~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

February, 2014 - Week 4

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Indiana

Goshen, Elkhart County officials hope to engage with community through policing presentations

by Sharon Hernandez

ELKHART — Local law enforcement officials have been meeting with small groups from the Latino community to send one important message across: They are not the enemy.

Once a month for the last eight months, the two groups have been meeting at community police presentations to learn about each other and bridge the gap between the two.

Gilberto Perez Jr., a professor at Goshen College, spearheaded the efforts to bring the groups together after speaking with Goshen Police Chief Wade Branson and pastors at local churches about law enforcement and its relationship with the Latino community.

So far, the feedback has been positive and insightful, Perez said.

"We find that people are grateful in the sense that we are providing space to interact with law enforcement officials," Perez said. "They are also grateful for the job the officers do. They know it's a difficult job, and they appreciate that."

Since the initial talk between Perez and Branson, some local congregations have joined. Elkhart County Sheriff's Department has also participated in the monthly meetings.

The Goshen Community Relations Commission approved a $2,800 grant for the initiative. The grant money has been used for spots on local radio stations and to compensate meeting facilitators.

In the basement of Iglesia Menonita del Buen Pastor, a church in Goshen, a group of 50 people gathered the morning of Feb. 9 for one of their monthly meetings with law enforcement officials.

After a brief introduction, the group split into two groups and shared their experiences and questions about law enforcement in Goshen and Elkhart County.

In these small groups, people can be as open as they wish. Students, teachers, community leaders and church members, most of them coming from a Latino background, attended the presentation.

Each group had a police officer, an interpreter and a person who served as a moderator and wrote down questions and concerns from participants.

The topics of racial profiling and immigration status came up. And though both topics made officials and community members tense, many people in attendance, including Andrea Medina, agreed that the discussions were an important first step in building trust between the two groups.

Medina, a Goshen College student who has been helping Perez for a class, attended the meeting to help facilitate conversations between participants and officials.

"It makes me feel more connected to a lot of what people are going through in this community," she said.

Some asked about the process involved in traffic stops. Others asked about local law enforcement agencies' relationship with federal agencies, such as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Elkhart County Sheriff Brad Rogers offered his point of view on issues brought up at the meeting and answered any questions the participants had.

"I realize that sometimes people are a little edgy on some things, but it's good to talk to the people and let them see a more personable side of the officers, so they can realize we're not some monster out there, and that we are approachable," he said.

For Rogers and Branson, the most important part of these conversations is getting the community to know them and trust them so that if someone becomes the victim of a crime he can report it to police.

Branson said while the Goshen Police Department has not tracked victims reporting crimes by ethnicity, he has heard feedback from those who have participated in the meetings.

"Several Hispanics present at the meetings have advised that they have reported a crime that they may have not reported prior to attending the presentation," he said.

Although organizers say the presentations have been positive, they also say it's just the first step bridging the gap between the Latinos and the local community.

David Araujo, lead pastor at Iglesia Menonita del Buen Pastor, has been helping Perez organize some of the presentations and translate.

"These conversations and community events are not going to solve a lot of our most pressing concerns and issues quickly, but it is a good start," he said. "We are seeing some results. I think the more we have the right space like this, I believe we will have people who are going to feel safe and know that Goshen Police are not out there to single out a certain community and deport as many of us as they can."

Perez said while the focus of these presentations has been law enforcement, he'd like to have similar presentations with other city offices, like the street department, or legislators, who could better answer some of the questions that have been asked.

The community policing presentations will continue until June or July, and after that, organizers will evaluate the presentations. Then they will see if they will plan more presentations.

"The one positive thing happening is Latino pastors are now encouraging to have community members, or Latino congregants, to be more active in other groups and to be more active in the community, instead of staying to themselves," Perez said. "We want to encourage them to be open to other opportunities of civic engagement."

http://www.elkharttruth.com/hometown/goshen/2014/03/01/Goshen-Elkhart-County-officials-engage-with-community-through-policing-presentations.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

California

Petaluma police plan community meeting

by LORI A. CARTER

The Petaluma Police Department is hosting a town hall meeting Wednesday to discuss crime and trends in Petaluma.

The hourlong meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Petaluma Community Center on North McDowell Boulevard.

Chief Pat Williams will give a presentation on the status of crime and safety and discuss the community policing concept.

Residents will have an opportunity to ask questions and meet the officers and supervisors assigned to their policing districts.

Police invite residents, business owners and people who may work in Petaluma to attend, Lt. Tim Lyons said.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20140301/articles/140309964

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

California

When 'Do Not Call' list goes ignored

by ELIZABETH M. COSIN

For many Sonoma County residents, the national Do Not Call list is not living up to its name.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, which oversees the registry, North Bay residents in the 707 area code filed nearly 20,000 complaints about unsolicited calls last year, more than double the number from just three years ago.

“It's just a huge invasion of privacy,” said Santa Rosa resident Suzi McOmber, a former schoolteacher. “I've been on the Do Not Call list for years and as far as I can tell, it's never really made a difference. It seems like we get more (unsolicited) calls then ever.”

McOmber is not alone. More complaints are coming into the FTC than ever before in the 10-year history of the Do Not Call registry. While federal officials say a big factor is the number of lines registered — 223 million nationwide as of September — they acknowledge that telemarketers and scammers are getting better at finding ways to reach consumers and hide their identities when they do.

“Technology is the double-edge sword — it helps both us and them,” said Bikram Bandy, an FTC program coordinator for the Do Not Call list. “It has allowed the bad guys to make calls cheaper, to call from anywhere in the world and to disguise the caller ID. It has made it hard for us to track down where the calls come from.”

Bandy also pointed to the increase in so-called “robocalls,” which are made by automated computers, some to as many as millions or even billions of consumers in short bursts that may take only seconds. Robocalls have been made easier and cheaper through the use of Internet technology, which allows telemarketers to set up large operations without the cost of securing call centers or hiring lots of employees.

Robocalls from businesses are illegal, even when made to numbers that are not on the Do Not Call registry, unless the consumer has given clear prior written consent.

“Twenty years ago, there were huge costs in putting together massive dialing operations that required a lot of human capital,” Bandy said. “Now you can outsource it overseas at a fraction of that cost. Even if you get a very low percentage of sales, it's still enough to overcome the initial costs.”

The Do Not Call List was launched in 2003 and revised in 2008. It allows consumers to remove their home and cell numbers from sales lists by registering (www.donotcall.gov) or phoning a toll-free number, 888-382-1222. Initially, there was a five-year limit to registrations but that was removed in 2008, and now they are permanent unless removed by a consumer or a number is found to be no longer active.

While the Do Not Call list doesn't ban political calls or those from certain charities, companies are not allowed to call consumers unless they are given clear permission to do so, or they have engaged recently with them.

Although registrations have leveled off in recent years, the list has been widely popular with consumers. Some 25 million numbers are registered in California, the most in the nation, though the registrations per population lags behind other states.

About a third of the 3.24 million telephone numbers assigned to people and businesses in the 707 area code have been registered on the Do Not Call list.

But that doesn't mean the telemarketers are not getting through. They're just getting better at figuring out a way around the system, and so far, federal regulators are having trouble keeping up. Along with robocalling, unscrupulous telemarketers are hiding or “spoofing” their numbers in order to prevent consumers — and regulators — from tracking them down.

The result has been frustrating for many local residents.

“A day or so ago I got a call from someone saying they were from Microsoft technical support,” said Ukiah retiree Joanie Stevens, who herself is a former phone company employee. “I don't even use Microsoft — I use Apple. But it doesn't matter if you tell them to take you off your list. They just don't let up.”

Stevens said she tried keeping a detailed log of the calls she received over the past couple of years, including recording the phone numbers and the reasons they said they were calling. She filed complaints with the FTC and even did online searches to see if she could pinpoint the companies who were calling, but still the calls persist. She was among many local residents interviewed by The Press Democrat who made concerted efforts to end the calls.

McOmber said she got so frustrated that about a year ago, while she was home recovering from an illness, she spent a week trying to get the calls to stop.

“For about two weeks, I filed complaint after complaint after complaint after complaint for every number that called,” she said. “And it never diminished the calls whatsoever.”

Santa Rosa resident Joel Evans-Fudem, a senior office assistant for Sonoma County, says he had made several complaints to the FTC about the same series of calls he has been receiving on his cellphone once a week for months.

“I will get 10 calls from a couple of different phone numbers,” he said. “They come in every minute for about 10 minutes and then they stop. When I answer, it's just a loud fax machine beep.”

FTC officials say they feel consumers' pain, arguing they have made inroads by taking the worst offenders to court and winning civil penalties and fines, some of which they say has been returned to scammed consumers. Officials were clear to differentiate between legal and illegal callers, noting that even telemarketers who violate the terms of the Do Not Call list may not also be trying to scam customers.

But they hope the real progress will come from new technologies developed to confront the violators head on.

Two approaches that have proved successful were developed by private companies through programs sponsored by the FTC. One, Nomorobo, was developed for landlines and is offered as a feature by some local phone providers like Comcast which makes it available via its Xfinity voice service. The second, PrivacyStar, is a cellphone app and website that tracks calls and allows consumers to file complaints to the government.

Both companies employ technology to essentially compile databases of known telemarketers and, in some cases, cut the calls off before they even ring on a customer's phone. Much of the data they collect is shared with the federal government, which improves the ability to identify the illegal callers.

“These scammers and telemarketers are fly-by-night operations. By the time you get to them, they've moved on or changed their numbers,” said PrivacyStar spokesman Jonathan Sasse. “The main thing we think is critical is not just letting consumers know who is calling but what kind of call it is.”

He said PrivacyStar is in the process of a redesign to its website (www.privacystar.com) that will give consumers access to a free searchable database so they can look up numbers themselves.

Both private and public officials said data collection is the key to winning the war against unscrupulous telemarketers, and they encourage consumers to report unwanted calls. Information, they said, is power.

“The complaint data is huge for us in terms of enforcement,” said the FTC's Bandy, adding the data they receive is analyzed once a month to try to pinpoint the latest trends and violators. “Customer complaints are our eyes and ears to understanding the most recent scams and scammers.”

Some companies are already doing it for you. Santa Rosa-based Sonic.net, which provides bundled Internet and phone service in Sonoma County, has been building a database of known telemarketing callers. The feature, which is called Spam Call Blocking, is optional.

“We identify when large numbers of calls are coming in from one place and try to determine if they are engaged in fraud or telemarketing. We continually refine and analyze the data and what that allows us to do is block certain types of calls from getting through,” Sonic co-founder and CEO Dane Jasper said.

Any relief would be cheered by local residents.

“My experience is of a poor layperson that doesn't know how to fix the problem and is plagued every day by them,” McOmber said. “If there is any other way to limit these calls, I would be eternally grateful.”

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20140301/business/140309982

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

South Carolina

Facebook helps police track suspects, get tips in Heather Elvis case

by Tonya Root

Two days after 20-year-old Heather Elvis' car was found abandoned at a Myrtle Beach area boat landing, her friends and family took to social media, Facebook specifically, to plea for information regarding her whereabouts.

Social media keeps people connected and involved, but in the Elvis case the sites have helped investigators keep tabs on people of interest, and her family and community members organize vigils and searches for the young woman last seen Dec. 17. The Find Heather Elvis page on Facebook has more than 52,000 likes as of Thursday and continues to add new members as the case garners national attention.

“Social media can be a great help and it can help get people involved and bring forth awareness, but it can also be a double edged sword,” said Monica Caison, founder and director of the CUE Center based in Wilmington, N.C., which searches for missing people including Elvis. Some rumors about Elvis and her whereabouts were posted on social media and did take up investigators time and efforts, she said.

And time policing those social media posts can be a drawback for some law enforcement departments to starting their own pages, said Nancy Kolb, a senior program manager with community safety initiatives with the International Association of Chiefs of Police, based in Alexandria, Va.

“Social media has an impact on every aspect of law enforcement – from recruiting to community relations to patrol activities to crime prevention to investigations,” Kolb said. “Social media has allowed law enforcement to use technology to take community policing to a new level. Further, it provides a way for agencies to be more transparent, efficient, and engaging and quickly disseminate critical information to a large audience.”

Most area police and fire departments have some sort of social media presence, and they have officers dedicated to posting updates about events, crimes and public safety hazards in the community.

The local participation on sites such as Facebook and Twitter mirror a national trend, according to the fourth annual 2013 Social Media Survey by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. They surveyed 500 law enforcement agencies in 48 states and found that 95.9 percent of the agencies use social media in some way, including 86.1 percent for criminal investigations.

Of those, 80.4 percent of the agencies reported they had used social media to assist their officers in solving a crime.

Facebook topped the list with 92.1 percent usage, followed by Twitter at 64.8 percent and YouTube at 42.9 percent, according to the survey. More than half of the agencies also reported they developed social media policies for usage by department members.

Locally, Horry County police and the Horry County Sheriff's Office were among the first agencies to adopt and use Facebook to inform residents of crimes, arrests and other events involving the department. Both sites are active with nearly daily posts.

Lt. Robert Kegler said the Horry County Police Department's Facebook page, which was created in mid-2010 and by Thursday had 9,262 likes, plays “a big role” in how information is released by officers.

“It's a very valuable tool for us,” Kegler said. “Let's say we have a bank robbery in the south precinct and the officer calls and gives me a description and in a matter of minutes it's out there to the public. And if someone saw something or recognizes the person they can comment.”

“We do utilize it as an investigative tool as well,” Kegler said.

Horry County police Chief Saundra Rhodes has said detectives used social media to keep tabs on a couple charged with murder and kidnapping in the Elvis case.

Tammy Moorer, who is charged in the case along with her husband Sidney Moorer, also defended herself and her husband, who she posted on Facebook had an affair with Elvis. Before her arrest Tammy Moorer had posted the couple had cooperated with police.

The Facebook pages for the couple, who remain jailed, had been deactivated as of Thursday.

Because of Facebook shares, Kegler said Horry County police were able to inform the world about the Elvis case quickly after she was reported missing.

“Because of the ability to share it all over the world, it received national attention pretty quick,” Kegler said. “It received a lot of attention much more quickly than cases did in the past.”

For instance, Kegler's first official post about Elvis was in December after an Horry County police officer found her vehicle abandoned Dec. 19 at Peachtree Boat Landing.

“When I first shared her picture it went out to 836 people and now it's reached more than 32,000 people and who knows how many people they've shared it with,” Kegler said. As of Thursday, that initial photo had been shared 147 times.

The circulation of false information and rumors are the downside to Facebook and social media, officials said.

“The theories being passed around can be a hindrance,” Kegler said and noted officers will investigate all tips they receive. “But we're defeating ourselves by not reaching the maximum number of people possible.”

The Conway Police Department joined the ranks of Facebook on Jan. 13, and Lt. Selena Small, who is in charge of operating the page, said they are following the success of other departments such as Horry County.

The city's page had 1,933 likes as of Thursday.

“Facebook seems to be it. Facebook seems to be what everybody looks at, . . . [Conway police want to] see what success it will be in helping get communications out there to the public,” Small said. “We want to use every avenue we have to get information out there quicker.”

The departments of Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach are the only larger agencies in the area without Facebook pages.

But Myrtle Beach police officials have talked about creating a page and may do so in the future, said Capt. David Knipes. However, there's no specific timeframe as to when a page may be created.

“Developing case law is probably the main reason we have not entered into this ‘world.' It is relatively new frontier as it relates to the work we do, and the liability potential that has yet to be clarified by the courts,” Knipes said and noted that officers have looked at social media while investigating cases.

But experts say the benefits of social media outweigh the challenges.

“Social media provides a way for agencies to be more transparent, efficient, and engaging and quickly disseminate critical information to a large audience,” Kolb said. “Social media presents challenges in that it requires resources to manage – whether responding to comments from the community or processing tips or evidence shared in the social space. Social media has serious implications for officer and public safety and rumors and false information posted on social media can also present challenges to law enforcement.”

Kegler and Small said they want residents to know their respective department's presence on Facebook does not replace a telephone call to 911 to report a crime or to a non-emergency number to discuss community safety.

“It's another avenue for them to communicate with us through private messages and comments, but they should call 911 for an emergency,” Small said. “We're excited about what it can do and how quickly and efficiently we can communicate and this is just one way to help us do that.”

http://www.islandpacket.com/2014/03/01/2977535/facebook-helps-police-track-suspects.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Department of Homeland Security

DHS Provides Support for States and Territories to Adopt Cybersecurity Framework

Starting this week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is working on a cooperative effort with the Center for Internet Security (CIS) Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) to provide state-of-the-art managed security services to states and territories in conjunction with their adoption of the National Institute for Science and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework.

The effort is part of DHS's Critical Infrastructure Cyber Community (C 3 ) Voluntary Program, which serves as the coordination point within the federal government to leverage and enhance existing capabilities and resources to promote the adoption the Cybersecurity Framework. As part of this agreement, the MS-ISAC will provide Managed Security Services (MSS), including intrusion detection, intrusion prevention, netflow analysis and firewall monitoring to states and territories—free of charge.

Adopting the Cybersecurity Framework is key to keeping networks and information systems secure. DHS is working with our state and territorial partners to make sure they are aware of the services and tools available to them. We remain committed to strengthening the resilience of critical networks, and to enabling our state and local governments to protect the public from evolving cyber threats.

The adoption of the framework will encourage longer-term risk-based planning and better security overall – this is a win-win and we are excited to be able to provide such tactical assistance to our state and territorial stakeholders.

This is just one of many steps we are taking to further our collaboration with partners across the country on this important issue. Moving forward, DHS and the MS-ISAC will seek feedback and requirements from the states and territories and tailor technical assistance and best practice documents to meet their needs.

http://www.dhs.gov/blog/2014/02/27/dhs-provides-support-states-and-territories-adopt-cybersecurity-framework

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

South Carolina

New program designed to build relationships between police, public

Why does more than one police officer work a traffic stop?

That question and any more the community can think of can be answered during an upcoming “meet your local cop” program called Coffee with a Cop. It's a meeting held in an informal, neutral location that provides an opportunity for the community to discuss local issues, build relationships and, well, drink coffee.

“We hope that community members will feel comfortable to ask questions, bring concerns, or simply get to know our officers,” said Wendell Davis, chief of the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety. “These interactions are the foundation of community partnerships.”

The area's first Coffee with a Cop meeting is scheduled to be held at the John C. Calhoun Drive McDonald's on March 5. It starts at 8 a.m.

Officials say the majority of the public's contact with law enforcement is during emergencies or emotional situations. Those situations are not always the most effective times for relationship building with the community, and some community members may feel that officers are unapproachable on the street, they say.

Coffee with a Cop breaks down barriers and allows for a relaxed, one-on-one interaction.

Coffee with a Cop is a national initiative supported by the United States Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. Similar events are being held across the county as local police departments strive to make lasting connections with the communities they serve.

The program aims to advance the practice of community policing through improving relationships between police officers and community members — one cup of coffee at a time.

All community members are invited to attend. For more information, call 803-533-4113.

http://thetandd.com/news/new-program-designed-to-build-relationships-between-police-public/article_711b477e-a0fa-11e3-8188-001a4bcf887a.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oregon

Portland police bureau needs to change its mission, assistant chief says

by Maxine Bernstein

Reducing crime and the fear of crime has been part of the Portland Police Bureau's mission for at least two decades.

With the city's crime rate down and homicides at an historic 42-year low, Assistant Chief Larry O'Dea says it's time to change the bureau's mission to building trusting relationships in every part of the city.

"That's the direction the operations branch is moving," O'Dea said Friday.

Instead of simply judging cops by the traditional law enforcement metrics of traffic stops or arrests, the bureau also plans to evaluate rank-and-file officers through precinct commanders by how well they work with businesses, residents and neighborhood groups in crime prevention, he said.

"It will allow us to build trust and build legitimacy," said O'Dea, who oversees the bureau's operations branch. That includes patrol, traffic, transit and youth services officers.

O'Dea said the move sprung from command staff discussions at the end of last year. When he was hired in 1986, O'Dea said patrol officers were running from call to call, "literally putting out fires'' with gang-related shootings a nightly occurence.

Today, Portland's patrol officers have more time between calls, and should be using it to get out of their patrol cars, and meet the business owners and residents in the districts they patrol and figure out ways to solve the crime and public safety problems that the community identifies, he said.

"All that means is build relationships first and then work on the issues important to the parts of communities officers serve,'' O'Dea said. "There is always going to be a role for law enforcement, but there's a huge push for more relationship-focused policing with an emphasis on prevention and intervention.''

O'Dea said he recognizes it's his job to set the expectation for his officers, and then give them the ability to make it happen.

"The philosophy has to come from the top,'' O'Dea said.

Sgt. Greg Stewart is working to set up new codes on the mobile data computers for officers to punch in, so they can note how they're spending their time: For example, instead of marking something general like "high-visibility patrol," they soon may be asked to be more specific, noting whether they're "relationship-building with businesses,'' or ''relationship-building with pedestrians,'' O'Dea said.

When the bureau starts performance evaluations of officers in the next month, supervisors will be judging how well officers are getting to know the people in the districts they patrol.

O'Dea, speaking Friday to members of the city's Gang Violence Task Force, gave this example of how the new philosophy might play out: Traditionally, if a complaint came to police that a particular neighborhood was rife with drug dealing, officers might "saturate the area,'' pull over cars based on traffic infractions and try to search a great number of people to make arrests and deter the dealers.

Instead, the bureau will encourage officers to spend time in the drug-infested area to get to know the residents and business people and try to identify the main drug dealers who need to be stopped.

"So you can be much more surgical and specific,'' O'Dea said.

O'Dea doesn't like the term "community policing,'' because he said thinks it's overused and not well understood. Instead, he likes to refer to his initiative as "relationship-building.'' The bureau also has come up with a term, "Neighborhood Involvement Locations,'' (NiLoc) to spur police-community partnerships to address public safety concerns in particular geographical locations.

"The things I might think are important to police are not necessarily the ones the neighborhood thinks is important,'' he said.

Under a pilot project under way, a hot spot has been designated in each of the Portland's three police precincts - an intersection that has drawn the most calls for service. Officers are being sent randomly to spend 15 minutes in each area.

Minneapolis and Sacramento police have done similar mini, hot-spot policing and found that the ideal time spent by an officer in an area is 15 minutes to deter crime and disorderly conduct, police studies suggest.

Before the bureau expands the pilot project behind the three designated hot spots, O'Dea wants to make sure everyone -- from the rank and file up to commanders -- are fully aware of his expectation that officers are not simply to sit in their marked cars to show their presence, but must engage with the community.

Veteran officers say that's how they've been trained from the moment they joined the bureau.

"We've always been taught that. Officers have been doing that as long as I can remember,'' said Officer Daryl Turner, president of the Portland Police Association. Because of reduced staffing at the patrol level in recent years, it might have been harder to do between emergency calls, Turner said.

"But it's not new,'' Turner said. "Every now and then, I guess, it doesn't hurt to reiterate that.''

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2014/02/portland_police_bureau_needs_t.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New York

Police Objective Review Committee members question effectiveness, limited power

by Andrew Beam

TROY -- Members of a committee formed to help improve the city's police department and its relationship with the community, have begun questioning if they can have a positive influence due to the limited scope of their powers, according an annual report submitted to Mayor Lou Rosamilia.

In a letter sent to Rosamilia in February detailing the activities of the Police Objective Review Committee during its monthly meetings in 2013, the committee stated it reviewed, in total, 11 of the 67 cases received between 2011 and 2013 due in part to state laws.

The letter states that the committee was ineffective in what it was attempting to accomplish due to various legal constraints laid out by New York State Civil Rights Law as it questioned whether it could be a “positive force.”

“The committee has reviewed cases through a carefully controlled ‘filter' imposed by the legal constraints found within the law,” the committee wrote in its report. “It is this law which created the committee. While we performed these duties as delineated through Article II Chapter 24 79-9 through 79-13, we find that these reviews in and of themselves do not help us gain the trust of the public and/or improve police and community relations per se.”

Rosamilia said the city's “hands were tied” in what it could provide the committee and said the records are required to redact the names of the officers involved in the case as well as the name of the complainant.

“We understand their frustration but we're handcuffed by the law what we can readily provide to them,” Rosamilia said.

Corporation Counsel Ian Silverman, who sat in on the meetings to make sure the legal process was followed, cited NYS Civil Rights Law 50-a, which states the personnel records of police officers are to be made confidential and “not subject to consent or review without the express written consent of such police officer...”

It also states the personnel information could also be made available through a court order.

The section of the city charter dedicated to the committee explains its duties and functions as reviewing the professional standards investigations of the department and making recommendations to the department.

The recommendations made by the committee could cover the hiring practices, the training requirements and programs, and to examine the administrative review process.

But what many in the community have complained about the committee is that it doesn't seem to have any real authority, or “bite” as Pastor Willie Bacote, of the Missing Link A.M.E. Zion Church, has requested.

Linda O'Malley, a member of the committee, shares those frustrations as she said she almost isn't sure what the point of the committee truly is. This was particularly upsetting to O'Malley following the aftermath of the Jan. 25 incident at Kokopellis Night Club.

“It's frustrating to see the community in the pain it's in and not be able to do anything about it when initially we felt we'd be able to address that,” O'Malley said, adding one of the objectives was to see more of an emphasis on effective community policing. “Whether we can make that happen, I don't know. Real community policing is a good answer to this type of problem.”

Troy Police Benevolent Association President Bob Fitzgerald said he “felt their pain” but said the department wasn't in the position to change state law. Still, he said the PBA, the Internal Affairs Bureau and city representatives have worked with the committee in the spirit of transparency.

“I think, without speaking for [Chief John Tedesco], I think the union and the chief are on the same page regarding involvement from the community in the process of what goes on in the police department,” Fitzgerald said.

The committee is advisory in nature, Silverman said, and the committee made several suggestions in its annual report. Some of those suggestions included creating more opportunities for residents to participate in police ride-alongs, developing a questionnaire for officers to provide insight on how they feel about crime and public safety in the city, and having the department be more active in social media.

Fitzgerald said ride-alongs have always been open to the public as long as residents sign a waiver for liability purposes.

Even with knowing the committee is advisory in nature, O'Malley said she doesn't necessarily see the point of having an objective review committee for police if it can't effectively make positive changes.

O'Malley also said she could understand why the previous committee disbanded in 2011; the current board was put in place in 2013.

Others members of the committee include Louie Allen, Michelle DeLair, who acts as secretary, Carolyn Hopkins-Lewis, Steve Renaldi, who chairs the committee, Rev. Dr. Eric Shaw, John Sullivan and William Veronese.

http://www.troyrecord.com/government-and-politics/20140301/police-objective-review-committee-members-question-effectiveness-limited-power

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New Jersey

Become a New Jersey State Trooper

Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman and State Police Superintendent Colonel Joseph R. Fuentes announced the dates for the opening of the New Jersey State Police application process. Applications will be accepted online from April 21st through May 5th. All eligible men and women are encouraged to apply. Those interested should visit www.NJTrooper.com to complete the online application.

The Attorney General and Superintendent made the announcement at the New Jersey State Police Headquarters in West Trenton. Troopers can pursue one of the many diverse career paths that the State Police offers based on personal interests and specialized skills, while also working to ensure the public's safety.

“From community policing to homeland security, aviation to marine law enforcement, crime scene forensics to cyber investigations, the New Jersey State Police has a specialty area that is sure to suit an applicant's unique skills and interests,” said Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman. “We are looking for bright, energetic men and women who have demonstrated responsibility and character and are up to the challenge to be their best.”

“The nature of our public safety challenges change, but our mission remains the same. Whether we have a mass deployment due to Hurricane Sandy or a major event like Super Bowl XLVIII, public safety is our top priority. We're looking for troopers with fresh perspectives and diverse skills to help us meet the challenges of the future.” said Colonel Rick Fuentes.

The New Jersey State Police offers a great starting salary, excellent benefits and continuous training in over 120 exciting career paths.

Here are the minimum requirements to apply:

•  Applicants must be at least 21 years old and must not reach their 35th birthday prior to the graduation of their State Police class. •  Applicants must have: (1) a bachelor's degree; OR (2) a minimum of 90 college credits currently and complete their degree by a specified date prior to the written examination; OR (3) an associate's degree or 60 college credits, PLUS at least 24 months of satisfactory employment or military experience; OR (4) 30 college credits, PLUS at least 24 months of active duty military service with an honorable discharge. All college degrees/credits must be from an accredited college or university. •  Applicants must be a U.S. citizen and must have a current driver's license.

For more information visit: www.NJTrooper.com

http://njtoday.net/2014/02/28/become-new-jersey-state-trooper/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Michigan

Coffee with the Chief offered to connect with community

by Jeri Packer

If you are a Port Huron resident and have ever wanted to ask the chief of police a question, here's the chance.

The Port Huron Department of Public Safety and former police Chief Michael Reaves wants to go out for coffee with you to chat about your concerns.

Reeves will be available to answer questions from members of the community throughout the year at different local coffee shops and restaurants as part of the “Coffee with the Chief” program. Administrative Sgt. Roger Wesch of the Community Oriented Policing Services Sergeant from the Port Huron Department of Public Safety will also be there to share in the coffee klatches.

"It gives an informal place to set down and share concerns," Wesch said. "Community policing makes a way for us to work together to make a difference.”

Wesch said the program has undergone many changes over the last couple years, making it even more effective in bringing civilians and law enforcement together. Reaves is responsible for seeing that the total concept of community policing was revamped and refined. Now, each "zone" in Port Huron has its own officer to contact with questions and concerns.

Reaves said the “Coffee with the Chief” program is a unique way to strengthen the partnership between the police department and the community it serves.

“Members of the community will be able to ask specific or general questions related to the neighborhoods they live in,” Reaves said. "It's very important that I lead the department from the front in developing strong relationships within the community and building bridges of communication. We believe that this type of open dialogue breaks down barriers in establishing a true partnership."

The dates and times for the meetings, so far, are March 14 at 10 a.m. in Vantage Point Maritime Center; April 4 at 10 a.m. in Tim Horton's on Pine Grove and again at 10 a.m. Friday, April 25 in Tim Horton's on Pine Grove Avenue. The meetings will last until about noon, depending on the need.

For more information, contact Wesch at the Community Oriented Policing Services Office at (810) 984-9715 Additional dates and locations for the program will be posted as they become available.

http://www.voicenews.com/articles/2014/02/28/life/doc5310daa33ef68697144810.txt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yahoo webcam images intercepted and stored

GCHQ and NSA captured millions of images worldwide, many sexually explicit

by Colin Gleeson

The British surveillance agency GCHQ and the United States National Security Agency (NSA) have intercepted and stored webcam images of millions of users worldwide of the online news and social networking provider Yahoo .

GCHQ documents dated between 2008 and 2010 were provided to the Guardian newspaper by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. They show the surveillance programme – codenamed Optic Nerve – saved one image every five minut es from randomly selected Yahoo webcam chats and stored them on agency databases.

This was partly to comply with human rights legislation, and also to avoid overloading GCHQ's servers. The documents show that in one six-month period in 2008, the agency collected webcam imagery – substantial quantities of which were sexually explicit – from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.

A spokeswoman for Yahoo said the actions of the surveillance agencies represented “a whole new level of violation of our users' privacy”.

“We were not aware of nor would we condone this reported activity,” she said. “This report, if true, represents a whole new level of violation of our users' privacy that is completely unacceptable and we strongly call on the world's governments to reform surveillance law consistent with the principles we outlined in December. We are committed to preserving our users' trust and security and continue our efforts to expand encryption across all of our services.”

Strict policy framework

In a statement, GCHQ said: “It is a long-standing policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters. Furthermore, all of GCHQ's work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight, including from the secretary of state, the interception and intelligence services commissioners and the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee.”

Digital Rights Ireland chairman TJ McIntyre said the documents highlight “in a vivid way the complaints we and other groups have been saying for a long time about indiscriminate mass surveillance”.

“It illustrates how governments – including the Irish Government – have become wedded to monitoring everyone's communications at all times,” he said. “It also illustrates why that's unacceptable.”

Irish users

He said there was “no reason at all” to believe images of the thousands of Irish users of the service had not been intercepted and stored by the agency. “You can be sure there were Irish users of webcam chat that were caught also.

“There's a lot of fault to go around. Yahoo themselves are at fault for allowing this information to be broadcast online without being encrypted. It was always obvious that webcam chats were going to be intimate. It was obvious they could be targeted.

“A number of years ago, Yahoo were told by security groups they should be encrypting these chats. Yahoo in particular has a very poor track record when it comes to protecting privacy by encryption. In fact it has one of the worst track records of all the major internet service providers.”

GCHQ does not have the technical means to make sure no images of Irish citizens – or any particular nationality – are collected and stored by the system. Sexually explicit webcam material proved to be a particular problem for GCHQ.

One document said: “Unfortunately . . . it would appear that a surprising number of people use webcam conversations to show intimate parts of their body to the other person.

“Also, the fact that the Yahoo software allows more than one person to view a webcam stream without necessarily sending a reciprocal stream means that it appears sometimes to be used for broadcasting pornography.”

The document estimates that between 3 per cent and 11 per cent of the Yahoo webcam imagery harvested contains “undesirable nudity”.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/technology/yahoo-webcam-images-intercepted-and-stored-1.1707529

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

California

Cemetery accused of damaging burial vaults settles suit for $35 million

Eden Memorial Park's owner agrees to settle, but says there's no proof that groundskeepers disturbed graves and discarded human remains.

by Corina Knoll

A $35-million settlement was approved Thursday in a class action suit that could affect 25,000 families who have loved ones buried at a Mission Hills cemetery where employees were accused of damaging burial containers and discarding human remains.

The nine plaintiffs who represented the class alleged that over a period of 25 years, groundskeepers at Eden Memorial Park routinely broke burial vaults to make room for new graves and were instructed to throw the bones and human remains that fell out into a dump on the property.

According to the complaint, the cemetery attempted to maximize its profits by squeezing in as many graves as possible, leaving at most 3 inches of space in between them. Groundskeepers were thus unable to dig new graves without disturbing adjacent protective burial vaults. The complaint also cited an incident in which a human skull was allegedly thrown away.

Much of the case rested on an internal memo drawn up during a meeting with four Eden Memorial groundskeepers during an October 2007 interment verification training run by the cemetery's owner and operator, Service Corporation International. A behemoth in the funeral industry, the Houston-based SCI has a network of funeral, cremation and cemetery services across the country.

During the training, groundskeepers mentioned how they did things at Eden Memorial and were pulled into an office by administrators. An assistant took notes and later drafted the memo.

"They are told to make vaults/caskets fit regardless of the size of the grave. 'Making it fit' included breaking the vaults or caskets to allow room for the new interment," the memo read. "All four groundsmen agreed when they said they fear if the public were to find out about this that the park would be closed and they would all lose their jobs."

The employees also said that some remains were thrown out after vaults were broken and that they were told "the only thing that matters is closing the deal/sale even if it means breaking vaults and caskets to make the new one fit," according to the memo, which was presented as evidence in the case.

The defense denied the allegations and argued that numerous inspections did not find proof of damaged vaults.

Shortly after the lawsuit was filed in 2009, state officials said they had found no evidence of mass grave disturbances at Eden Memorial.

SCI has faced similar allegations at two Florida cemeteries. In 2003, the Florida attorney general filed criminal charges against the company, a vice president and a superintendent. The attorney general charged that vaults and caskets were destroyed by backhoes because the same plot had been sold twice and that remains were scattered in adjacent fields. The company paid more than $100 million in settlements with families.

Steven Gurnee, who represented SCI in the Eden Memorial case, said the company was confident in its defense but decided to settle because the trial was dragging on. Three people had been called to the witness stand since testimony began two weeks ago in Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Marc Marmaro's courtroom.

"It made economic sense to dispose of the case," Gurnee said. "Had it proceeded to a verdict, we would have prevailed."

Michael Avenatti, who represents the plaintiffs, said settlement negotiations had been off and on for a number of months before the parties reached an agreement.

"This is no coupon settlement," he said. "It has been a very long and difficult case but the most rewarding of my career. It was humbling to represent these families because of what they've been through and the amount of faith they've put in our firm."

The settlement of $35,250,000 will grant refunds to plaintiffs who wish to disinter their loved ones as well as those who have pre-purchased unused burial plots. Others who decide to keep their grave at Eden Memorial are also eligible to submit a claim. Plaintiffs will be allowed to conduct a re-sanctification ceremony. The figure also includes attorney fees, and a $20,000 payment to each of the class representatives.

SCI is required take measures that will prevent the alleged problems from occurring in the future, such as using metal rods to probe the grave and determine where it is safe to dig. In addition, it must provide notice and conduct repairs if a damaged burial container is discovered. SCI must disclose to future customers the risk of damage when making interments. Avenatti estimates those measures will cost the company an additional $45 million or more.

The settlement is scheduled to be finalized May 15.

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-0228-cemetery-settlement-20140228,0,66746.story#axzz2uWsJlLk5

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Missouri

Mayor's Anti-Violence Task Force talks about building police rapport with community

by Alan Burdziak

While a discussion about community policing Wednesday night took up most of the latest meeting of the Mayor's Task Force on Community Violence, the group also rescheduled its planned retreat and declined to make a recommendation about funding for Neighborhood Watch groups.

The retreat, a six-hour work session, was pushed back recently after the group's progress in its fact-finding phase slowed. Instead of Saturday, as originally planned, the retreat now is slated for 9 a.m. April 26 at MFA Oil's Columbia office at 2507 N. Stadium Blvd. Jerry Taylor, outgoing MFA CEO and task force member, offered to let the group use the facility for the retreat.

Discussion on community policing drew different viewpoints, specifically whether more cops on the street would help. It seemed the consensus was that Columbia Police Department officers don't have enough discretionary time to engage in proactive efforts that would build a rapport with the community.

Member Pamela Hardin, who also is vice president for the area's NAACP chapter, said simply adding more police is not the solution.

"As much as we hate to admit it, racism does exist," Hardin said. "We also have a big problem with trust among the African-American community with police officers."

Task force member Chris Haynes, who is black, agreed there is a lack of trust but also endorsed community policing and the idea of having more officers on the street.

However, he said, he would like to know how much training the department does with the goal of breaking down cultural barriers.

Community leaders and stakeholders also have to be engaged in the process, he said.

"I really hate the black-and-white thing, for me," Haynes said. "I really hate all that. What I try to focus on in the discussion on community policing is who in the community is going to step up."

Second Ward Councilman and task force Co-chairman Michael Trapp agreed it is a "fractious issue" and that more research and debate is necessary.

"We want to not only make recommendations, but we want to do it in a way that's fair to all the people we represent," Trapp said.

Over the past few months, Taylor, who is white, said he has learned more about the divide that exists between the black community and law enforcement. For him, though, building rapport has no easy solution.

"I don't know what the answer is," Taylor said.

City Manager Mike Matthes asked Trapp to have the group consider making a recommendation on whether the city should fund Neighborhood Watch groups. During fiscal year 2013, Trapp said, the city's contingency fund provided money for the community groups.

Several task force members, including Hardin and David Thomas, said they felt making such a call is outside the group's purview.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/crime/mayor-s-anti-violence-task-force-talks-about-building-police/article_a8c025f6-9fdc-11e3-b11e-10604b9f6eda.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nearly 600 Army soldiers disqualified for sexual assault, child abuse and more

by Steven Ruygrok

News has broken today that reveals the Army  has made the decision to disqualify close to 600 sexual assault counselors, recruiters and drill sergeants for offenses that range from child abuse, drunk driving and sexual assault.

According to USA Today, the amount of disqualified soldiers that previously held what the Army calls, "positions of trust," is 10 times what the Army reported when they came out with their initial estimates last summer. The exact total of soldiers disqualified today was 588.

This of course was after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel mandated that soldiers in positions of trust be screened and monitored for any criminal activity that may have taken place in the past.

Now not all of the soldiers who were dismissed today are completely out of the Army, but the military will not confirm or deny the amount of people who have been completely let go.

Army Col. David Patterson remarked on the news today and wanted to reassure people that they are working hard to make sure the right people are in these important positions of trust.

"We will continue working to better ensure we select the very best people for these posts, and that the chain of command knows what is expected of them, and how important this work is to the Army," Patterson said.

Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York talked about the news and stated that this proves the military needs to implement an independent system of justice.

"These continued reports paint a very clear picture of why nine out of 10 sexual assault victims don't report their attack and why the military needs a reformed, independent and transparent system of justice," Gillibrand said.

Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri also chimed in saying, "The Army's review of soldiers responsible for combating sexual assault was an important step in our effort to curb sexual assaults in the military."

http://www.examiner.com/article/nearly-600-army-soldiers-disqualified-for-sexual-assault-child-abuse-and-more

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Obama Launches Program for Disadvantaged Minority Youth

Public-Private Program Would Provide Economic, Educational Opportunities

by Carol E. Lee

President Barack Obama is launching a public-private program Thursday to provide economic and educational opportunities to disadvantaged black and Latino youth, an initiative that includes a $200 million commitment from foundations and the buy-in of several business leaders and public officials.

Mr. Obama 's My Brother's Keeper program employs the "convening power" of the presidency, which he said in last month's State of the Union address he would use, pooling resources from foundations, corporations and elected officials.

The president is also creating a cabinet-level position, to be held by Broderick Johnson, who will head a task force focused solely on this program, White House officials said.

The goal is to maintain the initiative across federal agencies, including assessing federal policies and regulations. Mr. Johnson is a lawyer and former Clinton administration official who advised the Obama re-election campaign.

The initiative will focus on issues ranging from nutrition and health to education and youth violence.

The effort has the backing of several prominent figures in business and politics. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg , former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former basketball star and entrepreneur Magic Johnson, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel will join Mr. Obama at the White House to unveil the initiative.

The East Room event will also include Joe Echevarria of Deloitte, Glenn Hutchins of Silver Lake, Adam Silver of the National Basketball Association and Thomas Tull of Legendary Entertainment, according to the White House.

Cecilia Munoz, Mr. Obama's domestic policy adviser, said the initiative focuses on young men and boys of color, because statistics show a disproportionate number of them are unemployed, undereducated and in trouble with the law.

"These young men are more than six times as likely to be victims of murder than their white peers and account for almost half of the country's murder victims each year," a White House fact sheet on the program says.

Creating ways to improve the lives of young men and boys of color is a personal issue for Mr. Obama, his longtime friend and senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett said. Mr. Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will continue to work on the issue after leaving office in 2017.

Ms. Jarrett noted that the unveiling of the program is taking place around the second anniversary of the death of Trayvon Martin , the African-American teen whose shooting by a Hispanic neighborhood-watch volunteer riveted the nation. One of Mr. Obama's most direct comments on race was about that case, with the president saying Mr. Martin "could have been me 35 years ago" and that if he had a son he would look like the young Florida man.

Mr. Obama has come under criticism, particularly in his first term, from African-American leaders who said he hasn't focused narrowly enough on the economic struggles of minorities. He has also battled criticism that he hasn't used his role as president to spotlight issues of race.

Asked why girls aren't included in the program, Ms. Jarrett said the president has other initiatives that focus on women and girls.

The Education Department will have a leading role in the program, officials said, but Attorney General Eric Holder and other cabinet officials will be closely involved.

Philanthropies have agreed to invest $200 million over the next five years, the White House said. Those involved include the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Atlantic Philanthropies, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the California Endowment, the Ford Foundation, the John and James L. Knight Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Kapor Center for Social Impact.

Over the next 90 days, the foundations will create a structure for spending the funds on areas such as early child development, parenting, literacy and economic opportunity.

The White House said it expects additional financial pledges in coming weeks and months and that other business leaders have expressed interest in joining, including Rosalind Brewer of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. unit Sam's Club, Kenneth Chenault of American Express Co. and Don Thompson of McDonald's Corp.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304071004579407992832670628?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304071004579407992832670628.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Border Patrol's use of deadly force criticized in report

An independent review of U.S. Border Patrol shootings criticizes the agency for 'lack of diligence' in its investigations and suggests that agents' tactics sometimes create a pretext to open fire.

by Brian Bennett

WASHINGTON — Border Patrol agents have deliberately stepped in the path of cars apparently to justify shooting at the drivers and have fired in frustration at people throwing rocks from the Mexican side of the border, according to an independent review of 67 cases that resulted in 19 deaths.

The report by law enforcement experts criticized the Border Patrol for "lack of diligence" in investigating U.S. agents who had fired their weapons. It also said it was unclear whether the agency "consistently and thoroughly reviews" use-of-deadly-force incidents.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which had commissioned the review, has tried to prevent the scathing 21-page report from coming to light.

House and Senate oversight committees requested copies last fall but received only a summary that omitted the most controversial findings — that some border agents stood in front of moving vehicles as a pretext to open fire and that agents could have moved away from rock throwers instead of shooting at them.

The Times obtained the full report and the agency's internal response, which runs 23 pages. The response rejects the two major recommendations: barring border agents from shooting at vehicles unless its occupants are trying to kill them, and barring agents from shooting people who throw things that can't cause serious physical injury.

The response, marked "Law Enforcement Sensitive," states that a ban on shooting at rock throwers "could create a more dangerous environment" because many agents operate "in rural or desolate areas, often alone, where concealment, cover and egress is not an option."

If drug smugglers knew border agents were not allowed to shoot at their vehicles, it argues, more drivers would try to run over agents.

The new secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, is "reconsidering the response" to the two recommendations, a Homeland Security official said Wednesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Mexican authorities have complained for years that U.S. border agents who kill Mexicans are rarely disciplined and that the results of investigations are not made public for years. Critics warn that more deaths or abuses are inevitable unless stricter rules are imposed to limit use of lethal force.

"There needs to be a level of accountability if you want to change the culture and the pattern," said Christopher Wilson, an expert on U.S.-Mexico relations at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a think tank in Washington. "People are being killed that don't need to be killed."

The review was completed in February 2013 by the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit research and policy organization in Washington that works closely with law enforcement agencies. Experts from the group were allowed to examine internal Border Patrol case files on 67 shooting incidents from January 2010 to October 2012.

The authors said evidence in the case files suggested border agents in some cases stood in the road to shoot at drivers who were trying to avoid arrest and who posed no direct lethal threat to them or others.

"It is suspected that in many vehicle shooting cases, the subject driver was attempting to flee from the agents who intentionally put themselves into the exit path of the vehicle, thereby exposing themselves to additional risk and creating justification for the use of deadly force," the report reads. In some cases, "passengers were struck by agents' gunfire."

"It should be recognized that a half-ounce (200-grain) bullet is unlikely to stop a 4,000-pound moving vehicle, and if the driver … is disabled by a bullet, the vehicle will become a totally unguided threat," it says. "Obviously, shooting at a moving vehicle can pose a risk to bystanders including other agents."

The authors recommended training agents "to get out of the way… as opposed to intentionally assuming a position in the path of such vehicles."

They also recommended that the Border Patrol adopt police policies used in most U.S. jurisdictions, which bar officers from firing at a moving vehicle unless deadly force is being used "by means other than a moving vehicle."

Border Patrol officials defended the use-of-force policies, arguing that agents needed broad flexibility to protect themselves and the nation's borders.

"In a lot of cases, Border Patrol agents find themselves in an area where they don't have communications, they don't have immediate backup and often don't have the cover and concealment that urban areas provide when you are dealing with an escalation of force," Border Patrol Chief Michael J. Fisher said in a telephone interview.

Shawn P. Moran, vice president of the Border Patrol union, said the agency was right to reject restrictions on when agents can shoot.

If smugglers "know we aren't allowed to defend ourselves, we would see many more rock attacks …[and] assaults where vehicles try to run down agents because they would know there would be no repercussions," Moran said from San Diego.

The Border Patrol has begun testing "less lethal" weapons — such as pepper spray, rubber bullets and Tasers — and added training on violent confrontations for new agents. Officials also now track shootings and rock-throwing incidents in a database intended to help leaders spot trends and adjust policy.

A Homeland Security Office of Inspector General report in September found that border agents opened fire on rock throwers 22 times in fiscal year 2012. It did not say how many people were injured by the "rock assaults" or by the gunfire.

In recent congressional hearings, some lawmakers criticized Customs and Border Protection officials for not fully disclosing when border agents are allowed to use deadly force, and what disciplinary actions, if any, had been taken.

"When a young person throws a rock across the border toward the border or border agents, some agents respond with a gun and other agents don't respond at all. There seems to be some need for some consistency in the response to these incidents and how we treat it," Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said at a Jan. 15 confirmation hearing for Gil Kerlikowske, the Obama administration's nominee to head Customs and Border Protection.

Kerlikowske, a former Seattle police chief, said he had never served in a law enforcement agency that did not make its use-of-force policies public. He promised to release more information if he is confirmed. His nomination has not yet been brought up for a vote in the Senate.

The internal report does not detail specific shooting incidents. But news accounts have highlighted several deaths.

In the most recent case, a border agent fatally shot Jesus Flores Cruz, 41, on Feb. 18 in a mountainous area east of San Diego after the agent was allegedly hit in the head with a rock. Mexico's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was "deeply concerned" about the incident.

In September 2012, Guillermo Arevalo Pedroza, a 36-year-old construction worker, was shot and killed during a picnic with his family on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. A Border Patrol agent who fired his gun from a patrol boat said he had been pelted with rocks, officials said.

Mexican authorities denounced the shooting as "unacceptable" and said Pedroza was not trying to cross the border.

A month later, Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, 16, was shot and killed near Nogales, Mexico, by a Border Patrol agent who fired through a fence. The autopsy report said Rodriguez was shot eight times in the back. The Border Patrol said the agent, whom it did not identify, was hit with rocks when he responded to reports of drug smugglers climbing the border fence.

"I believe it was excessive use of force," Luis Parra, a lawyer for the slain teenager's family, said in a telephone interview from Nogales, Ariz.

Parra said that the FBI had interviewed witnesses and that Mexican prosecutors were in discussions with Justice Department lawyers to give the FBI the bullets that hit Rodriguez, as well as his clothes and emergency dispatch recordings from the shooting. An FBI spokesman said the investigation was ongoing.

"The family continues to seek justice," Parra said.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-border-killings-20140227,0,2649003.story#axzz2uWsJlLk5

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

9/11 Conspiracy: Did FBI Source Have Contact With Osama Bin Laden in 1993?

by Lydia Smith

The FBI had a source in contact with Osama bin Laden in 1993 who learned Al Qaeda was planning terror attacks in the US, it has been revealed.

The Washington Times has reported the source gained secretive and specific information which helped uncover a terror plot against a Masonic lodge in Los Angeles.

The information was revealed in a 2010 discrimination lawsuit filed against the FBI by Bassem Youssef, a former agent. This revelation was omitted from the original 9/11 report and allegedly hidden from the 9/11 Commission and congressional investigators, which has prompted members of Congress to question what else the public may not know.

In January 1993, Youssef began developing two sources with strong connections to Omar Abdel Rahman, the "Blind Sheikh", responsible for planning the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

According to Ed Curran, one of Youssef's superiors at the time, a source told Youssef about a plot to attack a Masonic lodge in Los Angeles.

Curran said: "One source came back, had direct contact with Osama bin Laden. He had indicated to [Abdel] Rahman that he had a target picked out for an explosion in the Los Angeles area, I believe it was a Masonic lodge. [Abdel] Rahman went and told him to go get the money from Osama back in the Middle East."

Afterwards, as reported by ABC, Curran said he and Youssef had met with the potential source overseas and "eventually turned him so that he was working for us". Reportedly, the FBI "turned him" by deporting him and then promising his return to the US as "the carrot".

Curran first disclosed the high-level source's existence five years earlier in April 2005. He stated: "Bassem had been working on the development of a particular person for months at a time trying to develop him and whatever."

He continued: "And [the potential source] was deported but that did not dissuade him ... [Bassem] worked with this person's wife and set up negotiations directly with Bassem, and we were able to travel twice overseas to try to get this person to work for us."

The full transcript for the deposition is posted on the National Whistleblower Center's website. This week, US officials have not yet confirmed the accuracy of Curran's testimony, in reference to his claims that an FBI agent met with bin Laden in 1993.

In response to keeping information from the public, the FBI released a statement which read: "The FBI made all relevant information available to the 9/11 Commission and the Joint Intelligence Community Inquiry. Throughout both of these review, the FBI shared pertinent documents and knowledgeable personnel in order to present all known information to Commission and Inquiry personnel."

Philip Zelikow, who served as the 9/11 Commission's executive director, told the Daily Telegraph that evidence on the activities of Al Qaeda during the early 1990s was not investigated deeply because it was "so distant from the plotting that led directly to the 9/11 attack".

As of yet, details about the second source Youssef recruited is unknown.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/did-fbi-have-source-contact-osama-bin-laden-1993-1438110

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Missouri

Mayor's Task Force evaluate community policing but take no action

by Timothy Maylander

COLUMBIA — When the Mayor's Task Force on Community Violence first met in August, co-chair and Second Ward Councilman Michael Trapp stressed the importance of consensus to provide meaningful recommendations.Wednesday's meeting featured two discussions that will throw a wrench in that plan.

After an hour of discussion on community policing, the task force did not make any formal recommendations because members disagreed on the best way to address police training in response to crime in the community.

Members also discussed the merits of neighborhood watch programs, but they declined to make a formal recommendation until they receive local data.

The task force announced it will hear a presentation created by Columbia Police Chief Ken Burton, which they hope will address some of their questions about community policing. Members requested Burton give the presentation himself.

Community policing

Task force member Jerry Taylor said he didn't know if more relationships between citizens and police would reduce crime, but it could address growing problems within Columbia.

"The one issue I come back to is that a lack of trust between the black male community and the police is so apparent," Taylor said. "Being a logical person, that needs to be affected quickly, through actions and training."

Task force member Pam Hardin was in opposition to the plan because she believes the problem isn't the type of policing but the officers themselves and their interactions with minorities.

Hardin said officers need to receive cultural sensitivity training, and they can't be scared to interact with minorities. She also said there needs to be more minorities on the police force before relations can improve.

"The African-American community is not comfortable with so-called community policing," Hardin said.

Task force member Tyree Byndom suggested the Police Department continue to implement the recommendations from the Anderson report, an independent consultant's suggestions for improving the department created in 2012.

He said the task force needs to look at community policing as a way to bridge the gap between the Police Department and the community.

"Community policing is low hanging fruit, and it has to happen," Byndom said. "This is a national issue."

Trapp said if the task force recommended the Police Department switch to a community policing model, members would also have to recommend hiring more officers.

"Community policing is labor intensive on the force," Trapp said. "A realistic recommendation for community policing would probably have to involve increased resources in regards to that."

Hardin was opposed to that idea. He said there were other issues that needed to be addressed before any new officers should be hired.

"Before we would be comfortable with the community policing, we would be saying 'Let's put some other things into place,'" Hardin said after the meeting. "Let's get some serious sensitivity training."

Neighborhood watch

Fulfilling a request from the city manager's office, the task force also looked at funding for neighborhood watch programs.

Trapp said the city is well-served by involvement through programs like these, and task force member Paul Prevo said he went to a neighborhood watch program in Columbia where the community was involved and engaged.

But Byndom said it was "a defunct program," and task force member Steve Calloway said putting money toward neighborhood watch programs doesn't make sense when the Police Department is too underfunded to respond to calls.

Although members didn't make a formal recommendation at the meeting, Prevo said he wanted to recommend funding neighborhood watch programs, but only after the task force gathers the data on all the issues it has discussed.

The task force set a date for its work session, which will be held April 26. Its next meeting will be on March 12.

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/a/171768/mayors-task-force-evaluate-community-policing-but-take-no-action/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Montana

Public safety talk for tykes

Preschoolers learn about world of law enforcement

by Eric Dietrich

Cascade County Sheriff Bob Edwards took time Wednesday to read to students at the Great Falls Parent Participation Preschool a cautionary tale about “stranger danger,” part of a weeklong lesson on law enforcement.

Judging by how hard it was to coax comments out of the kids after the event, he taught them well.

“Never talk to strangers” said James Morrison, 4, when asked what his favorite part of the presentation was. Tight-lipped, he emphatically nodded yes when asked whether newspaper reporters counted as strangers.

The sentiment was widely shared, with several other students shaking their heads or shyly ducking behind the legs of a familiar adult when approached.

Charlie Parker, 5, one of the few preschoolers willing to go on the record, said his favorite thing about the sheriff was how the badge looked like the decal on his blue police car.

He's a fan of Edwards, said Charlie, who wants “to be everything” when he grows up. “Most of his job is putting bad guys in jail.”

The preschoolers have been learning about law enforcement and stranger danger all week, their teacher, Rosean Harris said.

In addition to having Edwards visit their classroom, she said, the students took a trip to visit the police station to help them learn to trust uniformed officers.

“We're telling them not to talk to strangers, then telling them it's OK to talk to policeman,” Harris said, explaining why it's important that they have a chance to meet officers in person.

“It's a very hard concept to get across to children.”

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20140226/NEWS01/302260021/Public-safety-talk-tykes?nclick_check=1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The tiny houses costing only $5,000 that are playing their small part to help solve homelessness

•  Occupy Madison Build hoping to create cluster of tiny houses for homeless

•  Many of the homes built with donated materials and volunteer labour

•  Sites of tiny houses have already been built in Washington and Oregon

by Associated Press

(Pictures on site)

They have traditionally attracted those planning on downsizing or looking to simplify their lives for financial or environmental reasons.

But there is now another group of people benefiting from the growing small-dwelling movement - the homeless.

Efforts to construct the compact buildings are growing across the U.S. because they are cheaper than a traditional large-scale shelter, help the recipients socially because they are built in communal settings and are environmentally friendly due to their size.

'You're out of the elements, you've got your own bed, you've got your own place to call your own,' said Harold 'Hap' Morgan, who is without a permanent home in Madison. 'It gives you a little bit of self-pride: This is my own house.'

Mr Morgan is in line for a 99-square-foot house built through the non-profit Occupy Madison Build, or OM Build, run by former organizers with the Occupy movement. The group, in Wisconsin, hopes to create a cluster of tiny houses like those in Olympia, Washington, and Eugene and Portland, Oregon.

Many have been built with donated materials and volunteer labour, sometimes from the people who will live in them. Most require residents to behave appropriately, avoid drugs and alcohol and help maintain the properties.

Still, sometimes neighbours have not been receptive. Linda Brown, who can see the proposed site for Madison's tiny houses from her living room window, said she worries about noise and what her neighbours would be like.

'There have been people who have always been associated with people who are homeless that are unsavoury types of people,' she said.

Organizer Brenda Konkel hopes to allay neighbours' concerns by the time the City Council votes in May on the group's application to rezone the site of a former auto body shop to place the houses there. Plans include gardens, a chicken coup and possibly bee hives and showers and bathrooms in the main building.

'I think a lot of them we can work through. I think there is some ways we can be a real asset to the neighborhood,' she said.

The group has already built one house that is occupied by a couple and parked on the street. A volunteer moves it every 24 or 48 hours as required by city ordinances.

The house, which cost about $5,000, fits a double bed with overhead storage, a small table and a small room with a compostable toilet. There's no plumbing or electricity, but the home is insulated and has a propane heater to get the residents through the harsh Wisconsin winters.

Eventually, organizers want to add solar panels.

Mr Morgan, who has struggled with a spinal cord surgery, alcohol addiction and unemployment, lives in a trailer provided by OM Build. He hopes to work as a cook again.

'My goal is to go back to that and get my own place, but it's really nice to have this to fall back on,' he said.

The tiny house effort in Eugene sprung up after the city shut down an Occupy encampment that turned into a tent city for the homeless. Andrew Heben and others worked with the city, which provided them land for the project.

Opportunity Village Eugene opened in September with little resistance, said Heben, 26, who is on the board of directors. Most of the nine huts, which are 60 square feet, and 21 bungalows, which are 64 square feet and 80 square feet, are already built.

Thirty people are living in them now, and he expects 40 to 45 to ultimately be there. The houses don't have electricity, water, bathrooms, showers or kitchens, but separate shared buildings do.

They have done it all for less than $100,000, which is about half the median home price in Eugene, all from private donors with no taxpayer money. He said the story has changed from how tent cities were a problem in America to how the community is banding together.

'It's an American success story... Now we see in different cities people coming up with citizen driven solutions,' Heben said.

Ministries in Texas and New York also are developing communities with clusters of small houses.

Mobile Loaves and Fishes plans 135 small homes and 100 recreational vehicles on 27 acres near Austin, Texas.

The Christian ministry that started 15 years ago bringing food and clothing to the homeless hopes to raise $7 million to build the homes, streets, utilities, sewers, a farming operation, medical facility and sanctuary, President and CEO Alan Graham said.

Residents would pay rent that ranges from $90 a month for a 150-square-foot home to $375 for 400 square feet.

'The goal is to reach everybody where they are economically,' Graham said.

He expects a staff of 15 will run the village, with residents having the option to get paid to help with upkeep.

Community Faith Partnership near Ithaca, New York, has built six of up to 18 planned 320-square-foot houses as transitional living for homeless men, said Jim Crawford, the group's executive director.

The men will pay rent on a sliding scale that looks at their situation and whether they receive government aid.

The heart of the operation will be a community centre where people who aren't social can learn to relate to others in a safe environment, Crawford said.

'We are bringing people into tangible housing but we are bringing them also into much less tangible human framework of social relations and that is the more difficult work,' he said. 'That is the more sophisticated work.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2568168/Tiny-houses-help-address-nations-homeless-problem.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kentucky

Community policing goes virtual on Instagram

by DEBORAH HIGHLAND

Like community policing of past decades that put police on foot patrol so that they could meet people under ordinary circumstances, Kentucky State Police are taking those foot patrols to a virtual level using the photo-sharing network Instagram.

“Everybody's used to seeing the gray car with the blue lights,” Kentucky State Police Post 3 spokesman Jonathan Biven said. “But we want to use Instagram as a way for people to see beyond that.”

As of Monday, the agency had 560 Instagram followers on its account KY_STATE_POLICE. By comparison, KSP has 11,700 followers on Twitter and more than 75,000 likes on the agency's Facebook page.

“With it only being three weeks into using Instagram, I look in the next six months for us to have 1,000 to 2,000 followers,” Biven said.

While the agency uses Twitter and Facebook to relay short messages quickly about important information such as road conditions and watching out for wanted suspects, KSP is using Instagram to show a variety of photos of both troopers and administrative personnel interacting with one another and the public. One photo shows a trooper standing with a child at the Carl Casper Auto Show in Louisville. Another photo shows KSP Post 7 Trooper Robert Purdy moonlighting at Purdy's Coffee Co. in Richmond.

“There's a lot of people who see the trooper as the guy behind them with blue lights on,” Biven said. “Truly, that's not who we are. We are very community oriented. All of our troopers out there are leaders in their respective communities. Now you are going to get an opportunity to see that when they are out doing specific events.

“In the past it's always been the post commander and maybe the public affairs officers. There's countless programs that all of our troopers do. Now with this we are going to be taking photographs” and making the public aware of what troopers do beyond their law enforcement duties, he said.

“We've got troopers who will read during Dr. Seuss week. We've got troopers that go eat lunch in the school systems. They go sit at the tables with the kids.

“It's not newsworthy to go out onto a news release. This is an opportunity. They wouldn't hear about unless they see it in Instagram,” Biven said. “That's what we're wanting Instagram to be able to do, to show they are not only enforcing and protecting the community, but they are also giving back.”

Biven predicts the Instagram account will be a great recruiting tool as well because of the young age demographic of Instagram users.

KSP spokesman Sgt. Michael Webb said in a press release that adding Instagram to the current KSP social media lineup will increase interaction with the 18- to 24-year-old demographic.

“Let's face it, that's our future,” Biven said. “That's the target area that we're looking for as far as being future law enforcement officers.”

http://www.bgdailynews.com/news/community-policing-goes-virtual-on-instagram/article_0560cb15-cbef-5142-8d9b-1a52853e4a9d.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New Jersey

Montclair ahead of national trend with proactive community policing

by Diane Lilli

They wear bright blue shirts and baseball caps, but don't mistake them for just any civilians. In Montclair, the members of the small Community Police force are highly trained officers, but have become one of the newest examples of a public safety trend sweeping the country: community police.

At the Rotary Club of Montclair meeting yesterday, Montclair police chief David Sabagh explained how a recent summer rash of violence in the township lead to some new programs and initiatives. Sabagh said with the growth of population, and recent gang related shootings, assaults and drug busts, he knew there were “challenges to adapt to” in town. Like all towns in New Jersey, the hot weather seems to bring out more crime.

In Montclair, overall crime is down, to the tune of about 38 percent compared to 7 years ago.

But violent crime has creeped up. Just like neighboring towns such as West Orange and Broomfield have discovered, drugs and gangs have been causing problems throughout the county.

“The numbers may show overall crime is down, but if you are a victim of a robbery or crime, to you that doesn't matter,” said Sabagh.

Now, along with a street crimes unit, Sabagh has instituted a new community force lead by Sgt. Tyrone Williams. Their clothing is low key so as not to alarm children; they travel to all wards of Montclair and their work is focused not just on the negative impact of crime but also on the good things that happen throughout Montclair on any given day.

“We visit schools, associations, crime watch meetings, and want to work with the public,” noted Williams. “We want to be there for the good times too, not just the bad times.”

Currently, there are 4 officers on the team, all working out of police headquarters - for now. Hopes are to add more officers when it is possible. This small force moves around the township, visiting each neighborhood.

“We are getting a command vehicle truck, that will be like an office on wheels,” noted Sabagh.

And, along with the softer looking uniforms, this community police force has a more personal feel as well.

“We will work with the children in town a lot,” said Williams. “Our goal is to focus on the young population.”

Reaching kids before they experiment with crime lessens the odds of children becoming criminals. Young boys in 1st and 2nd grades in Baltimore classrooms offered a game of “good behavior” in class, where they were rewarded for good behavior, had a 50 percent less chance of becoming drug addicts than their counterparts, who did not participate in the program. (Source: Fight Crime - Invest in Kids).

Some sobering statistics from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) report staggering numbers of violence among children:

“In 2010, 4,828 young people ages 10 to 24 were victims of homicide—an average of 13 each day.

Homicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24 years old.1

Among homicide victims 10 to 24 years old in 2010, 86% (4,171) were male and 14% (657) were female.

Among homicide victims ages 10 to 24 years old in 2010, 82.8% were killed with a firearm.

Each year, youth homicides and assault related injuries result in an estimated $16 billion in combined medical and work loss costs.”

With so much on the line as most families struggle with both parents working and their children home alone, or dealing with the temptations of teen drug use or gangs, community policing offers a more pro-active stance by working within the community, and focusing often on the needs of our most vulnerable residents: children.

“We do believe this is a pro-active approach,” said Sabagh.

Across the country, severe budget cuts have reduced the number of police in many small towns and big cities. With so many neighborhoods in search of adding more police, yet struggling with their budgets, the idea of community police is starting to take hold in some privately funded neighborhoods, such as Oakland California.

But Montclair is integrating this pro-active police unit within their own

police force and into the diverse Montclair community, within every ward. The idea, cutting edge today, is that the community police may offer a positive role model to children and also offer more eyes and ears on local streets, and harks back to the days when most everyone knew their cop on his local beat.

Of course, no one can replace the family unit, where children learn first hand their ethics and values. But at least in Montclair, this community police force offers another safe option for kids who may have free time on their hands and trouble on their block.

When you see any of the more casually dressed police officers on your street or in your school or neighborhood, be sure to offer them a smile and a handshake. Introduce them to your children.

You never know - their presence and acts of simple kindness may save your own child from following peer pressure or making that one big mistake that may cost him or her his future or even his life.

http://thejerseytomatopress.com/stories/Montclair-ahead-of-national-trend-with-proactive-community-policing,13741

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Texas

North Texas police force takes new approach in interactions with mentally disabled residents

by MITCH MITCHELL

BEDFORD, Texas — The first time officer Monique Hall met Amy Cook, she was in a hospital bed recovering from a suicide attempt.

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 disability.

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," said Cook, whose name has been changed to protect her identity. "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 Fort Worth suburb. Police were repeatedly arresting the same people for the same problems, Gibson said.

"We had officers who did not have the opportunity to deal with the underlying causes of the issues they were facing," Gibson told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (http://bit.ly/1fCnQu1). "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 handicapped 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 Bean, the victimization unit supervisor.

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

The classes teach officers how to document and categorize symptoms of a mental disability, 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."

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 a mental disability in the past three years who have been arrested more than 14 times, according to a report produced last year.

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 boy 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.therepublic.com/view/story/8f1b499b1dca40ae82ab2017e6fcc682/TX--Mentally-Ill-Police

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New York

Bill Bratton: You Can't Police Without Stop-And-Frisk

Bill Bratton ran the New York City Police Department (NYPD) from 1994 to 1996 under the Giuliani administration. He is credited with helping to bring down crime in that city during his short tenure.

Bratton is now back in New York City after a stint running the police department in Los Angeles. He has vowed to make the changes that his boss — new Mayor Bill de Blasio — wants, including the overhaul of the controversial stop-and-frisk practice, which has been criticized for unfairly targeting minorities.

Still, Bratton defends stop-and-frisk, which he calls “stop, question and frisk.”

“You cannot police without it,” Bratton tells Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson. “If you did not have it, then you'd have anarchy.”

Interview Highlights: Bill Bratton

On how he plans to improve the relationship between residents and police

“We're going about it in several ways. One of the most significant directions we're going is to reduce the number of ‘stop, question and frisk' stops by the members of the department. This is a campaign commitment by the newly elected mayor Bill de Blasio. And his selection of me as his police commissioner was that we both believed that there were too many stops in years past and that the city would be better off with fewer stops.”

On the need for ‘stop, question and frisk'

“Stop, question and frisk is a basic tool of policing — not only American policing, around the world. But in United States, it's defined by the Terry vs. Ohio Supreme Court decision back in the 1960s, which articulated when police can stop and for what purpose. So every police department in America every day does it.”

“The way it was practiced here for the last number of years is that it was overused. And it's the overuse that then created the negative reaction to the basic policy itself. And the confusion about whether you can police with or without it. You cannot police without it, I'm sorry. It's — if you did not have it, then you'd have anarchy, being quite frank with you.”

On what went wrong with ‘stop, question and frisk' in New York City

“A system was devised where twice a year when we graduate our recruit classes, which number in excess of 1,000 officers, that those officers would be surged or assigned into the 10 or 12 highest crime neighborhoods, effectively to make up for the fact that those precincts had lost a lot of full-time officers that normally would have been assigned there when the department had almost 41,000. The problem with that is that those officers, while the most recently trained, were the least experienced. And they were put into neighborhoods where they were, from my perspective, inadequately supervised — there'd be one sergeant covering 10 to 12 of these officers, who were assigned in pairs. And so if they were making stops — and they were encouraged to be very active in making stops — if they were doing it incorrectly, if they were not doing it according to the law, if they were not doing it according to policies and procedures, very often there would be nobody there to correct that inappropriate or incorrect behavior. And so the habits of a 20-year career form very quickly in that first year. So I think that policy, while it's a sound policy, in its implementation was where the flaws occurred.”

On translating New York City's success in lowering crime to other major U.S. cities

“There is no one-size-fits-all. It's a combination of things. Much the same as a doctor looking at patients, each patient is different — how much medicine you use for what illness. So that's where good mayors and good police chiefs come in to play, in terms of what is the appropriate level of the size of the police force, what is the appropriate activities they engage in. Essential in all instances is to get community cooperation, support and trust. So that's one of the reasons why in New York there's so much attention being focused on reducing the stop, question and frisk activities, because particularly in the minority neighborhoods of the city — and unfortunately those areas of the city that have the highest crime rates are some of our minority neighborhoods — that you need the trust, cooperation and collaboration of community residents to really have an impact on crime. Police can't do it alone. You can't arrest your way out of the problem.”

Guest

•  William J. Bratton, New York City Police Commissioner. He tweets @CommissBratton.

Transcript

JEREMY HOBSON, HOST:

Well, a study out today from the ACLU of New Jersey finds that only a quarter of police stops in Newark end in an arrest or a summons. In other words, three-quarters of the people who are stopped and perhaps frisked have done nothing wrong. The study will no doubt renew the debate over stop-and-frisk in Newark.

That debate is also raging, as we've heard, in New York City, where the new Mayor Bill de Blasio has vowed to reduce the use of the practice. His new police commissioner, Bill Bratton, will be on the front lines of that effort. Bratton has a long history leading major police forces in this country. He was the commissioner of the LAPD from 2002 to 2009. He ran the Boston Police Department for years before that. And he had a short stint as commissioner of the NYPD under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Now he's back, and Bill Bratton joins us from his office in New York. Welcome to HERE AND NOW.

COMMISSIONER BILL BRATTON: Pleasure to be with you, thank you.

HOBSON: Well, let me talk about what you have said in your first days on the job. You said that you want to re-establish a better trust, a better relationship with the citizens of New York, especially in the minority community. And I wonder how you plan to do that.

BRATTON: Well, the term we're talking about is legitimacy; the idea that if the public does not support the police, no matter how good your efforts to reduce crime, that the element of trust is essential to having that reduction in crime felt and appreciated.

So we're going about it in several ways. One of the more significant directions we're going is to reduce the number of stop, question and frisk stops by the members of the department. This is a campaign commitment by the newly elected mayor, Bill de Blasio. And his selection of me as his police commissioner was that we both believed that there were too many stops in years past and that the city would be better off with fewer stops.

HOBSON: Fewer but not zero stop, question and frisks.

BRATTON: That's correct. Stop, question and frisk is a basic tool of policing, not only American policing, around the world. But in United States, it's defined by the Cherry versus Ohio Supreme Court decision back in the late 1960s, which articulated when police can stop and for what purpose. So every police department in America every day does it.

HOBSON: Although as you know, even some stop, question and frisks in mostly minority neighborhoods in New York City are going to bother a lot of people there. There are many people who think the whole policy is flawed.

BRATTON: Well, that's because the way it was practiced here for the last number of years is that it was overused. And it's the overuse that then created the negative reaction to the basic policy itself, and the confusion about whether you can police with or without it. You cannot police without it, I'm sorry. It's - if you did not have it, then you'd have the anarchy, being quite frank with you.

HOBSON: Well, you have pointed the finger at new recruits as part of the problem, that you want to put these new recruits with seasoned officers in these cases.

BRATTON: That's correct. In New York City, as part of the effort to deal with the fact that the department lost over 6,000 officers over the last number of years, that's the equivalent of about 50 or 60 police officers for each of the city's 77 precincts, that a system was devised where twice a year when we graduate our recruit classes, which number in excess of 1,000 officers, that those officers would be surged or assigned into the 10 or 12 highest-crime neighborhoods, effectively to make up for the fact that those precincts had lost a lot of full-time officers that normally would have been assigned there when the department had almost 41,000.

The problem with that is that those officers, while the most recently trained, were the least experienced. And they were put into neighborhoods where they were, from my perspective, inadequately supervised. There'd be one sergeant covering 10 to 12 of these officers, who were assigned in pairs. And so if they were making stops, and they were encouraged to be very active in making stops, if they were doing it incorrectly, if they were not doing it according to the law, if they were not doing it according to policies and procedures, very often there would be nobody there to correct that inappropriate or incorrect behavior.

And so the habits of a 20-year career form very quickly in that first year. So I think that policy, while it's a sound policy, in its implementation was where the flaws occurred, in that those officers were not adequately supervised. And putting your least experienced officers into your highest-crime neighborhoods, in retrospect, I don't think that's the way to go, and we are in the process of attempting to change that.

HOBSON: One of the other big initiatives that the administration has been pushing is to reduce traffic deaths in New York City. Of course, it has been noted that after that announcement was made, the mayoral caravan was caught going over the speed limit and also driving through stop signs in a residential neighborhood of Queens. Do you think that people will follow stricter enforcement of these traffic laws and even of jaywalking in New York City? Is that possible?

BRATTON: The public will support the idea of stricter enforcement, more enforcement of the speeding, red light violations, that type of activity. The issue of jaywalking is more complex in a city as populated, as you will, as New York is, with eight and a half million people. So the effort is being focused on the activity that causes most of the serious injuries and deaths, and that is right-hand turns and right light and speeding violations in the city.

So you can't police everywhere all of the time. So you try to focus on where the problems are, the most significant. And in New York City, it's right turns on red that - because unlike many cities where you have all stops all directions at pedestrian lights, in New York City you'd have traffic chaos if you tried to do that.

So cars turning right on even a green signal are going into a walk sign for pedestrians. So it requires an extra degree of caution as you are making right turns. And then speed and stoplight violations have been seen as a factor in a lot of our accidents, our serious accidents here in New York City.

HOBSON: We're speaking with Bill Bratton, New York City's new police commissioner. A lot more to talk about, including the debate over whether we're giving up too much privacy in the name of security. Stay tuned. This is HERE AND NOW.

HOBSON: It's HERE AND NOW, and let's get back to our conversation with Bill Bratton, the new commissioner of New York City's police department. Before the break we were talking about Mayor Bill de Blasio's new initiative to reduce traffic accidents in the city. Here he is announcing that plan, which is called Vision Zero.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO: I want to emphasize that we are making this statement just two weeks into this administration because we think there is an epidemic here. There's been an epidemic of traffic fatalities, and it can't go on, and the time to start change is now.

HOBSON: Now Commissioner Bratton, you were right behind the mayor when he made that announcement. But as we talked about, there has also been a call for an increase in tickets for jaywalking. But when it comes to reducing traffic deaths in New York, don't you think it's mostly about the drivers rather than the pedestrians?

BRATTON: A combination of both, being quite frank with you. But the driver has the advantage of he's in a two-ton vehicle, versus the pedestrian has really no protection. And under our laws, the pedestrian has that right of way in those crosswalks. And so that's the effort on the driver, driver education, driver enforcement. And so far this year we're experiencing a decrease in fatalities, which is a good sign to start the year off with.

HOBSON: Commissioner Bratton, I have lived in all of the cities that you have been police commissioner in, and I have to say that when you look at Boston, Los Angeles and New York, I felt by far the safest in New York. I felt absolutely safe walking around that city even at 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning. I did not think I was going to be mugged or anything would happen to me. Why is that? Why is New York, why does it feel so much safer than those other cities?

BRATTON: I think one is the police presence. Two is the sheer numbers of people on the street or in the subway systems at all hours of the day and night, that the city also made a concerted effort to address issues that cause fear, the so-called broken windows, the aggressive panhandling, street-level drug narcotic dealing, prostitution.

So a lot of the things that if left undeterred, as they were in New York in the '70s and '80s but were finally addressed in the '90s, that if you can reduce not only the actual crime but the so-called signs of crime or broken windows, you can have a very significant effect on the way people feel about their personal safety.

And you are correct that New York is proportionally safer than either Boston or L.A., two cities, which like New York have seen significant declines in crime, and in fact all three cities among the safest in the United States.

HOBSON: But why hasn't that worked in, let's say, L.A.? Why doesn't it feel as safe as New York? Wouldn't the practices that you've just talked about that have happened in New York translate well to Los Angeles?

BRATTON: Well, they would. I have a high degree of intimacy with Los Angeles, where gang crime is down 60 percent, gang homicides, from what it was. But L.A. has the issue of gang crime that New York does not have. New York has smaller issues with what we call crews, but the levels of violence don't approach some of the levels that you see and read about in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles also has a very small police force, with 9,700 officers. To have the equivalent of what I get to work with here in New York every day, you'd need 18,000. So it's a city where the visibility of police is much less apparent than it is here in New York.

Similarly for Boston, even though Boston has proportionally a good size police force for its population, the visibility of police still does not equal what you would see routinely here in New York.

HOBSON: Well, so is that the answer for cities that at least can afford to do that, just bump up the size of the police force?

BRATTON: No, there is no one-size-fits-all. It's a combination of things. Much the same as a doctor looking at patients. Each patient is different; how much medicine you use for what illness. So that's where good mayors and good police chiefs come in to play in terms of what is the appropriate level of the size of the police force? What is the appropriate activities they engage in.

Essential in all instances is to get community cooperation, support and trust. And so that's one of the reasons why in New York there's so much attention being focused on reducing the stop, question and frisk activities because particularly in the minority neighborhoods of the city, and unfortunately those areas of the city that have the highest crime rates are some of our minority neighborhoods, that you need the trust, cooperation and collaboration of community residents to really have an impact on crime.

Police can't do it alone. You can't arrest your way out of the problem. We have clearly come to understand that community policing, with its emphasis on partnership between police and community, its focus on the problems that are creating fear and disorder. And lastly, it's a strong embrace of the idea that the goal of police should be to prevent crime, not the measure of success on how they respond to it. All those things come into play.

HOBSON: What do you think is the matter with Chicago, then, which had 415 homicides last year, which was well more than New York City, which has a population three times the size?

BRATTON: Well, you take a look at Chicago this year, that their crime rates are going down dramatically. The gang violence in Chicago, like Los Angeles, has strongly entrenched gangs that are very violent. But if you look beyond the aberration of that year or two where they were in the front page of most American papers, I think you'll find that Garry McCarthy, the superintendent out there, is doing a great job of turning that around.

The media reporting of that hasn't caught up to the media reporting of the increase they had the previous year, but even the previous year increase seemed more dramatic because in the previous years to that, the crime had been down dramatically in Chicago. So you really need to take it in the totality of context. You can't just take one year at a time. You need to look at the trending, and you need to look at the broader picture, if you will, rather than the snapshot.

HOBSON: What are your thoughts on the debate that's going on right now over surveillance versus safety? And you're obviously in a city that is probably the primary terrorist attack target in this country. Where do you see that balance between surveillance and privacy?

BRATTON: Well, in public space that you have no expectation of privacy, according to the Supreme Court, and in cities like New York, you're going to see more and more camera systems put in place both by the public sector, as well as the private sector. Those systems are phenomenally helpful in solving crime and in preventing it.

The issues of what police can survey, as they relate to terrorism, increasingly we're seeing more court guidance on those issues, the idea being that even in that area, there is a need to have some degree of surveillance, but you need to do it in a way that it is always operating within the law and never outside the law.

HOBSON: Commissioner, if we talk to you in a year, what would you like to say you've accomplished in New York?

BRATTON: One, that the city has remained free of a terrorist attack and that the low crime rates that the city has now experienced for 20 years are continuing. And my expectation is that's what we will be able to report.

HOBSON: You miss anything about L.A.?

BRATTON: L.A. in the sense of miss the department, certainly, great organization, miss a lot of the friends and relatives and miss my son and his wife and the two grandkids, who are still living out there.

HOBSON: I thought you would say the weather, but apparently not.

BRATTON: Oh no, I like the four seasons. As long as I don't have to shovel it, I'm very happy back here in the East Coast.

HOBSON: Bill Bratton, the new police commissioner for New York City. Thank you so much for joining us.

BRATTON: Thank you, pleasure being with you.

HOBSON: So Meghna, I guess that means that the commissioner of the NYPD gets somebody to shovel the snow for him.

MEGHNA CHAKRABARTI, HOST:

He's getting his dose of winter this year.

HOBSON: Well a lot there to talk about. You can weigh in at hereandnow.org. What do you think of stop, question and frisk? And do you think it's possible to get New Yorkers to stop jaywalking? You can let us know at hereandnow.org. You can also tweet us @hereandnow. I am @jeremyhobson.

CHAKRABARTI: I'm @meghnawbur.

HOBSON: And this is HERE AND NOW. Transcript provided by NPR

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2014/02/25/bill-bratton-nypd

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

North Carolina

Crime crackdown transforms town
Drug enforcement, community support cuts crime by 800 percent

by Corey Friedman

KENLY — Flipping a street-level drug dealer to snare suppliers may be a cop movie cliche, but it doesn't happen on Police Chief Josh Gibson's watch.

The Kenly Police Department's zero-tolerance approach to the drug trade has helped reduce crime by nearly 800 percent in the last decade. Letting small-time dealers off easy is simply not an option.

"I don't make any deals with drug dealers,” Gibson said. "My philosophy is that guy over there is not my problem. You're my problem. When you know you're going to jail, it's bad for business. There's too much money and profit in drugs. You can't stop drugs, but you can control it.”

State law gives officers the discretion to make an arrest or issue a citation for some misdemeanor drug offenses — particularly possessing small quantities of marijuana — but Gibson's instituted a hard-nosed policy to deter future drug use in Kenly.

"I told my guys, ‘If you find a seed or a stem in their car, you take them to jail,'” he said. "In Raleigh, Charlotte, in bigger towns, you might see that little blunt in the ashtray and you throw it on the ground, tell them to stomp it out and let them go about their business.”

Crack cocaine and prescription painkillers are the most common drugs seen in Kenly.

"We've seen a lot of influx lately in pills,” Gibson said. "We do get meth, but a lot of times, the meth is passing through. A lot of the crack around here is small amounts, $5, $10 crack rocks. Even your halfway major players buy an ounce and they nickel and dime it, break it up.”

Playing hardball with drug offenders is part of a focus on proactive community policing that Gibson credits with Kenly's stark reduction in reported crime. The town had roughly 4,000 crimes per year in 2004 and 2005, Gibson said. Last year, police investigated just 470.

"I've seen a lot of changes,” Gibson said. "I got together with the community and I told them, ‘You've got to make a stand. You can't live on your knees.' The community really came together.”

Since Jan. 1, Kenly has just 51 reported crimes.

TURNAROUND TOWN

When Gibson started work as a rookie police officer in 2001, drugs, fights and unruly crowds of teenagers and young adults were common.

"You couldn't drive down to the Food Lion without seeing a crowd of people in the streets,” he said. "On Third and Alford, there was a block party every night. It was easy to get drugs. All you had to do was empty their pockets. It was like shooting fish in a barrel.”

Drug dealers and neighborhood toughs intimidated some of Kenly's older residents. Eventually, police and community members came together in an effort to make the streets of this 2,000-population tobacco-farming town safe for everyone.

"There are a lot of elderly people in this community,” Gibson said. "Some people aren't fortunate enough to be able to choose who their neighbors are. You might have someone who's lived here all their life, and all of a sudden, they've got a crack family next door and they're afraid to leave their house. That's just not right.”

Youths wearing gang colors and flashing hand signs held court on the streetcorners.

"I can't stand two things: A bully mentality and thieves,” Gibson said. "What I found was people were scared to walk down the street because of that gang mentality. That really made me sick. What I found was to combat it all, you go after the drugs.”

Kenly wasn't infiltrated by infamous East Coast and West Coast street gangs, Gibson said, but groups of teens and young adults had organized small neighborhood gangs, choosing their own names and colors.

"I don't give them no respect,” Gibson said. "I don't respect their colors. I don't show them any respect — I'm not going to do it. You haven't done anything to earn my respect.”

Police began reaching out to residents and worked to unite the community against crime and drugs. That effort began as Gibson rose through the ranks and continued after he was named police chief in April 2007.

"I can't sit here and say I did this all myself,” Gibson said. "There were some past officers here who got sick of it. They started to fight, and I just tried to carry it on.”

Police have good working relationships with local churches, businesses and other town of Kenly departments. Gibson said residents are much more likely to call the police to report a crime or a suspicious person in their neighborhood than in years past.

"I believe everyone has a role in life, and I believe their role is just as important as mine,” Gibson said. "I believe the librarian and the mechanic are just as important as the chief of police. That's how I try to treat everyone, and they treat me the same way.”

Police had broad support from the Kenly Town Council, local churches and community leaders. Gibson said it's the community, not the department alone, that deserves the credit for curbing crime.

"It's been a combination of a lot of people,” he said. "My job is actually fairly easy. The community has always been good here. I've always been blessed. I don't have much of a fight.”

BOOSTING MORALE

As police worked to send drug dealers packing and make residents feel safe, Gibson campaigned for more pay and better equipment for the officers serving alongside him.

The Kenly Police Department has eight full-time and five part-time officers. After taking over as chief, Gibson worked with the Kenly Town Council to pass 14-percent pay raises.

"I had to go through our budget line item by line item and pretty much start at zero,” Gibson said.

Kenly's starting salary for a new police officer fresh out of school is about $30,000. Gibson said the pay raises helped improve morale and allowed the Kenly Police Department to compete with other law enforcement agencies for skilled officers.

The department offers other benefits, too, like access to its own firing range and free gym memberships so officers can stay in shape.

Along with the raises, Gibson also worked to buy a fleet of brand-new police cars. The department has eight vehicles, seven Chevrolet Impala police cruisers and Gibson's town-owned Ford Explorer SUV.

"We had been buying half-used cars,” Gibson said. "The maintenance cost was $27,000 a year.”

Officers previously shared the patrol vehicles, but now each member of the police department has his or her own assigned car.

"They never got a break,” Gibson said of the old patrol cars. "They were hot-seated.”

Gibson's now working to replace the current cars, most of which have been in service since 2008.

Since joining the department in 2001, Gibson worked as a K-9 handler, sergeant, temporary lieutenant and interim chief before being named to the top job on a permanent basis. Local officials encouraged him to apply for the chief job, and both the town council and a panel of community leaders interviewed the leading candidates.

"I said, ‘If I get 100 percent from both panels, I'll take the job,'” Gibson recalls. "I said that I'd need that kind of support to do what I wanted to do.”

The chief experienced that support in a personal way when lightning sparked a fire that destroyed his home about three years ago.

"We lost everything, but I saw more blessings than I saw tragedy all day long,” Gibson said. "My wife will tell you the same thing.”

As a rookie officer, Gibson planned to gain experience in Kenly and move on to a larger department. But as the years passed, he began to appreciate and admire the close-knit community. Now it's his home.

"I came to Kenly to leave Kenly,” Gibson said, "but now I don't plan on leaving anytime soon.”

http://www.wilsontimes.com/News/Feature/Story/29790253---Crime-crackdown-transforms-town

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

California

Back to the Future: Bringing Community Policing Back to San Jose

by Sam Liccardo

What makes a good city great? We can all identify a few favorite ingredients: excellent schools, vibrant neighborhoods, high-wage job opportunities, attractive parks and public spaces, and inviting cultural amenities.

In the hierarchy of priorities, though, our residents first need to feel safe in their homes and in their neighborhoods. If we cannot meet this basic need, every other goal falls to a distant second place.

As a former criminal prosecutor, I know all too well the ripple effect of a single crime on a community. When we talk about fighting crime, we are also fighting for a stronger economy, better schools, great public services, and all the other things we want for San Jose -- because a safer city is necessary to making all of them possible.

To move this conversation forward, I'm putting forth a detailed set of proposals focused on improving public safety. Here are just a few of the ideas:

Restore community policing in San José. Thirty years ago, the "community policing" approach began here in San Jose, and became a national model. Unfortunately, the contract with our police union enables officers with seniority to move out of any beat after six months. That means they can't develop the relationships, familiarity and trust required to effectively engage in a neighborhood, undermining the effectiveness of community policing. As mayor I will make a return to community policing a top priority as we sit down to negotiate our next police contract. We need to add 200 more police officers to our streets -- and that's just the beginning. On the City Council, I recently proposed a plan with Mayor Reed -- which the Council overwhelmingly approved -- to restore 200 officers to our neighborhoods within three-and-a-half years. And that's just the start. When times were tough, we made very tough decisions to keep our books balanced here in San Jose. I will continue to lead on pension reform and fiscal responsibility, but with an improving economy, we must focus budgetary savings on hiring and retaining the police and firefighters we need to keep our city safe. We need to deploy the most modern technology to leverage our scarce resources more effectively . From my plan to create a voluntary online registry of safety video cameras to help police quickly identify potentially critical evidence, to a more aggressive use of data analytics to better deploy police patrols, we can use technology more effectively. San Jose should be a model to other cities in the use of cutting-edge policing technology, in the heart of the Silicon Valley where much of this technology is being developed.

These are just a few elements of my strategy. I'm not claiming to have all the answers, though, and ultimately, any plan to improve public safety needs the input of our neighborhood groups, police department, prosecutors, victims' rights advocates and the residents who deal with crime in their communities. I hope this proposal will become a catalyst for a substantive conversation on safety. When everyone's voice is heard, we can crowd-source the best ideas and most effective solutions to this challenge.

Working together we can restore San Jose's rightful place on the mantel as America's safest big city.

You can read the full proposal online at www.SamLiccardo.com.

Councilmember Sam Liccardo represents San José's Third District on the San Jose City Council, one of the most diverse communities in our city. Prior to winning election to City Council, Sam served in the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office as a prosecutor of sexual assault and child exploitation crimes, and as a federal prosecutor.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-liccardo/community-policing-san-jose_b_4834572.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Texas

New Public Safety Goals For Dallas Police and Fire-Rescue

Dallas City Hall expects police and firefighters to reach new goals with the same resources in a briefing presented to the Dallas City Council Public Safety Committee Monday.

by Ken Kalthoff

•  Proposed Strategic Plan FY 2015 - FY 2017

By September 2017, Dallas Fire-Rescue is expected to reach all high-risk, life-saving structure fire incidents in populated areas of the city within 5 minutes and 20 seconds, 90 percent of the time.

The department intends to accomplish this goal by redeploying Emergency Medical Service resources and enhanced training and recruitment.

The EMS change is called "tiered response" in some other cities. Less highly equipped Basic Life support ambulances would respond to some calls currently handled by the most highly equipped Advanced Life Support ambulances now.

"Maybe there are units we can send to some of the lower acuity calls, the stubbed toe, so to speak. It's part of an overall assessment and hopefully we get a new dispatch system soon. It will help us address that," Chief Louie Bright said.

The new dispatch system would support call takers evaluate emergencies and keep the ALS units available for the most critical calls.

Tiered response has faced resistance in Dallas but it has been successful in other cities and new City Manager A.C. Gonzalez has said he wants to make the change.

Bright said the change could make the entire Fire-Rescue Department more efficient and there will be public education to explain the program before it happens.

"The dispatchers will undergo quite a bit of training. Information they receive from the caller will help determine which level of service to send to a particular call and that certainly will help improve our response time to the more pertinent emergencies as well," Bright said.

By September 2017, the Dallas Police Department is expected to move the Dallas crime rate from sixth lowest among the top ten most populous cities to fifth place.

The Police Department plans to reach that goal with a variety of community policing programs and shifting existing manpower through efficiency.

"It looks good on paper but the reality is it's going to be very hard for them to pull that off and reduce the crime," Dallas Fraternal Order of Police President Richard Todd said.

The union leader said reassignment of veteran officers and recent discipline issues have made officer morale very low. Todd said staffing and recruiting are also challenges for the police department.

"Those things are in need of an overhaul. So I don't know how they're going to pull that off," Todd said.

The Dallas Police Department has reported a crime reduction in each of the past 10 years. •  2013 Dallas Crime Summary

Dallas Police Chief David Brown left the Public Safety Committee meeting Monday without comment but he has said before he intends to continue the crime reduction trend.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/New-Public-Safety-Goals-For-Dallas-Police-and-Fire-Rescue-246980531.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ohio

I-Team: Can Cleveland Learn From Cincinnati Police Reforms?

by Bill Sheil

CINCINNATI, Ohio– To hear people tell the two stories, it's hard to believe they are talking about one city.

Everyone the I-Team spoke with – from the mayor to the police chief, from community activists to the president of the police union – everyone spoke about how well Cincinnati's police force now works with people in the city.

And everyone spoke of how bad that relationship used to be and how much change was needed.

As Cleveland continues under the watchful eye of a Justice Department probe that's looking at whether its police force has a pattern of using excessive force, leaders in Cincinnati say there is a lot to learn from their experience.

The Justice Department is not in the habit of looking into a city's police force because of any one incident.

But it is something of an open secret that the probe is tied to the tragic police chase through Cleveland in November of 2012.

More than 60 police cars chased two unarmed people, 43 year-old Timothy Russell, and his passenger, 30-year-old Malissa Williams, for almost half an hour before killing them in a hail of 137 police-fired bullets in East Cleveland.

Since Russell died, no one will know for sure why he drove away from police and did not stop.

But the attorney for Williams' family, David Malik, says “There's a penalty for running from the police; it's not death.”

The chase began when an officer heard what he thought was a gunshot coming from Russell's older model car. It may have been a backfire.

“I'm so troubled that our officers were involved in it,” Cleveland Police Chief Mike McGrath said the day after the chase. “And I'm so troubled that those people died.”

The Justice Department has been involved with allegations against police departments in many cities over many years.

But perhaps none were more serious than what was occurring in Cincinnati in April of 2001.

In terms of making changes, John Cranley, now Cincinnati's mayor, remembers what he thought as a member of council in 2001. “It really wasn't an option,” Mayor Cranley tells us. “It was there, you know? The Justice Department was there.”

In April of 2001, leaders in Cincinnati were trying to end three days of civil unrest. Sixteen African-Americans, men or teens, had been killed by Cincinnati police in five years.

Some of them were unarmed, including 19-year-old Timothy Thomas. Thomas was the sixteenth person killed, and his death set off the unrest.

Timothy Thomas's funeral was held in the New Prospect Baptist Church.

The pastor of New Prospect, Damon Lynch, remembers all sides in the community feeling like there had to be real and meaningful change.

“We wanted to do something that, at the end of the day, brought Cincinnati together,” Pastor Lynch says, “Some type of ‘collaborative' attempt so that, whether you were a police officer, a police officer's wife, a young black male… whoever you were, let's all come to the table.”

Out of the tragedy was born the Cincinnati Collaborative, which made sweeping changes to how police do their jobs in Cincinnati – changes agreed to, and sometimes suggested by, the police.

The Collaborative's highlights include:

“All-parties” meetings - (police, community members, the police union, lawyers) where all sides look to hammer out police issues; “Problem Solving Policing” - community helps police search for ways to reduce crime without necessarily making a large number of arrests; “Citizens Complaints Authority” – an outside agency that has real power to investigate complaints against the police; “Transparency” - when it comes to most police issues, so the community can really see what's going on.

The Justice Department has reportedly used Cincinnati's Collaborative as a model for other cities facing policing issues, including New Orleans and Seattle.

Jeffrey Blackwell, Cincinnati's new police chief, says the community is perfectly capable of telling his department how they want policing done.

“Our style of policing is an agreed-upon style,” says Chief Blackwell.

The chief attended Case Western for college, and has an affinity for, and strong opinions about, policing in his college town.

“They've got some policing styles in Cleveland that are old-school and very traditional,” Chief Blackwell says.

“The community in Cleveland… has been asking for change for a long time,” according to the chief.

“And I will just say,” he adds, “changes are necessary. For our field, and our profession, Cleveland has to do it better.”

Change wasn't easy in Cincinnati, and it took years to build the trust necessary to make the Collaborative work as well as it does today.

Kathy Harrell, president of the Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police, voted against having her organization become part of the collaborative.

It did so anyway, in part out of concern that a federal judge would order sweeping changes whether the union was at the table or not.

Now, Harrell says joining the Collaborative was “one of the best things we ever did.”

A critical element in the success of the Collaborative is that Cincinnati police officers see their jobs as better and easier than they were without it.

“It is easier because we have better relationships with the community, and they work with us,” Harrell says.

Not only easier, but some officers say they are safer as well. “If you ask any police officer, ” says Specialist Scotty Johnson, a long-time veteran of the Cincinnati Police Department, ‘would you rather come and scuffle and fight and have friction every time you make a radio run?', they'll tell you we want to be respected, we want to be appreciated.”

“What makes it work is constant engagement,” says Al Gerhardstein, the Cincinnati civil rights attorney who helped develop The Collaborative.

A federal judge oversaw The Collaborative at the start, but it now continues on its own.

Several people we interviewed saw the judge as critical because she had the power to order change if the parties could not agree to changes on their own.

“What was good for us is that we had a federal judge who would not allow us to think small,” says Iris Roley, one of the leading voices in the Cincinnati community for The Collaborative.

“She instructed us to think bigger, go deeper, and hammer this thing out,” Roley says.

“Now, there's a growing sense that the police are partners,” Gerhardstein adds, “in trying to build a stable environment where we can work, earn money, and live safely.”

Everyone we interviewed in Cincinnati agreed that their city was better because of The Collaborative, and the police officers thought their jobs were better because of it as well.

The changes were slow and tough, and involved a lot of hard work building trust that was not there in the beginning.

What happened in Cincinnati is not a tale of two cities. It's a tale of one city that made real changes.

Watch a web extra of extended interviews below. CLICK HERE to read more about the Cleveland police chase investigation.

Tuesday night on FOX 8 News at 10 p.m. , we'll hear from the U.S. Attorney and the NAACP. We also made the Cleveland Police Patrolman's Union and Mayor Jackson's office aware of the story and will see if they wish to comment, as well.

http://fox8.com/2014/02/24/i-team-can-cleveland-learn-from-cincinnati-police-reforms/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Georgia

Free Smoke Detector Batteries From Alpharetta Public Safety

According to reports, home fires kill hundreds of children ages 14 and under each year and adults 75 and older are 2.8 times more likely to die in a home fire.

by Hunt Archbold

Each year, during the daylight-savings time change period, the International Association of Fire Chiefs reminds us to test and change the batteries in our smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors.

This year, the daylight savings time change will take place on Sunday, March 9, 2014 at 2:00am. Clocks are turned forward 1 hour.

The Alpharetta Fire Services reminds our residents that one easy step can help save their lives and the lives of those around them. Residents are encouraged to change the batteries in their own smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors, test the alarms and remind friends, family, neighbors and fellow community members to do the same.

Communities nationwide witness tragic home fire deaths each year, but everyone can work together to help reduce the number of home fire fatalities. Non-working smoke alarms rob residents of the protective benefits home safety devices were designed to provide. The most commonly cited cause of non-working smoke alarms: worn or missing batteries.

Tragically, home fires kill hundreds of children ages 14 and under each year and adults 75 and older are 2.8 times more likely to die in a home fire.

“Eighty percent of child fire fatalities occur in homes without working smoke alarms. It's a tragic statistic that could be reduced by adopting the simple habit of changing your batteries," said Alpharetta Fire Marshal David Morris in a news release.

The peak time for home fire fatalities is between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. when most families are sleeping. Children and senior citizens are most at risk, and a working smoke alarm can give them the extra seconds they need to get out quickly.

Even though communities across America witness home fire deaths each year, we can work together to help significantly reduce the number of fires. Remember- test your smoke alarms and then change your batteries!

The Alpharetta Department of Public Safety will be handing out free smoke detector batteries to citizens and business representatives at each Alpharetta fire station starting Sunday, March, 9th, 2014 until supplies are exhausted.

http://alpharetta.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/free-smoke-detector-batteries-from-alpharetta-public-safety

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

California

The Gangs of Los Angeles
Part 1: Innovative Approaches to a Serious Problem

At 5 a.m., the command post in our Los Angeles Division was buzzing with activity. It would be a day of reckoning for nearly two dozen members of MS-13, the violent street gang that over the years has brought drugs, murder, and misery to countless Los Angeles neighborhoods.

Before the sun came up, teams of FBI agents and their partners from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) began making arrests. In short order, the large video monitors in the command post started to show the words “in custody” next to the images of the subjects—many of whom were wanted on federal drug charges and were the gang's leaders, or “shot callers,” in the parlance of the street.

In Los Angeles—often referred to as the gang capital of the world—it was just another day for the men and women of the FBI who work to protect the community from hundreds of area gangs. But locking up these criminals is only part of the story. Together with our law enforcement and community partners, the Los Angeles Division is taking a leadership role in the fight against gangs with innovative programs designed to bring healing as well as justice to neighborhoods ravaged by violence and intimidation.

“You can't arrest your way out of the gang problem,” explained Robert Clark, an assistant special agent in charge in our Los Angeles Division. “Looking at the statistics prior to 2007 and in the seven years since I've been here,” he said, “there's been upwards of a 300 percent increase in arrests, but the gang problem still exists.”

Clark and others considered new approaches. “Where could we bring our resources and our like ideas to really have an impact in the community?” he asked. “FBI agents and local police officers can't be everywhere. That's why it was important that we build relationships in the community. Those relationships are essential to solving crimes.”

Understanding firsthand the challenges facing gang-plagued neighborhoods based on his own childhood growing up in the inner city of Youngstown, Ohio, Clark spearheaded three initiatives that are making a difference in Los Angeles. In the coming weeks, FBI.gov will chronicle those programs, which are helping to empower communities, reduce the crime rate, clear unsolved murder cases, and aid in intelligence-gathering efforts that allow the Bureau to monitor gangs with an international reach such as MS-13.

The programs include:

•  Operation Save Our Streets Task Force, established in 2010 in partnership with the LAPD to solve gang-related homicide cases; •  The Community Impact Initiative, in which law enforcement personnel and other volunteers return to neighborhoods after gang busts to clean alleyways of trash and graffiti, working alongside residents and property owners; and •  The Homicide Library project, a joint initiative between the FBI and the LAPD that is digitizing thousands of paper-only murder investigation files for use in a searchable system that will help solve more cases.

“Thanks to the hard work of many, many people,” Clark said, “we have been able to take these ideas and implement them and measure their success. We have been able to take murderers off the streets,” he added, “and just as importantly, we are helping to improve the quality of life in communities where residents often felt forgotten or ignored.”

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/february/the-gangs-of-los-angeles-part-1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Gangs of Los Angeles
Part 2: Operation Save Our Streets

The murders may be random and senseless—a drive-by shooting that kills an innocent bystander—or they may be targeted hits by individuals “putting in work” against rival gang members. Either way, officials estimate that more than half of all the homicides that occur in Los Angeles are gang related.

To address the problem, the FBI joined with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in establishing a gang homicide task force in 2010 called Save Our Streets (SOS). It was an idea born of necessity, and it has been extremely successful.

“We've had a record number of homicide clearances because of the SOS effort,” said FBI Los Angeles Assistant Special Agent in Charge Robert Clark. The task force—which Clark proposed—focuses on murder investigations that are close to being solved but need an extra investigative push and other resources to result in indictments and arrests.

“Recognizing that there were a large number of unsolved gang-related homicides in L.A., we decided to pool our resources,” Clark said, “and have seasoned FBI investigators and LAPD homicide detectives work together to solve cases.”

“The FBI offered us everything from personnel to laptops,” said Cheryl Nalls, a veteran LAPD detective who works in the Criminal Gang/Homicide Division in South Central L.A. “We have a serious gang problem here,” she said, adding that in 2010, lack of funds threatened to imperil many gang-related homicide investigations.

In that year, a city budget crisis forced administrators to place a cap on the amount of overtime homicide detectives could work, which meant that some investigations were put at risk. The SOS initiative provided temporary federal funding to pay overtime costs along with investigative manpower and additional resources.

During the initial 90-day trial period of SOS in 2010, 27 homicide cases were cleared, a number that was “unheard of in such a short period of time,” Clark said. The following year, during the same 90-day period from July through September, SOS task force officers cleared 50 homicide cases.

“A host of things are being done in L.A. to contribute to the annual murder rate dropping to record lows,” Clark said, “and SOS is absolutely a part of that. We've cleared more than 200 cases since the program began, and that means we've sent more than 200 people to jail. SOS puts murderers behind bars.”

“We have established a great partnership with the FBI,” Nalls said. “Agents work hand in hand with LAPD investigators, and cases get solved.”

Today, the SOS Task Force has become a permanent part of the FBI's anti-gang operations in Los Angeles, and Clark is able to assign task force officers to the city's gang hotspots.

Special Agent Bob Scheerle, an SOS member, currently sits with his LAPD counterparts in the police department's Harbor office in southern Los Angeles—a jurisdiction where there are seven major gangs, methamphetamine is the illicit drug of choice, and the majority of murders are gang-related.

Having agents and detectives sitting together, working cases side by side, makes for a true partnership, Scheerle said, “and that helps solve more cases.”

“Those relationships are what make SOS work, not just funding and equipment,” Clark added. “We are all working toward a common goal—to make the community a better place in which to live.”

Nalls agrees. “SOS has been a win-win for everybody,” she said, “but most especially for the community.”

A Model for Other Jurisdictions

Since the Save Our Streets Task Force was established nearly four years ago, the model has been tested in several other FBI divisions, according to Robert Clark, an assistant special agent in charge in our Los Angeles Division.

“We had such success implementing SOS,” Clark recalled, “that people wanted to know how the partnership between the LAPD and the FBI produced such dramatic results in clearing unsolved homicides.”

Clark and SOS members from the LAPD briefed executives at FBI Headquarters in Washington and helped several divisions set up trial SOS programs with their local police departments—in areas such as East St. Louis and San Juan, Puerto Rico—where gang crime is significant.

“The SOS model will work with any type of crime,” Clark said. “It doesn't have to be just homicides. San Juan targeted violent carjackings, and another jurisdiction addressed aggravated assaults because they were doing pretty good on their homicide clearances.” He added, “If you have good partnerships and relationships between organizations, the SOS model can work anywhere.”

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/february/the-gangs-of-los-angeles-part-2-operation-save-our-streets/the-gangs-of-los-angeles-part-2-operation-save-our-streets

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Gangs of Los Angeles
Part 3: Helping to Heal Communities

Driving along the streets and alleyways of Baldwin Village—known as “The Jungle” and historically one of the most violent gang neighborhoods in South Central Los Angeles—homicide detective Cedric Washington can recall in detail the many gang-related shootings and murders he has investigated there. In his 17 years with the Los Angeles Police Department, he has learned a hard truth: “It's too easy to become a victim here.”

But Washington also sees something else in Baldwin Village. Beyond the violence and the victims, he sees a restored neighborhood taking shape. Part of the credit for that goes to an FBI program he helped establish. It's called the Community Impact Initiative, and it's designed to work after law enforcement puts gang members behind bars.

The program brings together law enforcement personnel and volunteers from a variety of government, business, and community organizations to work alongside residents and property owners to clean up alleyways, paint over graffiti, and install security cameras—all to help residents stake a new claim on their neighborhoods.

“A few years ago, we were arresting dozens of gang members at a time,” said Robert Clark, an assistant special agent in charge in our Los Angeles Division. “That was impactful, but then someone said: ‘You arrested X number of gang members. How did that improve the quality of life in that particular neighborhood?'” The question, he remembered, “caught us flat-footed, because for law enforcement, it usually stops at the numbers—the arrest statistics. We realized there was more that we could do.”

Clark, Washington, and others organized the first community impact day after a major gang takedown in Baldwin Village and enlisted more than 100 volunteers to donate time and materials. “The city has existing programs to mitigate trash and graffiti,” Clark said, “so we partnered with them as well.”

The result of that and a second cleanup effort was that “children were able to return to the playground,” Clark said, “and people could walk to the shopping areas and feel safe.”

With gang members in jail, the crime rate went down—and stayed down. “Because of our law enforcement action and the community impact piece,” Clark said, “we've been able to maintain a double digit reduction in the crime rate in Baldwin Village.”

The Community Impact Initiative has now become a regular part of the Bureau's anti-gang operations. “After the bad guys have been arrested and removed,” Clark said, “we roll back into those communities within 90 days with our volunteers.”

That causes residents to view law enforcement in a different way. “Some folks think all we do is arrest people,” Clark said. “A lot of people in these neighborhoods feel ignored and forgotten. But then they see us working with them to improve where they live.”

The Community Impact Initiative works because it builds relationships, Clark explained. “We have breakfast with residents and face-to-face conversations. They see that we care about their quality of life.” In return, residents are more willing to cooperate with law enforcement, which helps solve cases and adds to the reduction in crime.

“I've seen generations of young kids in these neighborhoods with such potential,” Washington said. “Then you fast forward and they're in gangs. But because of our enforcement efforts and the community impact days, Baldwin Village is getting better,” the detective said. And that gives him hope. “I can see the results of our efforts.”

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/february/the-gangs-of-los-angeles-part-3-helping-to-heal-communities/the-gangs-of-los-angeles-part-3-helping-to-heal-communities

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Michigan

Farrakhan: African Americans deserve their own courts

by Niraj Warikoo

DETROIT -- In a fiery speech Sunday delivered to 18,000 at Joe Louis Arena, Minister Louis Farrakhan blasted the judicial systems in the U.S. as being biased against African Americans, calling upon the community to set up their own courts.

"We want equal justice under the law," Farrakhan said on the last day of the Nation of Islam's annual convention, held in Detroit this year. "Our people can't take much more. We have to have our own courts."

With Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones sitting behind him, Farrakhan spoke for nearly three hours, reiterating the Nation of Islam's view that the U.S. is a land headed for destruction because it has disobeyed the word of God.

Farrakhan suggested that African Americans rely on the Quran and Bible to help set up their own legal system that would be more fair to African Americans.

"Has America been just to us?" he asked the crowd.

"No," the crowd responded

"So ... if we retaliate, you can bring out your soldiers. We got some, too."

Farrakhan railed against Christian pastors who endorse gay marriage, which he said contradicts the teachings of Christianity and Islam.

"God has never sanctioned that kind of behavior," Farrakhan said.

Noting that the Nation of Islam started in Detroit in 1930, Farrakhan said: "I want Detroit to know we're back to stay. This is a great city."

During the past year, Farrakhan has talked about reinvesting in Detroit. Local Nation of Islam members say some are moving to Detroit to invest and help rebuild the city.

http://www.marshfieldnewsherald.com/usatoday/article/5765897

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Former President Bush Wants to See Better Treatment of Returning Veterans

by Alex Wiederspiel

2.5 million Americans have served in the U.S. military since 9/11, and one former U.S. President thinks it's time for the 99% of Americans who haven't served to do a little more then say "thank you" to the troops.

Civilians and service men and women agree: something needs to change.

Veterans have a higher unemployment rate then civilians, a significantly higher suicide rate, high rates of homelessness, and a large amount of veterans who aren't receiving the benefits they've earned. 10% of Post-9/11 veterans are unemployed.

There are also over 400,000 veterans waiting for disability benefits that are backlogged in the VA system. The Department of Veteran Affairs confirms that there are 22 suicides per day by veterans and that the number could even be higher.

5 News spoke with one Harrison County man who agrees with former President George W. Bush that more has to be done to help veterans when they return home.

"Too many vets are unemployed. There's what we call a civilian-military divide. In other words, returning vets think one thing and the civilian population thinks another. Our aim is to get people to understand each other better for the good of the Veteran community," said President Bush.

"Veterans deserve the best. They're giving their lives. Pray for them every day," Chesley Barnard told 5 News. He added, "And I think we need to do a tremendous amount within this country to care for our veterans."

There are some organizations that exist to help vets. Show Your Stripes is a new program designed to provide veterans with access to companies that are veteran friendly to reduce vet unemployment.

http://www.wdtv.com/wdtv.cfm?func=view&section=5-News&item=Former-President-Bush-Wants-to-See-Better-Treatment-of-Returning-Veterans14529

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

North Carolina

Chapel Hill Police Department invites students to get to know police through Community Police Academy

by McKenzie Bennett

Chapel Hill police want to get to know students.

About every six months, the Chapel Hill Police Department hosts a Citizen's Police Academy for those residents interested in learning more about the department.

But this April, police are doing things a little differently.

This year the name was changed from “Citizen's Police Academy” to “Community Police Academy” to attract more students and other non-citizens, said Lt. Joshua Mecimore, a spokesman for the Chapel Hill Police Department.

In previous years, Mecimore said there was confusion about who was eligible to apply to the academy.

“It is important for us to make clear that it is not only open for citizens of Chapel Hill,” Mecimore said. “It can also be people who have a connection to the community like someone who goes to school here, works here or grew up here.”

This year, participants are required to attend a 3 1/2-hour evening session on April 9 or 10 and a five-hour afternoon session on April 12.

When it started, the Citizen's Police Academy spanned 10 sessions, making it hard for many residents to carve out the time it would take to complete the program.

The department shortened the program to reduce the time commitment and attract more students, Mecimore said.

“Students are a part of this community and even though some might expect to leave when they finish school, a lot don't,” Mecimore said. “We want them to learn what the police do.”

Chapel Hill Town Councilman George Cianciolo said he participated to see what the police officers lives were like on a daily basis.

“As a council member, we have to make decisions about budgeting that affect the police department,” Cianciolo said. “I wanted to know why they work there and what the stresses of the job might be.”

Many residents do not know or appreciate what the police do day-to-day, Cianciolo said.

“When you hear an officer talk about having a gun pointed at them, you realize that these people are risking their lives for us and we often take that for granted,” he said.

Charlie Pardo, a Chapel Hill police officer and academy instructor, said the program gives officers a chance to debunk myths people have about police work.

“Policing is one of those professions that people get their information from television because there are so many cop shows,” Pardo said, adding that many of the shows aren't realistic.

The academy also provides a good opportunity for community members and police to interact on a normal level, Mecimore said.

“Police officers sometimes get a jaded view of the community because they only see people at their lowest level when they are facing their worst demons,” Mecimore said.

During a simulator event, Cianciolo was called to the scene of a crime. Cianciolo saw the smooth, silver outline of a handgun pulled from the man's pocket and his life flashed before his eyes.

Cianciolo was one of about 30 participants in the November program, where residents learned about arrest procedures, police canine demonstrations and the appropriate use of force.

Cianciolo said he would recommend the academy to anyone in Chapel Hill able to participate.

“It was definitely a worthwhile experience,” Cianciolo said. “I talked so highly about it that my wife is signing up for the next one.”

http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2014/02/chapel-hill-police-department-invites-students-to-get-to-know-police-through-community-police-academ

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

California

"We don't need more police": Mayor & Police Chief hit a nerve at town hall

Mayor Jean Quan and Police Chief Sean Whent stood in the McClymonds High School auditorium on Saturday, February 22, for the first town hall on citywide public safety. These meetings will take place in each of the five police districts over the next few months as the city begins a difficult conversation about reforms shaping the Oakland Police Department (OPD) and the responsibility of the community.

The town hall was nearly derailed early on. As Chief Whent made a round of opening remarks, protesters rose up, chanting ”We don't need more police.” Dinyal New and members of Soldiers Against Violence Everywhere (S.A.V.E.) were there to vent frustration and grief over the city's inability to curb gun violence. Some carried signs, “If You Know Something Tell It.” New lost two sons, Lee Weathersby and Lamar Broussard, in shootings 3 weeks apart in December and January. Others held up pictures of the teenagers. Chief Whent stood at the front of the room, at a loss as the group protested.

In the confusion, Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney came up to the mic to speak candidly with the protesters. “There is too much hurt,” she said, “but you are not the only one in pain.”

In a breakout session later in the afternoon, Chief Whent said he understood the intensity of New's loss. “West Oakland has been far too affected, for far too long,” he said, but he put the focus on coming together as a neighborhood and said he hopes that the community and families here will find something in the plan that speaks to them, represents them, and provoke them to take action.

Earlier this year, a citywide public safety report was put together by crime consultant Robert Wasserman, with input from New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton, to resolve disorder in Oakland by working as one city and coordinating departments. With more community buy-in, the report concludes, schools, businesses, and residents can help defuse robberies, chronic vandalism, and illegally dumped trash.

But city leaders were publically frustrated and unconvinced with the framework of the plan when the third and final part was released last month. Councilmember Desley Brooks called the outlines “obvious” and stated that the plan lacked tools, metrics, and priorities for crime-fighting. The question Oakland is still left with is what works and what doesn't? The job of the town halls will be to show what the plan will actually look like once its on the streets, in neighborhoods, and across all districts.

A top concern in the breakout session was accountability, from the top brass down, and constitutional, community policing. Neighborhood Services Supervisor Joe DeVries said he wanted to make beat cops “take off the mirrored sunglasses,” renew the OPD's reputation, and adapt to each neighborhood.

Chief Whent highlighted Oakland's project Ceasefire, which calls in at-risk cases, such as known gang members, and introduces them to social and financial services as alternatives. In December, 19 out of 21 individuals brought in signed-up, a promising trend. It's unclear now, however, if the services themselves can keep up with demand.”Nothing's more dangerous than someone with nothing to lose,” Devries said. “Give them something to lose.”

OPD and Neighborhood Crime Prevention Councils are also armed with new technology, such as repair-mapper SeeClickFix and gunfire tracker ShotSpotter, which unlocks data about where shots are fired. Speakers also mentioned that with the security camera lending program through Merchant Watch, small business can also help document suspicious activity in their area.

“We have ‘the teeth,'” DeVries said.

And while some balked at the surveillance, Mayor Quan argued that this technology brings Oakland in step with cities using the same tactics to get safe. “We can't pretend to live in a world where these tools won't help,” she said.

During the Q&A, many city residents said they were determined to zero-in on crime, but were not confident Oakland police could be responsive. One source of mistrust within the community is the lack of stability in beat policing, some said. A quick turnover of Problem Solving Officers within a neighborhood often means deeper problems and patterns are never seen.

Chief Whent agreed and said he would back incentives for police to stay on the same beat for a number of years.

But there is also the issue of numbers: The public safety report advises two officers for every 1,000 residents, or about 800 police officers in Oakland. There are currently about 624.

In the hallways after the meeting, the protesters who had cried out during the town hall were speaking with some of these officers, hearing each other out.

New public safety measures are about empowering Oakland, Chief Went said, especially those who don't have a badge, and it won't work without the neighborhood's help. ”Police can't tell you what you need in your community.”

Town Hall Meetings

More meetings will be held:

Area 5 Saturday, March 15 @ Castlemont High School, 8601 MacArthur Blvd. 10:00-12:30
Area 4 Saturday, April 5 @ Fremont High School, 4610 Foothill Blvd. 10:00-12:30
Area 2 Saturday, April 19 @ North Oakland Senior Center, 5714 MLK, Jr. Way. 10:00-12:30
Area 3 Saturday, May 10 @ Bret Harte Middle School, 3700 Coolidge Ave. 10:00-12:30

http://oaklandlocal.com/2014/02/public-safety-town-hall/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Washington D.C.

Editorial

D.C. public-safety employees' misconduct too often goes unpunished

A REPORT DETAILING the failure to help an elderly man who suffered a heart attack outside a D.C. fire station has recommended disciplinary action against the firefighters who turned their backs and the emergency dispatchers who bungled the 911 call. Good that the city administration wants to hold people accountable. But if past cases are any indication, that's unlikely to happen, thanks to a cumbersome disciplinary process so weighted in favor of public employees that it protects incompetence.

The devastating details surrounding the Jan. 25 case of Medric Cecil Mills, 77, who later died at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, were contained in the report of an internal investigation released Friday. Mr. Mills had collapsed across the street from a Northeast firehouse while running errands with his daughter. Bystanders ran to the station and were told no one could respond unless someone called 911 and an ambulance was formally dispatched.

The report by Paul A. Quander Jr., deputy mayor for public safety and justice, said five fire personnel were in the station and “all .?.?. were aware of a medical issue in which assistance was requested; however, none took any action to provide assistance.” Three sat in the kitchen and ignored urgent announcements from a probationary firefighter seeking guidance. One firefighter went to his car to get personal items and then retired to his bunk room with a book to study for a promotional exam. When assistance was finally dispatched, it was sent to an incorrect address more than two miles away. Only when a police officer flagged down a passing ambulance did Mr. Mills get aid.

Unspecified disciplinary proceedings have been instituted, but the city administration faces a steep climb. The four-member trial board will include two union members, and the decision must have a majority. The fire chief can adopt or reduce the penalty or dismiss the case, but he cannot increase the penalty. Then there are the ever-escalating layers of appeals that can lead to misguided decisions about who stays on the public payroll.

A case in point is that of the ambulance driver involved in another notorious case of shoddy care, that of retired New York Times reporter David E. Rosenbaum in 2006. Mr. Rosenbaum was assumed to be a drunk and not, as was the case, the victim of a vicious mugging. The ambulance driver, who bypassed the closest hospital so that she could do some personal errands, was fired but was eventually reinstated with full back pay.

The situation is not unique to the fire department. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier recently complained about the unwieldy process in testimony before the D.C. Council: “The current structure of termination appeals . . . has failed to serve the public safety interests of the Department, and in doing so, has failed District residents.” Among the officers the chief said she was ordered to take back was one who caught individuals urinating in an alley and made them take off their sweaters to wipe up the urine and then put the sweaters back on. Another officer stayed on the force after being arrested for ramming his wife's car.

These cases involve a small minority of public employees, but they result in a culture of no consequences for mistakes and misconduct. It is time for a more rational system that can safeguard employee rights without surrendering the public interest.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dc-public-safety-employees-misconduct-too-often-goes-unpunished/2014/02/23/f62cf418-9b40-11e3-975d-107dfef7b668_story.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Washington D.C.

Opinion

Who's policing the D.C. police?

by Colbert I. King

The album displayed on Photobucket.com is not exactly what you would expect of a 24-year veteran D.C. police officer.

Among 47-year-old Linwood Barnhill Jr.'s library of images: a young woman clad in skimpy undergarments; a young woman posing nude; a man in a uniform wearing a badge and counting stacks of cash; a hand holding a bag of a substance that appears to be marijuana; a woman kneeling on the floor exposing her naked rear end; and more of that ilk.

Barnhill was arrested Wednesday and charged with two counts of pandering; that is, inducing two girls, 15 and 16, to engage in prostitution.

His arrest came only hours after D.C. police officer Marc Washington was pulled out of the Potomac River near Hains Point on Tuesday night. (He was pronounced dead later that night.) Washington and Barnhill were assigned to the 7th Police District, which covers much of Southeast.

At the time of his death, Washington was under house arrest and was wearing a GPS bracelet because he had been charged with producing child pornography. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said last week that the cases are unrelated.

D.C. Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), chairman of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, which oversees the police and fire departments, called the officers “bad actors” but declared that he has full confidence in Lanier. “She shares my disappointment and disgust with these two individuals,” he added.

“Bad actors?” “Two individuals?” That's it?

It would be profoundly wrong to infer from Wells's comments that the actions of Barnhill and Washington represent unusual D.C. police behavior. Whether city officials wish to acknowledge it or not, the record speaks otherwise.

Last month, 45-year-old Wendel Palmer, a 22-year veteran of the D.C. police department, was convicted of sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl who sang in the church choir that he directed. He faces sentencing on Jan. 31.

D.C. police officer Larry Seay was charged in 2011 with nine counts of sexual assault, involving three women, while on duty and in uniform. Seay was suspended without pay pending the outcome of his trial. This year, a mistrial was declared after the jury couldn't decide whether he had assaulted the women as he walked his beat. The women said they were prostitutes. The public defender representing Seay said that if there was sex, it was consensual.

Whoa. What is a cop doing having sex while on duty?

This gets us to D.C. police officer Kenneth Furr. He was at least off duty when he tried to pick up two prostitutes. Furr was convicted in October 2012 of solicitation and assault with a dangerous weapon.

Another D.C. police officer, Sean Marenkovic, was found guilty of two sex offenses in August 2011 for having sex with a 14-year-old girl he met online when he was working as a West Virginia sheriff's deputy.

Who can forget — oh yes, maybe city officials can — D.C. Detective Richmond Phillips, who was convicted in January of murdering his girlfriend and their 11-month-old daughter? Phillips killed his girlfriend, left her body in the woods and drove off with the baby in the car. He later abandoned the car, leaving the baby in sweltering heat. That's how she died.

Wells, who wants to be mayor, apparently is performing his police department oversight with the same boosterism that he displayed when he oversaw the Vincent Schiraldi-led Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.

The Washington Examiner reported in September 2012 that, in the previous 3½ years, “more than 90 D.C. police officers — from detectives to captains to the rank-and-file cops on the street — have been arrested.” The charges have ranged from child pornography to murder.

That ought to be cause for alarm in the D.C. Council, as much as, say, out-of-service fire trucks and broken ambulances.

D.C. police officers dishonoring their badges is a threat to public safety. The locus of the problem, however, is not Lanier. Credit her and her team for uncovering some of the misconduct that led to the high number of arrests.

But what do these awful numbers say about the department's hiring practices, standards of conduct and performance oversight?

Speaking of oversight: Cop and alleged pimp Linwood Barnhill, who was reportedly hanging around shopping centers and using the alias “Malik” to entice young girls into prostitution, has collected his D.C. taxpayer-provided salary — while on non-duty status — since September 2012.

Who's watching the watchers?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/colbert-king-the-dc-police-have-a-troubling-arrest-record/2013/12/13/4f55e132-637c-11e3-aa81-e1dab1360323_story.html