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January, 2014 - Week 1

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Federal government strengthens checks on mentally ill buying guns

by Sari Horwitz

The Obama administration on Friday announced two executive actions to try to strengthen federal background checks and prevent guns from ending up in the hands of mentally ill people who pose a danger to others.

The Department of Justice proposed a regulation to clarify who is prohibited from possessing a firearm for mental health reasons. Officials believe that will help states determine what information can be shared with the background-check system to keep guns out of the hands of mentally ill people who are considered potentially violent.

In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services is proposing a regulation to loosen legal barriers that may prevent states from submitting information on the mentally ill to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The NICS system is used to check the backgrounds of those who buy guns from a federally licensed gun dealer in order to ensure that they are not legally prohibited from owning a gun.

“The administration's two new executive actions will help ensure that better and more reliable information makes its way into the background check system,” the White House said in a statement. “While the vast majority of Americans who experience a mental illness are not violent, in some cases when persons with a mental illness do not receive the treatment they need, the result can be tragedies such as homicide or suicide.”

In recent years, several mass shootings have been linked to gunmen with a history of mental illness, including 20-year-old Adam Lanza who killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in 2012; and Jared Loughner, who killed six people and injured 13 others, including former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords nearly three years ago in Tucson.

Rep. Ron Barber, D-Ariz., who was shot and injured in Tucson, praised President Barack Obama's actions for “going a long way to make the system better,” but said that congressional action is still needed to prevent felons and certain people with mental illness from getting guns.

“Ultimately, we need legislation to expand the background check system to people who buy guns at gun shows and on the Internet,” said Barber.

National Rifle Association spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said the organization would not comment “until we have a chance to review the actual language of these proposals.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said her department's proposal would modify the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to allow the disclosure of the identities of people prohibited by federal law from possessing a firearm because of mental health reasons.

“Some states are currently under-reporting or not reporting certain information” to the federal background check system, Sebelius said.

The Justice Department said it was clarifying the categories of people who cannot obtain a firearm, including those found incompetent to stand trial or not guilty because of a mental defect

“We are taking an important, commonsense step to clarify the federal firearms regulations, which will strengthen our ability to keep dangerous weapons out of the wrong hands,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement.

http://www.dailynews.com/government-and-politics/20140104/federal-government-strengthens-checks-on-mentally-ill-buying-guns

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Illinois

Detroit police chief James Craig says more citizens should be armed

Detroit's police chief has a solution to help drive down crime in one of the nation's most dangerous cities: arm more citizens.

James Craig made the comments at a police press conference Thursday, when he announced a 7 percent drop in violent crime in 2013, The Detroit News reported. Although urban police typically favor gun control, Craig said his views evolved after working in Los Angeles and Maine, where concealed weapons permits are more easily obtained.

“I changed my orientation real quick,” Craig said. “Maine is one of the safest places in America. Clearly, suspects knew that good Americans were armed.”

Thursday's comments echo statements Craig has made in the past, including those he made last month, when he said responsible citizens who carry concealed pistol licenses “translates into crime reduction.”

However, in the past, Craig has called for a ban on assault weapons, regulating high-capacity magazines, tighter restrictions on internet ammunition sales and more stringent background checks for firearm sales at gun shows, the Detroit News said.

At Thursday's press conference, Craig announced that Detroit's homicide rate last year was 47.5 per 100,000 residents, down from 55 the year before, the Detroit Free Press reported. Authorities added that there were 1,161 non-fatal shootings in the city, an 8 percent drop from 2012, along with decreases in aggravated assaults, robberies, sexual assaults, carjackings, burglaries and stolen vehicles. Larcenies rose, however.

Despite the drop, Detroit still recorded as many homicides as New York City – despite having a population that's less than one-tenth the size of the Big Apple, the Free Press reported.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/01/03/detroit-police-chief-james-craig-says-more-citizens-should-be-armed/

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California

Latest Oakland crime plan panned by some police backers

by Matthew Artz

OAKLAND -- Like many who step into the crossfire of Oakland's public safety debate, noted law enforcement consultant Robert Wasserman quickly became a polarizing figure subjected to hoots and hollers from police critics.

But with the release of his third and final report aimed at fighting crime in California's most violent city, the sharpest critiques are coming from some of the same people who fought to bring him to town.

Without any public announcement, city officials this week released Wasserman's citywide crime reduction plan -- a long-awaited report laying out how everyone in Oakland from the Public Works Department to average citizens can help bring down crime.

The document is the final piece of a $350,000 consulting program. The program included advice from famed police chief Bill Bratton that was geared toward helping Oakland's undermanned police department get a handle on surging crime and restoring public confidence in the department and city leaders.

While many police advocates continue to endorse the overall effort, several panned the final report from Wasserman. They noted that the 35-page document devoted nine pages to listing city services -- including fitness boot camps and boating classes -- but didn't analyze which programs were effective in tackling crime or specify how city services could be better coordinated to help police.

"I'm very disappointed," said Bruce Nye of the citizens group Make Oakland Better Now. "The reason we were supportive is we think the city needs a comprehensive public safety plan, but we got something superficial."

Councilwoman Desley Brooks, who voted against the consulting contract, said Wasserman's report lacked what the City Council had been promised in writing when it approved funding for it: "realistic crime reduction goals that are measurable and involve all relevant city agencies and resources."

"While the report lists the various programs and makes general statements about how everyone needs to be committed and work together to address our public safety issues, it does not provide a critical analysis of existing programs, their efficacy, or their relationship in an overarching crime reduction strategy," Brooks said in an email. "The report states the obvious: good policing and strong community buy-in and partnership will help reduce crime."

Bishop Bob Jackson, who last year urged the City Council to approve the expansion of Wasserman's role over the vocal objections of police critics, said the report recapped some of the city's recent initiatives, but lacked strong recommendations for moving forward.

"I thought we would have something a little more hands on," said Jackson, the leader of Acts Full Gospel Church in East Oakland.

Wasserman was unavailable for comment Thursday and Friday, said his press aide, Jennifer Flagg. Council members contacted this week said they had not yet read the report.

In a prepared statement, City Administrator Deanna Santana said that Wasserman's plan was "more general" because it was the city's job to take his inventory of city services and get community input in determining how they can help reduce crime.

"Mr. Wasserman offers a recipe that ultimately identifies and calls on key groups on many different levels within our city to work together," she said.

Oakland's lack of a citywide crime reduction strategy made headlines in 2012 as homicides, robberies and burglaries jumped for the second consecutive year. The City Council briefly made development of the strategy a prerequisite for funding new police academies. When police leaders said they lacked the staffing to do it themselves, the city turned to Wasserman, who it already had retained to do an assessment of the department.

Wasserman then brought in Bratton to conduct a short-term crime fighting strategy, while he focused on a best practices report that was released last year, and the citywide plan. Bratton's full-throated defense of the controversial Stop-and-Frisk police tactic turned Oakland police critics against the consulting effort, including Wasserman's work.

In his latest report, Wasserman says that Oakland must change a culture in which residents are quick to give opinions but slow to "take personal responsibility to act in coordination with others."

He called on the city to hire a director of community improvement responsible for coordinating crime-reduction strategies among city departments and community groups with an emphasis on quality-of-life issues such as vandalism. The director would be advised by a citizen committee appointed by the mayor.

Wasserman also recommended creating crisis intervention teams to defuse potential disorderly acts, expanding the city's Operation Ceasefire anti-violence program, seeking help from the Environmental Protection Agency to help deal with illegally dumped trash and inviting to Oakland George Kelling, founder of the "Broken Windows" theory of focusing on quality-of-life crimes.

When it comes to police staffing, Wasserman recommended two officers per every 1,000 residents, which equals about 800 -- far more than the 624 currently on the force.

Oakland Police Foundation member Geoff Collins said he was expecting more analysis about the number of officers Oakland needs and the programs that can help bring down crime.

"Anyone can give a list of all the programs and say get involved," he said. "There is no strategy there."

It is still too early to judge the effectiveness of the consulting effort. Bratton's report released in the spring advised the department on how to better analyze crime data, investigate burglaries and robberies and divide the city into police districts.

Although many of Bratton's recommendations were nearly identical to those laid out in a consultant's report six years earlier, the city has credited the move to police districts last June for helping better fight crime. Robberies dropped about 5 percent in the second half of last year compared to the first six months of last year, though major crimes overall were up by nearly the same margin, according to police statistics.

Don Link, a community policing leader in North Oakland, said he has seen crime reduced in his neighborhood and thinks Wasserman's and Bratton's work will help the entire city.

"We've had two guys who have given us a road map ... to be successful and sustain that success," he said. "I don't think I've ever been as optimistic about Oakland effectively addressing crime and violence."

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_24841851/latest-oakland-crime-plan-panned-by-some-police

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Connecticut

2013 New Haven homicides: Most victims young, black

by Rich Scinto

NEW HAVEN >> It was another tough year for the city as 2013 brought 20 homicides and 67 shootings, with victims ranging from 18-year-old high school students to a 55-year-old store clerk.

While 2013 brought three more homicides than 2012, non-fatal shootings and reports of shots fired dropped significantly two years in a row.

There were 133 shootings in the city in 2011, while 2012 saw 91 and 2013 had 67, said Police Chief Dean Esserman. At the same time, police tripled the arrest rate for non-fatal shootings from 2011 to 2013 and the arrest rate for homicides also has increased.

INTERACTIVE: New Haven's 2013 homicide victims

Police say they also have strong leads on several 2013 homicides for which arrests have not yet been made.

“Over the next few months of this year we will be solving more of the homicides from 2013,” Esserman said.

Homicides in 2013

Homicides in the city were spread out in 2013. Not one of the 10 police districts had more than 20 percent of the homicide victims.

“It's not unusual that they are spread out like that,” said Assistant Police Chief Archie Generoso.

Victims of homicide ranged in age from 18 to 55.

Street outreach worker and community activist Doug Bethea said that, in some years, many homicides would happen in a small area over a relatively short period of time. That didn't happen as much last year.

Nine victims were in the 18 to 23 age range; three were 24 to 30 years old; five were in the 31 to 39 range; and three were 40 or older.

Some, though not all, of the older victims had recently finished a prison sentence and were attempting to reintroduce themselves in the community, Generoso said. That sometimes sparks violence.

Bethea said some of the older people who were killed had been out of jail six months or less.

One thing that gives Bethea hope is that there were fewer youth homicides last year than in past years. Street outreach workers aim to steer city youths away from violence and to calm tensions before they boil over.

“I want to save every kid, but that's not going to happen,” he said.

Of the 20 homicide victims in he city in 2013, 18 were males. Seventeen of the victims were black, two were Hispanic and one was white.

Understanding causes of violence

New Haven Project Longevity Coordinator the Rev. William Mathis said he believes the ability of a person to value his or her own life is reflective of how much they value others.

“As a result, if you cannot value your own experience and the possibilities from it, it is very difficult to value someone else, especially if you do not know them or feel no connection to them or believe you have been disrespected by them,” he said.

He also said there is a lack of continuous support within the black community.

“Without the village, they are left to the reality of their means and space that hinders their personal and collective advancement,” Mathis said.

That sense of support from the community is especially important in the face of systemic racism and poor economic conditions, he said.

Those factors, along with vision for the future being destroyed by being stuck in the same situation or by attempting to do the right thing and there being no support offered, plays into much of the violence that plagues the city and other cities around the nation.

“You are not committed to anything or anybody, just surviving and living for the moment,” Mathis said. “No value for your life or anyone else's, no responsibility or accountability from and to community — the village — and, thus, no vision for life getting any better.”

Of the 20 homicides in 2013, 18 victims died from gunshot wounds (often caused by a handgun); one victim was stabbed and one was bludgeoned.

Generoso said the Police Department considers non-fatal shooting statistics to be more reflective of the violence in the city, given that it is a larger sample size. That data shows larger concentrations of violence in certain parts of the city; ages also are skewed toward younger residents.

Eight districts saw a decrease in the number of non-fatal shootings. The Hill North police district, commanded by Lt. Holly Wasilewski, had just one non-fatal shooting and no homicides in 2013. The year before, there were no homicides and seven non-fatal shootings.

Wasilewski credited the federal takedown of the Grape Street Crip gang for the more than 85 percent drop in shootings. She also said her dedicated officers have helped maintain the low level of violence in the district.

The Westville and downtown districts, however, had an increase. Downtown went from no shootings in 2012 to six shooting victims in 2013. All of the shootings and the district's single homicide were club-related. Police believe four of the overall homicides are club-related.

Former Mayor John DeStefano Jr. and new Mayor Toni Harp made a number of proposals to curtail club-related violence.

Solve rates up, overall violence down

Esserman credited a number of factors for the increase in solve rates for homicides and shootings and the reduction in non-fatal shootings. The re-implementation of community policing was one of the largest factors.

“We have a long way to go, but I think we are moving in the right direction,” he said. “I think we are providing the type of police service the citizens of New Haven want and have been asking for.”

The first commitment to community policing came in 1991. Then-Mayor John Daniels hired Chief Nick Pastore to lead the effort and Esserman was brought in as a deputy chief. Harp, then an alderwoman, helped pen the strategy, Esserman said.

The new strategy in 1991 came in a year that saw 34 homicides, something that wouldn't happen again until 2011.

The city was dealing with immense amounts of violence in 2011. Not only were homicide and shooting numbers high, but there were 431 reports of shots fired that year.

“I remember like yesterday what the Board of Aldermen and Mayor DeStefano said,” Esserman said of the time when he was being recruited.

“There was a real sense of fear in the community, fear of violence and a hope that the Police Department could come back to do the community policing we had done in the past,” Esserman said.

The number of reports of shots fired dropped to 280 in 2012 and to 230 for 2013.

In essence, community policing is about building trust between police and the community, one conversation and one person at a time, Esserman said.

“We are a police force that believes in treating each and every citizen with dignity and respect and we look for our officers to be treated with dignity and respect. It goes both ways,” he said. “Partnerships and collaboration take time, it doesn't happen overnight. I think we are all moving in the right direction; we have a long way to go.”

Addressing the violence

Many community members, like Bethea, said they see police are meeting the community at least half-way.

“We are heading in the right direction and doing things other people haven't done,” Bethea said about community and police interaction. “Especially under Esserman.”

Bethea reiterated his belief that even though there is a new police chief and a new mayor, the community has to change to really solve the problem of inner-city violence.

“It's not the leadership that's causing the problem,” he said. “It's the inner-city people that will stop the black-on-black crime.”

Pastor Troy McNulty sees a lot of interaction between police and the community. The pastor of the streets has been to 68 homicide scenes and countless shooting and domestic violence scenes over the past four years on his own time.

McNulty said his main goal is to provide comfort and peace to families that are going through the worst time in their lives after they lose a family member to violence. He also often visits hospitals, funerals or family homes to help people find some sort of comfort in their darkest hours — and continues to do so years later.

He also does a fair bit of proactive work, reaching out to gang members and kids on corners individually and in small groups.

He recalled seeing police on July 3 after Brian Gibson, 23, was shot and killed in the McConaughy Terrace housing complex on South Genesee Street in the middle of the day while kids were playing outside. Officers took their own time to play catch with kids and cook hamburgers with adults to calm their fears that retaliation was going to happen on the street.

“I do see the Police Department trying very hard,” McNulty said.

He said he hopes that his community puts in the same effort to work with police.

It's also become common practice for police to attend wakes and funerals of homicide victims. Esserman, command staff, homicide detectives and victim service coordinator Officer Jillian Knox attended the wake of Javier Martinez, 18, a Common Ground High School student and the city's most recent homicide victim.

McNulty said he encourages people to have the strength and courage to speak up when they know someone has committed violence and to carry that all the way to the courtroom. People have to have the courage to stand up and say something as if a child killed was their own child, he said.

“Every parent I've met is begging the community to bring justice to their child,” he said about the parents of homicide victims.

Until the “no-snitching” policy changes, things will be difficult for the community, McNulty said. There are systemic problems, but the community has to also look inward to solve its problems.

“We'll never have a true sense of community as long as we allow the policy of gangs, of drug dealers to direct our policies,” he said.

Esserman also credited the creation and eventual expansion of the Shooting Task Force with reducing violence and increasing the solve rate for non-fatal shootings. The department's commitment to children already has paid off and will continue to do so for years to come, he said.

“I hope that any police department in America would say to you what we say in New Haven, which is the best way to fight crime is to invest in kids, not arrest them,” Esserman said.

That commitment to children involves a massive expansion of the Police Athletic League, now called PAL-Camp New Haven. The department also has increased the number of school resource officers and partnership in programs such as the Youth and Police Initiative.

Project Longevity — the city, state and federal initiative focused on deterrence strategy to combat gang violence — is another factor in the overall reduction in violence, Esserman said.

Transparency also is important in establishing trust with the community. The department holds a statistics and accountability meeting called CompStat every week, which is attended by alders, law enforcement partners and other members of the community.

It's hard to say which of the initiatives is having the greatest impact, but they are all important, he said.

“We are building and bringing the best of what is new with what we knew worked in the early '90s,” Esserman said.

http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20140104/2013-new-haven-homicides-most-victims-young-black

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California

Deputy misconduct revealed within L.A. County Sheriff's Department

by Christina Villacorte

Deputies accused of rape, smuggling heroin into a lockup, stealing money from a narcotics bust, smuggling undocumented immigrants and even using a Los Angeles Sheriff's Department helicopter for unofficial business.

This was just some of the misconduct investigated — and corroborated — by the Office of Independent Review in a recently issued report.

The OIR, a civilian oversight body created by the county Board of Supervisors, is tasked with making sure the LASD's internal affairs investigations are thorough and effective, and the recommended discipline is fair.

The report, posted on the OIR's website, provided summaries of administrative discipline cases resolved through Sept. 30, 2013.

Because of privacy laws, it does not list the identities of the deputies involved or the dates of the misconduct, some of which may have taken place a few years ago.

Assistant Sheriff Todd Rogers expressed concern about the findings.

“When these matters are brought to our attention, we make every effort to investigate them as promptly as possible and take the most appropriate correction action,” he said in an email Thursday. “This can include retraining, written reprimands, suspensions, demotions, and even discharge.”

Rogers added accountability must be ensured “from the sheriff to the most junior supervisor.”

“All of us have an absolute obligation to conduct ourselves in a manner that is above reproach and demand the same of those who work within our chains of command,” he said. “As supervisors, we must do everything in our power to ensure that our personnel do not engage in conduct that violates the public trust, damages the reputation of the department, or causes irreparable harm to their careers.”

Mike Gennaco, who heads the OIR, said recently enacted reforms at the LASD do not seem to have made a significant dent in the volume of misconduct, except when it comes to excessive use of force in the jails.

“Unfortunately, the cases are probably the same as far as level of egregiousness,” he said in an interview Thursday.

“With regard to jail cases, I know that force is going down, at least in the downtown jails,” he added. “The fact that there are cameras make it easier to decide whether the conduct was in or out of policy.”

Among the most serious cases catalogued by the OIR:

• The District Attorney filed 11 felony counts ranging from bribery to rape against a deputy accused of sexually assaulting a woman during a traffic stop, in exchange for not arresting her for driving on a suspended license, and of making similar offers to other women; • A deputy arrested by Border Patrol was ultimately convicted of felony alien smuggling. He resigned from the LASD while his criminal case was still pending; • An LASD employee pleaded guilty to felony spousal assault and cruelty to a child after assaulting his live-in girlfriend and her children; • A deputy tried to bring heroin into the court lockup and deliver it to an inmate inside a burrito; • A deputy left her gun in a backpack in the backseat of her private vehicle and then offered two youths a ride to their bus stop, one of whom mistakenly took her backpack to school instead of his own; • An LASD employee was suspended after being accused of unauthorized use of helicopter for non-official business flights and falsification of time records; • A sergeant and a station clerk pleaded no contest to grand theft after stealing money from the proceeds of narcotics investigations; • A deputy was arrested and subsequently convicted of kidnapping, falsely imprisoning, and assaulting his ex-girlfriend with a firearm. • A deputy who utilized the closed circuit monitoring system to inappropriately view women at the court house was discharged because of other unrelated misconduct; • A nursing assistant with a history of performance issues failed to provide medication to an entire module; • About a half dozen deputies belonging to a clique — what the American Civil Liberties Union calls a gang — known as the “Jump Out Boys” were discharged. “Elements of this creed, if followed, do not reflect the standards expected of members of the Sheriff's Department and directly contradict our core values,” the OIR said. • A deputy alleged to have had sexual relationships with inmates and prostitutes resigned in lieu of being discharged. • A deputy left a male inmate and a female inmate unsecured in an adjacent courtroom lockup area. They had sex, and the female inmate became pregnant.

http://www.dailynews.com/government-and-politics/20140102/deputy-misconduct-revealed-within-la-county-sheriffs-department

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South Carolina

Accused Murderer Escapes From Mental Health Facility

by ANTHONY CASTELLANO

(Picture on site)

A manhunt is underway in South Carolina for a man accused of killing his mother and stepfather after he escaped from a psychiatric hospital, police said.

Jason Mark Carter, 39, escaped Thursday from a mental health facility in Columbia, S.C., and should be considered dangerous, police said. Authorities are still investigating how Carter escaped but say he may have gotten away in a hospital van. Police said he has family living in North Carolina and he may be headed toward that area.

"We just want Mr. Carter returned to the facility. We don't want anyone hurt," Oconee County sheriff's office spokesman Jimmy Watt said.

Carter has been committed for almost eight years since the death of his mother and stepfather in 2006. During his trial, Carter's defense attorney claimed his client had no memory of committing the crime, and he was ruled incompetent to stand trial.

"I remember the case did receive a good deal of publicity," Watt said.

Officers found the bodies of Kevin and Debra Ann Perkins March 27, 2006, inside a locked room in the basement with Carter inside with the victims, authorities said in a news release.

Carter is 5-feet, 10 inches tall, and weighs 165 pounds, and has hazel eyes and brown hair. He was last seen wearing a black coat with a black and white sweater underneath and brown cargo pants, according to police. He may be traveling in a stolen 1991 White Chevy van with a tag of SG61580 with the number 244 on the bumper, police said.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/accused-murderer-escapes-mental-health-facility/story?id=21407969

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Illinois

Arguments on spying set in Chicago terrorism case

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge preparing for a Chicago terrorism trial is set to hear oral arguments on what, if anything, the government must reveal about its use of expanded surveillance.

Friday's hearing presents a rare chance to hear debate in open court regarding secret U.S. spying programs as revealed by former government contractor Edward Snowden.

Adel Daoud has pleaded not guilty to trying to ignite an inert bomb outside a Chicago bar. The device was given to the Chicago-area teen as part of a 2012 FBI sting. His trial is to start April 7.

Defense lawyers want the government to disclose if it used enhanced surveillance to justify its wider investigation of Daoud. If it did, they want to challenge evidence on grounds it violated Daoud's civil rights against unreasonable searches.

http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Arguments-on-spying-set-in-Chicago-terrorism-case-5110341.php

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NSA 'developing code-cracking quantum computer'

The US National Security Agency is building a quantum computer to break the encryption that keeps messages secure, reports the Washington Post.

The NSA project came to light in documents passed to the newspaper by whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

The spying agency hopes to harness the special qualities of quantum computers to speed up its code-cracking efforts.

The NSA is believed to have spent about $80m (£49m) on the project but it has yet to produce a working machine.

If the NSA managed to develop a working quantum computer it would be put to work breaking encryption systems used online and by foreign governments to keep official messages secure, suggest the documents excerpted in the Post.

The quantum computer is being developed under a research programme called Penetrating Hard Targets and is believed to be conducted out of a lab in Maryland.

Processing power

Many research groups around the world are pursuing the goal of creating a working quantum computer but those developed so far have not been able to run the algorithms required to break contemporary encryption systems.

Current computers attempt to crack encryption via many different means but they are limited to generating possible keys to unscramble data one at a time. Using big computers can speed this up but the huge numbers used as keys to lock away data limits the usefulness of this approach.

By contrast, quantum computers exploit properties of matter that, under certain conditions, mean the machine can carry out lots and lots of calculations simultaneously. This makes it practical to try all the possible keys protecting a particular message or stream of data.

The hard part of creating a working quantum computer is keeping enough of its constituent computational elements, called qubits, stable so they can interact and be put to useful work.

The NSA is not believed to have made significant breakthroughs in its work that would put it ahead of research efforts elsewhere in the US and Europe. However, the documents passed to the Post by Edward Snowden suggest the agency's researchers are having some success developing the basic building blocks for the machine.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25588605

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California

No green card? No problem -- undocumented immigrant can practice law, court says

by Catherine E. Shoichet and Tom Watkins

Sergio Garcia's parents brought him to the United States from Mexico nearly two decades ago. He's been waiting for a green card ever since.

But there's one thing the undocumented immigrant no longer has to wait for, according to a California Supreme Court ruling on Thursday: his law license.

Garcia can be admitted to California's state bar and legally practice as a lawyer there, the court ruled.

The landmark case quickly caught the eye of activists on both sides of the national immigration debate.

Garcia, 36, says his American dream has finally come true.

"With tears in my eyes I'm happy to report I am being admitted to the bar, thank God!" he said in a Facebook post Thursday after the court's ruling. "This one is for all of you who dare to dream and by doing so change the world! Love you all! History was made today!"

But the case raises many questions, particularly among those who have been critical of Garcia's efforts to practice law.

"How is Garcia supposed to uphold 'the laws of the United States' when he is, by his mere presence in this country, in violation of federal law?" CNN contributor Ruben Navarrette asks in an opinion column he wrote on the case in September. "How does he pledge to show respect for 'the courts of justice' when, for most of his life, he has lived here in defiance of the rule of law? And how can he claim that he won't 'mislead' a judge or judicial officer when living in the United States illegally requires deception on a daily basis?"

California's Supreme Court ruled Thursday that no state law or public policy should stop Garcia or others like him from obtaining a law license in the state.

Immigration officials would be unlikely to pursue sanctions against an undocumented immigrant who had been living in the United States for years, had been educated in this country and whose sole unlawful conduct was his presence in this country, the court said in a unanimous ruling written by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye.

"Under these circumstances, we conclude that the fact that an undocumented immigrant's presence in this country violates federal statutes is not itself a sufficient or persuasive basis for denying undocumented immigrants, as a class, admission to the State Bar," the court ruled.

A lengthy legal battle

Garcia was born in Mexico in 1977 and taken to California by his parents when he was 17 months old, according to court documents.

He remained there until 1986, when he and his parents returned to Mexico. Eight years later, at age 17, Garcia again returned to California with his parents and without documentation, though his father had obtained permanent resident status in the United States.

That year, Garcia's father filed an immigration visa petition on his son's behalf, which federal immigration officials accepted in 1995. But, 19 years later, the visa has not been granted, even though Garcia has lived in the state since 1994.

"Because the current backlog of persons of Mexican origin who are seeking immigrant visas is so large, as of the date of this opinion -- more than 19 years after Garcia's visa petition was filed -- a visa number still has not become available for Garcia," the Supreme Court's ruling said.

The ruling marks the end of a lengthy legal battle for Garcia, who received a law degree from Cal Northern School of Law in 2009.

That year, he passed the California bar exam.

For about two weeks, Garcia was sworn in as an attorney. Then he received a notice from the state bar that his admission was in error.

"It was very, very hard for me to have to tell my family that the celebration we had meant nothing," Garcia told CNN en Español in September. "It killed me inside to tell them that I really wasn't a lawyer."

The matter ended up in the California state court system, and Garcia earned the support of California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who wrote in a 2012 brief: "Admitting Garcia to the bar would be consistent with state and federal policy that encourages immigrants, both documented and undocumented, to contribute to society."

The state bar argued that Garcia had met all of California's requirements for a law license.

"With today's ruling, the California Supreme Court reaffirms the Committee of Bar Examiners' finding as not a political decision but rather one grounded in the law," California State Bar President Luis J. Rodriguez said in a written statement Thursday.

Case could set precedent

Critics have argued that giving Garcia a license wouldn't make sense. How can someone without legal status become licensed as a lawyer, whose job entails upholding the law?

Larry DeSha, former prosecutor for the State Bar of California, said Garcia shouldn't be given his law license because his immigration status would be in violation of a civil immigration statute and could affect his ability to represent his clients.

"In the immigration debate, we must separate the individual from the idea. The individual -- Garcia -- looks like a keeper. The idea -- that one who has lived most of his life outside the law can practice law -- is problematic," Navarrette wrote in his September column.

The executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors tighter immigration restrictions, said the case is part of a troubling trend.

"The ruling that an unlawful immigrant can be admitted to the practice of law in California is the kind of thing that will light up talk-show switchboards, and rightly so. But beyond the Bizarro World nature of the decision is a broader issue," Mark Krikorian wrote in an editorial published on the National Review's website. "This is only the latest in a series of measures by some jurisdictions to normalize illegal immigration."

The Obama administration originally opposed Garcia's admission to the bar, saying that federal law demanded that legislation be enacted granting an undocumented immigrant the right to practice, according to a summary published by lawprofessors.typepad.com.

But the Justice Department backed off in November after California's governor signed a new law that did just that.

The bill, which passed in October and went into effect this week, allows the bar to admit "an applicant who is not lawfully present in the United States (who) has fulfilled the requirements for admission to practice law."

That "greased the skids" in making the court's work easier, said Dan Kowalski, editor of Bender's Immigration Bulletin and himself an immigration attorney.

"I think it's a natural, logical decision," he told CNN in a telephone interview, adding that he expected other states to follow suit.

Víctor Nieblas, an immigration attorney based in Southern California, told CNN in September that the court's decision could affect hundreds of other young professionals in the United States who are seeking a license.

"He's the first, but he's not the only. There are cases going on in New York and Florida," said Rina Gandhi, a third-year law student at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Gandhi, who heads an immigration law and service organization that invited Garcia to speak at her school last year, said the ruling is a positive step.

"I'm glad to see us moving forward in the right direction," she said, adding that the case highlights the problems caused by backlogs in the country's immigration system.

"He does have an immigration application pending," she said. "It's more a result of the broken immigration system that we currently have that he's been waiting 19 years."

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/02/justice/california-immigrant-lawyer/

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Ohio

Akron police clear 95 percent of city's 2013 homicides

by Phil Trexler

Akron police detectives investigated 22 homicides in 2013.

They closed the cases with arrests in 21 of them.

The detective bureau's 95 percent clearance rate for homicide cases is way above the national average.

It's also far better that the 56 percent rate recorded by the bureau in 2012, when just 14 of 25 homicides were solved.

Akron police appear to be bucking the national trend when it comes to solving homicides. Figures collected by the FBI show about 62 percent of homicides are solved nationwide each year. In the early 1960s, the rate was about 90 percent.

Akron Police Chief James Nice cited several reasons for the department's success rate. He mentioned greater involvement by residents, through direct or anonymous tips, coupled with community policing efforts, as a key part of the success.

“The first reason is that we have a great, dedicated and highly experienced detective bureau,” he said. “They have done this for a while and know right out of the gate which direction to go.

“Reason two is that people are coming forward much more than they used to. We have been working on this a great deal and it is working. Almost all of these solved cases required someone in the community to come forward. The tide has turned on this for sure.”

Nice also cited “Operation Cease Fire,” a new program introduced in mid-2013 to Akron by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. The goal of the initiative is to put habitual criminals on notice.

This past summer, police, along with civic and religious leaders, sat down and talked with many of Akron's most notorious street criminals, spelling out the consequences of further misconduct.

“This initiative has got us together sitting down and paying attention to who the violent people are in Akron and talking with them extensively,” Nice said. “Some of the criminals have decided to get out of the game and to cooperate with law enforcement.”

In 2012, Akron police lamented the “no-snitch” culture permeating throughout the city. As a result, fewer people were being held accountable for violent crimes.

The only unsolved homicide is the Feb. 27 shooting death of Monte “Boss” Pitts, 34, who was felled by multiple gunshots on Dover Avenue. Pitts was the city's fourth homicide victim of the year.

Police say Pitts' death ended the homicide investigation into the December 2012 shooting death of Reggie Woodall, 28. Pitts was considered a prime suspect in Woodall's death, police said.

Pitts' family members could not be reached for comment.

The city's homicide rate does not include the death of Taylor Robinson, a 19-year-old resident whose body was found in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in September. She had been missing since May. A cause of death has not been determined, and her remains are being examined by anthropologists due to the rate of decomposition.

In 2011, there were 26 homicides. In 2010, there were 22. There were 20 cases in 2009, 16 in 2008, 23 in 2007, 32 in 2006 and 27 in 2005.

The highest figure in recent years was 40 homicides in 1991. The most-recent low figure was in 2001, when Akron had eight homicides.

One of 2012's most notable unsolved slayings involved the shooting death of 17-year-old Willie Brewer. The teen was killed in broad daylight in a busy section of Copley Road. Yet, police had few leads.

That changed this past fall when police received information on a suspect and arrested a man in connection with Brewer's death.

http://www.ohio.com/news/akron-police-clear-95-percent-of-city-s-2013-homicides-1.456664

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New York

NYPD Commissioner Bratton Eager To Reach Out To Communities On Stop-And-Frisk

New Top Cop Says It's A 2-Way Sreet, Wants His Officers Viewed Better Than They Are

William Bratton officially took the reins of the nation's largest police department on Thursday, becoming the 42nd police commissioner at a time when there is a demand for big change, especially in the area of stop-and-frisk.

Bratton was publicly sworn in by Mayor Bill de Blasio at One Police Plaza. Prior to the ceremony, the band played “My Way,” an appropriate choice considering the man taking the reins.

“I certainly think of myself as a change agent,” said Bratton, who who also served as the department's 38th commissioner under then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani .

Bratton takes over the NYPD with a big burden — keeping crime down and making the department more sensitive to the needs of minority communities, CBS 2 reported.

“What I've said to him is clear and concise: I want him to do what he knows how to do best — to use the best technology and tactics, to focus our efforts on the criminals, on the problem areas, on the hot spots to make our streets and neighborhoods even safer,” de Blasio said.

Bratton is a believer in the “broken windows” theory of policing — that if minor, petty crime is not dealt with, crime will increase, CBS 2's Marcia Kramer reported.

He believes in an ethnically diverse police force representative of the population, maintaining strong community relations, being tough on gangs and has no tolerance for anti-social behavior, Kramer reported.

Joining Bratton is former CBS News senior correspondent John Miller, who will be in charge of a newly developed counterterrorism unit.

“I think what we're seeing is a time when the threat has spread out and it's much more driven, not by al Qaeda's central command, but al Qaeda-ism on the Internet, where that message has gone forth to a wider group,” Miller said.

Bratton's biggest challenge will be to keep crime numbers down while reducing the department's stop-and-frisk program, Kramer reported.

In regard to the controversial policy, the police commissioner emphasized a shared responsibility between police and the community, 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa reported.

“The public have an obligation, working within their communities — with their kids and their families — to help us,” Bratton said. “We will all work hard to identify why is it that so many in this city do not feel good about this department that has done so much to make them safe. What has it been about our activities that have made so many alienated?”

But for Bratton it's also about the cops under his command.

“We really are not celebrating the successes that you have achieved in the way that you should and I want to find out why it's [like] that, because you have accomplished so much,” Bratton said. “The challenge for all of us is to find that disconnection.”

Bratton was also generous in his praise of the man he is succeeding, Ray Kelly, who took over the department right after 9/11.

“Over these 12 years he has committed to keeping this city safe and he has in fact done that. This year, 2013, lowest crime rates ever,” Bratton said. “The effort that has gone into the creation of what is certainly, along with the federal government, the foremost counter terrorism capability in the world has to be acknowledged and applauded. So I do applaud and understand the shoes that I am stepping into.”

Bratton said Kelly opened the department to his transition team and noted the out-going commissioner even left a personal gift on new year's, WCBS 880's Rich Lamb reported.

“Compliments of Ray Kelly was a bottle of champagne with a personal note, happy New Year, good luck, Ray Kelly,” Bratton said.

Bratton called the gift a reflection of the man that Kelly is.

It's still unclear who will serve in the NYPD ‘s top leadership positions. Bratton is reviewing the credentials of some 200 current NYPD administrators and has yet to announce his picks.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/01/02/mayor-bill-de-blasio-swears-in-police-commissioner-bratton/

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California

Victims' families struggle to recover from Christopher Dorner's rampage

by Rebecca Kimitch

Driving down Seven Oaks Road in the San Bernardino Mountains, it's easy to miss the site where one of the most widespread manhunts in the Southland's history came to a violent end last February.

Gone are the ashes and charred furniture. Gone is the half-burned fireplace. Gone is the makeshift flag pole with its flag flying at half-staff.

The land was cleared last month, bulldozers erasing all traces of Christopher Dorner, the former Los Angeles Police Department officer who died in the cabin near Barton Flats on Feb. 12, ending his 10-day killing spree that left four dead, including two police officers.

Likewise, many residents and business owners here say they've moved on from the terror-filled days when Dorner hid out in their mountains, took residents captive, carjacked trucks and shot it out with authorities.

“We've healed,” said Kathy Ludecke, a stylist at Salon St. Moritz in Big Bear Village.

But for the victims, it's another story.

The family and friends of those who died are struggling to make it through their first holidays without their loved ones, and a coming first anniversary of their deaths a few short weeks away.

Victims who survived are trying to make sense of the madness that struck them, and some are still in legal battles over their harrowing experience.

And the law enforcement agencies that massed to capture Dorner are still assessing how they responded.

A region under siege

What ended on Seven Oaks Road started nine days earlier in Irvine.

A young, recently engaged couple was found shot dead in their car, parked in the garage of their luxury condo complex. Police struggled to find a motive in the deaths of Monica Quan, 28, a college basketball coach, and Keith Lawrence, 27, a public safety officer at USC.

Nobody yet suspected Dorner.

But when authorities discovered Dorner's 11,000-word Facebook post vowing revenge for his discharge from the LAPD and listing enemies, they knew they had both a suspect and the potential for more victims.

“I will bring unconventional and asymmetrical warfare to those in LAPD uniform whether on or off duty,” Dorner wrote.

In his manifesto, Dorner, 33, spelled out a lifetime of racial injustices. He blamed dozens of members of the LAPD for his dismissal and he threatened to kill them and their families, along with anyone who got in his way. The list of enemies included Randal Quan, a former LAPD captain who represented Dorner in hearings regarding his 2009 firing and the father of victim Monica Quan.

Police responded in force with a manhunt across the Southland.

Named in the manifesto or not, every officer felt threatened, said Tyler Izen, president of the union that represents LAPD's nearly 10,000 sworn officers.

“You know, there were specific threats, and specific people he had named and so we had them protected. But everybody woke up believing that just by virtue of wearing the uniform, you could be a target. Nobody felt like they weren't a possible target. He had everybody on edge,” Izen said.

Indeed, after Quan, Dorner seemed to target police officers at random.

Early Feb. 7, four days after the young couple was found dead, police say Dorner ambushed Riverside Police Officer Michael Crain and Officer Andrew Tachias while they were sitting at a red light. Dorner drove up next to their vehicle and opened fire. Crain, 34, was killed instantly. Tachias, 27, was seriously injured. Though he is slowly recovering and undergoing medical treatment, Tachias has yet to return to work, said Lt. Guy Toussaint.

Minutes before the ambush of the two officers, Dorner had shot at two LAPD officers on the freeway, grazing one in the head.

The shootings left law enforcement on edge. A few hours after Crain's murder, some began mistaking any pickup truck for Dorner's gray Nissan Titan, with bloody results.

Just after 5 a.m., a team of LAPD officers in the South Bay sprayed bullets at a truck driving without its headlights on a street where one of Dorner's potential targets lived. Inside the truck were a mother and daughter, delivering the morning newspaper. Emma Hernandez, 71, was shot in the back and neck, and her daughter, Margie Carranza, 47, was grazed.

Officers responding to the mother-daughter shooting spotted another Dorner look-alike truck and intentionally crashed into it and opened fire. Inside was David Perdue, a Redondo Beach man picking up a friend for an early morning surf.

Police weren't the only ones making false Dorner sightings. They were everywhere.

In San Diego, Naval Base Point Loma was locked down after a Navy worker said he saw someone who resembled Dorner. In Long Beach, police shut down the 405 Freeway in response to a reported sighting. Black men began wearing T-shirts that read, “I'm not Dorner” and drivers posted stickers on their trucks saying the same.

Finally, on the afternoon of Feb. 7, authorities found Dorner's truck abandoned and burning near Big Bear Lake.

And with that, the massive manhunt moved to the rugged mountains.

Mountain search

The small communities of the area feared for days that they would be among Dorner's victims. Schools were locked down or closed, residents openly carried guns and others locked themselves inside their homes.

“It was pure terror. It was happening in our mountains and as you watch what is happening on TV, on national TV, you know the sheriff here, the rangers here. They are friends. You know their families. This is your community,” Forest Falls resident Michelle Macri said. “The whole mountain was on lockdown.”

Hundreds of officers, deputies and federal agents descended on the area. For five days they searched for Dorner, going door to door, even in near blizzard conditions.

Still, there was no sign of the cop killer. Doubts grew that he was in the area.

Then, on Feb. 12, Jim and Karen Reynolds stopped by one of the vacation condos they own at the foot of Bear Mountain ski area to clean it for the next renters.

Instead, they found Dorner, who tied them up and fled in their SUV. Karen Reynolds managed to free her hands enough to call 9-1-1 on a cell phone.

Officials now believe Dorner may have been in the condo the entire time they were looking for him, right under their noses. The Reynolds' condos are in the middle of a populated area of the mountain and just a few hundred feet from where police had set up their command post.

How did they miss him? San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon stands by the initial search of the neighborhood and condominium complex.

“We tried everything we could to find this guy short of kicking in doors and going into people's residences,” McMahon said. “We went through the same areas over and over again, tagged everything with yellow caution tape. So, from our perspective, could we have caught him earlier? No.”

With the Reynolds' SUV at his disposal, Dorner fled Big Bear.

But he was quickly spotted and pursued by California Fish & Wildlife wardens. In a bid to escape them, Dorner turned onto a side road and crashed the SUV. He then carjacked a truck and took off.

The wildlife officers spotted Dorner again. He shot at them, ditched the truck and ran into the cabin off Seven Oaks Road.

Sheriff's deputies had randomly stopped in front of the same cabin to formulate a game plan, according to McMahon.

But within seconds, Dorner started firing at the officers, he said. Deputies Jeremiah MacKay and Alex Collins didn't even have a chance to draw their weapons before they were hit. MacKay, 35, was killed. Collins survived despite multiple gunshot wounds and returned to work in September.

Officers and deputies surrounded the cabin and fired hot tear gas canisters in an effort to flush Dorner out. The cabin caught fire and as it burned, officers heard a single shot from inside the cabin, authorities said.

In the end, Dorner died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Ten months later

Regina Crain says she isn't mad at Christopher Dorner for killing her husband Michael.

“I can't be mad at the man who did it. He was mentally ill, sick. And he is dead,” she said.

But Regina gets mad, some days. And some days she is sad. And some days she feels a little better.

“It's up and down. People don't tell you that the stages of grief go back and forth, not in a straight line,” she said.

Regina is one of the few of Dorner's victims willing to discuss their loss.

Facing their first holidays without their husbands or sons, daughter or friends, several said they just weren't up for it.

Regina isn't sure how she is going to make it through the holidays. Someone else had to pick out presents for her five-year-old daughter Kaitlyn. And they spent Christmas at Disneyland, far from their past Christmas traditions.

Most residents near the the cabin's charred remnants are glad that the ruins have been removed.

Tourists on their way to Big Bear sometimes stop and take a side trip to the site, said the owners of the nearby The Oaks Restaurant.

It's not something they want to be known for, said Bret Berens, whose family owns the restaurant.

But besides the notoriety, Dorner's rampage hasn't had a long-term impact on the community. Like those in nearby Big Bear, residents and business owners say they don't often think about what happened 10 months ago and almost never talk about it.

“Only when there is a big shooting somewhere else. Then it hits close to home,” Macri said.

Likewise, the LAPD's Izen said rank-and-file officers have largely managed to move beyond the sense of fear that consumed them in February.

What went right, what went wrong

In the month's since the manhunt, law enforcement agencies have been investigating and reviewing Dorner's crimes and their response.

A long-promised independent review by the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Police Foundation is nearing completion, according to the foundation's head, retired Redlands Police Chief Jim Bueermann. The review will focus on lessons learned from the Dorner case.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department completed its internal investigation and turned its findings over to the District Attorney's Office for review. Though the D.A.'s Office could release its findings any day, McMahon said they may not be released to the public, “for tactical reasons.”

McMahon and Capt. Gregg Herbert, who heads the Sheriff's Department's SWAT team, both said that, while there are lessons to be learned, there isn't anything they would have done differently.

One of the biggest challenges, McMahon said, was managing the overwhelming response from law enforcement agencies across the Southland. Finding something for all of them to do became a logistical nightmare.

“We were more than capable of handling the problem that was in front of us. My focus and my lieutenant's focus needed to be on what was in front of us, not the traffic jam behind us,” Herbert said. “It did inhibit movement of our equipment to get to us.”

The Sheriff's Department has yet to address a flaw discovered during the manhunt — using social media to communicate with the public.

“We weren't connected to social media, so the District Attorney's Office was stepping in and trying to assist us on Twitter because we were so overwhelmed with phone calls and media at different scenes,” sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said.

To this day, the agency has yet to set up a Twitter account.

For the LAPD, Dorner's manifesto, filled with allegations of racism and widely available online, sparked questions about how far the department had come in its treatment of black officers, even winning some sympathy for Dorner.

Chief Charlie Beck almost immediately called for a review of Dorner's treatment and firing and determined that his dismissal had been handled appropriately.

Izen, the union president, said he doesn't think anything would have changed Dorner's mindset.

“There aren't going to be other officers who do this. It was an anomaly and I don't think anything anyone could have done would have kept those things from happening. I hope we learned something from it, but I still don't know if we could have done anything different.”

http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20131229/victims-families-struggle-to-recover-from-christopher-dorners-rampage

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Illinois

Chicago police: Crime down 16 percent, homicides down 18 percent

by Jeremy Gorner

Homicides dropped 18 percent in Chicago last year and crime overall was down 16 percent, according to statistics released by the police department this morning.

The decline in homicides was a more modest 5 percent when compared with 2011. The department reported 435 homicides in 2011, 503 in 2012 and 415 in 2013.

Shootings across the city dropped by 24 percent from 2012 and 16 percent from 2011, according to the department's numbers. Sexual assaults were down 6 percent from last year, robberies down 12 percent, serious battery down 16 percent, burglaries down 22 percent, motor vehicle thefts down 23 percent, thefts down 3 percent.

The reductions came at a price: Nearly $100 million in overtime pay, triple what was budgeted for 2013.

In addition to the hefty overtime pay, police officials credit several strategies including greater accountability from commanders and more aggressive attempts to prevent retaliatory shootings. The harsher winter weather, compared with unseasonably warm conditions a year earlier, also likely played a role.

Homicides peaked in Chicago at more than 900 a year in the early to mid-1990s. Violence has since been on a steady decline, a trend also seen across the country.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy has acknowledged that violence remains stubbornly high in Chicago. Despite being the nation's third most populous city, Chicago recorded far more homicides than New York, Los Angeles and every other city in America.

After taking a public relations beating in 2012, when homicides topped 500 for only the second time in a decade, McCarthy moved 200 officers off desk duty in February to bolster roving “saturation teams” aimed at suppressing outbreaks of violence in the most dangerous parts of the city.

McCarthy had disbanded two citywide strike forces in 2012, assigning them to beat patrol, and critics blamed that move for the spike in violence.

Also this year, the superintendent doubled the number of veteran officers working overtime on their days off to 400, a figure that stayed constant until the summer months, typically the most violent of the year. Beginning in the summer, the department winnowed down overtime officers and replaced them with rookie cops working straight time on foot patrol.

An extra 400 cops were assigned to 20 “impact zones” in the most dangerous neighborhoods on the South and West sides. As 2013 progressed, additional rookie cops, fresh out of the academy with just months of field training, augmented the overtime cops by walking beats in the same zones. That strategy allowed other officers working their regular shifts to concentrate on other parts of those neighborhoods that needed attention, police sources have said.

By the end of November, overtime costs totaled about $96 million, triple the $32 million budgeted for 2013 by the city. The city spent $53 million on police overtime in 2012.

McCarthy has said he doesn't expect overtime to eat up as much of the budget in 2014 as more rookies graduate to the street and are assigned to foot patrols in the impact zones. Still, the City Council is setting aside slightly more than $70 million next year for police overtime.

The number of homicides released by the department this morning do not include three killings on city expressways patrolled by state police, or “death investigations” that could later be reclassified as homicides. The official number also doesn't include those killed in police-involved shootings or other homicides the department deemed “justified.”

And in order to meet state and federal guidelines, Chicago police in 2013 implemented a policy of tabulating homicides in the years the victims were injured instead of the years when they died.

During a recent review of homicide victims who died from injuries in previous years, at least seven killings in 2012 and at least four in 2013 were counted in the years the incident occurred. The year 2011 was not included in the review.

A series of high-profile homicides in 2013 made it hard for McCarthy to convince the public that progress was being made. The January slaying of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, about a mile from President Barack Obama's Kenwood home, once again made the city's violence a top story on national news outlets.

Then came the fatal shooting of 6-month-old Jonylah Watkins in March. It happened in one of the least violent months the city had seen in years, but such a young victim again earned Chicago more notoriety.

In September, Chicago violence was in the spotlight once more when 13 people were shot, including a 3-year-old boy, at Cornell Square Park in Back of the Yards.

During a news conference on Monday at a South Loop police station, McCarthy said the 2013 numbers are encouraging.

“We've been stuck at the same murder rate for the past 10 years, and this year, 2013, obviously represents progress,” McCarthy said at the Central District police station. “Now we have to build on that progress and keep it moving forward."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-chicago-police-crime-down-16-percent-homicides-down-18-percent-20140101,0,3868242.story

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Maryland

Looking for ways to shorten response times on Harford's 911 calls

by DAVID ANDERSON

Harford County emergency officials discussing how they can reduce ambulance and fire response times when people dial 911 have come up with a dispatch method designed to get the nearest available equipment to the scene.

Russell Strickland, director of the county's Department of Emergency Services, said he has presented recommendations to leaders of local fire and ambulance companies that call for dispatching equipment from volunteer company that is closest to an emergency and for reducing the time a caller is on with a 911 operator, using what he called the "three questions" method.

The recommendation for dispatching the closest unit could mean a radical change away from a system that historically has divided the county up into fire boxes – or territories – covered by each fire company, with the home company getting first call for anything in its territory.

Strickland discussed the changes being considered during the most recent meeting of the county's Public Safety Commission held Dec. 19 at the Darlington Fire Company. He said he presented the recommendations to the Chief Officers Liaison Committee of the Harford County Volunteer Fire & EMS Association.

"We want to try and lower the time it takes us to say, 'Hello,' and get the information and get the call on the street," Strickland explained regarding his recommendations to speed up the initial dispatch.

"That, theoretically, could take no more than 30 seconds, if on a good day," he said.

Strickland said members of the chief officers group – essentially to the top fire line officers in each independent fire company – endorsed both recommendations.

Regarding dispatching the closest unit to a call, Strickland said dispatchers cannot yet use AVL technology – automatic vehicle locator – and that it could be next fall "before we can do that with our current technology."

"But they will be able to, once they put the call out, look at the map, and then see if there is by chance, a vehicle, an ambulance, a medic unit anywhere near the call and then go ahead and put them on the call as a first responder unit," he said.

Tony Bennett, chairman of the public safety commission, explained later the "three questions" method, which is in use, involves a 911 operator answering the call, the first question, asking the caller what the emergency is and where the caller is.

The basic information is then sent to a dispatcher via computer, while the operator remains on the line with the caller to gather more detailed information about the emergency.

Meanwhile, the dispatcher relays the initial information to a fire or EMS unit, and that first unit is on the road within 30 seconds to a minute and can receive updates while in transit, Bennett said.

The response time issue has come to the forefront in recent years, as the county's population has grown and spread out and fewer men and women are joining what had once been an all-volunteer fire and ambulance service.

The need to have qualified EMS personnel available to promptly handle emergency medical calls, regardless of the location, has been discussed in the past; however, there was no consensus among fire service leaders and county emergency officials – who are responsible for taking and dispatching the calls – how best to improve the existing system.

The county has a hybrid paid ambulance service that in theory supplements the volunteer ambulance crews. The paid service is funded through county government tax revenue and insurance reimbursements, but the service has run into past financial difficulties and there has been no recent move to expand it.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/belair/ph-ag-public-safety-1225-20140102,0,1054077.story

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Looking ahead to 14 ways our world may change in 2014

by Kevin Modesti

On Jan. 1, we like to look ahead to the trends and changes, the events and milestones, the celebrations and personalities, the hopes and fears that will shape the new year. It's only human.

By next year, it may be necessary to add: It's only robot. The expanding role of artificial intelligence is widely predicted to be one of the hot trends of 2014, with robots beginning to move beyond work on industrial assembly lines to service in the office and home. Amazon is getting ready to test the use of drones to deliver products; and the increasing automation of automobile steering and braking systems, combined with Google's work to develop autonomous vehicles, make self-driving cars a possibility for the near future.

From the sounds of it, 2014 may be the last chance to seize the rich human experience of a busy year before the robots horn in.

Here are 14 things to look forward to (in most cases):

1. Tech heads: Sometime this year consumers will be able to purchase Google Glass, the little digital displays worn on the head like spectacles. A unit is expected to cost less than the $1,500 price of the test edition. As robots become more like people, people become more like cyborgs. 2. Election year: Well, aren't they all election years? This one will be highlighted by races for Congress, with Republicans expecting to keep control of the House of Representatives and bid for a majority in the Senate. California's race for governor may not have much drama, assuming Gov. Jerry Brown runs again. 3. Political questions: The election aside, it will be a pivotal year for President Obama and the bitterly divided Congress. The Affordable Care Act will take full effect. Pressure will rise to pass some form of immigration policy reform. 4. Person to watch: Pope Francis' less-formal style and less-judgmental statements earned the new head of the Roman Catholic Church the title of Time magazine's Person of the Year. What will he do for an encore? How will church policy change? 5. Fun and games: It's a big year in sports, with the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Feb. 6-23, and soccer's World Cup in Brazil June 12 to July 13. There have been concerns about Sochi having too little snow on the ground for the Games' signature ski races. Coincidentally, there are concerns about New York having too much snow on the ground when Super Bowl XLVIII is held there Feb. 2. Maybe Sochi and New York should trade events. 6. Economic gains: The Economist magazine forecasts 2.6 percent growth in U.S. gross domestic product in 2014, “a modest economic recovery ... led by a housing rebound, cheaper energy and more competitive manufacturing.” That's faster growth than Western Europe and Japan, but slower than most of the rest of the world. 7. Wait till this year: We printed the same headline last year over an item about the Dodgers and Angels expecting great seasons. Let's keep saying it until the teams get it right. The Dodgers are the Las Vegas bettors' favorites to win the 2014 World Series. 8. This is weird? According to an organization called the Acoustical Society of America, young men in California increasingly use the speech pattern called “uptalk” or “Valley Girl speak,” in which the pitch rises at the end of a statement as if it's a question. A BBC report on the trend includes this not-quite-flattering observation: “People who speak uptalk are often misunderstood to be insecure, shallow or slightly dim, according to the (research) team, who say this was not necessarily the case.” 9. The rising: 1 World Trade Center, the 1,776-foot-tall tower built on the site of the original World Trade Center, is expected to open sometime this year. It will be the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and a symbol of New York's and the United States' response to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. 10. Out of Afghanistan: Remaining U.S. troops are scheduled to be withdrawn from Afghanistan by Dec. 31, 2014, and the public wants them out sooner. A CNN poll this week found 82 percent opposed to the Afghanistan War, more than opposed the Vietnam and Iraq wars while they were going on. 11. Anniversaries: This summer will mark the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I. On happier notes, Feb. 2 will be 100 years since Charlie Chaplin made his film debut in “Making a Living,” and July 11 will be the centennial of Babe Ruth's major-league baseball debut as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. 12. New laws: Among many controversial changes in California, undocumented immigrants may apply for driver's licenses, facing the same residency requirements and tests as other drivers; transgender students may use boys' or girls' restrooms and play on teams corresponding to their gender identities; and motorists must give cyclists at least three feet clearance when passing. Pot proponents and opponents here will keep an eye on Colorado and Washington state, where recreational use of marijuana is newly legal. 13. There's Jimmy: “The Tonight Show” will move back to New York after 42 years in Burbank, at the same time as Jimmy Fallon takes over as host from Jay Leno in late February. This will bring more hand-wringing about the exodus of TV and movie production from Southern California. 14. Screen sequels: Movies scheduled to debut in 2014 include a remake of “Godzilla” and installments in the Captain America, Spider-Man, X-Men, Transformers, “Planet of the Apes” and “The Hobbit” series. Filmgoers may feel as if they're in the Wayback Machine from the Mr. Peabody and Sherman TV cartoons of the 1960s. Especially when the movie “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” hits U.S. screens in March.

Another old favorite being revived: “RoboCop,” in a movie remake. Something for humans and robots to enjoy together.

http://www.dailynews.com/technology/20131231/looking-ahead-to-14-ways-our-world-may-change-in-2014

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California

LAPD statistics show steep drop in San Fernando Valley crime

by Kelly Goff

Crime is down throughout Los Angeles for the 11th straight year, and the numbers show a steep decline in what have long been some of the toughest areas in the San Fernando Valley.

Homicides citywide are at the lowest level since the 1966 — when the city had a fraction of its current population — and in some areas of the valley, the decline is as much as 47 percent compared with the same period in 2012.

Police officials say the improvement is due to a combination of factors: an increase in crime-related data that helps to pinpoint when and where crime is likely to occur, an increase in patrols and outreach efforts and the fruition of years of gang suppression efforts, including seven gang injunctions throughout the area.

“I would attribute it to the overall effort. Not one strategy, but all of the strategies working together,” said Deputy Chief Jorge Villegas, who oversees the eight police stations within the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley Bureau. “Every single day we look at the data from the last 24 hours, 36 hours, last seven days, so we are quickly deploying our resources where they are needed. We're being agile. You combine that with community outreach, Facebook, Twitter, all of the other ways we're getting people involved and it is helping.”

Community outreach includes a three-year long pilot program at Mission division, called Operation Ceasefire, that works with recently paroled gang members to offer connections to job training, tattoo removal and employment placement services.

The San Fernando Valley Coalition on Gangs brings faith-based and other nonprofit leaders into the mix, adding additional resources for at-risk youth and gang members who want to get out.

Eight gang injunctions, which drastically limit members' movements and allow for sweeping arrests, have also given police a more aggressive tactic when the light-handed outreach fails.

According to data accumulated by LAPD for Jan. 1 to Dec. 21, violent crime is down citywide 12 percent compared with the same period in 2012. Property crimes are down 5 percent. In the Valley, violent crime is down 10 percent and property crime is down 3 percent. Every division has shown a marked decline, including the affluent areas that hug Ventura Boulevard.

But the biggest drop was in the traditionally tough Northeast Valley neighborhoods.

Officer Robert Marino, patrol commanding officer for Mission Division, which includes Arleta, Panorama City, Sylmar, North Hills and Mission Hills, points to Blythe Street, a stretch of road a notorious local gang took its moniker from.

“Blythe Street was a problem even a few years ago,” Marino said. “Gang members would put debris in the street, to block officers from getting in there after a crime quickly, to keep people from fleeing the area quickly. There would be trash cans blocking the way. Now, the whole atmosphere has changed. You go by the neighborhood park and there are kids playing, there are kids skateboarding. It has been revitalized.”

In the Mission-patrolled neighborhoods, violent crime is down 11 percent, or about 100 crimes.

In neighboring Foothill Division, which includes La Tuna Canyon, Sunland, Shadow Hills, Lakeview Terrace, Pacoima, Tujunga and Sun Valley, the change has been even more dramatic. The number of homicides has dropped 47 percent, to 10, compared to 2012.

Foothill has spent the last year piloting a predictive policing model that uses hyper-local statistics and computer-driven resource deployment to put officers in areas where crime is most likely to occur.

“We did a study and found out yeah, this is something that can help,” said Capt. Sean Malinowski, who oversees the division. “Every morning and every evening our officers get the data down to 500-foot-by-500-foot square boxes. It puts us in the un-obvious places, and then we combine that with the knowledge that a computer can't give you, and I think it works.”

The program will be rolled out to other areas in the next year, including Devonshire and North Hollywood divisions.

But Malinowksi — the self-described “predictive policing guy” — is quick to note that the numbers can only help to a certain extent.

“The other component of this that I think sometimes gets lost in the technology is the community outreach. I go out to the scene of a gang shooting and one of the first things I do is I call Blinky, who comes out and starts talking to gang members and makes sure that there's no retaliation for the shooting,” he said

Blinky is William “Blinky” Rodriguez, executive director of North Hills nonprofit Communities in Schools, which advocates outreach into the gang communities.

Born and raised in the Northeast Valley, Rodriguez saw the gang violence hit home in 1990, when his 16-year-old son was killed in a drive-by shooting. He has since become a go-between for community members and police.

“Just look at the area from Nordhoff to Roscoe, from the 405 to Woodman,” Rodriguez said. “Even just a few years ago, there was a lot of bad things going on there — from prostitution to drugs to gang violence. People knew that after the sun went down they should be careful.”

But a drive through the area doesn't look the same anymore. Graffiti is at a minimum and there are a lot of people out walking. And that, Rodriguez said, is the result of both policing and resident involvement.

“There are a lot of things going on,” he said. “I think, for one, people have been more responsive in the community. You have a lot of the old homies who now have an interest in stopping the violence for personal reasons. They don't want their kids to get hit by a stray bullet. But, as I've heard a lot of people say, you can't arrest your way out of the problem. So it has to be tied to other services. Then they drink from the well.”

http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20131231/lapd-statistics-show-steep-drop-in-san-fernando-valley-crime

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Court upholds laptop inspections at border

by Ellen Nakashima

A federal judge in New York upheld a government policy that permits officers at U.S. borders to inspect and copy the contents of travelers' laptops and other devices without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.

U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by a university student and a group of criminal defense lawyers and press photographers challenging regulations adopted by the Department of Homeland Security that allow searches of passengers' electronic equipment at the nation's borders, including at airports and on trains.

The plaintiffs, who were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, allege that the policy violates their rights to privacy and free speech.

University student Pascal Abidor had his laptop inspected and taken by Customs and Border Protection officers while he was on an Amtrak train from Montreal to New York in May 2010. It was returned 11 days later. The officers had reasonable suspicion to inspect the laptop, Korman said. Abidor, an Islamic studies scholar and a dual French-American citizen, had images of rallies by militant Islamist groups Hamas and Hezbollah on his laptop.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2013/12/31/25dae296-7261-11e3-8def-a33011492df2_story.html

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‘NSA has carte blanche to hack computers'

The NSA appears to be making its own decisions about how democratic governments should be operating, what policies they follow and in general doesn't trust them to do their jobs, Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group, told RT.

The latest revelations from Edward Snowden, published in Germany's Der Spiegel, show that the NSA is not only listening to people's phone calls and reading their e-mails, but actually has a special unit dedicated to bugging computers even before they get to the stores. Chips are installed in computers to be sold in geographical areas that the NSA deems to be worth spying on, the newspaper reports.

RT: Do the latest NSA revelations mean we can't even trust our own laptops?

Jim Killock: Sometimes it will mean that some people shouldn't trust their laptops, but also governments have to [watch] their own security organizations, and parts of what Der Spiegel's articles described today is how the NSA is hacking the Mexican government in order to find out more about how the Mexicans are dealing with drug issues, and so on. I think it's really quite dangerous and dramatic because the NSA appears to be making its own decisions about how the democratic governments should be operating, their policies and not trusting them to do their job.

RT: Who could be the target of this operation to intercept laptops? Are we talking about foreign governments or individuals as well?

JK: Well, I think if we're talking about altering people's hardware and pre-installing viruses, I imagine that's a fairly small number of devices. But we don't know exactly how this is policed when the courts give individual authorizations or more likely they are giving a general authorization to the NSA to hack the equipment as they like. We need to know a lot about that, because that's how you can control some of that behavior. But what these articles told about really is a whole department extremely well-resourced, employing some dozens of people and going up to hundreds of people in the next year or two to hack networks, individual people's computer equipment and writing viruses like the Stocknet virus, which was used to hack the Iranian government's nuclear facilities but also the Belgium National Telecoms provider in order to obtain information about the European Commission and the European Parliament, we suspect. These are very large operations targeted at individuals, governments and network providers to get all kinds of access to the information.

RT: Bugging personal computers is certainly illegal. So how could the NSA be arguing that it's OK? What could be the possible argument to legitimize this?

JK: I think that's exactly the question we need to hear the answer from the NSA. It is possible sometimes to make an argument that if someone is really a very serious, dangerous criminal, then maybe that person should have his or her computer hacked. But what I think we'll probably find is that this is wider than that, certainly when we talk about governments, it's necessarily wider than that. We'll probably find that the supervision about these choices is not very sophisticated and doesn't deal with individual cases – it is probably a blanket permission. And that's where you get a lot of danger.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

http://rt.com/op-edge/nsa-hacking-individual-computers-008/

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NATION: Law enforcement fatalities dip to lowest level in six decades

Law enforcement officer fatalities dropped for the second year in a row to the lowest level in six decades and the number of officers killed in firearms-related incidents this year was the fewest since the 1800s, according to preliminary data compiled and released Monday in an annual research bulletin published by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

According to the report, 111 federal, state, local, tribal and territorial officers were killed in the line of duty nationwide in 2013.

This was the fewest number of fatalities for the law enforcement profession since 1959 when 110 officers died.

This year's total was eight percent fewer than 2012 when 121 officers made the ultimate sacrifice.

“The only good news is zero deaths, but this very significant drop in law enforcement fatalities the past two years is extremely encouraging,” declared NLEOMF Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Craig W. Floyd.

“Our organization, in partnership with others, is working hard to create a new culture of safety in law enforcement that no longer accepts deaths and injuries as an unavoidable part of the job,” Floyd said. “This year's officer fatality report is strong evidence that this intensified effort to promote law enforcement safety is making a difference.”

The No. 1 cause of officer fatalities in 2013 was traffic-related incidents, which claimed 46 lives, according to the report.

Thirty-three officers were killed in firearms-related incidents this past year, which was a 33 percent drop from 2012 and is the lowest number since 1887 when 27 officers were shot to death, the report showed.

Thirty-two officers died due to other causes in 2013, including 14 who suffered heart attacks while performing their duties.

Just two years ago, officer fatalities spiked to 169, which led to a number of new initiatives aimed at promoting law enforcement safety.

Among them were: an increasing number of agencies requiring officers to wear bullet-resistant vests; the formation of the National Officer Safety and Wellness Group by the U.S. Department of Justice; and the VALOR program launched by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to provide training to help prevent violence against officers and to help officers survive violent encounters when they do occur.

Since 2011, all categories of officer fatalities have dropped by 34 percent and firearms-related deaths have declined by 54 percent.

Key data as of Dec. 29, 2013:

•  Traffic-related incidents declined 4 percent in 2013 (46) compared to 2012 (48). Of these 46 officers, 31 were killed in auto crashes, 11 were struck outside their vehicle, and four were killed in motorcycle crashes. •  Firearms-related fatalities declined by 33 percent in 2013 (33) compared to 2012 (49). Of the 33 officers, seven officers were shot and killed in ambush attacks, six officers were shot and killed while responding to a disturbance call, five officers were killed while conducting an investigative activity, three officers were killed while responding to a domestic disturbance call, three officers were feloniously killed during a traffic stop, three officers were shot and killed while responding to a robbery in progress and three officers were killed while attempting to arrest a suspect. Two officers were inadvertently shot and killed and one officer was killed during a burglary in progress. •  Of the 32 officers who died due to other causes, 18 were caused by job-related illnesses; six officers fell to their death or died as a result of an injury sustained in a fall, two officers drowned while attempting to assist victims during a flash flood, two officers were stabbed to death, one officer was killed in a helicopter crash, one officer was killed in a boat related accident, one officer was killed by an explosive device and an officer was electrocuted. •  During the past year, more officers were killed in Texas (13) than any other state; followed by California (10); Mississippi and New York (7); and Arkansas (6). •  Nine officers killed in 2013 served with federal law enforcement agencies. Nine of the officers who died during the past year served with correctional agencies. Four of the 111 fatalities were female. On average, the officers who died in 2013 were 42 years old and had served for 13 years.

The statistics released by the NLEOMF are based on preliminary data compiled and do not represent a final or complete list of individual officers who will be added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in 2014.

For a complete copy of the preliminary report on 2013 law enforcement fatalities, visit www.LawMemorial.org/ResearchBulletin .

http://www.lakeconews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=34717:nation-law-enforcement-fatalities-dip-to-lowest-level-in-six-decades

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California

Commentary

On the Real and Present Need For a Citizens Public Safety Review Board

by Steve Pleich

Citizen Oversight of Law Enforcement a Must

I have recently begun to read the very excellent treatise by local journalist John Malkin on the need for citizen oversight of law enforcement. But that work was completed in the early 1990s and the more I read John's observations about law enforcement, public safety and the role that citizens can play in both, the more I wondered what relationship that template and those observations had to present day Santa Cruz and to our common interest in the protection of individual rights, efficient community policing and the pursuit of public safety.

In my time as city resident and candidate for public office, I have seen a growing concern for public safety coupled with an expanding public mandate for law enforcement to use whatever means and methods they thought best to insure the safety of our community. Indeed, one does not need to be a social scientist to understand that the dynamic balance between protections of individual liberties and the need for public safety has shifted dramatically over the past few years. Particularly in light of the horrific incidents of violence that visited our city in the recent past, I have watched our elected officials support a marked and noteworthy increase in the number of sworn officers serving in the police department while seeming little concerned about the chilling effect heightened police presence inevitably brings. But it is not the expansion of the police department or the overarching presence of law enforcement in our community that concerns me most. It is the almost complete lack of citizen participation in the development of these policies and the complete absence of civilian oversight of this ever-expanding aspect of our community that occupies my thoughts and prompts these observations.

In his treatise, John rightfully observes that police officer training is almost entirely devoted to intelligence gathering, weapons proficiency and police procedure. They are only tangentially trained in nonviolent conflict resolution and community relations. And here I will say that this is not their fault. The officer on the street is only as good as the training he or she receives and clearly they are not receiving the kind of training and input that would create not only an enlightened police force mindful of individual liberties, but a more efficient one as well.

Every incoming police administration in recent times has called for a policy of community partnership to bridge the perceived divide between law enforcement and the citizenry it is sworn to serve. In point of fact, if this chasm were not real and existing, there would be no need to call attention to it as a matter of departmental policy. But what the department has failed to recognize is that our community also knows a few things about public safety. It knows that law enforcement alone cannot make the community safe. It knows that true public safety can only be developed and sustained in an atmosphere of trust and accountability. It knows that individual liberties are a bedrock value that must be honored and preserved. And it knows that community engagement is the foundation of wise and forward thinking public safety policy. So the question becomes: If we accept these statements as true, how are we to actualize them in ways that best benefit our community? And this brings us full circle to my original question: Do we have a present need for a Citizens Public Safety Review Board?

My answer is “Yes”.

I respectfully suggest the creation of a civilian review board tasked with oversight of our police department. Understand that when I say “oversight” I do not mean control. Such a board would be committed to ensuring that the City of Santa Cruz has a police department that acts with integrity and administers justice fairly and evenhandedly. However, to insure the independence of such a body, the board would directly consult with and advise the police department and would pass along advisory opinions to council for informational purposes only. That is the only way to “depoliticize” the process while creating a clear line of accountability between the community and the police department. This is a bold notion and one that requires the full measure of trust, accountability and community partnership that I have previously alluded to.

As so what form will this new, modern Citizens Public Safety Review Board take? If, as we say, the board is to be composed of citizen representatives charged with the review of police policies and procedures, it cannot, for example, be restricted to consideration of already completed internal police investigations into allegations of police misconduct. A truly reformist board must be given the power to conduct parallel investigations to supplement and inform those conducted by Internal Affairs. Although ultimate decisions would continue to be the province of the department and its chain of command, a civilian review board with independent investigative authority would have the power to make recommendations to the Chief concerning disposition and discipline.

On issues of operational policy and commitment of resources, any such board would need to have direct input to achieve any degree of real effectiveness. The obvious benefit of this input would be that resource allocation and priorities would more accurately reflect the community's concern about how best to police and make safe our city. For example, if the board felt that public safety would best be served by spending more money on gang suppression and less on petty theft investigations, resources could be allocated accordingly. If the board recommended more money be devoted to the investigation of sexual assaults and less to enforcement of downtown behavior ordinances then that too could drive fundamental reallocation of resources. These are matters upon which reasonable minds will surely differ and will ultimately be the product on a long and comprehensive public input and review process. But it is a conversation we must have if a truly effective oversight process is ever to become a functional part of protecting individual liberties while making the community safe as a whole.

Finally, I will say this. I have always found some considerable fault with the idea that “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. And I say this just as the past specter of "Code Blue" may once again be rearing its hateful head. With due respect to Mr. Malkin, what I have observed from his work and the labors of others has certainly informed this process, but cannot in these modern times guide it. I believe we must make our own history and take from it the lessons we learn along the way. It is in that spirit that I offer the concept of a Civilian Public Safety Review Board for the consideration of the community.

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/12/30/18748554.php

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German magazine claims NSA hacking unit uses powerful methods to obtain data

A German magazine, citing internal documents, claims the NSA's hacking unit uses James Bond-style spy gear to obtain data, including intercepting computer deliveries and outfitting them with espionage software.

Der Spiegel's revelations relate to a division of the NSA known as Tailored Access Operations, or TAO, which is painted as an elite team of hackers specializing in stealing data from the toughest of targets.

Citing the internal documents, the magazine said Sunday that TAO's mission was "Getting the ungettable," and quoted an unnamed intelligence official as saying that TAO had gathered "some of the most significant intelligence our country has ever seen."

“During the middle part of the last decade, the special unit succeeded in gaining access to 258 targets in 89 countries -- nearly everywhere in the world,” the report said. “In 2010, it conducted 279 operations worldwide.”

Der Spiegel said TAO had a catalog of high-tech gadgets for particularly hard-to-crack cases, including computer monitor cables specially modified to record what is being typed across the screen, USB sticks secretly fitted with radio transmitters to broadcast stolen data over the airwaves, and fake base stations intended to intercept mobile phone signals on the go.

The NSA doesn't just rely on the Bond-style spy gear, the magazine said. Some of the attacks described by Der Spiegel exploit weaknesses in the architecture of the Internet to deliver malicious software to specific computers. Others take advantage of weaknesses in hardware or software distributed by some of the world's leading information technology companies, including Cisco Systems, Inc. and China's Huawei Technologies Ltd., the magazine reported.

Der Spiegel cited a 2008 mail order catalog-style list of vulnerabilities that NSA spies could exploit from companies such as Irvine, California-based Western Digital Corp. or Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Inc. The magazine said that suggested the agency was "compromising the technology and products of American companies."

Old-fashioned methods get a mention too. Der Spiegel said that if the NSA tracked a target ordering a new computer or other electronic accessories, TAO could tap its allies in the FBI and the CIA, intercept the hardware in transit, and take it to a secret workshop where it could be discretely fitted with espionage software before being sent on its way.

Intercepting computer equipment in such a way is among the NSA's "most productive operations," and has helped harvest intelligence from around the world, one document cited by Der Spiegel stated.

One of the most striking reported revelations concerned the NSA's alleged ability to spy on Microsoft Corp.'s crash reports, familiar to many users of the Windows operating system as the dialogue box which pops up when a game freezes or a Word document dies. The reporting system is intended to help Microsoft engineers improve their products and fix bugs, but Der Spiegel said the NSA was also sifting through the reports to help spies break into machines running Windows. One NSA document cited by the magazine appeared to poke fun at Microsoft's expense, replacing the software giant's standard error report message with the words: "This information may be intercepted by a foreign sigint (signals intelligence) system to gather detailed information and better exploit your machine."

Microsoft did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment, but the company is one of several U.S. firms that have demanded more transparency from the NSA — and worked to bolster their security — in the wake of the revelations of former intelligence worker Edward Snowden, whose disclosures have ignited an international debate over privacy and surveillance.

Der Spiegel did not explicitly say where its cache NSA documents had come from, although the magazine has previously published a series of stories based on documents leaked by Snowden, and one of Snowden's key contacts — American documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras — was listed among the article's six authors.

No one was immediately available at Der Spiegel to clarify to The Associated Press whether Snowden was the source for the latest story.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/30/german-magazine-report-reveals-details-nsa-hacking-unit/

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Georgia

Authorities say policing changes fueled homicide drop

by Bianca Cain Johnson

Richmond County police are crediting an increased community presence with this year's 42 percent drop in homicides compared with last year.

“A homicide is never predictable,” said Rich­mond County sheriff's Lt. Calvin Chew, “but being involved in the community is helping decrease the numbers.”

Chew believes the increased visibility and involvement of community policing has officers diffusing situations that have the potential to escalate into a homicide.

In 2012, the sheriff's office reported 33 homicides. This year, there have been 19 through the weekend, with the latest taking place early Sunday.

Homicide investigator Sgt. William Leisey said the Criminal Investigation Division has noticed that people have changed their attitudes since the sheriff's office began focusing on community policing. As a result of increased visibility and more patrols, investigators are seeing fewer parking lot and street shootouts, he said.

Investigators believe community trust also helps witnesses provide information in open cases.

With Sunday's shooting, only two cases remain unsolved this year, down from four in 2012.

Police have added a new category of justifiable homicides, with one last year and three this year.

Police continue to investigate the death of Yossarian Shon Brooks, 39, who was fatally shot June 11 near his home on Massoit Drive.

“Everything we had on that case, we've looked at so far,” Investigator Chris Lang­ford said.

Whereas some years saw more drug-related crimes, investigators said there have been a high number of family-related slayings this year. Eight victims died as a result of a family-related incident.

Five of the homicides occurred in two separate incidents over the summer.

Retired educators Roose­velt and Edna Jones and their son, Russell Jones, were discovered in a field behind Deer Chase Elementary on May 21. Ryan Jones, 27, is accused of killing his parents and younger brother before taking them to the field, where their bodies were burned.

Two months later, police were investigating what could have been another triple homicide. Police believe Cedric Harris, 31, shot ex-wife April Paulk and her sister and brother-in-law, Lee and Brandi Wilson, at a home on Stanton Court on July 21 before turning the gun on himself. Lee and Bran­di Wilson died, while April Paulk was critically injured.

Police say the most complex case of the year was the Feb. 20 death of 17-month old Kaidence Alexander. Police worked for months interviewing witnesses and speaking with forensics experts, doctors and others to determine the age of the injuries and who was responsible.

In December, police were able to obtain enough evidence to charge the child's uncle, Jerome Hughs, 36.

http://beta.mirror.augusta.com/news/crime-courts/2013-12-29/authorities-say-policing-changes-fueled-homicide-drop

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New Jersey

Atlantic City homicide rate drops to 30-year low

by LYNDA COHEN

Atlantic City has seen homicides drop to a 30-year low in 2013 — a year after a near-record number of killings.

Officials credit several factors for the 83 percent decrease from 18 homicides in 2012 to three, with only three days remaining in 2013. Among those factors are the arrests of members of the city's two allegedly most violent drug gangs, increased partnerships among law-enforcement agencies and grass-roots outreach efforts.

“You can't really point to any one single strategy,” Police Chief Henry White said.

Data show a drop in violence nationwide, but Atlantic City's decrease — including an approximate 35 percent decrease in people wounded by gunfire — has sparked optimism from those leading some of these efforts. They include the Atlantic City-Pleasantville Municipal Planning Board, which joins various entities to address the problems from different angles.

“While no one is ready to raise a ‘Mission Accomplished' banner across Atlantic Avenue, clearly 2013 was a historically safe year in Atlantic City,” said Richard Stockton College's Israel Posner, a member of the board.

Stockton adjunct professor and statistician Anthony Marino, however, said it would take a five-year average to show any “statistical significance” in the numbers.

In fact, the last time Atlantic City had only three homicides in a single year was 1983, a year after a high of 20 killings. In 1984, that number went back up to 16, then halved in 1985 to eight.

“I'm not worried about the statistics,” acting Atlantic County Prosecutor Jim McClain said. “I'm worried about the people the statistics represent.”

And most of those lives will be young lives, he pointed out.

In 2012, just eight of the 18 homicide victims were older than 30. This year, all three of the homicide victims were in their 20s.

The first was Tyquinn James, 25, who was killed Feb. 10. While brothers Malik and Mykal Derry were arrested a day later, it wasn't until March 26 that police said the killing was related to the Stanley Holmes Village-based Dirty Blok gang. Then, in May, 14 members of Dirty Blok's alleged rival gang — Back Maryland's 800 Blok — were arrested.

“We were all fully engaged with both of those investigations,” White said of the Police Department.

The FBI led the first investigation, allowing for more severe federal charges. The second was led by the Atlantic City Task Force, a joint venture that includes city and State Police, sheriff's officers, and members of the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office and state Attorney General's Office.

“Those two arrests confirmed what we've always known,” White said. “It's only a small percentage causing a majority of the crime in these communities.”

Last year was the first time the State Police had departments report their numbers monthly, rather than waiting until the Uniform Crime Report comes out next year. While most of the numbers are incomplete, they do give insight into where each town stands.

Camden — to which Atlantic City has sometimes been negatively compared — saw a near 30 percent decrease in homicides, from 61 to 43, comparing the two years through November.

In that same time, Atlantic City's overall violent crime decreased more than 15 percent, including nearly 75 percent fewer rapes and a drop in all robberies involving a weapon of any type.

The only increase was in simple assaults, which went up more than 68 percent from 707 to 1,191.

“The conclusion is, this is possible. The reduction in violent crime is possible,” McClain said.

But officials agree the work isn't done. By the fall, another gang was allegedly looking to fill the void left by the springtime raids.

In November, nearly two dozen people faced charges associated with Blockstarz, including alleged leader Haneef Molley — who goes by Weezy due to his resemblance to rapper Lil Wayne.

They were associated with the Bloods, and even had members from Camden and Newark coming in to help control the beach blocks of Tennessee, Ocean and North Carolina avenues and St. James Place, targeting the rooming houses in the area along with those seeking help at the John Brooks Recovery Center, Vice Unit Lt. James Sarkos said when announcing the arrests.

“The game you just won doesn't matter anymore,” said Tom Gilbert, a retired State Police lieutenant colonel who is now commander of the city's Tourism District. “What's out there tomorrow?”

The Task Force's efforts go where the information leads them. It could be from a tip picked up by a patrol officer or a vice investigation or something the Intelligence Unit has found, said Lt. David Smith of the State Police, who heads the Task Force.

“We have this opportunity now because we have this lull in crime,” White said. “We don't only need law enforcement but everybody engaged. If we achieve that, everybody has won.”

White also pointed to the ShotSpotter system that alerts police when shots are fired in the city and tip411, which allows people to have text conversations with police while remaining anonymous.

And, when talking about the reduction in lives lost, “you can't leave out the hospital,” White said. “They have saved a lot of lives.”

Marino pointed to a particularly violent week as November turned into December. Four people were shot within that timeframe. None was killed.

“If these guys were better shots, the number of 2013 homicides in (the city) could have more than doubled in just seven days,” he said.

“While victory is not at hand, a long-term strategy that focuses on nurturing a broad coalition of community partners is helping to raise the quality of life for the city's residents and is helping to attract visitors by the millions,” said Posner, executive director of Stockton's Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism.

Community is a part of that. Building on the neighborhood walks started by his predecessor, recently retired Chief Ernest Jubilee, White wants to reinstate community policing. He has said he will give his officers time to work with youth, whether through mentoring programs, youth sports or other programs in the city.

“It's important to get involved in as many aspects of the community as we can, and get to know what the needs and the issues are in the various neighborhoods,” White said.

McClain said he was glad to hear the new chief's plans.

“The walks and the different things in the community shows people that we haven't forgotten about them,” he said. “That generates trust. Trust generates cooperation, which generates more success for law enforcement. It's a positive circle.”

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/crime/homicide-rate-in-atlantic-city-drops-to--year-low/article_619e92bc-7024-11e3-8713-001a4bcf887a.html

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Alabama

Gulf Shores starts first citizen's police academy on Jan. 14

by JOHN MULLEN

GULF SHORES, AL - Apparently Gulf Shores citizens have a healthy interest in their police department and the feeling is pretty much mutual.

As part of a continuing community outreach, the department will have classes for citizens to come in and learn, what, how and why, among other things, the policemen in the town do their jobs.

“I'm happy to announce that Jan. 14 will be the first day of our first annual Citizen's Academy,” Chief Edward Delmore said. “It will run one night a week typically for 11 weeks, typically fro 6-9 p.m. It's for citizens over 21.

“It will showcase our operation and give people a peek behind the curtain.”

The program is similar to other programs fostered by Community Resource officer Josh Coleman like the summer youth academy, Coffee With a Cop, neighborhood watch programs, collecting out of date prescription drugs for disposal, youth Explorer program and the Volunteers in Policing.

Like those programs, the Citizen's academy is starting out fast. All 20 slots are already filled. There is no charge to participate.

The Citizens' Police Academy is designed to provide citizens with an understanding of the police department's operations, a police release state. Students will learn from police department personnel who are experts in the areas of S.W.A.T., K-9, narcotics, major crimes, patrol operations, traffic laws, criminal law, crime scene investigation, and other related fields.

Students will also be scheduled for a ride-along during the academy.

Students will gain an overall knowledge of the Gulf Shores Police Department, how it's organized, how it serves the community and who the people are who respond when citizens call.

Instructors are drawn from all levels of the department. Students will meet the chief of police, patrol lieutenant, patrol officers, detectives, dispatchers, and other department staff. Students are encouraged to ask questions and express their concerns about pertinent issues.

A major goal of the Citizens' Police Academy is to increase understanding between citizens and their police department, and to build a strong relationship for the future good of the community.

Attendees must be 21 and meet a set of qualifying criteria. Any of the requirements may be waived upon review by academy staff or the chief of police.

Students can have no outstanding warrants and no pending criminal cases, mo misdemeanor arrests within three years of application, no prior felony convictions.

And though the class is full, citizens can still apply and be on a waiting list for the next academy.

Interested citizens must complete an online form at gulfshoresal.gov and click the “form center” button on the right side then scroll down to “police.”

After preliminary review to confirm eligibility, an eligibility list will be compiled and students will be assigned to the next available session.

http://www.gulfcoastnewstoday.com/area_news/article_9c12e9b4-7099-11e3-b687-0019bb2963f4.html