Jennifer Chase's Blog, page 86
February 10, 2011
What Does it Take to be a K9 Cop like Hero Deputy Jack Davis in Silent Partner?
My newest cop thriller, " Silent Partner ", highlights hero K9 cop Deputy Jack Davis with his trusted four-legged partner Keno. He's a cop that you want on your side. He quickly faces several unsettling dilemmas of whether to trust his estranged girlfriend with a questionable past or his brothers in blue. Thrown into a cat and mouse game with a serial killer causes this K9 cop to test even his most proven skills. It's twist ending that I guarantee you won't see coming!
What is the reality of being a K9 police officer? As with any law enforcement position, there are requirements and training. Every police department has their own specific requirements, but I've outlined some basic requirements. If you are interested in becoming a police K9 officer, it is best to visit the police department you are interested in either in person or on the web to find out all the necessary information.
Officers assigned to the K9 Unit are on a voluntary basis. To become a police K9 officer, you must already be a sworn officer, have at least 2-3 years experience as a law enforcement officer, complete an application, assessment, physical requirements, and interview procedure.
What happens next? After you are selected to become a handler, you will receive training in a Basic Handler School and be paired with your four-legged partner. K9 handlers learn K9 law, record keeping, K9 maintenance and emergency first aid, basic handling skills, and K9 officer survival.
Upon successful completion of training and certification, K9 officers are given their new assignments. Most departments have the dogs live with their assigned handlers and they are required to train approximately four hours a week. Training consists of tracking, building search, field search, handler protection, and physical apprehension according to USPCA (United States Police Canine Association) standards.
K9 units serve patrol functions and narcotics detection. Most common calls for K9 units are crimes in progress, burglary and robbery alarm calls, prowler calls, street fights, and narcotic detection.
Jennifer Chase
Award Winning Author & Criminologist
Blog: http://authorjenniferchase.blogspot.com/
Website: http://jenniferchase.vpweb.com/
Crime Watch: http://emilystonecrimewatch.blogspot.com/
Book & Crime Talk: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jennifer-chase
February 9, 2011
Reunited Mother and Daughter are Like Strangers
When we hear about abducted children who are reunited with their parents, particularly after a long period of time, we are thrilled for the happy ending. The cases of Elizabeth Smart and Jaycee Dugard both made international headlines and the legal and emotional fallout from those terrifying crimes are still being reported on the news. There cannot be too many things more heart-wrenching for a parent than to not know where your child is and even if she is alive. But while a parent and child finding one another after many years apart is a wonderful story, there also can be resulting anger, sadness, and confusion.
Several weeks ago, Carlina White was reunited with her mother after being abducted as an infant twenty-three years ago. Carlina had been taken by a woman who was posing as a nurse when the girl's parents brought her to Harlem Hospital due to a fever. This same woman, Ann Pettway, gave the baby a new identity and raised Carlina as Nejdra Nance.
Apparently, Carlina had always suspected that she was not the biological child of Pettway and did her own investigation on the Internet. During one of her regular searches on the website for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Carlina discovered a baby picture that looked just like her and the steps towards a reunion were taken from there.
Joy White, Carlina's mother, says that the initial thrill of having her girl home has been replaced by the realization that the two women are strangers . There is no trust, there are strains concerning money that was awarded in a civil suit years ago, and there is Carlina's struggle of being caught between two families.
We need to remember that when we watch the exciting news about a lost family member being found that we certainly should celebrate, but also remember that the psychological trauma does not end with freedom from the abductor. As with many crimes, this case involves people who will need a lot of time to heal from their emotional wounds.
February 8, 2011
One of Time Magazine's Best Inventions in 2008 – Enhanced Fingerprints
There are so many really cool things that make Time Magazine's top 50 inventions every year. For example in 2010, there was the solar shingle, bladeless fan, wooden bones, and the world's fastest (steam powered) car.
An amazing fingerprint enhancement technique was listed in Time Magazine's Top 50 Best Inventions for 2008. A physicist, John Bond, developed a new technique for analyzing fingerprints on a gun (including bullets and casings) after they have been wiped clean. Basically, sweat corrodes metal, so Bond was able to apply an electrical charge and a fine carbon powder to a gun's corroded part, and revealed a fingerprint pattern. Now you see it! Police have already been using this technology to reopen some of their unsolved cases.
Fingerprints are one of the most crucial pieces of evidence in crime scene investigations. And, they are the most fragile piece of evidence. They can be easily contaminated or destroyed due to many reasons. In the crime scene investigator's handbook, it is highly recommended any potential fingerprints be searched, documented, and collected first.
As with any new technology, it seems that there are more than one purpose for inventive ingenuity. This new fingerprint enhancement also works by way of measuring the extent of corrosion on copper and copper-based alloys. Basically, discovering how much metal has corroded. This is a cheap, easy process (works off a 9 volt battery in the field) to measure corrosion on machinery making sure that there aren't any safety issues before there's a problem. It can be used for measuring corrosion on water pipes, various machinery piping, and anything that has copper attachments.
John Bond's new fingerprint enhancement has been sited as one of the technologies "most likely to change the world" by a penal of experts for BBC Focus Magazine. That's quite an impressive statement. Here again, forensic technology has been used for other important tasks.
Jennifer Chase
Award Winning Author & Criminologist
Blog: http://authorjenniferchase.blogspot.com/
Website: http://jenniferchase.vpweb.com/
Crime Watch: http://emilystonecrimewatch.blogspot.com/
Book & Crime Talk: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jennifer-chase
February 7, 2011
February 5, 2011
Identification of Young Boy's Body Confirmed in California
Police investigators will tell you that there is not a more difficult case on which to work than when a child is the victim of violence. While there are many crimes that are difficult to understand, to deal with the physical and emotional reality of someone doing harm to a child often leaves even hardened veterans affected for quite some time. In California, the discovery of one little boy's body this past Tuesday was a sad conclusion to a search that law enforcement had been doing for weeks.
The body of four-year-old Juliani Cardenas was found in a canal and DNA samples were used to confirm his identity. He was last seen alive on January 18 , when he was in the care of his grandmother and wrestled from her arms by his mother's ex-boyfriend. A witness claims to have seen a car with a man and young boy entering the water near the Delta-Mendota Canal one day after the abduction. The car was found in the canal more than a week ago. The search for the ex-boyfriend, Jose Estaban Rodriguez, continues.
Authorities believe that the body of Rodriguez also will be discovered at some point in the canal, but a warrant for his arrest on homicide charges has been issued in case he is found alive. Currently, Juliani's mother is five months' pregnant with Rodriguez's unborn child.
While we may never know unless police get the opportunity to talk to Rodriguez himself, it appears that this tragedy may be the result of jealousy or revenge. Perhaps Rodriguez thought he would be punishing his ex-girlfriend (and mother of his yet-to-be-born baby) by hurting her son. I'm sure he has accomplished that, but he took a young and innocent life in the process.
February 4, 2011
New Forensic Discovery -- Identifying Bullet Trajectories More Efficiently
There are many new discoveries lately that will help investigators solve cases with scientific forensic techniques. Here is another example of different fields working together for multiple purposes of investigation. According to an issue of Radiology, multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) provides an efficient, effective way to analyze wounds from bullets and other explosive devices. This technique will help to give police and FBI investigators some answers during crimes involving multiple shootings and explosions.
Multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) is a form of computed tomography (CT) technology for diagnostic imaging. In MDCT, a two-dimensional array of detector elements replaces the linear array of detector elements used in typical conventional and helical CT scanners. The two-dimensional detector array permits CT scanners to acquire multiple slices or sections simultaneously and greatly increase the speed of CT image acquisition. Image reconstruction in MDCT is more complicated than that in single section CT.
Pervious reports of wounds from bullets and bomb fragment don't include the progression of the trajectory (curved path of something hurtling through space) angles or the direction of the wound path. This new process works by scanning a 64-channel MDCT images that records the entrance and exit sites for the bullet trajectories. This technology allows more analysis of thousands of penetrating injuries and correlates them with external ballistics.
According to Dr. Folio, D.O., M.P.H. from the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland, "MDCT-based calculations of wound paths and angles of trajectory have other potential benefits including assistance in crime scene analysis and the triage and treatment of patients. The work can also be applied to records from the Joint Theater Trauma Registry, A U.S. Department of Defense database of penetrating injuries in fatally and catastrophically wounded soldiers."
Additional MDCT research has been scheduled to analyze bullet trajectories and wound paths in other areas of the body that include the head, chest, and abdomen. Dr. Folio is leading the study on automated trajectory analysis in Vietnam veterans with traumatic brain injuries.
Jennifer Chase
Award Winning Author & Criminologist
Blog: http://authorjenniferchase.blogspot.com/
Website: http://jenniferchase.vpweb.com/
Crime Watch: http://emilystonecrimewatch.blogspot.com/
Book & Crime Talk: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jennifer-chase
February 3, 2011
Would You Walk Through This Gate at Night by Yourself?
How much would it take for you to walk through this gate at night – alone?
As I mentioned in previous articles, I'm a very visual person and many things can actually trigger storylines and chapters. I can be driving in my car and see an old abandoned house or a creepy gate and think… Who lived there? What happened? What's their story? Why is it abandoned now?
Everyone and everything has a story. That's what is so wonderful about being a writer. You can create a storyline from practically anything. It's true that a picture is worth a thousand words – probably more. I love to read and write stories that make you think twice before moving forward. Weighing thoughts of what you have to loose. To me, that's what a thriller is all about.
My heroine Emily Stone in Compulsion had some quick decisions to make…
Emily eases her body closer to the farmhouse in a crouching position down the steep hillside, but she still can't get a visual on the pedophile. There are thick bushes and sharp thorns on some of the undergrowth catching on her jeans and scratching the inside of her forearms.
She loses her footing and tumbles a few feet, but a stout bush abruptly stops her descent. Her Glock sticks in the bush and she hastily recovers the weapon. She's covered in thick dust and has skinned her left palm trying to stop the fall. Blood begins to seep through the wounds. She stops and listens attentively, but she is stumped as to where the man went. He couldn't have gone far because he wouldn't have left the little girl alone.
Emily decides to climb back up to her car and get another vantage position. A bad feeling begins to creep into her body that she can't seem to shake. It's not anxiety, but rather a real feeling of danger. Her throat becomes dry and constricted, and her pulse elevates. She climbs faster; it's only another few feet to the top.
In Award Winning Dead Game , Emily Stone has even more quick decisions to make with wisecracking, sometimes annoying Jordan Smith .
The gunfire sprayed across the conference room and more windows blasted out of the office building. The glass showered down and crackled with intensity for several seconds. Emily wouldn't be able to hold the assassins off much longer with the few bullets she had left. She knew that she had to make a difficult choice, if she wanted to live.
Jordan pleaded with her. "Trust me. We can do this."
Emily looked at Jordan and her dark eyes conveyed a look that there had to be another choice.
Any choice.
Anything at all.
"We have to go now Emily." Jordan looked at the window opening and estimated how far it was to the sculpture from the windowsill, it couldn't have been more than six feet. "It's now or never." He stated as matter of fact.
In Silent Partner, K9 Deputy Jack Davis had to make split second decisions to get the bad guys.
Diligently, Jack searched the cluttered and partially dilapidated top floor with Keno.
Flashlight beams bounced throughout the fourth floor in every filthy corner, extended gap, and potential hiding spot.
The second suspect remained at large.
Jack's gut tightened. His internal, suspicious voice whispered to him the suspect was close. That familiar headache tension squeezed his temples in a vice. His minor cut from an hour ago throbbed in perfect timing with his elevated heart rate.
Quick decisions. Heightened tension. Plot pacing help to drive a thrilling story forward. My characters had to make some fast decisions.
What quick decisions would you make? Do you agree with the heroes in my thrillers in their decisions?
Jennifer Chase
Award Winning Author and Criminologist
Blog: http://authorjenniferchase.blogspot.com/
Website: http://jenniferchase.vpweb.com/
Crime Watch: http://emilystonecrimewatch.blogspot.com/
Book & Crime Talk: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jennifer-chase
February 2, 2011
Bullies Who Posted Their Violence on YouTube Arrestes in Philadelphia
We have read a lot of tragic stories recently about the bullying that is taking place among children across our country. While there always has been teasing and fighting on the playground, the tactics used by this new generation seem take the problem to an unprecedented level. Many argue that technology has played a role in creating students who are more vicious and callous in their attacks on their peers. When we see others as faceless characters on the receiving end of a text message or a victim being recorded on a cell phone, we remove an emotional connection.
One sad incident took place in Philadelphia last month when seven teenage boys attacked another boy who was walking by himself home from school. The gang of kids kicked him, dragged him through the snow, and then hung him from a fence by his jacket. And, the entirety of the violence was captured by one of the suspects on his cell phone. The boy broadcasted the video on YouTube apparently to claim his fifteen minutes of fame in a very unfortunate way.(It has since been removed.)
The seven teens were arrested this week while at school and now sit in a juvenile detention center while awaiting a detention hearing.
In my second novel, Dead Game , I feature both the positive and negative impacts that technology has on our modern society. While we now have wonderful communication and investigative tools available to law enforcement, criminals are also taking advantage of the latest devices to track victims, establish relationships with ill intentions, and even document their crimes.
The story out of Philadelphia was upsetting and unfortunately highlights what is occurring almost every day in our neighborhoods. What is the answer for young people find this behavior acceptable and even want to brag about it to others? How should we react and what should we demand as a consequence?
January 31, 2011
Day of Celebration!
I'm taking a work and blog break today -- a little breather to take some time to relax and enjoy being another year older today -- hopefully another year wiser. I thought it would be fun to share with you some of my favorite things.
My favorite cake is actually a white cake and not a chocolate cake. I don't mean a boring kind of white cake, but a really top-notch white cake with raspberry filling, white frosting, topped with fresh fruit.
Many people don't believe me when I tell them I don't drink coffee. They always ask, "How do you get motivated in the mornings?" I really don't have any caffeine, except once in a while I have a chai latte. It's my favorite hot drink. I always sprinkle a little nutmeg and cinnamon on top. A perfect morning drink in my opinion.
I love the beach. What else can I say? Photos speak louder than any description I could give you. I'm heading down to the beautiful Monterey Bay today to enjoy the nice weather and do some shopping.
I love all types of food especially Italian, but on special occasions I especially enjoy a scrumptious shrimp scampi. Yum!
If I couldn't have any sweets or desserts, I couldn't live without ice cream. My favorite flavors are butter pecan and chocolate chip.
Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate all of the support and comments from every one of you. Take some time out to enjoy the day today!
Jennifer Chase
Award Winning Author & Criminologist
Blog: http://authorjenniferchase.blogspot.com/
Website: http://jenniferchase.vpweb.com/
Crime Watch: http://emilystonecrimewatch.blogspot.com/
Book & Crime Talk: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jennifer-chase
January 30, 2011
The Weekend Pinnacle Announces "How to Write a Screenplay" Workshop
'How to Write a Screenplay' workshopAROMAS - Jennifer Chase, a local author of three thriller novels and the author of "How to Write a Screenplay" is hosting a workshop that will explain step-by-step the process that will result in a finished draft. The book is full of examples and easy exercises. Writers will learn proper terms, vocabulary and form.
The workshop is March 5, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the Aromas Grange, 361 Rose Ave. The event is sponsored by the Aromas Hills Artisans, and cost $125 per person, which includes the book, with 10 percent of the fee going to the Artisans.
