Law Enforcement

Crime alerts for Sawtelle, Fairfax and seven other L.A. neighborhoods
Crime reports are up significantly for the latest week in nine L.A. neighborhoods, according to an analysis of Los Angeles Police Department data by the Los Angeles Times' Crime L.A. database. Eight neighborhoods reported a significant increase in violent crime. Sawtelle recorded three reports compared with a weekly average of 0.8 over the last three months. Fairfax was the lone neighborhood with a property-crime alert. It recorded 20 property crimes compared with its weekly average of 12.6 over the last three months.
Los Angeles Times

Using video to aid police reports is common sense
Recently former Los Angeles Police Inspector General Jeffrey Eglash criticized the Fullerton Police Department for allowing officers involved in the death of Kelly Thomas to watch a video of the incident before they wrote their reports. Eglash seems to lament the fact that the officers and the department strove for accuracy. Anyone who believes a department's first order of business following such incidents is to ensure that officers' reports are accurate would be rightfully confused by his comments.
Gary Ingemunson/Los Angeles Daily News

LAPD ramps up DUI checkpoints
Los Angeles police are in the midst of a two-week campaign of ramped up patrols and drunken-driving checkpoints across the city to crackdown on motorists driving under the influence and committing other violations. The end-of-summer "Avoid the 100" campaign is named for the number of local police agencies involved across Los Angeles County. The LAPD's checkpoints will become operative at 8 p.m. and stay up through Sept. 4. The effort is part of a national campaign called "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over."
Torrance Daily Breeze

Suspect in double Chatsworth slaying charged in assault on police
Prosecutors charged a convicted bank robber wanted in connection with a double slaying with several felonies in connection with shots fired at Los Angeles police. Zubek Brent Darrin Zubek, 43, who was arrested early Monday in Encino, faces six counts of assault with a firearm on a peace officer, one count of possession of a firearm by a felon, and one count of carrying a loaded and stolen firearm. Zubek is scheduled to appear for arraignment Tuesday afternoon in a San Fernando courtroom. If convicted on all counts, Zubek faces a maximum sentence of multiple life terms in state prison.
Los Angeles Times

First day on the job is no vacation for Devonshire Division's new captain
The new commanding officer of the LAPD's Devonshire Division thought he'd take a little vacation before starting his new assignment. Capt. Kris Pitcher didn't realize how little. There were two decomposing bodies and a manhunt with which to deal. Bye-bye vacation. He arrived from the Foothill and North Hollywood patrol to oversee the investigation of the trash-bin bodies found in the 20400 block of Lassen Street.
Chatsworth Patch

Immigration

7 arrested at downtown L.A. pro-immigration protest
Police made at least seven arrests Wednesday during a protest outside the Ronald Reagan Federal Building, authorities said. The arrests stemmed from a pro-immigration protest involving more than 50 demonstrators. Acts of civil disobedience included blocking the driveway to the federal building to prevent buses that were deporting illegal immigrants from leaving the facility, said Sgt. Mitzi Fierro, an LAPD spokeswoman. Three people were arrested during the demonstration for refusing to disperse after the LAPD declared an unlawful assembly. Four others were booked on unspecified federal charges.
Los Angeles Times

Prisons

California to reconsider prisoner placement in highest security unit
State prison officials Tuesday said they plan to reconsider criteria for placing inmates in the state's highest-security units, where gang leaders and, some say, those wrongfully labeled as such are routinely housed. The announcement came at an Assembly hearing in Sacramento on the state's prison Security Housing Units, known as SHUs. The ultra-austere conditions inside the state's three Security Housing Units have raised concerns since 1990, when an inmate class action suit led federal Judge Thelton Henderson to issue injunctions aimed at eliminating excessive force, improving health care and removing prisoners with mental illness from the unit at Pelican Bay State Prison.
Monterey County Herald

Will hunger strikes lead to changes in prison conditions?
Recent hunger strikes in several California prisons appear to be winding down, but more strikes loom if the conditions that inspired them continue to cause controversy and protest. Hunger strikes broke out first at the maximum-security lockup in remote Pelican Bay on July 1. The strikes began within the Security Housing Unit, a sort of prison within a prison, which houses violence- and escape-prone inmates. Between 50 and 100 inmates launched the strike, but it soon grew to at least 676 prisoners, many in Pelican Bay's general population, refusing meals.
Capitol Weekly

Pensions

Hiking public retirement age to 65 could save billions
A ballot measure that would hike the retirement age of public employees to 65 (except for public safety officers, who could retire at 58) could save billions of dollars every year in the long run, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. Savings wouldn't materialize for many years, however, since the new rules would likely apply only to future hires, and not to people now working (if past court decisions are any guide). And governments would feel compelled to offer other forms of compensation to make up for the lost benefit, which could cut into savings.
Orange County Register

Legislation

Proposed bill would prevent employers from pulling credit reports on job applicants
Assembly Bill 22 would prevent employers from pulling credit reports of job applicants unless it is required by law, such as for jobs in banking or financial services, or the position is considered managerial. "The claim that a good or bad credit history correlates into good or bad job performance is a fiction spun by the credit bureaus so they can sell credit reports," said Joe Ridout, a spokesman for Consumer Action.
Ventura County Star