Law Enforcement

Teen leaving church killed in Vermont Square hit-and-run
A 16-year-old boy was struck and killed by a car Friday night in a hit-and-run outside a South L.A. church where he had just attended a meeting of a youth group, authorities said. Police were searching Saturday for the driver of the white Nissan Maxima that hit Nathaniel Mota, a teenager whose family had long been active at the church, Iglesia Catolica Santa Cecilia on South Normandie Avenue near West 42nd Street, they said.
Los Angeles Times

23-year-old man stabbed to death in Hollywood
A 23-year-old man was stabbed to death in Hollywood early Sunday morning, police said. Los Angeles police received a call at 2:30 a.m. reporting a fight at Hollywood Boulevard and Whitley Avenue, said Officer Cleon Joseph. When officers arrived, they found a man with stab wounds. The victim was taken to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries, Joseph said. No description of the suspect was given. The motive is unknown.
Los Angeles Times

True life: I'm a part-time ghost hunter
By day, Miguel Lopez is a gang supervisor at the LAPD's Hollenbeck station in Boyle Heights, an Hispanic working-class neighborhood east of downtown By night, he is a ghost hunter, trading in his gun, badge, and baton for night goggles, a camera, a tape recorder, a K2 device that is supposed to light up when there's a change in the electromagnetic field, and a flask of holy water. Lopez, a stocky man with a shaved head and wide grin, says he fell into the role of ghost hunter after he began researching the phenomena on the Internet and talking to community members about their own bizarre encounters.
The Daily Beast

LAPD seeks public's help to find missing man, 64
The Los Angeles Police Department is asking for the public's help in finding a missing 64-year-old man. Thomas Katz was last seen at his home in the 13700 block of Burbank Boulevard in Van Nuys about 8 a.m. on Aug. 30. Authorities said Katz's car was found in Burbank but he hasn't been seen nor heard from since. Katz has white with gray hair and hazel eyes. He is 5-feet, 11-inches tall and weighs about 150 pounds.
CBS LA

Malibu developer wants big changes for LAPD
Steve Soboroff is a man of many hats, and the LA civic and business leader recently took on one more: president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, where he has high hopes of bringing the police department to a new level of excellence. Within minutes of his opening speech at his first Commission meeting on Sept. 9, Soboroff called for the support and implementation of in-car and on-body cameras to further protect both officers and citizens alike.
Malibu Times

Activists and law enforcement square off over gang injunctions
More than 30 years since court injunctions were first imposed in Los Angeles County to radically alter the behavior of gang members, a grass-roots effort is building to challenge the sweeping restrictions as a violation of basic civil liberties. In communities besieged by gang crime, resistance to the civil injunctions rarely surfaced in years past. Police and prosecutors would insist the court orders were necessary to disrupt the
activities of those identified as gang members, and the injunctions were routinely granted by judges for specified areas.
Los Angeles Daily News

More in Oakland relying on private security
Although it looks the part, the Ford Crown Victoria isn't actually a police car, and the man behind the wheel is no cop. He's one of dozens of private security officers hired by residents across Oakland to supplement - if not replace - a depleted, overwhelmed police force. As burglaries, home invasions, carjackings and assaults creep into Oakland neighborhoods less accustomed to crime, residents have built fences, armed alarms and installed security cameras. And now, in greater numbers, they're hiring private security patrols.
San Francisco Chronicle

Legislation

Driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants stir debate
California's move to allow more than a million immigrants who are in this country illegally to receive driver's licenses marks a significant but controversial advance in the long campaign to decriminalize their day-to-day lives. The new bill comes after some of California's top law enforcement officials, including Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck and Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, expressed strong support for the idea.
Los Angeles Times

Limo fire: Safety bills head to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk
It's now up to Gov. Jerry Brown whether new safety legislation prompted by the deadly San Mateo Bridge fire will become law for the 4,200 limousines in California. Both bills, which require regular safety inspections of limos as well as emergency exits and passenger safety briefings, passed Thursday, the end of the Legislature's session in Sacramento. Brown has until Oct. 13 to decide whether the bills become law, and for the moment his office is silent on his intentions.
Inside Bay Area

City Government

L.A. City Attorney Mike Feuer to evaluate volunteer prosecutor program
After a gaffe in a case involving Tom Hanks as a juror, City Attorney Mike Feuer said he plans to reevaluate a program started by his predecessor that uses private attorneys as volunteer prosecutors. In a domestic violence case this week prosecuted by Feuer's office, a defendant who was facing up to a year in jail saw his charges reduced to disturbing the peace with a $150 fine after a volunteer prosecutor spoke to the actor during a break in the case.
Los Angeles Daily News