April 23: Beth and Melanie realize that a class about the careful use of force probably won’t include voluntary tasing
Next, we met the three members of the Tactical Detective Unit: Detective Tanya Johnson, Detective Dan Brown (yes, I know) and Detective Elijah Page. These three actually work for Sergeant Beck, so he introduced them, and then explained what the Tactical Detective Unit does.
Sergeant Beck: “Okay. What we do: pretty much everything.”
What Sergeant Beck means by “everything”:
- Support patrol deputies
- Plain clothes undercover vehicles
- Burglarliestil theft
- Fraud
- Sexual assault
- High Value thefts
- Prostitution
- pawn shops
- Robbery
- Fugitive wanted persons
- Animal control investigations
- Online market place stings
- Auto Theft
- Drive by shooting
- Organized retail theft.
- arson/fire marshal
- Kidnapping’ assist mcu
- Domestic violence (often assisting the VPD)
This will undoubtedly come as a shock, but the detective unit is understaffed. The Sheriff’s Office has deputies trained to assist as “backfill detectives.” They aren’t full-time detectives, but they’ve been trained to sub. Plus, there’s a lot of overlap between what patrol deputies handle and what the detectives handle, particularly with the CRU (Crime Reduction Unit). So everyone collaborates.
Sergeant Beck: “It all fits together, kind of like that space robot. . . Voltron. . . Or whatever. . .”
(He forgot for a moment that a number of the people he was addressing could remember a time when the US Mail was delivered on horseback.)
The sergeant began the storytelling with a mention of an area crime that happened recently, involving the attempted theft of a police car. The suspect didn’t manage to drive away, but he did run for it. Several law enforcement branches were involved in the hunt for the suspect, but it was Detective Tanya Johnson found some of the suspect’s clothes abandoned a couple of blocks away, which provided the DNA evidence needed to locate the man. Who is now jailed and awaiting trial.
Sergeant Beck: “We want them to spread the word that we’re collaborating. They’ll tell their friends, and maybe that’ll. . .” he ducked his head, but the rest of his thought slipped out anyway: “. . . keep ‘em in Portland, or whatever.”
The sergeant also revealed that the detectives regularly park in unmarked cars in front of Target and Lowes stores, as these are hotbeds of shoplifting. He put a photo on the projector screen of a handcuffed woman with her back to the camera. Beside her was a shopping cart piled high with shoplifted items.
Sergeant Beck: “People load up a cart and walk it out. Since COVID, shoplifting has become so common, stores don’t even call 911 anymore. If an arrest is made, someone from the store will need to testify in court, which costs the stores more time and money than they’re willing to spend. The stores are hoping we’ll catch someone and issue a criminal trespass.”
Detectives will also sometimes go into stores in plainclothes, and use cell phones to report where the thief is and what he’s doing. It can be helpful to collaborate with a store’s Theft Prevention team; ironically, stores tend to have very advanced security systems, including facial recognition software.
When asked whether the stores have to wait for their stolen items until they’re no longer needed as evidence, Sergeant Beck replied, “If we find the items in the person’s vehicle, the items themselves need to be entered as evidence. But if we catch the person while the stuff’s still in the cart, we can just wheel the cart back inside and have the staff scan everything and print out a receipt. Shoplifting is incredibly common,” he added. “I’d say, twenty-four hours a day, people are stealing things from stores every twenty minutes or so.”
We saw another slide with a photo of a car with its front and rear doors open. There were piles of shoplifted items inside. The sergeant explained that If the items are in the vehicle, the deputies can’t immediately remove them, because they need a warrant to search the car. So they’ll have the vehicle towed, get the warrant, itemize everything in the care and then release the car.
By the way: it’s considered a Theft Three if you steal less than $350 worth of items. That isn’t enough to get you arrested, although you will be issued a ticket. However, if you are caught stealing multiple times, even if the amounts aren’t large, you will be arrested and booked. They won’t hold you, but they’ll have your fingerprints on file. If you keep it up, sooner or later you’ll go to jail. Things like these are cumulative; apparently there’s a point system. Rack up enough points, and you earn jail time.
Sergeant Beck put up another photo. “This is a shotgun and weapons from a stolen RV. Knife, pair of brass knuckles, extended magazine, those are now illegal. . .” He named all the items in the photo. This image didn’t seem to be connected to a particular story. My best guess is that the sergeant assumed the class would think it was a cool photo. (This assumption was correct.)
Next, the detectives told stories. First up was Detective Tanya Johnson. She was compact. Olive skin, dark hair in a braid, face like a pugnacious fairy. Maybe you’re bigger than Detective Johnson, but she will roll her eyes and take you down anyway. She has worked for the Sheriff’s Office for eight years, four as a patrol deputy, and four as a detective. The story she picked for us was about a car thief.
It began when the victim, Matthew Anderson, put a car up for sale on Facebook Marketplace. A man expressed interest, drove down from Pierce County to look at the car, test drove it with Anderson for two hours, then pulled a gun and robbed Anderson, stealing his car and cell phone and abandoning him near Padden Parkway. The suspect drove from Pierce County to Anderson’s house in a Ford Acura, which he left in Anderson’s driveway with the key in the driver’s side lock.
When the crime was reported, the police got a warrant and asked the cell company to ping the victim’s phone. Unfortunately, they found the phone at the side of the road on 205; the suspect had thrown the phone out the window.
Detective Johnson contacted Facebook and asked them to lock down Anderson’s Facebook account so they could mine it for information. They discovered that the suspect’s name was Jonathan Sisovan, and that Jonathan had a brother named David. In fact, David had first owned the Acura, and had traded it to Jonathan. David didn’t know where either the Acura or his brother was.
David could provide an address for Jonathan (in Parkland, WA), as well as pictures. Anderson had provided a thorough description of the suspect, which included a tattoo of 777 on the suspect’s forearm and a rose on his hand. Detective Johnson did a photo laydown (a group of photos of possible suspects) and Anderson identified Jonathan Sisovan as the car thief. The Pierce County Sheriff’s deputies went to Sisovan’s residence and found the stolen car.
Meanwhile, Jonathan had started text messaging David, saying that he was worried about the abandoned Acura. David contacted Detective Johnson: “He’s texting me. What do I do?”
Detective Johnson told David what to text, and using this method, she convinced Jonathan to send a photo of his driver’s license. She also convinced him that the car had been towed to a particular tow yard. Then Detective Johnson contacted the tow yard and told the people working there that Sisovan would call, and they should roll with it.
Detective Johnson had Sisovan’s cell number (thanks to the text messages), so she had the cell company ping Sisovan’s phone every fifteen minutes so she would know when he was near the tow yard. When Sisovan arrived, a VPD officer in plainclothes posed as a tow yard worker. They arrested Sisovan—and in a search, found the gun he’d been carrying during the car robbery—and charged him with Robbery One, UPF (Unlawful Possession of Firearms) Two, and Theft of a motor vehicle.
Detective Johnson ended this story with a smile that was equal parts modest and triumphant. “He gave a good interview,” she said. “He claimed he’d meant to trade the Acura for the other vehicle. And he admitted he had anger problems.”
The case has not yet gone to court.
Next up: the ID thief, and the woman selling firearms!
