Law Enforcement

L.A. Chinese Consulate shooting: protester arrested
Los Angeles police have arrested a man they say fired shots at a security guard outside the Chinese Consulate in Wilshire Center on Thursday afternoon, missing his target and hitting the building multiple times. The man, identified only as being in his 50s, gave himself up to authorities. There were no reports of injury in the shooting, which took place about 2:15 p.m. in the 400 block of Shatto Place.
Los Angeles Times

Beck in the box: Amnesty for unlicensed, uninsured drivers with unregistered cars
So much for public safety. Obedient as always to the will of his political masters, Chief Charlie Beck is moving rapidly to please the mayor's desire to all but halt impounding of cars of motorists driving without a license. In a follow-up to the recent decision to halt impounding cars of unlicensed drivers at DUI checkpoints, Beck and Deputy Chief Michel Moore presented the Police Commission on Tuesday with the outline of a plan to put the full burden on patrol officers to decide who and when to order vehicles towed away from a traffic stop or to stand around waiting for a licensed driver friend of the motorist to arrive.
Ron Kaye L.A.

Danger in cutting corners on supervision
The City's approach to its current budget problems is hiring just enough replacements for LAPD officers lost through retirements and attrition. This approach, however, has been accompanied by an abandonment of the middle management positions needed for the Department to operate effectively. With scant attention by outsiders, but growing alarm among those in the Department, there is a burgeoning number of vacancies for police officer III (288), sergeant (88), detective (122) and lieutenant (26).
LAPPL Blog

LAPD steps up holiday DUI patrols, checkpoints
The Los Angeles Police Department announced its holiday campaign to combat drunken driving. It provided a list of planned sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols through this weekend.
Los Angeles Daily News

Shakeup at Bureau of Parking Enforcement
A major housecleaning is underway at LA's Bureau of Parking Enforcement, the city agency whose reputation was tarnished by a porn scandal uncovered in an NBC4 Investigation earlier this year. In the wake of the NBC4 Investigation, last June Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa asked Los Angeles Police Department Commander Michael Williams to come over temporarily from the LAPD to shakeup The Bureau of Parking Enforcement in response to problems uncovered by NBC4. Since then, numerous Traffic Officers have been fired and top managers have been pushed out.
NBC4

After high profile crimes, residents reluctant to talk to police
A hesitation to cooperate with police after high profile crimes is typical in poor city neighborhoods, said sociologist Waverly Duck, a University of Pittsburgh professor who studies life in high crime urban areas. The reasons for the hesitation are more complicated than not wanting to be seen as a snitch, Duck said. Residents want crime in their neighborhood to end, but fear that sharing knowledge with police won't actually make them safer. They're also frustrated that police don't flood their neighborhood looking for perpetrators after every shooting.
HealthyCal.org

Los Angeles jail plan hits resistance
Los Angeles County supervisors are balking at a proposal from the county sheriff's department to issue $1.4 billion of bonds to rebuild the 5,000-bed Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles. The sheriff's department describes the jail project as a means to address California's ongoing corrections "realignment" that is shifting 30,000 prisoners to county jails from the state prison system over the next two years, while also alleviating security issues at the Men's Central Jail.
The Bond Buyer

FBI warns of 'relative in distress' scam
For three Los Angeles-area grandparents who received calls about their loved ones, the voice on the other end of the phone was adamant and fear-inducing. One was told their grandchild was in jail or in a terrible car accident. Callers said they needed money to pay for legal bills or operations. Collectively, the grandparents wired $30,000 to overseas accounts in countries that included Lebanon, Spain, Canada, the Dominican Republic and Peru.
Los Angeles Times

Capital Punishment

Judge rules on California lethal injection protocol
Prison officials failed to properly adopt the state's new lethal injection execution procedures, a judge said in a ruling Thursday that, if upheld, will throw California's stalled capital punishment system into further doubt. The tentative ruling from Marin County Superior Court Judge Faye D'Opal found prison officials failed to properly consider a one-drug alternative to the three-drug lethal injection cocktail used to execute inmates.
Associated Press

Immigration

Villaraigosa asks California to halt role in Secure Communities
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has written to Gov. Jerry Brown asking him to suspend California's participation in the Secure Communities immigration enforcement program. In his letter, written this month, Villaraigosa said issues with the program "have been and remain significant." Under Secure Communities, which began in 2008, fingerprints collected by state and local police are shared with immigration authorities to identify and deport tens of thousands of people each year.
Los Angeles Times