Law Enforcement

Crime alerts for Eagle Rock, Porter Ranch and 10 other L.A. neighborhoods
Crime reports are up significantly for the latest week in 12 L.A. neighborhoods, according to an analysis of Los Angeles Police Department data by the Los Angeles Times' Crime L.A. database. Four neighborhoods reported a significant increase in violent crime. Eagle Rock was the most unusual, recording three reports compared with a weekly average of 0.8 over the last three months. Eagle Rock also triggered an alert for property crime. Porter Ranch topped the list of nine neighborhoods with property crime alerts.
Los Angeles Times

Chief Beck shuffles top commanders; financial woes cited
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck announced changes Monday to his senior command staff as he shuffled high-ranking officials to replace a retiring deputy chief. Kirk Albanese, the current deputy chief in charge of the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley Bureau, will take over the department's Detective Bureau. He replaces Deputy Chief David Doan, who is retiring after 37 years on the job. Commander Jorge Villegas will take over the Valley assignment from Albanese.
Los Angeles Times

LA police union urges parole denial for cop killer
The union for rank-and-file Los Angeles Police Department officers is urging a state parole board to deny a compassionate release request for the convicted killer of a police officer in the case chronicled in the book and movie "The Onion Field." The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is considering the case of Gregory Powell. The 77-year-old Powell told the parole board last year that he has terminal prostate cancer. The Los Angeles Police Protective League said Friday that Powell deserves to die in prison. Under state law, inmates are eligible for compassionate release if they have six months or less to live.
Associated Press

Man slain, 2 females wounded in South L.A. park shooting
One person died and two others were wounded Monday when an attacker on a bike pulled out a handgun and opened fire at a crowded park in South Los Angeles, police said. The shooting at Algin Sutton Park at 88th and South Hoover streets about 4:30 p.m. sent dozens of children and adults scrambling for cover as the attacker fired multiple rounds, said Deputy Chief Pat Gannon of the Los Angeles Police Department. A bystander flagged down LAPD patrol officers and alerted them that the attacker had ditched his bike and taken off running, police said. A foot pursuit followed, and officers detained a suspect.
Los Angeles Times

Chief Beck travels to London for global gang summit
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck is traveling to London this week to trade notes with law enforcement officials from around the world on how to combat gang crime. The idea for the two-day event, which will be attended by gang experts from 10 nations including Austria, Spain and Jamaica, came out of riots that spread through English cities in August, leaving five people dead. Police there came under heavy criticism for their hesitant handling of the upheaval.
Los Angeles Times

LAPD's Foothill station celebrates 50 years of service
Things were a lot different when LAPD opened its Foothill Division headquarters in Pacoima in 1961. The northeast San Fernando Valley was in the midst of a transformation from citrus and olive groves to a bedroom community. The new neighborhoods were home to 217,000 people, about 40 percent of them belonging to the generation known as baby boomers. Policemen -- there were few women on the force -- sweltered in long-sleeved woolen uniforms as they drove un-air-conditioned Ford or Chevrolet cruisers through the streets of Granada Hills, Sylmar, Pacoima, Sun Valley, Sunland and Tujunga.
Los Angeles Daily News

Studio City/NoHo adopts 'Hats Off' crime deterrent program
Police launch the "Hats Off" program in two valley communities. It basically means this: if you want to do business there, you'll want to tip back that "hoodie" or take off that hat or helmet. It's a program that has reduced robberies significantly in other communities, and now authorities are going to try it out in Studio City and North Hollywood. Police are asking business owners to deliver this simple message to customers: hats off. Hoodies and hats are often worn by criminals to shield their faces during robberies and break-ins. The LAPD says the overall crime rate in the city is down. But officials are concerned about a rash of robberies in Studio City.
ABC7

County, public safety officials plan ballot measure to secure funding
Counties and law enforcement groups plan to file their own initiative this month to ensure the state continues paying them billions of dollars annually for assuming duties such as housing inmates. The proposal outlined by local leaders would not include tax increases despite a desire by Gov. Jerry Brown and school groups to raise revenue to pay for that public safety work. Local officials say they will continue working with Brown, lawmakers and educators, but they want to file their own proposal as a backup plan in case the Legislature fails to put a constitutional amendment on the November 2012 ballot.
Sacramento Bee

New Laws

Governor signs sobriety checkpoint bill
Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation restricting local police from impounding cars at sobriety checkpoints solely because a driver is unlicensed, but he vetoed other checkpoint restrictions. Supporters of the bill Brown signed, Assembly Bill 353, by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, argued small cities used sobriety checkpoints to make money by impounding cars from unlicensed, low-income drivers who could not afford to retrieve them.
Sacramento Bee

Gov. Jerry Brown makes it illegal to openly carry a handgun in public
Gov. Jerry Brown has outlawed the open carrying of handguns in public in California, targeting a practice that top law enforcement officials had denounced as dangerous. L.A. Police Chief Charlie Beck and L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca were among those who supported the prohibition on grounds that open toting of guns wastes officers' time responding to calls about armed "suspects" and can lead accidentally to violent confrontation.
Los Angeles Times