Law Enforcement

No parole for cop killers - no exceptions
SB1399 was aimed at saving California millions of dollars in prison health care expenses by allowing the parole of medically incapacitated inmates. It's unfortunate and outrageous that this law is being used by cop killers like Gerald Youngberg to seek parole. In 1973, Youngberg took the lives of San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department Lt. Al Stewart, CHP Officer Larry Wetterling, and gas station attendant Robert Jenkins in execution-style murders.
LAPPL Blog

Losing crime evidence a worry with LAPD system
Six months after an audit exposed problems with the Los Angeles Police Department's evidence rooms, concern remains that the department's outdated tracking system could lose evidence crucial to criminal cases. The June audit looked at the evidence-tracking system, installed 20 years ago, and found errors in 6 percent of the pieces studied. The audit said evidence was not described accurately, items weren't stored where they were supposed to be, and the potential for the program to malfunction was "eminent."
Torrance Daily Breeze

Dispute over prostitute sparked Venice shooting, LAPD says
An argument over a prostitute is believed to have sparked gunfire in Venice on Tuesday night in an incident that prompted police to lock down an area near a busy intersection, authorities said. No one was injured in the shooting that broke out about 6:30 p.m. near Lincoln Boulevard and Rose Avenue, Los Angeles Police Department officials said Wednesday.
Los Angeles Times

Beck, mayor: LA youth programs help reduce gang crime by 15 percent
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief Charlie Beck say the city's youth programs helped reduce gang-related crimes by 15 percent last year. "I estimated that I've stood over a thousand dead young men killed by gang violence," said Beck, recalling the bloody 1980s and '90s. Civil rights activist Connie Rice, long a critic of the LAPD, now helps the department work with former gang members and neighborhood leaders to reduce crime.
Southern California Public Radio

Violent crimes drop in L.A. County in 2011, sheriff says
Los Angeles County sheriff's officials rolled out more positive crime statistics Wednesday, boasting a 14% drop in violent crime in 2011 compared to the year before. Homicides, matching a similar trend in L.A. Police Department patrol areas, were down by more than 46% in the sheriff's jurisdiction compared to five years ago. Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore has attributed the continuing decline, at least in part, to anonymous crime tip lines and increased vigilance by neighborhood watch groups.
Los Angeles Times

Man wanted on kidnapping and sexual assault charges arrested in Reno
A federal fugitive wanted on kidnapping and sexual assault charges in Los Angeles is in Washoe County Jail on $1.4 million bail after being arrested on Wednesday. Jose Guadalupe Gomez-Delgado, 49, was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service-led Fugitive Task Force in partnership with the Sparks Police Department. The task force had learned from a tip that Gomez-Delgado might be living in Northern Nevada.
Reno Gazette-Journal

Feds continue push to nationalize criminal intelligence data
In the latest push by federal law enforcement agencies to nationalize criminal intelligence data gathered by state and local police, Minnesota is weighing whether to link a statewide database with an FBI information-sharing system, despite concerns by privacy and open-government advocates about the accuracy of such data, among other issues. Several agencies in California already belong to the program, known as the National Data Exchange, or N-DEx.
California Watch

Prison Realignment

Crime renews lawmaker's concerns about shifting felons to counties
A Republican lawmaker who opposes shifting supervision of many felons from the state to counties voiced concern Wednesday over the arrest of a Sacramento man this week on sexual assault charges a month after he was released from state prison. Aaron Suggs had been designated a non-serious, nonviolent felon when he was released from state prison Dec. 8 after serving a sentence for drug possession.
Los Angeles Times

Behind governor's plan to close state's juvenile justice system
For the second time in one year, Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed permanently closing the Division of Juvenile Justice, a move that would make California the first state in the nation to eliminate its youth prison system and shift responsibility for the most dangerous young offenders to counties. When Brown first proposed the plan, county prosecutors and probation officers protested, arguing that counties were unprepared to handle murderers and violent sex offenders.
Bay Citizen

City Government

L.A. council won't absorb redevelopment agency
Fearing a new financial burden in a budget crisis, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday jettisoned its once-vaunted redevelopment agency, an entity that spent decades revitalizing downtown, Hollywood and other areas of the city. On a 9-3 vote, the council decided that it could not afford to take on the agency and its 192 employees as California's long era of redevelopment comes to a close.
Los Angeles Times