The message from an incident on Dec. 9, 1971, in Lewistown, Mifflin County, is important enough to have remained a part of police training — state and municipal-level — since then. Based on an incident last Tuesday, it obviously hasn't survived the nearly 38 years that have passed since state police Cpl. John S. Valent lost his life.

If the 1971 message didn't stick, one from October 1999 involving the Lawrence County Sheriff's Department was important enough to have helped prevent a police error last Tuesday in Cranberry Township. It wasn't.

Evidently, the important lesson never was taught, was not remembered or simply was ignored.

The mistake never must be repeated by any police officer or sheriff's deputy, no matter how minor the crime and no matter how non-dangerous someone might appear to be.

The mistake in question: failure to search a suspect or prisoner for a weapon or anything else illegal.

In the Cranberry incident, it is fortunate that township Officer Michael Pszenny was not dealing with a suspect with a gun, but instead with a young man who had seven stamp bags of suspected heroin in his possession when apprehended.

Pszenny is alive to feel embarrassed, ponder what happened, breathe a sigh of relief, and promise himself and his colleagues that he'll never make the same mistake again.

The man in Pszenny's custody, Timothy Jason Kimbel, 19, of McCandless, Allegheny County, almost was able to successfully dispose of the heroin because Pszenny either didn't search him at all or didn't search him adequately according to police procedure.

Kimbel was unsuccessful in his attempt to flush the illegal drugs down a commode at the township police station, thanks, in part, because Pszenny became suspicious about what was happening in the bathroom stall.

For his suspicion and subsequent action Pszenny deserves a positive review. But the situation could have been much different if Kimbel had opened the stall door with a gun pointed at Pszenny.

On Dec. 9, 1971, Valent, a state police veteran who was nearing retirement, stopped to question three young men just outside of Lewistown. He called the Lewistown state police barracks, which was just about a quarter-mile away, to report that he was bringing the three men in for questioning.

Valent ordered the men into the back seat of his cruiser for the short trip. About two blocks from the barracks, one of the three shot Valent in the back of the head twice, and the three escaped, triggering a wide-scale manhunt.

Less than half an hour after the shooting, Valent was pronounced dead.

In the 1999 incident, Lawrence County Deputy Terry Bush was victimized because the prisoner in his custody, Terry McNelis, 25, a Fayette County native, unbeknowst to Bush, had a key to his handcuffs in his possession.

McNelis, once free of his handcuffs, overpowered Bush, took his 9mm semi-automatic pistol and commandeered the deputy's van. Only hours after escaping from Bush, McNelis, wearing the deputy's uniform and carrying his weapon, robbed a delicatessen in Somerset County.

No doubt there have been other times when police and sheriff's deputies have been lax or negligent in their responsibility to properly search individuals in their custody. It's been rare that those incidents have come back to haunt the police or deputies in charge of them.

Actually, that never — or almost never — should happen, if proper procedures are followed.

In the aftermath of the 1999 incident, Butler County Sheriff Dennis Rickard expressed confidence that a prisoner under the care of one of his deputies could not escape as McNelis did. None ever has, despite all of the prisoner transports that took place in recent years due to overcrowding at the old, now-closed prison.

Probably not one police chief in this county would have thought an incident such as last week's could have occurred in the hands of any of his officers, but last week one avoidable one did occur.

Police need to reflect on last week's incident and remember the experiences of John Valent and Terry Bush.

Failure to search a prisoner or suspect is never an option.

— J.R.K.