Law Enforcement

Crime alerts: Elysian Valley, Mount Washington, 10 other L.A. areas
Crime reports are up significantly in 12 L.A. neighborhoods for the latest week, according to an analysis of Los Angeles Police Department data by the Los Angeles Times' Crime L.A. database. Seven neighborhoods reported a significant increase in violent crime. Elysian Valley was the most unusual, recording three reports compared with a weekly average of 0.1 over the last three months.
Los Angeles Times

LAPD turns a blind eye to Illegal aliens without driver's licenses
There was a time in California when the law affected the number of illegal aliens coming over the border. Today it is the number that affects the law. Things in Los Angeles have reached the point that illegal aliens - people who by all rights ought not to be living here in the first place - are nonetheless able to exert sufficient influence on politicians that public policy is altered to suit their desires. Witness the debate taking place (if one can truly call it a debate; the conclusion is foregone) over the impounding of cars driven by unlicensed drivers.
Jack Dunphy/Pajamas Media

LAPD officer justified in shooting naked man, commission rules
A Los Angeles police officer was justified in fatally shooting a naked combative man, the Los Angeles Police Commission has ruled. The unanimous decision by the civilian board, which judges whether serious uses of force by officers are reasonable, closes the Los Angeles Police Department's internal investigation into the confrontation that drew media scrutiny and angry protests from the man's family and friends.
Los Angeles Times

LAPD botched use of downtown crime cameras
Most of the surveillance cameras installed in downtown Los Angeles as part of an effort to help police crack down on crime have not been working for two years, according to interviews and records reviewed by The Times. The cameras were installed over the last few years in a highly publicized partnership between local business groups, which purchased them, and the Los Angeles Police Department, which was to monitor and maintain them. But officials said the majority of the cameras don't work.
Los Angeles Times

ID errors put hundreds in L.A. County jails
Hundreds of people have been wrongly imprisoned inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department jails in recent years, with some spending weeks behind bars before authorities realized those arrested were mistaken for wanted criminals, a Times investigation has found. The wrongful incarcerations occurred more than 1,480 times in the last five years. They were the result of a variety of factors, including officials' overlooking fingerprint evidence and working off incomplete records.
Los Angeles Times

Prisoner Transfers

California could lose 1,500 inmate firefighters
When Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature shifted responsibility for thousands of state prisoners to county jails, some authorities said it would mean more offenders on the streets breaking the law. Few saw another possible peril: the loss of more than 1,500 inmate firefighters. Since World War II, the state has relied on nonviolent offenders serving time for such crimes as burglary, drug possession and welfare fraud to help clear brush, cut fire lines and stop infernos from spreading.
Los Angeles Times

Occupy L.A.

Occupy L.A. cost city $2.3 million; most of that will boost budget deficit
Occupy L.A.'s two-month encampment outside Los Angeles City Hall cost taxpayers at least $2.3 million, most of which will have to be added to the growing deficit in the city's current year budget, according to a report issued Friday. The Los Angeles Police Department, which raided the camp Nov. 30 and arrested nearly 300 people, spent $1.2 million on time-and-a-half overtime pay as a result of the extended protest, said City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana, who wrote the report.
Los Angeles Times

L.A. might sue Occupy L.A. protesters for financial damages
Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich is considering a lawsuit against Occupy L.A. protesters to reimburse the city for damage caused during the occupation of the City Hall lawn. "The city is contemplating any and all of its options," said William Carter, Trutanich's chief deputy. The two-month encampment cost the city at least $2.35 million, not counting repairs to the lawn and fountain outside City Hall, according to a report issued Friday. Much of that cost -- more than $1.7 million -- will be added to the growing pool of red ink in this year's city budget.
Los Angeles Times

Pensions

Editorial: Pension numbers need to be nailed
When California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer dropped by The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board last week to talk about public employee pensions, he said he didn't have "settled, crisp views" on pension reform. That statement surprised everyone in the room. After all, Lockyer is one of the state's chief financial officers, a man who's been sitting on the boards of the state's two biggest public pension funds, the California Public Employees' Retirement System and the State Teachers' Retirement System, for five years now.
Sacramento Bee

Election 2012

Endorsement: Joe Buscaino for L.A. City Council
In the special election to fill the vacancy in the Los Angeles City Council's 15th District, we choose Joe Buscaino, a Los Angeles police officer and a first-time candidate for public office. He is young, earnest and smart. He listens. He can learn. Buscaino has the backing of the Police Protective League, which is running a citywide campaign calling for "public safety first" and for "full funding" of the LAPD. Even given the unstable condition of the city budget, we have no problem with the concept of public safety first.
Los Angeles Times Editorial

Capital Punishment

California executions remain in everlasting limbo
As California nears its sixth year without an execution, state officials find themselves once again grappling with a judge's order that concludes they've botched crafting a new and legal method of putting condemned killers to death by lethal injection. For the third time during the six-year moratorium on executions, a judge has ordered the state back to square one in creating new lethal injection procedures. The development all but ensures San Quentin's death chamber will remain dormant until at least well into 2013.
San Jose Mercury News