Hello, FFFs,
I don't have fiction for you today, but I do have something new. But before we get to that, let me tell you a bit about my week.
It was an average week. Nothing too exciting, or different. Writing classes went well. And, for those of you might have read the Travels of Priscilla blog, it's about to start up again. You see, the students in one of my writing classes are going to put what they've learned into practice by "joining" Priscilla on her travels. I hope to get the first letter up sometime soon. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, it's a virtual tour that a fictional character, "Miss Priscilla de Silvosa," is taking across the United States, spending 7 days in each state. You can learn some fun things about the states if you read the blog.
Today starts a busy weekend. Later this afternoon my grandpa is supposed to arrived on his bicycle having ridden the last stretch of his bike ride down from KC. We're also babysitting my 7 nieces and nephews this evening.
But tomorrow!
Tomorrow is the Big Bike Ride! The reason my grandpa came down, is to do this ride. And tomorrow my aunt and grandma are driving down from KC so my aunt can ride too. There's a trail near our house that used to be a railroad. It's a 3 1/2 mile stretch now of walking/biking path. We are going to have a 4 generation bike ride on Saturday. Grandpa (generation 1), my aunt, and dad (generation 2 even if my dad is an in-law), my brother and I (generation 3), and 5 of my nieces and nephews (generation 4). The ages will range from "Buddy" my 5 1/2 y-o nephew, to my 89 1/2-y-o Grandpa. At the end of the trail we'll head to Culver's for lunch and to celebrate my oldest niece's 12th birthday.
Whew! Like I said, busy.
Last night my dad and I attended the 2nd class of the Highway Patrol Community Alliance. Hopefully I'll be able to get my report for that written for next week. This week you can start off with a short news clip about the program. (Yes, you might be able to find my dad and I. Dad has a white beard.) And then you can read the report for the first week. Enjoy!
September 6, 2018
This was the start of the Missouri Highway Patrol Community Alliance program my dad and I had signed up for. The five-week class was designed to educate the local citizens about the aspects of the Highway Patrol that most never think or hear about. Since I had already attended the Citizens Police Academy and the Sheriff’s Citizens Academy, I was eager to see and hear about the Highway Patrol.
It was a beautiful evening when Dad and I arrived. After finding the room where the class would be held, we found seats and waited for the final people to arrive. All together there are fifteen in the class.
Once everyone arrived Sergeant Lueckenhoff introduced himself. (He is the one in charge of the program.) After a few quick remarks, he turned the class over to Captain David Hall who told us he was going to give us “the wow factor” with his presentation on MIAC. He then proceeded to do just that.
MIAC stands for Missouri Information Analysis Center. To put it briefly, MIAC is the main hub for intelligence for the cities, counties, and State of Missouri. It also serves as the designated center for contact with federal agencies such as the FBI and the CIA across the United States, as well as INTERPOL. It is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Captain Hall said that someone is always there, but he couldn’t promise they were always awake.
However, MIAC doesn’t just provide access to all that data, they add to it. They also have to put information from different sources together, much like trying to work a thousand puzzles without boxes that you got at garage sales, and you don’t know if all the pieces are there. That put things more in perspective. That’s a lot of brain work going on.
Sgt. Lueckenhoff told us that if he were working a crash scene where a single car crashed into something and the driver fled on food leaving his passenger for dead, twenty or more years ago they wouldn’t be able to do much. Now, however, the sergeant said he would call up MIAC, tell them the car VIN, the license plate number, and the identity of the passenger. Within thirty minutes or so, MIAC would be able to tell him if the plates were stolen or not and who they belonged to, who the vehicle that crashed belonged to, and tell who the probable driver was, his parents’ names, where they lived, where the driver worked, lived, and his potential associates, and where the suspect was known to hang out. Talk about mind blowing! If someone saw the driver, MIAC could even do a photo line-up with other similar faces.
Captain Hall did assure us that, while many people think that the government and law enforcement agencies are monitoring their every call, and know all about them, they don’t. “Wal-Mart knows more about you than we do!” he said. Now if you’ve been involved in criminal activities, that might be a bit different. They only collect information on suspects that hold a reasonable suspicion of being criminal.
MIAC also receives tips and complaints from citizens in regard to criminal investigations, public health emergencies, homeland security issues, and natural disasters. That’s a lot of information from a lot of different places! MIAC is all about making connections because when you make the right connections, you can find that criminal, help that child, or even prevent a terrorist attack.
We were encouraged to send in concerns or suspicious activity to our local law enforcement officials or to MIAC. There is an app called “see-send” that allows you to do that from your phone. There is a website with more information where Captain Hall told us they have pictures of wanted people on the side. “We’ve gotten many of these people just from putting their picture up here,” he said. “Someone sees the face and realizes they know where that person is, and call the police.”
Do you know what the top two crimes are in the United States? The first is drug trafficking, and the second is human trafficking. There are people working at restaurants, hotels, and other jobs who are slaves. Someone else paid for them to come over, and the person is now working as an indentured servant, only they don’t know how much they have to pay, and they don’t know when they will be free.
After Captain Hall had finished, my brain was full. That was a lot to take in. Sgt. Lueckenhoff then had each person introduce themselves and tell a little about why they came to the class. He was going to do this at the beginning, but he forgot. That was okay as it was a good break. It was fun to see just how many of the class had participated in the Citizen’s Police Academy and the Sheriff’s Citizens’ Academy. There was also another father/daughter duo, and a father/son. The sergeant’s wife is also taking the class.
After a fifteen minute break where we got to visit, have some snacks and such, Sgt. Lueckenhoff introduced us to a trooper who talked a little about what he does. He’s a special member of the Highway Patrol, and his job is to check the big trucks. He told us he likes to leave the inspections of trucks on the highways to the weight stations and travel on the less used roads as that’s where most of the trucks that are trying to avoid such checks travel. It can take a good two hours for him to completely check a truck. He has special scales that he can put in front of each wheel and have the truck drive up on. That way he can check to make sure it’s not too loaded or too heavy on one side. If he stops a truck and is going to do a full check on it, he’ll call a regular trooper to help him as he doesn’t have the authority to make an arrest if need be, but also just to keep an eye on the driver. I mean, if the trooper checking the truck is in the back of the semi looking for narcotics or something, what’s to stop the driver from shutting the doors and driving off with him?
This officer also carries all sorts of tools in his truck. We were taken outside and got to see the truck and scales.
Outside we were also introduced to other members of the Highway Patrol. One did road work, doing the things we normally think of Highway Patrol officers doing. He’s also a member of the HP SWAT team. Yes, the Highway Patrol has its own SWAT team. I didn’t know that. We got to take a look at his vehicle, hold his big gun, and feel or even try on his SWAT vest.
The other officer was a member of the HP Marine division. Did you know that the HP patrolled the rivers and lakes? Well, they do. This officer and another one patrol the Elk River here in the state, and he said it’s pretty bad. The river has gotten a reputation for the place to drink, do drugs, and party. We got to see one of the boats the HP offers use on the river or during times of floods.
Class ended early as we were just looking at the vehicles and asking questions or talking. It was a beautiful evening to be out.
I hope you will join us next week as we learn even more about the Missouri Highway Patrol. Until then!
This was the start of the Missouri Highway Patrol Community Alliance program my dad and I had signed up for. The five-week class was designed to educate the local citizens about the aspects of the Highway Patrol that most never think or hear about. Since I had already attended the Citizens Police Academy and the Sheriff’s Citizens Academy, I was eager to see and hear about the Highway Patrol.
It was a beautiful evening when Dad and I arrived. After finding the room where the class would be held, we found seats and waited for the final people to arrive. All together there are fifteen in the class.
Once everyone arrived Sergeant Lueckenhoff introduced himself. (He is the one in charge of the program.) After a few quick remarks, he turned the class over to Captain David Hall who told us he was going to give us “the wow factor” with his presentation on MIAC. He then proceeded to do just that.
MIAC stands for Missouri Information Analysis Center. To put it briefly, MIAC is the main hub for intelligence for the cities, counties, and State of Missouri. It also serves as the designated center for contact with federal agencies such as the FBI and the CIA across the United States, as well as INTERPOL. It is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Captain Hall said that someone is always there, but he couldn’t promise they were always awake.
However, MIAC doesn’t just provide access to all that data, they add to it. They also have to put information from different sources together, much like trying to work a thousand puzzles without boxes that you got at garage sales, and you don’t know if all the pieces are there. That put things more in perspective. That’s a lot of brain work going on.
Sgt. Lueckenhoff told us that if he were working a crash scene where a single car crashed into something and the driver fled on food leaving his passenger for dead, twenty or more years ago they wouldn’t be able to do much. Now, however, the sergeant said he would call up MIAC, tell them the car VIN, the license plate number, and the identity of the passenger. Within thirty minutes or so, MIAC would be able to tell him if the plates were stolen or not and who they belonged to, who the vehicle that crashed belonged to, and tell who the probable driver was, his parents’ names, where they lived, where the driver worked, lived, and his potential associates, and where the suspect was known to hang out. Talk about mind blowing! If someone saw the driver, MIAC could even do a photo line-up with other similar faces.
Captain Hall did assure us that, while many people think that the government and law enforcement agencies are monitoring their every call, and know all about them, they don’t. “Wal-Mart knows more about you than we do!” he said. Now if you’ve been involved in criminal activities, that might be a bit different. They only collect information on suspects that hold a reasonable suspicion of being criminal.
MIAC also receives tips and complaints from citizens in regard to criminal investigations, public health emergencies, homeland security issues, and natural disasters. That’s a lot of information from a lot of different places! MIAC is all about making connections because when you make the right connections, you can find that criminal, help that child, or even prevent a terrorist attack.
We were encouraged to send in concerns or suspicious activity to our local law enforcement officials or to MIAC. There is an app called “see-send” that allows you to do that from your phone. There is a website with more information where Captain Hall told us they have pictures of wanted people on the side. “We’ve gotten many of these people just from putting their picture up here,” he said. “Someone sees the face and realizes they know where that person is, and call the police.”
Do you know what the top two crimes are in the United States? The first is drug trafficking, and the second is human trafficking. There are people working at restaurants, hotels, and other jobs who are slaves. Someone else paid for them to come over, and the person is now working as an indentured servant, only they don’t know how much they have to pay, and they don’t know when they will be free.
After Captain Hall had finished, my brain was full. That was a lot to take in. Sgt. Lueckenhoff then had each person introduce themselves and tell a little about why they came to the class. He was going to do this at the beginning, but he forgot. That was okay as it was a good break. It was fun to see just how many of the class had participated in the Citizen’s Police Academy and the Sheriff’s Citizens’ Academy. There was also another father/daughter duo, and a father/son. The sergeant’s wife is also taking the class.
After a fifteen minute break where we got to visit, have some snacks and such, Sgt. Lueckenhoff introduced us to a trooper who talked a little about what he does. He’s a special member of the Highway Patrol, and his job is to check the big trucks. He told us he likes to leave the inspections of trucks on the highways to the weight stations and travel on the less used roads as that’s where most of the trucks that are trying to avoid such checks travel. It can take a good two hours for him to completely check a truck. He has special scales that he can put in front of each wheel and have the truck drive up on. That way he can check to make sure it’s not too loaded or too heavy on one side. If he stops a truck and is going to do a full check on it, he’ll call a regular trooper to help him as he doesn’t have the authority to make an arrest if need be, but also just to keep an eye on the driver. I mean, if the trooper checking the truck is in the back of the semi looking for narcotics or something, what’s to stop the driver from shutting the doors and driving off with him?
This officer also carries all sorts of tools in his truck. We were taken outside and got to see the truck and scales.
Outside we were also introduced to other members of the Highway Patrol. One did road work, doing the things we normally think of Highway Patrol officers doing. He’s also a member of the HP SWAT team. Yes, the Highway Patrol has its own SWAT team. I didn’t know that. We got to take a look at his vehicle, hold his big gun, and feel or even try on his SWAT vest.
The other officer was a member of the HP Marine division. Did you know that the HP patrolled the rivers and lakes? Well, they do. This officer and another one patrol the Elk River here in the state, and he said it’s pretty bad. The river has gotten a reputation for the place to drink, do drugs, and party. We got to see one of the boats the HP offers use on the river or during times of floods.
Class ended early as we were just looking at the vehicles and asking questions or talking. It was a beautiful evening to be out.
I hope you will join us next week as we learn even more about the Missouri Highway Patrol. Until then!
Looking forwards to next Friday! :D
ReplyDelete~Katja L.
Thanks. I think it'll be more interesting. :) And probably longer since we did the history of the State Highway Patrol.
ReplyDeleteLots of interesting information, especially the MIAC. Your reports are almost as good as being there. =D
ReplyDeleteHow was the 'Big Bike Ride'? What was the weather like? Sounds like it would be fun. =D
And I saw you multiple times in the video! Lovely outfit you were wearing. =)
I'm looking forward to week after next's report (since I've already read the report after this one. =P)
Liberty B.
"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."
Philippians 4:13
The Big Bike Ride was such fun! Even my 5-year-old nephew rode to the end of the trail which was 3 1/2 miles. Then he rode his bike around the large empty parking lot with the others. It was a hot and rather humid day, but we all had a good time. My four oldest niece and nephews rode back after lunch for a total of about 8 miles.
ReplyDeleteI try to make the reports interesting. Glad to know you are enjoying them. Next week you can read the other half of last week's class. :)