Crime victims will get emails tracking offenders' status

Senate Bill 852 takes effect immediately and enables the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to update various persons affected by violent offenders about the attackers' status through email, along with the traditional phone call and certified mail.

"California's victim-notification system was antiquated and with this bill, victim notification will be brought into the computer age," Harman said in a news release. "It will make it much easier and quicker for victims to receive critical information on an offender's status."

Proposition 8, passed in 1982 and amended in 2008, requires the Board of Parole Hearings -- upon request by a witness, victim or victim's next of kin -- to notify when a prisoner is up for review from the parole board, of any crime committed by the prisoner while in custody, or when he or she is scheduled to be executed, according to the Daily Pilot.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/10/crime-victims-will-get-emails-tracking-offenders-status.html

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There's little privacy in a digital world

Users of TVs, computers and smartphones leave technological fingerprints wherever they go, and companies are lapping up the data.

During his two-hour morning bike ride, Eric Hartman doesn't pay much attention to his iPhone.

But the iPhone is paying attention to him.

As he traverses the 30-mile circuit around Seal Beach, Hartman's iPhone knows precisely where he is at every moment, and keeps a record of his whereabouts. That data is beamed to Apple Inc. multiple times each day, whether Hartman is using his phone to take pictures, search for gas stations or check the weather.

And it's not just the iPhone that's keeping track.

Buying milk at Ralphs? Playing World of Warcraft? Texting dinner plans to friends? Watching an episode of "Glee"? It's all recorded.

Over the course of a day, hundreds of digital traces pile up, each offering more insight into the way Hartman and his family live.

For this kind of surveillance, no fancy spy gadgets are needed. The technological instruments that capture details of the Hartmans' lives are the ones they use most often: their computers, smartphones and TV systems.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-no-privacy-20111002,0,7279202,print.story

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Idaho lab concentrates on cyber-security

At the Idaho National Laboratory, Homeland Security analysts are working to find and stop cyber-attacks. A federal think tank says the number of attacks is growing.

In a gray office building across from the scenic Snake River, analysts from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sift through the latest threat information on double-paneled, flat-screen computer monitors.

They are not searching for rogue missile launches or terrorist plots, as other analysts do in other secure government rooms elsewhere in the U.S. Their job at the Idaho National Laboratory is to find and stop what experts warn is a growing risk to America: a cyber-attack that could disable water systems, chemical plants or parts of the electrical grid.

Terrorist groups don't have that capability yet, but they could one day, experts say. Attacks could come from disgruntled employees or criminal networks intent on extortion, publicity or mischief. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea already have cyber-weapons that can target critical nodes in the U.S. economy, including utilities and private industry.

Outsiders "are knocking on the doors of these systems, and there have been a lot of intrusions," said Greg Schaffer, a deputy undersecretary of Homeland Security.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-idaho-cyber-20111001,0,1232722,print.story

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Supreme Court tests of our rights

Some of the most important cases on the court's docket this term involve individual rights. They offer the court the opportunity to play a role it often has embraced: reining in the power of the state.

In the term that begins Monday, the Supreme Court will address issues as diverse as the limits of copyright law, the appeals process for owners of wetlands regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency and whether the government of California can order reductions in Medi-Cal reimbursements. It is also likely that the court will rule on challenges to the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, derided by its critics as "Obamacare."

As is often the case, however, some of the most important cases on the court's docket involve individual rights. They offer the court the opportunity to play a role it often has embraced in its history: reining in the overweening power of the state.

Perhaps the most closely watched case tests what privacy rights Americans have against the intrusiveness of modern technology. Police in Washington, D.C., without a valid warrant, attached a GPS device to the car of a suspected drug dealer and followed his movements for a month. In the past the court has said that a person driving on public streets has no reasonable expectation of privacy. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit concluded that the reach of GPS monitoring made this case different. As Judge Douglas Ginsburg put it, prolonged GPS surveillance "reveals an intimate picture of the subject's life that he expects no one to have — short perhaps of his spouse." (The same might be said of continuous tailing by a police car, but the court said that "practical considerations prevent visual surveillance from lasting very long.") The court also will consider the separate question of whether affixing a GPS device violates the 4th Amendment right to be free from a seizure of personal property.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-scotus-20111002,0,905063,print.story

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North Carolina

Police outreach helps make it safer in Southeast Raleigh

Police charged five teens. Raleigh Police Chief Harry Patrick Dolan was blunt in describing the neighborhood, particularly the nearby stretch of East Martin Street, calling it "the worst street in Raleigh."

Wright's murder was the latest in a grim trend, coming just after Raleigh's deadliest year. Southeast Raleigh accounted for 60 percent of the 34 citywide homicides in 2008.

Since then, there's been a remarkable turnaround. The police department's Southeast District saw homicides drop to three last year. So far, there have been three this year.

While authorities say it's too soon to declare victory over violent crime, they credit a crackdown on the worst offenders and an equally intense focus on providing new educational and recreational opportunities to those most at risk of committing crimes.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/10/02/1533367/safer-in-southeast-raleigh.html?tab=gallery&gallery=/2011/10/01/1531667/community-policing-in-southeast.html&gid_index=1

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Those Gosh-Darn Criminals Can Go to Heck

The police are known to curse a lot.

With a soaring homicide rate, rampant gang activity and a shrinking budget, officers at the Oakland Police Department have a tough job — and swearing has long been part of it.

But as part of an effort to transform the department from a traditional one into an agency based on community policing, Chief Anthony Batts is cracking down on bad language.

Several recent cases in which officers were disciplined for profanity have some officers rolling their eyes, highlighting a longstanding conflict within the department between two policing cultures that has come to a head under Chief Batts.

“I'm sorry. I'm not dealing with librarians. I'm not dealing with P.T.A. moms,” said Sgt. Dom Arotzarena, the president of the Oakland Police Officer's Association. “I'm dealing with criminals, guys who are in San Quentin, guys who are in prison. The last thing I want people to think is that I'm some softie.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/us/those-gosh-darn-criminals-can-go-to-heck.html

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Deleware

Two views on violence

Wilmington ranks third in violent crime for U.S. cities its size. Meanwhile, in Providence, R.I., a new approach has cut crime.

Five years ago, the most dangerous open-air drug markets in Providence, R.I., looked a lot like Wilmington's worst streets.

Drug dealers occupied the corners around the clock. They'd rob customers and shoot each other if a sale went bad. Neighbors lived in fear, with few daring to venture outside after dark.

For decades, police in both cities employed a strategy of storming a corner and rounding up the bad guys only to see the drug dealers return.

By 2009, Wilmington's rate of violent crime had soared to be the third-highest in the nation among more than 450 similar-sized cities, FBI data show. It remained there in 2010. Homicides hit modern-day record levels in three of the past five years.

In Providence, police tried something new. In 2006, they combined traditional enforcement with more community involvement, more social services and second chances for a select few nonviolent dealers. It worked.

http://www.delawareonline.com/print/article/20111002/NEWS01/110020327/Two-views-violence

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U.S. officials warn of possible retaliation over al-Awlaki killing

Al-Awlaki -- the face of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula whose fluency with English and technology made him a top terrorist recruiter-- was killed Friday in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen, officials said.

The State Department alert, which is in effect until November 30, urges U.S. citizens abroad to register with the government to make it easier to contact them in case of an emergency.

The alert follows a joint bulletin issued late Friday by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security that similarly warns that al-Awlaki's killing may provoke attacks, if his supporters seek to portray him as a martyr in a supposed U.S. war against Islam.

It said the deaths "could provide motivation for homeland attacks" by "homegrown violent extremists," the type the two men allegedly tried to recruit or inspire.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/01/world/meast/yemen-radical-cleric/

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Oct 1, 2011

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Awlaki death rekindles legal debate on targeting Americans

The slaying of two Americans renews questions about whether killing U.S. citizens is legal under rules of war or constitutes an extrajudicial execution in violation of U.S. and international law.

The killing of two Americans by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen has reignited a debate about whether targeting U.S. citizens — even terrorists — is legal under the rules of war or constitutes an extrajudicial execution that ignores their rights.

The Obama administration contends that U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar Awlaki was a legitimate target because he played an "operational" role in Al Qaeda, alleging that, among other plots, he directed a 2009 Christmas Day plan to blow up a Detroit-bound jetliner.

"Awlaki was the leader of external operations for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," President Obama said Friday. "In that role, he took the lead in planning and directing efforts to murder innocent Americans."

But some human rights advocates and legal scholars said the administration had never produced evidence to back up that claim. They said the 40-year-old cleric was an influential recruiter and motivator, but there was little evidence to directly link him to belligerent operations against the United States.

The attack also killed Samir Khan, 25, a U.S. citizen and anti-American propagandist who ran an Al Qaeda-linked website that called for attacks on the United States.

Diane Marie Amann, a University of Georgia law professor who has monitored terrorism trials for the National Institute of Military Justice, said the debate over whether Awlaki's killing was legal hinges on whether the war against Al Qaeda is an armed conflict or an international police action.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-awlaki-due-process-20111001,0,5639625,print.story

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Radical cleric took winding path to become 'Pied Piper of jihadists'

Born in New Mexico and raised in Yemen, Anwar Awlaki learned to preach in the U.S. As a young man, he studied in several U.S. states, including California.

While living in San Diego in the late 1990s, Anwar Awlaki regularly fished for albacore and shared his catch with a neighbor. At the local mosque where he preached, he delighted in playing soccer with young children and taking the teenagers paint-balling.

"He had an allure. He was charming," Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, outreach director of an Islamic center in Falls Church, Va., where Awlaki later gave sermons, told reporters in 2009.

With his fashionable eyeglasses and fluent English, the U.S.-born radical cleric also had been called a "Pied Piper of jihadists," an Internet phenomenon who produced video and audio recordings to lure Westerners to his extremist ideologies.

Awlaki, who had been linked to several terrorist plots in the U.S., was killed Friday in a joint CIA-military airstrike, U.S. officials said. He was 40.

His was born in 1971 in Las Cruces, N.M., where his father had moved from Yemen to study agricultural economics at New Mexico State University. At 7, Awlaki returned with his family to Yemen, and his father served as the country's agriculture minister.

When he was 20, Awlaki returned to the U.S. to study civil engineering at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo. Fellow students later recalled him as a soft-spoken, average student who enjoyed table tennis.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-awlaki-profile-20111001,0,2345618,print.story

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Anwar Awlaki: Targeted for death

Anwar Awlaki was targeted for killing by the U.S. government with no transparent, legal, reviewable process and no opportunity to respond to specific allegations.

Amid all the self-congratulation over the killing of Anwar Awlaki and the confident assertion that the world is a better place as a result, it is worth remembering that the secret, unilateral, targeted assassination of a U.S. citizen far from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan is hardly something to celebrate.

If Awlaki was in fact the architect of terrorism attacks inside the United States, as officials maintain he was, then perhaps his demise is to be welcomed. But we don't really know, do we? There was no transparent, legal, reviewable process by which he was placed on the list of those targeted for killing by the U.S. government. There was no judicial procedure, nor any public airing of the charges against him. He had no opportunity to respond to specific allegations.

Even in wartime, the killing of a U.S. citizen — or anyone else — who poses no immediate danger is morally obnoxious. It also is impossible to harmonize with the U.S. Constitution. The 5th Amendment says that no citizen should be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. If Awlaki had been arrested in America, rather than assassinated in Yemen, he would have had an incontestable right to a trial.

The Obama administration's interest in Awlaki is understandable. The charismatic preacher, an American-born Muslim, is said to have incited the attempted Christmas Day bombing in 2009 and may have directed a plot to blow up a cargo plane bound for Chicago. He also was in touch with Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at the Ft. Hood Army base.

We understand the government's conundrum. In this dangerous new world, our enemies don't wear uniforms, threats cross national borders, and an order given abroad can quickly lead to devastation at home. The U.S. has struggled for a decade with how to safeguard people without crossing moral lines or violating individual rights.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-1001-awlaki-20111002,0,5371695,print.story

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14 tons of marijuana seized by U.S. Border Patrol

A canine officer doing a routine inspection at the State Highway 86 checkpoint near Salton City detected the load, which was hidden inside large wooden crates. Agents pulled out more than 1,100 bundles of marijuana, worth an estimated $22.6 million. The 35-year-old driver was arrested.

The seizure is the latest in a series of enormous marijuana busts along the California-Mexico border. In November, U.S. authorities in San Diego seized 25 tons of marijuana, and two weeks later an additional 20 tons. Both loads were discovered in warehouses linked to Mexico by tunnels.

Last October, Mexican authorities seized 134 tons of marijuana in Tijuana -- the largest bust in Mexican history. Those drugs were believed to belong to the Sinaloa drug cartel, Mexico's most powerful organized crime group, authorities said.

The Drug Enforcement Administration declined to comment on the ongoing investigation of Wednesday's seizure, which was the largest in Imperial County history.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/09/14-tons-of-marijuana-seized-by-us-border-patrol.html

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Guns in bars now OK in Ohio

The law was signed by Gov. John Kasich in June but the legislation to allow patrons with concealed-carry licenses to enter bars and other establishments that serve alcohol with their weapons officially went into effect Friday.

It's a "fantastic" change, according to Michael Shafer, of Whipple, an NRA-certified instructor with handgun training through the United States Army, Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy and the National Rifle Association. He offers group and private courses to individuals who want to learn more about handgun safety.

"I really applaud Gov. Kasich and those who laid the plans to make this a law," he said. "Any person who goes through the course (necessary to receive a concealed-carry permit) is going to be the most law abiding citizen you will ever come across. This law allows citizens to protect themselves if need be."

Shafer said that opponents of the law who express concerns should read up on what it takes to earn a license to carry a concealed weapon.

"They must go through an outstanding program that the state of Ohio has and then a background check through the sheriff's office," he said.

http://www.mariettatimes.com/page/content.detail/id/539038/Guns-in-bars-now-OK-in-Ohio.html?nav=5002

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Federal grants awarded for community policing

Pennington County, Rapid City and Box Elder police departments have been awarded three-year grants to improve community policing efforts.

Rapid City is expected to use its $823,804 grant to strengthen its Street Crimes Unit, according to Capt. Deb Cady.

"It's very good news," Cady said. Police Chief Steve Allender will ask the city council to accept the grant at the Oct. 17 meeting, she said.

Rapid City has received COPS grants in the past that were used to fund additional officers and support extra projects by the department.

At the end of three years, the local law enforcement agencies must be prepared to continue the new positions for a fourth year.

http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/federal-grants-awarded-for-community-policing/article_5fca5a28-ebcb-11e0-b9c4-001cc4c002e0.html

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U.S. grant will allow Detroit to hire 25 police officers

The grant will fully pay for entry-level salaries and benefits for the officers, a news release from the Police Department said. According to the Department of Justice, the grants provide funding for newly hired or rehired full-time officers over a three-year period.

As of Friday, there were 2,768 sworn members of the Police Department, spokeswoman Sgt. Eren Stephens said.

"The awarding of this grant is (evidence) that we are aware of our budgetary constraints and are effectively seeking external funding sources," Chief Ralph Godbee Jr. said in the news release. "The Detroit Police Department will relentlessly seek available assistance to increase our manpower and resources, so to provide the citizens of Detroit with the exemplary police service that they require and deserve."

In August, following a particularly violent weekend, city leaders expressed hope that Detroit would be selected for a COPS grant. The city is combatting a 22.7% rise in homicides this year over the same period last year, with 265 people killed as of Tuesday.

http://www.freep.com/article/20111001/NEWS01/110010444/U-S-grant-will-allow-Detroit-hire-25-police-officers?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs

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Sept 3o, 2011

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YEMEN: Airstrike kills terrorist Awlaki, military says

Details of the attack on Awlaki were sparse, but news of his death came as Washington was providing intelligence and predator drones to the Yemeni army to defeat Al Qaeda operatives in the country's rugged mountains. Yemen media reported that Awlaki was targeted in an airstrike in the Marib region of northern Yemen.

Yemen authorities in the past have falsely announced the killing of top members in the country's Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. If the reports on Awlaki are true, his death would be a significant setback to Islamic militant networks that in recent months have exploited Yemen's political chaos to take over villages and towns.

“The terrorist Anwar Awlaki has been killed along with some of his companions,” read a text message released to journalists by the Defense Ministry.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/09/yemen-airstrike-kills-terrorist-awlaki-military-says.html

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MEXICO: Does U.S. deportation program put migrants in harm's way?

But does the practice place undocumented migrants in harm's way when they are sent to a region of Mexico that is not familiar to them?

Under the strategy, deportees are often flown hundreds of miles from where they illegally entered the country and returned to Mexico through another port of entry, preventing them from reconnecting with human smugglers and attempting the crossing once more.

Some, for example, have been apprehended in Texas and then transferred and deported through Calexico, Calif., Richard Marosi reports in The Times. U.S. customs authorities say the Alien Transfer Exit Program, as it is called, "breaks the smuggling cycle."

It also brings to mind a troubling headline that largely slipped below the radar this summer.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/09/mexico-zetas-deportation-illegal-immigration-letter-exit-transfer.html

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Home-grown terrorism suspect testifies about plot to kidnap and kill

Daniel Patrick Boyd is the son of a Marine Corps officer. With his sturdy build, blond hair and blue eyes, he could be a model for a U.S. military recruiting poster.

But the U.S. government says Boyd is a home-grown Islamic terrorist. He and six other men were charged in North Carolina in 2009 with conspiring to provide material support for a terrorist plot to kidnap and kill people overseas.

In federal court in New Bern, N.C., on Wednesday, Boyd turned against three alleged co-conspirators and testified for the government in a plea deal.

Boyd said he and the others discussed attacking military bases in North Carolina and Virginia, including kidnapping a general and cutting off his ring finger to send to authorities in exchange for the release of a Muslim prisoner held in New York.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/09/home-grown-terror-suspect-testifies-about-plot-to-kidnap-and-kill.html#more

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Arizona

Community policing the goal of Pima Co. Sheriff's Directed Patrols

But the Directed Patrol Unit is something entirely different. It is community policing at a grassroots level, where deputies know citizens by name. And where each member of the Directed Patrol team takes a vested interest in the communities where they live and work.

If you haven't met Sgt. Marcia Durns it's probably only a matter of time until you will. That's one of the reasons Directed Patrols are so successful.

Because the sergeants and deputies get out and meet people every day. Durns says there's nothing quite like talking to people face to face.

And that's what she did Thursday at the Amado Food Bank.

http://www.kold.com/story/15583228/community-policing-the-goal-of-pima-co-sheriffs-directed-patrols?clienttype=printable

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Sept 29, 2011

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ATF Fast and Furious guns turned up in El Paso

They were being stored for shipment to Mexico, documents show. It's the first case of vanished weapons from the surveillance program showing up on this side of the border outside the Phoenix area.

A cache of assault weapons lost in the ATF's gun-trafficking surveillance operation in Phoenix turned up in El Paso, where it was being stored for shipment to Mexico, according to new internal agency emails and federal court records.

Forty firearms along with ammunition magazines and ballistic vests were discovered in Texas in January 2010 during the early stages of the program, meaning the firearms vanished soon after the program began.

Under the program, dubbed Fast and Furious, agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the Phoenix field office allowed licensed firearm dealers to sell weapons to illegal "straw" buyers in the hope that the agents could track the weapons and arrest Mexican drug cartel leaders.

Instead, more than 2,000 weapons were trafficked along the U.S.-Mexico border, and many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. In addition, two AK-47 semi-automatics involved in the program were recovered after a U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed south of Tucson, and two others were found after a violent confrontation with state police officers in Maricopa, Ariz.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20110929,0,1445444,print.story

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U.S. makes deported immigrants take the long way home

Officials expand a program to transfer detainees from one end of the U.S.-Mexico border to the other, saying it's a deterrent to further crossing attempts. Critics say it leaves immigrants vulnerable to crime.

Reporting from Mexicali, Mexico -- Luis Montes slipped across the Rio Grande and had started crawling through a field when a U.S. Border Patrol agent nabbed him. It was a Saturday and the 32-year-old illegal immigrant figured that by Sunday he would be deported back to Mexico, where he would promptly try again to cross into Texas.

Instead, Montes was put on a plane, flown halfway across the country and bused to the California-Mexico border. At 2 a.m. Tuesday, U.S. border authorities took off his handcuffs and escorted him to a gate leading to the desert city of Mexicali.

Montes was back in Mexico, but about 1,200 miles away from where he started.

"This is a great surprise," Montes said as he slipped on his shoes at the dimly lit border crossing.

Across the street, young men gathered outside seedy bars and around taco carts, and Montes wondered if Mexicali was as dangerous as other border cities. "Is there a lot of crime here?" he asked.

The once-confident immigrant was reduced to a bewildered traveler, a favorable outcome for U.S. border authorities under a rapidly expanding program that affects about one-fifth of all illegal immigrants arrested along the Southwest border.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immigrant-deport-20110930,0,4622192,print.story

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Judge blocks parts of tough Alabama immigration law

The 115-page ruling by U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn came in response to a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of the Alabama law on the grounds that it preempted federal immigration laws.

With appeals anticipated, Wednesday's ruling is unlikely to be the last word on the Alabama law, which was signed by Republican Gov. Robert J. Bentley in June. Known as HB 56, the legislation is widely considered the strictest among a group of similar bills passed by states frustrated with what they consider weak immigration enforcement by Washington.

Observers said Wednesday's decision could hasten a U.S. Supreme Court review of the new patchwork of state immigration laws, particularly because Blackburn's ruling differed from those of federal judges who enjoined Arizona and Georgia from enacting provisions of laws directing police to check the residency status of suspected illegal immigrants.

"It creates a conflict among lower courts, and that raises the probability that the Supreme Court will have to weigh in on it," said Peter Spiro, an immigration law expert at Temple University. "It's now only a question of timing."

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

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Guantanamo prisoner faces charges in bombing of U.S. destroyer Cole

The Pentagon announced Wednesday that it has filed capital charges against a Saudi prisoner at Guantanamo Bay for his alleged role in plotting and orchestrating the 2000 terrorist attack on the Navy destroyer Cole as it refueled in a Yemeni harbor.

Abd al Rahim al Nashiri was one of 14 so-called high-value detainees moved from secret CIA-run interrogation sites in 2006 to the military detention facility on the U.S. Naval base in southern Cuba.

Nashiri is accused of choreographing the Cole attack that killed 17 U.S. sailors when suicide bombers rammed the destroyer with an explosives-laden motor boat. He was arrested in Dubai in 2002 and held for four years in an undisclosed location where, according to CIA documents, he was subjected to harsh interrogation tactics, including mock firing of a handgun at his temple and threatening him with a power drill.

Capital charges initially filed against the Saudi of Yemeni descent were dropped after government admissions that he had been subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques," including the simulated drowning exercise known as waterboarding. The practice has been widely condemned by human rights activists as torture and forbidden under new detention and interrogation regulations drafted two years ago.

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

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Immigration raids net 2,900 criminals in largest national crackdown

About 2,900 illegal immigrants with criminal records have been arrested in what authorities on Wednesday called the largest such nationwide crackdown.

The arrests, during the last seven days, came a month after the Obama administration announced that immigration officials would concentrate on finding and deporting serious criminals and delay deportation proceedings against non-criminals who do not pose a public safety threat.

Wednesday's announcement came on the day that President Obama told Latinos during a roundtable at the White House that he was still committed to comprehensive immigration reform, which he said had been prevented by Republican intransigence.

"We're a nation of laws, but we're also a nation of immigrants," Obama said at the forum for viewers of Yahoo! en Espanol, MSN Latino, AOL Latino and Huffington Post Latino Voices.

The latest arrests involved more than 1,900 agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement working with state and local officers across the country over the last week, part of an operation called "Cross Check." Officials said 2,901 illegal immigrants were arrested and all had at least one criminal conviction.

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

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New Jersey

Deficiency of community policing may have cost Trenton $20 million in aid

TRENTON — Eighteen of 105 laid-off city police officers will return to work Saturday thanks to one federal grant, but they could receive pink slips again in four to six months because the city was turned down this week for another multimillion-dollar award from the same program.

A federal Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant would have paid the salaries of 18 officers for three years, but cities, particularly Newark and Camden, and towns like Vineland and Buena Borough were chosen over Trenton to receive funding, federal officials confirmed yesterday. The city applied for the grant in May, when the 105 layoffs that were executed two weeks ago loomed.

“It's disheartening, it's very disheartening,” said George Dzurkoc, president of the Policemen's Benevolent Association local. “Even though it wouldn't have saved a large number of people, anything would have helped out.”

“We need the grant money,” Councilman George Muschal said. “We definitely need the money. We need the cops.”

Federal evaluators gave equal weight to the need for federal assistance as they did to crime rates and a community policing plan, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Applications were scored out of a total of 210 possible points. Trenton was graded at 169.77.

“They did everything they could have done, everything they were supposed to do, but a lot of agencies across the country are in the same situation,” said Corey Ray, a spokesman for the COPS program.

http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2011/09/deficiency_of_community_polici.html

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California

Tulare police awarded grants to help fight crime

The announcement was made Wednesday during a news conference in the Bay Area. Attending the conference were Tulare City Manager Don Dorman, Tulare Mayor Wayne Ross, Police Chief Jerry Breckinridge and police Capt. Wes Hensley.

"We are very pleased to be selected as a recipient of this grant," Breckinridge said.

There was $240 million available to be awarded and Tulare's request was fully granted.

"The fact that only 9 percent of the law enforcement agencies that applied for this grant were funded speaks highly of our work to improve the quality of life for our residents," Breckinridge said.

City officials said the grants are designed to help improve public safety with community policing. The grants will allow Tulare police to address issues such as street gangs, drugs and commercial policing, a new approach that calls for a partnership between police and business owners.

The department's community policing program was revived two years ago.

http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/article/20110929/NEWS01/109290303

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Connecticut

Bridgeport set to hire 20 police officers

"The addition of 20 new officers to the Bridgeport Police Department, thanks to this federal program, will enhance the department's community policing and overall crime prevention efforts," said Police Chief Joseph Gaudett.

The officers will serve as part of the city's Strategic Enforcement Team, which focuses on preventing and reducing teen, gang and drug-related crimes.

"This grant means 20 new cops on the street, 20 new jobs and a safer Bridgeport," said U.S. Rep. Jim Himes. "As tough economic times squeeze local police budgets and make it more difficult to keep crime rates low, this grant will help the Bridgeport Police Department protect our neighborhoods, families and businesses."

"We are very thankful to Congressman Himes' efforts in securing these funds, which will help improve public safety in our city," said Mayor Bill Finch. "We look forward to bringing in 20 new officers to protect and serve the residents of Bridgeport."

The city has seen a long-term decline in violent crime in recent years, but after dipping in 2009 the homicide total increased to 22 in 2010. On Tuesday, the city recorded its 15th homicide for the year when a woman was found dead in her Madison Avenue home.

http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Bridgeport-set-to-hire-20-police-officers-2193390.php

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California

Federal funds for cops

Stockton police, S.J. Sheriff's Office each receive millions in grant money

STOCKTON - More cops could soon be patrolling the streets of Stockton and roadways of San Joaquin County under a federal grant announced Wednesday.

The money is designed to bolster public safety in communities throughout the nation.

Stockton was awarded $7.8 million to put 17 police officers on the job for three years.

The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services also granted $4.6 million to the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office to pay for 14 deputies, also for three years.

It couldn't have come at a better time, Stockton Mayor Ann Johnston said.

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110929/A_NEWS/109290327/-1/a_news03

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Massachusetts Man Charged with Plotting Attack on Pentagon and U.S. Capitol and Attempting to Provide Material Support to a Foreign Terrorist Organization

Public Was Not in Danger from Explosive Devices, Which Were Controlled by Undercover FBI Employees

BOSTON—A 26-year-old Ashland man was arrested and charged today in connection with his plot to damage or destroy the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol, using large remote controlled aircraft filled with C-4 plastic explosives. Rezwan Ferdaus, a U.S. citizen, was also charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization, specifically to al Qaeda, in order to carry out attacks on U.S. soldiers stationed overseas.

“Our top priority is to protect our nation from terrorism and national security threats. The conduct alleged today shows that Mr. Ferdaus had long planned to commit violent acts against our country, including attacks on the Pentagon and our nation's Capitol. Thanks to the diligence of the FBI and our many other law enforcement partners, that plan was thwarted,” said U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz. “I want the public to understand that Mr. Ferdaus' conduct, as alleged in the complaint, is not reflective of a particular culture, community, or religion,” she added. “In addition to protecting our citizens from the threats and violence alleged today, we also have an obligation to protect members of every community, race, and religion against violence and other unlawful conduct.”

The public was never in danger from the explosive devices, which were controlled by undercover FBI employees (UCs). The defendant was closely monitored as his alleged plot developed and the UCs were in frequent contact with him.

http://www.fbi.gov/boston/press-releases/2011/massachusetts-man-charged-with-plotting-attack-on-pentagon-and-u.s.-capitol

Escaped killer is caught after 41 years

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

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Passionate views at policing forum

Albany residents say they also bear a responsibility to "fight for what is right"

She says she hopes officers will learn her 17-year-old son's name not because they suspect him of a crime -- or he becomes the victim of one -- but because he is a thriving student at Green Tech High Charter School and an aspiring state trooper and lawyer.

But at a forum in which police brass gathered Tuesday night to hear from residents about how their efforts to foster community policing are playing out in Albany's streets, where they matter most, Terry directed her most passionate advice to her fellow parents and neighborhood leaders.

Terry -- a co-founder of the new group MAMAS, Mothers Against Murders and Shootings -- urged her neighbors to join her each month in tending the streetside memorials of those slain as a reminder of their own roles in quelling violence she said the police alone cannot stop.

"We need to do this ourselves. We need to take back our community," Terry said. "How many more children do we put in jail or bury? ... How dare we expect the police to fix a problem we created?"

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Passionate-views-at-policing-forum-2192113.php

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California

Martinez council gives neighborhood policing program high marks

MARTINEZ -- The City Council recently gave high marks to the four-month-old neighborhood policing initiative.

The mission of the initiative is to increase direct communication between police officers and residents with the goal of building partnerships, solving neighborhood problems and improving the quality of life in Martinez, said Chief Gary Peterson in a progress report to the City Council.

"The piece that will drive this initiative is the community and the citizens and business owners," he said. "If they participate, this is going to be a success."

Across the state, police departments of all sizes use neighborhood policing, also known as community policing. Benefits of this approach include creating a strong sense of ownership and a personal connection to an area of the city among officers, and building trust with residents and business owners, according to law enforcement experts.

In Martinez, one police officer is assigned to each of the 24 neighborhood policing areas in the city. In addition to patrols, officers hold neighborhood meetings to share information about crime in the area and crime prevention strategies.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18988473

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Utah

Provo Police kick off community volunteers program

PROVO -- Residents of Provo neighborhoods should feel a little safer in the coming days thanks in part to a new community volunteer program launched Tuesday by the Provo Police Department.

Known as the Volunteers In Police Service, the program provides the police department with extra eyes and helping hands in the community. According to Chief Rick Gregory, community police volunteerism isn't new, but it has taken a giant leap around the country since 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

In discussing the need for community volunteers Gregory said, "The Provo Police Department is driven by three principles: problem solving, partnerships and prevention. I believe the VIPS program satisfies each of these goals."

"We are excited for the opportunity to work in partnership with the community and believe in providing high-quality policing services and are thankful for volunteers and their willingness to contribute and make this community a better and safer place," volunteer coordinator Lt. Todd Grossgebauer said.

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/central/provo/article_d419ab9d-57c4-54f8-abb8-d2de9323621a.html?print=1

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Sept 27, 2011

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Probation's problems

The department must take over supervision of state parolees beginning Saturday. It also faces an Oct. 31 deadline to meet the terms of a Justice Department review. It's not ready to do either.

In less than a week, California inmates who until now were released to the supervision of state parole agents will be assigned instead to county probation officers. Counties, the thinking goes, will do a better job than the state of preparing nonviolent, non-serious and nonsexual offenders for responsible and productive lives in society. Counties will be better equipped to provide the services that former prisoners need to ensure that they don't violate their terms of release or commit new crimes. Counties will provide drug treatment, anger management classes, job training, mental health evaluation, medical care, housing, support and counseling. In theory.

The transfer of responsibility for adult prisoners from the state to counties is known as "realignment." The process of making inmates ready for society — a process at the core of any effort to keep the prison system from being merely a publicly funded revolving door — is generally called "reentry."

In 2007, California began emptying its state juvenile prisons (although youth incarceration relies on comforting euphemisms like "camps" and "ranches" to describe places of confinement). A lawsuit over inhumane conditions in the California Youth Authority's network of prisons resulted in a settlement under which youth in state custody went to county probation camps where, again, they ostensibly would be provided the tools for living productively in society. Many youths that already crowded county juvenile halls and camps were to be sent to their homes for local monitoring and rehabilitation programs. That process too is reentry.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-probation-20110927,0,6412421,print.story

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New York

SNUG deserves a chance to work

Here's Operation SNUG, stripped of state funding after only two years. The money dried up not because of any apparent failing on the program's part, but because this $4 million anti-crime effort didn't rank high enough in the priorities that shape a $131.7 billion budget.

With SNUG relying on funding pushed by the heavily urban Senate Democrats, it also didn't help that control of the Senate shifted to the largely suburban and rural Republicans.

Yet, no matter who's in control, a Legislature that is still sitting on $124 million in discretionary funds, and spending the money on things like a zoo tram in Binghamton and a music festival in Westchester County, ought to rethink its priorities.

http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/SNUG-deserves-a-chance-to-work-2190299.php

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Bill to crack down on cyber-bullies introduced in New York

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York State Senator Jeffrey Klein introduced a new "cyber-bullying" bill on Monday, saying outdated pre-digital harassment laws fail to punish bullies who use the Internet and smartphones to torment others.

The New York bill is a response to several highly publicized cases of teen suicides in the aftermath of some form of online bullying. Klein, a Democrat from the Bronx and Westchester, argued that current state law had not been keeping pace with technology as life increasingly moved online.

"If people know there is a tough law on the books and they're going to be punished, they are going to act accordingly," Klein told a news conference outside the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City, where he was joined by members of two anti-bullying organizations.

At least 30 states already have laws dealing with online harassment. At least five have laws dealing explicitly with cyber-bullying, which a study found last year may be even harder on the victims than physical beatings or name-calling.

Under Klein's bill, the crime of stalking in the third degree would be updated to explicitly include harassing a child using electronic communication.

http://news.yahoo.com/bill-crack-down-cyber-bullies-introduced-york-232811906.html

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Sept 26, 2011

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Making a Point about Lasers -- Illegal Use of Devices a Serious Crime

from the FBI

Justin Stouder was aiming a laser pointer at a distant tower from his suburban St. Louis yard one April evening in 2010 when a police helicopter appeared in his line of sight more than a mile away.

At the time, the 24-year-old had no idea that his decision to point the laser at the helicopter was a federal felony—or that the beam of light might have serious consequences for the pilot and his crew.

“It's equivalent to a flash of a camera if you were in a pitch black car at night,” said St. Louis Metropolitan Police Officer Doug Reinholz, the pilot on patrol that night when Stouder's green hand-held laser “painted” his cockpit. “It's a temporary blinding to the pilot,” he said during a recent news conference highlighting the danger of lasers directed at airplanes and helicopters.

Interfering with the operation of an aircraft is a crime punishable by a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and laser incidents are on the rise. Since the FBI and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) began keeping records of laser events in 2004, “there has been an exponential increase every year,” said Tim Childs from the Federal Air Marshal Service, who serves as a liaison officer with the Bureau on laser issues.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/september/laser_092611/laser_092611

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