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From Los Angeles Times

Justice Department trying to shield officials in guns scandal, ATF chief says

Kenneth Melson, the ATF's acting director, claims Justice Department officials refuse to release a telling internal report on the Fast and Furious operation.

by Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau

July 19, 2011

Reporting from Washington

The Justice Department is trying to protect its political appointees from the Fast and Furious scandal by concealing an internal "smoking gun" report and other documents that acknowledge the role top officials played in the program that allowed firearms to flow illegally into Mexico, according to the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Kenneth E. Melson, the ATF's acting director, also told congressional investigators this month that the affidavits prepared to obtain wiretaps used in the ill-fated operation were inconsistent with Justice Department officials' public statements about the program. Justice Department officials advised him not to raise his concerns with Congress about "institutional problems" with the Fast and Furious operation, Melson said.

"It was very frustrating to all of us," Melson told congressional investigators in a private meeting over the Fourth of July holiday, "and it appears thoroughly to us that the department is really trying to figure out a way to push the information away from their political appointees at the department."

Not only was the department slow to react, Melson said, but Justice Department officials indicated they did not want him to cooperate with Congress.

A transcript of his comments was released Monday by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Melson said he wasn't attempting to shield his agency from its share of the blame. He acknowledged an instance in which his agents failed to intercept high-powered weapons when they could have.

"The deputy attorney general's office wasn't very happy with us" at the ATF, Melson said, "because they thought this was an admission that there were mistakes made. Well, there were some mistakes made."

Justice Department officials denied they were stonewalling the congressional investigation. They said they were cooperating and had been providing thousands of pages of documents and other material to investigators.

"Any notion that the department has failed to cooperate with the investigation is simply not based in fact," said Tracy Schmaler, a Justice Department spokeswoman. She added that the department's inspector general's office was reviewing the Fast and Furious operation.

"The department, like the committee, is interested in determining whether Operation Fast and Furious was appropriately handled," Schmaler said.

The intent of Fast and Furious was to allow illegal straw purchasers to buy guns so ATF agents could follow the weapons and ferret out gun-smuggling routes into Mexico. But many of the approximately 1,700 weapons eluded tracing — some even before they were shipped over the border.

Nearly 200 of the weapons were later found at crime scenes in Mexico, and two were recovered at the scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent's slaying in Arizona in December.

Melson said the Justice Department repeatedly thwarted his attempts to tell investigators about the failures of Fast and Furious, which was run out of the ATF's Phoenix field office. When the ATF reassigned managers in Phoenix, he said, "the department resisted" his offer to tell Congress about the changes. Melson said he was told not to issue any news releases about Fast and Furious and was instructed not to brief rank-and-file ATF agents about the growing scandal.

When Grassley sought to meet with Melson this year, the Justice Department blocked that interview too, Melson said. "This is really just poking [Grassley] in the eye," Melson said he told Justice Department officials. "He's going to get it through the back door anyway, so why are we aggravating this situation?"

Melson said he felt "very torn" when he learned after the operation went awry that some of the Mexican drug cartel leaders targeted in the program were paid informants for the FBI.

"Let me say that I am frustrated and disappointed in the way the whole thing has been handled, unfortunately," he said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-guns-scandal-20110719,0,4186466,print.story

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From Google News

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Florida

Police Chief Talks up Community Policing

Chief Mikel Hollaway hopes the city's Independent Police Panel, “will become a lightening rod.”

The tenor of Sarasota's two civilian police panels is starting to emerge over these past few months. The “complaints board” is starting to review how the Sarasota Police Department evaluates citizen complaints. It meets monthly.

The other panel – the Independent Police Advisory Board – meets quarterly, and convened for the second time on Friday, July 15. Chairman Elmer Berkel reminded members, “Administrative-type issues are not under our purview. We are charged to look at major policy aspects of policing in this city.”

With that Berkel turned the microphone over to Police Chief Mikel Hollaway. He is a reluctant chief. He spent his entire 28-year career in the SPD, and rose through every rank. But he didn't submit his application for Police Chief until the final day. He was appointed on May 18, 2010, and reports to City Manager Bob Bartolotta.

“Everybody knows my philosophy is community policing,” Hollaway started out. “We are trying to be much more pro-active, hearing what citizens have to say. I have selected 10 new officers for Newtown, downtown and the Rosemary District. I want every businessman to know them by name.”

One subtle change is his department's outreach to neighborhood associations. For years, senior lieutenants and captains came to their meeting to give briefings, crime prevention tips and relay local crime statistics. Within the past few months, it's now the beat cops and detectives who actually work those neighborhoods who show up and share what they know.

In many respects the city police are responsible for three different cities. One is a “city of tourists” on vacation who throng here year-round, for Sarasota is a summer destination too. Another is a “city of commuters,” for during 9-5, the city's population virtually doubles. A third and much smaller city is composed of people who actually live here. They are the natives and long-term residents who actually pay the taxes supporting the SPD.

These “locals” are of particular interest to Hollaway. “I hope this board will be a lightening rod for some of the social issues that contribute to crime in our community. And I hope you talk about solutions,” he said.

Hollaway and many on his force have been active in mentoring and coaching youth. As a sergeant, Hollaway was put in charge of an initiative, which included recruiting teachers to tutor students at police substations. Other officers coached high school sports, and continue to do so. “It was quite rewarding to see the students get off the school bus and go right to the substation,” he said last year. “It's easy to say you want to make a difference. But it's very hard sometimes, if you don't establish relationships with the people that you serve.”

“I care about arrest statistics,” he told the panel. “But what's important to me is the quality of our service, and that we treat our citizens with respect and dignity.”

Hollaway was appointed interim chief after the resignation of then-Chief Peter Abbott following the release of a closed-circuit video showing a Sarasota Police officer stomping a prisoner in the county jail sally port. As a result of the ensuing public uproar, both the Independent Police Advisory Board and the Police Complaint Committee were established. Both panels are in their infancy.

http://sarasota.patch.com/articles/police-chief-talks-up-community-policing

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Illinois

Baseball cards aim to connect kids and officers

Limited edition baseball cards have hit the streets of Park Ridge — but instead of featuring greats like Babe Ruth, local police officers like Sgt. Robert Kampwirth and Lt. Duane Mellema are the trading card heroes.

The new project is one part of a community policing strategy focus that aims to connect Park Ridge police officers with the community. The hope is that the baseball cards open up a communication pipeline with a younger demographic and let youth see officers in a different light, said Cmdr. Lou Jogmen.

Children can walk up to police and ask for the cards, which each have photos, sayings and background information like college degrees and time spent in the force. A ride to school in a squad car will be given to the first few children who collect the memorabilia from all 54 Park Ridge police officers.

“It shows that we're more human,” Jogmen said. “A lot of people view us as an arm of the government…we're not just a role in society.”

Creating baseball cards for the police department has been tossed around in the past, but resurfaced in January when Police Chief Frank Kaminski created a full-time community strategies officer position.

Since Kaminski took the helm in 2009, the police department has created community programs like Parent Patrol, the Chief's Advisory Task Force, a program that rewards youngsters for being good and a chaplain service where local clergymen trained in grief counseling speak to families and officers when a problem arises.

Another new initiative that began this summer is Party Watch, a spin-off of Vacation Watch, which allows homeowners to request extra patrols on their home when they go out

http://triblocal.com/park-ridge/2011/07/19/baseball-cards-aim-to-connect-kids-and-officers/

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California

Police officers who are also school resource officers make impact

Salvaged program shows kids that law enforcement officers want to help.

Merced Police Officer Jason Hart knew he wanted to work with kids and make a difference in their lives when he became a police officer.

Hart is a school resource officer at Golden Valley High School, where he mentors students and works with parents and teachers.

"We create positive relationships with the students and with the teachers and the parents," Hart said. "We do that basically with community policing, where not everything we do is related to crime. We try to mentor them, we try to make ourselves more approachable."

The Merced County Office of Education will pay a total of $143,078 in salary including benefits for one gang violence intervention unit officer to provide services at Valley Community School. Vehicle maintenance is about $6,565 out of the $143,078. Meanwhile, the school district will pay $343,027 for Hart and two other officers' salaries, benefits and vehicle costs for the school year. The district will also pay $1,000 overtime per site at Merced High and Golden Valley. In addition to that cost, the district will also pay $13,860 or 100 percent of the cost from its summer school budget for the cost associated with an officer during its summer school program, according to the council report.

Hart is assigned to Golden Valley, one officer will be at Merced High School and a third at East Campus Educational Center.

Last month, the city cut its general fund deficit to an estimated $2.4 million from $5.5 million after eliminating 36 city positions and using ongoing cost-effective methods to balance the city budget. The council also saved 11 positions, including the four school resource officers. The estimated $2.4 million deficit included reserves spent on the four positions, among others. A general fund balance and the city's "reserves" are considered synonymous.

The police department bases an officer at each of the city's four high schools (Merced High, Golden Valley, East Campus Educational Center and Valley High). One layoff notice had been sent to one of the four school resource officers, said Lt. Andre Matthews, who oversees them. He said the others were sent back to patrol, but would return to their assigned high schools when high school starts.

This will be Hart's fifth year as a school resource officer. The students are our future adults, he said.

"During lunch and breaks, I am constantly walking around the campus and seeing kids and talking to them, joking with them. Letting them know just cause I'm wearing a badge I'm not out to get them. I'm here to help them any way I can," he said.

He said it's rewarding to see the kids graduate.

"When they're freshmen or sophomores and they're getting into trouble, and you intervene, they turn around," Hart recalled. "On graduation day they come up and hug you. A couple of years ago they were in handcuffs."

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