Law Enforcement

Crime alerts for Mar Vista and eight other L.A. neighborhoods
Crime reports are up significantly for the latest week in nine 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. Mar Vista was the most unusual, recording four reports compared with a weekly average of 0.7 over the last three months. Broadway-Manchester topped the list of four neighborhoods with property crime alerts.
Los Angeles Times

Shots hit 2 boys and a man near South L.A. gang fight, police say
Two boys and a man were wounded when a nearby fight between suspected gang members escalated into gunfire at a South Los Angeles park, police said late Thursday. A 12-year-old boy was struck in the hip by a ricochet bullet, an 8-year-old boy was hit in the ankle, and the 25-year-old man was shot in the arm, the Los Angeles Police Department said. According to police, the bullet that struck the 12-year-old did not result in a penetration wound. The shootings were reported around 9 p.m. at South Park at 51st and San Pedro streets.
Los Angeles Times

Second juvenile arrested in fatal freeway shooting
A second male juvenile has been arrested in connection with a fatal car-to-car shooting last month on the 110 Freeway in South Los Angeles, authorities said. The teenager, 17, was taken into custody Thursday morning. He is the second person arrested this week in the July 2 shooting, said LAPD Det. Supervisor Sal LaBarbera with the Criminal Gang Homicide Division. Another 17-year-old was taken into custody Wednesday.
Los Angeles Times

LAPD resources drained by prisoner realignment
When Los Angeles residents need a police officer, they expect and deserve an immediate response. But it is getting harder to deliver on that expectation because LAPD officers are being pulled away from what they were hired to do in order to keep tabs on thousands of felons living in the city after their early release from prison. That used to be - and still should be - the responsibility of state parole officers. The origin of the problem is a U.S. Supreme Court order to reduce the California's prison population by 32,000 by 2013.
LAPPL Blog

Inside one detective's fight against LA's hit-and-run crisis
In the heart of Los Angeles' smoldering, gritty skid row sits the LAPD Central Division. Inside, one man with the weight of a city-wide epidemic on his shoulders waits for the phone to ring -- another call to investigate another killer. Detective Felix Padilla has been working in the LAPD's traffic division for over a decade and focuses on a special breed of killers, ones who don't use a knife or a gun, but a car.
ABC News 20/20

Death of Ogden man under LAPD investigation
Police are investigating the death of a 20-year-old Ogden man who was found at a dump in Los Angeles about two weeks after he went missing in Utah. Ryan Bush was reported missing by his mother, Tina Ross, on April 20, 2013, after she had not heard from him for five days. Officials entered the report into a national database, and soon after, Ogden police received a call from the LAPD. LAPD said that a highly decomposed body was found at a dump just outside of Los Angeles on April 28, and that they had successfully identified that body as Bush's.
KSL Salt Lake City

LAPD safety campaign to continue through Labor Day
Los Angeles police are gearing up for this weekend along with their counterparts around the state and country in an ongoing national "Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over" safety campaign that will continue through Labor Day. "As people get together to celebrate the holiday period, it is important that they remain responsible behind the wheel," said Christopher J. Murphy, director of the California Office of Traffic Safety.
Echo Park - Silver Lake Patch

Bomb scares, accidents snarl Southern California traffic
Thursday was a tough day for Los Angeles-area drivers after an unusual combination of multiple crashes and two bomb scares created traffic nightmares during both morning and afternoon commutes in different parts of the region. "It's definitely busier, and it makes the traffic for drivers a lot more difficult," said Officer Jennifer Cassidy of California Highway Patrol.
Los Angeles Daily News

Vegas police say 'Sovereign Citizen' plot stopped
A sting operation stopped a plot to abduct, torture and kill police officers to bring attention to the antiauthority sovereign citizen movement, Las Vegas police said Thursday. David Allen Brutsche and Devon Campbell Newman were arrested at an apartment a few miles off the Vegas Strip before they could carry out a plan to snatch officers, "put them on trial" and execute them in a vacant house, Las Vegas police Lt. James Seebock said.
Associated Press

Legislation

Non-citizens could be jurors under Calif. bill
California would become the first state to allow non-citizens who are in the country legally to serve as jurors under a bill that cleared the Assembly on Thursday and heads to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk. If signed into law, the legislation would make immigrants who are legal permanent residents eligible for jury duty. It would not change other requirements for jurors, such as being at least 18 years old and having English proficiency. They also must live in the county making the summons.
Associated Press

Prisons

Jerry Brown eyes putting state guards in private prison
Gov. Jerry Brown is negotiating a deal that would staff a private prison in Kern County with state guards and give California its 35th lockup. "It's a win-win," said Joe Baumann, finance director for the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., the state's powerful union for prison guards. Under the arrangement, the state would lease a medium-security prison in California City, in the Mojave Desert, owned by Corrections Corp. of America, and then operate the prison as if it was a state-owned facility.
Los Angeles Times

City Government

Eric Garcetti says new DWP labor pact shifts power to the public
A tentative Los Angeles Department of Water and Power labor deal that holds the line on raises for three years, reduces pensions for new hires and sets a path for changing outdated work rules signals a turning point in labor power at City Hall, Mayor Eric Garcetti said Thursday. "Today the balance of power at the DWP shifts to the people," Garcetti told a packed news conference where he outlined the details of the pact.
Los Angeles Times