Congratulations to Deputy II Jon Osborne

York County Sheriff’s Office Deputy II Jon Osborne has earned the title of Drug Recognition Expert Instructor. A Drug Recognition Expert, or DRE, assists in determining the classification of a substance that a suspect may be under the influence of at the time of arrest.

For example, if a DUI suspect registers below the legal limit for blood alcohol content but the driver has displayed impaired driving behavior, the Drug Recognition Expert can be called in to evaluate the person. Using a 12-stage evaluation process the DRE would determine the substance in question.

The DRE program was establish in South Carolina in 2006. Deputy Osborne completed the inaugural class and has continued to work in this program. Most recently in August 2010, he became a nationally certified Drug Recognition Expert Instructor. This training took place at the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy in Columbia, South Carolina and at the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Phoenix, Arizona. The intensive class ended with an 8 hour long final exam. Deputy Osborne, working with the DRE program, can now teach others who are seeking the DRE certification.

Deputy Osborne is one of only 600 Drug Recognition Experts in the United States and he is one of only 9 Drug Recognition Expert Instructors in South Carolina. He has the distinction of being the first DRE for not only the York County Sheriff’s Office but also for the tri-county area.

The Drug Recognition Expert program is an initiative of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Deputy Osborne’s training has been funded by grants for the program and his expertise is available to law enforcement agencies throughout York County.

Sheriff Bryant and all the staff of the York County Sheriff’s Office congratulate Jon on his achievement and thank him for his initiative and his hard work.

 

Sheriff Bruce Bryant reports that detectives working the Sheriff’s Office District II have cleared multiple related theft cases dating back to 2008; District II includes Lake Wylie, South Carolina. The Sheriff’s Office was assisted in the investigations by River Hills Security.

 

While investigating the June 29, 2010, theft of a pontoon boat, motor and trailer from the Buster Boyd Landing on Lake Wylie, detectives developed Brant Mozingo as a suspect in the theft.

 

While conducting the investigation, detectives observed outdoor furniture at the Mozingo residence that matched the description of outdoor furniture stolen from River Hills residences back in September 2009. The furniture was later confirmed as being stolen.

 

 Mozingo was also developed as a suspect in the September 2008, theft of 2 Sea Doo jet skis from the Buster Boyd Landing.

 

Forty-five year old Mozingo resides on Honeysuckle Woods in River Hills, Lake Wylie, S.C. Mozingo was arrested on August 05, 2010, and charged with Grand Larceny and multiple counts of Possession of Stolen Property. All property reported stolen in these incidences has been recovered, the property was valued at $36,000.

 

At approximately 1:00 a.m. Friday, August 6, 2010, York County Sheriff’s Office    District 1 Deputy Jamie Faulkenberry and Deputy Stephen Ramsey investigated two suspicious vehicles parked off Davidson Ridge Road which is near York. Deputies searched for and located the operators of the vehicles, 19 year old Tanwir Ibn Abdul Karim of York and 20 year old Abdul Rahman Abduls Salam of Rock Hill.

 After further investigation, the deputies were able to determine that the men had just burglarized a nearby home and were returning to their vehicles. The home that had been broken into is located on Gemstone Drive. Deputies recovered a video camera the suspects had stolen from the home and had thrown into the woods when they saw the patrol cars.

Both suspects were transported to the York County Detention Center; their charges include Burglary 1^st Degree, Criminal Conspiracy and Petit Larceny. Photographs of the crime scene were attached to the L3 in-car video file.

                                                          

When school resumes there will be significantly more traffic on the roadways; Sheriff Bryant offers the following tips to help make school zones safer.

Pedestrians, bicyclists, buses and parents all contribute to school zone congestion. Most schools in York County are faced with traffic issues such as double parking, speeding, unsafe u-turns, aggressive driving and more. To help minimize this problem, the York County Sheriff’s Office will increase patrols in affected areas during the first two weeks of the new school.

The York County Sheriff’s Office is in the process of upgrading its in-car camera systems to a solid-state mobile digital recording system provided by L3 Communications. L3 Communications is the largest provider of mobile video recording systems to law enforcement; its customers include the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and many other government agencies.

 

The new recording system is virtually automatic, it can turn-on, record and wirelessly transfer encrypted files without any operator intervention. The up-grade has been a multi-year process, 105 of the Sheriff’s Office patrol vehicles will have received the upgrades when the process is completed in October of this years. “The new recording system is more efficient, more reliable, more cost effective and will be a great tool for the prosecution of offenders”, says Sheriff Bruce Bryant.

 

Since 2001, the York County Sheriff’s Office has employed in-car camera systems to document enforcement action by deputies; the previous recording system utilized VHS recorders. VHS tapes required large amounts of storage, they degrade with repeated play-back and were susceptible to damage by extreme temperatures.

• Video, audio, GPS and other data is recorded to solid-state hard drives that record up to 7 hours of data
• The encrypted data is wirelessly and automatically transmitted to secure servers at 4 Sheriff’s Office locations using Wi-Fi
• The recording is activated when the blue lights and/or sirens are activated or when a collision is detected, officers can manually active the recording at any time in the vehicle or remotely 
• The system is recording in the “background” at all times, 30 seconds of data is held in the buffer and is included in the recording once the system has been activated 
• Once the data is uploaded to the system, officers can attach evidence photos and other documents
• All data is maintained for a minimum of 90 days, evidentiary data can be maintained indefinitely 
• The data can be accessed by those on the York County network making it available not only to officers and investigators but also the Solicitor’s Office and others on the network 
• The car cameras has a zoom feature and advanced low-light color sensitivity
• The system provides a complete chain-of-custody, is searchable by multiple criteria and cannot be manipulated