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UPDATED: What OC sheriffs learned at Jackson’s funeral
July 14th, 2009, 12:00 pm · 42 Comments · posted by Jennifer Muir
The six high-ranking sheriff’s officials who attended Michael Jackson’s funeral last week to “observe” the large-scale event and provide mutual aid detailed what they learned in a report sent to the county CEO.
We got our hands on that report, submitted by OC Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, and we are linking to it for your perusing pleasure.
First off, the account sets the scene for the king of pop’s memorial service: The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department was prepared for a huge event and deployed about 3,400 officers to the memorial for “one of the most complex and politically charged planning events since the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles,” the incident commander told Assitant Sheriff Michael Hillmann.
Turns out, the crowd was “peaceful and sparse,” according to an account by Investigator J. Pucket.
An aside: LAPD spent more than a $1 million staffing the memorial, including overtime for police officers and volunteers staffing and close to $50,000 for LAPD lunches. The police force was expected to spend even more, some $2.5 million, but the low turnout allowed them to let go 1,000 officers early, according to the Los Angeles Times. And now, Los Angeles officials are trying to figure out 
who approved spending city funds on a private funeral in the first place.
Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby is asking the same questions about the sheriff’s invovlement.
“I would hope that we’re going to get reimbursed by AEG (the owner of Staples Center where the memorial was held), and that OC tax payers are not having to pay for security at a celebrity’s funeral in Los Angeles,” Norby says. “If it’s a private event, normally that party should be responsible for paying for the security of that event.”
And now for some highlights of their lessons learned:
- “One point we learned from LAPD, the VIPs invited to the service were not screened for weapons and this posed a problem, should the LAPD have to make rapid deployment into the arena for anything. Several of the VIPs had their own armed body guards and this was noted by the LAPD commanders,” said lieutenant J. Passalaqua. Passalaqua manages special events for Irvine Lakes, the county parks and the Orange County Fair grounds.
- “My personal attendance allowed our agency to best gauge the potential for deployment of Orange County law enforcement mututal aid assets and further allowed us to stand them down as soon as LAPD began to release their own assets. It further allowed me, face to face, contact with my counterpar
ts from LA Sheriff’s Department to confirm our assets would not be needed and to notify them of any intentions to deactivate our “virtual” Mobile Field Force,” said Lt. M. Betzler. - From Investigator J. Pucket: “Staffed appropriately based on intelligence, however when intelligence was found to be incorrect they started to demobilize.” “In the event of a mutual aid request, I would have been able to direct our response to the appropriate location.”
- “The ability to expose OCSD personnel to such a “high profile” special event planning is invaluable in teh development of our responsibilities to allied agency partners and our responsibilities to our community.”
- “Discussed with command staff the budget (cost) implications and how LAPD was able to economize,” said Capt. B Wilkerson.
UPDATED 3 p.m.: Sheriff’s spokesman John McDonald sent over a clean copy of the memo, which we just updated (the other had handwriting on it that was not from the sheriff). He also sent over this memo from Hillmann, saying the mission did not cost the county any extra money.
“The normal duty costs associated with personnel staffing and operating department vehicles were the only expenses,” he wrote. “These expenses would have been incurred by the assigned personnel regardless of the specialized event.”
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I hear cops take time to go to firing ranges to examine and test fire weapons, too, instead of just reading about them in books or listening to second- and third-hand accounts of them.
Obviously they have too much time on their hands. How long did it take to write this useless report? Time to trim the fat.
When Hillman keeps metioning all of “his assets,” Is he talking about the huge amount of pencils he has at all times?
Missing forom the report “We watched the LASD waste taxpayers money on a private family matter that City officals never approved. If OC ever organizes an event for a known Pedophile, we will be adequitely trained and ready.”
Really exciting report!…NOT!
A direct quote:
‘I opened the door to my car, I got into my car, I started my car, I put my car in gear, I drove my car, I stopped my car.’
REALLY HEADY STUFF!
It looks as though these guys were paid by the word. However, I know for a fact they did it on OVERTIME!!!
Here’s what they really learned:
1. The LASD gets better donuts than the OCSD does.
2. If you stand around with your hands in your pockets long enough, your thumbs will fall asleep.
3. Standard issue police shoes are uncomfortable.
4. We can’t search everybody who we’d like to search.
5. The AC at the staples center is much better than the AC in the squad car.
6. Hanging out at a celebrity funeral is more fun than working … and you get to be on TV!!!
This was a smart move to send people to observe what if anything went wrong so we would not make the same mistakes should something similar happen in the OC. This was cheap training and those who are critical of what they did are clueless about how valuable a lesson this was for our officers to be able to observe the event first hand and be able to use their findings to prevent the same mistakes that the LAPD made here in the OC.
Stan,
Obviously you are new to the area. Orange County has had several opportunities to hold events large or larger than the pedophile memorial. Do you recall the Angels World Series, or how about the Ducks Stanley Cup victories.
I’m just guessing, but the amount of people for those turnouts outunumbered what was a sham in LA! So I consider this taxpayer wasted money.
What was written by the OCSD is common knowledge. There was nothing new. “When the expected crowd was less than anticipated the LAPD released their assests.” Duh!
And no screening for weapons? WTF! Oh I can go on, but you should get the point. This was a wasted time and taxpayers money. Is the City of Los Angeles going to reimburse the OCSD for the cost of sending them?
How do Chris Norby expect to get reimbursed when his clowns invited themselves to the circus?
Norby use your brain. You went on your own to an event that your stooges never had any business going too.
So what are they going to next ….. I think the Emmy Awards and Academy Awards are coming up.
What a joke the OC Sherrifs Dept has become! Same sh…. different day.
Sherrif Sandra needs to use her brain and say, NO YOU ARE NOT GOING.
STOP WASTING TAX PAYER MONEY AS IF IT WAS YOUR OWN.
IT IS NOT …. IT IS THE PEOPLE OF ORANGE COUNTY, NOT YOURS!
Hutchens is not in charge. Iron Mike runs the show. Hutchens is just a puppet on a string. No change agent. It’s becoming more and more obvious.
The governor is correct; the city should take care of security and fire protection. This event probably generated tens of milliion of dollars for the city.
Since when do these idiots care so much about our tax money? If this idiot, who’s asking the Jackson family or AEG to pay, cares so much then we tax payer really, really don’t want to pay him. He should resign his sorry arsse.
I had mentioned it before in the original article a few days ago, but OC has had a number of training scenarios and actual events that have allowed large scale deployment of police personnel and mutual aid response. Each training scenario or actual event was then critiqued at the end to discuss the very points the OCSD memo discussed. I am of the humble opinion that this trip was not necessary. I believe Mr. Hillman simply used his connections to bring OCSD folks up for a look-see. I’m sure it was interesting as heck, but hardly necessary or worth the trip.
Hey Chris Norby how much money do you waste. Didn’t you stay at a hotel, after you and your wife got into a fight, to better understand the homeless. Dude you are a parasite, why don’t you trim the “fat” from government by starting at the top.
People would B@tch if he did’nt write a report and B@tch when he did! Big F’n deal if they went to observe! Private sector is as bad or worse than County employees……wha wha wha
Can Lt. M. Betzler. write in the English language? What a waste of time and money. “Assets” indeed. This is so much BS that I had to post under your name as you call it as it is.My personal attendance allowed our agency to best gauge the potential for deployment of Orange County law enforcement mututal aid assets and further allowed us to stand them down as soon as LAPD began to release their own assets. It further allowed me, face to face, contact with my counterparts from LA Sheriff’s Department to confirm our assets would not be needed and to notify them of any intentions to deactivate our “virtual” Mobile Field Force,” said
California has a mutual aid system which means that all law enforcement and emergency personnel work hand in hand to provide the necessary support in the event of a major event, fire, disaster, riot, etc. Orange County and L.A. County are neighboring counties and would be called upon to assist each other. This event was one of these occasions. LAPD requested OCSD to prepare in the event mutual aid was needed. The group from OCSD that went to Los Angeles were the OCSD personel that coordinate such a response. This was not a field trip, it was Law Enforcement business. Get off the “waste of tax payer money” band-wagon and realize this was an important and legitimate part of law enforcement. What IS a waste of time is government officials like Supervisor Norby that, on county time and using county telephones or computers to send emails regarding his unimformed nonsence. People, get out of the house and go do something usefull.
North County Citizen has it right. Norby criticizes everything the Sheriff’s Department does because he has a vendetta!
This could not be considered a “major” event when only a few thousand people show up. Since no permit was issued, could this have been considered an unlawful assembly? Maybe that’s why the police showed up. What about the story about the LAPD swat team proviced security for the casket while the LASD swat team covered a more dangerous event? Are they going to be reimbursed? Anyone who was there could see that it was overkill on the part of LAPD. And if LAPD requested OCSD to attend, where they billed for their services? And why didn’t LAPD stand down the OCSD and inform them their services where no longer needed because support was not necessary?
This is not about a OC politician, this is about law enforcement and how they do Law Enforcement business and waste time and money.
Hey. Who wrote at the end of Hutchens report in handwritting next to Hillman’s signature “Natual Disasters -Yes, Pre-planed events-No!”?
With all they learned in a whole 6 hours I need to know if Hillman learned to moonwalk when he was there or if he had an urge to get his hands on a pencil.
This article could have been a lot shorter:
Headline: What OCSD learned at the MJ Funeral
Body of article: Diddly Squat!!
OCR - How much bandwidth and newsprint are you going to waste on this useless story. Go beat the bushes and find something newsworthy to print.
They learned how to the the thriller dance. Soon the OCSD will have their version of Thriller on UTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un3-Hb9wF9s
The things O.C.S.D. learned.
1. How LAPD spent more than a $1 million dollars of tax payers money on a pedophiles funeral.
2. How the O.C.S.D. can rip the tax payers off and then cry about not having any MONEY this starts at the very top “”"Sheriff Sandra Hutchens”"”and works its way all the way down to the illegals that clean the toilets at the Sheriff’s department.
I almost can’t wait for the next large, out of area gathering so our law enforcement officers can attend and spew more nonsense…how long did it take them to make this stuff up. I can hear it now …..”Listen, we’re under a lot of scrutiny here for our little field trip yesterday. Seems the media got ahold of the idea that we skipped school to go see Jacko. I’m handing out a piece of paper…and before you leave I want 50 words on “What Michael Jackson’s funeral meant…i mean taught you”. Make it fancy, pull out a dictionary , string some good stuff together but don’t leave without turning it in….i want this heat off me so it doesn’t spoil our trip to Ringling Brothers Circus when it hits San Diego next month
This is probably the most accurate comment so far. Thank you.
NS
I think you nailed it! Unfortunately it seems that they plagarized the newspapers. They should be expelled for such an act because they did not add anything original or put in footnotes to their essay……LOL
The security should of been paid for by the Jackson family or the private venue it was held at, not at taxpayer expense. Agreed this story is lame.
Read the report MORONS. Whether OCSD personnel were in the OC or LA the money would have been spent, it is called a salary, IDIOTS. What was learned was invaluable. The Military trains on a regular basis to remain the best…so does OCSD.
What did they learn that was so invaluable? The military trains because there are countries they have value for human life and must be prepared to meet those challenges.
This was a private service! This was not the President of the U.S. or some other important person. This was a celebrity who died before the promoter could recoup any of their investment and saw this as a way to get some of it back.
Know the difference!
Boondoggle.
This is no different than the required Mobile Field Force training all last month. Every division had to send two people to these classes on Monday and Friday. Additional “assets” had to be brought into cover their shifts. Command Staff ORDERED that the over time be listed as replacement for sick leave. That way the BOS would not find out how much over time was spent the last fiscal month of the year. This continued AFTER the took 28 million from her budget.
Why did this have to be done in June? Iron Mike Hammer Hillmen is worried about the fair this month. This goon tried to start a riot at Mugs away last weekend. White gloves, White baton, Class A’s and goes to Mugs AFTER he ordered nobody else to do that.
I hope OCR publishes pencil boy’s report on use of ass-ets on that one!
Per Betzler and Passalagua our Assets this, Assets that, blah, blah, blah….Orange County doesn’t have no stinkin Assets, Mike Carona tapped them all (oops, no pun intended)
The security should of been paid for by the Jackson family or the private venue it was held at, not at taxpayer expense.
I get tired of hearing ” who approved spending city funds on a private funeral in the first place.” Ref Mike Jackson. Now did the Jackson family benifit from the police protection, Yes. Did they ask for It, I don’t know. Knowing any responsible city, like LA, the police are in-force to protect the people. With difficutly, they do a great job. If the police did not protect the public in a very public and professional and secure fashion. A very difficult problem for the Jackson family would of ensued and public chaos would put may in harms way. What if some kid made some false statement that Mike did something unapporately. How much would this cost L.A., no one would ever here about those cost. The media would of feed on this info like sharks.
For alleged conservatives, who are generally supporters of law enforcement, I see a lot of negative comments on this topic. Part of it can be attributed to those who are Anti-O.C. Sheriffs and haters of Sheriff Sandra Hutchins. The other part comes from total ignorance of how things work in the world of Emergency Services. I will pass on the first part, because Sheriff Hutchins has been more than able to defend herself from her detractors.
Regarding the Sheriffs staff atttending the Jackson event, let me just say it was money well spent. Emergency First Responders (Police & Fire) are in a constant training mode, preparing for a variety of events. Whether it be earthquake, major fire, weapons of mass destriction, terrorist attack, or civil disorder, if no planning and preparation has been done, when the event occurs, the First Responders will likely not perform as well. If that happens, you and your neighbors are the onces impacted. An example is; most jurisdictions in Orange County have worked and trained on earthquake preparation for years. Various scenarios are developed and tabletop exercises, sometimes complemented by actual field response training are used to develop a coordinated effort from all participants. Often times, the training is observed and evaluated by State and Federal Emergency Management officials. The exercises are always critiqued and better ways found to do the job. From time to time, this training is done on a county wide basis since earthquakes know no city borders. Having managed the training exercises for my city for many years, I can attest that not only are our tax dollars well spent, but lives will be saved when the big earthquake comes.
Now let’s focus on the Jackson trip. I can’t speak for the Sheriff’s Department, but I know the professional reputation of Mike Hillman and that he is recognized as a statewide expert in emergency response training. For them to spend a half day at LAPD/LA Sheriffs observing how they planned and executed a major occurrence, is consistent with the job they should be doing. Had they not gone, I would be asking the question, “Why not.” When major events similar to the Jackson Memorial, happen in Orange County, the Sheriffs Department will be at the forefront of planning for them. Although, resources in all law enforcement agencies are thin and getting thinner, preparing for disasters, or other major events is not money wasted.
Are not all of these people from large law-enforcement agencies? Have they never participated in any large-scale event while in those agencies? In fact, aren’t the majority of them from large LA agencies? Shouldn’t they know how LAPD/LASD handle these events by now? After double-digit years in the job they still don’t know what they are doing to the extent they have to go on a field trip to “learn”
Hutchens and crew are either a) dumb as a bag of rocks or b) think WE are dumb as a bag of rocks to believe this.
I’m not surprised at all by the uninformed comments here. What a bunch of uninformed tools. Yes, OC hosts some major events. Training is an ongoing process. There is always something to be learned. OCSD would have been negligent NOT to have sent personnel to this event to observe. Sending personnel to events to observe is commonplace in law enforcement. I have no doubt that there were numerous other agencies there besides OCSD observing for training purposed. I am not a big fan of the current sheriff’s administration, however, those making the negative comments on this topic are gravely uninformed. Hillmann was right on to take some of his people to this and make sure it was a learning experience.
I heard they went up there for moon walk lessons.
It is unbearable to read all of the negative comments from the most of the bloggers regarding the Sheriff’s department attending the Jackson event in L.A.. What burned out trailer park do most of these ignorant people come from? Continual training is crucial to protect the public. Do any of these morons complain about training for the fire department ? I think not. The people in the community with anykind kind of a brain at all realize that this this all proper and necessary training. Stop spewing your useless venom and showing your ignorance.
Good Lord. Could there be a bigger collection of meaningless fuzzy government speak!
They Observed! They Watched! They Evaluated! They Discussed! They monitored! LOL
I especially enjoyed the part where Hillman wrote that,…”the lessons learned are self-evident and well articulated.”
Sorry, but with very few exceptions, NOTHING was self-evident or well articulated. !
The idea was to document what each of them LEARNED, not simply what each of them saw or did!
This document is another sad example of typical bureaucratic mumbo jumbo that the Brass always seems to rubber stamp!
They could have undoubtedly gotten more from reviewing the LAPD Ops plan, and THEIR After Action Reports.
This is all BS. The OCSD didn’t get anything out the MJ funeral. I want to see layoff notices in the OCSD.