Post by Critique on Feb 12, 2007 5:12:32 GMT -5
WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA ¨C Lopaka Bounds troubles began when he tried to use a credit card to pay for an $11 meal at a cash-only restaurant.
There was an ATM across the street. But the police officer guarding the Waffle House at 5041 Market St. demanded he first leave an ID. Bounds, then a member of Marines special forces, refused, offering his Visa credit card instead.
The rising tensions peaked after another officer arrived. Bounds, who had cursed at the men, was pulled off his stool, pushed against a window and handcuffed. Outside he was pepper-sprayed and forced to the ground when one of the officers snagged his wrist between Bounds and the chain of the cuffs.
Whether Bounds was drunk and resisting or the sober victim of excessive force lies at the crux of his ongoing federal lawsuit. But the most noteworthy aspect of the arrest may be who the officers were.
They didn't work for the city, the county or any other public agency. They worked for Pinnacle Special Police, a private company that was practically the sheriff of the Waffle House that night in November 2004.
Under a unique North Carolina law - which supporters in Raleigh are now pushing to expand - licensed firms have full police powers on properties they are hired to protect, including the power to write citations, to investigate and to arrest.
North Carolina, according to security professionals, is the only state that allows for-hire police, although some cities like Boston have similar programs.
For some, the arrangement is an economical way to fill in gaps traditional law enforcement can't.
For others, policing-for-hire raises serious concerns about accountability underscored by the legal problems now facing the two private special police companies based in Wilmington.
In addition to Pinnacle's lawsuit, Joseph Guarascio, the head of Inter-Pol Special Police, goes to trial next week on criminal charges that include misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and furnishing alcohol to a minor.
We've had some problems,¡said John J. Carroll, chief district court judge for New Hanover County. I don't have a problem with them being security guards. However, getting in a role of police officer or detective is a little different. We ought to leave it up to the professionals.
Despite his upcoming trial, Guarascio, a former New York City cop, is confident about the future of private policing as demands on public police grow faster than resources. Inter-Pol officers work at nightclubs, apartment complexes and motels. They even check on tenants at rental homes.
This is the wave of the future because municipal agencies can't keep up with the calls for service, he said. There's nothing we don't do.
Guarascio said he's a by-the book professional suffering because of bias against private police, and predicted a triumph in court next week as he did two years ago against charges of stalking an ex-girlfriend and allegations of assault by two Marines arrested at a local club.
Peggy Pavell, for one, is a fan. She and some neighbors contracted Inter-Pol in 2004 to patrol their properties near a downtown corner favored by drug dealers. Inter-Pol's jurisdiction ended with their property lines, she said, but the officers weren't shy about letting everybody know they were there.
I would hire them again in a minute, she said.
Mike Prevatte, whose family runs the El-Berta Motor Inn on Market Street, has similar praise for Pinnacle, whose officers come quickly and work efficiently, he said.
I don't want any gunslingers out here, he said. We want someone who can project a presence and then, if necessary, take care of the situation. I think that's what we have.
A North Carolina tradition
Both Pinnacle and Inter-Pol were formed earlier this decade and are recent additions to a North Carolina tradition that goes back more than 100 years to railroad and mill police.
As of Jan. 31, Pinnacle has two officers, while Inter-Pol has four, according to the N.C. Department of Justice. Both operate under laws that authorize 76 non-municipal departments, including New Hanover Regional Medical Center's special police, numerous campus forces and more than 20 private for-hire companies, some of whom take a highly public role.
In Durham County, private police officers working for Wackenhut Corp. patrol the county administration building, the library, Durham Technical Community College and the Durham bus terminal.
A Florida-based international security company, Wackenhut runs its North Carolina police force like a public department with immediate investigations of alleged misconduct, said Sam Moore, director of about 60 Raleigh-area police officers for Wackenhut. The only difference might be how much faster any discipline comes, he said.
If it calls for termination, they are terminated, said Moore, whose officers average about 15 years experience on public departments before joining.
Ron Hodge, deputy chief of police for the city of Durham, said he's had no major problems with Wackenhut officers.
Indeed, private police departments like Wackenhut have a much greater incentive to play by the rules, said Bruce Benson, an economics professor at Florida State University and author of To Serve and Protect: Privatization and Community in Criminal Justice.
If a private agency does something illegal, they face significant criminal as well as civil penalties, Benson said. It's very difficult to sue a public agency.
Questions of jurisdiction
But others worry that financial incentives make private cops more beholden to employers interests than the public's. Woody White, Bounds attorney, said he hasn't seen marketplace pressures bring Pinnacle's work to a higher standard than other departments.
Its officers have come to court with questionable police work and, much more often than other departments, they don't come at all, he said, recalling cases like that of James E. Long.
Last March, Pinnacle officers followed Long's car from Wilmington to his mother's driveway in Leland, where he was pepper-sprayed and arrested on several charges including drunken driving and fleeing arrest. Long registered well above the legal limited for alcohol, but claimed a friend was driving.
The crucial legal question, though, was why Pinnacle officers arrested someone in Leland, eight miles from the Wilmington gas station they were guarding.
For them to follow him across the bridge was ridiculous, said Steve Porter, Long's attorney.
But Long's car twice hopped a curb at the gas station before heading the wrong way down Dawson Street, entitling the officers to give chase, said Maj. Brian Sheppard, the Pinnacle second-in-command, who was involved in both Bounds and Long's arrests.
Special police can go to as far as the state line if they are in immediate pursuit of a crime committed on the property they patrol, he said.
It's rookie 101
A judge could have clarified whether Pinnacle had jurisdiction or not. But as in the Bounds case, Sheppard and another Pinnacle officer did not show up for their court date last October, resulting in dismissal of charges.
Showing up for court is sort of the Holy Grail of police work, said David Conklin, deputy police chief for the Wilmington Police Department, where officers face punishment if they don't attend. It's rookie 101.
Sheppard said he shows up to court every time he can, blaming scheduling errors for the cases he has missed. But White said he has had numerous cases where Pinnacle didn't show up, including two for simple marijuana possession last Tuesday.
In the Bounds case, White said the absence was clearly an attempt to duck hard questions at a trial.
A note written on the Bounds case file by an assistant district attorney states that Pinnacle officers were in court until 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 1, 2005, the day of Bounds trial, then left.
Officers knew about trial, the note states. Officers failed to return.
White, who was Bounds attorney for the criminal charges, said the officers failure to appear motivated him to take on the civil case. White's expert witness is strongly critical of Bounds arrest in deposition testimony.
When a subject is restrained by handcuffs and has his hands behind his back, he should not ever be sprayed, said Marshall Williamson, the expert witness and a captain with the Wilmington Police Department.
That is not taught anywhere, he said.
Trained and ready
Eddie Reynolds, the chief of Pinnacle, declined to comment on the Bounds case other than to say the officers are being sued for doing the right thing. Sheppard's testimony in the deposition indicates he sprayed Bounds after the other officer's wrists got painfully caught between the cuffs and Bounds.
Pinnacle officers are trained to exact standards and any complaints are investigated, said Reynolds, whose 19-year law enforcement career prior to Pinnacle includes time with the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office and the police departments of Carolina Beach, New Hanover Regional Medical Center, Shallotte, Holden Beach, Wilmington, Boiling Springs Lake, Sandy Creek and Belhaven. He also took time off for Bible college and singing gospel music professionally.
Sheppard was a convenience store manager in Arkansas when he met Reynolds on a gospel music Web site in 2003 and moved to Wilmington to work in Pinnacle's office. He took Basic Law Enforcement Training the next year becoming a captain at age 21.
He has not served on public force, but Sheppard has learned more in four years with him than in 20 years with a small-town department, Reynolds said. The two sing in a Gospel quartet with two other Pinnacle employees.
He is exactly like me and does everything I do, Reynolds said.
The Attorney General's Office, which investigates complaints against private police, has received several complaints about Pinnacle, but none have been substantiated. There are several pending investigations of Inter-Pol that relate to Guarascio's misdemeanor charges.
More oversight, more power
Some in the private police industry are among the first to say they want an increase in standards so that rogue outfits don't make well-run firms look bad.
Jeff Gray, general counsel for the N.C. Company Police Association, said private police face more rigorous requirements that many of the municipal peers. Both groups have to take more than 600 hours of Basic Law Enforcement Training, but private police also must pass polygraph, drug, psychological and two written tests, not true of some municipal agencies, he said.
Still the association is gathering sponsors for a bill that would allow the N.C. Department of Justice to implement higher standards for company police chiefs, he said. Currently anyone qualified to be an officer can start a company, he said.
A lot of the problems come about when you have agencies that do not have experience with law enforcement leadership, said Gray, who expects the bill to be submitted in the coming weeks.
At the same time, the bill would also add power, allowing firms to apply to the sheriff for jurisdiction on private roads adjacent to the property being patrolled. The extension would make it easier for private police to help at nearby accidents, to patrol areas divided by state-owned roads, and to police places like dance clubs where people may spill out onto the street and sidewalks, Gray said.
Local concerns
The bill comes as concerns are registering with some of the major courthouse players in New Hanover County. District Attorney Ben David, whose staff prosecutes cases brought by private police, said he has questions of accountability. Last fall, he requested that the Executive Committee of the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys bring up the topic for discussion with the Attorney General's Office. The committee meets again next in March.
If your mission is to serve and protect, then the people you serve and protect should have a right see that you're scrutinized as well, David said in an interview. The power to arrest and investigate is an awesome power, and safeguards should be in place and that includes an internal affairs division and a head of an agency who answers to an elected official or body.
Bounds, now a college student in California, said he doesn't expect to win much money in the suit. Pinnacle¡¯s required insurance was lapsed when the arrest occurred.
For him, the case is a cause, especially for fellow Marines who face a kind of double jeopardy. He was nearly dishonorably discharged after spending five days in New Hanover County jail, he said.
Regardless of who you are, there's no reason you should be Maced after you're already handcuffed, he said.
There was an ATM across the street. But the police officer guarding the Waffle House at 5041 Market St. demanded he first leave an ID. Bounds, then a member of Marines special forces, refused, offering his Visa credit card instead.
The rising tensions peaked after another officer arrived. Bounds, who had cursed at the men, was pulled off his stool, pushed against a window and handcuffed. Outside he was pepper-sprayed and forced to the ground when one of the officers snagged his wrist between Bounds and the chain of the cuffs.
Whether Bounds was drunk and resisting or the sober victim of excessive force lies at the crux of his ongoing federal lawsuit. But the most noteworthy aspect of the arrest may be who the officers were.
They didn't work for the city, the county or any other public agency. They worked for Pinnacle Special Police, a private company that was practically the sheriff of the Waffle House that night in November 2004.
Under a unique North Carolina law - which supporters in Raleigh are now pushing to expand - licensed firms have full police powers on properties they are hired to protect, including the power to write citations, to investigate and to arrest.
North Carolina, according to security professionals, is the only state that allows for-hire police, although some cities like Boston have similar programs.
For some, the arrangement is an economical way to fill in gaps traditional law enforcement can't.
For others, policing-for-hire raises serious concerns about accountability underscored by the legal problems now facing the two private special police companies based in Wilmington.
In addition to Pinnacle's lawsuit, Joseph Guarascio, the head of Inter-Pol Special Police, goes to trial next week on criminal charges that include misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and furnishing alcohol to a minor.
We've had some problems,¡said John J. Carroll, chief district court judge for New Hanover County. I don't have a problem with them being security guards. However, getting in a role of police officer or detective is a little different. We ought to leave it up to the professionals.
Despite his upcoming trial, Guarascio, a former New York City cop, is confident about the future of private policing as demands on public police grow faster than resources. Inter-Pol officers work at nightclubs, apartment complexes and motels. They even check on tenants at rental homes.
This is the wave of the future because municipal agencies can't keep up with the calls for service, he said. There's nothing we don't do.
Guarascio said he's a by-the book professional suffering because of bias against private police, and predicted a triumph in court next week as he did two years ago against charges of stalking an ex-girlfriend and allegations of assault by two Marines arrested at a local club.
Peggy Pavell, for one, is a fan. She and some neighbors contracted Inter-Pol in 2004 to patrol their properties near a downtown corner favored by drug dealers. Inter-Pol's jurisdiction ended with their property lines, she said, but the officers weren't shy about letting everybody know they were there.
I would hire them again in a minute, she said.
Mike Prevatte, whose family runs the El-Berta Motor Inn on Market Street, has similar praise for Pinnacle, whose officers come quickly and work efficiently, he said.
I don't want any gunslingers out here, he said. We want someone who can project a presence and then, if necessary, take care of the situation. I think that's what we have.
A North Carolina tradition
Both Pinnacle and Inter-Pol were formed earlier this decade and are recent additions to a North Carolina tradition that goes back more than 100 years to railroad and mill police.
As of Jan. 31, Pinnacle has two officers, while Inter-Pol has four, according to the N.C. Department of Justice. Both operate under laws that authorize 76 non-municipal departments, including New Hanover Regional Medical Center's special police, numerous campus forces and more than 20 private for-hire companies, some of whom take a highly public role.
In Durham County, private police officers working for Wackenhut Corp. patrol the county administration building, the library, Durham Technical Community College and the Durham bus terminal.
A Florida-based international security company, Wackenhut runs its North Carolina police force like a public department with immediate investigations of alleged misconduct, said Sam Moore, director of about 60 Raleigh-area police officers for Wackenhut. The only difference might be how much faster any discipline comes, he said.
If it calls for termination, they are terminated, said Moore, whose officers average about 15 years experience on public departments before joining.
Ron Hodge, deputy chief of police for the city of Durham, said he's had no major problems with Wackenhut officers.
Indeed, private police departments like Wackenhut have a much greater incentive to play by the rules, said Bruce Benson, an economics professor at Florida State University and author of To Serve and Protect: Privatization and Community in Criminal Justice.
If a private agency does something illegal, they face significant criminal as well as civil penalties, Benson said. It's very difficult to sue a public agency.
Questions of jurisdiction
But others worry that financial incentives make private cops more beholden to employers interests than the public's. Woody White, Bounds attorney, said he hasn't seen marketplace pressures bring Pinnacle's work to a higher standard than other departments.
Its officers have come to court with questionable police work and, much more often than other departments, they don't come at all, he said, recalling cases like that of James E. Long.
Last March, Pinnacle officers followed Long's car from Wilmington to his mother's driveway in Leland, where he was pepper-sprayed and arrested on several charges including drunken driving and fleeing arrest. Long registered well above the legal limited for alcohol, but claimed a friend was driving.
The crucial legal question, though, was why Pinnacle officers arrested someone in Leland, eight miles from the Wilmington gas station they were guarding.
For them to follow him across the bridge was ridiculous, said Steve Porter, Long's attorney.
But Long's car twice hopped a curb at the gas station before heading the wrong way down Dawson Street, entitling the officers to give chase, said Maj. Brian Sheppard, the Pinnacle second-in-command, who was involved in both Bounds and Long's arrests.
Special police can go to as far as the state line if they are in immediate pursuit of a crime committed on the property they patrol, he said.
It's rookie 101
A judge could have clarified whether Pinnacle had jurisdiction or not. But as in the Bounds case, Sheppard and another Pinnacle officer did not show up for their court date last October, resulting in dismissal of charges.
Showing up for court is sort of the Holy Grail of police work, said David Conklin, deputy police chief for the Wilmington Police Department, where officers face punishment if they don't attend. It's rookie 101.
Sheppard said he shows up to court every time he can, blaming scheduling errors for the cases he has missed. But White said he has had numerous cases where Pinnacle didn't show up, including two for simple marijuana possession last Tuesday.
In the Bounds case, White said the absence was clearly an attempt to duck hard questions at a trial.
A note written on the Bounds case file by an assistant district attorney states that Pinnacle officers were in court until 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 1, 2005, the day of Bounds trial, then left.
Officers knew about trial, the note states. Officers failed to return.
White, who was Bounds attorney for the criminal charges, said the officers failure to appear motivated him to take on the civil case. White's expert witness is strongly critical of Bounds arrest in deposition testimony.
When a subject is restrained by handcuffs and has his hands behind his back, he should not ever be sprayed, said Marshall Williamson, the expert witness and a captain with the Wilmington Police Department.
That is not taught anywhere, he said.
Trained and ready
Eddie Reynolds, the chief of Pinnacle, declined to comment on the Bounds case other than to say the officers are being sued for doing the right thing. Sheppard's testimony in the deposition indicates he sprayed Bounds after the other officer's wrists got painfully caught between the cuffs and Bounds.
Pinnacle officers are trained to exact standards and any complaints are investigated, said Reynolds, whose 19-year law enforcement career prior to Pinnacle includes time with the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office and the police departments of Carolina Beach, New Hanover Regional Medical Center, Shallotte, Holden Beach, Wilmington, Boiling Springs Lake, Sandy Creek and Belhaven. He also took time off for Bible college and singing gospel music professionally.
Sheppard was a convenience store manager in Arkansas when he met Reynolds on a gospel music Web site in 2003 and moved to Wilmington to work in Pinnacle's office. He took Basic Law Enforcement Training the next year becoming a captain at age 21.
He has not served on public force, but Sheppard has learned more in four years with him than in 20 years with a small-town department, Reynolds said. The two sing in a Gospel quartet with two other Pinnacle employees.
He is exactly like me and does everything I do, Reynolds said.
The Attorney General's Office, which investigates complaints against private police, has received several complaints about Pinnacle, but none have been substantiated. There are several pending investigations of Inter-Pol that relate to Guarascio's misdemeanor charges.
More oversight, more power
Some in the private police industry are among the first to say they want an increase in standards so that rogue outfits don't make well-run firms look bad.
Jeff Gray, general counsel for the N.C. Company Police Association, said private police face more rigorous requirements that many of the municipal peers. Both groups have to take more than 600 hours of Basic Law Enforcement Training, but private police also must pass polygraph, drug, psychological and two written tests, not true of some municipal agencies, he said.
Still the association is gathering sponsors for a bill that would allow the N.C. Department of Justice to implement higher standards for company police chiefs, he said. Currently anyone qualified to be an officer can start a company, he said.
A lot of the problems come about when you have agencies that do not have experience with law enforcement leadership, said Gray, who expects the bill to be submitted in the coming weeks.
At the same time, the bill would also add power, allowing firms to apply to the sheriff for jurisdiction on private roads adjacent to the property being patrolled. The extension would make it easier for private police to help at nearby accidents, to patrol areas divided by state-owned roads, and to police places like dance clubs where people may spill out onto the street and sidewalks, Gray said.
Local concerns
The bill comes as concerns are registering with some of the major courthouse players in New Hanover County. District Attorney Ben David, whose staff prosecutes cases brought by private police, said he has questions of accountability. Last fall, he requested that the Executive Committee of the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys bring up the topic for discussion with the Attorney General's Office. The committee meets again next in March.
If your mission is to serve and protect, then the people you serve and protect should have a right see that you're scrutinized as well, David said in an interview. The power to arrest and investigate is an awesome power, and safeguards should be in place and that includes an internal affairs division and a head of an agency who answers to an elected official or body.
Bounds, now a college student in California, said he doesn't expect to win much money in the suit. Pinnacle¡¯s required insurance was lapsed when the arrest occurred.
For him, the case is a cause, especially for fellow Marines who face a kind of double jeopardy. He was nearly dishonorably discharged after spending five days in New Hanover County jail, he said.
Regardless of who you are, there's no reason you should be Maced after you're already handcuffed, he said.