This ever happen to you?

Law Enforcement Convention Theft

April 9, 2009

By Musca Law on April 9, 2009 10:11 PM | Permalink

The Tampa Bay area hosted a law enforcement conference this week at the Marriott Waterside Hotel and Marina. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Law Enforcement Executive Development Conference drew police officials from throughout the country, as well as a variety of vendors selling wares targeted at the law enforcement community.

When one of the vendors reported that some of its merchandise had gone missing, Tampa police were surprised. After all, who would steal t-shirts and jackets emblazoned with the conference logo from a location crawling with police? Apparently, the answer is one of their own.

The Tampa police department reviewed surveillance films taken overnight at the conference after the vendor reported the stolen items. What they found surprised them: images of Jim Spencer, 60, taking items from the vendor.

Spencer is a civilian reserve officer, who is reportedly well-liked and respected within the agency. He did not have a disciplinary record with the agency, but was relieved of his duties and is facing criminal charges in connection with the theft. Spencer's colleagues said that he typically volunteers about 12 hours each month in addition to his regular duties.

"It's just an enormous embarrassment and disappointment to the department, and not representative of the other men and women working here," Tampa police spokesperson Laura McElroy told reporters. The police chief personally apologized to the vendor for the problem. Additionally, Spencer has been contrite and immediately returned the stolen goods when confronted. "He was very apologetic," Elroy said of Spencer's demeanor after his police interview about the stolen goods.

Tampa police are continuing to review all segments of the film, because they believe that additional items were stolen by another culprit. Spencer took several items while working at the conference overnight, but it was not clear when the other merchandise disappeared.


I have lost some items over the years, the most expense being a camera, and the most worrisome being a handgun! I always put it down to the cleaning crew taking it, you just never know.

Do you lock down all your items at night? Up until now i have just thrown a cover over the table and took off, it being the end of a long day and all. I might change that thinking though.

Then again, I have lost over 3000.00 worth of stock and personal items due to flying into the shows, TSA or baggage, who knows, They were there when I packed them, just didn't make it in my luggage to the show.