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February, 2014 - Week 3

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Opinion

American Flags Not American?

by Aaron Thompson

According to videos taken around the country, many citizens of the Great U.S.A. love to show off their patriotism by way of displaying their national flag. From their porch awnings to the car antenna, American flags ripple in the name of freedom, but could it be that some of these beautiful displays of liberty, are not really American? Some people feel that if an American flag is actually made somewhere else like China, or even made with foreign ink and materials it somehow does not hold the same value as the ones made in the U.S., especially when it comes to the Flags flown on military bases and government buildings such as The Pentagon.

In a new rule made Friday, the Government is not allowing the Department of Defense to further purchase any more of its annual 1200 or so flags it uses for court houses and other government buildings around the nation including the Whitehouse, from companies who either have the flags made outside of the U.S., or use non-American made materials in their production.

The U.S. has already had in place since 1941 something called the Berry Amendment that does not allow the Department of Defense to purchase clothing, food, fabric, tools and others materials from foreign sources. American flags have recently been added to that list. Congressman Mike Thompson (CA) wrote the provision, and has stated that he does not believe U.S. soldiers here, nor abroad should have to serve under a foreign made flag.

Some folks are now questioning their hats, shirts and coffee mugs, wondering if they too should be made in the U.S., since American flags made in China are not considered to be truly American. Others say “good luck,” being that China is full of luck, along with a very large amount of soon to be American house hold products.

Some Americans seem to think much of their money is going to China or Chinese companies due to the amount of “made in china” stickers that are seen. One man told reporters “nearly everything in this country used to be made in the U.S.” He continued saying that in “these days it is a rarity.” However according to researchers between 80 to 90 percent of consumer purchases made in the United States are on products made in America. In 2010 imports from China only added up to roughly 2.5 percent of the U.S. GDP. China is actually becoming one of the fastest growing markets for American exports which increased over 540 percent in the first 11 years of the new millennium. In other words, there may be an increase of “made in the USA” stickers on products in Chinese households in the years to come.

Now the nation will be entering a new world of sorts, where American flags are not Chinese, but made by American Hands right here in the home land. However as of now there are no reports of Chinese flags being made by Americans. Apparently they may share the same personal feelings of pride in their own country's national flag.

http://guardianlv.com/2014/02/american-flags-not-american/

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Texas

Bedford police work to keep residents out of jail, hospital

by Mitch Mitchell

The Star-Telegram is using pseudonyms to identify the mental health patients interviewed for this report.

BEDFORD The first time officer Monique Hall met Amy Cook she was in a hospital bed recovering from an attempted suicide.

Cook spent a combined 35 days in two hospitals before being released.

Soon after, she began meeting with officers from the Bedford Police Department's Repeat Victimization Unit, who worked with Cook and persuaded her to take medications to help control her mental illnesses.

She lost weight, stopped using illegal drugs and alcohol and began sleeping six hours a night. None of that would have happened without the help of Bedford police, Cook said.

“It was not a good thing I did but I'm glad I did it,” Cook said. “If I hadn't done it [the suicide attempt] I'd probably be going back to JPS [hospital] or dead or maybe I would've been sent to Wichita Falls” state mental hospital.

Bedford Police Chief Roger Gibson said he created the unit about three years ago to help break a pattern that was becoming all too familiar in the Northeast Tarrant County suburb. Police were repeatedly arresting the same people for the same problems, Gipson said.

“We had officers who did not have the opportunity to deal with the underlying causes of the issues they were facing,” Gipson said. “We would walk out of these houses having done our job and not having made the situation any better for the next officer who had to come to that house.”

Gibson said he believed that if officers could get mentally ill people and their families to work with them — really sit down and listen and seek out solutions and community resources — they could reduce the number of people they funneled into the Tarrant County jail and area hospitals.

He found three — Cpl. Shane Bean and officers Onay Nunez and Monique Hall — and the unit was born.

The officers, accompanied by mental health professionals, visit residents to make sure they are current with their medications and therapy. They listen to the problems that teens might be having at school, and maybe give a kid a ride to a football game if Mom or Dad is busy.

“It's like community policing on steroids,” said Sgt. Shane Bean, the victimization unit supervisor.

Identifying ‘trigger' dates

Ken Bennett, a liaison officer for Mental Health Mental Retardation of Tarrant County, accompanies officers when they are making house calls on the mentally ill in Bedford and trains officers in crisis intervention and mental health evaluation techniques.

The classes teach officers how to document and categorize symptoms of mental illness, Bennett said.

“We have case after case of people who have talked about trying to shoot officers before who are now welcoming them into their homes,” Bennett said. “The more we show up on scene the better those interactions become. These officers want to know that when these people are released they are stabilized. I think bringing the police in at this level is instrumental in having a good outcome.”

Bean said the numbers showing that the program might be working are slowly starting to materialize.

More than three-quarters of people with mental health issues who were contacted by the unit in 2012 did not have to be contacted by police in 2013, Bean said.

Bean said officers get to know the families so well they can identify “trigger” dates, like the anniversary of the loss of a loved one.

“There was one woman who generated a number of calls and Hall figured out that they were coming every Wednesday,” Bean said. “It turned out Wednesday was her day off.”

‘A friend to my children'

The approach Bedford is taking is also being examined in the mental health community.

Tarrant County MHMR, the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department and Mental Health Connection officials have identified 85 people with diagnoses of mental illness in the past three years who have been arrested more than 14 times, according to a report produced in the spring of 2013.

The intervention techniques being used by Bedford police may have some value in helping that population stay out of jail and the hospital emergency psychiatric unit, said Ramey Heddins, assistant director of MHMR of Tarrant County.

“Anytime you have an officer doing what Bedford is doing you have positive outcomes,” Heddins said. “The goal is to keep them out of the hospital and keep them out of jail and focus on getting them treatment in the community. It's cheaper and they will have better outcomes. Now when the officer comes to the door, it's not like they are coming to get me. They just want to see how I'm doing.”

Phil Floyd said he credits Bedford police — specifically officer Hall — for helping one of his seven children, a 15-year-old by with Asperger's syndrome.

The boy would run away regularly and cause problems with his siblings and other students at school. He had seen psychiatrists who tried different medications, but nothing seemed to work.

Until Hall stepped in.

“The mental health system did not help our situation, but she did, ” Floyd said. “Hall is a friend to my children in an authoritarian position. She's firm when she needs to be and supportive when she needs to be. There's the Hollywood version of what police do and none of them are like officer Hall. Every community needs someone like her on the force.”

http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/02/23/5592085/bedford-police-work-to-keep-residents.html?rh=1

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Obama to award Medal of Honor to two dozen veterans, including 19 discrimination victims

by Scott Wilson

President Obama will correct a historical act of discrimination next month when he awards the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest commendation for combat valor, to a group of Hispanic, Jewish and African-American veterans who were passed over because of their racial or ethnic backgrounds.

The unusual presentation will culminate a 12-year Pentagon review ordered by Congress into past discrimination in the ranks and will hold a particular poignancy when conducted by the nation's first African-American president.

Although the review predates Obama's tenure, he has made addressing discrimination in the military — including ending the ban on gay and lesbian service members — a priority as commander in chief.

With the ornate White House East Room as backdrop, the March 18 ceremony will mark another step to revisit a history of discrimination in the armed forces as the nation's demographics and social values shift rapidly.

The recipients, whom the White House announced Friday afternoon, served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Collectively, their award ceremony will mark the single largest group of Medal of Honor recipients since World War II, when more than two dozen service members were honored in that conflict's last days.

Just three of the 24 veterans who will be honored are still alive. All but five of the soldiers are Hispanic, Jewish or African American, including Melvin Morris, a former Green Beret who was wounded three times on a mid-September day in 1969 recovering the body of his fatally wounded master sergeant from a jungle ambush in the Chi Lang district of South Vietnam.

“I never thought much about it and didn't until recently,” said Morris, 72, who was decorated three times for his service in Vietnam and retired from the Army after 22 years. “But I think that this is something the military always should address because, in almost every process we have, someone is overlooked.”

The unusual historical accounting began in 2002 when Congress, as part of the military spending bill, ordered the Pentagon to look into whether Jewish and Hispanic service members had been passed over unfairly for the nation's highest military honor.

Defense Department officials said there was specific evidence to suggest such discrimination may have existed in the ranks, including instances in which Hispanic and Jewish soldiers apparently changed their names to hide their ethnicity. The congressional order spanned the period from December 1941 through September 2001.

The project was an enormous undertaking that sent military personnel officials searching for lost records and battlefield histories amid the complicated politics surrounding the military's highest honor.

Officials from each service branch focused on service members who had been awarded the second-highest medal for gallantry: the Distinguished Service Cross for the Army, the Air Force Cross for that branch, and the Navy Cross for the Navy and Marine Corps.

Although that narrowed the review, the Army alone identified more than 600 records that needed reassessment. The smaller branches found 275 among them.

“It's hard to be awarded the medal for a single person, and to go back for all those potential candidates, that is a very demanding scope and record-retrieval task,” said a defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to comment on the review. “It was very time-consuming. But we wanted to make sure that, as a process, we did it correctly and that the Medal of Honor process itself was honored.”

Many of the veterans under review had passed away, making interviews impossible. Much of the review relied on existing information and comparisons to Medal of Honor recipients, but even then, there were challenges unforeseen when the project began.

In 1973, a fire tore through the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, destroying as many as 18 million military personnel files. Among those were Army service records from 1912 through 1960, a period that included World War II and Korea. The Air Force lost most of its personnel files from 1947 though 1964.

The disaster forced officials to recreate the military history of scores of potential candidates for the upgraded commendation by interviewing family members, fellow battlefield soldiers, and others.

The reassessment sent a host of candidates through the various service boards that decide on Medal of Honor recipients and then to the Joint Chiefs for approval. Two dozen veterans — all from the Army — emerged as worthy of an upgrade to the Medal of Honor.

They include 17 Hispanic soldiers such as Santiago J. Erevia, a former specialist four who served in Vietnam as a radio telephone operator in Company C, 1st Battalion (Airmobile), 501st Infantry of the 101st Airborne Division. He will receive the Medal of Honor at the March 18 ceremony for “courageous actions” during a search-and-clear mission near Tam Ky, Vietnam.

“We've wondered why he didn't receive it the first time and thought it may have been because of his name,” said Jesse Erevia, 41, his son, who lives in San Antonio, not far from his father.

Erevia said his father had “some issues” with the Vietnam War, mainly concerning its rationale, and has mixed feelings about military honors in general. But the family is eager to attend the White House ceremony next month to see him receive an award they have long felt he deserved.

“He's never let me down,” Erevia, a tamale salesman, said of his father. “His are big shoes to fill.”

The third living veteran is Jose Rodela, a former sergeant first class from Corpus Christi, Tex., who will receive the medal for bravery during fighting in Phuoc Long province, Vietnam, in early September 1969.

The review identified one deceased Jewish veteran, former Pfc. Leonard M. Kravitz, to receive the Medal of Honor.

In early March 1951, Kravitz was serving as an assistant machine gunner with Company M, 5th Infantry Regiment of the 24th Infantry Division. His actions in combat over two days in Yangpyong, Korea, were deemed worthy of the highest honor.

“In this instance, justice was delayed but not denied,” Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said Friday in a statement.

Morris was the only African-American veteran identified as part of the review. The initial congressional order did not include black service members for reassessment, but it was later amended to allow others deserving an upgraded commendation — not just Hispanic or Jewish service members — to receive one.

Of the two dozen soldiers in the White House announcement, five identified themselves on military personnel forms as “Caucasian.” Military officials said their ethnicity or religious affiliation is uncertain, but their battlefield actions were found to deserve the highest honor.

Morris grew up in small-town Oklahoma, the son of a “do-it-all carpenter” and a housemaid. He joined the Army because at the time, he recalled, “it was the prestigious thing to do, and if you got in, you went.”

As part of a Special Forces A Team carrying out search-and-destroy missions with local Montagnard troops, Morris was ambushed on Sept. 17, 1969, on a jungle patrol. His company commander was shot through the mouth and throat, his operations sergeant was severely wounded by a land mine and his master sergeant, Ronald P. Hague, was killed.

“We were a tight crew and we didn't leave anyone behind,” Morris said. He took soldiers to retrieve Hague's body three times before succeeding. He said last rites over his friend and then was shot through the chest, the arm, and the ring finger — tearing it off along with his wedding band.

After recuperating in a stateside hospital, Morris returned to Vietnam for another tour, this time as the recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross. “I never thought about the medal, whether it should have been another higher one,” he said. “I just kept doing what I was doing.”

Morris said he did not consider whether his race played a part in the commendation selection. He was not blind to race; Morris recalled being unable to use the public drinking fountain outside the Southern base where he trained for Special Forces.

“This is wonderful,” he said. “I'm overwhelmed. And there are more out there.”

Morris said he will travel from his Florida home to the White House next month with his three children and his wife of more than five decades, Mary, who gave him the ring that was shot off with his finger that day in Vietnam.

“I haven't worn one since,” he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-to-ward-medal-of-honor-to-19-soldiers-who-were-overlooked-because-of-their-ethnicity/2014/02/21/209594e8-9b10-11e3-975d-107dfef7b668_story.html

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Maryland

Prince George's County police look to Twitter to boost resident relations

While not mandated, officials say district use of social media could aid interaction

by Chase Cook

Prince George's County police district commanders will be hashing out another strategy to increase community connectivity by using Twitter as a tool to communicate with residents and collect criminal information.

County Deputy Chief George Nader said police are being shown the benefits of the social media application as it allows officers to connect directly with residents and to receive and distribute information from them in real-time.

“This police department is heavily ingrained in community policing, and the benefit is developing a relationship with the real live community,” Nader said.

Nader runs his own Twitter account, where he tweets police information and retweets the county's media account. With district commanders using the tools, distributed information will be focused on specific areas of the county, which may have different needs than other areas, Nader said.

Officers can potentially collect real-time information after a crime or distribute information like Crime Solver fliers for those areas, Nader said.

“The intelligence alone you can get from people is excellent,” Nader said. “We feed out information and also can be fed information.”

There are no plans to mandate Twitter use, said Lt. William Alexander, county police spokesman. Alexander often runs the county's media account, @PGPDNews, which distributes information to thousands of followers.

Maj. Raphael Grant, formerly commander of police District IV, said he would use Twitter and email distribution lists as tools to connect with the community. District IV encompasses Oxon Hill, Fort Washington and other south county areas.

Grant was commander for about six months, and he said Twitter, along with email chains, allowed him to spread information quickly to people in his community. Officers can't share critical investigative information on accounts, such as where officers might do a search, but he did say it was a great tool to spread information like suspect photos and information. Grant said he now serves as the regional investigation division commander.

“I used it really as a tool or vehicle to get the community involved,” Grant said. “Things we need to help solve cases. It was kind of a like a community forum. “

Grant said he liked that the police department was attempting to get more localized involvement with Twitter. He said police officers live and breathe off the information they get from the communities, so the more interaction the better.

“You have to be tied into the community,” Grant said. “They live in the community you are protecting. “

http://www.gazette.net/article/20140220/NEWS/140229962/1010/prince-george-x2019-s-county-police-look-to-twitter-to-boost&template=gazette

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Potential LAX bomb threats being watched by Homeland Security

by Brian Sumers

Making a stop at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson downplayed new reports about shoe bomb threats on international flights. He also said Transportation Security Administration screeners at airports likely do not need to be armed.

On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security had warned airlines to be extra vigilant as terrorists might again try to stash explosives in shoes on long-haul flights into the United States. In 2001, Richard Reid tried to ignite an explosive device in his shoe on a flight from Paris to Miami. It failed, and he is now serving a life sentence in federal prison.

“The advisory we issued is the type that we routinely issue in response to the latest intelligence,” Johnson said. “As you know, concerns about shoe bombs have been out there for years. Every once in a while we update our advisories. We monitor our procedures so that we remain vigilant and deal with the various different threats that exist.”

Johnson, formerly the top lawyer at the Department of Defense who took over the nearly 14-year-old TSA in December, said he came to LAX for a routine visit with U.S. Customers and Border Protection and TSA officials. Both departments fall within the purview of the Department of Homeland Security, which also controls the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Immigration and Naturalization Service and other agencies.

In addition to touring the new customs facility at LAX, Johnson said he met with TSA screeners and discussed concerns about their security.

In November, a gunman entered Terminal 3 with an assault rifle and killed TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez. The accused gunman, Paul Ciancia, also wounded three others, including two TSA screeners.

After the shooting, J. David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents TSA agents, said it might make sense to arm some officers.

But Johnson, like TSA Administrator John Pistole, who visited LAX late last month, said arming screeners is probably not a good idea.

“To arm every TSA officer is not necessarily the step we should be taking,” Johnson said. “What we should be doing is ensuring their safety while they ensure the safety of the traveling public in ways that work for them and work for everybody else who comes in and out of this airport every day.

“It is something that is under review, and I'm going to be very interested in the results. I want to make sure we get this right.”

Johnson was short on specifics in his brief meeting with the media at Terminal 5, but he said his behind-the-scenes visit at LAX was a success.

“I wanted to be here to express solidarity with our TSA colleagues who every day are devoted to aviation security and keeping the public safe,” he said.

http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20140220/potential-lax-bomb-threats-being-watched-by-homeland-security

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Maine

The electronic stakeout: Innovative use of GPS technology

In PoliceOne "First Person" essays, PoliceOne Members candidly share their own unique personal insights on issues confronting cops today, as well as opinions, observations, and advice on living life behind the thin blue line

By Joseph K. Loughlin -- PoliceOne Member

More than ever before our police departments and communities are being asked to do more with less — and that's not going to change. The problem is compounded when it comes to proactively neutralizing criminal activity on our streets and in providing safety for our communities — we do so with far less resources.

The reduction in police department personnel across the country is placing tremendous strain on our communities, on police administrators, and especially on the officers out on patrol and investigating crime. New initiatives in technology provide great promise and are showing that the use of advances especially in the area of GPS is now part of the game.

I had the opportunity to observe an outstanding presentation by two motivated officers who were thinking outside of the box. Lieutenant Travis Martinez and Corporal Don Bryson of the Redlands (Calif.) Police Department's community policing program have spearheaded a new approach to modern policing by using GPS engineered technology to capture the bad guys. So far, the program is demonstrating tremendous results by catching criminals during crimes-in-progress.

Targeting Two Criminal Areas

Concerned about an increase in robberies and property crime in their city, Martinez and Bryson obtained several tracking devices through the Internet, which they used in very innovative ways. Their initial efforts targeted two areas of concern — car burglaries and the theft of copper wire, which was becoming a rampant problem in their city.

By legally placing the devices in electrical outlet boxes where copper wire was being removed, or in the back of a computer to be used in a bait car where car burglaries were rampant, they were able to track the stolen goods directly to the perpetrators as the crimes were in progress.

Lieutenant Martinez explained that as officers saw direct results in arrests of in-progress crimes and the recovery of property, they were rejuvenated in their work. They also noticed a precipitous drop in their crime statistics. Catching a criminal during an actual crime is rare and a thrilling event for a police officer. It is by far easier on the officers and dispatchers as it streamlines the work when they are catching people in the act with the goods in-hand.

We all know the deal with stakeouts, the resources required, the cost and manpower and often-poor results. Stakeouts are expensive, manpower-intensive, and show a very low success unless there is specific information. With tangible evidence, the prosecutions of these cases move forward quickly and most arrests are repeat offenders.

Martinez also explained a case of armed robbery in a gas station that was located next to a freeway on/off ramp in the city of Redlands. The GPS device was used with permission of the owner who had been frustrated with various crimes and armed robberies of his business. It was embedded and concealed inside actual currency and then placed inside the cash register. When moved, it activates and links with several components. It immediately alerts the dispatch center as well as officers cell phones through an instant messaging system. One can then observe a location map of the device and suspect moving in real time all through a secure Internet-based system.

Within days, the tracker activated, the location map displayed the live track and a repeat offender was captured with the goods in-hand. This case illustrates a real-time modern, practical and legal use of GPS, smart phones, and smart cops. Police officers here took advantage of newly engineered tools that are truly force multipliers and vessels of change to enhance public safety. They were able to stream a real-time crime in-progress into their communications center, mobile data terminals and smart phones. In the end, there were no high-speed chases, no exchanges of gunfire, no police officers or citizens injured, and a repeat criminal offender was arrested.

Officers had a full recovery of cash, stolen property and a very happy merchant who is a big part of the local community and now a solid police supporter. Martinez related dozens of other success stories including the arrests of many violent offenders. Redlands PD officers are truly changing their community by putting numerous repeat offenders back behind bars and are assisting other police departments in doing the same.

In July of 2013 Redlands PD arrested their 65th career felon by using the technique of electronic stakeout (ESO).

The word has spread quickly and other agencies are now utilizing the same methods and have demonstrated powerful effective new ways to reduce crime in their cities and towns across the country. Lieutenant Martinez is now part of structured training in this application throughout the state of California.

A new mindset has been created on how police can tactically operate in crime-fighting deployments. This impressive outcome was started by creative thinking, dedicated police officers who searched for new ways to fight crime. They have certainly made a difference.

It would do us all well to heed Oliver Wendell Holmes: “A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions”

By identifying emerging technology and utilizing social and electronic media as well, police can now target crime in a cost-effective and resourceful way that creates positive change in their cities and towns. There is also a growing community cooperation that expands, strengthens and develops new partnerships throughout these examples. It clearly improves overall public safety and prevents future crime. Police leaders and our ever-vigilant officers are wise to constantly seek new ways in addressing crime, protect our communities, and create a safe and caring environment for all of our citizenry.

That, after all, is our job.

About the Author
Joseph K. Loughlin is a former Assistant Chief of Police in Portland, Maine, and author of “Finding Amy” You can email him at jloughin85@gmail.com. For more information on the Redlands (Calif.) PD program go to: www.cityofredlands.org/police.

http://www.policeone.com/investigations/articles/6886483-The-electronic-stakeout-Creative-action-in-modern-policing/

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Utah

911 system poses a public safety risk, SL County sheriff says

by Andrew Adams

SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake County sheriff says people are dying because of confusion and problems with the 911 system.

He's calling for a change that would put every agency in the Salt Lake Valley on the same system. At the same time, KSL has obtained the exclusive phone calls the sheriff says prove his point.

In one instance, dispatchers across the valley debated who should send an ambulance.

"I'm just showing this on our screens as Salt Lake City fire. Do you want us to take this?" a male dispatcher asked.

"Oh, hold on," a female dispatcher answered.

A woman who was desperate for help for her ailing husband exclaimed, “Guys. Just come!”

In an entirely different case, a female dispatcher said, "Hey, I don't know if this is you or VECC."

The Salt Lake Valley's three dispatch centers even debated what the call was about.

"I have no idea," the dispatcher said. "I don't know what it is. I'm just looking at the call. That's why I was calling you guys to see if you had it, to see if you knew what it was."

It took three separate calls, spanning 15 minutes, to resolve who would respond to the medical problem.

"The calls have been bungled," said Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder. "I don't recall anything that I've ever seen that has been this disheartening relative to our system."

Winder said troubles grew when Sandy City moved its dispatch services to Salt Lake from Valley Emergency Communications and the neighboring cell towers sent calls from Midvale and other surrounding cities to the wrong dispatch centers. And because Unified and Salt Lake dispatchers and Valley Emergency Communications are on different computer-aided systems, Winder said response times have been slowed to the point where some calls turn into an emergency.

"Why am I sitting here with my loved one who is either suffering or in some instances not breathing, and there's nobody arriving? That's happening," Winder said.

John Inch Morgan, executive director of the Valley Emergency Communications Center, said since the changes went into place, VECC has seen transferred emergency calls grow from roughly between 600 and 700 a month to 2,200 a month.

Despite an offer from Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams to fund a unification of CAD (computer aided dispatch) systems, Winder said city mayors continue to disagree over issues as simple as Apple or Windows computer operating systems.

"What is blocking it? Petty turfism and politics," Winder said.

There is a different view in Sandy.

"We're happy with how things are currently," said Sgt. Jon Arnold of the Sandy City Police Department.

He said communication between dispatch centers is as good as it's ever been.

But on the west side, West Valley City Mayor Ron Bigelow said, "West Valley City supports going to a single CAD system."

However, "It doesn't make any sense to go spend $1 million fixing the problem and then find out it didn't work or we chose the wrong one," he added

He's calling for an independent review to determine the best CAD option.

Meanwhile, Salt Lake City 911 Director Scott Freitag said dispatchers are planning an audit of cell towers and will release the findings to cellphone providers, which ultimately must decide themselves to change the configurations of their own equipment.

Winder said county residents should call for an external audit of the 911 system, the recent changes and difficulties.

"This was ill-conceived and presents an inherent public safety risk," he said.

Freitag said a CAD-to-CAD interface goes into place this weekend that dispatchers expect to alleviate some of the computer transfer issues. Winder said that set-up ultimately requires updating and will cost more money than an across-the-board fix.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=968&sid=28781395&fm=most_popular

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Hate Crime Victimization Statistics Show Rise in Anti-Hispanic Crime

The Bureau of Justice Statistics report on 2012 hate crimes exposes an alarming rise in attacks on a population made up of more than 53 million: Hispanics.

by Abby Haglage

Attacks against the Hispanic community have more than tripled in a year according to an official report released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The Hate Crime Victimizations report, a Census-driven study, shows an alarming rise in violent anti-Hispanic crime from 0.6 per 1,000 persons age 12 or older in 2011, to 2.0 per 1,000 in 2012.

The overall total of nonfatal and property hate crime victimizations for the entire study, 293,800, isn't statistically different to 2004 (the first year for which there is data), however. In other words: the number of hate crimes hasn't changed—the targets have.

Extremism expert Mark Potok, editor in chief of the Intelligence Report , a quarterly journal from the Southern Poverty Law Center, pointed to the Census projection that white people will become a minority in the U.S. by 2043 to explain the shift in motivations. “It looks like what we're seeing is a rise in anti-Latino hate crimes and anti-Muslim hate crimes,” he told The Daily Beast. “And those, I think, are pretty clearly related to the continuing and rising anger over country's demographic changes, the loss of the white majority.”

According to data on Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project from 2013, 51 percent of the 35 million Hispanic adults living in the U.S. are immigrants. While the majority (81 percent) of the Hispanics pooled in the Pew study expressed satisfaction with their current state of living, others live in constant fear of attacks. Stories like the one of a 40-year-old Mexican immigrant on Staten Island, who suffered a broken jaw after a 20-year-old swung a scooter at his head, keep the fear alive.

A plethora of authors and activists have highlighted this disturbing trend. In a scholarly article published in 2011's Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice , three professors analyzed the incidence level of anti-Hispanic crimes in places with higher rates of Hispanic immigration. Their findings support the claim that Hispanic immigration is the leading cause of violence against that population.

With a growing Hispanic population, comes a growing number of hate crimes. This is the first year that ethnicity has surpassed race in the offender bias category (In 2012, 51 percent of victim's reported bias based on ethnicity, 46 percent reported it based on race). Bias based on sexual orientation was the only significant decrease between 2011-2012 (from 19 percent to 13 percent), which some experts attribute to advances made by the LGTB community.

Meagan Wilson, author of the study, said the bias statistics are tricky because victims can cite more than one for a single crime. “It's the victim's perception of bias,” Wilson told The Daily Beast. “So with ethnicity, for example, it means they were targeted because of an ancestral, cultural, social, or national affiliation.” Wilson said that 58 percent of those polled (roughly 92,000 households across the U.S.) reported more than one motivation for the attack. “Those are the two most prevalent categories every year,” Wilson said of ethnicity and race. “They've been very consistent, even though motivations change over time.”

The Bureau of Justice Statistics report of hate crimes in the U.S. in 2012 isn't the only set of data for that time period. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also releases a report —theirs based only on hate crimes that have been reported. Out of the 5,790 single-bias incidents reported in 2012 by the FBI (BJS's total is 50 times that number), only 11.5 percent were motivated by ethnicity/national origin bias.

With the knowledge of how many go unreported, the BJS survey is seen as a more accurate portrayal of hate crime in America. Other notable statistics in the survey range from an increase in the amount of violent hate crimes (90 percent in 2012, up from 78 percent in 2011) and the percentage of hate crimes motivated by religious bias (now up to 28 percent). Overall, an estimated 60 percent of total and violent hate crime victimizations were not reported to police in 2012.

The study, while extensive, is by no means perfect. Potok noted there may be some inaccuracy involved in counting victimizations rather than instances, since one particular crime may have more than one victim. The study takes into account standard error.

Potok, who also covers that subject, supported the importance of the data. “It shows how very few hate crimes are reported to the police at all,” he said. “And the majority of those that are reported are, in fact, miscategorized.”

ADDENDUM:

This study is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and is based on the National Crime Victimization Survey, which was first launched in 2003. Using a nationally represented sampling pool of about 163,000 persons above the age of 12, the study tracks the number of “nonfatal crimes perceived by victims to be motivated by an offender's bias against them.” In the report, hate crimes are specified in alignment with the Hate Crimes Statistics Act, which defines them as “crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/20/hate-crime-victimization-statistics-show-rise-in-anti-hispanic-crime.html

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Maryland

Data breach hits University of Md.

by Patrick Svitek and Nick Anderson

More than 300,000 personal records for faculty, staff and students who have received identification cards at the University of Maryland were comprised in a computer security breach this week, school officials said.

The breach occurred on Tuesday, when an outside source gained access to a secure records database that holds information dating back to 1998. Brian Voss, vice president and chief information officer at U-Md., said officials believe that whoever got into the database duplicated the information, which includes names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and university identification numbers for 309,079 people affiliated with the school on its College Park and Shady Grove campuses.

The hackers did not change anything within the computer system, but Voss said the attackers essentially "made a Xerox of it and took off."

In a letter to the university community, president Wallace D. Loh said university officials are investigating the breach and doing what they can to prevent further intrusions.

Meghan Land, an attorney for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, based in San Diego, said the breach was both large and significant because it included Social Security numbers.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20140220_Data_breach_hits_University_of_Md_.html

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Homeland Security warns airlines of new threat

by Alicia A. Caldwell and Kimberly Dozier

WASHINGTON — The Homeland Security Department has warned airlines that terrorists could try to hide explosives in shoes. It's the second time in less than three weeks that the government has issued a warning about possible attempts to smuggle explosives on a commercial jetliner.

Homeland Security said Wednesday it regularly shares relevant information with domestic and international partners, but it declined to discuss specifics of a warning sent to airlines.

“Our security apparatus includes a number of measures, both seen and unseen, informed by the latest intelligence and as always DHS continues to adjust security measures to fit an ever evolving threat environment,” the department said in a statement.

A U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press that DHS released a notice to airlines reiterating that liquids, shoes and certain cosmetics were of concern, all of which are covered under existing Transportation Security Administration security policies.

The latest warning was focused on flights headed to the United States from abroad.

The official said “something caused DHS concern, but it's a very low threshold to trigger a warning like this.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.

Earlier this month Homeland Security warned airlines with flights to Russia to be on the lookout for explosive devices possibly hidden inside toothpaste. The Transportation Security Administration then banned passengers from bringing any liquids in their carry-on luggage on nonstop flights from the U.S. to Russia. That warning became public just days before the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

It is unclear if the latest warning, first reported Wednesday by NBC News, is related to the earlier threats to Russia-bound flights.

Air passengers in the United States have had to take off their shoes at airport security checkpoints since shortly after Richard Reid tried to ignite explosives hidden in his shoes on a Miami-bound flight in late 2001. Reid pleaded guilty to terrorism charges and is serving a life sentence.

The traveling public has grown increasingly impatient with expanding security checks at airports.

TSA in recent years has changed some security procedures to allow young children and passengers 75 and older to keep their shoes on. The security agency has also launched a fee-based program that allows willing flyers to submit to background checks and avoid having to remove their shoes, jackets and small amounts of liquids packed in carry-on luggage.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/19/homeland-security-warns-airlines-new-threat/

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Homeland Security shelves license-plate tracking plan

WASHINGTON The U.S. Department of Homeland Security shelved a plan to have a vendor build a national license-plate tracking system after criticism from privacy advocates.

A request for quotations, posted online last week by the DHS's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, sought a contractor to create a searchable database of license plates, showing the times and locations when they were spotted by plate-recognition cameras, electronic tag readers and other commercial and law enforcement means.

Some police forces have cameras mounted on patrol cars. Other images may be retrieved from border crossings, interstate highway on-ramps and toll plazas.

Officials said the database was intended to help catch fugitive immigrants living in the United States without legal permission.

But privacy and civil-liberties groups, as well as some lawmakers, responded with alarm to the plan, pointing out the system had the capability to track ordinary citizens under no criminal suspicion, even if that wasn't its stated goal.

ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen defended the system to the Washington Post in a report published online late Tuesday.

She said the database would be used only "in conjunction with ongoing criminal investigations or to locate wanted individuals."

ICE is the government's second largest criminal-investigations agency, after the FBI.

But after an uproar, she announced the U-turn decision by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson late Wednesday.

"The solicitation, which was posted without the awareness of ICE leadership, has been canceled," she said in a statement.

"While we continue to support a range of technologies to help meet our law enforcement mission, this solicitation will be reviewed to ensure the path forward appropriately meets our operational needs," Christensen said.

It was unclear if the proposal was dead or merely withdrawn for revisions.

The Web page that listed the request for quotations was no longer active when United Press International checked late Wednesday.

Lawmakers and privacy advocates said they supported the reversal.

The fact that the request for quotations was posted without ICE leadership knowledge suggested "a serious management problem within this DHS component that currently does not have a director nominated by the president," Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement.

He encouraged agency officials to consult with the department's privacy and civil liberties officers in the future.

American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney Catherine Crump, who had characterized the plan to the Post in Tuesday's story as "yet another example of the government's appetite for tools of mass surveillance," told the newspaper Wednesday shelving of the idea was good news.

But "there are many other law enforcement agencies around the country that are already accessing these vast private databases of plate data," she said.

She urged "a broader conversation about what privacy restrictions should be put in place when the government wishes to access information on Americans' movements that stretches back for years and has the potential to paint a detailed picture of our daily lives."

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2014/02/20/Homeland-Security-shelves-license-plate-tracking-plan/UPI-61301392874200/

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Rhode Island

Plan unveiled for community policing

by Tim Riel

There's an episode of “The Andy Griffith Show” where an overprivileged 19-year-old rips through Mayberry in his convertible, sideswiping a local's vegetable truck causing the produce to spill onto the road.

Sheriff Andy Taylor, with his bumbling deputy Barney Fife by his side, track down the spoiled teen and question him about the hit and run. Following a bribe and threat from the boy, Andy decides to take him into custody until the judge can see him on Monday.

While waiting for the judge, Andy takes the boy fishing with him. The sheriff even has the scofflaw over for Sunday dinner. It's during those instances where Andy imparts his values into the prisoner, who, by the end of the episode, takes responsibility for his actions.

According to Police Chief Ed Mello, officers have two functions: law enforcement and community policing. Andy Taylor was a pro at the latter. While nobody should expect Mello to take a prisoner out of a cell and to the local fishing hole, he has this week unveiled a strategic plan for his department to improve community policing in Jamestown.

Community policing is a philosophy that supports the systematic use of partnerships and problemsolving techniques to proactively address public safety issues such as crime, social disorder and fear of crime, says the U.S. Department of Justice.

Law enforcement is stopping a resident who is speeding and issuing a ticket. Community policing is preparing residents for what to expect if they were to be stopped.

“We need to better develop partnerships with community members,” Mello said. “Some departments pigeonhole it. They assign certain officers. With our plan, it will infuse a philosophy departmentwide. Everybody on the force is responsible.”

Mello's initiative will include regular face-to-face interactions with community organizations, local businesses and schoolchildren. He also expects his officers to be more visible downtown and during community events.

“If the Jamestown band is playing at the PAC, the officer on duty should stop by and say hello,” he said. “Make that personal connection.”

To that end, the department has increased online presence using Facebook and Twitter, and it has also added bios for each officer on its homepage.

Mello's plan includes community training. Sgt. Joel Pinocci will lead a citizens police academy, a six-week course for about 20 residents. The academy will acquaint community members with the duties of their local officers.

“It'll allow residents to meet more individually and get a feel for what we do,” Mello said.

Sgt. Karen Catlow will once again instruct a rape defense course, a highly successful program she taught last year. The department had to turn women away because the course was full.

Another major initiative began 18 months ago, but now Mello is formalizing the plan. His liaison program matches officers with community groups such as the schools, chamber, recreation center and taxpayers association.

Sgt. Keith Woodbine, for example, is paired with the Jamestown Shore Association. He is expected to sit in during its meetings.

“Let's say, for example, they have a concern with a proposed aqua farm,” Mello said. “It's not a police issue, but it gets officers into the community. They report back to me, and I'll see if anything can be done.”

Another example, he says, is if residents at Pemberton Apartments aren't aware of a parking ban. “With an officer dealing with the Housing Authority, they now have someone to reach out to.”

Mello also wants officers to be more informed. When the electronic radar sign was installed near the speed zone on North Road, officers were bombarded with questions. Does it take photos? Will police send me a speeding ticket?

“I don't want residents getting confusing responses from officers,” he said. “If they're hearing questions on the street, I want them to come back to me so I can provide them with data and answers. So the next time officers are asked, they're prepared.”

As for the schools, Mello would like a complete overhaul. He wants the kids to smile when they see officers. When he was police chief of Westerly, Mello says officers had a great relationship with the schools. He wants to improve the bond in Jamestown.

“When I arrived in town, it was a little upsetting,” he said. “There wasn't the same connection. In Westerly, I was going to math week. I was going to reading week.”

Mello says officers even became substitute parents for some children during career day.

“It's an ever-revolving relationship,” he said. “It's a great opportunity, and the kids are the perfect age for us to make a connection.”

To create that bond, Mello wants officers to read to kids at the library. The department will continue participating with Project

Northland to sway teens away from alcohol. He also wants officers to participate in class projects, such as a fingerprint analysis course a science class did last year.

Other initiatives to the strategic plan:

• Supplying residents with car seats. The department gives away free car seats and can install them properly. Mello says it's not safe to swap child safety seats between cars; • Driver education. Officers instruct one course for each session in town, something other communities don't take advantage of; • Alcohol awareness. Officers will conduct training with local restaurants on how to deal with intoxicated customers; • Vacant house checks. Officers will check on homes when the owners are away on vacation; • Traffic stop pamphlet. The leaflet is supposed to reduce anxiety during traffic stops. It will answer FAQ. Can they search my car? Why do I have to keep my hands on the wheel? Should the officers tell me their name? • The department will train officers to specialize in domestic violence, Internet crimes and parking enforcement; • The department will develop a policy so officers can effectively deal with families who have experienced a tragic event; • A leadership council. The department will set up a 10-member council, made up of students and members of organizations like the chamber and senior center. • Expand the call reassurance program. The department will call an elderly person daily, for example, and if the resident doesn't hit the right prompt, an officer is dispatched to the scene. • Continue to distribute free anonymous drug tests, as well as offer the drop-off box in the station for prescription pills.

http://www.jamestownpress.com/news/2014-02-20/Front_Page/Plan_unveiled_for_community_policing.html

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Connecticut

Police and Community Come Together to Solve Gun Violence and Racial Profiling

Black Law Enforcement Officers Hold Community Training Conference in Rocky Hill, CT

The National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers, Inc will hold its 2014 Spring Education and Training Conference at the Sheraton Hartford South Hotel, 100 Capitol Blvd. in Rocky Hill, CT during the weekend of February 28th through March 1st 2014. The general community is invited to attend.

Themed “Solving Gun Violence and Racial Profiling Through Community Policing”, the conference will feature a series of workshops on topics of interest to both law enforcement and community members-at-large, is designed to develop and instill Community Policing as a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies, which support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques, to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime, and assist in the establishment of collaborative partnerships between law enforcement and the individuals and organizations they serve to develop solutions to problems and increase trust in police. Business sessions, which will include the election of new national officers, will be attended by certified delegates from chapter organizations across the northeast region of the United States, however all workshops and training sessions will be open to both local law enforcement and the general public.

Featured speakers will include Chief Dean Esserman of the New Haven Police Department, Chief Ronnell Higgins of the Yale University Police Department, Jiles Ship, past President of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, Lieut. Charles Wilson of the Rhode Island College Police Department, Mildred Grenough, LCSW of the Yale School of Medicine, and representatives of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Workshops begin at 9:00 AM on Friday, February 28, 2014.

Culminating the two-day event will be an Awards Banquet held on Saturday, March 1st beginning at 6:00 PM, honoring law enforcement officers and community members who have served the community through enhancing efforts to bring about safe communities and strengthen bonds with their law enforcement partners.

Conference registrations, which are open to the general public, are $100.00 per person and can be made online at http://conference.nableo.org. Tickets for the dinner affair, which is also open to the general public, are $50.00 per person and can also be purchased online. For further information regarding conference registrations, workshops, the awards dinner, etc., contact Sally Thomason, Conference Chair, at 732-469-2690 or by email at mzst101(at)aol(dot)com.

The National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers, Inc., a 501.c.3 non-profit, is a premier national organization representing the interests and concerns of African American, Latino and other criminal justice practitioners of color serving in law enforcement, corrections, and investigative agencies throughout the United States, and the communities in which they serve.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/02/prweb11596767.htm

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AT&T Got National Security Requests for 35,000 Accounts

by Thomas Gryta

AT&T Inc. received requests on national security grounds for detailed information for at least 35,000 customer accounts in the first six months of 2013, the company disclosed in its first report describing official requests for customer data.

The report follows a recent agreement between the Justice Department and major Internet companies to make public more information about security requests. Under that agreement, telecommunications companies can disclose limited information about the requests but can only enumerate them in blocks of 1,000. Rival Verizon Communications Inc. made a similar disclosure last month.

The requests, which fall under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, are the same type released last summer by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. That set off a national debate about the extent of the NSA's information-gathering tactics and included an order compelling Verizon to turn over "metadata" about where and when its customers were making phone calls.

In the first six months of last year, AT&T said it received fewer than 1,000 requests for detailed information under the federal surveillance act that sought information from at least 35,000 accounts. Those requests, which include such information as location data, are issued through a court order.

The company also received between 2,000 and 2,999 government requests for information about its customers on national security grounds last year. Those so-called national security letters sought access to at least 4,000 customer accounts.

The national security letters are subpoenas from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and have more limited information, such as customer profile information, telephone numbers and call details.

In criminal and civil matters, AT&T said it received 301,816 requests from federal, state and local law enforcement for U.S. customer information in 2013. That compares to 321,545 requests reported by Verizon last month over the same period.

Write to Thomas Gryta at thomas.gryta@wsj.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20140218-710065.html

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Florida

Tweets from the streets: Boynton police officer to live tweet on patrol

Road patrol officer Ron Ryan will begin tweeting Tuesday

by Attiyya Anthony

Thanks to Twitter and a tweeting cop, anyone who follows Boynton Beach police can now ride along on the midnight shift.

Starting Tuesday, Boynton Beach police officer Ron Ryan will live tweet whatever he encounters on his nightly shift. It could be a gun crime, a robbery or a domestic dispute — if Ryan is there, you can be there, too.

Well, virtually there, anyway.

The unusual move of using a working officer to send short messages to those how follow him on the internet is part of Boynton's push to use social media to better connect with residents. Ryan will tweet under the @BBPD username with the department's hashtag #ridewithBBPD.

"[Before] community policing was riding around with your windows down, making sure you get out the car and talking with the community," Ryan said.

Today, community policing means Twitter. And the trend is growing, although experts say Boynton Beach is among the first to have an on-duty officer tweeting as he works.

"Some departments tweet for a number of hours or during tweet-a-thons, but to have an officer on shift tweet is unusual," said Lauri Stevens, a social media strategist based in Massachusetts.

"It's a relationship," she said. "It builds trust and connections within the community, its old-fashioned community policing with a new-age twist."

According to a 2012 study of conducted by Raymond Foster, a law enforcement consultant and retired Los Angeles police lieutenant, of the 923 police department's surveyed 31 percent used Facebook and 8 percent used Twitter.

Foster said that police interest in social media is just a sign of the times.

"People are sitting right next to each other and texting," he said. "There is a whole generation that wants to see things come up on their screen."

That's why Boynton Beach police spokeswoman Stephanie Slater has put effort into building one of the largest police social media presences in the area.

Boynton Beach police ranks second in Palm Beach County with 6,672 Twitter followers after Boca Raton police department's 11,700 followers. Delray Beach has 3,341 followers.

Another thing that sets Boynton Beach police apart from other departments is the way the department uses social media. The department, which has been using social media since 2007, regularly tweets under its own hashtag #ridewithBBPD, Ustream's public meetings and press conferences and warns residents of speed traps and criminal trends through Twitter.

Although officer Ryan is the first Boynton Beach officer to share his shift with residents, he won't be the last, Slater said. She hopes to have an officer live tweeting every day on every shift.

"While I can talk a lot about what the police do, it's a different perspective when an officer is tweeting and responding to a call," Slater said.

Slater said it humanizes the officers and engages the community, which she hopes will contribute to community policing and crime prevention.

But some experts are skeptical.

"If the tweets are about crimes or alerts, well, you might end up increasing the fear of crime," said Tim Goddard, assistant professor of criminal justice at Florida International University. "Then again, if the live tweets are about crimes in progress, departments might find success in apprehending suspects by having more eyes and ears out on the streets."

But unlike the wanted posters of yesteryear, a live tweet can bring legal issues to the police department if the officers aren't properly trained.

"There may be liability issues with tweeting something inappropriate," Stevens said. "A department has to have a good training policy and good governance."

Officer Ryan said that he was trained on how to fit his thoughts into 140-characters and how to keep resident information private. Twitter messages, which go out instantly to those who are "following" someone, can be no longer than 140 characters, but they can include photos.

Former lieutenant Foster thinks that cops should spend more time on the street meeting people and handling crimes instead of having their faces buried in their phones.

"Ninety-percent of human communication is non-verbal — it's eye contact, gestures and scent," Foster said. "There is lots to do, cops should be falling into work, not tweeting about it."

Rosa Chang, instructor of criminal justice at Florida International University, disagrees.

"Mistakenly there is a public image that police officers are always busy chasing after a criminal element," she said. "But the day-to-day for police officer is very monotonous, it's not like TV. I don't think it will take away time from what they're supposed to do."

FOR THE BOX:

To join Boynton Beach Officer Ron Ryan as he live tweets on Tuesday from 5:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m., follow the Boynton Beach police department at @BBPD.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-02-18/news/fl-boynton-beach-police-tweet-patrol-20140218_1_boynton-police-officer-lauri-stevens-bbpd

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California

In wake of police shootings, Anaheim launching citizen review board

by Adolfo Flores

In the wake of two controversial police shootings, Anaheim is launching a pilot citizens review board that would help monitor the city's Police Department.

The nine-member board, appointed by the city manager, will be selected using a lottery system with representatives coming from four neighborhood council areas.

The panel will provide recommendations to city officials, issue annual reports and conduct community outreach, according to the staff report.

City Manager Marcie Edwards said she expects to have board members in place by summer -- two years after residents took to the streets in protest after the fatal shootings of Manuel Diaz and Joel Acevedo.

Angry residents at the time called for the formation of a citizen's commission to review allegations of police misconduct.

Since then the city has examined police citizen review models.

The board is expected to work with the Office of Independent Review Group when it scrutinizes officer-involved shootings and use-of-force cases.

“Under the pilot program, the scope of the external auditor will be expanded to allow for real-time monitoring of critical incidents and investigations,” the staff report said.

However, the board won't have access to police personnel files, nor will it have subpoena or investigative powers.

That lack of authority, said members of the Anaheim Community Coalition, which has been pushing for a citizen review board, will make the board “ineffective.”

“We don't need more bureaucracy,” said Donna Acevedo, the mother of Joel Acevedo.

“What we need is true oversight of the police and this cannot be done without the power to review the police's actions and practices.”

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-anaheim-police-review-board-20140218,0,7182501.story#axzz2tmEGoHYe

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Georgia

Citizens public safety academy deadline Feb. 25

The Woodstock Police Department is accepting applications for the Spring 2014 Citizens Public Safety Academy, scheduled to begin on Feb. 27.

The Citizens Public Safety Academy is a series of educational classes designed to enhance citizens' understanding of various aspects within the police and fire profession.

The Citizens Public Safety Academy will be held at The Chambers at City Center, 8534 Main St. in Woodstock, every Thursday, from 6:30 p.m. to

8:30 p.m., through May 8.

Anyone who lives, works or has an expressed interest in the city may apply for the Citizens Public Safety Academy. Applicants are required to be at least 19 years old and submit to a background investigation prior to acceptance in the program. Once accepted, positions are awarded on a first come, first serve basis.

Citizens Public Safety Academy applications are available at the Woodstock Police Department, located at 12453 Ga. 92, Woodstock, Ga. 30188 or by visiting www.woodstockga.gov/police/cpa

The deadline for accepting applications is Feb. 25.

For more information, contact Ofc. Ryan Bleisath at (770) 592-6000 ext:1172 or via email at rbleisath@woodstockga.gov

http://www.ledgernews.com/news/news_briefs/citizens-public-safety-academy-deadline-feb/article_750a128e-98bc-11e3-bb03-0017a43b2370.html

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Police State Gears Up

by Dave Lindorff

If you're a small town or perhaps a university security department, the US Department of Defense has got a deal for you!

Thanks to the ending of the Iraq War, and the winding down of the war in Afghanistan, the Pentagon has 11,000 heavily armored vehicles that it has no use for. Called MRAPs—Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected—they are designed to protect against AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades and IEDs. And as pitchman Paul Richards used to say of the '69 Pontiac Firebird, “They're practically giving them away!”

Correction, they are giving them away.

All a local police department has to do to get itself an 18-ton MRAP—which originally cost taxpayers between $400,000-$700,000 complete with gun turret and bullet-proof windows—is send a few cops to pick it up and pay for the gas.

There are a few downsides: the things get only five miles to the gallon, can't go over most bridges, or under them, and have a nasty habit of tipping over on rough terrain.

For departments that find them too unwieldy, the Homeland Security Department is also offering grants to communities so they can buy smaller Lenco BearCats, lighter armored military-style vehicles that run about $280,000.

Since last summer, police departments across the country have taken possession of 165 DOD surplus MRAPs, and there are another 731 requests for the 14-foot-high vehicles. Even Ohio State University police got their hands on one, saying it would provide a “police presence” at football games. Most of the rest of the vehicles to date have gone to smaller community police forces—everywhere from Farmington, NM (pop. 45,000) to Hamburg Village, NY (pop. 9,500).

The number of BearCats purchased with Homeland Security grants isn't readily available, but they were on conspicuous display in and around Boston last year during the metro-area-wide martial law lockdown while police and National Guard searched for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the wounded and unarmed 19-year-old suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing.

For the most part, Americans don't seem to question the use of military vehicles by their local police, but some communities are starting to object. In Concord, New Hampshire, for instance, 1500 residents last fall signed a petition opposing their town's use of a $258,000 federal Homeland Security grant to purchase a BearCat for the local police department.

The Concord Monitor reported that most of those opposing the purchase said they feared further militarization of their local police. Despite the opposition, the town government went ahead with the acquisition anyway.

Beating the MRAP

Enter State Representative J.R. Hoell, a libertarian Republican who represents Dunbarton, NH, just outside of Concord. Hoell recently introduced a bill, the Police Equipment and Community Engagement (PEACE) Act, in the state legislature.

The proposed legislation is now in committee. If it's passed and signed into law by the governor, state and municipal agencies in New Hampshire will be barred from buying or even accepting free offers of “military style equipment” for police use, except with the approval of the assembled citizenry at a public town meeting.

That prohibition would include not just MRAPS and BearCats, but also things like fully automatic weapons or anything that is not “available in an open commercial market.” These restrictions would not apply to the National Guard.

Rep. Hoell spoke to us about his bill.

WhoWhatWhy : Why did you introduce this bill?

Rep. Hoell: I introduced the bill because the citizens of Concord were overwhelmingly opposed to their police department having MRAP vehicles and it was ordered anyway. I don't see any reason for police to have armored vehicles, or even fully automatic weapons.

WhoWhatWhy : Why are you opposed to police having military equipment?

Rep. Hoell: The role of the state is to make sure the citizens have the best law enforcement and not one that's overly militarized. Whatever happened to police wearing blue? Now they are dressed in black, head to toe, and when they go to serve warrants at people's homes, they break the door down, and they wear masks.

WhoWhatWhy : Why the masks?

Rep. Hoell: I don't know, maybe it's a military thing. But it is not community policing.

WhoWhatWhy : What kind of support are you getting for this bill?

Hoell: I'm getting support from citizens of the state across the political spectrum.

WhoWhatWhy : Why do you think police in this country are becoming increasingly militarized?

Rep. Hoell: I can't speculate about why this is happening, but I know that the citizens don't want it. It needs to stop.

http://whowhatwhy.com/2014/02/17/police-state-gears-up/

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California

New Android, iPhone app aims to combat hate crimes

by Daily News

Even with hate crimes declining over the past year, local officials working with the Simon Wiesenthal Center released a new mobile app on Friday to allow people to record and report hate crimes as they occur with their Smartphones.

“CombatHate,” an app available for Android and iPhone users, was released by Superior Court Judge David Wesley and Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Michael Downing along with Wiesenthal Center representatives.

The app was developed by the Wiesenthal Center to allow people to instantly and anonymously record and report incidents of hate crimes to the Museum of Tolerance.

Wesley has worked with the Museum of Tolerance in expanding the Superior Court's Teen Court and Stopping Hate and Delinquency by Empowering Students (SHADES) program, designed to deal with bullying and intolerance in middle and high school.

County and state officials have said hate crimes are at their lowest point in 23 years thanks to greater education and public awareness of the problem as well as improved training for law enforcement.

The Wiesenthal Center's Digital Terrorism and Hate Project has worked for more than 16 years in monitoring and combating online extremism.

It produces an annual report that is used by law enforcement at all levels and last year introduced a specialized app for law enforcement that puts them in contact with researchers.

http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20140214/new-android-iphone-app-aims-to-combat-hate-crimes

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Florida

Call for help in Miami spirals out of control

by Charles Rabin

Jawaan Wilcox hears voices others don't. Sometimes they tell him to do bad things. He is schizophrenic.

Medication usually keeps his rage under control. Two weeks ago, despite pleas from his mother, Wilcox wouldn't take his meds. He told his mom they made him feel tired and sluggish. She called police for help.

The next few hours spiraled out of control.

When it was over, Wilcox, 21, was in the hospital. He had a lump on his head after smashing into the ground. His brother and two sisters were arrested after a wild melee with about two dozen police officers outside the family's Little Haiti home. His mother was left frustrated in her belief that the mayhem could easily have been avoided.

Twyla Richardson, Wilcox's mom, asked that Miami police send officers trained in crisis intervention — officers who have been to her home before and have defused potentially explosive situations involving her son. She blames police for allowing the situation at her home to escalate.

“It was as if it was entertainment for the police. They found it to be amusing,” Twyla Richardson said. “This is happening too much in this community. They took my kids in. This is crazy.”

Miami police have started an Internal Affairs investigation into what happened that day, Feb. 3. Still, they caution that a scene can turn ugly when a loved one is taken into custody, even if fully trained officers respond to a call.

“We will review this for several reasons, to determine both if something could have been done better for future cases and to see if the officers acted properly or not,” Miami Police Maj. Delrish Moss said. “What is clear right now is this was not a routine chain of events.”

Arrest affidavits for Richardson's three children lay blame on family members who cursed at officers, and whose attempts to free their brother from custody attracted a large crowd that endangered police.

“While officers were trying to place the violent patient in custody, the patient's family began obstructing the officers by fighting with them. Additional units were dispatched,” an officer wrote in a police report on Feb. 3.

Whatever the truth, this was the result: Wilcox spent more than a week at Jackson Memorial Hospital's crisis center, and his brother Clinton Coleman, 19, and sisters Chanel Lightfoot, 23, and Shantell Garland, 22, were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. It's the girls' first criminal charge.

“They've done everything they can to avoid a criminal record,” Richardson said.

Richardson, 39, remains haunted with the thought the family tragedy could have been avoided had members of the police department's Crisis Intervention Team responded to her call for help, as she said she requested, and as they have several times before.

“I asked dispatch to send CIT several times. They sent regulars. They told me they were trained to deal with this,” she said.

Police said one officer at the scene had training, but they couldn't say whether he was one of the initial responders who called for help.

The Wilcox case isn't unusual. But the handling of Wilcox and the arrest of his brothers and sisters offer a glimpse into the difficult world of policing the menatally ill.

Police agencies often lack needed training in a county with the largest percentage of people with serious mental illnesses.

Wilcox was diagnosed with schizophrenia five years ago and has been in and out of Jackson since. Florida Department of Law Enforcement records show he has been arrested twice — once in November 2009, though the charge isn't listed — and again in August 2011, for trespassing.

Miami police have responded to the family's home more than two dozen times the past two years. Thirteen of those visits were for disturbances, including crisis intervention for Wilcox. The only visit by police that resulted in an arrest, according to the records, was on Feb. 3.

A decade ago, to help police deal with the mentally ill, the court-created Criminal Mental Health Project established crisis intervention teams (CITs) of police officers to help deal with the mentally ill and keep cops and subjects safer. Between 90 and 100 sworn Miami police officers, or about 10 percent of the force, are CIT trained. They work citywide on various shifts.

Classes are voluntary and offered up to 12 times a year. The instruction is led by the county's CIT program coordinator, Habsi Kaba, who has extensive experience in psychosocial rehabilitation, and who graduated from St. Thomas University with a master's degree in marriage and family therapy.

Kaba and and other mental health professionals, along with families of the mentally ill, train the officers in dealing with substance abuse, teach them about medications, and most important, instruct them on de-escalation techniques.

“It helps officers to develop compassion,” Kaba said. “At first officers are like, ‘What is this?' They don't understand this will keep them safer.”

Kaba said hard statistics aren't available to show the CIT's effectiveness. She said injuries to officers and subjects are down nationwide, as are arrests of the mentally ill.

“It's vital to the safety of officers and the community,” Kaba said.

Police say they have no incident report of the altercation with Richardson's family because Wilcox wasn't arrested. He was taken into custody under the Baker Act, which allows officers and family members to admit a person for mental treatment without that person's permission.

Family members say the two officers arrived first and were alone for 15 to 20 minutes before they determined they needed help. Richardson estimated 30 officers descended on her home. Miami Police Sgt. Freddie Cruz declined to say how many officers showed up, saying the situation was under investigation.

According to family members, witnesses and arrest affidavits, police arrived at the home sometime mid-morning on Feb. 3. The situation went bad almost from the start.

Richardson said officers became “agitated” because her son resisted being handcuffed and placed in a patrol car. Eventually they handcuffed Wilcox, hands behind his back. But when officers tried to put him in the patrol car, he again resisted, placing a foot against the car and pushing back.

When Wilcox fell to the ground in front of the house and hit his head, it was too much for his brother, Clinton Coleman.

Coleman said as he approached the patrol car, an officer drew his weapon and told him to get back. Richardson said she went over and instructed her son to keep his hands in the air and show officers he had no weapon.

Police have a different version. The arrest report says an officer ordered Coleman to get back several times, but the teen refused and began swearing, which drew a crowd. He was arrested and charged with obstruction and disorderly conduct.

FDLE records show Coleman was arrested three times as a juvenile, twice for aggravated battery in April 2007 and August 2008, and for battery on a police officer and firefighter in October 2008.

Chanel Lightfoot said she got involved after Coleman's arrest, telling police she “saw what y'all did,” she said. She said when she went to see her brothers and pushed a patrol car door shut, a female officer “got in her face,” handcuffed her, and pushed her face into the ground.

Police accounts again differ. The report says Lightfoot tried to open the patrol car door to let her brother out, yelling at the officers, “You can't tell me what to do,” before she was handcuffed, arrested and charged with obstruction of justice and disorderly conduct.

Shantell Garland said that's when she went over and saw her sister crying. The next thing she knew, “they grabbed my arm.” She, too, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.

Police reports say they repeatedly told Garland to “stop yelling and calm down” as a crowd formed. When she refused, she was arrested.

Later that day, Richardson called police again, this time to inform them that after she left to retrieve her children from jail, burglars broke into her unoccupied home and stole electronics.

Wilcox says he clearly remembers the events of Feb. 3, and that police threw him to the ground.

“I tried to run away,” he said.

On Tuesday, Wilcox returned home from the hospital, the knot in his head finally gone. He was greeted by his brother and sisters, who are still facing criminal charges their mother says could have been avoided.

“Obviously, this incident will require a thorough investigation,” said Moss, the Miami police major. “It appears that at least one CIT training officer was on the scene. But that doesn't mean that there are not variables that arise where some degree of force to control the situation will not have to occur.”

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/02/17/3935738/call-for-help-in-miami-spirals.html