Posted: 3/16/2011 6:36:08 PM EDT
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I've always had concerns that our station is not very secure. Last night brought my concerns to everybody else's attention. We were doing our DT's training in our training auditorium, which is right next to the parking lot. The easiest door to get to for us is one that comes from outside, near the parking lot. This particular door is not behind any type of gate, and is up about a 25 yard driveway from the street. With 20 cops wrestling around, it got a little warm, so we opened a door for ventilation. I was standing closest to the door and my spidey-senses kicked in. I turned around to see a guy standing in the doorway, sweating profusely, breathing heavily, babbling about being pissed at us for something involving a domestic and reaching for his waistband. After a second of taking it all in, I realized he was completely spun out on meth. At that exact moment, I realized that since we were in a "sterile" training environment, none of us had any weapons. Luckily for us and him, although he was mad at us in general, he didn't mean us any immediate harm. Between all of us, we were able to scrounge together a TASER, a baton and a radio. We called for patrol officers to come and they handled the rest of the situation. There's nothing we can do about the actual layout of the station at this point, but there were a few lessons learned by all of us in that situation. For one, I will never come to another training class without a gun (obviously keep it secure, but still available). The naked hospital escapee that made it into our dispatch center in the basement is a completely different story. |
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I've always had concerns that our station is not very secure. Last night brought my concerns to everybody else's attention. We were doing our DT's training in our training auditorium, which is right next to the parking lot. The easiest door to get to for us is one that comes from outside, near the parking lot. This particular door is not behind any type of gate, and is up about a 25 yard driveway from the street. With 20 cops wrestling around, it got a little warm, so we opened a door for ventilation. I was standing closest to the door and my spidey-senses kicked in. I turned around to see a guy standing in the doorway, sweating profusely, breathing heavily, babbling about being pissed at us for something involving a domestic and reaching for his waistband. After a second of taking it all in, I realized he was completely spun out on meth. At that exact moment, I realized that since we were in a "sterile" training environment, none of us had any weapons. Luckily for us and him, although he was mad at us in general, he didn't mean us any immediate harm. Between all of us, we were able to scrounge together a TASER, a baton and a radio. We called for patrol officers to come and they handled the rest of the situation. There's nothing we can do about the actual layout of the station at this point, but there were a few lessons learned by all of us in that situation. For one, I will never come to another training class without a gun (obviously keep it secure, but still available). The naked hospital escapee that made it into our dispatch center in the basement is a completely different story. But must be told regardless |
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There's a hospital next door, with only a 5 foot chain link fence between us. A mental patient escaped, jumped the fence and got into a door that lead to the stairwell that went downstairs. He couldn't actually get into the dispatch center, but the dispatchers could see him through the window in the door. |
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Considering we are county, meaning jail, it's very secure. All the entrances have cameras over them, and there is only one way in and out of the SO that is unlocked. Any other way in locked. Even if someone did managed to get a door open, dispatch is behind a controlled access door, and I won't get into the security of the jail.
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Quoted: Quoted: Accreditation would solve that problem.... Big +1  We gave up accreditation about 7 years ago, and we were much less secure then. We've since added controlled access gates, but the back door to the auditorium is still in front of those gates. Our HQ was built in the mid 40's. Our sub station, which was built in 2004 is much more secure with 10ft high block walls around the parking lot. Now that I think about it, the training room up there also has doors that lead to the public parking lot. |
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Quoted:......For one, I will never come to another training class without a gun (obviously keep it secure, but still available)........
On a similar note, from my research work with tactical. They aren't too comfortable about being in public accessible locations with only training munitions. While there are certainly advantages of using actual public facilities (the closer to real one trains in), that vulnerability and others, such as people becoming alarmed at seeing so many police cars at a public facility, may outweigh the advantage. ____________________________________________ ("He said he was here to see the head of the facility, Sir.'––sentry about an innocent, actual enemy agent "That's odd, these buildings have been condemned for months."––Phelps holding one of his elaborate illusions, under the guise of making army training films, (w,stte), Mission: Impossible "Invasion") |
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We had a sub station built that was fairly secure and decent to work out of. The only problem is that the building is part of a newer industrial park and there is only 1 road into/out of the park. To top it all of, there is a railroad crossing across the road. So if a train is coming, or that road is blocked, no one can get to or leave the complex.
Poor planning on someones part. |
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Other than one DB supervisor who thinks its a good idea (he's done this on several occasions) to unload and render our guns safe BEFORE we head out to the training area in marked cars, we're pretty good about having somebody armed when we're doing some kind of offsite training. We also have 3x5 red metal signs that say "POLICE TRAINING IN PROGRESS –– STAY BACK" that we always bring out when we're training offsite. |
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Quoted: We had a sub station built that was fairly secure and decent to work out of. The only problem is that the building is part of a newer industrial park and there is only 1 road into/out of the park. To top it all of, there is a railroad crossing across the road. So if a train is coming, or that road is blocked, no one can get to or leave the complex. Poor planning on someones part. That is very poor planning. Hopefully it never becomes a serious issue. Our substation has a similar issue. We have one way entrance and exit gates. You can't open the entrance gate from the inside or the exit gate from the outside. We had a malfunction on the exit gate and the guys up there were trapped. |
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The jail in my town wasn't secure in 2003. I don't know what changes have been made since then, but in 2003, 5 inmates (one a convicted murderer) managed to take over the Control Room, overpowered the detention officers on duty, put them all in a cell, disabled the phone system and escaped. I was the only officer on duty at the time (0230HRS) and responded to a 'fire alarm' call at the jail. Other inmates, knowing what had happened, manage to set the smoke detectors off.
What was REALLY scary, was that in reconstructing the escape, it was determined that these 5 escapees had passed right by a clocked open door to Dispatch. This door is supposed to be LOCKED at all times. Due to the summer heat, an inefficient cooling system and the heat generated by the equipment in Dispatch, it was/is often blocked open. |
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We hooked up an NCIC warrant at work. The local was too busy to pick up, so I transported the perp to them.
Even after the shooting they had at a similar station a few weeks prior. Sally port was open when we pulled up. I was surprised the weak doors open, no glass, open air seating of officers flying the desks in the lobby, no metal detectors. No gun vaults, I just dropped my duty weapon in the LT's desk drawer when we went back to the cell. This is something I am worried about at work. |
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We talked about a terrorist attack on Texas prison facilities
in our inservice. It's reasonable to assume that we could come under attack from Mexican cartells to get their people out if need be. I was disappointed, but not shocked by the answers that my peers gave to questions about how they would react to an outside attack if they were in the towers (With weapons). Most of them were "I'd go to the base of the pickett. I'm going home, fuck the paycheck." 
Fucking burned my ass. I was the only one out of 60 some peers that raised my hand when they asked "Who'd stand and fight?" Everyone had a great time with me, and I think I made some enemies. By GOD if you are in that tower you have the moral responsibility to fight until your means of resistance is gone. An organized, brash attack on a TDCJ facility can be done with such ease, it's laughable. |
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An organized, brash attack on a TDCJ facility can be done with such ease, it's laughable.
Maybe you shouldn't broadcast that online.  Probably the only thing that's kept the Cartels from doing it already is the difficulty in successfully exfil'ing. Yep. Getting in is one thing. Getting out and away is another. |
| Where I used to work it was useless. While we had keypad locks on the doors, the doors were so rusty you could just yank it open. On more than one occasion I had a civilian show up in our living area and completely surprise me. Thank god they spoke up as I would have drawn down if caught off guard. |
The only entrance into our building that doesn't require a key card is the front lobby. Front desk staff there are behind bullet-proof wall and glass. Our parking lot is unsecured. The parking lot for our undercover narcotics vehicles is only secured on 3 sides 
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The only entrance into our building that doesn't require a key card is the front lobby. Front desk staff there are behind bullet-proof wall and glass. Our parking lot is unsecured. The parking lot for our undercover narcotics vehicles is only secured on 3 sides I can't see any reason for UC personnel to visit a station at all. PD's should take advantage of the fact there is plenty of commercial real estate practically free on the market. |
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The only entrance into our building that doesn't require a key card is the front lobby. Front desk staff there are behind bullet-proof wall and glass. Our parking lot is unsecured. The parking lot for our undercover narcotics vehicles is only secured on 3 sides I can't see any reason for UC personnel to visit a station at all. PD's should take advantage of the fact there is plenty of commercial real estate practically free on the market. Doesn't matter, our guys do that and everyone on the street knows where their building is. |
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The only entrance into our building that doesn't require a key card is the front lobby. Front desk staff there are behind bullet-proof wall and glass. Our parking lot is unsecured. The parking lot for our undercover narcotics vehicles is only secured on 3 sides I can't see any reason for UC personnel to visit a station at all. PD's should take advantage of the fact there is plenty of commercial real estate practically free on the market. Doesn't matter, our guys do that and everyone on the street knows where their building is. Neil McCauley: You must've worked some dipshit crews.
My mind is boggling, here. Its not worth anyone's time to go down and take pictures of everyone and every car in the lot? |
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The only entrance into our building that doesn't require a key card is the front lobby. Front desk staff there are behind bullet-proof wall and glass. Our parking lot is unsecured. The parking lot for our undercover narcotics vehicles is only secured on 3 sides I can't see any reason for UC personnel to visit a station at all. PD's should take advantage of the fact there is plenty of commercial real estate practically free on the market. Doesn't matter, our guys do that and everyone on the street knows where their building is. Neil McCauley: You must've worked some dipshit crews.
My mind is boggling, here. Its not worth anyone's time to go down and take pictures of everyone and every car in the lot? I know more than a few UCs who got burned like that. |
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This was my dad's friend killed right outside the station they built a huge fence so nobody can see in sorry dont know how to make the link hot http://www.odmp.org/officer/11768-patrolman-john-william-sartain Fixed it for you. |
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Escaping from a prison facility in Texas = justifiable deadly force. They'll get it, but die getting out.  Sure does. We will face disciplinary if we don't use deadly force. Though, it's alarming that many people that work in the system have qualms about killing escaping inmates, and can't handle firearms. Plus, the ones in the pickets are ones that can't run a pod anymore. |