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From the Los Angeles Times

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Census poverty report: In tough times Americans 'double up'

The worst of it has been widely reported: From 2009 to 2010 poverty was up, median household income was down, and the number of people living without health insurance grew from 49 million to 49.9 million.

Grim stuff.

One thing we found interesting is the growing number of people living in what are called "doubled-up households." In the report, these are defined as households that include at least one "additional" person who is 18 or older, not enrolled in school, not the house owner and not the spouse or partner of the house owner.

Here are the stats on doubled-up households, culled directly from the news release:

In the spring of 2007, before the recession, doubled-up households totaled 19.7 million. By the spring of 2011, the number had increased by 2 million to 21.8 million. As a percentage of all households, such doubled-up arrangements rose from 17% to 18.3%.

In the spring of 2011, 5.9 million young adults ages 25 to 34 (14.2% ) resided in their parents' household, compared with 4.7 million (11.8 %) before the recession.

It is difficult to precisely assess the impact of doubling up on overall poverty rates. Young adults ages 25 to 34 and living with their parents had an official poverty rate of 8.4%, but if their poverty status was determined using their own income, 45.3% had an income below the poverty threshold for a single person under age 65.

But one wonders if the doubling-up phenomenon is not all doom and gloom. Perhaps there are some unexpected pleasures that come with living with extended family members? Some would argue it is a return to our tribal roots.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/

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California poverty rate rises in 2010 for fourth year in a row

Six million residents last year had incomes below the federal poverty line of $22,113 for a family of four. Nearly 1 in 5 California residents lacked health insurance in 2010.

Interactive map : People living in poverty, by state

by Alana Semuels and Duke Helfand, Los Angeles Times

September 13, 2011

The number of Californians living in poverty grew for the fourth straight year in 2010, more evidence that continued high unemployment and a struggling economy are weighing on the state's families.

About 6 million Californians had incomes below the federal poverty line of $22,113 for a family of four in 2010, census data released Tuesday show. That's 16.3% of the population, up from 15.3% in 2009.

Nearly 1 in 5 residents lacked health insurance last year, one of the highest rates in the nation. Median household income in the state, when adjusted for inflation, fell 4.6% to $54,459. That's the largest decline in a single year since record keeping began.

"The latest data show that the Great Recession had a very profound impact on California, particularly families with children," said Jean Ross, executive director of the nonpartisan research group California Budget Project. "We saw a very significant increase in poverty and a significant decrease in the purchasing power of the income of the typical California household."

Sluggish consumer spending is slowing California's recovery in the short term. But the consequences of poverty can reverberate for decades.

Children raised in poverty are less likely to go to college than children from wealthier families, and they often have more health problems throughout life, Ross said. That could have negative consequences for California's workforce, which already has a shortage of educated workers, according to a recent study by the Brookings Institution.

Also Tuesday, a law enforcement group called Fight Crime: Invest in Kids warned that rising child poverty rates could lead to higher crime rates in the future.

"Childhood poverty is a consistent risk factor for becoming a violent criminal or a victim of crime," said Miriam Rollin, the group's national director.

California's unemployment rate averaged 12.4% in 2010. In July, there were 2.2 million unemployed in the state, and unemployment was at 12%. One-third of the unemployed — about 727,000 people — have been out of work for a year or more, and many have exhausted their unemployment benefits.

Erik Navratil, 17, has spent the last four years in transition since his father lost his job as a mortgage broker. The teenager is staying with friends because his family lost their house. His mother, father and brother each are living in different places until they can scrape together enough money for rent.

"Our lives are in turmoil," Navratil said.

His mother, Catherine Navratil, said the separation has been hard on everyone. She said the worst was when Erik volunteered to drop out of school to help support the family. She refused to let him do it.

"It's horrible. I have minor children and I couldn't even be with them," she said. "It broke my heart. You want to be there to comfort them when they're sad and upset."

Food stamps have helped the family survive, she said. About 1.4 million Californians participated in the federal food stamp program in 2010, up from 1.1 million the year before.

Government cash assistance to low-income families with children was rolled back in the most recent state budget, said Ross of the California Budget Project. That reduced the amount of time families can receive aid to four years, from five. Grant levels were reduced 13% starting in June, she said.

"That's troubling given continued high unemployment," she said. "Even individuals that have a strong work history are having a tough time finding jobs."

As unemployment and poverty deepen in California, millions of people are also forgoing health insurance and basic healthcare that would keep them from becoming ill and landing in hospitals.

Poverty-stricken individuals and families wind up "living sicker, dying younger and being one emergency room visit away from financial ruin," said Anthony Wright, executive director of the consumer group Health Access California.

Without health insurance, Brooke Hesla has watched her health and her finances deteriorate.

The San Bernardino college student said she has endured two urinary tract infections in recent years, resorting to an unconventional if relatively inexpensive treatment — antibiotics for livestock bought at a local feed store.

To treat a scraped foot, the 27-year-old journalism student said she filled her bathtub with scalding water and bleach — a homespun remedy to kill infection.

"I pray to God that nothing makes me too sick that it puts me out of commission," she said.

Hesla said she ran up about $18,000 in medical bills for an emergency room visit during one of her infections and other medical care, but that she has no money to pay collectors. And there's no money for health insurance either.

"The income is just not there," said Hesla, who works part time as an auto mechanic.

In 2010, 19.4% of Californians had no insurance, the census reported. That equates to 7.2 million people.

California last year ranked eighth among states with the highest rates of people without insurance. Texas topped the list with 24.6% of its residents uninsured, followed by New Mexico (21.6%) and Nevada (21.3%).

Other numbers released Tuesday illuminated a gap in the region's economy and the state of its families. In various metropolitan regions throughout the state, gross domestic product grew in 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The Los Angeles metro area had the second-highest GDP in the nation last year, $735 billion, a 2.5% increase from the previous year, and the San Francisco metro area ranked eighth, with a GDP of $325 billion, a 2.3% rise.

Yet even as GDP grew, incomes decreased statewide last year. The census shows that California's 2010 median household income when adjusted for inflation fell 4.6% from 2009 and 9% from 2006.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-poverty-california-20110914,0,5953639,print.story

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Girl slain, 2 wounded in apparent retaliation for good deed

A Good Samaritan stops the beating of a woman down the street in San Bernardino only to have the attacker open fire on his house an hour later. The police chief vows to catch the killer.

by Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times

September 14, 2011

Fourteen-year-old Destiny Hull spent Tuesday morning mopping up dried blood from her grandmother's front porch, stains from an evening that began with an act of kindness and ended with an apparent act of vengeance that left a small girl dead and a pregnant woman and her young daughter seriously wounded.

The series of events in San Bernardino began Monday evening when a Good Samaritan who lived in the house — police won't say who for fear of tainting possible eyewitness accounts — saw a man beating a woman down the street, charged in and broke up the fight, allowing the woman to escape.

An hour later, the woman's attacker came to the male Good Samaritan's home and opened fire. Destiny's sister, who was five months pregnant, was shot in the jaw and neck, and bullets hit Destiny's two 3-year-old nieces in the head.

Destiny, overwhelmed by tears and fits of anger at the invading news cameras, stayed home from school to help clean up.

"I just can't believe this happened," she said, scrubbing the blood away from the porch, where the walls were pocked with bullet holes.

The shooting outraged residents of the working-class neighborhood. A large extended family lived in the home of Sophia Cardona, the matriarch who was inside cleaning and cooking tacos when she heard the shots.

Her grandson ran to the porch, scooped up the wounded children and drove them to the hospital.

"Whatever happened … was cowardice. He knew what he was doing and was trying to hurt someone. But he didn't have to hurt the children," Cardona said, breaking down in tears. "We lost one of our babies."

San Bernardino Police Chief Keith Kilmer called the shooting "tragic, senseless and despicable" and vowed to catch the killer.

"We will find you, we will seek you out and we will bring you to justice," Kilmer said at police headquarters, six blocks from where the shooting occurred.

The attack was the deadliest of four shootings overnight and through the morning in San Bernardino, a blue-collar town that for the last five years has worked feverishly to erase its image as a city with one of the state's highest levels of violence, attributed, in part, to an influx of L.A. gang members.

In the 1990s, the police officers association hawked "Murder City" T-shirts to raise money for a police memorial. But violent crime has dropped 40% since city voters approved a half-cent sales tax increase in 2006 for anti-crime programs.

"Just this week, I was talking to the police chief about the fact that we've had a remarkably peaceful summer in our fair city — 66 days of no homicides," Mayor Patrick Morris said. "And then the explosion came last night, and it was beyond tragic."

"Today, we'll come together as a city and find justice for this family," he added.

Cardona's neighborhood is one of many scarred by the crushing years of recession in the Inland Empire. The windows of the house next door are boarded up with plywood, and a "for sale" sign is posted on one. Empty shops dot the nearby retail strips.

"It's a bad area, it's a very bad area, and it's getting worse," said Janie Lopez, 58, who lives in an apartment across the street from the shooting site.

Lopez said Cardona's front patio is often crowded with family, and on occasion, she's seen police at the home.

Police spokeswoman Lt. Gwendolyn Waters confirmed that there have been "criminal issues at that house over the years," but emphasized that detectives believe this shooting was unrelated. "This was someone who was just trying to do a good deed," Waters said.

Police declined to release specifics about who they believe was the intended target of the attack other than to say that the gunman knew the Good Samaritan lived at the house.

The shooting happened about 7:45 p.m. Monday as the family was about to sit down for dinner and the kids were playing out front. The next morning, dolls were still lying on the concrete porch, along with three empty 40-ounce beer bottles.

Nylah Franco-Torres, 3, was shot in the head and pronounced dead at the hospital. Cardona said her great-granddaughter was a joyful child who didn't deserve such a violent fate.

"She was a sweet little girl. She loved going to the store. She was happy," Cardona said. "The first thing she did in the morning was turn on the TV and watch cartoons."

Cardona said her granddaughter La-Donna Howie, 21, and Howie's daughter Justine were the others wounded. Howie, who is five months pregnant, was listed in stable condition at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton. Her unborn child was unharmed and in good condition, police said. Justine was in extremely critical condition at Loma Linda University Medical Center with a head wound.

Police described the suspect as a black man in his early 20s, about 6 feet tall, weighing 160 to 170 pounds, with short dark hair.

"I'm concerned that maybe this man will not be found," Cardona said. "But we will keep going."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me--toddler-shot-20110914,0,7957417.story

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Teen driver restrictions a mixed bag

A nationwide analysis shows that while the number of fatal crashes among 16- and 17-year-old drivers has fallen, deadly accidents among 18-to-19-year-olds have risen by an almost equal amount.

by Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times

September 13, 2011

For more than a decade, California and other states have kept their newest teen drivers on a tight leash, restricting the hours when they can get behind the wheel and whom they can bring along as passengers. Public officials were confident that their get-tough policies were saving lives.

Now, though, a nationwide analysis of crash data suggests that the restrictions may have backfired: While the number of fatal crashes among 16- and 17-year-old drivers has fallen, deadly accidents among 18-to-19-year-olds have risen by an almost equal amount. In effect, experts say, the programs that dole out driving privileges in stages, however well-intentioned, have merely shifted the ranks of inexperienced drivers from younger to older teens.

"The unintended consequences of these laws have not been well-examined," said Mike Males, a senior researcher at the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco, who was not involved in the study, published in Wednesday's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Assn. "It's a pretty compelling study."

The combination of immaturity and inexperience makes teen drivers particularly vulnerable to motor vehicle accidents. Car crashes are the leading cause of death among teens, resulting in 4,054 fatalities in 2008, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in Arlington, Va.

Graduated driver licensing programs, as they are known, bar young drivers from certain higher-risk situations — such as being on the road at night, talking on cellphones and driving with passengers — until they gain more experience. The first program was implemented in Florida in 1996, and since then all 50 states and the District of Columbia have adopted some type of multi-step plan.

Though the program details vary significantly by state, they typically set a minimum age for earning a driver's permit and a driver's license and require a certain number of hours behind the wheel while supervised by an adult. Additional driving restrictions may come into play for the first six months or year of unsupervised driving.

California, which implemented its program in 1998 and strengthened it in 2006, has one of the nation's strictest programs. After passing a driving test, teens are issued a 12-month provisional license that prohibits them from driving between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. and from carrying passengers under the age of 20 unless an adult age 25 or older is present. If the provisional period is completed without any suspensions or probation orders, teens get a full license.

To assess the value of such programs, a team led by Scott V. Masten of the Department of Motor Vehicles Research and Development Branch in Sacramento examined data on more than 131,000 fatal crashes involving teen drivers from all 50 states and the District of Columbia between 1986 and 2007. The long period allowed the team to compare data from states with graduated licensing programs with data from those that had not yet adopted a program.

The researchers found that states with the most restrictive graduated licensing programs — such as those that required supervised driving time as well as having night-driving restrictions and passenger limitations — saw a 26% reduction in the rate of fatal crashes involving 16-year-old drivers compared with states without any restrictions.

But the rate of fatal crashes among 18-year-old drivers in those states jumped 12% compared with the states without restrictions. The analysis controlled for other factors that could affect road safety, such as laws regarding seat belts and allowable blood-alcohol levels.

A similar trend was seen when comparing drivers in states with strong graduated licensing programs with those in states with weak programs: The rate of fatal crashes among 16-year-old drivers was 16% lower but was 10% higher among 18-year-old drivers.

Overall, since the first program was enacted in 1996, graduated programs were linked to 1,348 fewer fatal crashes involving 16-year-old drivers and 1,086 more fatal crashes involving 18-year-old drivers.

"The programs reduce crashes among 16-year-olds — if you look at just that, it looks bright and shiny," Masten said. "But there appears to be some negative consequences. Instead of just looking at the targeted group, we need to ask what is going on with all teens."

Experts said it's not clear why fatal crash rates are higher among 18-year-olds in states with stronger graduated driver licensing programs. One possibility is that teens in these states may be waiting until they turn 18 to apply for a license because that allows them to bypass the restrictions.

According to the California DMV, the rate of 16-year-olds licensed to drive unsupervised fell from 23% in 1997 to 14% by 2007. As a result, "we have more novices on the roads at ages 18 and 19," Masten said.

Not everyone is convinced that the programs are backfiring, however.

A study published last year in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention found that the rate of fatal crashes for 15-to-17-year-olds was 30% lower in states with strong graduated licensing programs compared with states with weaker programs — but the accident rate for 18- and 19-year-olds was essentially the same under both regimes.

"Our studies did not find a negative effect" on older teens, said coauthor Anne T. McCartt, senior vice president of research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "We think the bigger the benefits for the younger teens, the more likely there is an overall positive effect for teens as a whole."

To get at the truth, researchers may need to dig into the data on individual state programs instead of grouping all states together, said Susan P. Baker, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who has studied the graduated programs but was not involved in either study. That would allow for a cleaner assessment of a program's value, she said.

McCartt said the solution may be to expand graduated driver licensing programs to include 18- and 19-year-olds who are getting behind the wheel for the first time. The idea isn't without precedent: In New Jersey, such rules apply to all initial driver's license applicants under the age of 21.

"The concept of easing drivers into riskier driving situations could apply to older teens as well," she said.

But Males, who has studied California's program, said it was inappropriate to impose such restrictions on legal adults and noted that the rules could disqualify them from holding certain jobs.

"That's a terrible idea," he said. "That's saying the programs didn't work, so we'll have to make them even stronger."

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-teen-driver-laws-20110914,0,4744060,print.story

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'Parenthood parole' pitfalls

Giving reduced sentences to people simply because they're parents is not strong policy. Lawmakers must adopt the structural reforms needed to fix the prisons in the long term.

September 14, 2011

Back in the bad old days of English jurisprudence, women who faced hanging for theft or other then-capital crimes could "plead their bellies". If they could prove they were pregnant, they could get their sentences commuted or reduced. As evidence of how far we've come in the intervening centuries, a similar system is about to be put into practice in California.

As early as next week, the state prison system is slated to begin releasing mothers convicted of non-serious, non-sexual crimes who have two years or less left in their terms. They will serve the rest of their time at home, with their kids, wearing GPS-enabled ankle bracelets and reporting to parole officers. According to a report by Times staff writer Jack Dolan, nearly half of the 9,500 women in state custody might qualify for such early releases, and the same policy may be applied to fathers in the near future.

We understand the rationale for all this. Families are thought to exert a stabilizing influence on former inmates, making them less likely to commit further crimes. The state is under a federal court order to cut its prison population by at least 30,000 before July 2013, forcing officials to find creative solutions to a very difficult problem. Data show that kids are better off living with their actual parents, even when those parents are convicted felons, than they would be in the foster care system.

But that comes with a caveat: If the newly released inmates don't get the public assistance they need in the form of housing, drug-rehab programs, child welfare and other services, their kids could end up worse off. Moreover, from a fairness standpoint it's very hard to justify giving reduced sentences to people simply because they're parents, when the same opportunity isn't given to non-parents convicted of identical or lesser crimes.

What's galling is that it never should have been necessary to impose such untested and uncertain methods. Lawmakers have known for decades that the prison population was growing to unsustainable levels, yet they ignored the recommendations of numerous experts and blue-ribbon commissions, opting instead to do nothing; the result has been overcrowded conditions and shoddy healthcare that violate the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The coming parenthood parole, along with Gov. Jerry Brown's plans to send low-level state inmates to county jails, represent last-minute experiments, not well-thought-out corrections policies. Given the current emergency, we don't have better ideas to offer. But after applying such temporary solutions, lawmakers must adopt the structural reforms needed to fix the prisons in the long term, such as changes in mandatory sentencing rules and an increase in prison job training and rehabilitation programs.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-inmates-20110914,0,1685750,print.story

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Lost in the courts: The Omer Harland Gallion story

In 2004, a federal magistrate reviewed Gallion's request for a new hearing and recommended that he receive a new trial or be released. Neither happened. Gallion died while waiting for U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson to rule on his case.

September 13, 2011

Omer Harland Gallion spent nearly 15 years in prison proclaiming his innocence. In 2004, a federal magistrate reviewed his request for a new hearing and recommended that he receive a new trial or be released. Neither happened. Gallion died last year while waiting for U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson to rule on his case.

Anderson wasn't required to rule in Gallion's favor. In fact, it's rare for a federal judge to grant a prisoner's petition challenging his or her conviction. But Anderson was expected to consider the issues in a timely fashion and make a decision. Instead, he failed to act for six years, while Gallion remained in prison. The system failed in this case and in the case of at least three other prisoners whose habeas corpus petitions languished before Anderson, one of them for nearly nine years.

Part of the problem is that the federal courts are overburdened. In California's Central District, too few judges are assigned to handle too many cases. Looming budget cuts and rules requiring judges to give priority to criminal cases over prisoners' petitions have strained the system. But that's no excuse for the kind of delay Gallion was subjected to.

Currently, the federal courts track cases that have been pending for more than three years, but don't require that any action be taken. Also, federal courts can create district-by-district rules to address the huge dockets and prevent delays, but they often offer only limited relief and fail to address the swelling caseloads. In California's Central District, for example, inmates may file joint motions with prosecutors challenging a judge's delay in ruling after three months. But for a prisoner such as Gallion, who represented himself because he couldn't afford an attorney, such a motion is both difficult to file and less likely to succeed.

The courts have an obligation to ensure that such cases are handled efficiently and fairly. One way to achieve that would be to establish a narrow rule that would apply only to those state post-conviction cases in which a magistrate has issued a recommendation to grant a new trial or release. Judges would have such cases flagged for them and then have up to one year to issue a decision. Those who needed additional time despite receiving the recommendation would be required to file an explanation with the chief judge in the district.

Whether Gallion's case had merit is unclear, but surely he deserved better than to be ignored by the courts.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-habeas-20110913,0,7958773,print.story

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From “Google News

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Cold Case of Murdered 5-Year-Old Alie Berrelez Solved

Alie Berrelez disappeared on May 18, 1993, from the Golden Nugget apartment complex on Grand Avenue in Englewood.

A cold case involving the unsolved murder of a 5-year-old girl in 1993 was finally closed today, but the suspect will not be arrested.

"It's been a long 18 years," said Richard Berrelez, grandfather of Alie Berrelez, who was killed in Englewood, Colo., 1993. "But Alie's not a victim, I don't want people to think of her as a victim. She's a hero, and she's been a hero for the past 18 years."

Englewood police said today what they had long suspected: the DNA of neighbor Nick Stofer, 41, was found on the girl's underwear when they recovered her body. Stofer, however, will not face charges. He died of natural causes in 2001, never having stood trial for the crime.

Alie Berrelez was kidnapped from her apartment complex where she was sitting eating pizza with other children in the parking lot, in Englewood on May 18, 1993. Following a massive search by police and fire workers and volunteers, and the use of scent-tracking dogs, the little girl was found four days later in a canvas bag near a creek 14 miles away from her home.

Cold Case Killing of Little Girl Solved 18 Years Later

Stofer had been the primary suspect in the crime since it occurred, but police did not mount a case against him because of a lack of evidence, according to Englewood Police Chief John Collins.

Police said that the only evidence they had against Stofer was circumstantial, including the testimony of Berrelez's 3-year-old brother who may have witnessed the kidnapping .

According to ABC News affiliate ABC7, Alie's young brother told police "the old man" took Alie. The boy then walked to the door of apartment where Stofer had lived (he had just moved out) and indicated it was the apartment of the "old man."

Detectives traveled to Redlands, Calif., to take blood samples and hair samples from Stofer. However, DNA testing did not exist at that time.

An autopsy revealed no obvious cause of death and showed no indication of sexual assault or significant trauma, according to ABC7.

The scent tracking dogs that helped lead police to Berrelez's body then followed the scent back to the apartment complex where she lived, which police said pointed to a neighbor being the culprit, according to the report.

"We wanted to put the cuffs on (Stofer) so bad, but we couldn't because the evidence was not there," Collins said today.

"So over time, the pain, the anguish of not being able to do that kept the fire alive and it was terribly frustrating. That's why we're here today. It may be therapy for us to be able to say it's over. All of the work the police and the family and everyone put into it finally came to a conclusion," Collins said.

Collins said that advancements in DNA technology had finally allowed authorities to confirm the match.

"Over time, DNA analysis has advanced," said Katie Featherston, forensic scientist at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. "In 1993 it was not available at the CBI lab, but over time we have been able to deal with samples that are smaller and smaller, and/or less pristine. Those advances allowed us to do the DNA analysis on this case."

Collins could not speculate on a motive for the crime, saying only that Stofer was known to have a problem with alcohol and drugs. He had a criminal record including alcohol and minor drug charges, but no history of sex offenses, Collins said.

Richard Berrelez said he wished Stofer was alive so he could confront him and ask him those questions, as well as see him stand trial.

"There are a lot of questions that we have as a family that we will never have the answer to," Richard Berrelez said. "All we can do is guess at why and how and what time everything happened during the different days."

STORY: Napolitano: TSA shoe restrictions may end

http://abcnews.go.com/US/cold-case-year-murdered-1993-solved-dna/story?id=14510785

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Fewer pat-downs for kids in TSA security checks

These changes will be adopted in airports nationwide within months, after Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers receive extra training, Napolitano told the Senate homeland security committee. The program will be expanding from a pilot program in six airports that began in the spring.

"There'd be additional training for a different pat-down procedure for them and also, again, allowing them to leave their shoes on," Napolitano says.

The announcement was the latest example of an effort by the department to have risk-based screening rather than the same process for everybody, as TSA Administrator John Pistole mapped out in a series of speeches.

"As we have made clear, we are always taking steps, based on the most recent intelligence, to enhance procedures while at the same time improving the passenger experience whenever possible," spokesman Greg Soule said. "TSA anticipates these changes, which will begin rolling out in select airports this week, will continue to strengthen and streamline the security screening process for travelers."

After public outrage in April over a video of a 6-year-old girl getting patted down at Louis Armstrong New Orleans Memorial Airport, Pistole told the Senate committee in June that the agency would try to avoid patting down children.

"We do want to move and are moving to a more risk-based approach to screening passengers, try to streamline procedures for those passengers who are low-risk, which enhances our ability to focus on passengers who either we don't know or who are high-risk," Napolitano said Tuesday.

Authorities have been experimenting with new strategies for children at airports in Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Houston, Miami and Orlando.

In those locations, TSA officers allow children repeated attempts to pass through screening equipment called advanced imaging technology, which is geared to find possible weapons in clothing. Pat-downs might still be used if officers can't resolve an uncertain image.

Under the new policy, random searches will still be conducted for children and other passengers who are treated differently, to keep the system unpredictable, Napolitano said.

However, Napolitano said, the children will be able to avoid taking off their shoes and have different pat-down procedures "over the coming weeks and months."

The committee chairman, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., noted that people get annoyed with airport screening. He also welcomed the changes for young children.

"Excellent," Lieberman said. "That's good news."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-09-13/tsa-pat-downs-airport-kids/50395512/1

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Cops to get training in community policing

September 14, 2011

MEMBERS of the Jamaica Constabulary Force are to get training in community policing at the University of the West Indies Open Campus, a move which Police Commissioner Owen Ellington says will help his men to "combat crime".

One hundred local police officers and another 100 policemen from across the region will be trained in the first of two 13-week courses to be delivered online beginning next month. An estimated 7,000 police regionally are to be trained.

Speaking Monday at the launch of the UWI Open Campus Community Policing Programme (CPP) in the Council Room, UWI, Mona, Ellington admitted that Jamaica has "an extraordinary high rate of violent crime but it is difficult for the police to enforce law, defeat gangs and respond to new and emerging threats such as terrorism without the cooperation of communities".

The CPP, he said, is expected to help build "strong, safe, confident communities where citizens trust and embrace their police".

The CPP encompasses Community Policing 1 (COP1), which -- with special attention to the Caribbean context — will provide a historical overview of the practice and introduce participants to the major perspectives, principles and methods of community policing. Community Policing 2 (COP2) will see participants applying the knowledge gained in COP1 to develop a community policing plan in collaboration with their respective communities.

Principal of the UWI Open Campus, Professor Hazel Simmons-McDonald, hailed the new courses as "a collaborative effort between the Open Campus and the Jamaica Constabulary Staff College (JCSC) that will address a critical need across the region".

Noting that the Jamaica Constabulary Staff College brought to the UWI Open Campus's attention, "the dire need for the training of policemen in community-based policing as a complement to the traditional form of policing", Pro Simmons-McDonald said: "We are happy for the opportunity to collaborate with the constabulary, to develop and deliver programmes relevant to immediate and future needs of the communities we serve".

The JCSC, in association with the British Department for International Development (DFID), is contributing funding and training personnel for the programme, which is open to police across the Caribbean.

Vice Chancellor of the UWI, Prof E Nigel Harris hailed the programme as "a marvellous demonstration of how the UWI works with other training institutions, not only in Jamaica but across the Caribbean, to meet specific needs of communities and groups".

Speaking in his capacity as chair of the Police Services Commission, UWI Mona Principal Prof Gordon Shirley praised the JCF for "a series of ambitious programmes aimed at transforming the police force, which are making serious headway in some of the most difficult areas".

Geraldine O'Callaghan, head of the DFID, said that "lack of security is one of the obstacles to unlocking Jamaica's potential and online courses are critical in training a wider community in Jamaica and across the Caribbean".

The CPP is being introduced by the UWI Open Campus against the background of a perceived need to shore up traditional forms of policing by forging partnerships between police and communities for more effective crime prevention.

Community policing is being successfully used in a number of international communities and it is hoped that the strengthening of the Caribbean's police in new methodologies of crime prevention will lead to reduced social unrest and enhanced public safety.

The online delivery of the CPP by the UWI Open Campus provides the opportunity for active duty officers in the region to be trained cost-effectively, without disruption of their normal duties.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Cops-to-get-training-in-community-policing_9701816

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From the White House

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The Anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act

Marking the 17th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) helps us both appreciate the great strides that have been made in addressing all types of violence against women and recognize the fact that more needs to be done to create a society free from domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking. The Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) remains committed to addressing these crimes in a broad and comprehensive manner.

The concept of a coordinated community response is one of the most critical and visible achievements of VAWA. In the years since VAWA's enactment by Congress in 1994, we have witnessed a sea-change in the ways that communities respond to domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and dating violence. VAWA encourages communities to bring together stakeholders from diverse backgrounds to share information and to use their distinct roles to improve our responses to and prevention of violence against women. These groups include, but are not limited to: victim advocates, police officers, prosecutors, judges, probation and corrections officials, health care professionals, leaders within faith communities, and survivors of violence. New programs and amendments have strengthened the law and enhanced our work.

We continue to be grateful to this administration and its role in bringing greater attention to and awareness of these crimes. The ongoing support of the President and Vice President inspires and encourages us in our day-to-day work. In his Proclamation marking the 15th Anniversary of VAWA, President Obama described some accomplishments and important tasks ahead. His words continue to strengthen our resolve:

…Communities recognize the special needs of victims and appreciate the benefits of collaboration among professionals in the civil and criminal justice system, victim advocates, and other service providers. With the support of VAWA funds, dedicated units of law enforcement officers and specialized prosecutors have grown more numerous than ever before. Most importantly, victims are more likely to have a place to turn for help — for emergency shelter and crisis services, and also for legal assistance, transitional housing, and services for their children.

Despite this great progress, our Nation's work remains unfinished. More families and communities must recognize that the safety of our children relates directly to the safety of our mothers. Access to sexual assault services, especially in rural America, must be increased. American Indian and Alaska Native women experience the highest rates of violence, and we must make it a priority to address this urgent problem. We must also work with diverse communities to make sure the response to violence is relevant and culturally appropriate. We must prevent the homicide of women and girls who have suffered from domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

Far too many women in our communities and neighborhoods, and across the world, continue to suffer from violence. Inspired by the promise and achievement of the Violence Against Women Act, our Nation stands united in its determination to end these crimes and help those in need.

We invite everyone to add his or her voice to putting an end to violence against women. Specific opportunities are available in many communities during the four observance months: October (Domestic Violence Month), January (Stalking Awareness Month), February (Teen Dating Violence Month) and April (Sexual Assault Awareness Month). For more information about OVW or these awareness months, please visit www.ovw.usdoj.gov.

We remind all those in need of assistance, or other concerned friends and individuals, to call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE.

Susan B. Carbon is the Director of the Office on Violence Against Women

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/13/anniversary-violence-against-women-act

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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Your role in homeland security

Monday, September 12, 2011

by LT Stephanie Young

Yesterday, the nation commemorated the 10 year remembrance of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on our country. Vigilance was the word of the day as we collectively reflected on the lives lost that day as well as the steps we have taken as a nation to ensure it never happens again. While our first responders and military have taken the lead on safety and security in the decade since, individuals can, and do, play an important role in making our communities and nation more secure. Homeland security is something every American has a role in.

The Coast Guard, in partnership with federal, state and local agencies keeps a vigilant watch on our nation's waterways. But, with more than 95,000 miles of coastline to protect, the Coast Guard and our partners also rely on alert individuals.

Homeland security begins with hometown security, and working together you can build a strong foundation for a secure and resilient homeland in your community.

One of the programs that places all Americans at the forefront of impacting our nation's security is the Department of Homeland Security's “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign. The goal of this program is as simple as it sounds, if you hear or see anything suspicious tell local authorities about it. By raising public awareness of possible terrorist indicators and encouraging every citizen to report suspicious activity to authorities, the country is further strengthening its ability to stay protected from threats.

The Coast Guard, in partnerships with the Coast Guard Auxiliary, also enlists the public's aid in reporting suspicious activity on the water with America's Waterway Watch. The overall purpose of the program is to allow those Americans who are familiar with our country's coastlines to assist federal, state and local law enforcement agencies by being observant and attentive in recognizing possible threats and crimes on and around our waterways. After all, nobody knows what is normal for a certain area better than the very citizens who live, work or play in or around America's waterfront.

You don't have to live on the coast to keep a watchful eye. America's rivers, bridges, tunnels and inland ports are all places where citizens can make a difference by reporting unusual activity.

Every American plays a role in keeping our nation safe. Remember, homeland security begins with hometown security, and an alert and informed public is critical to keeping our neighbors out of harm's way

http://coastguard.dodlive.mil/2011/09/your-role-in-homeland-security/

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From ICE

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ICE delivers back to school message: Beware of online child predators

BOSTON - As a new school year begins and children research classroom assignments online, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) alerts parents to more closely monitor their children's Internet activities to avoid child predators.

The warning is supported by data showing more than 1,100 criminal arrests nationwide so far this fiscal year. These arrests are part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE HSI initiative launched in 2003 to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders and child sex traffickers. The arrests led to more than 2,100 seizures of images and other evidence by ICE HSI special agents in support of their investigations. Since its inception, Operation Predator has resulted in than 6,000 child predator arrests nationwide.

"Our goal is to help safeguard families from these online predators who prey on unsuspecting children by expanding our efforts using the eyes and ears of parents," said Bruce M. Foucart, special agent in charge of ICE HSI in Boston. Foucart oversees HSI throughout New England. "Our message is simple: parents, pay attention!"

HSI teams with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to prevent child exploitation throughout New England. The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces help state and local law enforcement agencies develop an effective response to cyber enticement and child pornography cases. This help encompasses forensic and investigative components, training and technical assistance, victim services and community education.

In New England alone, ICE HSI has made approximately 50 criminal arrests so far this fiscal year that led to more than 20 criminal indictments for various child pornography law violations, including possession, distribution, and interstate travel to engage in sexual encounters with minors.

These coordinated law enforcement efforts to investigate and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children have resulted in significant penalties. Recent cases include:

• Brad Warner, 33, of Acton, Mass., and former co-founder of HammelFit, a Massachusetts fitness and education program designed for children under the age of seven. Warner was sentenced to more than 12 years in a federal prison for receipt and possession of child pornography.
  
  
• Douglas Perlitz, 40, of Connecticut, who pleaded guilty to traveling overseas to engage in sex with a minor, was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release for sexually abusing at least eight minor victims over a 10 year period. A Connecticut federal judge also ordered the distribution of nearly $49,000 in restitution to 16 victims in the Perlitz case.
  
  
• Jonathan Zahra, 27, a former Plainville, Conn., middle school technology aide, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for manufacturing child pornography. After his prison term he will also serve 10 years of supervised release.
  
  
• Julie Carr, 33, of Mars Hill, Maine, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and 10 years of supervised release for child pornography production.
  
  
• James Raymond, 29, of Auburn, Maine, was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment and a lifetime of supervised release for transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the intent to engage in illegal sexual activity. Raymond, then a music teacher in the Auburn school system, transported an 11-year-old student and her younger sister from Auburn to Canobie Lake Park in New Hampshire. On both trips, Raymond made sexual advances.
  
  
• Scott Wilson, 41, formerly of Somersworth, N.H., was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the purpose of having the child engage in illegal sexual conduct and possession of child pornography. Once released from prison, Wilson will be required to register as a sex offender and will be placed on supervised release for the remainder of his life.
  
  
• Robert M. Lopes, 43, of Coventry, R.I., pleaded guilty to receipt and distribution of child pornography, was sentenced to five years in federal prison and lifetime supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $20,000 in restitution to a victim who appeared in a series of child pornography videos.

HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators. Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com .

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1109/110913boston.htm

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From the FBI

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Surrogacy Scam Played on Emotions of Vulnerable Victims

September 13, 2011

It's a shocking tale.

Three women recently pled guilty in San Diego, admitting to taking part in a scheme to illegally create an inventory of babies to sell to unwitting would-be parents for fees of between $100,000 and $150,000 each.

The three took advantage of couples who desperately wanted children, offering them seemingly legitimate surrogacy situations. They also took advantage of women recruited as “gestational carriers” to carry pregnancies to term after having embryos transferred to their uteruses.

The defendants in this case included two lawyers who specialized in reproductive law: Theresa Erickson, a well-known California attorney, and Hilary Neiman, who operated an adoption/surrogacy agency in Maryland. The third conspirator was Carla Chambers of Nevada, who served as the “surrogacy facilitator.” Together, they circumvented surrogacy regulations that say contracts between surrogates and intended parents must be executed before a pregnancy occurs…and lied to surrogates, intended parents, and the California family court.

Here's how the scam worked:

Chambers admitted visiting adoption/surrogacy-themed online chat rooms and forums in search of surrogates and parents. Erickson and Neiman also used their own sterling reputations to legitimize the scheme.

Surrogates were made to travel to Ukraine in Eastern Europe to become implanted with embryos derived from anonymous donors—Chambers usually made all the arrangements—with the promise that they would be compensated by the intended parents. The women were led to believe that they were participating in legal surrogacy arrangements and that there was a waiting list of potential parents for the babies. They also had to agree to give birth in California.

They were promised quick matches with intended parents, but the co-conspirators usually waited until the second or even third trimester of the pregnancies before seeking parents. Neiman and Erickson then drafted contracts between the surrogates and intended parents, well after the time frame required by law.

The hopeful couples were told the unborn babies were the result of legitimate surrogacy arrangements, but the original intended parents had backed out. They were offered the opportunity to “assume” the non-existent surrogacy agreement. The parents would hand over between $100,000 and $150,000 to the defendants, but less than half of that went to the surrogate—Erickson, Neiman, and Chambers pocketed the rest.

The defendants typically used the Internet to recruit, solicit, and communicate with surrogates and intended parents. Most of the surrogates and parents lived outside of California.

One of the most critical aspects of the scheme involved Erickson filing fraudulent documents in California court stating that a surrogacy agreement had been in place from the start and asking for what's called a “pre-birth judgment” that would establish parental rights. That way, under California law, the names of the intended parents could be placed on the birth certificate when the baby was born.

The scam was uncovered when one of the surrogates, nearly seven months pregnant, was worried that parents hadn't been found for the baby she was carrying. She contacted a lawyer, who then contacted the FBI's San Diego office.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/september/surrogacy_091311/surrogacy_091311

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FBI Statement Before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

Washington, D.C.

September 13, 2011

Good morning, Chairman Lieberman, Ranking Member Collins, and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee today to discuss the threats facing our nation and the efforts of the FBI to protect the United States over the past 10 years.

Introduction

The mission of the FBI is to protect and defend the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and to provide leadership and criminal justice services to federal, state, municipal, tribal, and international agencies and partners. The FBI's number one priority in this mission continues to be the prevention of terrorist attacks against the United States. To improve its ability to detect and disrupt those with the intent and capability to conduct attacks in the United States, the FBI has undergone a paradigm shift in the way we collect and use intelligence.

The FBI significantly increased its intelligence capacity after the attacks of September 11, 2001, when the FBI elevated counterterrorism to its highest priority. Prior to the 9/11 attacks, the FBI's operations were heavily weighted towards its law enforcement mission; intelligence tools and authorities were primarily used for the counterintelligence mission. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the FBI quickly identified the need to enhance intelligence programs with improved analytical and information sharing capacities to detect and prevent future terrorist attacks.

Protecting the United States against terrorism demanded a new framework for the way the FBI carries out its mission: a threat-based, intelligence-led approach. Rather than collecting information to solve a particular case, the new approach prioritizes the collection and utilization of intelligence to develop a comprehensive threat picture, enabling strategic disruptions of terrorist networks before they act. This focus on the overall threat picture also elevates the need for information sharing, thereby changing the FBI's role in and relationships with both the intelligence and law enforcement communities. Under this new model, intelligence drives how we understand threats, how we prioritize and investigate these threats, and how we target our resources to address these threats.

This new approach has driven significant changes in the Bureau's structure and management, resource allocation, hiring, training, recruitment, information technology systems, interagency collaboration, and information sharing, as well as a paradigm shift in the FBI's cultural mindset. These changes have transformed the Bureau into a national security organization that fuses traditional law enforcement and intelligence missions. At the same time, the FBI remains vigilant in upholding the Constitution, the rule of law, and protecting privacy rights and civil liberties.

Today's FBI: A National Security Organization

In the years since 9/11, the FBI has integrated its intelligence mission with its traditional law enforcement mission, enhancing its ability as a national security organization. Like other intelligence agencies, the FBI collects, exploits, disseminates, and analyzes intelligence. The FBI combines these functions to collect and act on intelligence as a national security organization. As a result, the FBI is not solely an intelligence or law enforcement agency. The FBI's actions are not limited to arrests and prosecutions; they take many forms—including recruiting potential intelligence sources; developing new collection requirements (pieces of information sought to complete a particular threat picture); and supporting our federal, state, local, and tribal partners to exercise their distinct authorities to disrupt plots before they cause harm.

The FBI has a long history of collecting intelligence to be used as evidence to dismantle criminal networks or to identify and prosecute spies. Historically, information was collected with a goal of using it to drive traditional law enforcement action: arrest and prosecution. However, being driven by threat rather than arrest and prosecution means prioritizing intelligence collection. Under the FBI's new paradigm, intelligence enables a broader picture of the threat. Intelligence is not collected simply to further a particular case. This shift required the integration of intelligence and law enforcement capabilities. Intelligence is analyzed and disseminated to better understand the threat, to identify intelligence gaps, and to develop new collection requirements, which drive additional action in the field, leading to either additional collection or disruption. It is this continuous intelligence cycle that drives investigative strategies to ensure resources are targeting the most pressing threats.

Another key element of the FBI's evolution into an effective national security organization has been augmenting relationships and information sharing with the United States intelligence community (the intelligence community), as well as federal, state, local, tribal, and foreign law enforcement partners. The Bureau has accomplished this interconnectivity through the development of and participation in joint operational programs and task forces, expansion of our presence overseas, and the development of information technology systems that support information sharing. Meeting the requirements of the intelligence cycle necessitated a significant enhancement of the Bureau's intelligence capacity and expertise.

Building the Structure and Management Capability for a National Security Organization

The Initial Steps of the Transformation

To meet the immediate demands of the post-9/11 threat environment, the Bureau shifted resources from criminal investigations to national security matters, adding almost 2,000 agents to its national security programs within one year. Soon thereafter, the FBI began the process of creating a national security focus and aligning the organization to address this priority. One of the first steps was to centralize control and management of counterterrorism operations at Headquarters to avoid the “stove-piping” of information on terrorism cases in the 56 individual field offices across the country. Another was building the critical intelligence infrastructure to meet the needs of production and dissemination of intelligence products. The building blocks of this infrastructure included: establishing an intelligence office at Headquarters; creating a Field Intelligence Group (FIG) for each field office across the country; augmenting counterterrorism resources at Headquarters; hiring more intelligence and language analysts; creating systems to enable more efficient search and analysis capability; and developing new training.

As the various elements of the national security architecture grew both at Headquarters and in the field, a need to focus on and centralize not only counterterrorism operations but also the Bureau's overall national security mission emerged. This led to the creation of the National Security Branch (NSB) in 2005, which combined the missions, capabilities, and resources of all of the national security components of the Bureau—counterterrorism, counterintelligence, intelligence, and weapons of mass destruction. In addition to managing the NSB's internal components, the executive assistant director for NSB (EAD/NSB) serves as the Bureau's lead intelligence official and representative to the intelligence community. With centralized management, the FBI's national security functions have matured internally and the NSB has further integrated itself into the intelligence community. To accelerate this integration, NSB created an associate executive assistant director position that is filled by a senior official from the intelligence community. The NSB also has administrative responsibility for two interagency groups: the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG) (formally chartered in 2010) and the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) (formally chartered in 2003).

Management Approach to Lead the Transformation: Strategy Management System (SMS)

While identifying the objective for and building the components of an intelligence-led organization were key steps in the FBI's transformation, transitioning this new threat-based, intelligence-led model into practice required additional focus and attention from management. The challenge was to get the network of offices and personnel across the country and around the globe to accept a new mindset and approach to day-to-day operations. The Bureau developed a tool—the Strategy Management System (SMS)—based on the well-regarded balanced scorecard methodology, to measure the execution of its strategy and the progress of its transformation. The SMS is a method to communicate the FBI's strategy, prioritize initiatives, identify each component's role in pursuing the strategy, and measure progress. The core of the strategy is the intelligence cycle. The SMS lays out objectives in each of four categories: the expectations of the American public, internal processes, talent and technology, and resources against which objectives, measures, and initiatives are balanced. Through this structure, the SMS has helped to integrate intelligence into all aspects of the FBI's mission. The SMS used at the Headquarters level cascades down to SMS at the branch and division level, thereby creating a cohesive plan under which every component of the Bureau, down to each employee, has a defined role in achieving the goals of the organization. Moreover, to ensure that the FBI's national security mission is aligned with the greater intelligence community's mission, NSB's strategy is linked to both the FBI enterprise-wide strategy as well as the national intelligence strategy.

SMS reviews are conducted quarterly at the executive management level to review progress against the FBI's strategy and at the branch and division levels to monitor the execution of the strategy, establish accountability for performance, and ensure alignment with the FBI corporate strategy. The SMS is also linked to and guides the core business processes within the FBI, including: the inspections process, the risk-based management process, spend plan reviews, major resource decisions, and executive performance plans.

Accelerating the Transformation: Strategic Execution Team (SET)

In 2007, recognizing that intelligence had not yet become central in FBI operations and to accelerate the growth of the Bureau's intelligence cycle capabilities, the FBI formed a Strategic Execution Team (SET) initially comprised of almost 100 special agents, intelligence analysts, and other skilled professionals from field offices and FBI Headquarters. The SET examined the intelligence activities in each of the 56 field offices and identified two overarching impediments to transformation: integrating intelligence into operations in the field and building human capital for enhanced intelligence capabilities. For example, the SET found that while each field office had a FIG, many of the intelligence analysts were being utilized to support the tactical needs of individual cases, rather than being the engine driving strategic collection requirements and, in turn, operations. Following the recommendations of the SET, the FBI standardized the structure and responsibilities of the FIGs to increase collaboration between intelligence and operations and to provide accountability for intelligence collection, analysis, use, and production. In response to the need to build human capital, the FBI also devoted resources to recruiting and training an analytical workforce that could fulfill the critical functions of the intelligence cycle.

The SET also identified the need for a standardized intelligence role for the operational divisions at Headquarters, similar to the FIGs. SET designed Central Strategic Coordinating Components (CSCCs), where teams of intelligence personnel are embedded in each of the operational divisions to fulfill the primary functions of the intelligence cycle and to improve coordination between the field offices and Headquarters components.

Tracking the Progress of the Transformation: Strategy Performance Sessions (SPS)

To better track and measure the field offices' progress towards a truly threat-based, intelligence-led approach, in 2008, management at Headquarters began conducting Strategy Performance Sessions (SPS) with field offices to review the field offices' intelligence and operational performance. The sessions, conducted on a bi-annual basis 1 by secure video teleconference with executives from Headquarters and the management team from two to four field offices, focus on the top threats by operational program facing each field office's area of responsibility, or domain; the gaps in intelligence against those top threats; and the strategy to fill those intelligence gaps. The purpose of the SPS is to provide a forum for strategic dialogue, which enables informed decision-making, enhances intelligence and investigative program performance, and instills a culture of accountability. Through SPS sessions, Headquarters divisions gain better insight into the challenges field offices are facing in their areas of responsibility and use this knowledge to allocate resources strategically and assist the field offices to focus on the cases with the potential to neutralize the greatest threats while recruiting sources who have answers to the most pressing questions. Utilizing the SPS sessions, management has systematically led the cultural transition from a Bureau focused on cases and successful prosecutions to an intelligence-driven organization focused on comprehensive domain awareness and network disruptions.

Human Capital Development

The FBI's current intelligence-led operational model relies in large part on analysts and language specialists who can quickly and effectively review, analyze, and disseminate the intelligence collected in the field. Post 9/11, the FBI's challenge was to develop an intelligence analyst and language specialist cadre that could match the collection capabilities of the special agents. The creation of a workforce with the intelligence expertise necessary for today's threats and those of the future required the Bureau to recruit beyond law enforcement and the military communities in order to attract individuals with a broader range of skill sets and advanced degrees in relevant fields. Furthermore, the traditional operational approach created a culture that emphasized the value of special agents. This necessitated a strategy that would elevate the stature of analysts. The FBI is meeting this two-part challenge by developing a targeted recruitment strategy, creating rewarding career paths for intelligence analysts, enhancing training programs, and establishing a Leadership Development Program.

Developing an Intelligence Analyst Cadre

Soon after 9/11, the FBI recruited experienced intelligence analysts from other agencies and students with critical skill sets from universities around the country. The FBI also created opportunities for entry-level positions with career paths that often lead to FBI intelligence analyst or special agent positions. Since 2001, the FBI has nearly tripled the number of intelligence analysts to 3,118, increased the supervisory intelligence analyst cadre to 285, and increased the number of GS-15 level analysts to 80. This increase in the quantity has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in the capabilities and expertise of the analyst corps. Today, almost half of the FBI's special agents were hired post-9/11, and have “grown up” in the intelligence-led culture of today's FBI working side-by-side with analysts.

The FBI has instituted programs to enhance the stature of and career options for analysts. In 2010, the NSB created three analyst career paths—tactical, collection/reporting, and strategic. By defining specific analyst functions, the FBI is creating a specialized, analytic workforce with the appropriate training, experiences, and opportunities for career development. Since 2005, 133 FBI agents and analysts have been certified as intelligence officers through the FBI Intelligence Officer Certification Program.

Analysts now also hold senior executive service (SES)-level leadership positions at Headquarters to manage a range of programs, including the CSCCs and the newly established Intelligence Watch. Starting in 2009, the Bureau began establishing senior supervisory intelligence analyst (SSIA) positions, which are the equivalent of assistant special agents in charge. SSIAs also perform a full range of managerial and liaison responsibilities with authority over strategic planning activities and personnel matters.

Training is another key element of cultivating a professional analyst workforce. In 2009, the FBI produced a five-year training strategy for intelligence analysts, which identified the need for new courses, instructors, and funding. Since then, the FBI's Training Division has been working directly with training units in the NSB to drive training requirements for intelligence analysts.

Leadership Development Program

The FBI has a long history of hiring individuals with strong leadership skills, but the fast-paced and continuous changes in the organization created the need for an accelerated and enhanced leadership development program for all employees. In response, in 2009, the FBI established the Leadership Development Program (LDP), the first comprehensive, coordinated approach to leadership in the Bureau's history. LDP's primary goal is to ensure that FBI employees are fully prepared to lead before they assume leadership positions. The LDP's programs, which are at various stages of development and piloting, will deliver a range of programs designed around a leadership doctrine that emphasizes character, courage, competence, and collaboration. LDP's programs will be available to all employees in all locations across the Bureau from the day they are hired to the day they retire. Initially, programs are being offered to new employees, employees interested in becoming supervisors, and current supervisors and senior managers. Through its commitment to building the infrastructure to fully implement and sustain the LDP, the FBI will ensure that its employees are prepared to confront current and future challenges and threats.

Supporting the Core Functions of the Intelligence Cycle

The priority of staying ahead of the threat has changed the demand for intelligence as its utility expanded from supporting a particular case to identifying and understanding a broader picture of the threat. This shift required the integration of intelligence and law enforcement capabilities. Intelligence is analyzed and disseminated to better understand the threat, to identify intelligence gaps, and to develop new collection requirements, which drive additional action in the field, leading to either additional collection or disruption. It is this continuous intelligence cycle of collection, integration and dissemination, analysis, and action that drives investigative strategies to ensure resources are targeting the most pressing threats.

Intelligence Collection

Collection of intelligence is conducted by the FBI's greatest asset: its people. Since 9/11, the FBI has more than doubled the number of agents and analysts assigned to its national security mission from 3,537 (2,514 agents/1,023 analysts) to 7,933 (4,815 agents/3,118 analysts). The FBI has a network of personnel spread around the globe, with 56 field offices and 399 resident agencies domestically and 62 international legal attaché offices around the world which support the collection of raw intelligence.

The Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) are interagency squads dedicated to investigating terrorism matters and coordinating counterterrorism efforts across the United States. The FBI has increased the number of JTTFs from 35 in 2001 to 104 today—one in each of the 56 field offices and 48 of the resident agencies across the country. In addition to FBI agents, the JTTFs are comprised of task force officers from 32 federal and 671 state, local, and tribal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. A single National Joint Terrorism Task Force (NJTTF) was created at Headquarters to manage the JTTFs around the country and to provide a venue for collaboration with intelligence community personnel to exchange information, analyze data, and plan counterterrorism strategies.

Each of the FBI's 56 field offices has a FIG composed of intelligence analysts, special agents, and staff operations specialists. FIGs, which did not exist prior to 2001, now have 1,662 intelligence analysts, 451 special agents, and 415 staff operations specialists. The mission of the FIGs is to identify the threats in their respective territories and develop “domain awareness” through collecting, exploiting, analyzing, and disseminating intelligence.

Intelligence-driven investigations require a unity of effort with partners overseas, especially as global cooperation becomes increasingly necessary to combat terrorism. Through the 62 legal attaché offices around the world (an increase of 18 since 2001), the FBI has strengthened relationships with international partners. This expanded global reach not only benefits FBI's foreign partners, but also aids FBI collection efforts and investigations.

The FBI has a leading role in human intelligence (HUMINT) collection in the United States. Simply defined, HUMINT is information learned from individuals. People are an invaluable source of intelligence and FBI special agents have a long history of developing human sources to uncover criminal conduct and foreign intelligence activities. With the expanded national security mission, the need for and value of HUMINT in understanding our adversaries and developing the threat picture has increased significantly. FBI Headquarters develops policies, training, and oversight to ensure adherence to policy directives and to ensure that information collected is accurate, authentic, reliable, free of undisclosed influence, and consistent with mission objectives across all FBI programs.

Collecting intelligence through physical surveillance is also critical for monitoring threats to our national security. The FBI's physical surveillance program, which was consolidated into one division in 2010, consists of both armed and unarmed mobile surveillance teams and the field aviation program. The armed teams conduct surveillance of armed and dangerous counterterrorism and criminal targets with a propensity for violence. To meet the growing demand for surveillance, the Bureau has increased the number of unarmed surveillance teams by 127 percent since 2001.

Forensics is another critical source of intelligence. The FBI has earned a global reputation of having premier forensic examiners. Working with interagency partners, the FBI is applying and expanding upon traditional forensic capabilities in support of the counterterrorism mission. The FBI also leads an interagency group based at the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, that supports Department of Defense operations in Iraq and Afghanistan: the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center (TEDAC). Established in 2003 and funded primarily by the Department of Defense's Joint IED Defeat Organization, TEDAC is staffed by approximately 230 full time government and contract personnel who coordinate and manage a unified intelligence, military, and law enforcement effort to examine improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that are of interest to the United States.

The FBI's use of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) authorities is an important component of intelligence collection which is subject to a comprehensive oversight and compliance regime in which all three branches of government play a role. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) ensures that constitutional and statutory requirements are met related both to authorization and implementation of the use of the authorities. The Department of Justice's National Security Division, in conjunction with the FBI's Office of the General Counsel, conducts oversight of the FBI's use of FISA authorities to ensure compliance both with the statute and minimization procedures. And, on a semi-annual basis, the government must report to Congress on its use of FISA electronic surveillance, physical search, and pen register and trap and trace authorities and submit a detailed annual report on its use of the business record authority.

Publicly available information is also an invaluable source of intelligence that is often overlooked by intelligence analysts in favor of classified or law enforcement sensitive information. Recognizing a need to include open source information in intelligence analysis, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) created an Open Source Center (OSC) in 2005. As part of its efforts to strengthen the open source community, the OSC has detailed an open source officer to the FBI for a year to help the Bureau build its own open source program.

Intelligence Analysis and Dissemination

Intelligence collection is only valuable if it is integrated, analyzed, and disseminated effectively and efficiently. As the Bureau has increased its intelligence collection, it has simultaneously developed the capability to exploit and share it. This function resides with the FIGs. The analysts and agents in the FIGs collect raw intelligence from various sources, including agents in the field and intelligence disseminated by other agencies. Analysts then disseminate the raw intelligence and/or create finished intelligence products for dissemination. Developing an analyst corps was only part of the solution to the Bureau's need to increase intelligence dissemination and production. The analysts also needed the necessary information technology and analytic tools to succeed.

To streamline the dissemination of intelligence contained in intelligence information reports (IIRs), the FBI developed an information technology solution, the Collection Operations and Requirements Environment (CORE). CORE standardizes intelligence reporting across the FBI while integrating field intelligence operations with intelligence community requirements. An additional web-based software application, the IIR Dissemination System, streamlines, standardizes, and tracks the production of IIRs, and has improved the Bureau's ability to effectively support our intelligence community partners. Since 2004, FBI dissemination of IIRs has increased dramatically, providing critical information to the intelligence community, law enforcement community, and policymakers.

The FBI continues to develop information technology solutions to minimize the time that intelligence analysts spend searching for relevant information, allowing them to focus on connecting the dots and analyzing the available information. The Data Integration and Visualization System (DIVS) is the FBI's consolidated enterprise platform that further enhances both the search capabilities and the breadth of information that can be accessed through a single sign-on. DIVS will unify all data accessible to the FBI—intelligence, criminal investigative, and other mission data—through one user-friendly search interface, consistent with all applicable legal requirements pertaining to the data. Currently, DIVS houses records from the 11 FBI and other government agency data sources identified by users as most critical to the FBI's counterterrorism mission. The FBI continues to roll-out this system across the FBI and to add datasets and user tools to provide additional functionality. DIVS is built on a modern platform that will easily expand to integrate tools developed internally, by private industry, or by intelligence community partners.

Integration into the United States Intelligence Community and Partnerships with Federal, State, Local, and Tribal Law Enforcement

Another key element of the FBI's evolution into an effective national security organization has been augmenting relationships and information sharing with the United States intelligence community, as well as federal, state, local, tribal, and foreign law enforcement partners. The Bureau has accomplished this interconnectivity through the development of and participation in joint operational programs and task forces, expansion of our presence overseas, and through the development of information technology systems that support information sharing.

As mentioned previously, JTTFs are the primary vehicle by which the intelligence community and federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement are integrated with domestic counterterrorism operations. The JTTFs currently have almost 2,000 non-FBI employees (approximately 44 percent of all JTTF members). The FBI's integration with the intelligence community is further enhanced by joint duty detailee programs through which law enforcement and intelligence professionals from other agencies are embedded in FBI units and FBI employees are embedded in other agencies. Having professionals from different agencies performing their missions side-by-side has broken down communication barriers and enhanced the mutual understanding of each agency's unique contributions to the community.

Currently, the FBI has more than 200 employees working at other intelligence community agencies, including the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the National Counterterrorism Center, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Security Agency, and the Department of State. NSB employees also fill intelligence-related positions at the National Security Staff at the White House. Similarly, many of the detailees from other agencies work at joint operational entities administratively located within the FBI, such as the TSC, the HIG, the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force, and the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force. These joint operational components along with other joint duty assignments and the EAD/NSB's sustained interaction with the Director of National Intelligence ensure that the FBI is a full partner in the Intelligence Community.

In support of the DNI's effort to create a single intelligence community enterprise that is coordinated, integrated, agile, and effective, the FBI and the ODNI piloted, and are in the process of institutionalizing, a domestic DNI representative program. Domestic DNI representatives are senior field FBI officials at designated offices across the United States who serve as the DNI's principal domestic representative to the intelligence community within their respective areas of responsibility. This program supports the DNI's mission of integrating foreign, military, and domestic intelligence in defense of the homeland and in support of United States national security interests at home and abroad.

Since 9/11, the FBI has evolved to respond to the complex and far-ranging threats we face today. The FBI collects, exploits, and disseminates more intelligence to a greater and more useful extent than ever before. This focus on intelligence has helped prioritize our top threats and increased our understanding of our vulnerability to those threats. As the FBI has undergone this transformation, it has remained vigilant in upholding the Constitution, the rule of law, and protecting privacy rights and civil liberties.

Conclusion

Chairman Lieberman and Ranking Member Collins, I would like to conclude by thanking you and this committee for your service and support. I look forward to working with the committee to improve the FBI as our transformation continues in the future.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/ten-years-after-9-11-are-we-safer

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