Purse-snatching cop caught on film

Published 12:00 am Thursday, November 10, 2005

A woman walking through one of the city’s municipal parking lots was accosted Wednesday morning and had her purse and packages forcibly taken from her.

And it happened to the same woman more than once.

The woman was Tracy Deitz, a dispatcher for the Suffolk Police Department and she and others from the department were filming a holiday-safety video for later broadcast on the city’s local access channel.

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The scene that Deitz was in involved a shopper returning to her car and a stranger approaching and demanding her belongings. The idea, according to spokeswoman Debbie George, is to show potential victims how to get out of those types of situations safely.

“This one (the purse snatching) is for our forensic unit,” she said.

When told to give up her purse, Deitz dropped it and ran off.

“Good, great,” were comments heard from officers at the scene and Suffolk’s Cable Coordinator Tim Kelly, “but do it again and this time lose the plastic bag.”

So, Deitz and Sgt. John Sanker, who serves on the Community Improvement Unit of the SPD and was playing the role of the thief, took their places for another shot.

After a couple more takes Kelly. said he had what he needed and the officers set up for the next scenario.

George said the idea for the series of videos came from inside the department when officers said they wanted to do more to help the residents.

“Some department members were already doing incredible things (related to safety),” said George. The department began to expand on those ideas.

Each training video will deal with a different aspect of the department, she said. On Wednesday, when Kelly finished with the purse-snatching segment, he turned his cameras on the bicycle unit.

While George said crimes against people tend to increase near the end-of-year holidays, the SPD doesn’t really see a spike in those types of incidents. However, she said the department believes it is important to teach people how they can protect themselves and perhaps avoid becoming a victim.

George said the video is expected to begin airing during the first week of December on the local cable company’s Channel 8.

She added that along with the video, the department will step up its bicycle patrols around the retail establishments in the coming weeks.

Others on hand for Wednesday filming included officers Chris Butler and Carl Adams and Sgt. Sandy Springle. All of the actors were SPD personnel, said George.