Law Enforcement

Crime alerts for Vermont Square and 19 other L.A. neighborhoods
Crime reports are up significantly for the latest week in 20 L.A. neighborhoods, according to an analysis of LAPD data by the Los Angeles Times' Crime L.A. database. Fifteen neighborhoods reported a significant increase in violent crime. Vermont Square was the most unusual, recording 24 reports compared with a weekly average of 10.9 over the last three months. Beverly Grove topped the list of five neighborhoods with property crime alerts.
Los Angeles Times

2 LAPD officers injured in Venice crash
A search was under way Monday for the driver of a sport utility vehicle who authorities say caused a police cruiser to crash, injuring two LAPD officers. The accident occurred just before 2 a.m. near Washington Boulevard and Pacific Avenue on the border of Marina del Rey and Venice. Police believe the squad car crashed into some bus benches and a wall after swerving to avoid another driver in a SUV who they say had made an illegal U-turn from a parking stall. One of the two officers was unconscious following the crash.
CBS2

LAPD asking for help
Los Angeles police are asking for the public's help in finding a gunman who crashed his white SUV into a bicyclist, then shot him to death and wounded another who was trying to get away. Shaoyan Almazan, 19, of Los Angeles, was struck, then fatally shot, at New Hampshire Avenue and San Marino Street about 1:20 p.m. Saturday, according to police and a coroner's spokesman. Almazan and a friend were riding their bicycles in the 900 block of South New Hampshire Street and as they rounded the corner from San Moreno to New Hampshire Street, the driver in the SUV ran into Almazan, knocking him off his bicycle, according to a department statement.
KFI 640AM

Report: LAPD dispatch system repaired
A month after a failure of LA's radio dispatch system that a City Councilman feared could have put lives in danger, a city engineer reported on Friday that the problems have been fixed. Power went out to the city's radio communications system April 18 during a test of a backup generator atop Mount Lee in Griffith Park, cutting power for 12 hours. It prompted the Los Angeles Police Department to resort to a backup that included a "less-than-ideal" plan to staff phones to take emergency calls at each of the city's 25 stations.
NBC4

Man tracks down cop who nabbed serial cat burglar in Canoga Park 48 years ago
That spring, fear swept over Faust Avenue, and all across the neighborhoods of the west San Fernando Valley. Children were told not to be frightened, but they could sense uneasiness in their parents' eyes. Fathers checked and rechecked window locks and doors. Mothers tucked their sons and daughters into bed extra tight. It was 1964, and Cliff Berens was 9 years old when he saw his father do something out of the ordinary. "He put a chain lock on the back door," said Berens, now 56. "My dad said: `It's nothing. Don't worry about it."'
Los Angeles Daily News

Ex-LAPD deputy chief to replace retiring head of security for Los Angeles Dodgers
The head of security at Dodgers Stadium is retiring and will be replaced by a former Los Angeles Police deputy chief. The Dodgers said Sunday that Rich Wemmer's last day will be Thursday, and Michael Hillman will oversee security at the stadium for the rest of the 2012 season. Wemmer took the job in April 2011 after security became an issue when San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow was severely beaten in the stadium parking lot. Wemmer, who retired from the LAPD in 2008 after nearly 40 years in law enforcement, said he had been planning for his retirement for quite some time.
Associated Press

State Assembly committee kills bill expanding powers of LAX police
A state Assembly committee on Friday shelved a measure aimed at expanding the powers of Los Angeles International Airport's police force, effectively killing the plan until at least the end of the year. The state Appropriations Committee held up a decision on Assembly Bill 2137, which would allow the officers who patrol LAX, Ontario and Van Nuys airports to perform seemingly routine functions on airport property.
Torrance Daily Breeze

Parole

Realignment plan for California prisons causing new friction
Realignment was intended to relieve California's overcrowded prison system by keeping more low-level offenders in local jails rather than transferring them to state custody. And by giving local agencies more responsibility for monitoring prisoners freed on probation, the state can save hundreds of millions of dollars. But city and county efforts to keep tabs on nearly 6,000 felons released in L.A. County alone have also prompted confusion and anger, jockeying among agencies for millions in public money and warnings that public safety employees are facing new dangers.
Los Angeles Times

Municipal Budgets

Cities unable to recoup millions in loans to redevelopment agencies
In the last few weeks, cities have received notices from the state that they will not be able to collect hundreds of millions of dollars they loaned to their redevelopment agencies. El Monte likely won't get paid back the $76 million it lent to its redevelopment agency over the last three decades. The city's annual general fund budget is about $50million. La Mirada is owed $29 million from its redevelopment agency, which is nearly as much as that city's entire $35 million yearly general fund budget.
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Pensions

GASB pension rules: sticker shock less likely
New public pension accounting rules scheduled to be issued next month, once expected by some to reveal massive hidden debt, now seem less likely to trigger a shake-up and are even getting applause from pension officials. Under the new rules, experts say, most California pension systems will make little if any use of a lower "risk-free" government bond-based earnings forecast, currently about 4 percent, that causes debt to soar.
Calpensions