Law Enforcement

Panorama City shooting leaves man dead, public's help sought in finding killer
A 35-year-old man who apparently was walking along Parthenia Street, east of Cedros Avenue in Panorama City, was shot and fatally wounded and police are looking for suspects, officials said Sunday. The shooting was reported at 10:35 p.m., said Capt. Todd Chamberlain, in the Los Angeles Police Department Mission Station. "Several neighbors called 9-1-1 reporting gunfire in the area. But we have yet to know if the suspects were on foot or in a car, or why this shooting happened," Chamberlain said.
City News Service

L.A. police shoot, critically wound robbery suspect in Pico-Union
Los Angeles police shot and critically wounded a robbery suspect in the Pico-Union neighborhood early Saturday after he allegedly attempted to rob a sandwich shop at gunpoint, authorities said. Police received a call just before 2 a.m. that a gunman was demanding money inside the Subway shop at West Pico Boulevard and Albany Street, LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman said. When officers arrived, they saw the armed suspect leaving the shop.
Los Angeles Times

LAPD Rampart's Special Problems Unit
The Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division may be the agency's smallest geographic area, but its steady flow of house burglaries, auto thefts, and meth-fueled crime offer the Special Problems Unit plenty of opportunity for targeted enforcement. Freed from the encumbrance of priority radio calls, the nine LAPD officers who make up the SPU, as it is known, work as a tactical team that connects the dots between gang affiliates, document-fraud rings, and burglary crews.
Police Magazine

'Ride-by' shooting in L.A.: bicycle-riding gang member shoots another, pedals away
A gang member in his 20s was in stable condition after he was shot in the head, arm and leg by a rival gang member on a bicycle on a South Los Angeles street, a police officer said Sunday. The shooting was reported at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday at 46th Street and Compton Avenue, said Officer Sandra Infante of the Los Angeles Police Department 77th Street Station. Despite having multiple bullet wounds, the victim walked to the waiting ambulance, Infante said. The suspect, also a man in his 20s, rode away after the shooting, leaving investigators to try to pick up his trail, she said.
City News Service

Congressmen Gary Miller and "Buck" McKeon ask for more thorough probe of LAWA spending
Concerned that the agency operating LAX could be illegally sending money to the city of Los Angeles, two Southern California congressmen are calling for a more thorough investigation and audit of Los Angeles World Airports' spending patterns. Reps. Gary G. Miller, R-Rancho Cucamonga, and Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, want the Department of Transportation's inspector general to raise the profile of an ongoing investigation into LAWA's spending practices.
Los Angeles Daily News

Police 'a target' for gun thieves
A recent surge of burglaries in the Bay Area has officers fearing that they are being targeted by gun thieves. "There does seem to be a rise, and there definitely is concern," said Ron Cottingham, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. "This is something that's occurred in the past sporadically, but the recent burglaries seem to be almost targeting cops' houses."
PoliceOne

Texting, handheld phones: Distracted-driving crackdown coming in April
Next month, thousands of cops will fan out across California in a massive crackdown on drivers texting or talking on handheld phones. And oh, will they be busy, as so many drivers just don't seem to care that these growing forms of distracted driving have been illegal for nearly five years. New data from police statewide show they issued 425,041 tickets last year for talking on handheld phones -- down about 35,000 from the previous year but still a 41 percent increase from 2009, the first full year of the cellphone ban.
San Jose Mercury-News

'Onion Field' killers focus of LAPD Chief Beck's 'Southland' cameo
Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck took his place behind the podium. Cameras flashed. Reporters stood at the ready. But Beck's news conference in front of Parker Center, the old LAPD headquarters, wasn't a typical meeting with the media. For one, it wasn't real. The chief and other LAPD officials filmed a cameo Friday for the season finale of TNT's L.A.-based police drama, "Southland."
Los Angeles Times

The Courts

L.A. County Superior Court to cut 511 positions by summer
The Los Angeles County Superior Court plans to eliminate 511 positions by June in a sweeping cost-cutting effort to close an $85-million budget shortfall by the beginning of the next fiscal year. "All of them are necessary," Presiding Judge David S. Wesley said of the positions. Including those cuts, the court has lost 24% of its employees over the last four years, officials said. Meanwhile, the workload continues to increase.
Los Angeles Times

Prisons

Inmate suicide rate is focus in court fight over California prisons
Eighteen years after a federal court found that the mental health care inside state prisons was grossly substandard and a major factor in inmate suicides, California will return to a Sacramento courtroom March 27 to argue that the problems have been solved. "Our suicide rate is less than the general population, less than federal prisons," Gov. Jerry Brown said in an interview with The Bee this month. "In fact, few countries in the world can match our numbers.
Sacramento Bee

Sheriff Lee Baca proposes almost $1 billion new jail to replace downtown facility
With the inmate population steadily increasing, Sheriff Lee Baca will ask the Board of Supervisors Tuesday to study replacing the dilapidated and violence-plagued Men's Central Jail with a $932.8-million high-tech facility, and consider relying more on electronic monitoring devices and other alternatives to incarceration. The proposal at this stage is to hire a contractor to prepare a conceptual design and environmental impact review.
Los Angeles Daily News

City Election

Wendy Greuel, Eric Garcetti pressed on role of neighborhood councils
As the city's neighborhood council system commemorates its 10th anniversary this year, a new debate is beginning over their role in setting city policy and what the next mayor will do to include them. Both Councilman Eric Garcetti and Controller Wendy Greuel cite their past support of the system, which now is in 95 neighborhoods, but activists say they want more details on everything from their annual budget to how they are consulted on major policy issues.
Los Angeles Daily News