall I was really impressed with Deputy Steegler and Deputy Tapler. They seemed genuinely focused on the class and answering all of our questions. They were very professional and in our short time last night covered a wide range of topics. I am really looking forward to the rest of the class and can't wait until next week. Next week the topics are Region Overview and PIO and Media in Law Enforcement. So far this has really peaked my interest and I hope it can serve as motivation to make some chages and do more things if I want to move forward in this possible career change.

There is still time I believe if anyone else wants to join the class, just give me a call or email if your interested.

Jason

A Good Website

For those interested in Law Enforcement/Public Service I ran across this site the other day. YOu can listen live to police/fire/ems/etc.. just about anywhere in the United States..

http://richland.sc.scanamerica.us/index.php

Statrting the Richland County Sheriff's Department Citizen's Academy tommorrow night, looking forward to that! The first class is titled:

Community Orientated Policing/ CAT

I'll keep you updated!


** Also got a call from the FBI last week to attend their citizen's academy sometime in August. I have to have my application approved, pass a background check and get security clearance, but hope it works out! **

Jason

Yea!! Something new to worry about!

Well my step son Austin passed his drivers liscence test with flying colors this morning and will now be terrorizing roads in our area. I can't help but think of that song...

"Why me Lord? What did I ever do?...."

I feel a strong sense of impending doom, a lot of late nights waiting up, constant worrying and the ever present, "Can I have some gas money?" I guess the age difference is so close I feel like I'm "before my time". I should'nt be dealing with all of this at 33!! The good news I guess is 2 more years and he will be gone!!

I'm just kidding folks, in all seriousness Melanie and I are very proud of him and thanks to his "Gran" he will be tooling around in his 1997 Mercedes C280 or the "Benzo" as me and my friend Brian like to call it. I have the utmost faith in him and his driving instructor insured me he was one of the best students he has had. Doesn't mean I'm not going to be a nervous wreck from here on out. So if your up late with nothing to do give me a call, I won't be sleeping much for awhile :)

Man I could get used to this...

Well the Holidays are officially over after today. Sitting here watching the Miami/Baltimore playoff game and playing a "play" money tournament on Pokerstars and a thought hit me. As much as I like my job (haha) I sure could get used to not having to work for a living. Now bear with me here I know I have to work and provide for my family, but lately I have been having a pre-midlife crisis. I just can't shake the thought that there is so much out there in the world to do and see and I'm missing out on it. It's like I'm stuck in a grind and life is just going by and damn it I'm missing out! My recent trip to Ohio back in November got me started. I have always loved to travel and every trip I get to fly I feel more alive, out of the slump, and ready to do "something"! It's so easy to get stuck in a rut and I just think it's time for me to bust out of it.

Now realistically I know I'm at a point in my life for the next 2-3 years I can't really do anything dramatic. Austin (my step-son) has 2 more years of high school left and the most important thing is to provide a stable environment for him to finish up and get ready to go to college. So in the mean time I think for this year I am going to make some changes and do somethings to give myself some options for the future. First decision I made this year is after about 5 years of coaching minor league football is to not be involved this year. It was a hard decision and I know I will miss it, but there are just some other things I want to get involved with and football takes up ALOT of time. I know I will miss the guys with the Carolina Express and enjoyed last year, but felt like stepping aside was the right thing to do. I may still do the weekly internet radio show, but that will be the extent of my involvement.

I am going to do some things that I have been putting off for a long time. Ine being losing some weight and getting in shape. I am starting working out again tommorrow and will also be hitting the softball field again in March as I had a blast last year playing (Go Outlaws!) Also starting January 13th I will be attending the Richland County Sheriff's Department Citizen's Academy. It's a 13 week class that meets one night a week for 2 hours that gives a look at the whole department. I took criminal Justice at USC for 2 years and did'nt finsh and have always still been interested in law enforcement. I always regretted not finishing and getting in to police work and dammit I'm not too old to still do it. I don't know what the future might bring, but I want to at least put myself in to position to try if I decide to. I'm not fooling myself that I can do it or saying I AM going to do it, but I'm keeping my options open.

I knwo everyone laughs at me but one of my favorite places is Las Vegas. I've been once each of the last two years and have had a blast both times. Call me crazy, but I would'nt mind living there and working security or something in the casino field. This too is probably a pipe dream but if you can't dream what's the point of living?

No one knows what the future will bring and this year I am going to "think outside the box" and do some things that I have always put aside and at least stick my toe in the ocean per say..

Who knows what will come of any of it, but if you don't try you never know...

Of course I asked Melanie if she was ready to move to Las Vegas in two years when Austin graduates....

"So you're saying you want a divorce do you?" she replied

oh well I got two years to work on her... ;)

Jason