ACO Alert: Officer Safety

 by Jeanette Loven, CCEO, COSS

Daryann posted this on the ACO talk Facebook page “Got a call in today where a man advised he is harming his dog. He says that he won’t share his information or location unless the ACO listens to him and answers all his questions. The man uses what we believe were recordings of an extremely distressed dog. The man talks about a dog costume and what response would be garnered if he is running around in it. If location is pushed, the man says the ACO was too impatient with him & that he is killing and throwing the puppy in the dumpster. This is followed by even more distressed dog sounds. Then the line goes silent. I spoke with my neighboring agencies, and they advised something similar occurred to them/their agency in previous years. With everything else ACOs are handling, this is incredibly distressing to those taking the call. This man did NOT call into our dispatch, but called into our records division on an unknown number, so we couldn’t ping the location.”

From the posts it sounds like this party has been doing this for years and is seeking out female ACO’s from articles in newspapers, FB posts, websites. He knows their names, what their uniforms look like, worse yet he knows what they look like hair and eye color. He will only speak to them and only on their office phones. It sounds to be a swatting call, however if these are practice calls consider how much information is being shared on these sources. Who can access them, and what do you want someone who has malicious intentions to have. 

I recently had a party hanging out of a car yelling at me. It wasn’t that he was yelling at me, it was a host of issues that had me alerted. The vehicle looked like it had been through a war zone. The first time I passed it on the street there wasn’t raw eggshells on the ground, now there was. It was when I was speaking with him from across the street, he kept trying the hocus pocus switch the focus act. That is, he was trying to distract me from what I was trying to bring to his attention. When he began to posture even while hanging half out of his car my alert level was bouncing between orange and red. It wasn’t until he noticed I was calling for backup and had my taser in my hand did he leave the scene. Later I found out he is a suspect in a wildlife cruelty case. He is shooting coyotes, skinning them. He then is psychologically playing with people by posing the coyote on a populated hiking trail with a ball in its front paws. What I now know is this party has a shotgun and a very sharp knife in the car. He is gearing up for something bigger and worse. How much do I want him to know about me, and how close do I want to be to him? All serial killers started out with practicing on animals before becoming bored with the animals and moving on to humans. Take note of who is doing what to animals, because they are watching you and taking notes on you.

The adage of it feels wrong it is wrong, couldn’t be more right here! Go with your GUT. Your GUT NEVER LIES!

 

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About the Author

Jeanette Loven is a Lead Code Enforcement/Animal Control Officer and Field Training Officer in Colorado. She has experience as an Emergency Dispatcher for Police, Fire, Sheriff, and U.S. Forest Service. Jeanette is a Certified Training Officer and has been a CPR/First Aid instructor for over 22 years. She currently serves as Regional Representative for Region 11 for CEOSF.



 

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