Police Academy

shappell@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - As a little girl, Debra S. "Debbie" Hamby knew she would one day be a police officer. What Maryland State Police Trooper 1st Class Hamby did not know back then was that she'd be voted by her peers as the best trooper in her barrack and have the chance to be named Maryland State Police's top cop for the year. Maryland State Police officials at the Hagerstown barrack named Hamby Trooper of the Year for 2004. Although Hamby, 37, had been named Trooper of the Month locally several times, she said she was not expecting the annual distinction.

Applications will be gathered at the end of the week from Waynesboro police officers who want to be the department's new chief. "We will distribute the compiled applications and then the council will determine who to interview," Borough Manager Lloyd Hamberger said. The Waynesboro Borough Council, which would like to promote from within, will send its pick to the three-person Civil Service Commission for an exam to make sure the person is qualified for the position, he said.

All right, when did Hagerstown decide it was going to turn into San Fermin, Spain? We had our own personal running of the bulls on Wednesday when four of these bovine banditos escaped from a livestock trailer on I-70 and led police on a wild beef chase. Something tells me that this isn't exactly what men and women have in mind when they sign up for the police academy to make our streets and communities a safer place. But when the escape occurred, the police were the ones who got the assignment.

Odds and ends from a columnist's notebook: Before it became his paying gig, Officer Brett McKoy spent five years working as the volunteer co-director of the Police Athletic League, an organization he co-founded with Guy McCartney, a Department of Natural Resources officer. McKoy, then with the Washington County Narcotics Task Force, worked his shift hours, then spent what time he could building up the PAL. The Community Partnership for Families and Children was impressed enough in October 2002 to give PAL a five-year grant that included $19,000 for equipment and supplies and $40,000 a year for the life of the grant for McKoy's salary.

laurae@herald-mail.com Thomas Chase was 19 years old when the call that would change his life came over the scanner at 5:45 a.m., waking him from his overnight shift at a Frederick fire company. At first, it sounded innocuous. An injured person in the 300 block of Upper College Terrace. A neighboring fire company was dispatched. But Chase became disturbed when he heard that a dog also was hurt. His grandmother walked her aging cocker spaniel mix in that neighborhood every morning.

By CLYDE FORD Staff Writer, Charles Town CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - Charles Town Police Sgt. R.J. James stood in front of about a dozen teenagers as they diligently took notes about the drug laws in West Virginia. The teenagers were members of Charles Town Police Department's Law Enforcement Explorer Post 254, a Boy Scout organization aimed at giving young people a chance to study police work. The group directed traffic at last year's African-American festival, worked crowd control during a parade, and eventually will ride along with police officers on patrol.

WILLIAMSPORT - Whirls of red and blue lit the drizzly night outside Osborne Funeral Home Sunday as police directed the steady stream of relatives, friends, Smithsburg residents and police who came to say goodbye to Smithsburg Police Officer Christopher Nicholson and pay their respects to his family. While family members struggled with the injustice of the gunshot that fatally wounded the 25-year-old officer while he waited for backup Wednesday night, the community also mourned a sense of security they worry might never be the same.

By BRENDAN KIRBY Staff Writer Lt. Donnie Knott knows the image his name conjures - even though he goes by Donnie, not Don. The name's resemblance to comedian Don Knotts is unmistakable. "I've heard them all," said Knott, who took over Sept. 10 as commander of the Hagerstown barracks of the Maryland State Police. But Knott takes it in stride. He even has a greeting card with Knotts in his role on the "Andy Griffith Show" on his shelf. "It's kind of my favorite show, so I can respond," he said.

"I'd like to know if the people who called in about how to get rid of groundhogs in your yard would call and repeat their message? I mislaid the paper that had their information in it. " "I'd like to add to what a person called in about the Tommy Bowers situation in Smithsburg. I agree with the caller who said that not everyone supported him and I'm certainly in agreement with that. The other side needs to be heard and people aren't speaking up as much as they should. There are plenty of us who don't want him here.

Robin Janocha told her 23 fellow Junior Police Academy graduates Saturday that she took the 10-week course because she has wanted a career in law enforcement since she was a little girl. Janocha, 15, an eighth-grader at Grace Academy, was chosen to speak to the Junior Police Academy's first graduating class at ceremonies at the Four Points Hotel. "My hope is that everyone who participated in this class will benefit from the experience," Janocha said. The course, sponsored by the Hagerstown Area Police Athletic League, ran for four hours every Saturday for 10 weeks.