Law Enforcement

Crime alerts for Wilmington and 13 other L.A. neighborhoods
Crime reports are up significantly for the latest week in 14 L.A. neighborhoods, according to an analysis of LAPD data by the Los Angeles Times' Crime L.A. database. Six neighborhoods reported a significant increase in violent crime. Wilmington was the most unusual, recording nine reports compared with a weekly average of 4.3 over the last three months. Glassell Park topped the list of eight neighborhoods with property crime alerts.
Los Angeles Times

Union battles LAPD's plan to change impounding law for unlicensed drivers
Several public safety groups, including the Los Angeles Police Protective League, are fighting a new LAPD proposal that would keep unlicensed drivers from facing a 30-day impound. The current policy calls for drivers who are stopped without a license to have their cars immediately impounded, which can cost as much as $1,500. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck's new plan would offer a reprieve to individuals not involved in a serious accident and whose licenses had not been suspended or revoked license.
CBS2

Ask the Chief
LAPD has faced criticism for their policies surrounding the impounding of unlicensed drivers' vehicles. Immigration rights groups say police polices regarding the impounding of vehicles is merely a way to generate revenue, while other critics feel that the law isn't stringent enough. As for their own fleet of automobiles, LAPD is looking into ways to reduce the number of traffic accidents from its current figure of 1,250 crashes over the last three years.
Southern California Public Radio

SoCal Connected takes to the streets with LAPD's reserve officers
This week, SoCal Connected correspondent Brian Rooney takes to the streets with the LAPD reserve officers--those cops who volunteer their time to patrol for free. At a time when the department has little money for overtime, the efforts of these 422 trained volunteers save the city more than $5 million a year. The program recently got attention when a volunteer cop (a lawyer by trade) singlehandedly arrested a man accused of torching dozens of cars in Hollywood.
Press Release

LAPD hunts hospital worker accused of molesting patients
A hospital worker accused of sexually assaulting multiple female patients is believed to have fled to Guatemala, and one LAPD detective says she won't give up on capturing him. Ramon Eduardo Rodas Gaspar confessed to sexual crimes against several women before skipping bail, says Detective Ninette Toosby. She says 11 victims have been identified.
CBS2

LAPD pioneers high-tech crime-fighting 'war room'
The LAPD is fighting crime from a high-tech war room that gives it eyes all over the city. The surveillance hub is now a model for police forces around the world and KCAL9 got an exclusive tour inside from Chief Charlie Beck. "We are targets on our own soil," says Beck. "We have to be ready. What began as a grass roots idea following the 9/11 terrorist attacks is now a state-of-the-art real-time analysis critical response center. It's called RACR, and it's located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles.
KCAL9

Old Rampart station becomes a magnet for metal thieves
The LAPD moved out of the old Rampart police station a few years ago but the Historic Filipintown building is not necessarily empty. While the cops moved out, criminals in search of valuable pieces of scrap metal and copper have moved in – or more like broken in – to the former station at Temple Street and Benton Way.
The Eastsider LA

Naked man lowered from downtown radio tower
A naked man atop a downtown radio tower was wrapped in a blanket and lowered by a makeshift pulley system put together Wednesday night by rescuers at the scene. The rope and pulley system was assembled by urban search-and-rescue specialists from the Los Angeles Fire Department. Earlier, the man was taken into custody atop the tower by Los Angeles Police Department officers.
Los Angeles Times

FBI puts cloud providers on notice over security rules
The FBI is taking a tough line on cloud vendors looking to do business with U.S. law enforcement agencies, saying Tuesday that there would be no compromise in its new rule that all such services comply with the agency's Criminal Justice Information Systems security requirements. The move follows the Los Angeles Police Department dropping Google Apps two months ago because it could not comply with the CJIS requirements.
Wired Cloudline

Pension-reform group suspends initiative campaign
A conservative group announced Wednesday that it was suspending its campaign to put public employee pension reform on the November ballot. Dan Pellissier, president of California Pension Reform, said his group could not raise enough money to mount a petition-signature drive. A successful drive typically requires at least $2 million.
Associated Press

Counties ready to handle state's juvenile offenders, study says
County governments have invested nearly a half-billion dollars over the past 15 years to modernize juvenile lockups and now have the capacity to absorb offenders currently housed in the state's youth prisons, if those facilities are closed, a new study contends. The report by the San Francisco-based Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice offers fresh data in support of Gov. Jerry Brown's renewed push to shutter the state's three remaining youth prisons as part of a historic realignment of California's criminal justice system.
California Watch