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October, 2014 - Week 3

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Washington, D.C.

Do the cases the FBI cites support encryption worries?

FBI Director James Comey says encrypting data stored on smartphones and computers could hurt criminal investigations

by Jack Gillum and Eric Tucker

WASHINGTON — The text messages captured a cover-up of unimaginable abuse: Parents had struck their toddler so often that they ultimately killed her. The child shook badly because we beat her, the father wrote, and the mother complained that their 2-year-old was the devil.

FBI Director James Comey says encrypting data stored on smartphones and computers could hurt criminal investigations, and evidence reviewed by The Associated Press shows that the child abuse case in Los Angeles from summer 2011 is a powerful, compelling argument. Prosecutors said the texts recovered by investigators prompted the parents to practically beg for a plea deal.

But at least three other examples the FBI director has cited are not so cut and dry. They are cases in which the authorities were tipped off — or even solved the crime — through means other than examining data they took from victims or suspects. While digital evidence may have aided those investigations, authorities nonetheless relied upon evidence beyond what was stored on a cell phone to nab a criminal or secure a conviction.

The struggle to justify the FBI's complaints about new phone encryption underscores the uphill fight facing the Obama administration in the wake of disclosures by former National Security Agency analyst Edward Snowden. Those revelations showed the government was collecting phone records and digital communications of millions not suspected of a crime.

It's not clear how the FBI hopes to untangle the encryption technology already rolled out to consumers, such as seeking new legislation on Capitol Hill restricting its use. Congress is expected to return to Washington in November to consider the USA Freedom Act, legislation aimed at reining in the NSA's surveillance capabilities and providing more transparency to secret proceedings in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The FBI chief on Thursday cited cases involving a sex-offending cab driver in Louisiana, an abusive mother in Los Angeles, a Kansas drug ring and a reckless driver in California, saying each showed the value of law enforcement's ability to read files on cell phones.

"Encryption isn't just a technical feature. It's a marketing pitch. But it will have very serious consequences for law enforcement and national security agencies at every level," Comey said, echoing earlier comments after Apple Inc. and Google Inc. said they would encrypt their phones by default.

The government's concerns may be directed in part toward Apple's iMessage platform, which offers end-to-end encrypted text messages, unlike traditional SMS messages. That encryption likely means the only way for police to read those messages is by obtaining a user's iPhone. Apple has sold hundreds of millions of devices that use iMessage.

Most examples the FBI director cited showed that evidence extracted from phones was, at best, supplementary.

Comey pointed to a hit-and-run driver in Sacramento, California, who was convicted of second-degree murder in a 2012 collision that killed a man and four dogs, saying, "GPS data placed the driver at the scene of the accident and revealed that he had fled California shortly thereafter."

Defense lawyer Michael Long, however, recalled that a side mirror found at the scene of the crash — taken as evidence to a car dealership — was an initial clue that led investigators to identify the type of vehicle involved. More breaks came with tips from eyewitness accounts and anonymous tips that placed Paul William Walden at the collision scene.

Walden was arrested coming out of his driveway and admitted being present at the collision, a damning admission presented to the jury. With access to his phone, Long said, investigators subpoenaed records from the cell service provider and used cell tower location data to place him near the scene — records that police can routinely obtain even if they don't physically possess a person's phone.

"They wouldn't have had his cell phone until they had Paul," Long said. "The cell phone technology was very helpful for them once they had Paul and they had his phone and his records to be able to piece together his trail across the country.

"It helped them convict Paul," he added, "but it didn't help them capture Paul." Walden is serving a sentence of 25 years to life.

Another case involved a heroin trafficking organization in Kansas City, Kansas, whose drug-dealing resulted in multiple drug overdoses.

Court filings show that while the suspects arranged orders using phones they discarded every few weeks, investigators constructed their prosecutions around months of undercover drug purchases involving confidential informants — a decades-old, more conventional law enforcement strategy.

Branden Bell, a lawyer for Verdale Handy, of Kansas City, who was convicted of attempted murder of a witness and multiple drug-dealing crimes, said he didn't recall electronic evidence factoring in the prosecution of his client.

"The government's evidence was a number of people who allegedly purchased narcotics from Mr. Handy and an eyewitness account of someone Mr. Handy attempted to murder," Bell said.

"I believe they followed a traditional investigative model, identifying lower-level distributors (and getting) their cooperation to identify and supply evidence against the suppliers above that," he said.

A fourth case involved a 12-year-old Louisiana boy killed by a sex-offender taxi driver who posed online as a young girl and sent the boy text messages.

Comey said the phones of the suspect and the victim were "instrumental in showing that the suspect enticed this child into his taxi," but according to authorities, they first zeroed in on the suspect after finding his cab parked suspiciously on a highway shoulder and determining through a license check that he was a registered sex offender. Physical evidence also connected the two after the driver was arrested, though authorities have said the electronic evidence did wind up being important for conviction.

In response to concerns Comey expressed earlier about phone encryption, The Associated Press asked the Justice Department more than two weeks ago about specific cases in which encryption might have hindered law enforcement. The FBI ultimately said Comey's speech this week was intended to provide those examples.

Police say there is sometimes great evidentiary value in text messages, particularly involving gang-related homicides where eyewitnesses are nearly nonexistent and assailants brag about their misdeeds. In the Los Angeles case, for instance, texts showed a pattern of abuse and cover-up among the girl's parents — even as their daughter was on life support.

"They knew those text messages couldn't have been put in front of a jury," said Los Angeles sheriff's Sgt. Richard Biddle, who investigated the case. "It showed how callous they were. They didn't care about the kid. They only cared about themselves."

http://www.policeone.com/evidence-collection/articles/7685463-Do-the-cases-the-FBI-cites-support-encryption-worries/

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Illinois

In Their Own Words, Inmates Discuss the Riddle of Juvenile Justice

by Yunjiao Amy Li

The John Howard Association of Illinois, an independent prison watchdog and justice reform advocate, recently published a report introducing ways to reform the criminal justice system for youth prosecuted for serious offenses. This report takes a unique approach in asking the population in question about their experiences in the judicial system. Their responses were taken as a new framework in determining the fairness and effectiveness of the current system for youth prosecuted for serious crimes.

In past years JHA has worked to improve the criminal justice system's response to youths who are prosecuted as adults in Cook County, Ill. In this research process, JHA conducted in-depth interviews with six young people who were prosecuted and convicted of adult crimes when they were at ages 15, 16 and 17. Those interviewed are currently still incarcerated in the Illinois Department of Corrections, serving sentences from 12 to 20 years.

“What's powerful about the kids' story was that no one was denying that they did something wrong,” said John Maki, executive director of JHA of Illinois. “They just wanted accountability and wanted a system that was accountable.”

The names of the six youths interviewed were changed to protect their privacy. But in their pseudonyms, we hear the real accounts of those whom we have decided to incarcerate in the adult justice system.

Travis is a 17-year-old African-American male youth serving a 15-year sentence for armed robbery in an adult prison in southern Illinois. He was intermittently raised by his aunt because his parents were incarcerated. At age 16, Travis was automatically charged as an adult with armed robbery with firearm, but he pled guilty to the lesser offense. Because of instability at home with no one to take care of him, Travis said by age 12 he was hanging out with a gang, which for him was just a natural part of growing up in his neighborhood.

When discussing the effectiveness of our criminal justice system, Maki said that on a basic level, an effective system is one that is fair and one that people can trust. But trust is hard to establish between the police and various Chicago communities.

“They took my whole family from me — mother, father, uncle — and locked them up,” said Travis when explaining his deep-felt hatred and distrust for the police.

For kids of age 17 or 18, there is gap that needs to be addressed in terms of their needs in the criminal justice system. According to Maki, there is not much to be gained for them in the juvenile justice system and they are too young for the adult system. In other words, youths who fit into this age category are developmentally distinct and there should be more specific policy changes to address those who are stuck in between two worlds.

After his sentence, Travis was sent to the Northern Reception and Classification Center at Stateville prison, where he lived in segregation conditions for two months. This meant he was locked in his cell for 23 hours a day and was not allowed any family contact.

Reflecting on his time during incarceration Travis said, “If you lock people up and don't teach them something, it's a lose/lose situation.”

Looking beyond just the crimes committed by these youths, the report also points to an underlying civic issue that has to do with our society. For example, many of the youths interviewed explained how guns and violence were just a routine part of their lives growing up. In their world, where some have suffered abuse as a child and had no parents to take care of them, the kids turn to gangs simply “because they want a family.”

“We've looked to the justice system to solve what is essentially our civic system,” said Maki.

According to the study, many youths are unaware that they could be prosecuted as adults prior to their being prosecuted under Illinois' automatic transfer laws. Currently the American justice system separates juveniles from adults based on age and transfer. The majority of states end their juvenile jurisdiction at age 17, meaning once a youth turns 18, his or her case will be handled in the adult criminal justice system.

However, all states have laws that allow youths under the age of 18 to be transferred to adult court in certain cases. As the JHA report indicates, there are three kinds of statutory transfer mechanisms. First, there is the judicial waiver, which enables juvenile judges to waive jurisdiction over individual cases. Second, prosecutorial discretion laws specify certain kinds of cases over which prosecutors have the sole power to decide where to try the youth. Lastly, in automatic transfer or statutory exclusion laws, the criminal justice system is given an exclusive jurisdiction over certain kinds of cases that meet statutorily designated age and offense criteria.

In fact, automatic transfer is one of the main contentions about juvenile justice reform. In this case, older teens who have committed serious crimes were examined, and whether or not our system treats them fairly. One of the holdbacks in this area of policy reform ultimately may be perception.

Maki said there is a limitation to how we think about children, and people seem to have a hard time imagining that children can do horrible things.

“We magically transform them into adults so we don't have to think about it,” Maki said. “But it is a fake solution.”

The study found that the criminal justice system's responses were seen as “illegitimate, unequal, arbitrary, and racist from the eyes of young offenders,” and provided a four-step recommendation for policymakers to improve the current system.

(4 recommendations as written in the report)

Empower judges to determine whether serious young offenders should be tried in juvenile or criminal court, regardless of the crime they are accused of committing.

Provide young offenders with greater access to counsel during police encounters and pre-trial custody.

Ensure that attorneys and judges who deal with this population are trained in adolescent brain development and how to effectively communicate with young people.

Establish separate correctional facilities, treatment programs and a sentencing scheme that takes into account young offenders' mental immaturity and ongoing development.

Civil issues along with our justice system may have created a negative feedback loop that put certain populations of youths in a conflicting position. However, here the public is hearing what the youths have to say about their experiences with the justice system and how they think it can be improved. While policy reforms take time, reformers believe there are little steps public can take now to be headed in the right direction.

To read the JHA report, please visit the site: http://thejha.org/words

http://jjie.org/in-their-own-words-inmates-discuss-the-riddle-of-juvenile-justice/107783/

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Illinois

Collateral Consequence Laws: Harsh Add-Ons or Necessary Crime Deterrent

by Sanya Mansoor

Even when adult or juvenile inmates are freed, many remain shackled by laws that make it difficult for them to get welfare, vote, obtain a drivers license and find stable housing and employment. These laws are called collateral consequence laws — formal restrictions on a person following their conviction.

A recent report by William & Mary Assistant Professor Tracy Sohoni called “The Effect of Collateral Consequence Laws on State Rates of Returns to Prisons” explored whether these laws are effective deterrents to crime or simply add-on punishment. Sohoni hypothesizes that collateral consequence laws do more harm than good.

But at first, she was surprised by the data, which in most cases was lacking as she tried her theory on various laws.

Sohoni's research failed to find statically significant relationships between collateral consequence laws and state returns to prison, and if anything it suggested harsher laws decreased the rate of returns to prison.

But in specific instances where robust data was available — such as her evaluation of restricted access to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) — she found subsequent increases in rates of returns to prison — precisely what she expected.

The report states about 70,000 people are released from prisons annually and roughly two-thirds are rearrested within three years of release. People who leave prison often find themselves back inside.

The U.S. government is taking steps to address re-entry for ex-offenders. Congress authorized $165 million for the Second Chance Act in 2008.

“Ex-convicts need structural opportunities. They need jobs,” Sohoni said, while acknowledging that lack of wide data and other factors make it impossible to draw absolute conclusions from the report. Still, the findings lend weight to advocates looking for less severe punishments, a rollback of the harsh laws from 20 and 30 years ago and the relaxation of laws that haunt inmates after release, often precluding them from re-entering society in any meaningful way.

“A lot of offenders come out and want to live a productive life but a lot of them find the opportunities just aren't there,” she said.

Several laws passed in the 1990s have made life much harder for ex-convicts. While some believe that is just fine — they deserve it for whatever crime they committed against society — the consequences were sometimes much more severe than expected.

Consider: Highway funds to states that didn't restrict former drug offenders' driver's licenses were reduced. Drug offenders were ineligible for loans, food stamps and cash assistance. They were cut off from programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The report highlights how many collateral consequence laws seek to prevent crime. For example, restrictions on public housing for drug offenders can disrupt the expansive drug networks that develop there. Restrictions on employment could prevent people from misusing their position to commit further crimes. Suspending drivers' licenses of former drug convicts tries to restrict the possibility of driving under the influence.

But the report also finds problems with this rationale. For example, drug offenders shouldn't find it hard to become barbers, she said. But the restrictions are often imposed on broad categories of offending.

The report also notes that collateral consequence laws have often been called “invisible punishments” because they aren't broadly publicized, let alone stated as part of one's sentence in court — thus undermining the deterrent effect. Further, they operate outside the legal system. They are a reminder that serving time isn't punishment enough, which cripples their will to reintegrate into society, according to Sohoni.

So why should anyone — aside from the ex-convict — really care? The report explains that it is taxpayer money that pays to reimprison offenders and it is the communities of these reoffenders that take a huge hit.

These communities lose revenue when potentially contributing members are incarcerated. Offenders cycle through prisons and their respective communities and if they continue to commit crimes in the neighborhood crime rates soar, socioeconomic status plummets and residential stability falls.

Families of these ex-convicts also pay a price. Restrictions on employment often mean the returning offender can't provide income to the family or meet child support obligations. And drug-related convictions can be a basis for eviction for the offender along with anyone else in the same house. This means families risk losing access to housing if they let an ex-offender live with them — and in some cases families separate, tearing at the community fabric as they lose the ability to take care of each other.

For example, it becomes much harder to provide ex-convicts with a strong emotional support system. The study notes there is evidence that men who maintain strong family ties during imprisonment, and those who assume husband or parenting roles post-release, are more likely to have positive outcomes after they walk free.

The most extreme example seems to be in cases where mental illness — so rampant in jails in prisons in this country — are at play. For his part, Arthur Lurigio, a psychologist and professor at Loyola University Chicago, has developed a special program for offenders with mental illnesses. He worries about the impact collateral consequence laws have on the mentally ill.

“These are people that are not well equipped to navigate life effectively,” Lurigio said. “There are very few resources for them, their personal and social currency is already lacking and when you layer on top of that a criminal conviction — you've seriously disrupted their life and made it difficult for them to take care of themselves, even in the most basic ways.”

Lurigio said the most important things for mentally ill ex-offenders to have a smooth transition into society is housing and medication, and someone to ensure they're carrying medication.

“Many people don't have the insight to know they have the illness,” Lurigio said, “and so they need someone who helps with rehabilitation and has a supportive and regular presence in their life.”

http://jjie.org/collateral-consequence-laws-harsh-add-ons-or-necessary-crime-deterrents/107801/

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Washington D.C.

From ICE

ICE showcases commitment to veterans at AUSA meeting

For three days this week, thousands of current and former United States military members, along with civilian employees, exhibitors and vendors descended upon Washington, D.C. for the 2014 Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting & Exposition.

The annual meeting, held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, is the largest land power exposition and professional development forum in North America. The event consists of presentations, panel discussions on pertinent military and national security subjects, workshops and important AUSA business meetings.

In continuing with its commitment to the military, specifically veterans, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had a sprawling presence at AUSA in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security pavilion that was aimed to highlight its latest efforts both in recruiting and employing veterans and how it's integrated them not only in our law enforcement agencies components, but across ICE as a whole.

“Some of the best feedback we've gotten from attendees is about how much technology we use, especially in our Cyber Crimes Center and they are very appreciative of what we do for our nation's veterans,” said Joseph Arata, ICE's Strategic Recruitment chief. “We've highlighted a couple of the programs we've done for veterans which they think are pretty exciting and they're very pleased that the government agency is that committed to its nation's veterans.”

At its booth display, ICE highlighted the Human Exploitation Rescue Operative Child-Rescue Corps (HERO) program, Project iGuardian and the Operation Predator app. The HERO Program is designed for wounded, injured and ill Special Operations Forces to receive training in high-tech computer forensics and law enforcement skills, to assist federal agents in the fight against online child sexual exploitation.

For many veterans who were in attendance at ASUA, these initiatives are welcome news as many are looking to make the transition from active duty to federal, state or local law enforcement careers.

“The HERO program does two things that are unique when it comes to veterans. One is that it gives them employable skills, but it also gives them employment,” Arata said. “ICE was lucky enough to be able to employ our first class [last year] and we are now finding incredible employment opportunities not just within ICE, but with other law enforcement agencies for the second class.”

AUSA concluded Wednesday.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-showcases-commitment-veterans-ausa-meeting

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From the FBI

Color of Law -- Agent Exposes Civil Rights Crimes in Alabama Prison

There was never any dispute that Rocrast Mack, a 24-year-old serving time on drug charges in a state prison in Alabama, died at the hands of corrections officers in 2010. What wasn't immediately clear was how and why the inmate sustained a lethal beating.

What was known was this: On August 4, 2010, a female corrections officer confronted Mack in his bunk, accused him of inappropriate behavior, and struck him. Mack retaliated, the officer radioed for help, more officers arrived, and Mack was beaten in three separate prison locations over a 40-minute period. He died the next day from his injuries. Guards claimed Mack was fighting them throughout the ordeal and sustained his fatal injuries in a fall.

An investigator from Alabama's State Bureau of Investigation thought the stories didn't add up and called the FBI, which investigates cases of abuse of authority—or color of law—and other civil rights violations. When Special Agent Susan Hanson opened her case at the Ventress Correctional Facility, it was evident her biggest challenge would be getting to the truth.

“The injuries that caused Mack's death did not match up with the story the corrections officers were telling,” said Hanson, who works in the Dothan Resident Agency, a satellite office of the FBI's Mobile Division. Meanwhile, witness accounts were suspect, given the questionable reliability of the sources. “You could have 10 different inmates who were in the very same room and they would give you 10 different stories,” she added.

What did emerge was a portrait of a corrupt prison environment led by a heavy-handed guard—Lt. Michael Smith. Smith, the main subject in the investigation, held sway over corrections officers and inmates alike. A few guards privately acknowledged that Smith's history of intimidation could eventually land him in hot water. For Hanson, who conducted hundreds of interviews over nearly three years, the key to cracking the case was to find a sympathetic guard whose conscience carried more weight than his fear of Smith.

“It really was working with one of the officers, spending a lot of time with him, and telling him that the story just doesn't make sense. It cannot have happened that way,” Hanson said. The guard implicated Smith but never broke ranks from the original narrative—that their use of force was justified.

To build her case, Hanson and Special Agent William Beersdorf enlisted Mobile's Evidence Response Team (ERT) to take extensive photographs from witnesses' vantage points that could support or refute their claims. “That's where she was able to start separating fact from fiction,” said Beersdorf. Specialists were brought in from the FBI's Charlotte office to collect exact measurements and chart graphical representations of where each of the assaults occurred.

“Susan then could eliminate witnesses because of what they could or couldn't see,” said Bryan Myers, an ERT technician who made six trips to the prison during the course of the investigation. The Special Projects Unit at FBI Headquarters assembled an interactive blueprint of the prison that showed everyone's precise locations during the beatings. In the end, the evidence revealed how a cadre of guards, led by Smith, struck and kicked Mack so severely he died—and then conspired to cover it up.

“It was very helpful during trial,” said Hanson. Four officers were convicted last year on civil rights, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy charges and received prison terms—including Smith, who was sentenced to 30 years.

Hanson, who was named a finalist for the Service to America Medal by the Partnership for Public Service for bringing the guards to justice and exposing corruption in Alabama's prisons, said the case is still heartbreaking to her because Mack was in the care of officials who had been bestowed a public trust.

“He was serving his time, he was not a problem child, and he was beaten to death because of conduct that had gotten out of control,” she said.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/october/agent-exposes-civil-rights-crimes-in-alabama-prison/agent-exposes-civil-rights-crimes-in-alabama-prison

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Washington

Ferguson officer says he feared for life

by The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The police officer who fatally shot an unarmed 18-year-old in a St. Louis suburb last summer has told investigators that he was pinned in his vehicle and in fear for his life as they struggled over his gun, The New York Times reported.

Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson has told authorities that Michael Brown reached for the gun during a scuffle, the Times reported in a story posted on its website Friday night. The officer's account to authorities did not explain why he fired at Brown multiple times after emerging from his vehicle, according to the newspaper.

The Times reported that the account of Wilson's version of events came from government officials briefed on the federal civil rights investigation into the Aug. 9 shooting that sparked racial unrest and weeks of protests, some of which turned violent. Wilson is white and Brown black.

Wilson confronted Brown and a friend while they were walking back to Brown's home from a convenience store. After the shooting, Brown died at the scene. Some witnesses have told authorities and news media that Brown had his hands raised when Wilson approached with his weapon and fired repeatedly. An independent autopsy commissioned by the family says that Brown was shot at least six times, including twice in the head.

The Times reported that Wilson has told investigators that he was trying to leave his SUV when Brown pushed him back in and that once inside the vehicle the two began to fight. Wilson told authorities that Brown punched and scratched him repeatedly, leaving swelling on his face and cuts on his neck, the Times reported.

Wilson, who had been patrolling Ferguson for nearly three years, was placed on leave after the shooting. A state grand jury is considering charges against him.

The Justice Department is investigating the Ferguson Police Department for possible civil rights violations, including whether officers there use excessive force and engage in discriminatory practices. Two-thirds of Ferguson's 21,000 residents are black but only three of its more than 50 police officers are black.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/10/ferguson-michael-brown-police-officer-report-112006.html

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Massachusetts

Police recognized for community policing

WAKEFIELD -- Wakefield Police Chief Rick Smith is proud to announce that the Wakefield Police Department has been named a finalist in the 2014 International Association of Chiefs and Cisco Systems of Police annual Community Policing Award.

In an affirmation of the department's work in its community, the Wakefield Police Department is one of only 10 police departments in the world to receive this recognition.

"I am incredibly proud of each member of the Wakefield Police Department for their unparalleled commitment to community policing," Smith said. "This is an amazing honor for our department."

The award, in its 17th year, recognizes outstanding community policing initiatives by law enforcement agencies worldwide. Five agencies were selected as winners, four agencies were selected as finalists, and one agency was given special recognition for efforts involving homeland security.

Five police departments were named "winners." Wakefield was named one of four "finalists." The 10th department received special recognition for its commitment to homeland security.

"Recent events demonstrate that community policing is central to the success of the police mission as we provide quality services to, and build relationships with, our diverse communities," said IACP President Yost Zakhary. "I applaud those recognized with this prestigious award and know that what they have created in their communities will positively impact the law enforcement community worldwide."

Police departments and other law enforcement agencies were eligible to be nominated in five categories, grouped by the population of their community. The awards recognize agencies as the best examples of community policing practice, and they are meant to demonstrate that meaningful change can occur when police and their communities work together, using all available resources, to prevent crime and improve the quality of life.

The Wakefield Police Department, along with the nine other departments will be honored at the IACP's 121st Annual Conference in Orlando, Fla. at a special awards reception on Sunday, Oct. 26. For more information, visit IACP Community Policing Committee website at www.iacpcommunitypolicing.org.

http://wakefield.wickedlocal.com/article/20141018/NEWS/141018405

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New Jersey

Montclair police bring community policing - to the community at coffee chat

by Diane Lilli

Montclair police have been working steadily to bring a kinder, gentler face to their police force, with community policing.

Community policing is nothing new to the township (CLICK HERE to read in-depth article about the history of community policing in Montclair).

Yesterday, members of the Montclair Police Department, Community Service Unit (CSU) set up a table on the sidewalk in front of Trend Coffee shop on Bloomfield Avenue.

Residents walking their dogs, pushing strollers, or just out for a cup of coffee didn't just notice the low-key police officers, dressed in blue polo shirts, but also stopped by to greet them.

This new unit was re-established in 2013 under the direction of Montclair Police Chief David Sabagh. Their mission is simple yet often times complex: to keep communications with the public open, and to to work with residents to help address problems. But this effort always depends upon something often elusive when it comes to police and residents: trust.

With community policing, trust is built by police officers not only by their friendly presence, but also by their willingness to listen, and work with both individuals and organizations to help solve local problems.

Yesterday, the police were happy and busy speaking with residents, and often times with a hot cup of coffee on hand, this was an example of easygoing conversations, which just may lay a solid foundation for more mutually beneficial and trusting relationships between citizens and the men and women in blue, who are sworn to protect them.

http://thejerseytomatopress.com/stories/Montclair-police-bring-community-policing-to-the-community-at-coffee-chat,15290?category_id=56&town_id=1&sub_type=stories

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Iowa

Ebola: Public safety must come before political correctness

Growing up in Washington in the 1930s and '40s, our home was, several times, put under quarantine. A poster would be tacked on the door indicating the presence within of a contagious disease -- measles, mumps, chicken pox, scarlet fever.

None of us believed we were victims of some sort of invidious discrimination against large Catholic families. It was a given that public health authorities were trying to contain the spread of a disease threatening the health of children.

Out came the Monopoly board.

Polio, or infantile paralysis, was the most fearsome of those diseases. The first two national Boy Scout jamborees, which were to be held in Washington in 1935 and 1936, were canceled by Presidential Proclamation because of an outbreak of polio in the city.

Franklin Roosevelt, who had apparently contracted polio in 1921, never to walk again, appreciated the danger. In the 1930s, '40s and early '50s, there were outbreaks of polio in D.C. Swimming pools were shut down.

The Greatest Generation possessed a common sense that seems lacking today.

We read that five new Ebola cases occur every hour in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, that thousands are dead and thousands more are dying, that, by December, there may be 10,000 new cases a week of this dreadful and deadly disease.

Yet calls for the cancellation of commercial airline travel from the affected nations to the United States are being decried as racist, an abandonment of America's responsibilities to Africa, a threat to the economies of the poorest continent on earth.

How could we consider such a thing!

Where once we suffered from infantile paralysis, now we suffer from ideological paralysis. And there appears to be no Salk or Sabin vaccine to cure our condition.

Exhibit A is the befuddled response of some in public service is the case of Amber Joy Vinson.

Nurse Vinson was among 75 health care providers who treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian who brought Ebola into the United States. At the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital where Duncan was treated, Vinson had been among those in closest contact with the patient.

Two days after Duncan's death, Vinson was allowed to fly to Cleveland to visit relatives. She then prepared to fly back to Dallas.

Before boarding, she called the Center for Disease Control, and said she was running a fever of 99.5. Yet she was given clearance to fly commercial back to Dallas, where she was admitted to the hospital with symptoms of the disease. She is the second nurse at that hospital to come down with Ebola.

According to CBS Medical Correspondent Dr. John LaPook, "Nurse Vinson did in fact call the CDC several times before taking that flight and said she had a temperature, a fever of 99.5, and the person at the CDC looked at a chart and because her temperature wasn't 100.4 or higher she didn't officially fall into the category of high risk."

Would not common sense have told that CDC apparatchik to tell Vinson not to fly at all, but remain in Cleveland, stay in touch with CDC, and monitor any symptoms to be sure she was not coming down with the disease that just killed her patient?

In dealing with contagious and deadly diseases, common sense says to err on the side of safety. Public safety must come before political correctness. Community and country come ahead of any obligation to the people of West Africa.

Indeed, is not the first duty of the government of the United States to protect the lives, liberty and property of the citizens of the United States?

Traveling to Africa decades ago, Americans were given a series of shots to avoid contracting indigenous diseases. Travelers to the United States were questioned about diseases to which they may have been exposed in third world countries.

Now we have a government that considers it discriminatory to put troops on our frontiers to halt the invading millions from across the Mexican border, and the mark of a cruel and cold people to send back lawbreakers who have broken into our country.

The two nurses who came down with this disease after close contact with Duncan are being cared for in quarantine, as is the NBC crew, one of whom contracted the disease. And rightly so.

As for U.S. aid workers in Africa, they are heroic. But before bringing these good and brave people home, we ought to be sure they are not bringing back with them the Ebola they have been fighting.

If that means quarantining them for 21 days, so be it. If that means no commercial fights to the United States from the three most affected countries of West Africa, and no admission to the USA of any travelers whose visas show they have been in those countries in recent days, then it ought to be done.

Else political correctness is going to end up killing a lot of us.

http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/opinion/columnists/buchanan/ebola-public-safety-must-come-before-political-correctness/article_22de8416-ed90-5524-ad26-b7d9290cf464.html

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New Apple and Google Products Could Be Public Safety Hazard, FBI Chief Warns

by MIKE LEVINE

The latest Apple technology on your iPhone could mean that murders could go unsolved and kidnapped children might not be rescued, the head of the FBI warned today.

"We're seeing more and more cases where we believe significant evidence resides on a phone or a laptop, but we can't crack the password," FBI Director Jim Comey said during a speech in Washington. "If this becomes the norm ... justice may be denied."

Specifically, Comey said he is "deeply concerned" about what's known as "going dark" -- operating systems being developed by companies such as Apple and Google that automatically encrypt information on their devices. And that means even the companies themselves won't be able to unlock phones, laptops and other devices so law enforcement can access emails, photos or other evidence that could be crucial to a case, according to Comey.

It "has created a significant public safety problem," particularly when it comes to investigating crime and stopping terrorist attacks, he said.

"Criminals and terrorists would like nothing more than for us to miss out,"Comey said. "And the more we as a society rely on these devices, the more important they are to law enforcement and public safety officials."

Comey, however, didn't place full blame with companies like Apple and Google for creating devices with such encryption. They were "responding to what they perceive is a market demand" from the general public, which has grown "mistrustful of government" in the wake of Edward Snowden's disclosures of secret government surveillance.

Encryption "is a marketing pitch," Comey said. "But it will have very serious consequences for law enforcement and national security agencies at all levels. Sophisticated criminals will come to count on these means of evading detection. It's the equivalent of a closet that can't be opened. A safe that can't be cracked. And my question is, at what cost?"

Comey said the public has come to believe "a fair number of misconceptions" about what information the government collects and how it's collected.

"Some believe that the FBI has these phenomenal capabilities to access any information at any time," he said. "It may be true in the movies or on TV. It is simply not the case in real life."

In real life, he said, the government's collection activities are executed "with clear guidance and strict oversight," and with a federal judge's approval.

Asked about Comey's remarks, Google said its emerging products will provide "added security" to users "while giving law enforcement appropriate access when presented with a warrant."

"Encryption is simply the 21st century method of protecting personal documents," a Google spokesperson said in a statement. "[And] while we won't be able to provide encryption keys to unlock phone data directly, there are still a number of avenues to obtain data through legal channels."

One possible way to still obtain a user's data is through “the cloud” -- but a user has to be uploading information to it for that to be effective. Data on the phone itself, however, cannot be unencrypted by even Google or other companies, one business insider said.

Accordingly, Comey insisted that even if a judge gives the government a green light to access certain information or communications, "we often lack the technical ability to do so."

Privacy advocates in Washington objected to Comey's remarks, with the American Civil Liberties Union calling them “wrong” and the Electronic Privacy Information Center calling them “surprising” and “disturbing.”

The American Civil Liberties Union said law enforcement can do its job while also respecting Americans' privacy rights, noting that U.S. law “explicitly” gives companies the right to add completely secure encryption into their devices.

“[A]ny effort by the FBI to weaken encryption leaves our highly personal information and our business information vulnerable to hacking by foreign governments and criminals,” Laura Murphy with the ACLU in Washington said in a statement. “We applaud tech leaders like Apple and Google that are unwilling to weaken security for everyone to allow the government yet another tool in its already vast surveillance arsenal.”

Similarly, in a message to fellow privacy advocates after Comey's remarks, the head of the Electronic Privacy Information Center emphasized that law enforcement now “has many more tools than it did 20 years ago,” particularly with help from the National Security Agency, Snowden's former employer.

Nevertheless, the FBI director said he hopes to start a national conversation about the matter so that the FBI and other law enforcement have the tools "we need to do the job you have entrusted us to do," namely "keep every American safe from crime and terrorism."

He urged the public to debate whether U.S. law should require technology companies to build lawful intercept capabilities into their devices.

"We aren't seeking to expand our authority to intercept communications. We are struggling to keep up with changing technology," Comey said.

"If a suspected criminal is in his car, and he switches from cellular coverage to Wi-Fi, we may be out of luck," Comey added. "If he switches from one app to another, or from cellular voice service to a voice or messaging app, we may lose him. What if he has a kidnapped child in his car? We may not have the capability to quickly switch lawful surveillance between devices, methods and networks. The bad guys know this. They're taking advantage of it every day."

Comey cited several real-world examples to illustrate what's at stake, including a case fully adjudicated this year involving a known sex offender in Louisiana who enticed a 12-year-old boy to meet him and then killed the boy. The suspect tried to alter and delete evidence on his phone, but authorities were able to access the content and prosecute him. He was sentenced to death in April.

Asked by ABC News whether he knew of any real-world cases where someone was rescued from danger but might not have been had Apple or Google devices blocked law enforcement access, Comey said he did not know of any but added, "Logic tells me there are going to be cases just like that."

Comey's remarks came hours before Apple announced a slate of new products and software at an event at its corporate campus in Cupertino, California.

Apple did not immediately respond to emails from ABC News seeking comment for this article.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/apple-google-products-public-safety-hazard-fbi-chief/story?id=26251483

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What's in a name? For FirstNet, “public-safety entity” definition to critical to system planning, business model

by Donny Jackson

Police, fire and EMS equals “public safety”—that's the formula that was followed for years. Since the tragic events of 9/11, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has adopted a more expansive definition of public safety that includes critical-infrastructure entities such as government, utility, healthcare and transportation entities.

Today, FirstNet is preparing to deploy an unprecedented nationwide broadband system for public safety, and it has initiated a proceeding to ask, “What is a public-safety entity?” On the surface, it might sound like an almost trivial inquiry. In reality, the answer may not be as straightforward as some initially might think, and the final determination promises to have significant ramifications on FirstNet's network design and self-sustaining funding plans.

In this proceeding, FirstNet's staff seeks comments on its admittedly “broad” legal interpretations of the law that Congress passed in 2012 to create FirstNet. It should be noted that the FirstNet board has not taken a position on any of these legal interpretations, including the notion of what constitutes a public-safety entity. Board members are expected to make decisions regarding these legal questions after reviewing the comments from the proceeding, so they can be used in the development of a draft request for proposal (RFP) early next year.

Mind you, this proceeding does not really address prioritization and preemption questions, except to provide a very general framework on the notion of which entities can be considered for priority use and which ones are relegated solely to secondary use. However, the operational realities of which entities—or, more likely, which individual personnel—gets bandwidth priority at a given time is a matter that promises to be the source of very lengthy and spirited debates in the future.

There is no question that law enforcement, fire and EMS qualify as public-safety entities that can receive priority access on the FirstNet system. In addition, there is a growing consensus that critical-infrastructure players such as governments, utilities, transportation organizations and healthcare facilities should be considered public-safety entities in certain circumstances.

For those who still have doubts about the importance of the critical-infrastructure groups, consider the following public-safety scenarios:

•  Governments—When bad things happen, the response can dictate that additional resources are needed that cost money, which requires approval from a government administrator and/or an elected official. In addition, if a situation arises that requires assistance from the National Guard, that aid can only happen through a request from local officials to the governor of a state; no incident commander has the power to make that happen individually.

•  Utilities—If a power line goes down and blocks a road, traditional public safety may not be able to access a given incident until the power-line issue is resolved. More important, any response effort is complicated exponentially if the commercial power grid is not working or if the water supply is contaminated in some way.

•  Transportation—An important part of many first-response scenarios, from rerouting traffic to enabling the evacuation of a geographic region.

•  Healthcare facilities—Ensuring good communication with hospitals and other healthcare providers is key when an incident results in numerous injuries. All the best efforts of EMS personnel in the field can go for naught if the patient is transported to a hospital that is at capacity or does not have the facilities to treat the injury. Moreover, higher levels of remote patient care and triage in the field—guided by doctors at a hospital—is technically possible, but it requires the kind of prioritized bandwidth that FirstNet promises.

It should be noted that an organization that is deemed to be a public-safety entity may not be a public-safety entity at all times. Each of these entities listed above also use communications to support non-public-safety functions. A smart-grid service that allows residential utility customers to remotely alter the thermostat in their homes may be convenient, but it is not a public-safety function, so it should be considered a secondary use.

Similar scenarios can be cited for all of these entities, including the traditional public-safety groups of police, fire and EMS. When communicating during an incident response, a police chief unquestionably is a public-safety entity deserving of priority on the FirstNet system. However, if the chief is demonstrating how communications work to a group of schoolchildren—a worthy endeavor, but not really a public-safety function—prioritization should not be maintained.

In other words, a flexible framework is needed when determining who is a public-safety entity, because the status theoretically could change at a moment's notice.

By allowing a broader range of prioritized users—defined as public-safety entities—to include these critical-infrastructure groups, FirstNet would have the opportunity to forge a level of interoperability that the first-responder community and elected officials have sought for years.

In addition to the operational implications, a broader definition of public-safety entity also could have a huge potential impact on the economic viability of the proposed FirstNet system.

For instance, if utilities could be assured that their most critical applications—the ones that determine whether the power grid will work or not (and don't happen to require a lot of bandwidth)—would be given priority access and would not be preempted, they likely would jump at the chance to partner with FirstNet and bring some valuable assets to the table. Utilities don't have many broadband spectrum options today, but they likely will not consider a partnership without such an assurance. A similar statement could be made for other critical-infrastructure players.

If priority network access is limited strictly to police, fire and EMS, that's only about 3 million users, which is not a lot of scale compared to commercial networks that support more than 100 million users. Without such economies of scale, coverage could be spotty, user fees may be higher and devices may not be as affordable as public-safety officials envisioned when making the choice to have this network utilize LTE, a commercial broadband technology.

However, if the critical-infrastructure groups are added to the mix, the number of potential users on the network grows dramatically, which creates the economies of scale that can support a more reliable, robust network at a cost that is affordable to public safety. In addition, having more users on a network means FirstNet could establish more LTE sites, which makes it more attractive to secondary-use partners—a potentially critical revenue component for the business model.

Most of this has been said before in various forums. One unique aspect in the FirstNet proceeding is the notion than an individual can be deemed to be a “public-safety entity.” The example given is an individual who works for a public-safety entity, such as a volunteer firefighter.

Personally, the notion that an individual can qualify as a public-safety entity makes sense. An off-duty police officer who happens to witness a crime during his daily routine should not be prohibited from accessing the FirstNet system simply because he is not on the clock. Of course, it likely would require that his consumer device can access the Band 14 700 MHz system upon being authenticated.

And that brings up another point. If an individual can be deemed a public-safety entity, should that be limited only to individuals that work for a public-safety entity? What about someone who calls 911? While the 911 caller likely would be a secondary user—at best—under normal circumstances, perhaps the 911 caller should be considered a “public-safety entity” when making an emergency call that meets certain criteria.

Under normal circumstances, the commercial network can support a 911 call just fine. However, there may be cases when the 911 caller has access to critical information that requires the dedicated bandwidth that may only be available via the FirstNet system.

Consider the case of a hostage situation in a next-generation 911 environment. If someone unnoticed inside the building can provide photos or even video of what's going on, that critical data stream should have access to prioritized bandwidth via the FirstNet system, instead of fruitlessly attempting to upload this information at a time over a commercial network that may be saturated by news crews and curious onlookers. At that point in time, there should be a way to transform that everyday consumer into a prioritized “public-safety entity.”

Again, this would require the 911 caller's consumer device to have the capability of accessing the Band 14 system (another column for another time) with appropriate authentication from the call-taker or other public-safety official.

Perhaps this notion is a matter of taking the notion of “public-safety entity” a step too far, or maybe it represents the tip of a new iceberg. Regardless of your thoughts, please consider sharing them via this proceeding to provide the input FirstNet officials envision—and the good news is that you have some time, because the deadline for comments for both this proceeding and the comprehensive RFI has been extended to Oct. 27.

http://urgentcomm.com/blog/what-s-name-firstnet-public-safety-entity-definition-critical-system-planning-business-model

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California

For LAPD Cop Working Skid Row, 'There's Always Hope'

by Kirk Siegler

LAPD Officer Deon Joseph patrols one of the toughest places in America: Skid Row, a 50-block concentration of drug dealers, gangs, chronically homeless and the mentally ill — and the shelters and clinics in downtown Los Angeles that serve them.

"About 2,500 people on probation for violent crimes or narcotics crimes. Registered sex offenders, which can range from 500 to 700 individuals concentrated in here because there are no services anywhere else," Joseph says.

As he talks stats, he interrupts himself to say hi to people on the street — something that happens regularly as he walks his beat up and down San Pedro Street. "I've been here so long that it's like, they're like family. I spend more time with these folks than my own family," says Joseph, who is married and has three children.

Everyone on these battered sidewalks knows him, too. He's been the senior lead officer here for 17 years.

Marcus Butler, security director at the Midnight Mission, one of the largest Skid Row shelters, says Joseph is that rare cop here who's earned deep trust and respect within the neighborhood.

"When you see Deon Joseph in this police uniform and he's a black policeman and he's all muscles and big. But that's not what you get. You get a person that cares, that asks what he can do to help," Butler says.

This is a big deal. People here say Skid Row's number of mentally ill has swelled to near historic highs. It's estimated that at least a third of the 3,500 people living on the street have a mental illness or are disabled.

Make no mistake, the scope of the problem is huge.

At least every half block, Joseph encounters some sort of issue. It's truly remarkable to watch him see through all this hostility and aggression.

One minute he's engaging with a homeless man who wants to talk religion, if in a bit off-colored way. Joseph politely tells the man he has to move on, only to have him chase him seconds later, shouting and getting in his face. Joseph skillfully keeps his cool and talks him off the ledge.

A few minutes later down the street, a woman screams for Joseph. "Officer! Officer! This man is trying to hurt me," she shouts. He knows exactly who she is; he talks to her out here almost every day. She and another man are arguing. Joseph gets in between them — again keeping his cool — and defuses the situation.

He says later that the woman, who has schizophrenia, is an example of how vulnerable the mentally ill are out here. Drug lords or gang leaders might just get annoyed with her shouting and come after her, and if the cops don't know her or the situation, the bad guys might just try to brush her aside.

These are skills and a knowledge set Joseph didn't just learn overnight. But he's passionate that an arrest out here should be the last resort. "I don't want to be your security guard. I want to be an agent for you. That's my personal goal," he says.

It used to be "hook and book" was what the LAPD did here. There is so much crime concentrated into one small area, the cops saw little other choice. But Joseph got frustrated as he watched an endless parade of people being cuffed, thrown in jail, only to be released 72 hours later. They had nowhere to go, so they came right back here. It wasn't working. And it's why Joseph started leading a push toward community policing.

"You put some of these individuals in housing with care, a safer environment, yeah they'll be a little more docile," he says. "I believe it's a better approach."

It's starting to gain some attention here, and at city hall. This past summer Joseph wrote an op-ed in a neighborhood paper criticizing local leaders for ignoring Skid Row, warning of the worsening mental health crisis here if there isn't immediate action.

'A Beacon Of Light'

At the LAPD's Central Division station, officers clustered inside a weight room are getting their marching orders for the day. The commander here, John McMahon, says it's rare to find a cop like Joseph, willing to stay on a beat this tough for so long.

"He never gets tired; he's out there daily. But he's gotten so much experience with Skid Row, there's probably not a police officer in the United States that is more equipped or has got more experience dealing with the drug addicted, the homeless and the mentally ill than Deon Joseph," McMahon says.

Joseph says at times it all gets to be too much; it wears on him. But for him, all of this is personal. From an early age he saw and helped society's most vulnerable. His parents took in more than 40 foster kids. He helped raise his niece who was born with severe brain damage.

"I think it was just already put inside of us never to get up on people. There's always hope. You never say, 'Oh well, that guy's a parolee, there's no hope for him,' or 'That guy's a crack addict, there's no hope.' I never say that. There's always hope; there's always hope," he says.

He grew up in South LA, where mistrust of the cops still runs deep. Skid Row is no different.

"It wasn't my dream to be a law enforcement officer at all. I was like many African-Americans. We were indoctrinated to hate and fear the police," he says. "I came up in the Rodney King era. So everything I heard about the police was negative — until I needed a job."

And today he says that job is about a lot more than just patrolling these streets and keeping them safe. He says he's here to help and change things. And that's what keeps him going.

"I know that the same person who says, 'Hi, Officer Joseph. Have a blessed day,' is going to go around and get in a tent and smoke a crack pipe. I know that. I'm not stupid or naive," he says. "But I also know if I keep pushing, if they keep looking at me and saying, 'That guy has faith in me. Maybe, maybe, he can guide me to hope.' And that's all I am; all I want to be ... is a beacon of light in this very, very dark place called Skid Row."

Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/ .

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: We're going to meet a police officer who's worked on L.A.'s Skid Row for 17 years. He's pushed through a lot of changes in how policing is done there and lately he's been sounding the alarm about a worsening mental health crisis on the street. NPR's Kirk Siegler walked the beat with him and brings us this story. KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: LAPD Officer Deon Joseph patrols one of the toughest places in America. DEON JOSEPH: Twenty-five hundred parolees, about 2,500 people on probation for violent crimes or narcotics crimes - hey, how you doing - registered sex offenders, which can any - range from 500 to 700 individuals, are concentrated in here because there's no services anywhere else. SIEGLER: Skid Row, a 50-block concentration of drug dealers, gangs, the chronically homeless and the shelters and clinics that serve them. We heard Joseph just then stop quickly to say hi to someone. This happens all the time as he walks his beat up and down San Pedro Street. JOSEPH: I've been here so long that it's like - they're like family. I spend more time with these folks than my own family and I. SIEGLER: Everyone on these battered sidewalks knows him too. He's been here for 17 years. JOSEPH: Oh, Miss Price, how you doing? PRICE: I just got out of the hospital. JOSEPH: (Inaudible). SIEGLER: This woman is hunched over on the curb. She's frail, too weak to stand up. She can't weigh more than 70 pounds. JOSEPH: Can I come see you in a couple hours? I want to help you out with something. Do you have housing? Do you have housing? PRICE: I need a - well, I need recuperative care right now. JOSEPH: OK. Let me - let me come see you in a couple hours. I don't want to - wow she looks bad. MARCUS BUTLER: When you see Deon Joseph in this police uniform and he's a black policeman and he's all muscles and big and - but that's not what you get. SIEGLER: This is Marcus Butler. He's the security director at the Midnight Mission, one of the largest Skid Row shelters. BUTLER: You get a person that cares - that asks - you know, what he can do to help. SIEGLER: He says Joseph is that rare cop here who's earned deep trust and respect within the neighborhood. This is a big deal. People here say Skid Row's mentally ill population has swelled to near historic highs. It's estimated that at least a third - maybe higher - of the 3,500 people living on the street have a mental illness or are disabled. Make no mistake, the scope of the problem is huge. UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: I discharged parole, right? I get off probation in September. JOSEPH: Oh, good for you. UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: I'm a good [bleep] though because I'm led by the Spirit of God. SIEGLER: But listen as Deon Joseph keeps his cool during a confrontation that would make many of us flinch. JOSEPH: Well, thank you, sir. UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Don't run away from the [bleep] truth - don't. Don't run away from the truth. JOSEPH: We're not running away from the truth but listen, sir... UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: No, no, you got to listen because it's not the message. It's not the message here. JOSEPH: I hear you, sir, I hear you. I hear you, sir, but listen... UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Understand that we're going to say it. SIEGLER: At least every half block, Joseph encounters some sort of problem. It's truly remarkable to watch him see through all this hostility and aggression. It's not something he just learned overnight. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Joseph. JOSEPH: Yes, ma'am? UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Joseph, I don't know what's going on here. JOSEPH: What? UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: He so was trying beat me up. JOSEPH: I'm right here, ma'am. SIEGLER: Now, it's this woman and her male companion heading toward us fast. UNIDENTIFIED: It's an officer. He got authority. He got a badge. (Inaudible) He thinks that everybody with it is bad. SIEGLER: Deon Joseph also knows this pair well. The woman is a paranoid schizophrenic. He says she's a target out here and unless a cop knows her situation, she's going to get victimized by the gangs or drug dealers that rule these streets. JOSEPH: And even though she's not doing anything wrong, some of these predators out here will get tired of hearing her mouth and will hurt her, you know? It's OK, ma'am, I'm right here. You don't even have to worry about nothing, alright? I'm right here. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Yeah, right. SIEGLER: Joseph says an arrest should be a last resort. JOSEPH: You know, and I don't want to be your security guard. I want to be an agent for you. Let me show you. That's my personal goal. SIEGLER: It used to be hook and book, was what the LAPD did here. There's so much crime concentrated into one small area, cops saw little other choice. But Joseph got frustrated as he watched an endless parade of people being cuffed, thrown in jail, only to be released 72 hours later. They had nowhere to go so they came right back here. It wasn't working. That's why Joseph started leading a push toward community policing. JOSEPH: You put some of these individuals in housing with care? Yeah. A safer environment? Yeah, they'll be a little more docile. They're clean. They're able to take a shower. Yeah, I believe they'll get better. I believe that's a better approach than what we're seeing now - handcuffed, take them to the hospital, they get kicked out. Handcuffed, take them to the hospital, they get the boot. SIEGLER: And this is starting to gain some attention here and over at city hall. This past summer, Joseph wrote an op-ed in the neighborhood paper criticizing local leaders for ignoring Skid Row, warning of the worsening mental health crisis here if there isn't immediate action. UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: You know, do what you got to do. If you got to cite - cite. If you got to warn - warn. If they got warrants, they go to jail. SIEGLER: At the LAPD's central division, officers clustered inside a waiting room getting their marching orders for the day. The commander here, John McMahon, tells me that it's rare to find a cop like Deon Joseph who's willing to stay on a beat this tough for so long - 17 years and counting. JOHN MCMAHON: He never gets tired. He's out there daily but he's gotten so much experience with Skid Row there's probably not a police officer in the United States that is more equipped or has got more experience dealing with the drug addicted, the homeless and the mentally ill than Deon Joseph. SIEGLER: Deon Joseph says at times it all gets to be too much. It wears on him but for him all of this is personal. From an early age, he saw and helped society's most vulnerable. His parents took in over 40 foster kids. He helped raise his niece, who was born with severe brain damage. JOSEPH: I think it was just already put inside of us, you know, never to give up on people, you know, that there's always hope. You never say oh that guy's a parolee, there's no hope for him. Or that guy's a, you know, a crack addict, there's no hope. I never say that. There's always hope. There's always hope. SIEGLER: Out on the streets of Skid Row, it's also clear that Joseph is trying to show a different side of the LAPD. JOSEPH: Hey, guys, how you doing? You look good, Bobby. Good lord. SIEGLER: He grew up in south L.A. where mistrust of the cops still runs deep. Skid Row was no different. JOSEPH: You know, it wasn't my dream to be a law enforcement officer - hey, Mary - at all, you know. I was like many African-Americans, that we were indoctrinated to hate and fear the police. I came up in the Rodney King era. So everything I heard about the police was negative - until I needed a job (laughter). SIEGLER: And today, he says that job is about a lot more than just patrolling these streets and keeping them safe. He says he's here to help and change things. And that's what keeps him going. JOSEPH: I know that same person who says hi, Officer Joseph, have a blessed day is going to go around and get in a tent and smoke a crack pipe. I know that. I'm not stupid or naive. But I also know if I keep pushing - if they keep looking at me and they say and that guy has faith in me, maybe, maybe, they can guide me to hope. And that's all I am, all I want to be. I want to be a beacon of light in this very, very dark place called Skid Row. SIEGLER: And Senior Lead Officer Deon Joseph says he'll stay working in this very dark place, as long as it takes, until it's cleaned up. Kirk Siegler, NPR News.

Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

http://kccu.org/post/lapd-cop-working-skid-row-theres-always-hope

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Indiana

Sheriff hosting crime reduction, community policing meetings

by The Goshen News

ELKHART — Elkhart County Sheriff Brad Rogers announced Monday that officers from the Elkhart County Sheriff's Department will begin meeting with residents in their townships next week as part of a crime reduction plan and community policing initiative. Rogers said he wants to solve more crimes by giving citizens the opportunity to access and provide information to an officer assigned to their area.

Using social media tools, including CitizenObserver, Facebook, Twitter and e-mail — in addition to the community meetings — valuable information can be sent to residents concerning crimes and suspicious activity that is occurring in their neighborhoods and townships, Rogers said.

Those who want to share information about suspicious activity or crimes occurring in their area are encouraged to interact with others on the department's Facebook page as a means to relay information to others. For sensitive information, residents can text alerts using CitizenObserver or access the department's web page at www.elkhartcountysheriff.com to report activity on the anonymous tip line.

The crime reduction meetings will be held Oct. 20-21 in townships throughout the county. Residents are encouraged to meet with officers assigned to the township where they live.

MEETING LOCATIONS AND TIMES:

Oct. 20

• 5 p.m. — Washington Township: Zion Lutheran Church, 53013 C.R. 19, Bristol

• 5 p.m. — Osolo Township: Osolo Fire Department, 24936 Buddy St., Elkhart

• 5:30 p.m. — Elkhart/Clinton Townships: Brenneman Memorial Church, 61115 Ind. 15, Goshen

http://www.goshennews.com/news/article_1a2f8b54-546f-11e4-8ee9-6741d94da6ba.html

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Utah

Utah crime commission hopes to increase public safety, reduce re-offenses

Crime » More treatment for offenders recommended to reduce recidivism.

by Pamela Manson

Utah could see a drop in its recidivism rate by reducing some drug crimes to misdemeanors, putting a cap on the time an offender must spend behind bars for technical parole violations and increasing community treatment options for substance abusers and sex offenders, according to a group studying the issue.

Those steps to keep ex-convicts from landing back behind bars would, in turn, avert a projected jump in the state's prison population, said Ron Gordon, executive director of the Utah Commission on Criminal & Juvenile Justice.

The commission is partnering with Pew Charitable Trusts to study how to increase public safety by reducing recidivism. Gordon on Wednesday updated members of the Utah Legislature's Judiciary Interim Committee on recommendations made by three commission subcommittees to achieve that goal.

The commission will decide which recommendations to adopt and present a final report in November to the Judiciary Interim Committee and the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee.

Gordon said the recommendations will be accompanied by a request for millions of dollars. But, he said, those recommendations would lead to significant savings by helping offenders transition back into society, and by using prison space for violent criminals rather than nonviolent offenders.

According to data collected by Pew Charitable Trusts, the Utah prison population is rising, with the highest drivers being nonviolent criminals and sex offenders. Of the sex offenders, most had no prior convictions.

Also adding to the population are parole violators, most of them there for a technical violation, such as missing curfew, rather than the commission of a new crime, according to Gordon.

He said the state prison population of about 7,000 is projected to climb to 9,700 in the next 20 years, but implementation of all the subcommittee's recommendations would mean an increase of just a few hundred inmates.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/58524125-78/commission-offenders-recommendations-utah.html.csp

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Responding to a chronic terrorist threat

It is important to understand that, historically, the success al Qaeda has had in executing large attacks is not due to the professionalism of its operatives and attack planners

by Scott Stewart

Editor's Note: The following article by Scott Stewart originally appeared on Stratfor, and is republished with permission of Stratfor, a company that uses a unique, intel-based approach to analyze world affairs, and provide global awareness and guidance to individuals, governments, and businesses. Scott Stewart supervises the day-to-day operations of Stratfor's intelligence team and plays a central role in coordinating the company's analytical process with its business goals. Before joining Stratfor, Stewart was a special agent with the U.S. State Department for 10 years and was involved in hundreds of terrorism investigations.

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to speak at a Risk Management Society meeting in Cleveland, Ohio. During my presentation, I shared some of the points I made in last week's Security Weekly — namely, that the jihadist movement, which includes groups such as the Islamic State and al Qaeda, is resilient and can recover from losses if allowed to. There is no military solution to the jihadist movement: It is an ideological problem and must be addressed on the ideological battlefield, and thus jihadists are a persistent threat.

In response to these points, an audience member asked me if I thought the United States was wasting its time and treasure in Iraq and Syria (and elsewhere) by going after jihadist groups. After answering the question in person, I decided it would make a good follow-on topic for this week's Security Weekly.

Third-Tier Priority

First, it is important to understand that, historically, the success al Qaeda has had in executing large attacks is not due to the professionalism of its operatives and attack planners. Indeed, as I have previously noted, in addition to foiled attacks such as Operation Bojinka and the Millennium Bomb Plot, al Qaeda operatives were also nearly detected because of sloppy tradecraft and operational security mistakes in successful attacks such as the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1998 East African embassy bombings, the 2000 attack on the USS Cole and even the 9/11 attacks.

These mistakes weren't trivial. In the 1993 World Trade Center case, one of the two operational commanders whom al Qaeda sent to New York to assist in the plot, Ahmed Ajaj, was caught entering John F. Kennedy International Airport with a Swedish passport that had its photo replaced in a terribly obvious and amateurish manner. Authorities also found a suitcase full of bombmaking manuals with Ajaj. His partner, Abdel Basit (widely known as Ramzi Yousef), called Ajaj while he was in jail looking to recover the bombmaking instructions. Before the East Africa embassy bombings, authorities had identified the al Qaeda cell responsible and detected their sloppy preoperational surveillance of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. The leader of the group, Wadih el-Hage, was asked to leave Kenya, and he returned to his home in Dallas, where the group continued with its plans for attack in Africa. The perpetrators of the USS Cole bombing attempted to attack the USS The Sullivans in January 2000, but their boat was overloaded with explosives and foundered. Finally, among other mistakes the 9/11 attackers committed, Mohamed Atta had been cited for driving without a valid license and was the subject of an arrest warrant for failing to appear in court on those charges.

Al Qaeda was able to succeed in these attacks because terrorism had become a third-tier priority for the U.S. government in the 1990s, and very few resources were dedicated to fighting terrorism. Even fewer resources were dedicated specifically to the jihadist threat. Thus, significant leads were not followed in each of these cases.

The success of U.S. counterterrorism programs in the post 9/11 era cannot be attributed to the creation of the bloated and redundant bureaucracies of the Department of Homeland Security or the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. In fact, any achievements have come despite these organizations and the inefficiencies they have created. The real change is that terrorism is now identified as a significant threat, and countering the terrorist threat has been made the primary mission of every CIA station, FBI field office and NSA listening post on Earth. Indeed, all the tools of national counterterrorism power — intelligence, law enforcement, foreign policy, economics and the military — are now heavily focused on the counterterrorism mission.

Though the jihadist threat has persisted since 9/11, the intense pressure applied to jihadists by the combined force of myriad counterterrorism tools has made it difficult for the militants to project their terrorist power into the United States and Europe. These counterterrorism tools will not eradicate jihadism, but the threat jihadists pose regionally and transnationally can be contained and abated with their use. As I mentioned last week, jihadist operatives who possess advanced terrorist tradecraft are hard to replace, and arresting or killing such individuals hampers the ability of jihadist groups to project power regionally and transnationally. Ignoring the jihadist threat and allowing it to again become a third-tier issue will permit the jihadists to operate with relative impunity, as they did in the 1990s.

Ideological Change Is the Key

Another reason to maintain physical pressure on jihadist groups such as al Qaeda and the Islamic State is that pressure works to counter the groups' claims of divine blessing. That al Qaeda leaders claim to trust in God for protection and then hide as far underground as possible has caused many jihadists to criticize the group. Furthermore, though many jihadists treated the killing of Osama bin Laden as a joyous martyrdom, it caused other jihadists to question why the leader of al Qaeda was living in a comfortable home with his family while others were fighting on the front lines in his name.

When the Islamic State made impressive gains in Iraq and Syria in June, it boasted that it was being blessed by God, was therefore invincible and was going to continue until it conquered the world. It is quite common to hear such statements in Islamic State propaganda, including the following comments made in a video after the massacre of a group of Syrian soldiers who were taken captive after the siege of the Syrian 17th Division base near Raqqa on July 26: "We are your brothers, the soldiers of the Islamic State. God has favored us with His grace and victory by conquering the 17th Division — a victory and favor through God. We seek refuge in God from our might and power. We seek refuge in God from our weapons and our readiness."

Such claims, when backed by dramatic battlefield successes, can have a discernible impact on many radical Muslims, who begin to wonder if the Islamic State is really becoming as inexorable as it claims to be. This illusion of divine support and invincibility has greatly assisted the group in its efforts to recruit local and foreign fighters, to raise funds and to garner support from regional allies.

Conversely, the blunting of the group's offensive on the battlefield has tempered the Islamic State's boasting. Though reports that U.S. and coalition aircraft missed key targets such as the Islamic State headquarters may reflect that the United States was a bit behind the intelligence curve, they also demonstrate that the Islamic State was abandoning the facilities, fearful of airstrikes. The sight of Islamic State fighters reacting fearfully to coalition aircraft will help slow recruitment efforts and should cause already skeptical jihadists to think twice before joining the group or swearing allegiance to it.

Doubts stemming from battlefield losses about whether God is blessing the Islamic State should also bolster efforts against the group on an ideological front. For example, on Sept. 19, a group of 126 Islamic scholars from across the globe published an open letter to the Islamic State and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The scholars used the letter to address what they consider to be 24 points of error in the theology espoused by the Islamic State. These errors encompass a number of issues, including the nature of the caliphate; the authority to declare jihad; the practice of takfir, or proclaiming another Muslim to be a nonbeliever; the killing of innocents; the mutilation of corpses; and the taking of slaves.

The letter ends with a plea for al-Baghdadi and his followers: "Reconsider all your actions; desist from them; repent from them; cease harming others and return to the religion of mercy." It is unlikely that many of the hardcore jihadists will do as requested, but as these theological arguments are circulated and discussed, they will help undercut the ideological base of the jihadists and make it harder for them to convince impressionable people to join their cause. The effects of these theological critiques will not just be confined to the Islamic State; they will apply equally to al Qaeda and other groups that hold similar doctrines and commit similar acts.

Moreover, mainstream Muslim theologians have not been the only ones critical of the group. Jihadist ideologues such as Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi and Abu Qatada have also been critical of the Islamic State's activities and pronouncements.

Fighting the ideological war will undoubtedly be a long process. In the interim, the United States and its allies will have to continue applying pressure to groups such as the Islamic State and al Qaeda in an effort to contain them and limit the chronic threat they pose.

About the author

Scott Stewart is STRATFOR's VP of Analysis. He is a former Diplomatic Security Service Special Agent who was involved in hundreds of terrorism investigations, most notably the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the follow-on New York City bomb plot investigation, during which he served as lead investigator for the U.S. State Department. He led a team of Americans who aided the government of Argentina in investigating the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, and was involved in investigations following a series of attacks and attempted attacks by the Iraqi intelligence service during the first Gulf War.

http://www.policeone.com/counterterrorism/articles/7656679-Responding-to-a-chronic-terrorist-threat/

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Cops hesitate more, err less when shooting black suspects, study finds

According to findings from a research team's innovative experiments, officers are less likely to erroneously shoot unarmed black suspects than they were unarmed whites

by The Force Science Institute

With the turmoil in Ferguson (MO) the latest example, activists and many reporters would have us believe that police officers are prejudicially “trigger happy” when dealing with black suspects.

But a scientific study from Washington State University-Spokane suggests just the opposite. In truth, according to findings from the research team's innovative experiments:

• Officers were less likely to erroneously shoot unarmed black suspects than they were unarmed whites — 25 times less likely, in fact

• And officers hesitated significantly longer before shooting armed suspects who were black, compared to armed subjects who were white or Hispanic

“In sum,” writes Dr. Lois James, a research assistant professor with the university's Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology who headed the study, “this research found that participants displayed significant bias favoring Black suspects” in their shooting decisions.

Old View
In the past, based largely on incident report analyses and simplistic laboratory experiments, various researchers have concluded that in making deadly force decisions police are strongly influenced by the race or ethnicity of suspects, “independent of criminality.”

In the 1970s, this perspective was memorably captured in one researcher's statement that “the police have one trigger finger for whites and another for blacks.” Another claimed that the “disproportionate” number of police shootings of blacks (according to DOJ figures, they are four times more likely to be shot by police than whites) “strongly suggests racial discrimination on a national basis” in law enforcement.

But James points out that it is difficult if not impossible to ferret out racial bias as a decisive factor in shootings from the incomplete and occasionally questionably accurate information included in most incident reports. And the laboratory experiments suggesting bias, she says, commonly “bear almost no resemblance” to real-life deadly force encounters.

For example, a typical research method has involved subjects sitting before a computer and viewing flash pictures of black and white “suspects” paired with weapons or “neutral objects” such as wallets or cell phones. The subjects must respond to these images by pressing “shoot” or “don't shoot” buttons. Racial bias is then inferred by whether participants are “consistently quicker to shoot armed suspects of a particular race” and by whether decision errors tend to be greater for one race than for the other.

This process lacks what James calls “external validity” — that is, it doesn't come close to reflecting real-world circumstances, and thus its conclusions are of limited value. “[T]he complex process involved” in deciding to shoot or not shoot and then actually firing a gun is “dramatically different” from the simple reflex of pressing a button, she writes.

Her study involved a more sophisticated, “immersive” approach.

Enhanced Testing
Along with civilians and military personnel who were tested independently, 36 patrol officers and deputies from the Spokane area, all of them white and most of them male, were selected as volunteer subjects for her research. They ranged in age from 31 to 43 and had at least five years on the job.

Armed with a Glock 21 modified to fire a laser beam, the officers one at a time were exposed to a series of at least 10 “highly realistic and arousing” scenarios in a high-definition deadly force judgment and decision-making simulator in WSU's Simulated Hazardous Operational Tasks laboratory. The equipment permitted precise determination of shot placement and millisecond measurement of shot timing after a threat appeared.

The life-sized scenarios were randomly screened from a pool of 60 one- to two-minute episodes based on actual encounters in which officers have been killed or assaulted. They were filmed in “naturalistic” environments and included disturbance calls, arrest situations, crimes in progress, suspicious person investigations, and traffic stops — the biggest killers of cops. They ranged in “situational difficulty” from “intermediate” to “journeyman,” depending on variables such as the number of people involved, the speed at which action unfolds, and suspect demeanor, intoxication, and deceptive behavior.

Black, white, and Hispanic suspects appeared in the scenarios proportional to their involvement in actual attacks on officers, as compiled in FBI statistics. Suspects were unarmed in about a third of the scenarios.

The key responses that the researchers tested were reaction time and shooting “errors” (in this case, shooting unarmed individuals or failing to shoot armed suspects). James emphasizes that the officer participants had no reason to believe they were being tested for racial or ethnic bias. The issue of suspect race or ethnicity was not raised during the officers' preparation, and no Ferguson-like, racially charged event was recently in the news that might have overly sensitized them to that concern.

Unexpected Results
Given the prevailing stereotype that cops are unduly harsh toward black suspects, James acknowledges that the outcome of the experiments was “unexpected.”

• Reaction time. Her findings reveal that officers took “significantly longer” before they shot black suspects than white suspects. Civilians and soldiers in the study also took longer to shoot blacks, but the hesitation by officers was roughly twice as long as that of the civilians. The delay before shooting was particularly noticeable in the most complex scenarios.

In contrast, there was “no significant difference in reaction time between shooting Hispanic suspects and White suspects,” James reports.

“Our primary finding that participants were more hesitant to shoot Black suspects than White or Hispanic suspects is in direct contrast to prior experimental findings that participants are significantly quicker to shoot Black suspects,” she writes.

• Decision errors. Where officers made errors in James's study, they were “less likely to shoot unarmed Black suspects than unarmed White suspects,” she writes. Indeed, “we calculated that participants were 25 times less likely to shoot unarmed Black suspects than they were to shoot unarmed White suspects.” Again, this was a significantly greater multiple than was recorded for other groups in the study.

Unarmed suspects were most likely to be shot in journeyman scenarios (the most difficult), and there was “no significant difference between the likelihood of shooting unarmed Hispanic suspects and unarmed White suspects,” the researchers found.

Moreover, the officers did not fail to shoot armed white suspects any more frequently than they failed to shoot threatening suspects who were black or Hispanic.

“These findings are also in direct contrast to [earlier researchers] who found that participants were more likely to shoot unarmed Black suspects and fail to shoot armed White suspects,” James noted.

These results revealed that racial bias did exist in the officers' reactions to the scenarios, James writes — ”but in the opposite direction that would be expected from prior experimental studies.” Her tests “showed significant evidence of bias favoring Black suspects, rather than discriminating against them.”

A “potential explanation,” she speculates, may be a “behavioral ‘counter-bias' “ or “administrative effect”; that is, an extra caution by officers against impulsive reactions to black suspects because of “real-world concern over discipline, liability, or public disapproval.”

[Although not relevant to the researchers' primary concerns, James' team also recorded something that was not surprising: Compared to the civilian volunteers, “police and military participants had better shooting accuracy, fired faster follow-on shots, were far more interactive with the scenarios (for example, shouting at suspects: ‘drop your weapon or I will shoot!'), and had superior command presence....”]

Future Research
James considers her research to be a pilot study and as such she plans to expand it numerically and geographically before feeling confident that the findings can be extrapolated to sworn law enforcement generally. In work that is already underway, she hopes among other things to investigate whether this finding is replicated across larger and more diverse law enforcement samples, and if so, to “determine whether bias favoring Black suspects is a consequence of administrative measures (e.g., education, training, policies, and laws), and identify the cognitive processes that underlie this phenomenon.”

Meanwhile, the existing study, published in print last year under the title “Results from experimental trials testing participant responses to White, Hispanic and Black suspects in high-fidelity deadly force judgment and decision-making simulations,” can be accessed in full for a fee at the website of the Journal of Experimental Criminology. Click here to go there.

James can be reached at: lois_james@wsu.edu. Joining her in conducting the study were two other WSU PhDs, Dr. Bryan Vila and Dr. Kenn Daratha.

About the author

The Force Science Institute was launched in 2004 by Executive Director Bill Lewinski, PhD. - a specialist in police psychology -- to conduct unique lethal-force experiments. The non-profit Force Science Institute, based at Minnesota State University-Mankato, uses sophisticated time-and-motion measurements to document-for the first time-critical hidden truths about the physical and mental dynamics of life-threatening events, particularly officer-involved shootings. Its startling findings profoundly impact on officer training and safety and on the public's naive perceptions.

http://www.policeone.com/use-of-force/articles/7653755-Cops-hesitate-more-err-less-when-shooting-black-suspects-study-finds/

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Opinion

Texas dept.: 2nd health care worker tests positive for Ebola

DALLAS — A second health care worker at a Dallas hospital who provided care for the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. has tested positive for the disease, the Texas Department of State Health Services said Wednesday.

The department said in a statement that the worker reported a fever Tuesday and was immediately isolated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. Health officials said the worker was among those who took care of Thomas Eric Duncan, who was diagnosed with Ebola after coming to the U.S. from Liberia. Duncan died Oct. 8.

The department said a preliminary Ebola test was conducted late Tuesday at a state public health laboratory in Austin, Texas, and came back positive during the night. Confirmatory testing was being conducted at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The statement said the health care worker, who wasn't identified, was interviewed to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures. It said others who had interactions with the worker or possible exposure to the virus will be monitored.

Officials have said they don't know how the first health worker, a nurse, became infected. But the second case pointed to lapses beyond how one individual may have donned and removed personal protective garb.

"An additional health care worker testing positive for Ebola is a serious concern, and the CDC has already taken active steps to minimize the risk to health care workers and the patient," the CDC said in a statement.

"What happened there (in Dallas), regardless of the reason, is not acceptable. It shouldn't have happened," Anthony Fauci, director of the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of NIH, said on MSNBC on Wednesday.

Fauci said he envisioned the CDC taking "a much more involved role" in establishing the proper training protocols for Ebola cases.

The CDC said its experts had taken part in interviewing the second health care worker to identify any contacts or potential exposures in the community.

Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the CDC, has acknowledged that the government wasn't aggressive enough in managing Ebola and containing the virus as it spread from an infected patient to a nurse at a Dallas hospital.

"We could've sent a more robust hospital infection control team and been more hands-on with the hospital from day one about exactly how this should be managed," he said Tuesday.

Frieden outlined new steps this week designed to stop the spread of the disease, including the creation of an Ebola response team, increased training for health care workers nationwide and changes at the Texas hospital to minimize the risk of more infections.

"I wish we had put a team like this on the ground the day the patient — the first patient — was diagnosed. That might have prevented this infection," Frieden said.

The stark admission came as the World Health Organization projected the pace of infections accelerating in West Africa to as many as 10,000 new cases a week within two months.

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, appearing Wednesday on NBC's "Today" show, sidestepped questions about whether she had complete confidence in the Texas hospital where the health care workers have been diagnosed with Ebola or whether they should be transferred to one of four specialized hospitals. "We will keep all options and considerations right now," she said.

In a conference call late Tuesday, the nation's largest nurses' union described how the patient, Duncan, was left in an open area of the emergency room for hours. National Nurses United, citing unidentified nurses, said staff treated Duncan for days without the correct protective gear, that hazardous waste was allowed to pile up to the ceiling and safety protocols constantly changed.

RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of Nurses United, refused to say how many nurses made the statement about Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, but insisted they were in a position to know what happened.

A total of 76 people at the hospital might have been exposed to Duncan, and all are being monitored for fever and other symptoms daily, Frieden said. Nurse Nina Pham contracted the virus while caring for Duncan. Health officials are monitoring 48 others who had some contact with Duncan before he was admitted the hospital where he died.

Frieden said some of the world's leading experts on how to treat Ebola and protect health care workers are in the new response team. They will review issues including how isolation rooms are laid out, what protective equipment health workers use, waste management and decontamination.

In Europe, the WHO said the death rate in the outbreak has risen to 70 percent as it has killed nearly 4,500 people, most of them in West Africa. The previous mortality rate was about 50 percent.

Pham, 26, became the first person to contract the disease on U.S. soil as she cared for Duncan. She released a statement Tuesday through Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital saying she was "doing well," and the hospital listed her in good condition. She has received a plasma transfusion from a doctor who recovered from the virus, and the hospital CEO said medical staff members remain hopeful about her condition.

Pham was in Duncan's room often, from the day he was placed in intensive care until the day before he died.

She and other health care workers wore protective gear, including gowns, gloves, masks and face shields — and sometimes full-body suits — when caring for Duncan. Health officials have said there was a breach in protocol that led to the infections, but they don't know where the breakdown occurred.

Among the changes announced Tuesday by Frieden was a plan to limit the number of health care workers who care for Ebola patients so they "can become more familiar and more systematic in how they put on and take off protective equipment, and they can become more comfortable in a healthy way with providing care in the isolation unit."

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/national/southwest/2014/10/texas_dept_2nd_health_care_worker_tests_positive_for_ebola

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Virginia

Leesburg Awarded International Community Policing Prize

by Leesburg Today

The Leesburg Police Department is a 2014 recipient of a Community Policing Award from the International Association of Chiefs of Police and Cisco Systems. This award recognizes outstanding community policing initiatives by law enforcement agencies worldwide.

The LPD was one of five agencies selected for awards and shares this year's prize for agencies serving populations of 20,001 to 50,000 with the Madison County (AL) Police Department.

The Leesburg department was recognized for the partnerships it established with town businesses to combat organized retail crime. Incurring no additional costs, the LPD established a public-private partnership to enhance traditional analytical practices, apply modern theories on crime prevention and reverse a significant crime trend.

“This is a tremendous honor for the agency and the town and it speaks volumes for the work done day in and day out by the outstanding men and women of this agency,” Police Chief Joseph Price stated.

It is the second IACP award for the department, which also was given international recognition for its community policing efforts in 2006.

The award will be presented Oct. 26 at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Annual Conference in Orlando, FL, at a special awards reception.

http://www.leesburgtoday.com/news/leesburg-awarded-international-community-policing-prize/article_91421f68-5415-11e4-8ea6-cfc1b5cf9f76.html

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Black community's mistrust of police is rational, justified

by Kevin Cokley

Most parents smile encouragingly and tell their children they can be anything they want to be. So when my 5-year-old son told me he wants to be a policeman, a type of anxiety black parents know so well set in.

The sad reality is black families all too often have to socialize their children, especially black boys, to be careful around police. Given the disturbing history of unarmed black men and women dying at the hands of law enforcement officers, it is not surprising many blacks mistrust them.

The Ferguson community reaction over the shooting death of Michael Brown has ignited long-simmering tension between black communities and the police. The highly publicized death of Trayvon Martin and deaths of countless other black men only perpetuate the pervasive and deeply entrenched feelings of mistrust blacks have toward police. Since Brown's death, there has been yet another shooting, of Levar Jones, an unarmed black man in South Carolina. And now, St. Louis reels with news of the shooting of Vonderrit Myers Jr., 18, by a local cop last week.

So how do we reduce the level of mistrust? Public forums on police accountability are a good starting point.

I recently attended one such forum in Austin, Texas. Two incidents stood out for me that symbolize how out of touch law enforcement officials are with black communities.

• When an audience member asked a question about institutional discrimination, Sgt. Wayne Vincent, president of the Austin Police Association, repeatedly denied the existence of such a phenomenon. He said there are only isolated cases of biased individuals who, when identified, are weeded out of law enforcement.

• When a kindergarten teacher commented that her low-income 5-year-old black and Latino male students already had mistrustful attitudes toward the police, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo suggested their mistrust pointed to something wrong in the home. He further stated these were the same kids who probably weren't doing their homework.

In a puff of smoke, what little goodwill had been generated was gone.

The words of these two law enforcement leaders illustrated a lack of understanding of the black community. To engage in effective community policing requires a basic understanding of the history and psychology of members of that community.

While disturbing and unsettling to many whites, the psychology of blacks is deeply rooted in a cultural mistrust of white people and perceived white institutions. More than 40 years ago, the father of black psychology, Joseph White, observed that all black people should have a healthy paranoia toward whites. In a racist society that dehumanizes and devalues blacks, White explained, a black person who has an uncritical trust of white people and white institutions is naïve, psychologically at risk and unprepared to deal with the harsh realities of racism.

This is not an irrational fear. In a series of social psychological studies, Phillip Goff and his colleagues found that black boys are not given the same protections of childhood innocence as their white peers. In one study, participants were shown pictures of young black, white and Latino males matched for equal attractiveness. They found black boys are viewed as older, less innocent and less childlike than their white peers. They also found that the dehumanization of black boys (through association with apes) predicted racial disparities in police violence toward black children. Thus, it is no surprise when a video captured a Ferguson police officer referring to the mostly black protesters as “animals.”

I would be remiss to not acknowledge that the majority of police officers are not raging racists, but good and decent people who genuinely want to protect the communities they serve. This does not change the fact that according to the FBI between 2005 and 2012, a white police officer killed a black person almost two times a week. It does not change the fact that an unarmed Amadou Diallo was shot at 41 times and struck 19 times by police who mistook his wallet for a gun. It does not change the fact that Oscar Grant was killed by an Oakland, Calif., transit officer who “accidentally” used his gun instead of a Taser. It does not change the fact that more than 50 bullets were fired by the NYPD into a car and killed an unarmed Sean Bell just hours before his wedding. It does not change the fact these are not isolated incidents.

If police truly want to improve their image and reputation among black citizens, they must first acknowledge that the black community's mistrust of police is rational and justified. Police must also admit racial bias exists not only in the attitudes and behaviors of some individual police officers but also in the institutional culture of police departments where the unwritten rule of the “blue code of silence” protects officers who harbor racist attitudes and engage in racially discriminatory behavior.

Finally, police officers must understand that community trust is earned not given. Unless police are willing and able to truly empathize with community anger and pain similar to the way Capt. Ronald Johnson did in Ferguson, relations with black communities will never improve.

After my son told me he wants to be a policeman, I smiled and told him he could be whatever he wants to be. I would not allow my biases and mistrust of police to rob my son of his innocence. I challenge police to not allow their biases to result in any further shootings and senseless deaths of unarmed black males.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/black-community-s-mistrust-of-police-is-rational-justified/article_7aa43d1b-28df-5c70-84bc-6c782e970d48.html

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Wisconsin

Opinion

Wisconsin must make public safety a higher priority

by Jim Palmer

The state's largest law enforcement group, the Wisconsin Professional Police Association (WPPA) has been outspoken in its efforts to protect and promote public safety, as well as the interests of the dedicated men and women who serve to provide it.

Our public praise and criticisms have known no political bounds, because we consider issues on the basis of what's best for public safety, not partisanship. In doing so, we have commended and criticized Gov. Scott Walker in the past, just as we did his predecessor, Gov. Jim Doyle.

The safety of our communities is simply too important to view through an ideological lens, and we view each election cycle as an opportunity to genuinely evaluate where we are and where we ought to go as a state and to highlight our law enforcement community's successes and challenges.

The WPPA has conducted successive annual statewide polls in the last two years. They both found that "keeping communities safe" was Wisconsin residents' top priority. Back in 2010, Scott Walker seemed to recognize the importance of this issue in touting himself as someone who would fight crime effectively if elected. He said during the campaign that "(g)overnment's first duty is to provide for the safety of its citizens. This means protecting the rights of crime victims and providing the brave men and women in Wisconsin law enforcement the resources they need to keep our schools and neighborhoods safe." Since taking office, Gov. Walker has asserted that his budgetary priorities protect public safety. There is evidence to suggest the contrary, however, and it concerns many within the law enforcement community.

Walker used his budget to impose the single largest cut in at least a decade to the local government funding used to help support police services. He also established strict limits on our cities' ability to raise other revenues. His cuts meant less money at the local level for law enforcement, less money for health and human services and less money for a wide variety of other programs that directly affect our daily lives.

As total law enforcement spending in Wisconsin decreased, along with the number of officers serving our communities, violent crime in Wisconsin increased at a far greater rate than it did on the national level and more than every other state in the Midwest but one. After years of a declining crime rate, Wisconsin turned the corner in a very troubling way.

Some have diminished these facts by pointing out that the data which supports them only covers the first two years of Walker's term. The data is derived directly from the FBI, the Wisconsin Department of Revenue and the Wisconsin Department of Justice; and it's true, the last year for which data exists on all of these details is 2012. But discounting the significant increase in Wisconsin's violent crime because there isn't more of it doesn't strike me, or the officers with whom I work every day, with any sense of consolation.

They recognize that their jobs and the communities they serve are becoming increasingly more treacherous. And while there are a variety of factors that can contribute to violent crime, spending is certainly an important one. Especially when you consider that Walker has held himself out as someone who will fight crime and provide our officers with the resources they need to protect us. Given the latest and best information available, there is legitimate reason to conclude that he hasn't fulfilled that commitment to make public safety a top priority.

What unites Wisconsinites is the desire to have communities that are safe. People recognize that our quality of life greatly depends upon our common security, and they value the risks that our law enforcement officers make every day to achieve that end.

The future direction of Wisconsin will soon be determined by the voters. Federal crime statistics confirm what may seem common sensical: Dramatically cutting funding to communities and ultimately our law enforcement agencies reduces our ability to fight crime and protect our families.

We can and must do better as a state to provide for those who risk their personal safety to protect us.

Jim Palmer is executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/wisconsin-must-make-public-safety-a-higher-priority-b99371002z1-279211682.html

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Pennylvania

Should Pa. boy, age 10, be charged as adult in beating death of woman, 90?

by John Luciew

The alleged crime is horrible. A 10-year-old Pennsylvania boy visiting his grandfather is accused of beating to death a 90-year-old woman the grandfather was caring for.

According to the Pocono Record, the boy punched of Helen Novak of Tyler Hill, Pa., several times in the throat after first putting a cane on her neck. This, after the elderly woman yelled at the boy for entering her room.

Now, the boy is being charged as an adult in the case. But is 10 too young?

According to media reports, state police have charged the boy from Damascus Township, Pa., with criminal homicide in the death. The boy is being held without bail.

According to the Associated Press, Novak shouted at the child for entering her room. The Record reports the boy's mother told investigators her son then became angry, lost his temper and grabbed a cane and put it on Novak's throat. He then punched her several times, according to the Record.

The boy told his grandfather Novak was bleeding from her mouth, the AP reports. The grandfather checked on the woman twice; the second time she was unresponsive.

According to the Record, an autopsy showed blunt force trauma to Novak's neck.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/10/should_pa_boy_age_10_be_charge.html

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Connecticut

Harp, Esserman share strategies at Mayors' Conference

by Erica Pandey

As New Haven officials continue to tout improved public safety, Mayor Toni Harp and Police Chief Dean Esserman presented last week at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Little Rock, Arkansas on the city's crown jewel for fighting crime: community policing.

Several dozen mayors and police chiefs attended the event, which centered on the theme “Making Cities Safer Through Community Policing.” Hosted at the Clinton Presidential Center, the conference featured remarks from former President Bill Clinton LAW ‘73 and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Harp and Esserman led a panel discussion alongside Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola. The officials honed in on the problems facing urban youth, and how collaboration among cities, police departments and schools can protect this population.

Shots fired are down 23 percent from this time last year, according to data released by the police department. The homicide rate is down slightly, as well. Last week's “Crime in Connecticut” report revealed an additional 9 percent drop in overall crime from 2013 to 2014.

Officer David Hartman, media liaison for the NHPD, said Esserman reinvigorated community policing in New Haven when he took office in November 2011. By the end of that year, the homicide count had reached a 20-year high of 34 murders. Esserman said at the time he was going to take the NHPD in a new direction — placing the reinvigoration of community policing at the top of his agenda.

After Harp clinched the mayoral election last fall, Esserman was one of the first department heads she pledged to retain.

“A police chief is only as good as a mayor lets them be,” Esserman said Monday, reflecting on lessons from the trip. He added that Harp was received well at the conference.

In a press release last week, Harp said that she hoped to share New Haven's progress in curbing crime, while also learning new strategies to successfully address public safety issues in the Elm City.

Harp and Esserman pointed to New Haven's Youth Stat initiative, which holds weekly meetings for agencies to share data about school absences and transfers, as well as involvement in the juvenile justice system. The aim is to identify at-risk youth in the city. The city officials also cited the NHPS Community Resilience Initiative, the umbrella title given to a series of programs aimed at identifying and counseling school-age children suffering from violence-related trauma.

“We talked about hiring school resource officers and implementing afterschool programs to keep schools safe,” said Stodola, who has been mayor of Little Rock since 2007. “We agreed that the ability to build trust in neighborhoods would come from enhanced community policing.” Resource officers serve as public safety and security officials at schools, according to Stodola.

Stodola added that the panel discussed how to strengthen mayor and police chief relationships as well as how city officials can effectively communicate with media.

This year's conference of mayors also celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Community-Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, a program that was signed into law during the Clinton Administration.

Under COPS, 100,000 new police officers were hired to patrol the streets of cities around the country.

“[The conference] was an opportunity to reflect on the gains we've made in twenty years, but also to see how far we have to go,” Stodola said. “The more police officers that patrol by foot or on bicycles as opposed to insulated from the community in vehicles, the better.”

The U.S. Conference of Mayors has been meeting several times a year since its establishment in 1932.

http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2014/10/14/harp-esserman-share-strategies-at-mayors-conference/

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Massachusetts

City to Use of Smart 911 Program to Enhance Public Safety

by The Independent Staff

Mayor Carlo DeMaria and public safety officials in the City of Everett announced today that they have taken a step forward in public safety by becoming a Smart911 community, with the free service now available to all citizens. Smart911 is a national service that allows citizens to create a free Safety Profile for their household that includes any information they want 9-1-1 and first responders to have in the event of an emergency. If that citizen needs to dial 9-1-1, their Safety Profile will immediately display on the call taker's screen, saving seconds and even minutes in response to the emergency.

“We take great pride in providing the best available resources to enhance safety in our community,” states Mayor DeMaria. “By utilizing this technology, our citizens are now able to give our E911 operators the information they need to better help them during a time of great distress, when communicating even the simplest of details can be difficult.”

Citizens can visit www.smart911.com to sign up and create a free Safety Profile for their household, providing information such as the names and photos of family members, health conditions, medications, pets in the home, vehicle details and emergency contacts. All information in each profile is voluntary, and each household can determine what details are important to include, as each household is different and therefore the potential rescue needs will also vary.

“When we are approaching the scene of any emergency, we are always looking to gather as much information as possible,” state Police Chief Steven Mazzie, “From knowing the access points to the home, whether there is a pet we need to be aware of when approaching or entering the home or just knowing the name of the person in distress can ensure the safety of our citizens and our officers.”

With over 48,000 residents living in the city and well over 14,000 9-1-1 calls coming into the E911 Dispatch each year, Smart911 will give 9-1-1 call takers the ability to send the appropriate response teams to the right location and with more information. Examples of situations in which Smart911 can assist include:

If a call is made from a mobile phone, a Safety Profile can provide an address which will allow first responders a location to respond to, even if cell service is poor or the call is dropped.

If there is a fire in the home, a Safety Profile can immediately provide details on how to gain access into the building, the number of residents and pets inside, and a floor plan detailing the location of bedrooms and nearest exits.

During a medical emergency, a Safety Profile can deliver important details on how to treat a patient, ranging from potential allergies to medical conditions such as epilepsy or autism

In a car accident, the Safety Profile can include vehicle information, the citizen's medical treatment restrictions and emergency contact details.

“It can be very reassuring to know that the information we are receiving en route is coming directly from the person in need,” states Fire Chief David Butler, “Knowing what specific medical issues a person has, or the photos of those we are searching for can greatly enhance our response time and accuracy.”

Smart911 has been adopted in 35 states and over 500 municipalities. It has been credited with positively impacting emergency situations and saving lives across the U.S., including a missing child case in Arkansas, a heart attack victim in Tennesee and a citizen in diabetic shock in Louisiana.

Residents are encouraged to sign up for Smart911 and create a Safety Profile at www.smart911.com to ensure 9-1-1 will have access to their information during an emergency. Smart911 is private and secure, and is only made available to 9-1-1 when an emergency call is made.

http://www.everettindependent.com/2014/10/13/city-to-use-of-smart-911-program-to-enhance-public-safety/

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Texas

The Code Green Campaign Brings Awareness to PTSD and Suicide in Public Safety

DALLAS/FT. WORTH, Texas—So far in 2014 there have been at least 60 suicides in Firefighters and EMS responders in the USA. When you add in other public safety personnel such as dispatchers, law enforcement officers, corrections officers, and nurses, the number skyrockets. The Code Green Campaign is working hard at #savingpublicsafety from PTSD, suicide, and other mental health issues by raising awareness amongst responders and the public.

Code Green's motto is “calling a code alert on our mental health”, and they are calling that code alert with the hashtag #savingpublicsafety. In order to promote their code alert The Code Green Campaign is looking for pictures of all types of public safety responders with “Code Green” and the hashtag “#savingpublicsafety” included in the picture. These pictures can be submitted to any of The Code Green Campaign's social media pages.

They also have a Teespring store with shirts promoting the #savingpublicsafety initiative (http://teespring.com/stores/codegreen). There are shirts specifically for Paramedics, EMTs, firefighters, dispatchers, police/corrections officers and nurses.

The Code Green Campaign was founded in March of 2014 in response to the high rates of PTSD, depression and suicide in public safety. You can find The Code Green Campaign at www.codegreencampaign.org. You can also find them on Facebook (www.facebook.com/codegreencampaign), Twitter (www.twitter.com/CodeGreenEMS) and Instagram (www.instagram.com/thecodegreencampaign).

http://www.jems.com/article/industry-news/code-green-campaign-brings-awareness-pts

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Texas

Nurse catches Ebola from Thomas Eric Duncan, 1st US patient who died of virus

by The Associated Press

DALLAS -- Health officials are intensifying the monitoring of hospital workers who provided care to the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. after one of them was infected with the virus despite wearing protective gear.

Tests confirmed the first known case of Ebola transmitted in the nation, raising questions about assurances by health officials here that the disease will be contained and any American hospital should be able to treat it.

Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Sunday that there had been a breach of protocol that led the worker to become infected while treating patient Thomas Eric Duncan, but officials are not sure what went wrong. Duncan, who traveled from Liberia to visit family, did not get sick until he arrived in the U.S. He died Wednesday

The worker, who has not been identified, has not been able to point to how the breach might have occurred.

President Barack Obama asked the CDC to move as quickly as possible to investigate the incident, the White House said.

Dallas police barred entry to the health care worker's apartment complex Sunday. Officers also knocked on doors, made automated phone calls and passed out fliers to notify people within a four-block radius about the situation, although Dallas authorities assured residents the risk was confined to those who have had close contact with the two Ebola patients.

The worker wore a gown, gloves, mask and shield while she cared for Duncan during his second visit to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, said Dr. Daniel Varga of Texas Health Resources, which runs the hospital.

Duncan, who arrived in the U.S. from Liberia Sept. 20, first sought medical care for fever and abdominal pain Sept. 25. He told a nurse he had traveled from Africa, but he was sent home. He returned Sept. 28 and was placed in isolation because of suspected Ebola.

Liberia is one of the three West African countries most affected by the Ebola epidemic, which has killed more than 4,000 people, according to World Health Organization figures published Friday. The others are Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Texas health officials have been closely monitoring nearly 50 people who had or may have had close contact with Duncan in the days after he started showing symptoms but before he was diagnosed with the disease.

The health care worker reported a fever Friday night as part of a self-monitoring regimen required by the CDC, Varga said.

Another person described as a "close contact" of the health worker has been proactively placed in isolation, he added, without elaborating on where that person is being monitored. The hospital said its emergency department is diverting ambulances to other hospitals, though is still accepting walk-in patients.

Frieden said officials are evaluating and will monitor any workers who may have been exposed while Duncan was in the hospital.

Among the things the CDC will investigate is how the workers took off protective gear, because removing it incorrectly can lead to contamination. Investigators will also look at dialysis and intubation - the insertion of a breathing tube in a patient's airway. Both procedures have the potential to spread the virus.

"We knew a second case could be a reality, and we've been preparing for this possibility," said Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services. "We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread."

Every emergency room needs to be prepared to isolate and take infection control precautions, because no one can control where an Ebola patient might show up, said Dr. Dennis Maki, University of Wisconsin-Madison infectious disease specialist and former head of hospital infection control.

However, only large hospitals such as those affiliated with major universities truly have the equipment and manpower to deal with Ebola correctly, Maki said.

The case heightens concern for health workers' safety, and nurses at many hospitals "are alarmed at the inadequate preparation they see," says a statement from Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the union, National Nurses United.

Health care workers treating Ebola patients are among the most vulnerable, even if wearing protective gear. A Spanish nurse assistant recently became the first health care worker infected outside West Africa in this outbreak. She helped care for two priests who were brought to a Madrid hospital and later died. More than 370 health care workers in West Africa have fallen ill or died since the epidemic began earlier this year.

Officials said they also received information that there may be a pet in the health care worker's apartment, and they have a plan in place to care for the animal. They do not believe the pet has signs of having contracted Ebola. A dog belonging to the Spanish nurse was euthanized, drawing thousands of complaints.

Ebola spreads through close contact with a symptomatic person's bodily fluids, such as blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen. Those fluids must have an entry point, such as a cut or scrape or someone touching the nose, mouth or eyes with contaminated hands, or being splashed. The World Health Organization says blood, feces and vomit are the most infectious fluids, while the virus is found in saliva mostly once patients are severely ill. The whole live virus has never been culled from sweat.

http://abc7chicago.com/health/nurse-catches-ebola-from-thomas-eric-duncan-1st-us-patient/348131/

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Florida

TPD chief to answer questions on community police tactics

by TaMaryn Waters

Mayor-elect Andrew Gillum on Oct. 1 emailed Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo regarding whether police officers had been retrained on de-escalation tactics and community policing.

A cellphone video made Sept. 30 by a Frenchtown resident showing a 61-year-old unarmed grandmother being tased in the back by a TPD officer on Dunn Street quickly went viral.

After seeing the video, Gillum sent an email at 8:10 a.m. on Oct. 1 — roughly five hours after DeLeo held an unprecedented 3:15 a.m. press conference. DeLeo has launched an internal investigation and put Officer Terry Mahan on paid administrative leave.

“A few months back you mentioned that you were in the process of retraining all officers and command staff at TPD on de-escalation tactics and community policing,” Gillum wrote. “Was the officer involved in Tuesday's incident trained? If so, how would you assess the effectiveness of the training and what recommendations do you have for retraining of officers. Thanks in advance for your response.”

Gillum, who'll be sworn in as Tallahassee new mayor on Nov. 21, told the Tallahassee Democrat he didn't get an immediate response from either City Manager Anita Favors Thompson or DeLeo.

More than a week passed before DeLeo called Gillum on Wednesday and indicated he's working on a response slated for today.

“I got a call from the manager offering a response,” Gilliam said in a text to the Democrat. “Something along the lines that a training series had been initiated, but that there was more to come. Because they are not completed with training they can't assess the effectiveness yet. The officer involved was trained.”

DeLeo and Mayor John Marks were attending a conference in Arkansas on community policing and returned Thursday. The trip had been planned before the controversial incident.

On Friday, State Attorney Willie Meggs's office dropped the charges against Viola Young, the 61-year-old woman who was tased, and her family members.

While Gillum said he's not frustrated, he said he understands the chief is “working on a fair assessment of what took place.”

“While he's doing that, he also has an obligation to keep the elected officials up to speed. I think it's an important balance,” Gillum said. “I don't think he's diddling over there. I think he's working but it's important that we all know that the elected leadership has to be involved in that process.”

Emails obtained by the Democrat indicate Gillum was the only commissioner who initially inquired about the department's retraining status.

Marks said he insisted DeLeo join him at the United States Conference of Mayors event because he believes it's important for Tallahassee to learn from what other cities have adopted effective community policing practices.

“I think it's important, too, if you think about what has happened all over our nation, such as Ferguson and Jacksonville, and what has happened in many of other neighbors and quite frankly closer to home,” Marks said. “It is a very good thing that we take an opportunity to get as much information as possible related to community-oriented policing.”

“If you look at the tape, you can get the sense that we wished that was something that hadn't happened. “That's based on the tape alone,” he said. “We have to look at all of the circumstances surrounding that before we reach any definitive conclusion. But, no, it was not a very good incident if you look at the tape.”

http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/2014/10/12/tpd-chief-respond/17175881/

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What is community policing?

by Benjamin Todd 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.

http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2014/10/12/what-is-community-policing

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ISIS Establishes Camps To Radicalize Children Of Iraq, Syria

By turning the youth of its enemies into the militant group's future soldiers, ISIS is brainwashing a generation of Iraqis and Syrians in an attempt to ensure its own future.

by Catherine Shakdam

CRAWLEY, West Sussex, U.K. — As Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militants have moved ahead with their expansion campaign across the greater Levant, with an eye increasingly turned toward Turkey, Jordan and southern Iraq, observers have warned that the group has developed an elaborate radicalization program which targets children.

While ISIS has been proactive in its ever-extensive quest for fresh recruits in recent months, often using technology and social media as radicalization tools to manipulate young fragile minds, the militant group seems to have now turned its attention toward the children of Iraq and Syria, keen to enforce its violent and flawed interpretation of Islam onto those who live under its yoke and thus deepen its recruitment pool.

For those civilians ISIS has chosen not to randomly execute on account of their faith, another fate awaits them: a life spent in internment camps, where forced conversions, religious rehabilitation and slavery are the new normal.

The children of ISIS

A former school teacher from Mosul-turned journalist and rights activist Laith Abbas told MintPress News that he believes ISIS' decision to “brainwash Iraq's children” is yet another ploy to transform the region's religious make-up through fear and coercion.

“This forced conversion of the mind is as pernicious as it is immoral. We are losing our children to this evil … our religious heritage is being re-written by radical monsters. People of all faiths stand to see to lose their history as their children have been lost to them.”

He added, “Our children have become this war's new frontline. This is a serious development, as our future, well, actually the region's future, stands in the balance. Iraq and Syria have been turned into terror incubus, our children are being fed terror and taught violence … God knows if we will recover as a people from such a nightmare.”

Fears that ISIS is manufacturing the next generation of terror jihadists have been shared by observers and rights activists alike across both Syria and Iraq, where the group has established its strongholds. Yet ISIS has become much more than a terrorist group: It is a destroyer of civilization. Muslims and Islamic scholars of all denominations have denounced ISIS' ideology, asserting their profound disagreement with and condemnation of the group's violent methods and systematic targeting of religious minorities.

Speaking against the human rights violations and abuses committed by ISIS against civilian populations in Iraq, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein noted that the forced enrollment of children into the group's ranks has become a source of grave concern.

In a statement directed at Baghdad, Hussein wrote, as reported by The Daily Mail:

“ISIS atrocities ‘include attacks directly targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, executions and other targeted killings of civilians, abductions, rape and other forms of sexual and physical violence perpetrated against women and children, forced recruitment of children, destruction or desecration of places of religious or cultural significance, wanton destruction and looting of property, and denial of fundamental freedoms.'”

ISIS terror camps

In a move reminiscent of Nazi Germany, ISIS has set up internment camps across the areas under its control to receive, train, and educate hundreds and thousands of Iraqi and Syrian children of all faiths. These children in the hands of ISIS are the victims of a disturbing new form of religious mass-indoctrination.

A report published by the U.N. Human Rights Council in August confirmed that ISIS “systematically provides weapons and training for children,” adding that the group set up training and internment camps in Aleppo and Raqqa — areas under its control.

Further, the report states, “According to an account about an ISIS training camp in Al-Bab (Aleppo), ISIS actively recruited children from the ages of 14 or 15 to undergo the same training as adults, offering financial rewards. At the camps, the children recruited received weapons training and religious education.”

More than just meat for the canons, ISIS' child recruitment campaign is quickly taking the form of religious re-education — yet another means for radicals to exert not only their control over civilians but to ensure future loyalty.

The goals of the ISIS leadership extend beyond simply gaining control of the region — they want the region to reflect ISIS ideology. To this end, ISIS is embedding itself onto children's psyches, remodelling their belief systems and bending their moral compasses to the group's dogma.

A generation lost to terror

In a 2002 medical report published on religious indoctrination, whereby children are made to suffer psychological and physical harm so their belief systems can be reshaped and so they will develop amoral and/or socially reprehensible behavioral patterns, clinical psychologists discussed the severe repercussions such abuse could have on children.

While the study was not related to terrorist brainwashing, per se, it clearly states that any such form of psychological abuse will carry long-term effects for the victims and lead to asocial behavior, violence, psychosis, depression and learning impairments.

Syrian child psychologist Nura Fadel told MintPress that ISIS training camps and the group's “unforgiving teaching methods” are “bound to deeply and severely affect children's physical, emotional and psychological development.”

She explained, “When children as young as 7 years old are made to experience death and violence on a daily basis, as well as constant radical religious reinforcement, their mind will quite literally disconnect from reality. This break can turn into psychosis. But more importantly, those children will become carriers of ISIS' doctrine … they will end up adopting their oppressors method of thinking … Indoctrination is difficult to break.”

A retired military officer in Baghdad, Hassan Allawi warned against the group's radicalization scheme, noting that ISIS had perfected the psychology of war by turning the youth of its enemies into the group's future soldiers.

“Our children are being violated in the vilest imaginable ways possible … If Western countries worry about returning jihadists, what about Iraq and Syria's children? Our youth is being lost to terror. We have been swallowed whole by a monster which fights its battles in our children's minds,” Allawi said.

Following in Wahhabis' footsteps?

Abdel-Kareem Al Sharjabi, a historian and religious cleric from Yemen, told MintPress that ISIS' methods and techniques eerily resemble that of Wahhabi militants in Saudi Arabia in the 18th century, a time when Wahhabism was still considered a religious aberration.

“Mohammed Abdul Wahhab, the founder of Wahhabism, professed the use of violence and terror as successful methods of coercion against civilian population. In between 1792 and 1801, Wahhabi militants destroyed, killed and pillaged some of the holiest and biggest cities of Islam – Karbala, Medina and Taif,” he explained.

Wahhabism came to Al Hijaz — as Saudi Arabia was formerly known — in the 18th century. At that time, the British Empire sought to keep both the Ottoman and Persian empires in check by exploiting religious indoctrination. Since colonial Britain could not gain the upper hand militarily, its leadership devised means which would, from the inside out, weaken and destabilize those regions and powers it intended to enslave and control.

It was under the influence of one man, an alleged British agent named Mohammed Abdel-Wahhab, that Al Hijaz would come to adopt — by force, it should be noted — an ascetic and extreme interpretation of Islam. As the Al Saud dynasty established its dominion over Al Hijaz, Wahhabism became the sole state religion. All others schools of thoughts were automatically deemed reactionary, heresy or both.

Speaking of the forced conversion of Al Hijaz, Al Sharjabi emphasized:

“It was Al Zahawi, an Islamic historian of the time who reported, ‘They [Wahhabis] killed everyone in sight, slaughtering both child and adult, the ruler and the ruled, the lowly and the well-born. They began with a suckling child nursing at his mother's breast and moved on to a group studying Koran, slaying them, down to the last man. And when they wiped out the people in the houses, they went out into the streets, the shops, and the mosques, killing whoever happened to be there. They killed even men bowed in prayer until they had exterminated every Muslim who dwelt in Ta'if and only a remnant, some twenty or more, remained.'”

“ISIS has taken a page from Abdel Wahhab's playbook and turned history into a new reality,” Al Sharjabi continued.

“First they destroy, then they rule through fear before they finally infiltrate mainstream thinking through re-education. What was once radical becomes the new norm … This is how new doctrines are born,” he concluded.

Prisoners of a faith they no longer recognize as their own, Shiite and Sunni Muslims in Syria and Iraq are reportedly appalled and terrified by the ravages being carried out by ISIS. While many have said they feel powerless in the face of such evil, all have sworn that ISIS speaks not in their name. Even President Barack Obama noted, “ISIS speaks for no religion."

With their freedom disappearing at lightening speed, Syrians and Iraqis do not know how long they can manage to keep this darkness of the mind at bay, especially when schools and state institutions have fallen under the control of the black banner.

http://www.mintpressnews.com/isis-establishes-camps-radicalize-children-iraq-syria/197607/