Region 12
2011 2nd QuarterPatrol Case of the Quarter
Officer Mike Ploumen & K9 Falco
Brooklyn Park Police Department
On 04-07-11 at approximately 0525 hours, Officer Ploumen monitored a vehicle pursuit entering the city of Brooklyn Park. He received information that Minneapolis Police were in pursuit of the vehicle which had just been carjacked by a suspect armed with a handgun. Officer Ploumen and K9 Falco got into the pursuit and moved into the second car position. The pursuit continued through multiple jurisdictions at a high rate of speed. Officer Ploumen advised other officers in the pursuit that if the suspect attempts to flee on foot, to stay in their vehicles and his partner, K9 Falco, would be deployed off lead to apprehend the suspect. The pursuit continued for approximately another twenty minutes when an assisting agency was able to safely deploy stop sticks to disable the suspects’ vehicle. The vehicle lost control and went off the road crashing into a field. As the vehicle came to a stop, it was smoking and appeared that it might catch on fire. As Officer Ploumen and K9 Falco exited their squad, it appeared the suspect was exiting his vehicle and was attempting to flee on foot. Officer Ploumen gave several warnings and send K9 Falco to apprehend the suspect. As the suspect saw K9 Falco approaching him, he began to raise a handgun toward K9 Falco. Officer Ploumen was approaching the suspect and ordered him to drop the handgun. The suspect then took his attention away from K9 Falco and began pointing his handgun toward Officer Ploumen. Officer Ploumen and cover officers fired multiple rounds fatally wounding the suspect. As the suspect fell to the ground, K9 Falco reached him and apprehended him in the right tricep. Officer Ploumen and K9 Falco should be commended for their bravery in the face of high stress incident. K9 Falco may have saved Officer Ploumen’s life by diverting the attention of the suspect away from him and other officers. K9 Falco should also be commended for continuing to go after the suspect through numerous gunshots being fired directly over him.
Region 12
2011 2nd QuarterNarcotics Case of the Quarter
Deputy Michael Jerde & K9 Guinness
Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office
On 04-06-11 at approximately 1300 hours, TFO Fletcher of the DEA contacted me to assist him and TFO Grams with a narcotics sniff of a storage unit. K9 Guinness and I arrived at the storage facility and met with TFO’s Fletcher and Grams. I parked my vehicle at the south end of the facility. #2514 was located about half way down and on the left. The facility had open ended lanes with a roof all the way down from end to the other end. There was a strong steady gust of wind coming from the north open end right into us on the south open end. I had K9 Guinness on a twenty foot lead and within approximately ten storage units on the left side, I noticed K9 Guinness starting to breathe differently and was much more interested in each unit as he passed it. Guinness slowed down about three storage units from #2514 and started to detail each one on his own, sniffing the lower and outer door seams along with the locking mechanisms. As K9 Guinness came to door #2514, his breathing and behavior became even more attentive and K9 Guinness pushed his nose into the door right below the locking mechanism and actually moved the door in slightly. At this time, K9 Guinness stepped back, sat down and looked at me, giving me a positive indication for the presence of the odor of narcotics from #2514. On 04-07-11 at approximately 1500 hours, TFO Fletcher contacted me and informed me that 110 pounds of high grade marijuana were recovered during the execution of their search warrant out of storage unit #2514.