It's beginning to feel like the space between the rock and the hard place many police officers live in financially is getting smaller by the day. For instance, off-duty police officers across Arkansas who live for free or get a cut in their rent at apartment complexes in exchange for working security jobs may be in hot water: some say the cops could be breaking federal law if they don't pay taxes on the benefit.

There's a new foot pursuit policy in the Austin, Texas Police Department. From now on, officers in that agency will have to ask themselves a long list of questions before chasing criminal suspects by foot. According to a report in the Austin American Statesman by Tony Plohetski, Austin police officers must evaluate the immediate danger, consider whether a suspect is known and can be arrested later, and ask themselves what would be gained from pursuing the suspect before beginning foot chases.

Some people were just born to be cops. Walter Fahey, a legendary Boston police officer who recently passed away, was one of those individuals. The Boston Globe's Kevin Cullen recently paid tribute to Fahey in an article that illustrated just how much influence a cop can have on the job, in his city and as an example for others to follow. Cullen began his article with a tale from the end of Fahey's career:

Broken

A Texas woman with a badly broken leg spent 19 hours in an emergency room waiting for someone to see her. Despite the fact that no doctor ever looked at her leg, she was sent a bill for $162. Amber Milbrodt was told she owes the money because a nurse checked her vital signs, something that took less than 30 seconds. A spokesman for the Parkland Memorial Hospital said the bill is not for time spent waiting, only for the assessment she received.

Nudity

In a Michigan school, a 14-year-old girl used her cell phone to send a naked picture of herself to about 200 of her closest friends. When the caper was discovered, the Sheriff came down hard on the kids, saying that possessing the photo violates child pornography laws, and that he would file criminal charges against any student who allegedly received and looked at the photo. The students were ordered to turn in their cell phones or face prosecution. Phones containing the image, the sheriff said, will be confiscated and not returned to their owners.

What?

In Switzerland, the parliament passed a law last month that gives all vegetation some of the same rights as human beings. For instance, it is now a crime to “decapitate wildflowers at the side of the road without rational reason.”

Failure

Iran’s effort to build the world’s largest sandwich collapsed last month after the crowd of onlookers began eating it. A thousand volunteers worked for a day to build the mile-long sandwich, filled with yummy ostrich meat, in a park in Tehran. But before officials from the Guinness Book of World Records could show up, a hungry mob attacked the sandwich and devoured it within minutes.

Sandbagged

Police in Jamaica are investigating the theft of an entire beach. The 1,300 foot stretch of white sand was supposed to be the focal point of a new $100 million dollar resort, but those plans are now on hold until the missing sand, estimated at 500 truckloads, can be found.

Sleepy

A man in Canada is claiming that he should not pay child support because he was sleeping when he and his ex-girlfriend conceived the baby. The man told a court that he was visiting the woman when he woke up in the middle of the night to discover the woman having sex with him without his consent. He told the judge he demanded that she “cease and desist” but nine months later she gave birth. The man claims the whole affair has caused him serious mental distress and is demanding compensation  for his suffering.

The future?

A recent survey of 25,000 American high school students conducted by the New York Times found that 90 percent of students admitted to copying test answers, using crib notes, or cheating in some other way. The number of kids cheating in school appears to be triple what it was in 1963.

Cactus

Law enforcement officials in Arizona say that thefts of Saguaro cactuses have become so prevalent that they have embedded microchips in the plants, which can fetch up to $1000 on the black market. Police can use their GPS devices to track the plants that have the chips. The problem is particularly bad at the Saguaro National Park in Arizona.

Greed

AIG, the global insurance company that US taxpayers just bailed out for $85 billion, showed their thanks by going on a weeklong retreat at one of California’s  most exclusive spas. The bill was almost $500,000 for luxury rooms, spa treatments, banquets and massages. Obviously undeterred from the outcry about spending our money this way, two weeks later another group of AIG execs booked an exclusive castle in Scotland for a weekend of partridge shooting and other “activities.”

Nice!

Residents in Marino, Italy were thrilled to get up one morning to discover a very good white wine flowing from their faucets. “It’s a miracle,” they cried. It turns out the wine was supposed to flow from a fountain in the town square for the annual grape festival, but a plumber diverted the wine into the homes by mistake.

Woof

A church in Massachusetts is encouraging the parishioners to bring their dogs to Sunday morning services. Rev. Rachel Bickford says the “woof n’ worship” services will include the prayer, “Dear God, please make me the person my dog thinks I am.” The Reverend does not care if there’s poop in the pews. “Dogs bring such hope in the world where we’re surrounded by such hopelessness,” she said.

Del weedo

A Colorado couple found an unusual topping on their order of tacos: their fast-food Mexican takeout came with a small bag of marijuana. The couple discovered the drugs with their order from a Del Taco restaurant and called police, said Lakewood police spokesman Steve Davis. Twenty-six-year-old Dennis Klermund, who police say waited on the husband when he picked up food, now faces charges.

No takers

A contest that would pay $10,000 to an engaged couple, as long as they abstain from premarital sex, has not received a single applicant. The deadline for the Marriage for a Lifetime contest was last October 31 and at this point the whole thing looks like a disaster. The prizes would have included free flowers, invitations and other wedding treats. But organizer Phillippia Faust hasn’t gotten any interest. She said, “In our society it’s going to be hard to find” a couple that hasn’t had premarital sex. Bugged out A Malaysian man has been accused of trying to hurt his neighbor with a dangerous weapon — centipedes. R. Prabakaran has been charged with attempting to cause harm with a dangerous weapon after allegedly unleashing four centipedes and other insects in his neighbor’s bed following an argument that the two men had.

Local governments all across America are caught in a budget squeeze and looking for something - or someone - to blame. They look for a villain, instead of having an honest conversation with taxpayers about the realities of a weak economy, the impact of a mortgage crisis, and skyrocketing demands for services without revenue streams to pay the costs. On top of our natural disasters, many municipal governments carry the weight of bad decisions made by elected officials whose primary sources of information are their own, often-weak staff. Those who want to roll back the clock on our pensions and benefits have us in their sights and are firing away.

While thousands of others gathered to celebrate the New Year in downtown Baltimore on December 31, 2007, Courtney G. Brooks, a Maryland Transportation Authority police officer, was setting out cones along a busy interstate highway to keep commercial vehicles from coming into the city. Corporal Brooks, 40, was one of many officers that night who were giving up their own time with family and friends so others could enjoy the holiday.

Sadly, Corporal Brooks never made it home.  Shortly before midnight, as he worked by himself, a sport utility vehicle struck and fatally injured him. He would become the first law enforcement fatality of 2008.  The female driver fled in her vehicle and was arrested the next morning.

“The death of Officer Courtney Brooks . . . as thousands gathered to celebrate the New Year is a somber reminder of the courageous work done by law enforcement officers throughout our state . . . to keep the citizens of Maryland safe,” declared then-Governor Martin O’Malley. A review of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) records shows that the Christmas and New Year’s holiday season can be one of the most dangerous times of the year for law enforcement.

Just consider that, throughout history, the chances of an officer being killed on New Year’s Eve is 30 percent higher (65 total deaths) than the average day (50 total deaths), and on Christmas the number of line of duty deaths is 56 percent higher (78 total deaths) than normal. Alcohol is certainly a factor in this uptick in law enforcement fatalities during the holiday season.  The death of Kenai (AK) Senior Patrolman John P. Watson is a case in point.

On December 25, 2003, Patrolman Watson was attempting to arrest a suspected drunken driver after following him to his home.  The man resisted and during the ensuing struggle, Patrolman Watson, 43, was shot and killed.  He left behind a wife and seven young children. Charlie Davis, a New York City police officer, was moonlighting in 1996 during his off-duty hours as a security guard for a Queens check-cashing business.  He wanted to give his family an extra special Christmas.  On the morning of Saturday, December 21, four armed bandits surprised the owner and Officer Davis as they rolled up the metal gate to open the store.

They forced Charlie and the owner inside while customers in line scattered.  The two men were being led to a safe in the back room when one of the burglars opened fire on the two men, killing them both. The tragedy of Charlie’s murder was only compounded when his wife, Angela, broke the news of her husband’s death to her father. Angela’s dad fell into a coma after hearing the news and soon died.

The joint funeral for the two closest men in her life was held the day after Christmas. As Angela Davis sat there that day, her thoughts drifted back to another sad day eight years earlier when she buried her brother, Ronald Hearn, a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs police officer who, like Angela’s husband, was shot and killed while protecting others. About 20 minutes before midnight, on December 31, 1997, South Carolina Highway Patrol First Sergeant Frankie Lee Lingard was patrolling the roadways when he spotted a car traveling at an excessive rate of speed.

He gave chase and made the stop. As First Sergeant Lingard approached the car, the male driver said, “How are you doing, officer?” and then opened fire. Frankie Lingard was hit four times and bled to death within minutes.  As it turned out, the occupants of the car – a man, his girlfriend and two young children – were on their way to Disney World. But, they were driving a stolen car, the man had a suspended driver’s license, and he was a wanted felon. So, he decided to kill a police officer and take his chances on getting away.

Needless to say, he did not succeed. He was captured after crashing his vehicle during the attempted escape. A colleague wrote this tribute:  “Respected and loved by those who knew him, [First Sergeant Lingard] was truly someone who affected many lives in a positive manner.” New Jersey State Trooper Philip J. Lamonaco was simply one of the best. In fact, he was named “Trooper of the Year” in 1979 for his outstanding police service.

Devoted to his wife, Donna, and his three children, Laura, Michael and Sarah, Trooper Lamonaco could not wait to finish his last shift before Christmas so he could be home with his family. That was more than 25 years ago, and Phil Lamonaco never made it home. On December 21, 1981, he pulled over a car for a traffic violation – something he had done hundreds of times before.  Only this time, he had unknowingly stopped two hardened criminals – self-proclaimed revolutionaries intent on overthrowing the United States Government.

They shot Phil nine times and left him to die face down in a snowbank. When two state police officers went to tell the family what had happened, Donna and the kids had just finished baking Christmas cookies.  Trooper Lamonaco was buried on Christmas Eve. On December 18, 1932, W. Fay Dilworth’s long hours as a Deputy with the Black Hawk County, Iowa, Sheriff’s Department were catching up with him. It was just a week before Christmas and he still hadn’t found time to purchase and decorate the tree that he knew his six-year-old daughter, Betty, wanted so much.

So, as he began his work that Friday, he went by the Christmas tree lot, picked out a particularly handsome tree and left instructions to have it delivered to his home that evening. Betty would be thrilled. Before any of the fun could begin, though, there was work to be done. That afternoon, Fay Dilworth found himself alongside Deputy H. M. Mitchell preparing to serve an arrest warrant on a suspected rapist. The suspect was holed up with an accomplice just outside of town.

The two deputies went to the house to make the arrest.  As soon as they arrived at the kitchen door and announced their intentions, the men stormed towards them with pistols waving. The two thugs commanded the deputies to put up their hands. The two deputies complied, but Deputy Dilworth made a move toward the gunmen and they fired, killing him almost instantly. Little Betty Dilworth took the news of her father’s death calmly.

Fay Dilworth had often warned his daughter that he might go to work one day and never return. She had promised not to cry if that happened. When it happened that Friday, Betty remembered her promise and she held back her tears.

Craig W. Floyd is chairman of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund and is a regular contributor to AMERICAN POLICE BEAT.  Visit www.nleomf.com for more information about law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.

Today is a time of almost unprecedented fiscal austerity, which makes it an even more remarkable achievement than it seemed in August when our union representing 24,000 New York City patrol officers, reached a contract agreement with the city. It was the first contract achieved across the bargaining table since the 1991-95 round.

Thirty Houston police officers were suspended without pay or given written reprimands for working at part-time security jobs while the department believed they were still on duty. Houston’s Internal Affairs Division began an investigations back in May of 2007 into allegations that some officers were still supposed to be working their scheduled shifts when they were working jobs as private security guards.

In an effort to end illicit online sales of its iconic license-plate frames, the board of the California Highway Patrol’s (CHP) 11-99 Foundation has voted to stop issuing the frames to new donors, effective January 1. The foundation, which provides scholarships and hardship support to the family members of officers with the California Highway Patrol, also is considering how best to address the status of the frames inscribed with “Member 11-99 Foundation” and “Member CHP 11-99 Foundation” that already have been issued over the past 25 years.

In Maryland, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Ronald B. Rubin has ruled that the county’s plan to record conversations in police cruisers does not violate the state’s wiretap laws or infringe on the privacy of police officers. “There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in an officer’s patrol car,” Rubin said in his ruling, issued just a month ago.