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Show Chief is making the right moves When the Price City Council hired a new police chief earlier one this year, they were looking for a tough administrator t. depart-mena than less professional who would accept nothing Indications are the council is getting its moneys worth in William L. Cossaboom. Last week, the new chief took the bold step of eliminating all department rankings in an effort to identify leadership potential among all the officers. The chief has been candid about his intentions, saying: Seniority is dead. The leaders will naturally emerge. He has also made it clear that he will search elsewhere for managerial talent if he can not find it within the department. Duties formerly performed by the police captain, sergeant and corporal will now be passed around among the officers, allowing each to demonstrate his ability. Cossaboom should allow due credit for experience and past service and give current personnel every opportunity to acquire the necessary training and prove themselves capable of the top positions. At the same time, if it becomes clear that the management ability is not present, he should feel free to bring in those who can do the job. Cossaboom has made a good beginning with the initiation of ina training program wherein rookies receive struction from more experienced officers. By their own admission, officers on the force need more training and supervision. Regrettably, adequate funds have not been available to provide it. Cossaboom told the Sun Advocate that boosting the department budget should be one of the City Councils top priorities. Low pay, an inadequate fleet and insufficient equipment have handicapped the department. The mayor and City Council have pledged to work with the new chief in upgrading the department, but until adequate funding becomes available many of the improvements may have to wait. The chiefs objectives are good but unless the city gives him the funds he needs, they may never reach fruition. on-the-j- ob Pac-Ma- jack andersonspear fever n needs cooling g started out as a fascinating new Electronic pastime for millions of Americans, mostly youngsters, who saw the games as a challenge to their skills and reflexes. But it appears that great numbers of the players are trying to turn an otherwise enjoyable pastime into a deadly serious, highly competitive cult. The competition has grown so intense that those who seek to play these games for hours on end are snapping up all the books they can find on such suband How to Beat the Video jects as Mastering Pac-Ma- n game-playin- Games. The danger is that while a great many electronic game wizards may learn how to rack up phenomenal scores, they will spend so much time in the quest for superiority over Pac-Ma- n that they will become ciphers as far as knowing what is going on in the rest of the country and the world. is an interesting Aspiring to victory over Pac-Ma- n when so many challenge, but it becomes a contrived, ego-tri- p people attach such great importance to defeating this electronic nemesis that they are willing to devote hundreds of hours of their time to this goal. The principal winners in the end, however, will be the arcade owners. They continually change and accelerate et al from being wiped out. They programs to protect Pac-Ma- n grossed an estimated $5 billion last year from the rabid And that aint hay, man! pursuers of Pac-Man. By SCOTT LLOYD Staff Writer Were not supposed to noise it about, but most people know that we here at the newspaper monitor police and other emergency calls on a radio scanner. It not only helps us keep track and photograph breaking news but it provides a constant source of entertainment. I have invested in a personal scanner which I leave on perpetually while Im at home. There are times when I would rather listen to my scanner than watch Barney Miller or Hawaii Five-- 0 reruns on television. The scanner, of course, drama catches the real-lif- e enacted when an auto accident, a crime, an assault or an airplane crash occurs, or when an officer calls for backup assistance in handling a volatile family fight. And there are the lighter moments, usually after the supervisors have all gone home, when the officers lay aside the of official jargon and get chatty. At those times, its almost like listening in on a telephone party line. One night a few weeks ago, a deputy sheriff was informed by the county dispatcher that a deer had been hit by a car, was lying injured along the side of the road and needed to be put out of its misery. Cant Animal Control take care of it? he asked. He was informed that the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources had authorized the Sheriffs Department to perform such duties. Well I hate to shoot the little deerie, but I guess I will, he replied. The city police departments, County Sheriffs Department and local division of the Utah Highway Patrol are generally very professional in responding to and handling emergencies. For that reason, it is all the more humorous when the occasional Keystone Cops episode 4 Red Brigade slowed but not stopped - WASHINGTON Its been over a month since General James Dozier was rescued from his Red Brigades captors in Italy. The Italian police did an incredible job tracking down Doziers kidnappers and springing him unharmed. Since then Italian authorities have kept up their momentum against the terrorists.Our sources say that the Italian police believe theyve dealt a major blow to the Red Brigade terrorists. But the Italians arent fooling themselves. They dont think theyve wiped out the Red Brigades threat once and for all. One reason the Italian authorities are guarded in their optimism is what theyve discovered in their crackdown since General Dozier was rescued huge arsenals of weapons that obviously came from foreign sources. The Italian police to say nothing of their Western in have telligence colleagues suspected for years that the Red Brigades have been getting supplies from outside Italy. The spoils from the recent raids amounted to crystal clear confirmation. The weapons that have been found are of Soviet and Czechoslovakian origin. But, interestingly, the Italians dont think the Russians or Czechs were directly involved. The Italian police suspect that the Red Brigades weapons came from radical Palestinian groups based in Lebanon. Our sources have even named the man they think is responsible: George Habash, the leader of a fanatic group called the Popular Front for the liberation of Palestine. Italian and American authorities, meanwhile, dont think theyve heard the last of the terrorist gang. In fact, our sources warn that whats left of the Red Brigades may try to pull off some spectacular act of terrorism, just to show they are still a force to be reckoned with. It only took half a dozen people to kidnap General Dozier. It takes only one dedicated terrorist to assassinate someone. DEADLY ELECTION DAY? : El Salvadors terrorized citizens are scheduled to go to the polls on March 28. Theoretically, they will vote for a democratic legislature that will write a constitution and n lead the country back to civilian rule and a presidential election. But secret intelligence reports from the U.S. Embassy in San war-tor- Salvador warn the leftist guerrillas are planning raids on outlying polling places. Whats more, the intelligence reports suggest that the guerrillas are strong enough to make a shambles of the election process. As a result of these intelligence warnings, cables have gone out to American embassies warning that the United States cant guarantee the safety of foreign officials who may show up in El Salvador to supervise the elections this month. The cables also warn that the Salvadoran government cant guarantee the safety of foreign observers either. Secretary of State Alexander Haig has lent his voice to the chorus of pessimists who fear for the safety of the foreign observers. A recent cable signed by Haig warns that the Salvadoran government wants to protect the foreign visitors, but cant. The cable states in part: It should be pointed out that no participant in (the) Salvadoran political process has any guarantee of safety. In fact, the cable notes, the ruling Salvadoran political party has had more than 40 of its own members killed in the last two years. occurs like the incident last when an officers car became stuck in a mudhole up to its running boards and he had to call for assistance to get out. There was the occasion last fall when police, with the tenacity of an Elliott Ness manhunt, spent the entire afternoon chasing down a van load week of transients who were selling flowers illegally. That day, Chief Deputy Jim Robertson of the Sheriffs Department transmitted this message to Helper Police: In reference to the flowers, we have most of the individuals rounded up, but you still have two members of the Posy Patrol in your area. One night, while investigating an open door on a storage shed, Price Police Sgt. Dean Holdaway accidentally locked himself in the building. Later, after being rescued by other night-shif- t cops, Holdaway wrote in his incident secure, Building report: sergeant secure. escaped Utah State Prison convicts. They turned out to be two coal miners on their way to work. Of course, the scanner comes in handy when we hear, S.O., One day a couple of years ago, law officers followed two in- dividuals across in a pickup truck Carbon and Emery counties, thinking them to be I Ill be 6 at the Sun Advocate. Then we know a lawman is on his way in to our office maybe to hop all over a smart-alec- k writer for some story or column he has written. 10-- r ' ' . - |