On Saturday, October 22, 2016, at approximately 1338 hours, I Officer M. Alfaro was on patrol at the 800 block of South Jackson Street, in a mark Midland Police Department Patrol vehicle and in standard issue Midland Police Department uniform when I Officer Alfaro observed a black 1996 Chevrolet pick-up making a left turn at the intersection of Jackson and Cloverdale Rd. I Officer Alfaro initiated a traffic stop at the 1000 block of South Jackson Street on the 1996 Chevrolet PK, which was bearing TXLP# GXK1266. The vehicle came to a stop at the 2214 block of City View Rd. I Officer Alfaro contacted the vehicle and explained the driver, later identified as Juan Carlos Bonilla, TXDL# 07013101, DOB: 04/17/1951, the reason of the stop.
A records check of Lopez revealed she was the owner of a 2015 Toyota CA 7UIS767. I canvassed the area for Lopez’ vehicle and I did not locate her vehicle. An Automated licensed Plate Reader (ALPR) search also revealed negative results for Lopez’ vehicle.
On Tuesday, May 17, 2016 at approximately 1956 hours, Officer Reinbold #7400 and I (Officer Guerrero #3310) were dispatched to 1113 Marengo Avenue, in regard to a vandalism that just occurred. Dispatch advised the victim (later identified as Kristyn Cota) saw two male juveniles spray painting her fence. Cota advised dispatch she was following both subjects and they were last seen running southbound on Marengo Avenue, from Hammond Street. The first suspect was described as male Hispanic, approximately 15 years old, wearing a gray shirt and dark colored shorts. The second suspect
On 01-01-17 at 0023 hours I was monitoring the radio and heard that Officer Harrell #3441 and Officer Thebeau #8402 were involved in a vehicle pursuit in the area of Fair Oaks Avenue and Corson Street. I responded to the above location to assist. They advised responding units that the suspect was involved in a traffic collision on the eastbound 210 Freeway Fair Oaks Avenue off-ramp.
Imagine driving home, on a pleasant evening, after a tedious day at work. Just as you are about to arrive to your neighborhood, you notice blue and red flashing lights and pull over. It seems the police officer has no reason for stopping you, except to search your vehicle because of your suspiciously perceived skin tone. This unnecessary traffic stop, designed for people of colored skin, happens on numerous occasions and has been termed Driving While Black or Brown. Racial profiling is the act of using race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed a crime.
Many State Troopers were being investigated for a variety of discriminatory stops. An attorney, William Merton, has been a part of the investigation of the troopers and found some very interesting information. A man named John Mean was pulled over by the troopers, where he was driving the same speed as the cars around him and he was pulled over. He then was threatened, with the probability of a search warrant, to give up his privacy rights and be searched. His car was then searched and he was release with a warning, twenty-five minutes later. This incident, like many others, was not reported, which shows a suspicion in the data collected from the department (Bouie 2014).
Law Enforcement Action Forum Newsletter. State of Michigan, City of Jackson, Oct 2001. Web. Oct. 2001
They were of course stopped and police, assuming they were drug dealers, used a narcotics-trained police dog to search the car. The young men were then taken to jail and held until police were convinced that their car was clean of any contraband. To justify their ill treatment of the young men police issued a “warning” stating that the windshield was obstructed (because of a piece of string that was hanging down from the rearview mirror). Then, when the young men questioned the officer about the stop, he told them it was because they were black, with a nice car, driving through a high drug trafficking area (Rudovsky, 2001). Russell L. Jones states in his article, A More Perfect Nation: Ending Racial Profiling (Jones,
Officer Acosta interviewed Norma Ceja. See Officer Acosta’s ADD Report for further details of Ceja’s interview. While I was interviewing Lopez, Chavez-Mendez returned to the location and advised Officer Acosta and Officer Sailor of who he was.
On Friday, 09/23/2016, at approximately 0830 hours, I, Deputy Stacy Stark #1815 met with the reporting party, James R. Boucher (M/W, DOB: 07/25/1959) at the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. I requested James R. Boucher to come to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office to review the Wal-Mart video footage I collected and identify the suspect, James Roy Boucher (M/W, DOB: 03/16/1978) on the video footage.
The case was against a 31 year old illegal immigrant, Antonio Martinez-Nunez. Martinez-Nunez was the main suspect in a murder case involving Armando Castaneda. Castaneda was found dead in a parked car in Reynoldsburg, Ohio in August 2009. The cause of death was ruled as asphyxiation. In February of 2010, Martinez-Nunez, was arrested by border patrol, while trying to illegally re-enter the country via Texas. Upon his arrest, border patrol was advised that he was a suspect in the above murder case. Before being sent back to Ohio, Martinez-Nunez was questioned via phone by Reynoldsburg police. The questioning was done with the help of a Spanish interpreter. Martinez-Nunez’s statement led to a nine count
As we cruised around the community, he pointed out countless minor traffic violations, both moving and non-moving, but opted not to make any stops. At this point he stated his main concern was to spot any impaired drivers and get them off the road. Eventually, as we came up behind an older civic (the Civic had a broken brake light) on Centreville Road, the officer stated that he detected the scent of marijuana coming from the Civic. The driver of the Civic noticed Crutchman’s police cruiser behind him and dropped his speed to 5 mph under the posted limit. Officer Crutchman began tailing the vehicle which immediately turned off on the next available road. We proceeded to follow the Civic for a couple of miles. I could tell that Officer Crutchman wanted to make the stop, and I inquired why he hadn’t done so already on account of the Civic’s faulty brake light. He responded that he is cautious about making such stops because he does not want a “new law named after him” on account of the controversy surrounding pretextual stops. It is possible that this careful attitude has developed as a result of the rising public outcry against police and
a police officer directing me to stop the car and park on the shoulder of the
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) defines aggressive driving as "the operation of a motor vehicle in a manner that endangers or is likely to endanger persons or property"—a traffic and not a criminal offense like road rage. Examples include speeding or driving too fast for conditions, improper lane changing, tailgating and improper passing. Approximately 6,800,000 crashes occur in the United States each year; a substantial number are estimated to be caused by aggressive driving. 1997 statistics compiled by NHTSA and the American Automobile Association show that almost 13,000 people have been injured or killed since 1990 in crashes caused by aggressive driving. According to a NHTSA survey, more than 60 percent of drivers consider unsafe driving by others, including speeding, a major personal threat to themselves and their families. About 30 percent of respondents said they felt their safety was threatened in the last month, while 67 percent felt this threat during the last year. Weaving, tailgating, distracted drivers, and unsafe lane changes were some of the unsafe behaviors identified. Aggressive drivers are more likely to drink and drive or drive unbelted. Aggressive driving can easily escalate into an incident of road rage. Motorists in all 50 states have killed or injured other motorists for seemingly trivial reasons. Motorists should keep their cool in traffic, be patient and courteous to other drivers, and correct unsafe driving habits that are likely to endanger, antagonize or provoke other motorists. More than half of those surveyed by NHTSA admitted to driving aggressively on occasion. Only 14 percent felt it was "extremely dangerous" to drive 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. 62 percent of those who frequently drive in an unsafe and illegal manner said police for traffic reasons had not stopped them in the past year. The majority of those in the NHTSA survey (52 percent) said it was "very important" to do something about speeding. Ninety-eight percent of respondents thought it "important" that something be done to reduce speeding and unsafe driving. Those surveyed ranked the following countermeasures, in order, as most likely to reduce aggressive and unsafe driving behaviors: (1) more police assigned to traffic control, (2) more frequent ticketing of traffic violations, (3) higher fines, and (4) i...
of traffic management. Due to both the increase of women in the work force and