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Aug 15, 2013

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California

Community Policing in Salinas

Salinas PD leads an academy for community members. Go on ride-alongs with patrol officers, observe SWAT team activities, and learn about the inner workings of the department. 6-9pm for 12 consecutive weeks beginning Tues Sept. 3. To qualify, participants must be at least 18, have no felony record, and live or work in Salinas. Capped at 20 participants. Request an application in advance.

http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/calendar/event_a18f5d10-0482-11e3-9ff1-001a4bcf6878.html

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From ICE

Central American students complete DHS law enforcement course at FLETC

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Twenty-seven Panamanian and El Salvadoran law enforcement officers graduated Friday from an elite training program in the United States and joined the fight against transnational organized crime.

From July 23 through Aug. 9, 14 members of the Panama National Police and 13 members of the El Salvador National Police completed the International Taskforce Agent Training Course at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Charleston.

"Today a dedicated group of law enforcement professionals from Panama and El Salvador graduated from our academy and will return to their countries with new skills to use in the shared fight against transnational organized crime," said Luis Sierra, deputy assistant director for operations west within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Office of International Affairs.

The ICE Academy and FLETC delivered a tailored curriculum that included instruction about how to conduct criminal investigations. Specifically, the graduates learned investigative and interview techniques and how to process evidence and execute warrants. The training was made possible by funding from the U.S. Department of State.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1308/130813charleston.htm

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From the FBI

Seeking the Public's Assistance -- New Information Released in Serial Killer Case

After Israel Keyes was arrested for the murder of 18-year-old Samantha Koenig in Alaska in 2012, authorities realized that the man they had in custody was a prolific serial killer. Keyes freely admitted as much.

During conversations with investigators, the 34-year-old sometime construction worker revealed the names of two additional victims—along with tantalizing clues about other murders he had committed around the country over a period of years. But last December, Keyes killed himself in his Anchorage jail cell, leaving a trail of unanswered questions and unidentified victims.

Those victims have not been forgotten, however. Today we are releasing new information in the hopes that the public can help us identify others who died by Keyes' hands. The information includes extensive videotaped conversations with Keyes in jail and an interactive map that contains a detailed timeline of his known movements beginning in 1997.

“He gave us a number of clues,” said Special Agent Jolene Goeden in our Anchorage Division. “He talked openly about some of the homicides, but much of what he said only hinted at the things he had done. So we are trying to get information out there about what he did tell us. We are letting the public know the types of cars he rented, towns he visited, campgrounds he frequented. Anything that might spur someone's memory could help us,” Goeden said.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2013/august/new-information-released-in-serial-killer-case/new-information-released-in-serial-killer-case

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From the Department of Homeland Security

A Major Step Forward in Better Protecting Federal, State and Local Cyber Networks

This week, DHS achieved an important milestone towards better protecting government networks from cyber attacks. The General Services Administration yesterday announced a contract award that will allow government agencies to partner with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to deploy Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) technology that will enhance the security and resilience of their networks – better safeguarding both the sensitive data on those networks and the critical functions they provide to all Americans.

Through the CDM program, DHS works with partners across the entire Federal executive branch civilian government to deploy and maintain an array of sensors for hardware asset management, software asset management and whitelisting, vulnerability management, compliance setting management and feed data about an agency's cybersecurity flaws and present those risks in an automated and continuously-updated dashboard. CDM, which will also be available for state and local entities as well as the defense industrial base sector, provides our stakeholders with the tools they need protect their networks and enhance their ability to see and counteract day-to-day cyber threats.

Whether to receive important health or emergency information or to check on the provision of essential government services, millions of Americans visit government websites every day. While increased connectivity has transformed and improved access to government, it also has increased the importance and complexity of our shared risk. The growing number of cyber attacks on Federal government networks is growing more sophisticated, aggressive, and dynamic.

http://www.dhs.gov/blog/2013/08/13/major-step-forward-better-protecting-federal-state-and-local-cyber-networks

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Aug 14, 2013

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Ohio

Cleveland's 'Terry' case continues to frame the debate on effective community policing

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Good proactive community policing is part instinct, part observation and part luck. That's how the late Tyree Broomfield, the pioneering police chief of Dayton, used to describe it.

But a New York City policy that has long encouraged police officers to routinely stop and frisk people on the street based often on nothing more than a style of dress, or a “furtive” movement, is neither usefully proactive or good policing.

What is a furtive movement anyway? According to New York's stop-and-frisk policy, a suspicious movement can include being fidgety, changing directions, walking in a certain way, grabbing at a pocket or looking over one's shoulder. This sort of police fishing expedition has been credited by some for the reduction in the number of violent crimes in New York since its implementation. But at what cost and what constitutional violations?

Monday, a federal judge ruled that the city's aggressive stop-and-frisk police tactics violated the constitutional rights of minorities and were sorely in need of reforms. Federal Judge Shira A. Scheindlin didn't outright strike down the practice, which is fiercely defended by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

But she did order a federal monitor to oversee police retraining. She also called for other reforms, which she said are needed because a “policy of indirect racial profiling,” has led to the routine stops of “blacks and Hispanics who would not have been stopped if they were white.”

http://www.cleveland.com/morris/index.ssf/2013/08/clevelands_terry_case_continue.html

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Illinois

Chicago: Police Expand West Side Narcotics Initiative to Reduce Violence

CHICAGO – Chicago Police Superintendent Garry F. McCarthy today announced the expansion of the West Side Narcotics Initiative, an anti-violence effort focused on narcotics markets on Chicago's west side, to the 15th District. The West Side Narcotics Initiative was originally launched in March in the City's 11th District with redeployed officers that were part of 200 were moved from administrative jobs to the street. Since it began, the West Side Narcotics Initiative has led to 552 arrests in the 11th District. Additionally, murders are down 40 percent, shootings are down 38 percent, and overall crime is down 30 percent in that district.

“Removing narcotics markets, an economic driver of many West Side gangs, from our communities is an essential part of our strategy to reduce violence and crime in Chicago,” said Superintendent McCarthy. “More work remains to be done, but we are seeing tangible results from this narcotics initiative and expanding it to the Austin area will benefit the community as whole.” Under the plan, recently redeployed officers from the Department's Narcotics Division conduct undercover operations to bust drug dealers in a targeted geographic area, in this case a District.

Following a bust, additional newly reassigned uniformed officers from the Bureau of Patrol then flood the area to prevent an immediate reemergence of drug dealers and gang activity. Wrap around services from other city agencies then engage neighbors and address immediate needs such as broken street lights and overgrown, vacant lots.

This initiative is a piece of the larger comprehensive policing strategy created, built and implemented under Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Superintendent McCarthy. In less than two years the Chicago Police Department has seen a return to community policing; created Chicago's first comprehensive Gang Violence Reduction Initiative; built a meritocracy and depoliticized the Department; instituted CompStat to track the effectiveness of crime prevention efforts; implemented Operation Impact to saturate high crime areas with officers; and developed a closer partnership with the communities and residents officers serve.

http://guardianlv.com/2013/08/chicago-police-expand-west-side-narcotics-initiative-to-reduce-violence/

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New Jersey

Community comes out against crime
Safety, information, and fun were part of this year's event

Crime, like rust, never sleeps.

This is a lesson that Bayonne Police Chief Ralph Scianni conveyed at this year's Night Out Against Crime, on Aug. 6.

Hundreds of kids and their parents enjoyed rides and snacks, while officers from the Bayonne Community Policing Program, the Bayonne Police Explorers Club, and the Hudson County Sheriff's Department issued helpful information about crime prevention.

Other groups such as Women Rising were on hand to give savvy advice about safety and domestic violence.

Margaret Abrams represented two groups, Women Rising, offering information on domestic violence services, and a group called Rider of the Clouds, which educates motorists and others about motorcycles. She founded the group after her son's death in 2012.

“We have just about everything a victim of domestic violence would need to obtain sources to get the help they need,” Abrams said.

http://hudsonreporter.com/view/full_story/23357781/article-Community-comes-out-against-crime-----Safety--information--and-fun-were-part-of-this-year-s-event--?instance=bayonne_top_story

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Aug 13, 2013

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Judge Rules NYPD Stop-and-Frisk Practice Violates Rights

Outside Monitor Is Ordered to Oversee Changes to the Legally Challenged Practice

The New York Police Department violated the Constitution with its practice of stopping and searching people suspected of criminal activity, a federal judge ruled Wednesday in a decision likely to lead police departments across the country to take a close look at their crime-fighting tactics.

Finding that New York City's so-called stop-and-frisk program amounted to "indirect racial profiling" by targeting blacks and Hispanics disproportionate to their populations, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ordered the installation of the department's first-ever independent monitor to oversee changes to its practices. City officials have argued that stop-and-frisk is a key component in their largely successful efforts to fight crime, but opponents have criticized it as a blatant violation of civil rights.

New York City officials immediately criticized the decision. "No federal judge has ever imposed a monitor over a city's police department following a civil trial," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He said the city didn't receive a fair trial, citing comments from the judge that he said "telegraphed her intentions," and he said the city would seek an immediate stay while appealing the decision.

Mr. Bloomberg credited stop-and-frisk with helping drive crime in New York City to record lows. Murders in the city are at levels not seen in more than five decades, for instance. The mayor, who leaves office at year-end after three terms, predicted that should the judge's decision stand, it could reverse those crime reductions "and make our city, and in fact the whole country, a more dangerous place."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324085304579008510786797006.html

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James ‘Whitey' Bulger found guilty of gangland killings

BOSTON — James “Whitey” Bulger, the feared Boston mob boss who became one of the nation's most-wanted fugitives, was convicted Monday in a string of 11 killings and other gangland crimes, many of them committed while he was said to be an FBI informant.

Bulger, 83, stood silently and showed no reaction upon hearing the verdict, which brought to a close a case that not only transfixed the city with its grisly violence but exposed corruption inside the Boston FBI and an overly cozy relationship with its underworld snitches.

Bulger was charged primarily with racketeering, which listed 33 criminal acts — among them, 19 murders that he allegedly helped orchestrate or carried out himself during the 1970s and ‘80s while he led the Winter Hill Gang, Boston's ruthless Irish mob. The racketeering charge also included acts of extortion, conspiracy, money-laundering and drug dealing.

After 4½ days of deliberations, the jury decided he took part in 11 of those murders, along with nearly all the other crimes, as well as a laundry list of other counts, including possession of machine guns.

Bulger could get life in prison at sentencing Nov. 13. But given his age, even a modest term could amount to a life sentence for the slightly stooped, white-bearded Bulger.

http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20130812/james-whitey-bulger-found-guilty-of-gangland-killings

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From the Department of Justice

Attorney General Eric Holder Delivers Remarks at the Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association's House of Delegates

Thank you, Bob Carlson, for those kind words – and for your exemplary service as Chair of the American Bar Association's House of Delegates. It's a pleasure to be with you this morning. And it's a privilege to join so many friends, colleagues, and leaders – including U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California Melinda Haag – here in San Francisco for the ABA's 2013 Annual Meeting.

I'd like to thank your Delegates for all that they've done to bring us together this week – and for their dedication to serving as faithful stewards of the greatest legal system the world has ever known. From its earliest days, our Republic has been bound together by this system, and by the values that define it. These values – equality, opportunity, and justice under law – were first codified in the United States Constitution. And they were renewed and reclaimed – nearly a century later – by this organization's earliest members.

With the founding of the ABA in 1878, America's leading legal minds came together – for the first time – to revolutionize their profession. In the decades that followed, they created new standards for training and professional conduct. And they established the law as a clear and focused vocation at the heart of our country's identity.

Throughout history, Americans of all backgrounds and walks of life have turned to our legal system to settle disputes, but also to hold accountable those who have done wrong – and even to answer fundamental questions about who we are and who we aspire to be. On issues of slavery and segregation; voting and violence; equal rights and equal justice – generations of principled lawyers have engaged directly in the work of building a more perfect Union. Today, under the leadership of my good friend, President Laurel Bellows, this organization is fighting against budget cuts that undermine the ability of our courts to administer justice. You're standing with me – and with my colleagues across the Obama Administration – in calling for Congressional action on common-sense measures to prevent and reduce gun violence. And you're advancing our global fight against the heinous crime of human trafficking.

Aug 12, 2013

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Holder proposes changes in criminal justice system

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder is calling for major changes to the nation's criminal justice system that would scale back the use of harsh prison sentences for certain drug-related crimes, divert people convicted of low-level offenses to drug treatment and community service programs and expand a prison program to allow for release of some elderly, non-violent offenders.

In remarks prepared for delivery Monday to the American Bar Association in San Francisco, Holder said he is mandating a change to Justice Department policy so that low-level, non-violent drug offenders with no ties to large-scale organizations, gangs or cartels won't be charged with offenses that impose mandatory minimum sentences.

Mandatory minimum prison sentences — a product of the government's war on drugs in the 1980s — limit the discretion of judges to impose shorter prison sentences.

Under the altered policy, the attorney general said defendants will instead be charged with offenses for which accompanying sentences "are better suited to their individual conduct, rather than excessive prison terms more appropriate for violent criminals or drug kingpins."

Federal prisons are operating at nearly 40 percent above capacity and hold more than 219,000 inmates — with almost half of them serving time for drug-related crimes and many of them with substance use disorders. In addition, 9 million to 10 million prisoners go through local jails each year. Holder praised state and local law enforcement officials for already instituting some of the types of changes Holder says must be made at the federal level.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Holder-proposes-changes-in-criminal-justice-system-4724613.php

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Nebraska

Editorial

Blend prison alternatives, public safety

Bob Houston, who heads the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, knows the need for prison alternatives better than most.

His inmate population of nearly 4,800 sits above a trigger for federal lawsuits and climbs by about 11 people a month. He's got about 200 inmates he could place in settings that help them better transition back into the state's work force and into life outside prison, but he lacks the right kind of space.

He's heard state senators say the Legislature has neither the will nor the money to build a new, $130 million-to-$150 million prison, with ongoing annual costs of $30 million-plus. And he's engaged in promising talk of prison and sentencing reform.

But he works at the back end of the criminal justice system, with no control over whom he receives or for how long. His department needs the help of the Legislature, the governor and judges to free up space, despite years of state focus on parole.

Fortunately, the people who manage the front end of the justice system appear ready to give this issue the attention it deserves. State Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha, chairman of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee, told The World-Herald that he plans to draft a major proposal on prison and sentencing reform for the next legislative session.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20130811/NEWS08/130819958

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NSA debate: Will reforms ease public concern or compromise safety?

CBS News) Top-secret National Security Agency programs that cull metadata from U.S. citizens to keep tabs on potential terrorist threats in no way violate Americans' privacy, two high-ranking members of the House Intelligence Committee and one former intelligence official agreed Sunday on "Face the Nation." But with details of the programs circulating internationally thanks to Edward Snowden, they all added, reforms may be necessary, if only to placate public perception.

President Obama on Friday announced a series of steps to make NSA programs more transparent, explaining not only how the programs operate but also releasing the Justice Department's legal rationale for the programs. The administration also plans to back various reforms to the programs to strengthen oversight.

"Anyone working in the intelligence arena, including the president, understands this program helps protect us," said Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. "It really might have protected us from the 9/11 attack, because we didn't know that one of the terrorists was in San Diego in the United States. And if we would have known, it might have helped."

Still, Ruppersberger said, the fallout from the programs' revelation suggests some soothing of public opinion might be required: "We in politics have to deal with perception, not just reality," he said. "And we need to do better in educating our public so they are not fearful that we, the government, are violating their privacy - that's very important."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3460_162-57598015/nsa-debate-will-reforms-ease-public-concern-or-compromise-safety/

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