Law Enforcement

LAPD watchdog to launch broad inquiry into misclassified crime stats
The Los Angeles Police Department's civilian watchdog said Monday he would launch a broad inquiry into the accuracy of the agency's crime statistics after a Times investigation revealed that the LAPD understated violent crime in the city. Inspector General Alex Bustamante said he planned to expand on The Times' review, which focused on a recent one-year period, and that he would conduct an examination of multiple years of data to determine whether declines in crime in Los Angeles were as dramatic as reported by the department.
Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times Editorial

Police seek help in locating potentially suicidal Westlake man
Police have asked the public to help find a 26-year-old Westlake man who went missing four days ago in Glendale and was thought to be contemplating suicide. Derek Adam Seehausen was last seen walking away from his home around 6 a.m. Tuesday in the 400 block of West Glenoaks Boulevard in Glendale and hasn't been heard from since, Los Angeles police said. His family was extremely worried about his welfare. Police said he may be suicidal.
Los Angeles Daily News

Masked gunman makes off with $4,000 in Islands restaurant robbery
Police were searching for a masked gunman who made off with $4,000 after holding an employee at gunpoint at an Islands restaurant in Woodland Hills late Sunday. The armed robbery was reported around 11:15 p.m. at the restaurant in the 23300 block of Mulholland Drive, said Sgt. Ibanez of the Los Angeles Police Department. A man wearing a black bandanna entered the back door of the closed restaurant and pulled a gun out on one of the employees, police said.
NBC4

Former L.A. police chief recalls Jewish Community Center shooting
Former Los Angeles Police Department Chief Bernard Parks recalled Sunday a high-anxiety and chaotic scene when he responded to the Jewish center shooting in Granada Hills 15 years ago that wounded five people, including three small children. A white supremacist gunman, who was later identified as Buford O'Neal Furrow Jr., had walked into the North Valley Jewish Community Center with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and fired about 70 shots.
Los Angeles Daily News

Legislation

State Legislature passes Leno's kill switch bill
New cell phones sold in California will come with anti-theft technology pre-installed and activated under a bill passed by the California Legislature on Monday and headed to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk. The bill by San Francisco Democrat Sen. Mark Leno has been one of the most high-profile and intensely lobbied bills in the state Legislature this year. However, in recent months, many of the bill's opponents have quieted. Major cell phone manufacturers such as Apple and Microsoft removed their opposition.
San Francisco Chronicle

Internet poker bills shelved
Californians hoping to legally play poker online will have to wait at least another year. Lawmakers have shelved bills that would have created a legal internet poker system for players within California, making this the fifth year in a row in which they've publicly flirted with the idea without casting a vote. "Internet poker is a very important public policy for the state of California and once it's done and signed into law it's going to be with us for at least 30, 40 years. So we want to make sure we do it right," said Sen. Lou Correa, a Santa Ana Democrat who carried a bill to allow internet poker.
Sacramento Bee

Prisons

Report: High percentage of LA inmates suffering with mental illness are black
A new report by the Los Angeles-based activist group Dignity Power Now found that 43 percent of L.A. jail inmates diagnosed with serious mental illnesses are African American. That's higher than their percentage in both the general population (9.6 percent) and in the general jail population (about 30 percent). "The racial breakdown of the jail population is striking," said Mark-Anthony Johnson, who assembled the report along with law students at UCLA's International Human Rights Law Program.
KPCC

Media

Austin Beutner named publisher and CEO of Los Angeles Times
Austin Beutner, the civic leader and former Wall Street investment banker, is the new publisher and chief executive of the Los Angeles Times. Beutner, 54, who served as first deputy mayor of Los Angeles for more than a year and briefly explored a run for mayor himself, succeeds Eddy W. Hartenstein as Times publisher. Hartenstein said that he recommended Beutner for the position and that the board of Tribune Publishing Co., The Times' new corporate parent, approved the appointment last week.
Los Angeles Times

City Infrastructure

L.A. faces $15 billion bill as pipes spring leaks
Los Angeles is showing its age, and city officials don't have plans for financing the facelift. From buckling sidewalks to potholed thoroughfares to storm drains that can't handle a little rain, the infrastructure that holds the second-largest U.S. city together is suffering from years of deferred maintenance. Bringing pipes that deliver water to 3.9 million people up to snuff could cost $4 billion -- more than half the city's annual operating budget. The bill for repaving streets will be almost that much, according to estimates from a city consultant, and patching or replacing cracked sidewalks will require $640 million.
Bloomberg