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October, 2014 - Week 2

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United Kingdom

London mayor says security services monitoring 'thousands' of terror suspects

by Fox News

The mayor of London has disclosed that "thousands" of potential terror suspects are being monitored every day in the British capital, providing a broad glimpse of the threat of homegrown Islamic extremism against America's staunchest ally.

Boris Johnson made the comments in an interview published in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, saying "In London we're very very vigilant and very very concerned. Every day ... the security services are involved in thousands of operations."

British intelligence officials believe that approximately 500 British citizens have traveled to the Middle East to join the Islamic State terror group, commonly known as ISIS. However, Johnson's comments suggest that the terror threat in the U.K. goes beyond radicals returning to Britain.

Of the "five or six hundred" who have joined ISIS, Johnson estimates that "we think a third, maybe more – maybe half – come from the London area. If and when they come back, we have a real job to deal with them."

British-born ISIS fighters have acquired a reputation for particular brutality, bolstered by a fighter known as "Jihadi John," who has appeared in videos depicting the beheadings of American hostages James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

Johnson's comments were published in the same week that four men were arrested by police in London on suspicion that they were in the early stages of planning an attack in the city. Last month, police in Australia arrested 15 people accused of plotting to attack and behead randomly selected civilians on the streets of the country's cities.

In August, the U.K. raised its terrorist threat level to "severe" -- the second highest -- as Prime Minister David Cameron warned that ISIS was planning attacks on the country.

London is home to over 8 million people, over a million of whom are Muslims. The city acquired the nickname "Londonistan" during the 1990s due to the tolerance of various controversial Islamist groups by local and national authorities.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/10/11/london-mayor-says-security-services-monitoring-thousands-terror-suspects/

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Georgia

50 arrests in community crackdown

by Bianca Cain Johnson

Agencies teamed up in Richmond County for a two-day operation serving warrants and using community-oriented policing to focus on known gang members.

A team of more than 80 representatives from the Richmond County Sheriff's Office, the Georgia Department of Corrections, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles and the U.S. Marshal's Service conducted the operation Wednesday and Thursday.

As of Thursday evening, Operation Community Impact had resulted in 50 arrests. According to a sheriff's office news release, the totals included 35 probation warrants, four parole warrants, 14 civilian arrests for other laws being broken and nine searches. It included nine searches that involved six validated gang members.

Police said various quantities of drugs and handguns were recovered, but totals are not immediately available.

Michael Nail, executive director of the parole board, said all agencies benefit from the collaborative operation.

“Protecting the public is our job as law enforcement officers and these joint operations continue to prove to be successful in removing offenders from our communities who are not complying with their parole supervision or have committed new crimes,” he said in a news release.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/crime-courts/2014-10-10/agencies-team-community-policing-operation?v=1412964433

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Georgia

Flight to the Future: Drones mark uncharted path into public safety, discovery

Creating flight from the slide of a thumb is something more and more people are discovering thanks to the widespread introduction of consumer-level drones.

The use of drones has been discussed — and at times debated — by local government and hobbyists alike as they become more available and accessible.

Whether bought fully functional or built from the ground up, the buzzing, propeller-powered aerial vehicles are finding their hold in the world. Some people in Rome and Floyd County are ready to help them along the way.

David Wright is the president of Spectrum Education, LLC, a local group of specialists who use drones and other materials to teach state-required lesson plans to students.

He said the moment you tell a group of students that their pizza could one day be delivered by a drone, their eyes light up.

“The drones that are out there today are very nice, but they will amount to something in the future,” Wright said. “We're talking about creating jobs and helping the economy. There are so many applications.”

Outside of the classroom, drones are being used more and more for their capabilities to capture high-end video and photos.

Grant Carmichael works IT security for Floyd Medical Center and started getting into drones through his side business of creating websites for businesses and companies who want videos.

“With drones, you can get aerial footage that you just can't normally get,” Carmichael said.

Ryan Simmons is the creative director for Rome-based Brand RED Studios. He said his group uses drones to simulate the camera angles they would otherwise have to pay dearly to get.

Carmichael said his interest in drones went from a simple “plug-and-play” basic setup to something much more complicated.

The drone he brought to Darlington School last week for the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce's 2014 Geek Week event started out as a DJI F550 hexacopter.

From there. Carmichael added a propulsion kit, a sturdier frame and propellers, a remote controlled gimbal, and gimbal controls to get the optimum feedback and options for the digital camera it carries.

“The smaller ones are more fun to fly,” Carmichael said. “But this has all of the bells and whistles.”

In all, Carmichael said he has over $5,000 invested into his rig while some of the higher-end commercial units that are utilized by studio movies and commercials can cost upward of $10,000.

“Drones can be very easy to build and control or they can be pretty involved,” Carmichael said. “This one has been challenging at times.”

The governments of Rome and Floyd County have no drones. Tim Herrington, deputy director of the county's Emergency Management Agency, wants that to change.

A strong storm that downs trees could warrant the use of a drone to fly above the wreckage and determine the extent of the damage. It could also help with the search of a missing person.

According to Herrington, someone can program a drone to fly in a pattern as it records the scene. It would then return to its pilot, who would download the information and direct a search team to a specific point based on the drone's recording.

“It could actually speed up certain aspects of the search,” Herrington added. “I would love to purchase one. There is a need for them.”

The Rome and Floyd County police departments indicated they have no plans to use drones.

Floyd County officer Jerome Poole said there's been no discussion in his department about acquiring a drone. He cited cost as one reason county police haven't examined the technology.

“That's not anything they've talked about and probably wouldn't talk about,” he added.

Rome Deputy Police Chief Travis Goss also pointed to cost as a reason to eschew the unmanned flying machines.

“There are too many variables,” Goss said. “We'd have to make sure we operated within the Constitution and didn't violate anyone's Fourth Amendment rights. We haven't even discussed the thought of getting one.”

Goss also has concerns about Federal Aviation Administration regulations his department would be required to obey. Those regulations, some of which don't yet exist, are a big reason Herrington has opted against buying a drone at this time.

FAA officials say they anticipate issuing proposed rules soon for small drones, or what they called unmanned aircraft systems.

A business or government that uses a drone must obtain a certificate of authorization from the FAA. Applications for COAs are made online, and evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

If granted, COAs allow governments to use specified airspace. They may come with other restrictions.

In recent years, drone enthusiasts have worked to regulate the use and operation of drones on their own through the efforts of groups like the Academy of Model Aeronautics and FlySafe training camps and classes.

Spectrum's Dan Caesar has been to FlySafe events and said the day-and-a-half long classes go over what should and shouldn't be done while operating drones as well as tips and basics on battery life and camera functionality.

“They go over a little bit of everything,” Caesar said. “They are really leading the industry in operating drones in a safe and responsible manner ahead of the FAA regulations.”

Civilians who fly drones as a hobby need no FAA approval, but must obey the law. The FAA states that drones flown for recreation cannot interfere with manned aircraft and must remain within sight of the operator. Additionally, operators must contact an airport if a drone will be flown within five miles of it.

Hobbyists can buy a drone for about $300 online or in a brick-and-mortar store. Verizon Wireless sells a consumer drone that comes with two cameras — one that faces forward and another that faces down, said Kyle Moniz, advanced solution architect with Verizon Wireless.

Drones for recreation use have a limited battery life and range. Public safety agencies wanting larger drones that can fly farther for longer may have to spend thousands of dollars.

http://www.northwestgeorgianews.com/rome/news/local/flight-to-the-future-drones-mark-uncharted-path-into-public/article_d7247880-51ce-11e4-a788-001a4bcf6878.html

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Texas Department of Public Safety says whoa to California congressman's ISIS claim

by W. Gardner Selby

After California U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter said in a nationally cablecast interview that ISIS fighters had been caught by federal agents trying to cross into the country from Mexico, the Texas Department of Public Safety sent a contradictory message to Texas legislators.

We rated Pants on Fire the claim by Hunter that at "least 10 ISIS fighters have been caught coming across the Mexican border in Texas" and there are "dozens more that did not get caught by the Border Patrol."

That fact check drew on the Oct. 8 email sent to legislators by the DPS, signed by a deputy director, Robert Bodisch, who said the department "does not have any information to confirm" statements about Islamic terrorists or ISIS fighters entering the country.

Bodisch further wrote: "An unsecure border is certainly a vulnerability that can be exploited by criminals of all kinds, and it would be naïve to rule out the possibility that any criminal organization would not look for opportunities to take advantage of security gaps along our international border. That said, DPS does not have any information to confirm the specific statements recently reported in the press."

See a copy of the DPS message, which we requested from state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, here.

Read the Hunter fact check here.

http://www.politifact.com/texas/article/2014/oct/10/texas-department-public-safety-says-whoa-californi/

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From the FBI

Serial Killers - New Research Aims to Help Investigators Solve Cases

Mention the term serial killer and what comes to mind for many people are murderers like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy, whose grisly deeds seem to haunt our collective imagination.

But when Bob Morton considers serial killers—which he has spent much of his professional life doing—the recently retired special agent formerly with our Behavioral Analysis Unit thinks mostly about statistics.

Morton, the author of a new study on serial murder for the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, spent the last eight years gathering and analyzing details from hundreds of serial murder cases to help investigators better understand these terrible crimes—and be better equipped to solve them.

“In the past,” Morton said, “research tended to focus on known offenders and what led them to become serial murderers.” That information, while useful, provided little help to investigators trying to apprehend an unknown offender in an active, unsolved case.

The new study— Serial Murder: Pathways for Investigations —focuses on a key aspect of serial murder cases: how and where the victims' bodies are discovered and what that says about the killers.

“What we tried to do was give investigators working these cases a common place to start, which is the body,” Morton said. “You work your way back from there to discern offender characteristics and narrow the suspect pool. The body is the only constant in the crime,” he explained. “Lots of other things can change, but how you find that victim is not going to change.”

If the victim was a prostitute, for example, and the body was left where the murder occurred, that may offer certain clues about the killer. If the body was hidden at a distance from the murder site, that may offer different clues. The study's statistical data was drawn from 480 U.S. serial murder cases involving 92 offenders over a period of nearly five decades. Morton believes the study's findings could be a “game changer” for investigators working unsolved cases.

“Many of the things we have learned over the years through experience we are trying to prove through empirical research,” he said. “The main goal is to provide law enforcement with relevant data that helps them focus on the most likely suspects.”

Serial murder in the United States is surprisingly rare. Although it's impossible to quantify the number of active serial murderers nationwide or how many murders they commit, academic and law enforcement research suggests that the numbers of homicides carried out by serial offenders in a given year are a fraction of the total number of murders that occur in the U.S. “But when it does occur,” said Morton, who has worked dozens of these cases during his 25-year Bureau career, “it can be overwhelming to a community and its law enforcement agencies.”

“There is a lot of pressure on the police to solve these crimes,” he added, and most local police departments haven't had a serial homicide in their jurisdiction. That's where the FBI can provide behavioral-based investigative support to our state and local partners. The National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime and members of our Behavioral Analysis Unit have extensive experience with serial murder investigations and offer their expertise on request.

“The FBI has become a clearinghouse for these crimes,” Morton said, “and we stand ready to assist local law enforcement when they are faced with an active serial murder case. This new research is one more tool to help investigators.”

National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime

The National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) was established to provide behavioral-based investigative support to the FBI, national security agencies, and other federal, state, local, and international law enforcement involved in the investigation of unusual or repetitive violent crimes, threats, and terrorism, cyber crime, white-collar crime, public corruption, and other matters.

Our Behavioral Analysis Unit 4 (BAU-4), one component of the NCAVC, focuses on serial murders, sexual assaults, kidnappings, and other criminal acts targeting adult victims. BAU-4 members are experts on the subject of serial murder and regularly provide operational assistance, conduct research, and offer training on issues related to serial murder.

BAU-4 also runs the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP), which maintains the largest investigative repository of major violent crime cases in the U.S. ViCAP collects and analyzes information about homicides, sexual assaults, missing persons, and other violent crimes and is used by state and local law enforcement nationwide to help discover links between seemingly unconnected crimes.

- More on the NCAVC

- More on ViCAP

A New Perspective on Serial Murder Investigations

The research project Serial Murder: Pathways for Investigations provides empirical information based on actual cases to help law enforcement personnel working active, unsolved serial murder investigations.

The research focuses on how and where victims' bodies were discovered, and what that says about the killers. The body disposal scenarios used by offenders were separated into four pathways:

- Transported from the murder site and concealed;
- Transported from the murder site and concealed;
- Transported from the murder site and dumped;
- Left “as is” at the murder site; and
- Left at the murder site and concealed.

The reasons for focusing on body disposal scenarios, according to the study, include a number of factors:

- The body disposal site is usually the initial scene law enforcement professionals are exposed to in their investigation.
- The manner and circumstances of the body disposal can lead to logical conclusions concerning the nature of the crime.
- The different body disposal scenarios can reflect the varied criminal experience levels of offenders.
- The manner of body disposal may show a potential relationship between the offender and the victim.

- Download the study

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/october/serial-killers-part-8-new-research-aims-to-help-investigators-solve-cases/serial-killers-part-8-new-research-aims-to-help-investigators-solve-cases

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Seeking Information - Help Identify Individuals Traveling Overseas for Combat

The FBI is asking for the public's help identifying individuals who have traveled—or are planning to travel—overseas to engage in combat alongside terrorist organizations.

“We need the public's assistance in identifying U.S. persons going to fight overseas with terrorist groups or who are returning home from fighting overseas,” said Michael Steinbach, assistant director of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division.

A form for submitting potential tips and leads has been established at www.fbi.gov/ISILtips

The FBI is also seeking information about the identity of an English-speaking individual and others seen in a propaganda video released last month by the group calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.

In the video, a man whose face is obscured by a mask alternates seamlessly between English and Arabic in pro-ISIL pronouncements intended to appeal to a Western audience. Dressed in desert camouflage and wearing a shoulder holster, the masked man can be seen standing in front of purported prisoners as they dig their own graves and then later presiding over their executions.

The 55-minute video was released on September 19. In releasing a segment from the video, the FBI hopes someone might recognize the man through his voice and appearance. In the segment, the faces of purported prisoners are obscured and their executions are not shown.

“We're hoping that someone might recognize this individual and provide us with key pieces of information,” Steinbach said. “No piece of information is too small.”

The subject in the video has what is believed to be a North American accent. FBI Director James Comey has said about a dozen Americans are known to be fighting in Syria on the side of terrorists.

The threat of U.S. citizens traveling overseas to fight alongside terrorist groups is not new. Two years ago, a Chicago man was imprisoned for planning to travel to Somalia in 2010 to join al Shabaab. Last year, an Albanian man living in Brooklyn was sentenced to 15 years for attempting to travel to Pakistan to engage in violent jihad. Last month, a New York man pled guilty to attempting to travel to Yemen in 2012 to support al Qaeda. On Saturday, a 19-year-old Chicago man was arrested for allegedly attempting to travel overseas to join ISIL.

Earlier this year, the FBI's Minneapolis Division launched a campaign to raise awareness in communities and law enforcement circles about the foreign traveler threat. Minneapolis created a unique tip line and distributed business cards to community leaders asking for information about anyone who might be planning travel—or had already traveled—to a foreign country for armed combat.

The outreach campaign also highlighted similarities in foreign traveler recruitment efforts to those employed by gangs, which adulterate themes like fraternity and a greater purpose to sell themselves to disaffected individuals.

“These homegrown violent extremists are troubled souls who are seeking meaning in some misguided way,” Director Comey said during an interview aired Sunday on the 60 Minutes news program. “And so they come across the propaganda and they become radicalized on their own independent study, and they're also able to equip themselves with training again on the Internet, and then engage in jihad after emerging from their basement.”

ISIL has released several videos in recent months showing the beheadings of American, French, and English journalists and aid workers. The speaker—and executioner—in those videos has a British accent and authorities have said they now know his identity. The propaganda video highlighted today features a fluent English speaker and appears to be a highly stylized recruitment tool designed to lure Westerners to ISIL's cause.

The FBI needs your help identifying the individuals in this video as well as anyone traveling abroad to join terrorist organizations. Please send tips to www.fbi.gov/ISILtips or call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) with information.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/october/help-identify-individuals-traveling-overseas-for-combat/help-identify-individuals-traveling-overseas-for-combat

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National Cyber Security Awareness Month
Security is Everyone's Responsibility

10/02/14

Every October since 2004, National Cyber Security Awareness Month—administered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—reminds us of the importance of protecting not only our individual identities, finances, and privacy but also our country's national security, critical infrastructure, and economy. Cyber security is a responsibility shared by all—the public sector, the private sector, and the general public.

Individually, Americans should ensure the security of their own computers and other electronic devices. You don't want criminals accessing your bank accounts online. You don't want to become part of a criminal botnet responsible for stealing millions of dollars. You don't want to unknowingly infect your company's computer network with a damaging virus.

So how can you protect against those scenarios? Here are a few tips:

•  Make sure you've got updated antivirus software installed;

•  Enable automated patches for your operating system;

•  Don't open e-mail attachments or click on URLs in unsolicited e-mails;

•  Use strong passwords, and don't use the same one or two passwords for everything; and

•  Avoid putting out personally identifiable information on social media platforms.

In other words, make it as difficult as possible for criminals and others to use your digital technology against you, against other innocent victims, and against our nation as a whole.

Agencies across the U.S. government, including the FBI, are making cyber security a top priority as well.

Within the Bureau, we prioritize high-level intrusions by the biggest and most dangerous botnets, state-sponsored hackers, and global cyber syndicates. Collaborating with our partners—including DHS, the intelligence community, law enforcement at all levels, and the private sector—we strive to predict and prevent these kinds of intrusions, not just investigate them after the fact.

Our legal attaché offices coordinate international investigations and address jurisdictional hurdles and differences in the law from country to country, supporting and collaborating with newly established cyber crime centers at Interpol and Europol.

We work side by side with our federal, state, and local partners on cyber task forces in each of our 56 field offices and at the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force.

We also exchange information about cyber threats with the private sector through partnerships such as the Domestic Security Alliance Council, InfraGard, and the National Cyber Forensic and Training Alliance.

So do all these partnerships make a difference? Here are some recent case examples that clearly demonstrate the value of collaboration:

•  In August 2014, a Chinese national was indicted on charges stemming from a computer hacking scheme that involved the theft of trade secrets from American defense contractors. Details

•  In June 2014, a multinational effort disrupted the GameOver Zeus botnet, believed to have been responsible for the theft of millions of dollars from business and consumers in the U.S. and abroad. Details

•  In May 2014, five hackers—members of China's People's Liberation Army—were indicted on charges of illegally penetrating the networks of six U.S. companies and stealing proprietary information, including trade secrets. Details

•  Also in May 2014, the co-developers of a particularly insidious malware known as Blackshades—which is believed to have infected more than half a million computers around the world—were indicted. Details

Stay tuned to our website during the month of October for more information on cyber security, cyber threats, investigative activities, and wanted cyber fugitives.

Resources:

- DHS National Cyber Security Awareness Month website

- IC3: The Front Door for Reporting Internet Crime

- More on the FBI's cyber crime efforts

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/october/national-cyber-security-awareness-month

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From the Department of Homeland Security

Remarks by Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson: "Border Security in the 21st Century"

Washington, D.C.
Center for Strategic and International Studies
(As delivered)

(Slides on site)

Today I want to talk to you about the important subject of border security – particularly, the security of our southern land border with Mexico.

In fact, over the last 15 years – across the Clinton, Bush and Obama Administrations -- our government has invested more in border security than at any point in the history of this Nation.

In fact, over the last 15 years, the number of apprehensions on our southwest border -- a major indicator of total attempts to cross the border illegally – has declined significantly; it is now less than a third of what it was in the year 2000, and it's at its lowest level since the 1970s.

In fact, over the last 15 years, the estimated number of undocumented immigrants in this country grew to a high of about 12.2 million in 2006, dropped to around 11.3 million, and has stopped growing for the first time since the 1980s.

Without a doubt, we had a setback this summer, with the unprecedented number of unaccompanied children and others who crossed a narrow area of our southern border in the Rio Grande Valley, in search of a family member and a better life in this country. We responded aggressively to this spike, and, in fact, now the numbers of unaccompanied children crossing into the Rio Grande Valley are at the lowest they've been in almost two years.

But, this is not a “mission accomplished” speech. We can and should do more to best enforce the security of our borders. In this speech I will discuss the past, present and future of our border security efforts.

Not enough has been said publicly by our government – in a clear, concise way -- about our border security efforts on behalf of the American people. And, in the absence of facts, the American public is susceptible to claims that we have an open, “porous” border, through which unaccompanied minors and members of terrorist organizations such as ISIL may pass.

In late June and July, millions of Americans saw the images of the processing centers filled with kids; far fewer Americans know that by early June the spike in illegal migration by unaccompanied kids turned the corner, and it's now in fact at its lowest number since January 2013.

In September the public heard a claim that four individuals with suspected ties to terrorism in the Middle East had attempted to cross our southern border; far fewer know that, in fact, these four individuals were arrested, their supposed link to terrorism was thoroughly investigated and checked, and in the end amounted to a claim by the individuals themselves that they were members of the Kurdish Worker's Party – an organization that is actually fighting against ISIL and defended Kurdish territory in Iraq. Nevertheless, these individuals have been arrested for unlawful entry, they are detained, and they will be deported.

In the recent outbreak, there has been only one case so far of Ebola diagnosed in this country. Nevertheless, this Department, the Department of Defense, and CDC are heavily engaged, we are enhancing our Ebola screening of air passengers from the three affected African countries, and we are continually evaluating whether more is appropriate.

As Secretary of Homeland Security, I am committed to more transparency about our border security. This speech today is part of that effort.

The Past

Given all we do today, it is hard to believe that as recently as 1904 we had virtually no border patrol at all. Our land borders were completely open to all forms of migration. In 1904, Teddy Roosevelt created the United States Immigration Service. This force consisted of 75 men on horseback, based in El Paso, Texas, responsible for the patrol of the entire 2,300-mile southwest border.

It was not until 1921 that we began to restrict the numbers of immigrants who could enter this country legally, with the passage of something called the “Emergency Quota Act of 1921.” That law restricted yearly immigration to three percent of each nationality already present in this country, according to the 1910 census. Prior to that, the only limits on immigration were restrictions on so-called “undesirables.”

With the numeric limits created in 1921 came a dramatic increase in illegal immigration, which led to the creation of the U.S. Border Patrol in 1924. Originally, the Border Patrol was part of the Department of Labor, and was created to prevent illegal migration across our southern land border with Mexico and our northern border with Canada. In those days there were actually more personnel devoted to the northern border than the southern border, to prevent the smuggling of liquor into the U.S. from Canada during prohibition.

The Present

While other government agencies have faced cutbacks and limits in these times of fiscal constraint, our national leaders in Congress and the Executive Branch have chosen to build the Border Patrol to an unprecedented level in resources. Today's Border Patrol is itself one of the largest agencies of our government, with a budget of $3.5 billion, a total of 23,000 personnel, 20,833 border patrol agents and the largest-ever level of technology and equipment.

Let's look at that in more detail.

In the Fiscal Year 2000, we had 8,619 Border Patrol agents dedicated to the southwest border; in 2014 that number is 18,127 and growing.

In Fiscal Year 2000 we had 10 miles of secondary fence along the southwest border; today we have 36.3 miles of secondary fence.

In Fiscal Year 2000 we had just 10 miles of vehicle fence in the more remote areas of the southwest border; today we have 299 miles of vehicle fence.

If you include primary, secondary, tertiary and vehicle fence, today there is about 700 miles of total fence across the southwest border, compared to just 77 miles of fence in the year 2000 -- in 14 years we have built almost 10 times more fence across the southwest border.

In Fiscal Year 2000 the Border Patrol had just 17 miles of all-weather roads to get to and from the southwest border; today we have 145.7 miles of these roads strategically placed where we have determined they are needed.

In Fiscal Year 2000 we had just 29 miles of lighting along the southwest border; today we have 70 miles of lighting strategically placed where we have determined it is needed.

Fourteen years ago we had few, if any, underground sensors to detect illegal migration at the southwest border; today we have 11,863 of these devices.

In Fiscal Year 2000 the Border Patrol had 56 aircraft; today that number is 107.

In Fiscal Year 2000 the Border Patrol had no unmanned aerial vehicles; today we have eight of these for surveillance of illegal activity over the southwest border.

In Fiscal Year 2000 the Border Patrol had just two boats to patrol the entire southwest border over waterways like the Rio Grande; today we have 84.

In Fiscal Year 2000 the Border Patrol had one mobile surveillance system; today we have 40.

In Fiscal Year 2000 we had little if any mobile video surveillance capability; today we have 178 of these.

In Fiscal Year 2000 we had 140 remote video surveillance systems; today we have 273 of these.

In Fiscal Year 2014 the Border Patrol has 9,255 pairs of night vision goggles.

In Fiscal Year 2000 the Border Patrol had little or no thermal imaging capability; today we have over 600 of these devices.

Today the Border Patrol has the largest deployment of people, vehicles, aircraft, boats and equipment along the southwest border in its 90-year history.

More than the large numbers of people and equipment, I have a high regard for today's Border Patrol. In nine and a half months in office, I've been to the southwest border seven times. Over the hot summer I observed the Border Patrol and its leadership take on the unprecedented number of kids and families crossing the border in south Texas. They did this in a calm and professional manner, and without complaint, worked overtime and took on duties far beyond the job description.

I salute Border Patrol Chief Fisher for making the Border Patrol's Use of Force policy public earlier this year, and rewriting it to more explicitly address instances of rock-throwing at the border and the threat presented by vehicles.

I salute CBP Commissioner Kerlikowske for making public the report of the independent Police Executive Research Forum on the use of force by the Border Patrol. I also salute the Commissioner for implementing a unified, formal review process that will more effectively respond to, investigate, review and resolve any use of force incidents involving the Border Patrol in a timely manner.

The Results

This Nation's long term investment in border security has produced significant, positive results over the years. Illegal migration into this country peaked in the year 2000, reflected by over 1.6 million apprehensions that year. As you can see, illegal migration into this country has dropped considerably since then, reflected by the decline in total apprehensions from over 1.6 million in 2000 to around 400,000 a year in recent years. The overall downward trend is no doubt due in large part to economic conditions in both the U.S. and Mexico, but we are certain that it is also due in very large measure to the deterrent factor of our border security efforts. Apprehensions are at the lowest rate since the 1970s.

Slide 24 makes this point. It reflects both the increase in Border Patrol agents and the simultaneous decrease in total apprehensions in the same period.

The bottom line of all this is, in recent years the total number of those who attempt to cross our southwest border has declined dramatically, while the percentage of those who are apprehended has gone up. Put simply, it's now much harder to cross our border and evade capture than it used to be – and people know that.

The final indicator is the estimated number of undocumented immigrants in this country. According to Pew Research, the number grew to a high of 12.2 million in 2006, dropped, and has remained at about 11.3 million ever since. So, the population of undocumented immigrants in this country has stopped growing for the first time since the 1980s, and over half these individuals have been in this country nearly 13 years.

Meanwhile, Mexico has become our third largest trading partner with $507 billion in total two-way trade in 2013,[viii] it is this country's second largest goods expert market, and more than 1.1 million U.S. jobs are supported by exports from Mexico.

This Summer

Our estimate for FY 2014 – and it is still an estimate at this point, as the fiscal year ended just nine days ago – shows a modest increase in apprehensions, to about 480,000

This increase is almost entirely due to what happened this summer in the Rio Grande Valley. In fact, in FY 2014 about 53 percent of all apprehensions across the southwest border were in the Rio Grande Valley sector of the southwest border.

This summer we saw an unprecedented spike in illegal migration into South Texas. Almost all of this migration came from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. And, as everyone knows, it consisted of large numbers of unaccompanied children and adults with children, which presented a humanitarian dimension to the problem.

You saw the photos of overcrowded processing centers in south Texas. Unlike other spikes in migration in the past, many of these families and kids expected to be apprehended once they crossed the Rio Grande; they were not seeking to evade our Border Patrol agents and all our surveillance, and they probably knew they could not.

In response, we did a number of things. Our message was simple: our border is not open to illegal immigration, and that, if you come here illegally, you will be sent back consistent with our laws and our values.

We put additional border security and law enforcement resources in to South Texas.

We opened new processing centers across the Southwest to handle the additional illegal migration, in McAllen, Texas, Nogales, Arizona and elsewhere.

We reassigned hundreds of border patrol agents to the Rio Grande Valley Sector to manage the increased apprehensions in that sector.

We dramatically reduced the time it takes to repatriate an adult from an average of 33 days down to four days. We added additional flights to repatriate people back faster to their home countries.

We built more detention space, in Artesia, New Mexico and Karnes, Texas.

We dedicated resources to the prosecution of the criminal smuggling organizations – the Coyotes -- that were inducing people to take the long, dangerous journey from Central America.

We launched a renewed public messaging campaign in Central America, highlighting the dangers of the journey, and correcting the misinformation the coyotes are putting out about supposed “free passes” if you come to the United States.

Vice President Biden visited Central America and met with the leaders there to coordinate our response.

President Obama himself met with the presidents of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador in Washington to coordinate our response to the situation.

The government of Mexico also did a considerable amount to interdict this migration from Central America.

The good news is, since mid-June, the numbers of illegal migrants crossing into south Texas has gone down considerably. The high-water mark was June 10, 2014. Since then the number of unaccompanied children has declined steadily.

The same thing is reflected on a monthly basis. In May 2014 10,580 unaccompanied children crossed the southwest border; in June 10,622 crossed the border; in July 5,501; August was 3,141; and September was 2,424. The monthly numbers are now the lowest they've been in almost two years. In terms of the year-end number, our original projection in January was 60,000 unaccompanied children would cross the southwest border illegally in FY 2014. During the summer we revised that projection upward to 90,000. The fact is the final year-end number is 68,434, not far off the original projection of 60,000.

The decline in illegal migration by parents who brought their children followed a similar path this year.

The Future

Though the worst is over for now -- from the spike this summer and the high in illegal migration 15 years ago – the President and I are committed to building an even more secure border, and a smart strategy to get there. Much of illegal migration is seasonal. The spike in migration we saw this summer could return. The poverty and violence that are the “push factors” in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador still exist. The economy in this country – a “pull factor” -- is getting better.

Thus, there is still more we can and should do.

Risk-based strategy. First, as we are doing across the Department of Homeland Security in a variety of contexts, we will continue to build a risk-based strategy for border security. Our southern border is a mixture of winding river, desert and mountains. Simply building more fences is not the answer. My predecessor used to say build a 50-foot fence and I'm sure someone else will build a 51-foot ladder. Today we have the intelligence capability, surveillance equipment and technology to do more. Much of that is already deployed on the border today. We need to go further in this direction, so that we can focus our resources where our intelligence and our surveillance tell us the threats exist. This is a smart, effective and efficient use of taxpayer resources.

And here's a vivid example of what I mean. We know where the risk areas are. We need to focus on these areas. And if the risk areas start to move someplace else, we get there first.

The Southern Border campaign plan. Second, to best accomplish our border security goals along the southern border, and consistent with the overall Unity of Effort initiative I announced in April, I have directed that the Department of Homeland Security embark on a common, Department-wide Southern Border campaign plan. This plan will put to use, in a strategic and coordinated way, the assets and personnel of Customs and Border Protection, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Coast Guard, and other resources of the Department when and if necessary. We are discarding the stove pipes.

To pursue this Southern Border campaign plan, we are, first, developing a Department-wide strategy for the security of the Southern border and approaches. We will then direct the resources and activities of the Department's components accordingly.

Our overarching goals will be effective enforcement and interdiction across land, sea, and air; degrade transnational criminal organizations; and do these things without impeding the flow of lawful trade, travel, and commerce across our borders. We are now in the midst of developing the more specific plan to pursue these goals, and associated metrics. A planning team from across the Department led by Coast Guard Vice Admiral Charles Michel is developing lines of effort, actions, and milestones to accomplish these goals in an effective, cost-efficient manner.

We will then take the logical next step in this plan and establish three new Department task forces, each headed by a senior official of this Department, to direct the resources of CBP, ICE, CIS and the Coast Guard in three discrete areas. The first, Joint Task Force-East, will be responsible for our maritime ports and approaches across the southeast. The second, Joint Task Forces-West, will be responsible for our southwest land border and the West coast of California. And the third will be a standing Joint Task Force for Investigations to support the work of the other two Task Forces.

These efforts -- Department-wide campaign planning and Joint Task Forces -- will enable more effective, more efficient, and more unified homeland security and border security efforts across our southern border and approaches.

A commitment to transparency.

Finally, there is much more we can do to inform the public about our border security efforts on their behalf.

Within the Department we are developing metrics for measuring and evaluating our border security efforts, and we intend to make those metrics public. I am bolstering our Office of Immigration Statistics by adding new statisticians. I have instructed that this Office establish a linkage with all the components of the Department with a border security or immigration mission, so that the data publicized by this Office reflects what is happening Department-wide.

With transparency comes responsibility. Those of us in public office, and in the media – whether in describing the border, ISIL or Ebola -- owe the public informed, careful, and responsible dialogue, not overheated rhetoric that is certain to feed the flames of fear, anxiety and suspicion.

As I have said many times, homeland security means striking a balance. In the name of homeland security, I can build you a perfectly safe city, but it will be a prison. I can build more fences, install more invasive screening devices, ask more intrusive questions, demand more answers, and alarm the public enough to make everybody suspicious of each other and simply stay at home. But, this will cost us who we are as a Nation of people who respect the law, cherish privacy, enjoy the freedom to travel and associate, celebrate our diversity, and who are not afraid.

In the final analysis, these are the things that constitute our greatest strength as a Nation.

Thank you for listening.

http://www.dhs.gov/news/2014/10/09/remarks-secretary-homeland-security-jeh-johnson-border-security-21st-century?utm_source=hp_feature&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=dhs_hp

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Washington

U.S. to Check Temperatures of West Africa Passengers at Five Airports

Government Screenings May Begin as Soon as This Weekend

by Andrew Grossman, Carol E. Lee and Jack Nicas

WASHINGTON—The U.S. plans to start checking the temperatures of passengers arriving at major airports from West African countries with high rates of Ebola, federal officials said Wednesday.

The measure is part of a growing list of steps aimed at detecting travelers infected with the disease to stop it from spreading inside the U.S.

Authorities plan to start the new screenings at John F. Kennedy International in New York on Saturday. Next week, they'll add it at O'Hare International in Chicago, Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta, Washington Dulles International near Washington, D.C., and Newark Liberty International in Newark, N.J. Authorities said more airports may follow.

After their passports are reviewed, passengers arriving from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone will be pulled aside to a separate screening area where U.S. Customs and Border Protection staff will question them about their health and exposure to Ebola, take their temperature with an infrared thermometer and collect their contact information in the U.S.

If that screening suggests exposure to the disease, an officer from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will evaluate the traveler more, take his temperature again and decide whether the person needs to be taken to a hospital or be monitored by local health authorities. Coast Guard medical staff could also be involved in the screenings, according to a person briefed on the plans.

“These measures are really just belt-and-suspenders,” President Barack Obama said in a conference call with state and local officials. “It's an added layer of protection on top of the procedures already in place at several airports.”

The five airports where temperature screening will be implemented are the entry point for 94% of the roughly 150 travelers to the U.S. from the three countries that present the greatest risk. Still, officials said the best defense against spreading the virus remains screening people in West Africa and preventing them from boarding planes in the first place.

Customs and Border Protection officers are already monitoring travelers for any obvious signs of Ebola and handing out fact sheets that tell arriving passengers what symptoms they should watch for, so the move didn't represent a major change in screening strategy.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the administration decided to adopt the measures “after some thought and evaluations of the security measures” already in place and determined these new screenings could be adopted “without causing a significant disruption to the traveling public.”

About 150 passengers from the three affected countries enter those five airports every day, Mr. Earnest said.

CDC Director Thomas Frieden on Wednesday cautioned that, despite the new precautions, “as Ebola continues to spread in Africa, we can't make the risk zero here.”

He criticized calls to ban travel to West Africa, which would make it difficult to help contain the outbreak there. “If we make it harder to respond to the outbreak in West Africa, it will spread,” he said.

In the three most-affected countries, authorities have screened 36,000 people outbound travelers, officials said. Just 77 weren't allowed to board their flights, but none had Ebola. Many, it turned out, had malaria, which is typically transmitted by mosquitoes.

There are no direct flights between the three West Africa countries and the U.S., so travelers from those countries must arrive in the U.S. via one or more connecting flights. In some cases, that may mean immigration officers will have to spot relevant passport stamps or rely on passengers' honesty to know to flag them for additional screening.

Dr. Frieden said the hand-held noncontact thermometers are highly effective. But he added that temperature checks and health surveys also aren't guaranteed to detect Ebola-infected travelers.

Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died of the disease in Dallas on Wednesday, passed checks when boarding a plane in Liberia. He also would have likely passed any fever checks in the U.S. because he didn't develop symptoms until four days after his arrival, Dr. Frieden said.

“We're looking at every step…to increase the likelihood that if someone arrives and develops Ebola, they will be rapidly diagnosed and isolated,” he said.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-to-check-temperatures-of-west-africa-passengers-at-five-airports-1412788163

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Washington

U.S. Steps Up Fight to Block ISIS Volunteers

by Michael S. Schmidt

WASHINGTON — As a 19-year-old man passed through security at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Saturday, federal authorities executed a plan they have honed across the country in the past year.

Border patrol agents asked Mohammed Hamzah Khan to step aside for questioning while F.B.I. agents waited nearby. At Mr. Khan's home in Bolingbrook, Ill., investigators with a search warrant arrived to comb through his room and car, and to interview his parents.

By the time the agents were done searching, they had several pieces of evidence that they said tied Mr. Khan to the Islamic State — including a letter that he had written to his parents telling them to come live with him in the caliphate in Syria. “Western societies are getting more immoral day by day,” he wrote in the letter, adding that he did not want to remain in the United States where his taxes would go toward killing fellow Muslims. “I do not want my kids being exposed to filth like this.”

Mr. Khan was the 10th person the Justice Department has charged with trying to travel abroad to aid terrorists this year as it has tried to stem the flow of Americans and others to terrorist groups in Syria, like the Islamic State and the Nusra Front. From 2011 to 2013, it prosecuted only five people on those charges.

Most of those arrested this year were young, like Mr. Khan — the oldest was 29 — and male. Three were born outside the United States, and one was a woman who was arrested after she got engaged on the Internet to a man who fought for ISIS — and despite being warned by the authorities not to travel to Syria, attempted to fly there. In another case, a man tried to move his entire family to Syria to live in the Islamic State.

The Justice Department says that it must focus its resources on Americans traveling abroad because they could receive training, become radicalized and then return to the United States to attack on behalf of the groups, though the government says it knows of no active plots against the United States from these organizations.

Civil libertarians believe that the government's efforts are misguided because it is not clear that the groups are actually interested in training Americans and returning them to the United States to initiate attacks. They say the deaths of several Americans on the battlefield in Syria and Iraq for groups like the Islamic State show that the organizations are more intent on using them to gain territory there.

“Even if you can prove they are a threat, are the counterterrorism activities we are engaging in going to mitigate the threat or increase it?” said Mike German, a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. “Is increasing the domestic pursuit and the heightened rhetoric and alarm making it more romantic for a segment of society that may be inclined to get involved in something like this?”

Federal authorities contend that the increase in prosecutions is a sign of how they have become more vigilant at identifying possible threats as the conflict has attracted more volunteers from both the United States and Western Europe in response to the attention and notoriety the Islamic State has received.

“We're facing a dedicated terrorist group that has slick propaganda that they push out to populations that are vulnerable,” said John P. Carlin, the assistant attorney general for national security.

As part of its efforts to identify foreign fighters, the F.B.I. on Tuesday released the video of an Islamic State fighter speaking in unaccented North American English as he holds a gun to a prisoner. They hope someone will recognize the man's voice.

But some law enforcement officials acknowledge that far more Americans are making it to Syria than are being stopped.

Intelligence agencies estimate that since the conflict in Syria began in 2011, more than 100 Americans have gone there or tried to. At least three died while fighting on the battlefield, and about a dozen are believed to be currently fighting for the Islamic State.

It is not illegal to travel to Syria or any other country. Nearly all the people who have been arrested have been charged under a federal statute that bars providing material support to terrorists. To gain a conviction on such a charge, the government must prove that the person intended to provide some type of aid to the group.

In many of the cases, the F.B.I. and federal prosecutors have followed the same procedures in order to make that argument.

Through confidential informants and undercover agents, the authorities have obtained statements from the people under investigation about their intentions to travel to join the groups. The authorities then wait for the suspects to book a ticket to travel abroad to join the groups. After the suspects pass through airport security, F.B.I. agents move in for the arrest. Passing through security, according to the F.B.I, proves the intention to travel abroad.

Someone convicted of providing material support to a terrorist organization faces a maximum of 15 years in prison and $250,000 fine. At least five defendants have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from their arrests. Most have received less than the maximum sentence. In the case of Mr. Khan, who lived with his parents and had attended Benedictine University, the investigation began with a tip. The F.B.I. began surveilling him to substantiate that he wanted to join the Islamic State. He was taken into custody as he began what he believed was a trip to Turkey to cross over the border into Syria.

In an interview with F.B.I. agents at the airport, Mr. Khan waived his Miranda rights and began speaking about his plans, according to court documents.

He said that he had met someone online who had given him the phone number of a person who he was supposed to contact when he arrived in Istanbul. That person was then supposed to take him to join the Islamic State in Syria or Iraq.

Mr. Khan said that he knew that by going to fight with the militant group, he would never be able to return to the United States. “When asked what he was going to do there, Khan advised that he expected to be involved in some type of public service, a police force, humanitarian work or combat role,” according to the court documents.

At his parents' home, the agents found a notebook that included the name of the person he had mentioned he talked to in the chat room. There was a drawing of what appeared to be the United States and Turkey “that included an arrow from the United States to northwest Turkey, two arrows across Turkey, and one arrow pointing across what appeared to be the border of Turkey and Syria or Iraq,” according to the documents.

On one page was a drawing of the Islamic State's flag, and on another was a message that appeared similar to statements Mr. Khan had made to his family about going to live in caliphate.

“Islamic State in Iraq and Levant. Here to stay. We are the lion of the war. My nation, the dawn has emerged,” it said.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-steps-up-fight-to-block-isis-volunteers/ar-BB8eXC2

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Homeland Security: No ISIL fighters on U.S. border

by JONATHAN TOPAZ

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is pushing back against a claim made by Rep. Duncan Hunter that at least 10 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters were apprehended trying to come into the U.S. from Mexico.

“We have no credible, specific intelligence to that effect,” Johnson said of ISIL insurgents illegally entering the country from along the southern border on CNN Wednesday evening. “And I look at the intelligence reports from overseas from our southern border from our intelligence community virtually every day, numerous times a day, to be on the lookout for something of that nature. So, what I'd say to the American public is we're vigilant in looking out for individuals of suspicion who may be crossing our border.”

The top DHS official didn't mention Hunter, a California Republican congressman, by name. But on several occasions, Johnson said that public officials have a “responsibility” to not “unnecessarily frighten the American public.”

“Let's not unduly create fear and anxiety in the American public by passing on speculation and rumor,” the secretary told host Wolf Blitzer.

Blitzer asked specifically about comments made Tuesday evening by Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. “[A]t least 10 ISIS fighters have been caught coming across the Mexican border in Texas,” the congressman said during an interview on Fox News, citing information from source from Customs and Border Protection, which is under DHS authority. Hunter also suggested that it was likely that “dozens” of others linked to the terrorist group that has recently beheaded two American journalists and two British aid workers would likely not get caught by border agents and make their way into the U.S.

On Wednesday, DHS flatly said that Hunter's claim was unfounded. “The suggestion that individuals who have ties to ISIL have been apprehended at the southwest border is categorically false, and not supported by any credible intelligence or the facts on the ground,” a DHS spokesperson said.

Judicial Watch reported later Wednesday that four “Islamic terrorists” had been seized along the southern border in 36 hours.

Hunter's deputy chief of staff, Joe Kasper, told POLITICO that the congressman stands by his statement, which came from a conversation with a “high-level” source, but didn't elaborate when asked about the individuals' specific ties to ISIL.

In September, Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah claimed that four men linked to terrorist organizations tried to cross the border earlier that month.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/10/isil-us-border-homeland-security-duncan-hunter-111722.html?hp=l2

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California

Google's Schmidt Fires Back Over Encryption

Executive Says Plans to Scramble Phone Data Wouldn't Undermine Law Enforcement

by Danny Yadron

PALO ALTO, Calif.—To hear Google Inc. http://quotes.wsj.com/GOOGL Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt tell it, the U.S. government has only itself to blame for new efforts by Google and Apple Inc. http://quotes.wsj.com/AAPL to keep police out of suspects' smartphones.

Speaking at a round table of technology executives organized by Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), Mr. Schmidt offered Silicon Valley's first public retort in a renewed debate about how far technology companies should go to protect user data.

Last month, Google and Apple said they would begin encrypting data on their phones in ways that would prevent them from unscrambling it for police—even with a warrant.

The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey, said last month that he was “concerned” the moves might help people “place themselves beyond the law.”

Other U.S. officials said it marked a new low in relations between Silicon Valley and Washington since former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden began leaking state secrets last spring.

On Wednesday, Mr. Schmidt replied.

“The people who are criticizing this are the ones who should have expected this,” he said.

At another point, he said new regulations by foreign governments to shield more data from U.S. spying would end up “breaking the Internet.”

He also said that Google had been “attacked” by the British version of the NSA.

Documents leaked by Mr. Snowden indicated spies mined data from Google's overseas data centers without its knowledge.

Sen. Wyden organized Wednesday's event at a high school here to argue that revelations about U.S. electronic surveillance were hurting U.S. tech companies, as foreign governments pushed their citizens to use local technology that might better be shielded from U.S. spying.

Over the past year, Mr. Schmidt, 59 years old, has become one of the most outspoken executives about NSA surveillance leaks.

Google is based in nearby Mountain View, Calif., and the audience of students and local technology employees interrupted him with applause at several points.

The FBI and NSA didn't respond to requests for comment. Neither agency had a representative at the hearing.

Other companies represented included Microsoft Corp. http://quotes.wsj.com/MSFT, Facebook Inc., http://quotes.wsj.com/FB Dropbox Inc. and Greylock Partners, an influential venture-capital firm.

“People won't put their information in a bank they won't trust,” said Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith.

Industry executives acknowledged that it is hard to know exactly why they don't win a customer, and that most of the data suggesting that foreign customers are turning away from U.S. suppliers was anecdotal.

It sometimes wasn't clear whether the executives were more troubled by U.S. spying or the negative reaction to it. Tech companies were embarrassed that Mr. Snowden's documents included their corporate logos and showed how the companies cooperated with government surveillance programs.

Mr. Schmidt at one point warned that widespread surveillance of electronic communication is difficult to maintain because of the chance it will become public. “It's so easy to do bulk-leaking, which we're certainly not endorsing,” he said.

As for the phone encryption, Apple's and Google's new tools will only guard data stored only on a phone.

It won't affect call logs maintained by phone carriers and data backed up in the companies' servers.

“There are many, many ways law enforcement can get what it needs,” Mr. Schmidt said.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/googles-schmidt-says-encrypted-phones-wont-thwart-police-1412812180

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Missouri

What is community policing?

by Ben Jealous

In the wake of increased shootings in Ferguson and around the country, there has been a renewed public interest in the role of police, the extent of police brutality, and the prevalence of racial bias.

These are not new issues, and in fact a number of organizations have been working for decades to increase trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

Among these is the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI), a nonprofit leadership program headquartered in Washington, D.C.

Founded in 1984, NCBI focuses on eliminating prejudice and resolving inter-group conflict. They work in cities across the U.S. and overseas to build the capacity of local leaders in schools, college campuses, police departments, and environmental organizations to lead prevention-oriented workshops and to intervene in the face of tough inter group conflict.

One of NCBI's key programs, the Law Enforcement Community Citizen Project, focuses on building productive relationships between police and the communities they serve.

The NCBI Law Enforcement Community Citizen Project was initially funded in 2002 by a grant from the COPS office (the office of Community Policing at the US Department of Justice) to work in Bethlehem, PA and King County, WA. Since then the program has been implemented in Atlantic City, NJ as well as numerous communities throughout Pennsylvania, Missoula, MO, and Seattle, WA.

NCBI is called on to bridge the divide between community members and police officers.

NCBI leads Train the Trainer programs, Welcoming Diversity and Inclusion Workshops, and Leadership Institutes for officers and community activists to educate them in skills to foster cooperative relationships. Some communities have contacted NCBI when there have been specific difficulties between white police officers and people or neighborhoods of color that have been singled out by police.

From their experience, NCBI has learned that it is best to offer communities a prevention-oriented, trust building approach. This way, NCBI builds the ongoing capacity of law enforcement and community activists to work in partnership to increase safety for all citizens in the community.

I spoke with Fabienne Brooks, who along with Guillermo Lopez is co-director of NCBI's Law Enforcement Program. Brooks is a retired Chief of Detectives for the King County Police Department in Seattle, WA. She was the first black female officer in county history to be hired as a deputy, and throughout her career she made a point to immerse herself in the community that she served. The neighborhood she patrolled was the same neighborhood where she attended church and raised her family. After 26 years on the job, she retired and joined NCBI so she could continue her passion for community policing.

Brooks told me that "an important part of community policing occurs when an officer recognizes that they are part of a community, and the community understands the same about the officer. It includes forming empathetic relationships between law enforcement and community members, which results in increased officer safety and safety for all members of the community."

The NCBI Law Enforcement Community Partnership project builds trust between law enforcement and community leaders by helping each side to understand the daily realities of the other. Each has a key story to tell. Each deserves respectful listening.

By teaching listening skills and conflict resolution practices and by helping each side see the humanity and legitimate concerns of the other, trust and partnership increases. In addition, NCBI teaches specific skill sets that help each side to confront the biases they have learned about each other that get in the way of equitable treatment of the entire community – particularly the equitable treatment of people from different racial groups. NCBI believes in practices that will bring about institutional change, not one-time trainings or quick fixes.

As just one example of the outcomes of the NCBI's COPS and Community project, consider what happened in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In 2005, a pool frequented by Latino young people had been closed for repairs and the young people went to another pool. Within minutes, the mainly white life guards felt threatened by the presence of the Latino young people, called the police and the police, ignoring the pleas of the Latino parents for calm, called for increased back up.

A huge altercation between the parents and the police continued for months. The NCBI trained police/ community activist team was able to bring the parents and police together, and using their NCBI skills, bring about increased trust and understanding.

In Ferguson, former Chief Brooks sees an opportunity for an effective community-policing program to emerge from the chaos and violence of the past few weeks. "Now, there is a chance for police and the community to hear each other," she said. "The focus needs to be on how people are treated. If you can train officers how to treat ALL people with dignity and respect - that is a victory."

Brook's co-director Guillermo Lopez explained that community policing cannot be accomplished with the wave of a wand. "You don't go in trying to change a whole department; you go in trying to change a few people, who eventually come to change the whole department,” he said.

To reach NCBI, visit www.ncbi.org or call (202) 785-9400.

Jealous is a Partner at Kapor Capital and former President and CEO of the NAACP.

http://www.stlamerican.com/news/columnists/guest_columnists/article_836ec02c-4f5f-11e4-ade1-a784025b7b4c.html

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Arkansas

Remarks by Attorney General Eric Holder at ‘Making Cities Safe Through Community Policing,' an Event of the U.S. Conference of Mayors

Little Rock, Arkansas -- Thank you, Mayor [Kevin] Johnson, for that kind introduction; for your work in instituting community policing and reducing gang violence in Sacramento; and of course for your leadership as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. It is a pleasure to stand with this distinguished group, and to be back in Little Rock today. It's a privilege to join you at this remarkable venue. And it's an honor to share the stage this morning with this center's namesake – a truly great president in whose administration I was honored to serve, and whose living legacy and transformative, ongoing work we gather to build upon today.

For over 80 years, the U.S. Conference of Mayors has brought together dedicated public servants from some of America's greatest cities to address shared challenges and common concerns; to advance policy solutions and share best practices; and to extend the collective expertise of its members – and strengthen local governance – from coast to coast. Over the past six years, I have had the opportunity to work closely with many of you – and with a number of the law enforcement leaders who are with us this morning – to address emerging threats, to confront urgent needs, and to uphold the promise of equal justice for every member of our society.

Together – block by block, city by city – we've made tremendous progress. Our nation has witnessed a dramatic reduction in the crime rate over the last 20 years. Just since President Obama took office, we've seen both crime and incarceration decline considerably – the first time these two critical markers have gone down at the same time in more than 40 years. And thanks to the “Smart on Crime” initiative I launched just over a year ago, the robust anti-violence partnerships that are in place in so many of the cities represented here, and the strong and steady leadership of the mayors and public safety professionals in this room, it's clear that we stand poised to build upon these successes – and further institutionalize the gains we've seen – in the days ahead.

As we do so, it's crucial that we account for the fact that – although recent advances have been laudable, and are worth celebrating – they have not been entirely uniform. Too many of America's communities, including some within our most vibrant cities, are not sharing in these gains. In some places – despite the valiant efforts of elected leaders and public safety officials at every level – social ills like poverty, unemployment, and widespread lack of opportunity continue to trap people in lives of criminality and incarceration. And these conditions can give rise to tense and often tragic circumstances in which systemic violence can take root.

This is something we saw all too clearly this past August, as the eyes of the nation turned to events in Ferguson, Missouri – where the shooting of an unarmed African-American teenager sparked widespread unrest and focused a national spotlight on the rifts that can develop between police officials and the citizens they are entrusted to protect. When I traveled to Ferguson in the days after that incident, my pledge to the people of that community was that our nation's Department of Justice would remain focused on the challenges they faced – and the deep-seated issues and difficult conversations that the shooting brought to the surface – long after national headlines had faded.

This week, as we gather to confront these issues, to consider ways to rebuild trust where it has been eroded – and to redouble our commitment to the community policing strategies that lie at the heart of this important work – we're taking robust and sweeping action to make good on that pledge. And I believe it's fitting that we do so here at the William J. Clinton Presidential Center.

It was 20 years ago last month that, with the essential support of President Clinton, the Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 was made into law – a landmark statute, authored by then-Senator Joe Biden, that created the Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS. This was an audacious, new concept – and it required, for its passage, guts by the young, Arkansas-bred president who signed the law. Since its inception, immediately, this important office became a crucial part of the Department I am now honored to lead. And through the investments it has made – and the approaches it has championed – in the intervening years, the COPS Office has emerged as a strong partner to local leaders throughout America – and a positive force for change and progress at the national level.

Over the past two decades, the COPS Office has invested more than $14 billion to keep our streets and communities safer through community policing. It has funded more than 126,000 officers who have served in nearly three-quarters of this nation's law enforcement agencies. It has awarded approximately 39,000 grants to state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies. And it has provided training to more than 700,000 law enforcement personnel, community members, and government leaders – including many of you.

Just two weeks ago, I announced that – under the leadership of Director Ron Davis, who you you'll be hearing from later today – my colleagues and I will continue to build on this work by awarding a new round of grants under the COPS Hiring Program. Through this initiative, we are providing nearly $124 million in new funding to support the hiring and retention of 944 officers at 215 agencies and municipalities throughout America. These targeted investments will help to address acute needs – such as high rates of violent crime – by funding 75 percent of the salary and benefits of every newly-hired or re-hired officer for three full years. And the impact of this critical support will extend far beyond the creation and preservation of law enforcement jobs. It will strengthen relationships between these officers and the communities they serve, improve public safety, and keep law enforcement officers on the beat.

Of course, this is merely the latest installment in a long-running effort that has had clear benefits – and in some cases transformative results – in communities across the country. As I noted just a moment ago, the crime rate has declined considerably over the last two decades – with FBI statistics indicating that the national rate of violent crime in 2012 was roughly half the rate reported in 1993. This period roughly coincides with the great work that's been led by our COPS Office, in partnership with so many of you. And that's no accident.

In fact, when the Government Accountability Office studied the effectiveness of the COPS Office, in 2005, it found that COPS funding produced significant reductions not only in the overall crime rate, but in rates of violent crime and property crime in particular. I know everyone here has seen – in city after city – that community policing simply works. Strong relationships, founded on mutual respect, can result in enhanced cooperation between local residents and law enforcement officials. And renewed trust in the fairness of criminal justice proceedings, even when citizens disagree with particular outcomes, can result in safer neighborhoods and closer engagement with community members in establishing clear expectations of compliance with the law.

The effectiveness of community policing – and the power of the work that Ron and his colleagues are completing every single day – has been demonstrated in numerous studies and anecdotal reports. But it's also something that I, and many of you, have witnessed firsthand.

When President Clinton asked me to serve as United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, in 1993, I was a judge on the D.C. Superior Court. I had spent roughly five years watching as lines of defendants – and most often young men of color – streamed through my courtroom. Some of the faces I saw became familiar, because some of the people I sentenced served their time, were released from prison, and quickly returned to the conduct that had brought them before me in the first place.

So I knew from experience – from the moment I accepted President Clinton's nomination – that Washington was a city in crisis. Statistics showed my city to be the so-called “murder capital” of the United States. And I had seen with my own eyes that mistrust between residents and law enforcement was – in some areas – both corrosive and widespread.

In response, my colleagues and I turned to some of the very same strategies we've gathered to expand upon today. With the support of President Clinton and a great Attorney General, Janet Reno, my office launched the first-ever community policing and community prosecution effort in our nation's capital. We worked hard to build engagement and establish rapport between prosecutors, law enforcement officials, community leaders, and the residents we were sworn to protect. Over time, those essential connections helped to strengthen the fabric of the community. And they contributed to a decline in the crime rate that has mirrored the national reductions we've seen.

In the years since then, the COPS Office has provided indispensable leadership in replicating these results – and forging locally-tailored solutions – in order to address a range of public safety priorities in Washington and countless other cities from coast to coast. In response to specific problems faced by individual cities, we've marshaled a range of new resources and rallied experts from around the country to help make a positive difference. And with the recent launch of our National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice, COPS and other Justice Department offices are taking major steps to help resolve longstanding tensions – and to continue the pioneering work that a number of our law enforcement partners are leading.

After all, the events in Ferguson reminded us that we cannot – and we must not – allow tensions, which are present in so many neighborhoods across America, to go unresolved. With this gathering of leaders – thanks to the promise of community policing – we are declaring, together, that we will not. We are renewing our shared commitment to stand with those on the front lines of our fight for public safety – the police officers and sheriff's deputies who put their lives on the line to keep us safe. And we are reaffirming our broad-based commitment not just to continue, but to expand upon, the exemplary efforts that are currently underway – a commitment we reinvigorate, here and now, with new financial support for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

This morning, I am proud to announce that – through the COPS Office – the Department of Justice is awarding a Community Policing Development grant, totaling $100,000, to advance the Conference of Mayors' work to reduce youth violence through enhanced collaboration. This brand-new funding will enable your Research and Education Foundation to thoroughly examine ways in which mayors, police chiefs, and school leaders have come together to reduce youth violence. The Foundation will then identify – and report on – the most successful strategies uncovered. And this will allow cities where such violence is endemic to learn from, and to emulate, the approaches that have proven most effective.

This intensive study will not only strengthen community policing and build on this conference's storied tradition of enhancing local governance through collaboration; it will complement the Obama Administration's historic efforts to improve public safety and build a brighter future by ensuring that every American has the chance to grow, to learn, and to thrive, regardless of who they are or where they come from.

This past February, President Obama launched a groundbreaking initiative – known as My Brother's Keeper – to address opportunity gaps and tear down barriers that too often prevent boys and young men of color, and other youth, from realizing their full potential. Through this initiative, the Administration is joining with cities and towns, businesses, and foundations that are taking important steps to connect young people to mentoring, support networks, and the skills they need to find a good job – or go to college – and work their way into the middle class.

I want to commend the Conference of Mayors for establishing a My Brother's Keeper Task Force, for fully embracing this initiative in nearly every facet, and for tracking its robust implementation in cities across the country. Mayors like my good friend Michael Nutter of Philadelphia – who is here with us today – are standing on the forefront of this important work. You are enabling us to make an important, positive difference in the lives of countless young people. And you're spearheading efforts to take it to a new level.

Just last week, the President launched a significant expansion of this work, known as the My Brother's Keeper Community Challenge – to encourage cities, counties, and tribal nations to implement coherent “cradle to college and career” strategies that will keep our youth on paths to success. I am pleased to note that over 140 mayors, county officials, and tribal leaders – including Little Rock Mayor [Mark] Stodola – have already accepted the President's call to action. And within the next several months, they will be launching locally-tailored strategies for raising the likelihood that at-risk young people will graduate from school, find good jobs, and stay safe from violent crime.

This Administration-wide effort is broad in scope – and potentially transformative in its intended impact. But like all of our work – and like community policing in particular – it depends squarely on the experience, the leadership, and the guidance that local officials and community partners like you are uniquely situated to provide. And with your help, in the months and years ahead, I believe we need to take these efforts even further.

That's why, under the leadership of our COPS Office, the Justice Department is working with major police associations to conduct a broad review of policing tactics, techniques, and training – so we can help the field swiftly confront emerging threats, better address persistent challenges, and thoroughly examine the latest tools and technologies to enhance the safety, and the effectiveness, of law enforcement. Going forward, I will support not only continuing this timely review, but expanding it – to consider the profession in a comprehensive way – and to provide strong, national direction on a scale not seen since President Lyndon Johnson's Commission on Law Enforcement nearly half a century ago.

Thanks to your continued leadership, I am confident that – by standing and working together – we will continue to leverage relationships with experts and proven community advocates to build an ever-stronger network of committed public servants. We will continue to see trust increase, and crime and violence decline, in all of the jurisdictions represented here. And although this progress may not come as swiftly or as smoothly as we might like – with the persistence of everyone here, and the guidance, inspiration, and singular vision of great leaders like President Clinton and President Obama – we will continue to bring about the gains that our citizens, and particularly our youngest citizens, need and deserve.

At every stage of my career, I have been both honored and humbled to count you as colleagues and partners in this important work. Although my path will soon lead me in a new direction, I want you to know that I will never stop seeking new ways to contribute, to lead, and to give back to the country I love so dearly. I have always viewed the issues on our agenda today as some of the most critical we face – both as law enforcement leaders and as Americans. No matter where my individual journey may take me, that will never change. This work will only grow stronger. And I look forward to where our shared efforts will lead us in the months and years to come.

Thank you.

http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/latest-national/latest-national-news/55885-remarks-by-attorney-general-eric-holder-at-making-cities-safe-through-community-policing-an-event-of-the-u-s-conference-of-mayors.html

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North Carolina

Crime in Fayetteville drops 6 percent in 2013, SBI statistics show; community policing effort credited

by Nathan Hardin

City leaders credited Fayetteville Police Chief Harold Medlock's policing outlook as the main contributor to a 6 percent decline in reported crime, most of it property offenses, released Wednesday by the State Bureau of Investigation.

Mayor Nat Robertson said Medlock's community policing approach has reduced citizen complaints, encouraged community watch activism and been key in the crime decline.

"For us to be able to move the pendulum with the crime rate, we have to have the community engaged," Robertson said. "I think the police chief has done a great job at engaging the community."

The SBI's annual Uniform Crime Report measures violent and property crimes per 100,000 people. The report showed that Fayetteville property crimes dropped from 13,160 to 12,261 in property crime.

The crime drop followed a trend across North Carolina, the data showed.

Statewide, violent crime - rapes, homicides, robberies and aggravated assaults - dropped 5.4percent, the SBI report said. Property crimes - burglaries, larcenies and vehicle thefts - fell 7.2percent.

The city did see a slight increase in some categories, the data showed.

The number of homicides rose from 22 to 25; robberies, from 560 to 586; and larcenies, from 8,295 to 8,351.

The crime rate in Cumberland County, including Fayetteville, dropped from 6,717 reports to 6,132 reports.

Fayetteville City Councilman Bill Crisp said the community's views toward police are changing because of the new law enforcement approach.

Two years ago, Crisp said, he didn't know the names of the officers who patrolled his neighborhood, the captains who oversaw them or the lieutenants who ran the unit.

Now, he said, he knows all of them.

"When you know the police officer that shows up at your door," Crisp said, "it makes a big difference, in my opinion."

At a showing of the gun violence awareness film "Decision Points," Medlock told City Council members that the most recent preliminary numbers from 2014, which were not a part of the numbers released by the SBI on Wednesday, continue to show a promising trend for the department.

Medlock said the city had 685 fewer burglaries than this time last year, a 27.5 percent decrease.

The total reported crime so far this year, he said, is down 12.8 percent, following along with the dropping property crime trend from 2012 to 2013. Of those, total violent crime reports are down 7.2 percent, Medlock said.

Robberies have dropped by 69 reported offenses this year, but reported rapes are up 8.8 percent, he said.

Most of the city's reported rapes, he said, are domestic related.

Asked about the continued falls in property crime, Medlock attributed the decline to better community relationships.

"The correlation is, first, people aren't going to talk to us unless they know us," Medlock said.

"So, assigning officers to permanent shifts in permanent neighborhoods, giving them some ownership in that area and giving ownership to the lieutenants and supervisors - what happens as a result of that is the officers are in the same place every day, every night and they get to know the people good and bad that live and work and ... do crime in those neighborhoods."

Since taking the department's top job in February 2013, statistics have been favorable under Medlock. Still, he said, he wants to see the trend continue into the city's youth violence.

"When you get those statistics, it is a reason to be encouraged, but when we still continue to have the level of violence we have with our young people, the balance falls back," he said. "We have work to do. While it's good that we have the good numbers, I'm not going to rest until we start to see a decrease in violent crime involving kids."

http://www.fayobserver.com/news/local/crime-in-fayetteville-drops-percent-in-sbi-statistics-show-community/article_7b63e207-47e4-5588-ac58-5430834197a5.html

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FBI asks public for help identifying ISIS militant

by CBS News

Federal investigators are seeking help to identify a masked man they believe may be an American who's appeared in a propaganda video on behalf of the terror group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

Shifting between Arabic and English, he has orchestrated the execution of prisoners last month in Syria, CBS News' David Martin reports.

The FBI posted a clip on its Web site in the hope someone might recognize him through his voice and appearance.

Judging by his accent, the FBI believes he is from the northern U.S. border area with Canada or from Canada itself.

He is not the first ISIS fighter to be hunted by the sound of his voice.

"Jihad John," the terrorist who presided over the execution of Americans James Foley and Steven Sotloff, spoke in a British accent. Following that lead, law enforcement officials said they have succeeded in identifying him.

ISIS fighters holding Western passports are considered a threat to return home and carry out terrorist attacks in Europe or the U.S.

That's why the FBI is appealing to the public to "help identify individuals traveling overseas for combat."

Chilling videos featuring English-speaking fighters are actually used by ISIS to recruit more fighters.

Over the weekend, a 19-year-old Chicago man was arrested for allegedly attempting to travel to Syria to join ISIS.

The FBI appeal includes a tip line, 1-800-CALL-FBI, and a Web address citizens can use to help identify ISIS fighters.

"No piece of information is too small," the FBI said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-seeks-americas-help-to-identify-masked-man-in-isis-propaganda-videos/

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DEA Stole Woman's Identity To Contact Suspects On Facebook

by ALICIA A. CALDWELL and ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Drug Enforcement Administration set up a fake Facebook account using photographs and other personal information it took from the cellphone of a New York woman arrested in a cocaine case in hopes of tricking her friends and associates into revealing incriminating drug secrets.

The Justice Department initially defended the practice in court filings but now says it is reviewing whether the Facebook guise went too far.

Sondra Arquiett's Facebook account looked as real as any other. It included photos of her posing on the hood of a sleek BMW and a close-up with her young son and niece. She even appeared to write that she missed her boyfriend, who was identified by his nickname.

But it wasn't her. The account was the work of DEA Agent Timothy Sinnigen, Arquiett said in a federal court lawsuit. The case was scheduled for trial next week in Albany, New York, although a mediator has now been selected for the dispute, court records show.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon said in a statement Tuesday that officials were reviewing both the incident and the practice, although in court papers filed earlier in the case the government defended it. Fallon declined to comment further because the case was pending.

Details of the case were first reported by the online news site BuzzFeed News.

The case illustrates how legal standards of privacy are struggling to keep pace with constantly evolving technologies. And it shows how the same social media platforms that can serve as valuable resources in criminal investigations also can raise sensitive privacy implications that are at times difficult for law enforcement and the courts to navigate.

"How do you fit a new technology under your old rules? How do we think about a phone? How do we think about a Facebook account?" said Neil Richards, a privacy expert at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.

Arquiett, who is now asking for $250,000, was arrested in July 2010 on charges of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. She was accused of being part of a drug distribution ring run by her boyfriend, who had been previously indicted. She could have faced up to life in prison.

Court records show that in February 2011, Arquiett pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute cocaine base. She was sentenced in January 2012 to time served and given a period of home confinement.

In the plea agreement Arquiett, who also was identified by the last names Prince and Arquiette, acknowledged that from 2008 to 2010 she was part of a drug conspiracy in Watertown, New York. The records also show she participated in jailhouse telephone calls with co-conspirators and at times made three-way telephone calls connecting jailed co-conspirators with others.

The court records do not show whether Arquiett agreed to testify against any other members of the conspiracy.

In a court filing in August, the Justice Department contended that while Arquiett didn't directly authorize Sinnigen to create the fake account, she "implicitly consented by granting access to the information stored in her cellphone and by consenting to the use of that information to aid in ... ongoing criminal investigations."

The government also argued that the Facebook account was not public. A reporter was able to access it early Tuesday, though it was later disabled.

A spokesman for Facebook declined Tuesday to comment on the dispute. Facebook's own policies appear to prohibit the practice, telling users that "You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission."

Donald Kinsella, one of Arquiett's lawyers, declined to comment. Arquiett did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Arquiett said in her filing that she suffered "fear and great emotional distress" and was endangered because the fake page gave the impression that she was cooperating with Sinnigen's investigation as he interacted online with "dangerous individuals he was investigating."

The fate of Arquiett's fight against the government's use of her identity online is unclear. Law enforcement agencies routinely use fictitious online profiles in their investigations, including in cases of child pornography. But it's unclear how many other times a real person's identity has been used in this way.

Nate Cardozo, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties organization, said the government's rationale was "laughable."

"If I'm cooperating with law enforcement, and law enforcement says, 'Can I search your phone?' and I hand it over to them, my expectation is that they will search the phone for evidence of a crime," Cardozo said, "not that they will take things that are not evidence off my phone and use it in another context."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/08/dea-fake-facebook_n_5951082.html?utm_hp_ref=dc&ir=DC

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Harp, Esserman Bring Community-Policing Story To Clinton Center

A former president and soon-to-be-former top federal crime-fighter—along with mayors from around the country—are to hear New Haven's community-policing story.

Mayor Toni Harp and Police Chief Dean Esserman are bringing the story to the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. The U.S. Conference of Mayors is holding a two-day conference, on Wednesday and Thursday, on community policing.

Other speakers include former President Bill Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder (who has announced his plans to retire from his post later this year), and other mayors and top cops from around the control.

Harp said before leaving on Tuesday afternoon that she plans to discuss Youth Stat, the data-sharing and strategy sessions she launched bringing together police, school, probation, and other officials to concentrate on students most at risk of getting into trouble. Esserman plans to speak about the police department's work with the Yale Child Study Center in helping kids who have experienced or witnessed violence.

The trip will include not just talking, but lots of listening, Harp said. “I'm really excited about it. It's good to learn from other cities about what they've done to take community-based policing to the next level.”

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/harp_esserman_bring_community-policing_story_to_clinton_library/id_70908

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Massachusetts

AAA Study: ‘Public Safety Crisis' Ahead Due To Distracted Driving

BOSTON (CBS) – New research by AAA shows that avoiding distracted driving isn't as simple as putting down the cell phone when you're behind the wheel.

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety performed research recently that showed mental distractions can cause danger for drivers – even when they have their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road.

According to AAA's research, as distractions increase, reaction time slows, brain function is compromised and drivers scan the road less for important sights like stop signs and pedestrians.

Dr. David Strayer, a cognitive distraction expert from the University of Utah, measured factors such as brainwaves and eye movement using cameras mounted in a test car that tracked eye and head movement of drivers.

In addition, a device was used to track reaction time and a skull cap with an electroencephalographic (EEG) built in was utilized to track brain activity.

While being monitored, drivers performed tasks such as listening to their radio, talking on the phone, and responding to voice-activated emails while driving.

Results showed that listening to the radio provided minimal risk and talking on the cell phone, whether hands-free or not, proved to be a moderate risk.

Listening and responding to email using voice-activated commands provides an extensive risk, the study showed.

“These findings reinforce previous research that hands free is not risk free,” said AAA Foundation President and CEO Peter Kissinger.

“Increased mental workload and cognitive distractions can lead to a type of tunnel vision or inattention blindness where motorists don't see potential hazards right in front of them.”

AAA seeks to use the research as a talking point with policymakers, hoping to prevent in-vehicle technology from becoming a bigger hazard on the roads.

According to AAA, a five-fold increase in “infotainment systems” is expected by 2018.

“There is a looming public safety crisis ahead with the future proliferation of these in-vehicle technologies,” said AAA President and CEO Robert L. Darbelnet.

“It's time to consider limiting new and potentially dangerous mental distractions built into cars, particularly with the common public misperception that hands free means risk free.”

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/10/07/aaa-study-public-safety-crisis-ahead-due-to-distracted-driving/

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Ebola: The Facts

by Discovery News

Origin

•  The first Ebola virus species was discovered in 1976 in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo near the Ebola River.

•  The current outbreak in West Africa likely arrived in the area via fruit bats from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

•  On August 8, The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the Ebola epidemic ravaging parts of west Africa an international health emergency and appealed for global aid to help afflicted countries.

•  That WHO designation has been used only twice before -- during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009 and last May for the reemergence of polio in a number of countries.

•  Genetic researchers studying Ebola virus genomes found that the first Ebola patient in Sierra Leone traced back to the funeral of a traditional healer who had treated Ebola patients across the border in Guinea, where the outbreak is believed to have originated. The investigators found 13 additional cases of Ebola, all in women who attended the burial.

•  While the prime Ebola vector agent is bats, the virus has also been detected in chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys, antelopes, porcupines, rodents, dogs, pigs and, of course, humans.

Statistics

•  The virus is not a guaranteed death sentence. Some 47% of carriers survive.

•  Some outbreaks, however, can have a case fatality rate of up to 90%. There is no licensed, proven, specific treatment or vaccine available for use in people or animals.

•  More than 120 health care workers have died in the Ebola outbreak.

•  While containment has been possible in theory, breaks in protocol compromise the effort and are common in countries where both the disease and foreign medical workers are feared by local populations.

•  Medical staff and hygiene workers, even clad from head to toe in protective clothing, are among those most at risk.

Transmission

•  Humans can contract Ebola from animals or other humans. In animals, it's often contracted from eating infected meat or having contact with bat feces or urine.

•  Ebola is transmitted human-to-human by direct contact with blood, feces or sweat, or by sexual contact. Just touching an infected person can be enough to spread the virus. Unprotected handling of contaminated corpses, as in preparing them for burial, can also transmit Ebola.

•  One of the most revered local customs in West Africa could account for much of the disease's spread. Local tradition calls for washing a corpse before it is buried, putting everyone who participates in the ritual in touch with bodily fluids that contain the virus.

•  Because bats are a critical carrier of Ebola, officials have banned the consumption of bat soup, grilled bat and other local delicacies.

•  Bats are reservoirs for more than 60 viruses that can infect humans and they host more viruses per species than even rodents.

•  Medical experts believe animals are the natural hosts for the Ebola virus.

•  Though bats and other mammals can harbor the virus, they may not show any symptoms of the disease.

Symptoms

•  In an Ebola infection, the virus first disables some of the immune system's frontline cells and then replicates almost unchecked.

•  It then bursts out of cells throughout the body and damages them, eventually causing multi-organ failure.

•  In the last stages of the disease, in a process known as a cytokine storm, the immune system goes haywire and inflammatory molecules called cytokines attack the body's own tissue.

•  Technically, then, it's not the virus that kills people but instead their own immune systems ultimately turn against them.

•  It can take from 48 hours to 3 weeks before an infected person may show any symptoms.

•  The contagious period usually starts after symptoms first appear

•  Early symptoms include fever, headache, aches, chills and sore throat.

•  Progressively, victims will experience nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, rash, chest pain and cough, weight loss and bleeding.

•  In some cases, organs will shut down and cause unstoppable bleeding.

Experimental Treatments

•  A study in the journal Nature this year reported that one drug was able to improve survival in monkeys who were exposed to a virus closely related to Ebola called Marburg virus.

•  Public Health Canada is testing an antibody-based treatment. It uses the Vesicular stomatis virus (VSV), which affects horses and cattle and is spread by flies, to deliver an antibody for Ebola's surface coating

•  The company Tekmira Pharmaceuticals has developed an experimental drug that uses a process called RNA interference to block the virus' replication.

•  Many researchers in the nanotechnology community have been trying to use gold nanoparticles, in combination with near-infrared light, to kill cancer cells with heat. The hope is that the same approach could be used to kill the Ebola virus.

•  Two American aid workers -- Dr Kent Brantly, 33, and Nancy Writebol, 59 -- struck with Ebola in Liberia received emergency doses of a brand-new, untested cocktail of engineered Ebola antibodies called ZMapp. While both fully recovered, it remains unclear if the treatment was directly responsible for curing them. ZMapp failed to save the life of a Spanish missionary priest who also was treated with it.

•  The Convalescence plasma method was used on Ebola patient Rick Sacra, a Christian missionary doctor who went to Liberia to assist in the Ebola effort and contracted it himself. He received blood plasma transfusions from Kent Brantly, the American aid worker referenced above. Brantly still had live antibodies in his system, and scientists think such live Ebola antibodies might assist other patients. The problem is that it only works during an outbreak, and only for that particular viral strain. Sacra continues to recover, though it is not yet clear that the plasma treatment was directly responsible for his improvement.

•  Common to all of the methods above -- drug treatment or vaccine -- is that they haven't gone through clinical trials to assess whether they are both safe and effective in humans.

•  In the current outbreak, about 40 percent of victims have survived even without treatments, making it hard to gauge any treatment's effectiveness

http://news.discovery.com/human/health/facts-about-the-ebola-virus-140918.htm

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Mexico

Survivor of Mexico Student Massacre: 'It Was Terrifying'

by Ioan Grillo

TIXTLA, Mexico — As the bullets crackled in the air and police bundled students into the backs of police cars, Eusebio ran with all his strength.

Shots were being fired at those trying to escape, but Eusebio was afraid of being taken by the officers, who were accompanied by men in plainclothes with rifles.

“It was terrifying but I just wanted to get away. I had a bad feeling about these police,” says Eusebio, a 19-year-old student at a university for rural schoolteachers in Tixtla, in southern Guerrero state.

That feeling likely saved Eusebio's life. On Sunday, Guerrero State Prosecutor Iñaky Blanco said alleged drug cartel assassins confessed they'd worked with police to murder detained students late last month. The suspects also led officials from the prosecutor's office to pits where 28 charred bodies were found.

Prosecutors are comparing the DNA of the victims with that of families of 43 students who went missing during the shooting on Sept. 26 in the town of Iguala.

The 19-year-old student described his fight for survival to GlobalPost during an interview at his university. Eusebio is just a nickname. He asked that his real name not be published because he fears repercussions from what he says is a corrupt web of police and narco traffickers.

His account is supported by state officials who have arrested more than 20 police officers and alleged cartel members in connection with the shooting.

The revelations of such a terrible case of violence and corruption are a major embarrassment for President Enrique Peña Nieto, who has been trying to overhaul Mexico's image from one of gangster bloodshed to one of reform and investment.

The Sept. 26 events began for Eusebio at 6 p.m., when he set off from his university with about 120 students. They were going to Iguala — an hour's drive away — to collect money on the streets for their studies. Mostly the sons of poor farmers, the Tixtla students rely on collections to help pay for food and learning materials.

The students are also known for their noisy protests, typically against policies like the government's controversial education reforms. Once in Iguala they went to the bus station and absconded with three coaches — they wanted the vehicles for transportation to schools and to a march in Mexico City on Oct. 2, a date that commemorates a student massacre in the capital city back in 1968.

Students across Mexico often take commercial buses without permission for their marches, normally returning them to their owners. The practice is largely tolerated, and Eusebio claims they would pay the drivers with money from their collections. However, bus companies sometimes complain about this as a problem for their operations.

Eusebio was traveling in one of these buses toward Iguala's northern exit at about 9 p.m. when the path was blocked by a police car. Students ran out of the bus to try to get the police to move. According to witnesses, officers immediately fired at the students.

“The shooting carried on for a long time. More police arrived and were firing at us. I lay down in the back of the bus. Some people threw stones back. But what good are stones against guns? None of us were armed.”

At least one student was shot dead and others were injured by bullets in this first barrage of shooting. The firing finally subsided and an ambulance came to take the injured. Some local journalists also arrived and students began giving statements to them about the killing.

But the bloodshed had only begun.

More police officers arrived, accompanied by gunmen in plainclothes. Prosecutors have now identified these shooters as members of a cell of assassins called “Guerreros Unidos” or “Warriors United,” who work for the Beltran Leyva cartel. The cartel's head Hector Beltran Leyva was arrested last week following the incident.

The police and hit men shot dead another two students at the scene, and bullets injured several others, including one who was shot in the face. A taxi driver and his passenger were also struck dead by bullets.

Amid the firing, police officers grabbed students and bundled them into their patrol cars, piling up the detainees face down.

“They were hitting the students as they took them. People were also scared about being shot so they gave themselves up. They thought they would just be arrested. But something else awaited them,” Eusebio says.

He sensed something was wrong and ran for his life.

“There was gunfire coming from all directions and police or gunmen blocking the exits. But another student and I managed to find a way out through an alley. We ran onto another street and there was a man outside his house. He was suspicious at first but we explained we were just students and he let us go into his house. We stayed there until the morning. He saved us,” Eusebio says.

The next morning Eusebio and other students assembled, cautiously, at the prosecutor's office in Iguala. They wanted to help their classmates who had been detained.

However, on a nearby street was a horrific sign: the corpse of one of the students whom they believed had been detained. His face was sliced off.

“It was the symbol of the cartel assassins,” Eusebio says.

When students reassembled back in Tixtla, it turned out 43 of them were missing. The president dispatched federal police and soldiers to the state and arrested local police officers and some alleged cartel operatives. The Iguala mayor has gone on the run.

On Saturday, investigators found six pits with 28 bodies in fields on the outskirts of Iguala. They continue to search the area for more.

While prosecutors have named the alleged perpetrators of the atrocity, they have yet to explain why the police and cartel members reacted so violently.

Eusebio believes the bloodshed is the result of already repressive authorities working with drug cartels, which pushes the violence to new levels.

“This is narco politics. The police have always attacked us. But now that they work with cartels, those attacks become massacres.”

On Monday, President Peña Nieto called for a thorough investigation into the incident, which he called “outrageous, painful and unacceptable,” and for all perpetrators to be punished.

The state prosecutors have said the remains are very damaged and that identifying them could take several weeks.

The relatives, like this uncle of a disappeared student who spoke to GlobalPost late Sunday, want answers now.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/survivor-mexico-student-massacre-it-was-terrifying-n219911

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Michigan

Consultant's report: racial profiling alive and well in Kalamazoo

by John McNeill

KALAMAZOO -- A Consultant's report that showed racial profiling was alive and well in Kalamazoo issued a year ago has triggered a number of changes in the Public Safety Department.

The study conducted by Lamberth Associates found that Public Safety officers were more than twice as likely to pull over a minority driver. Minorities were searched more often than whites, even though more whites were found with contraband than minorities.

Chief Jeff Hadley gave City Commissioners an one year update Monday night, saying they have initiated a number of programs to train officers on how to be aware of implicit bias and how to deal with it.

There has been Police Legitimacy training, and they will revise their field training program for new officers to include the new concepts.

He says they have also altered and revised policies on how they get consent for searching automobiles and retrained officers on search and seizure policies and laws.

He says they have created a system of Zone Folders that officers consult as they begin their shift. It outlines a different set of priorities for each zone, whether that's to watch for persons of interest, or specific problems or issues in those areas.

Chief Hadley says there have been other changes as well.

He says they have done a lot of hard work but admits it's still a work in progress, and so are their community relations efforts. He says it's like a marriage. It's something that needs to be tended and maintained, and can't be taken for granted.

He says they are making 41% fewer traffic stops and assigning more officers to directed patrols, targeting specific problems. He thinks that it leaves crime fighting less to random chance and makes more sense, especially since they are now operating with fewer officers due to budget cuts.

He says feedback from the public has been generally good.

More importantly crime rates across the board have gone down for everything but auto theft.

The true test may be having the consultants that did the original study, do another to see how much profiling has been addressed.

Chief Hadley's full written report updating their progress should be available on the Public Safety website on Tuesday.

http://wkzo.com/news/articles/2014/oct/07/work-continues-to-reduce-racial-profiling-by-kalamazoo-public-safety-officers/

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Fire Prevention Week

As part of its annual effort to increase public awareness and encourage a proactive approach to fire safety, the Electrical Safety Foundation International is teaming up with the National Fire Protection Association to promote Fire Prevention Week that runs Oct. 5-11.

According to the NFPA, smoke alarms can cut the chance of dying in a home fire in half.

NFPA's theme for Fire Prevention Week, "Working Smoke Alarms Save Lives: Test Yours Every Month," educates the public about the importance of working smoke alarms to help save lives.

ESFI's Fire Prevention Week resources will assist this effort by providing helpful reminders to eliminate hazards to help prevent home electrical fires.

"Many home electrical fires can be prevented, and ESFI is encouraging the public to take proactive measures to eliminate electrical fire hazards in their homes," said ESFI President Brett Brenner. "Simple measures such as not overloading outlets and making sure your home has the latest safety technologies can drastically reduce the risk of home fires."

Learn more about electrical safety and electrical fire on ESFI's website at www.esfi.org or visit the NFPA website at www.firepreventionweek.org.

http://www.ozarksfirst.com/story/d/story/fire-prevention-week-starts-sunday/29431/DR9F9ihX7UOjrg5KC7thbg

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Arkansas

Ferguson unrest prompts conference on community policing to be held in Arkansas

A conference will be held this week in Arkansas, that organizers say is in response to the unrest in Ferguson.

Our partners at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch report Attorney General Eric Holder and former President Bill Clinton will open the forum on race relations and community policing.

The U.S. Conference of Mayor's is sponsoring the event at the Clinton Presidential Library.

Forty mayors and 30 police chiefs will attend the conference.

http://kplr11.com/2014/10/05/ferguson-unrest-prompts-conference-on-community-policing-to-be-held-in-arkansas/

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New York

Unease grows between NY mayor and NYPD officers

Even some de Blasio allies acknowledge the mayor could do a better job of leading the department he is simultaneously trying to reform.

by Jonathon Lemire and Colleen Long

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's relationship with police, already strained by accusations he sided with frequent NYPD critic Al Sharpton over the chokehold death of an unarmed suspect, suffered another hit with revelations a top aide is living with a convicted killer who has often mocked officers as "pigs."

Police unions say it's only the latest incident that shows the mayor's lack of support for the 34,000-officer force. And even some de Blasio allies acknowledge the mayor could do a better job of leading the department he is simultaneously trying to reform.

"This is difficult terrain, particularly for a new mayor," said Eugene O'Donnell, a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who was on the mayor's transition team. "Morale has been low on the force and it's only getting worse."

Following a pair of mayors who were largely lockstep with the NYPD, de Blasio was viewed suspiciously by police from the beginning with his fierce push to end stop-and-frisk, the crime-fighting tactic that allowed officers to stop anyone they deemed suspicious but a judge ruled sometimes discriminated against minorities.

He drew their ire when he called a police official to inquire about the arrest of a political ally, who was later released. Police said the release had nothing to do with the mayor's request but the unions said the call made it seem like de Blasio was undermining officers.

And the latest strain was the revelation that Rachel Noerdlinger, first lady Chirlane McCray's chief of staff and a highly visible face at City Hall, is dating Hassaun McFarlan, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a 1993 shooting when he was 15 and later served time for drug trafficking. The news website DNAinfo reported that McFarlan's Facebook page, now taken down, had several posts referring to police as "pigs."

The city's largest police union has called for Noerdlinger's dismissal over the matter.

"It raises serious questions about her judgment and character and the quality of the counsel she provides to City Hall," said union head Pat Lynch.

Although de Blasio defended Noerdlinger — "We don't care what someone's boyfriend says," he said — the controversy shows no signs of abating. It was revealed that Noerdlinger recently joined McCray for a high-level NYPD crime-fighting briefing while he city's Department of Investigations opened an investigation into whether Noerdlinger failed to disclose that she lived with McFarlan. It later closed the investigation without recommending any disciplinary action.

But it's de Blasio's close ties to Sharpton — who is also Noerdlinger's former boss — that has fueled much of the unions' anger.

Sharpton spent months denouncing the NYPD for the death of Eric Garner, a black man who died from a police chokehold in July while being arrested for selling loose cigarettes on the street. A grand jury this past week convened to consider possible charges against the white officers involved and the entire police department is being put through use of force retraining.

In a City Hall summit called to ease tensions, de Blasio sat awkwardly between Police Commissioner William Bratton and Sharpton, who proceeded to rail against the NYPD, saying the mayor's teenage son, who is black, could also be a "candidate for a chokehold."

Police unions were outraged that Sharpton was given equal billing with Bratton. That became a central point in a full-page ad taken out by the Sergeant's Benevolent Association in The New York Times opposing the city's bid to host the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

"The mayor has provided a public platform to the loudest of the city's anti-safety agitators," wrote union president Ed Mullins. The ad also claimed that City Hall's "diminished support for police officers translates directly into crime spikes and drops in quality of life."

Mayoral aides strongly disputed any suggestion that de Blaiso's leadership over the NYPD had been compromised.

"The mayor has nothing but the strongest support for the brave men and women of the NYPD," said spokesman Phil Walzak, who noted crime continues to fall.

But experts said there are political risks for de Blasio if the complaints grow louder.

"The perception that City Hall and the police are not on the same page does not usually sit well with voters," said Costas Panagopoulos, political science professor at Fordham University.

De Blasio has repeatedly defended Bratton but the perception that Sharpton is given an outsized voice at City Hall has penetrated even the city's elite, as evidenced by a roast at the annual white-tie Alfred E. Smith dinner Wednesday night.

"What a crowd tonight," Home Depot founder Kenneth Langone said, looking around the ballroom at the Waldorf-Astoria. "Although I don't see the person in charge of the NYPD up here tonight, Al Sharpton."

De Blasio, who was sitting nearby, smiled at the joke. And when the dinner ended, he hustled to a party for Sharpton's 60th birthday, telling reporters "The more people criticize him, the more I want to hang out with him."

http://www.policeone.com/media-relations/articles/7633960-Unease-grows-between-NY-mayor-and-NYPD-officers/

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Police Are Missing Millions of Cases of Elder Abuse: How to Recognize the Signs

by Leischen Stelter

It is estimated that between 1.5 and 2 million older adults are abused every year, however, only 1 in 24 cases are reported. This means that law enforcement is missing or overlooking a lot of cases, said Tim Hardiman, a 23-year veteran of the NYPD. It is imperative that officers know the signs of elder abuse and take the time to investigate suspected cases.

What is Elder Abuse?

Elder abuse is any form of mistreatment that results in harm or loss to an older person, said Joy Solomon, director and managing attorney at The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Center for Elder Abuse Prevention. Older adults often endure years of abuse and, on average, an older victim suffers for 10 years before coming forward about abuse. This is because the abuse almost always involves a person an elderly person trusts or loves, very similar to cases of domestic violence. In 90 percent of cases, a family member is the abuser.

Forms of Elder Abuse

Here are some of the more prominent types of abuse:

•  Financial exploitation: This is the most common form of elder abuse. Perpetrators often find ways to access an older adult's money and use it without permission. A Metlife Mature Market Institute study found that $2.9 billion is stolen from older adults each year in this country as the result of elder abuse. It is also considered exploitative to use an older person's items (like cars, homes, etc.) without permission.

•  Physical abuse: Physical abuse can be different for older people than for other demographic groups. For example, it is considered physical abuse for a perpetrator to take away an older person's cane or walker, rendering them immobile. In other cases, abusers may give an older person excessive medication to keep them drowsy or debilitated.

•  Sexual abuse: 18 percent of women who are raped are 60 years of age or older.

•  Emotional abuse: Emotional abuse is present in almost every case of abuse and encompasses a wide range of behavior. It can include put-downs, name calling, threats (e.g. abandoning the victim, putting the victim in a nursing home, physically harming the victim), the silent treatment, treating the victim like a child or even abusing the victim's pet.

•  Neglect: Neglect of an older person's basic needs, such as not providing proper hygiene, can be considered abusive if the perpetrator is a paid or court-appointed caregiver, or if a person claims to be a caregiver and then fails to provide care.

•  Polyvictimization: Often multiple forms of abuse occur, whether it's multiple incidents or multiple abusers. Similar to other types of crime, once an older person has been abused, they are more likely to be victimized again.

There is a strong similarity between elder abuse and domestic violence. In both cases, victims are hesitant to press charges or go through with prosecution because they feel dependent on the perpetrator, said Hardiman.

Tips for Law Enforcement

•  When investigating a suspected case of elder abuse, think about what could be used to hurt that person. Do they have bruises or bedsores? Hurting a person may come in different forms. For example, often times older adults have only a few items of value or significance to them—if there are broken items at a scene, ask who they belong to and gauge the potential significance of that item.

•  Interview neighbors and people who live near the victim to get a sense of the relationship with the suspected abuser.

•  Take a statement immediately from a suspected abuser to lock them into their story.

•  Note behavior between the suspect and victim. Comments like: “she's too old” or “she doesn't understand and is confused” could be indicators of an abusive relationship. In cases of abuse, perpetrators often try to convince law enforcement of the senility of older victims in an effort not to let them be heard.

•  Note the hygiene and attire of the elderly person. Have they been cared for properly? Poor hygiene is often a sign of abuse.

•  What are their living conditions like? Is their food in the fridge? Does the older person have the appropriate assistive devices (e.g. dentures, hearing aid, glasses)? Are they living in an appropriate location or are they wheelchair bound but living in a fourth-floor walk-up apartment building?

Interviewing an Elderly Subject

When interviewing an elderly person, it is important to take age into consideration. Here are some tips for interviewing an elderly subject:

•  First and foremost, make the person feel safe.

•  Always interview the older adult alone, no matter what a family member or caregiver tells you. A victim will not speak freely while someone else is present.

•  Always assume the victim is credible, even if there is a known or suspected dementia diagnosis. Studies show that older adults with dementia can still accurately recount abuse most of the time. Additionally, an abuser may fabricate cognitive impairment to isolate the victim.

•  Clearly identify yourself, using your name and title.

•  Make sure the older adult has the assistive devices they need to interact meaningfully (e.g. glasses, hearing aid).

•  Speak to the older adult at eye level; do not tower over them.

•  Give an older adult time to process the situation.

•  Be patient and slow down the interview process.

•  Ask one question at a time. Don't ask compound questions.

•  Take frequent breaks. Older adults can tire easily.

•  Ensure there are no distractions such as a television playing or too many people in the room.

•  Provide food and water as needed. Older adults are often chronically dehydrated, which can lead to mental confusion.

•  Conduct the interview somewhere where the elderly person feels comfortable, often this means in the home rather than in a police station.

•  Pay attention to signs of discomfort. When a victim's body language changes, it is an indicator that a question hit a nerve or they are not telling the truth. If they stop making eye contact, ask for a break and take note that the subject of the question needs to be further investigated.

•  Address common fears. Many elderly people are dependent on their caregivers and fear losing them. They also fear being removed from their home and put in a nursing home.

•  Provide information about available help and resources.

Don't Forget the Rights of Older Adults

People of all ages have the right to make bad decisions. Older people are adults with decision-making capacity and they have the right to exercise free choice, even if those decisions appear to be harmful, said Solomon. They can refuse services as long as their decision has a sound basis in reality and they fully understand the consequences.

However, if a person's capacity is questionable, it is important for police officers to contact experts to evaluate and determine the person's ability to make sound decisions. Officers can reach out to government adult protective services, medical professionals, geriatric psychiatrists , community agencies, and victim support groups for assistance.

For more information, please visit American Military University's Law Enforcement Resource Guide for Elder Abuse.

http://inpublicsafety.com/2014/09/police-are-missing-millions-of-cases-of-elder-abuse-how-to-recognize-the-signs/?utm_source=Police1&utm_medium=link&utm_content=Elder%20Abuse&utm_campaign=Public%20Safety%20-%20LT%20-%20AMU