Law Enforcement

Crime alerts for Tarzana, Chinatown and nine other neighborhoods
Crime reports are up significantly for the latest week in 11 L.A. neighborhoods, according to an analysis of LAPD data by the Los Angeles Times' Crime L.A. database. Five neighborhoods reported a significant increase in violent crime. Tarzana was the most unusual, recording four reports compared with a weekly average of 1.3 over the last three months. Chinatown topped the list of six neighborhoods with property crime alerts.
Los Angeles Times

Report scrutinizes rise in LAPD police shootings
A report by the Los Angeles Police Department's watchdog disputes Police Chief Charlie Beck's assertion that officer-involved shootings have dramatically gone up because more officers have come under attack. Last year, police fired their weapons in 63 incidents, marking a roughly 50 percent increase over such shootings in the previous four years. Beck said that the rise was linked to the 193 assaults on officers, which was a 22 percent increase in such incidents from 2010. However, Alex Bustamante, the inspector general for the Police Commission, argues in a report that there's no such link.
Associated Press

L.A. serial rapist may have struck for 36th time, police say
Los Angeles Police Department investigators believe a woman attacked this month in South L.A. is the 36th suspected victim of the elusive "Teardrop Rapist." Los Angeles police Det. Jesse Alvarado said the 29-year-old woman was walking to work alone about 5:30 a.m. June 15 when she was approached by a man wearing a hoodie on Naomi Avenue near 25th Street. After trying to talk to her, the man stuck a handgun in her face and forced her into an alley, where he attempted to sexually assault her.
Los Angeles Times

LAPD embracing 'predictive policing'
Los Angeles police are aiming to beat suspects to the scene of a crime by using computers to predict where trouble might occur. The Los Angeles Police Department is the largest agency to embrace an experiment known as "predictive policing," which crunches data to determine where to send officers to thwart would-be thieves and burglars. Time Magazine called it one of the best inventions of 2011.
Associated Press

False alarms down sharply for LAPD
The number of false burglar-alarm calls to police has decreased by nearly 60 percent in the eight years that the city has been charging for them, the Police Commission said Wednesday. The city fielded fewer than 42,000 false-alarm calls in 2011 - compared with 102,000 in 2003 before a new police policy took effect. That policy included charging alarm customers an escalating series of fines for false calls, and declining to send officers out if a location has already had two false alarms that year and the third alarm is not verified.
PoliceOne

LAPD searches for man who pointed gun at patrol officer
Police in North Hollywood today searched for a man who pointed a gun at a patrol officer. Officers were patrolling near Kittridge Street and Troost Avenue about 12:40 a.m. when someone pointed a gun at one of them, Los Angeles police Sgt. William Mann of the North Hollywood Station said. Police sealed off the area and found the handgun, but no immediate arrests were made, Mann said.
North Hollywood - Toluca Lake Patch

Judge delays release of Manson tapes
It's going to be a while longer, at best, before detectives will be able to listen to audio recordings that have gone unheard for more than four decades. Los Angeles police are seeking the tapes in the belief they contain revelations of even more killings by the infamous Charles Manson murder cult. Last month, a court order authorized LAPD to take possession of the recordings of former Manson follower and still-imprisoned murderer, Charles "Tex" Watson. The LAPD held off while Watson put together an appeal.
NBC4

Cellphone firms share location data with law enforcement, not users
Cellphone companies hold onto your location information for years and routinely provide it to police and, in anonymized form, to outside companies. At least tens of thousands of times a year, they also hand cellphone location information to the FBI or police officers who have a court order. But ProPublica discovered that there is one person cellphone companies will not share your location information with: You.
ProPublica

Pensions

State high court assessing pension case
The California Supreme Court has shown an interest in examining the effort to invalidate San Diego's voter-approved pension reform initiative, and if the court takes up the case it could cut out weeks - if not years - of legal battles. Proponents of the measure unsuccessfully pushed for the 4th District Court of Appeals to consolidate cases against it as well as skip board hearings by a state board and asked the Supreme Court to look at the legal issues surrounding the initiative.
San Diego Union-Tribune

Prisons

Calif. shuffles crimes under inmate-crowding law
A new law changing where some criminals serve their time is prompting anger from certain lawmakers who believe the state again is reneging on its promise to keep those convicted of violent and other serious crimes in state prisons rather than county jails. California's sweeping realignment of its criminal justice system took effect nine months ago to address court-ordered reductions in overcrowding at state prisons.
Associated Press