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Daily Local & Regional NewsWatch
LA Police Protective League

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Los Angeles
Police Protective League

the union that represents the
rank and file LAPD officers

 

Daily Local & Regional NewsWatch

Daily News Digest

from LA Police Protective League

December 7, 2010

Law Enforcement

LAPD, Police Commission defend handling of racial profiling cases
The watchdog for the Los Angeles Police Commission, as well as LAPD officials, this week largely defended the handling of racial profiling investigations, in response to criticism from the U.S. Department of Justice. Nicole Bershon, the Police Commission's inspector general, is scheduled to present the civilian oversight panel Tuesday with a lengthy report that evaluates how a newly formed LAPD unit investigates claims of racial profiling against officers. The review follows a warning last month from Justice Department officials to Bershon and the LAPD that both were falling short in addressing racial profiling complaints.
Los Angeles Times


Panel opens discussions on proposed LAPD budget cuts
A Los Angeles City Council panel opened discussions Monday on a proposed series of cutbacks in the LAPD designed to reduce an $88 million budget deficit. City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana last week proposed eliminating 225 civilian jobs in the Los Angeles Police Department in order to fund the continued hiring of sworn officers. Employee unions, however, have urged the council to scale back hiring and retain the civilian jobs, which they say will actually put more rank-and-file officers on the city's streets.
Los Angeles Daily News


Late night firefight in North Hollywood
The LAPD is investigating a deadly shooting in North Hollywood at a McDonald's parking lot on Victory Boulevard near Coldwater Canyon. At 2 a.m. Monday morning, a group of men picked the parking lot as the spot to settle a dispute. After they pulled in, witnesses heard lots of screaming and yelling, reportedly in Armenian, then plenty of gunfire. LAPD Lt. Alan Hamilton tells KTLA that the department does not yet know how many shots were fired, but those involved exchanges many shots, and two men were struck by bullets multiple times. One man in his 30's was killed in the firefight, and another in his 20's survived.
KTLA

Car crashes, not gunshots, biggest threat to officers
When we think about police dying in the line of duty, we tend to flash to a thought of a criminal maliciously gunning down an officer. But a more common fate for law enforcement officers is to be killed in a vehicle collision. According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, as of last week there had been 70 officers killed nationwide in vehicle incidents compared with 54 killed by gunfire in 2010. Crash fatalities among officers were up 49 percent over the same period in 2009. The majority are killed in crashes involving a single moving vehicle.
Baltimore Sun

Beck and Baca - law and order in the Southland
With an area of 4,060 square miles, a population of 10,441,100 people who speak 224 different languages and 400 different known gangs, Los Angeles is a lot to handle for a resident, let alone the people running the organizations that keep the peace. Imagine you're LAPD Chief Beck or L.A. County Sheriff Baca and you're in charge of law and order in this multi-cultural stew, with dwindling budgets and increasing demands on your force. How do you balance the day to day demands of catching criminals and tracking transgressors, crime prevention, anti-gang activities, working with other agencies to secure homeland security as well as community outreach?
Southern California Public Radio

State cuts put officers on front lines of mental care
As community mental health systems fray under the strain of state budget cuts and a weak economy, law enforcement officers across the nation are increasingly having to step in to provide the emergency services that clinics have typically offered the mentally ill. Police and sheriff's departments that are already grappling with budget and manpower cuts say the situation is further straining their resources and forcing them to divert officers from their regular duties. It has also stoked fears among law enforcement officers of dangerous encounters between the police and people with severe mental illness.
New York Times


City Government

Trash cops cost budget-strapped LA $1 million
A little-known regulation is costing the city's taxpayers at least $1 million a year to employ trash cops to root through bins and tag residents who don't separate the paper and bottles from the coffee grounds and chicken bones. In an era in which the City of Angels is trying to stay afloat with a budget deficit projected at $330 million for 2011-12, a dozen uniformed "recycling ambassadors" armed with clipboards are busy traversing the city trying to get residents to dump recyclables in their blue bins, trash in the black and landscaping in the green.
AOL News


Prisons & Parole

Repeat offenders may be Harris' biggest challenge
Incoming Attorney General Kamala Harris has set reducing California's out-of-control recidivism rate as her number one priority. But a sickly job market will make her pledge "to close the revolving door on crime" exceptionally hard to carry out. Currently two-thirds of inmates who leave state prison find themselves back behind bars within three years of being released, more than 20 percent higher than the national average.
California Watch


Court overturns injunction on longer wait for parole hearings
An appellate court on Monday struck down a Sacramento federal judge's injunction prohibiting enforcement of parts of a state law governing California's parole system. U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton ruled in February that life-term prisoners were likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that those sections of the so-called Victims' Bill of Rights Act that reduce availability and frequency of parole hearings violate the ex post facto clause of the U.S. Constitution. The clause bars laws that retroactively increase punishment after the commission of a crime.
Sacramento Bee


Politics

L.A. County prosecutor Alan Jackson to run for district attorney in 2012
Just days after warning "politician-types" against running to replace him in 2012, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley gave one of his own prosecutors his blessing. Deputy Dist. Atty. Alan Jackson, who has handled a number of high-profile murder cases, announced his candidacy Monday, echoing his boss' intention to keep the office "in the hands of a prosecutor, not a politician."
Los Angeles Times

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About the LAPPL Formed in 1923, the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) represents the more than 9,900 dedicated and professional sworn members of the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPPL serves to advance the interests of LAPD officers through legislative and legal advocacy, political action and education. The LAPPL can be found on the Web at:

www.LAPD.com


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