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December, 2014 - Week 5

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California

Richmond Crime Rate Is Lowest In Decades; Police Chief Credits Good Relationship With Community

Last year, the city of Richmond had the lowest number of homicides in four decades.

The city's chief of police, Chris Magnus talked to KCBS about crime-fighting strategies for the New Year. He has made community policing a cornerstone of his department's work.

Police in this city have built a strong working relationship with community groups, residents and faith-based organizations.

Despite the success Magnus said he's already thinking about things that need to be refined in 2015.

“The relationship between residents of color and police are not as good as they need to be, so one of the things, we are looking forward to in the year ahead are more opportunities for bridge-building, dialogue and education,” he said. “That's really the way we build trust, and trust is a key part of the relationship.”

In 2014, Richmond recorded 11 homicides. The worst year was 1990 when 62 people lost their lives in bloody violence.

Chief Magnus said he's always looking for ways to improve crime-fighting techniques. He said a combination of strategy and a little luck has played a role in keeping a lid on violent crime.

“The idea is to work with other agencies and departments around the country to share best practices and figure out how we can all benefit from what folks are trying in different places,” said Magnus. “We don't claim to have all the answers.”

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/01/03/richmond-crime-rate-is-lowest-in-decades-police-chief-credits-good-relationship-with-community/

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North Carolina

“We Have Work To Do”: NAACP Hosts Police Chiefs, Sheriff

by Aaron Keck

(Multiple audios on site)

In the wake of the events of Ferguson, Missouri, a national debate has erupted over policing in local communities: are racial minorities unfairly targeted, and if so, what should police departments be doing to address that issue?

On Saturday, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP welcomed Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue, Carrboro Police Chief Walter Horton, and Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood for a two-hour forum on policing here in Orange County, with topics ranging from the role of police in schools to the use of deadly force.

“The events that we've experienced in other parts of the country have made it clear that we have work to do in our own community,” said Diane Robertson, who moderated Saturday's forum at the Rogers Road Community Center. About 50 people packed the room, including several elected officials.

At issue was the question of “implicit bias” in policing: do police officers unfairly target racial minorities, even without intending to? Blue, Horton and Blackwood all reiterated that their officers don't intentionally discriminate.

“I think if you show raw data to the officers – which we have – they'll say, ‘man, I'm surprised by those numbers, it doesn't feel like it would be skewed,'” Chief Blue said. “I know for folks out there in the community it feels very obvious that it's skewed, but for those officers, I don't think there's intentional effort to skew the data one way or the other.”

Chief Horton agreed. “When I was on patrol, I didn't look at the race of the person I was stopping, I was looking at the car – if a tag was out, I'd stop the car for a violation – and I'm pretty sure that's how it is now,” he said.

“We want to do the right thing,” Sheriff Blackwood added. “I don't think anybody puts the uniform on with an evil heart.”

But even if there's no intent to discriminate, there are numbers suggesting that minorities in Orange County do get singled out. About 20 percent of the traffic stops in Orange County involve black drivers, even though only 10 percent of the population is black – and when they're pulled over, black and Latino drivers are also 2-3 times more likely to have their vehicles searched than white drivers are in the same circumstances.

Those numbers indicate a serious issue in our community – even if the cause, or the solution, isn't as obvious.

“We're scratching our head about some of the same data,” Chief Blue said. “If I could figure out exactly why those disparities are happening, I would take action immediately, but I'm not sure either.”

But all three police chiefs said they were committed to addressing the issue and improving the quality of policing in Orange County – in a variety of different ways. Many of those efforts are already ongoing: Sheriff Blackwood said his department is beginning to reward officers who speak a second language; Chief Blue said the Chapel Hill PD documents and reviews every single use of force by an officer; and Chief Horton spoke of community policing and similar efforts to improve communication between officers and citizens.

And all three emphasized the importance of CIT, or Crisis Intervention Training, as an effective tool for training officers to de-escalate tense situations.

In addition to programs already in effect, Chiefs Blue and Horton both said they were hoping to roll out a body camera program in the next fiscal year.

And all of those efforts have had some positive effects. For one, Chief Blue says there's been a steady decrease in the number of times his officers have had to use force.

“Those continue to trend down,” he said Saturday. “We investigate every single complaint we receive, and we require – even if we don't get a complaint – any time an officer uses force, we document every single (instance). And those numbers are trending down.”

But while that statistic is promising, the larger issue persists. Sheriff Blackwood said it's important for all of us to highlight our similarities rather than our differences: “I was always taught that when you take our skin off, we're the same color; there is no difference, we're human beings first.”

But moderator Robertson responded that there's still a gap between that ideal and everyday reality. “We may be all the same on the inside, but we're not all the same on the outside,” she said, “and I think the concern is that that's having an effect on how people are being treated.”

And Chief Blue added that that gap generates mistrust, where officers and citizens can begin to suspect each other even when no one is doing anything wrong.

The issues raised at Saturday's forum will likely take years to address, if not longer. Chief Blue said his department is doing a great deal to tackle the problem – but it's an ongoing project.

“This implicit bias stuff is tough,” he said. “Over two years ago we began a process of quarterly analysis of every single traffic stop by an officer, (requiring) supervisors to certify to me that they've had a conversation about their data…and that's enabled us to have some important conversations, and I believe it's laid the foundation for some of this implicit-bias training that we're going to do…

“However, it's very hard to know what's in someone's heart. We all bring bias into every encounter…so being able to talk about it together is, in my mind, the only way to bring it to a level of consciousness where you can feel bias creeping in and take some action in response.”

And insofar as we in Orange County are not immune from bias – and insofar as we are all human, as Sheriff Blackwood observed – our community is also not immune from the issues that sparked such a national outcry last year.

“This community really isn't that far from Ferguson,” said Robertson. “That is, I think, why people are here today.”

http://chapelboro.com/news/safety/work-naacp-hosts-police-chiefs-sheriff/

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OP-ED

Juvenile Justice — One Strike and You're Out!

by Riya Shah

No adult is the same person he was when he was a teenager. In my mid-30s, I am thankful I am not the impulsive maker of bad decisions I was at 15. We all deserve the opportunity to learn from our mistakes and grow up.

But for many children who become involved with the court system, the poor decisions they made as teenagers can follow them forever and become an obstacle to future opportunities and success.

One of the core principles of the juvenile justice system is rehabilitation; we want to get troubled youth back on track so they can become productive, responsible, taxpaying members of the community. Youth are provided treatment and supervision to ensure that when they exit the system they are prepared to be good citizens.

Unfortunately, juvenile records contain a lot of highly sensitive information, including information about the child's family, education, social history, behavioral problems and mental health issues. That's information necessary to ensure that the youth receive targeted treatment and rehabilitative services, but that could be very damaging if made available to the public.

How these records are handled both while the youth is involved with the court and after they've become adults can impair educational opportunities, careers and personal lives in ways that are counterproductive to the system's goals. Maintaining juvenile court records does very little to advance public safety while narrowing the path to success that the juvenile justice system was designed to provide.

A few examples:

•  In Florida, Dina's juvenile record prohibits her from chaperoning her child's field trips and becoming a licensed nurse, even though she is a married college graduate and mother of two — and has never had another brush with the law.

•  In Pennsylvania, Lisa's juvenile record caused her application to the Peace Corps to be delayed 16 months after she graduated from college.

•  In Washington, Starcia was denied housing because her juvenile record showed up on a landlord's background check.

•  Actor Mark Wahlberg's record of an offense committed when he was a juvenile limits his ability to volunteer to work with law enforcement to help troubled youth or obtain a concessionaire's license.

It is a myth that juvenile records are confidential and automatically destroyed when the teen becomes an adult. In actuality, juvenile records have the potential to impose barriers to success long after youth leave the court system and are well into their adulthood. But laws vary from state to state on how to protect children from the devastating effect of their records:

New York is one of 10 states that completely protect juvenile record information from access by anyone, including access by individuals connected with law enforcement and the court.

Arizona juvenile record information is publicly available and provides no confidentiality protections.

New Mexico laws provide for automatic, immediate sealing of juvenile records when a case is closed.

In Hawaii, only arrest records can be expunged if the child was not adjudicated delinquent. All other records remain permanently available.

These wide variations in states' sealing and expungement policies mean a youth's ability to overcome his past and pursue education or employment opportunities may depend on where he lives. But geography must not mute justice.

The Juvenile Law Center recently released the first-ever comprehensive evaluation of juvenile records laws in the United States, “Failed Policies; Forfeited Futures: A Nationwide Scorecard on Juvenile Records.” We looked at the laws and policies in every state and Washington, D.C., and measured them against our core principles for protecting juvenile records. Specifically, we looked at the laws related to the confidentiality of juvenile records while children are still involved in the court process, and how states handle those records once cases are closed. We also looked at the laws that permit kids to get their records sealed to the public or completely destroyed or expunged after their cases have ended.

As a whole, instead of getting children on the right path, our nation is setting children up to fail. According to our scorecard, not one state protects juvenile records well enough to earn five stars. Less than 16 percent of the states earned four stars; the majority of states earned three stars, and about 25 percent of states earned two stars.

Many states allow juvenile records to be completely open to the public, and some states even go so far as to sell this information to for-profit companies. Even in states where records are purportedly unavailable to the public, there are so many exceptions to the rules of confidentiality that sealing or expunging a record could be rendered meaningless.

Youth do not understand that they have the right to expunge or seal their records because laws do not require that they receive such notice. Even if they are made aware, in many states the process for actually filing a petition to get a record expunged is difficult to navigate without an attorney and can be very costly.

This scorecard demonstrates how important record protection is to protecting the future of our children. We know children make mistakes. State legislators need to act now so children and teens with juvenile records can get the second chance they deserve, move past their mistakes and live and work productively in their communities.

Riya Shah is a staff attorney at the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia and a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

http://jjie.org/op-ed-juvenile-justice-one-strike-and-youre-out/108125/

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Illinois

OP-ED

How Chicago Youth Diversion Fails Justice-Involved Girls

by Liz Alexander

The Chicago Department of Family and Supportive Services launched Restoring Individuals through Supportive Environments (RISE) at the beginning of this year as an alternative to detention for youths 15 to 17 who have committed misdemeanors. It primarily targets youth from the South and West sides of Chicago, areas that are predominantly African American and Latino.

RISE is a step in the right direction in providing alternatives for justice-involved youth, given the disproportionate rates of juvenile incarceration among black and brown youth compared to their white counterparts.

There is just one problem: Girls are excluded from participating in this program. In fact, no such program exists for justice-involved girls in the state of Illinois.

Through the Juvenile Intervention Support Center (JISC), RISE is a six-month intensive mentoring program that equips youth with leadership development skills guided by a curriculum comprised of civic engagement and restorative justice principles.

The projected goal of the RISE program is to reduce recidivism due to incidents of violence among program participants and to increase their connection to pro-social activities (academics, sports, arts, etc.) and institutions in their neighborhoods (school, community organizations, etc).

This is so even though girls are more likely to be incarcerated for running away, retail theft, disorderly conduct, being a minor requiring authoritative intervention, contempt of court and battery than boys. In fact, girls are statistically more likely to be in the system for misdemeanor and petty offenses than boys (except for misdemeanor status and noncompliance offenses), according to a 2009 study from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, “Examining at-risk and delinquent girls in Illinois.”

Overall, the study found girls were underrepresented at all stages of the Illinois juvenile justice system in both the local and federal levels.

Girls who were judged to be delinquent reported suffering inordinate amounts of emotional, physical and sexual trauma in early childhood and adolescence, according to a 2010 report published by Mariame Kaba for Project NIA and the Chicago Taskforce on Violence against Girls and Young Women. Justice-involved girls were also overrepresented in reporting family histories of physical and sexual violence and emotional neglect.

Both reports indicate a connection between trauma exposure and delinquent behavior for girls. Participation in RISE, which provides six months of intensive mentoring, would grant girls increased access to resources that could address their trauma and ultimately reduce their rates of recidivism, one of the program's primary goals.

To echo law professor Kimberly Crenshaw's critique of the federal initiative My Brother's Keeper, “gender exclusivity isn't new, but it hasn't been so starkly articulated as public policy in generations.” My Brother's Keeper supports boys of color but not girls.

Federal policies such as My Brother's Keeper perpetuate cultural myths such as the Strong Black Woman (or girl), which claims black women are immune to hardship and have a superhuman level of resiliency, and are thus not in need of specific supports.

Crenshaw, founder of the African American Policy Forum, says this is a common belief despite that fact that “black girls have the highest levels of school suspension of any girls and are faced with gender-specific risks such as domestic violence and sex trafficking.”

She also highlights that girls are “more likely to be involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, and more likely to die violently compared to their counterparts.”

If the goal of RISE is to reduce recidivism and increase connection to pro-social activities and institutions for justice-involved youth who have committed misdemeanor offences, girls should be among the targeted population.

This problem is about much more than gender exclusivity in juvenile justice diversion programs. It is about the overall societal devaluation of the lives of girls, which is reflected in this country's juvenile justice policies. And frankly, this is an act of violence.

If Chicago is committed to supporting justice-involved youth, it cannot afford to exclude girls. The incorporation of girls into RISE would not only communicate to the larger public that Chicago is committed to supporting all its justice-involved youth, but it would also send a clear message to girls: a message that says their lives are worth being restored and that they too are deserving to RISE.

Liz S. Alexander is a womanist social worker, writer and advocate for justice-involved youth. Follower her on twitter @radicalwholenes

http://jjie.org/op-ed-how-chicago-youth-diversion-fails-justice-involved-girls/108119/

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New York

Commissioner William Bratton to NYPD: Don't Turn Backs

Department Members Urged Not to Turn Their Backs on Mayor at Officer's Funeral

by Michael Howard Saul and Sonja Sharp

New York Police Department Commissioner William Bratton on Friday urged all members of the department not to turn their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio at this weekend's funeral for the second of two officers slain last month.

Last Saturday, a large number of officers gathered for Officer Rafael Ramos 's funeral turned around when Mr. de Blasio spoke, symbolizing the continuing tensions between the mayor and the police force he oversees. By sending out the department-wide memo on Friday, Mr. Bratton sought to avoid a repeat at Sunday's funeral for Officer Wenjian Liu, who was fatally shot, along with Officer Ramos, in their patrol car in Brooklyn on Dec. 20.

“I issue no mandates, and I make no threats of discipline, but I remind you that when you don the uniform of this department, you are bound by the tradition, honor and decency that go with it,” Mr. Bratton wrote.

Mr. Bratton, who has been serving as a peacemaker of sorts between the mayor and angry members of the NYPD, wrote that he understood “emotions are high.” But the focus of Sunday's funeral should be on remembering a “life tragically cut short” and on the officer's family, he wrote.

Mr. Bratton suggested the collective memory of Officer Ramos's funeral is now fixated on what he described as an “act of disrespect” shown by a portion of the officers gathered. While every officer at the funeral didn't do it, he said, “all the officers were painted by it.”

“It stole the valor, honor, and attention that rightfully belonged to the memory of Det. Rafael Ramos's life and sacrifice,” Mr. Bratton wrote, using the officer's posthumous rank. “That was not the intent, I know, but it was the result.”

Union officials and other civic leaders have accused Mr. de Blasio of fostering an antipolice climate. Some union officials had said Mr. de Blasio had blood on his hands. A police union official on Friday didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Friday, top religious leaders, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Rev. A.R. Bernard and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, visited the South Brooklyn home of Officer Liu. They declined to comment on their meeting with the officer's family.

Outside the home, bouquets of flowers have been piled waist high and a small blue tarp tent has been erected. There were stuffed animals, a wreath and a sign in both Chinese and English: “Gone but not forgotten.”

http://www.wsj.com/articles/commissioner-william-bratton-to-nypd-dont-turn-backs-1420249709

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North Carolina

NC department on alert after recent attacks against police

Officers in Durham are being told to remain vigilant and use their instincts after two shooting incidents involving officers in less than a week

by Lauren Horsch

DURHAM, N.C. — Police officers in Durham are being told to remain vigilant and use their instincts after two shooting incidents involving officers in less than a week.

Deputy Chief Larry Smith said the department is very concerned after two unidentified males fired shots at an officer on Christmas Day and another officer's apartment was shot at on Monday.

Smith said the recent attacks are not only on individuals but also the "system of law and order."

It is unclear whether or not the officers were specifically targeted, Smith said.

The first incident occurred on Christmas Day, when Officer J.T. West was approached by two men while sitting in his police cruiser.

West got out of his car to speak to the men, but before he could get a word out police allege one of the men started shooting. The suspect fired six shots.

West fired two shots back while taking cover.

"Whether they intended to attack (West) before he exited his vehicle, we'll never know unless we make an arrest and the assailant tells us that," Smith said. "What we do know ... there was a completely unprovoked attempt to kill him."

Smith said investigators have a few leads they're looking into in the first incident.

The second incident came on Monday, when an off-duty officer was at his apartment on Meriwether Drive when his sliding glass door was shattered by a gunshot.

Police are still unsure if the shot came from a pellet gun or a real gun.

The officer was not injured and Smith said he did not use a marked police cruiser as a "take home" vehicle.

Both of these incidents are putting officers on edge, especially after the killings of two New York City police officers earlier this month.

"There is clearly an anti-police sentiment on some level in our culture right now," Smith said.

Even though the sentiment exists, Smith said he wasn't placing blame.

"I'm just here to tell you that we're dealing with that and it concerns us," he said.

After officer-involved events, officers worry about the morale of the force, Smith said.

"I won't speak to how it's affecting the morale, but when I speak to the officers ... I know they're concerned about this," he said.

Currently no policy or procedure changes have been put in place to add extra protect to officers. Smith said the department is looking into options and deciding if changes need to happen.

The message being given to officers and commanders at this point in time is to stay extra vigilant while on and off duty.

"One thing about the training of a police officer is it heightens an officer's instincts about certain things," Smith said. "There is no training that prepares a police officer for somebody that's going to come up and execute them in a police car, or if they're standing in a street ...But there is officers' instincts, and we're asking officers more than ever to trust their instincts."

http://www.policeone.com/officer-shootings/articles/8068485-NC-department-on-alert-after-recent-attacks-against-police

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Ohio cop says he secretly recorded to protect himself

Officer secretly recorded himself for about 15 years after supervisor red-flagged him for repeatedly using force and getting high number of complaints

by The Associated Press

AKRON, Ohio — A police officer secretly recorded his actions and conversations for about 15 years because his supervisor red-flagged him for repeatedly using force and getting a high number of citizen complaints, according to public records obtained by an Ohio newspaper.

The Akron officer, Donald Schismenos, resigned in 2013, more than two years after thousands of hours of his video and audio were found on a police computer. He used a pen camera and a dashboard camera, and the recordings included his interactions with the public and his supervisors.

Schismenos told investigators he made the recordings to protect himself, worrying he might face internal investigations or retaliation from superiors for filing complaints about them, the Akron Beacon Journal reported Friday. The newspaper requested and obtained a variety of records related to the case, including recorded interviews of Schismenos by officers conducting an internal investigation.

"I was pretty concerned about being red-flagged, being concerned about, I don't even know if you want to call it paranoia, but about high law, superior officers going to investigate me," Schismenos said. "So at times, I did record."

The files were discovered because they took up more than one-quarter of the available storage on a police server, slowing the system.

Schismenos and his attorney haven't commented on the investigation.

The U.S. Justice Department reviewed his conduct for possible civil rights violations, and a spokesman says no action is being taken against him.

Last year, the city dismissed nearly 100 open or unresolved traffic and misdemeanor criminal cases filed by Schismenos, some as old as 1993. It also hired an outside law firm to review thousands of files Schismenos created and has spent more than $115,000 on that.

"The process is a lengthy one because the amount of data is so immense," Law Director Cheri Cunningham wrote to the newspaper.

The ex-officer's recordings including some where he swears or makes threats while complaining about his superiors in conversations with colleagues. He told investigators those comments, such as one in which he says he'll set fire to the department, were made in frustration and shouldn't be taken seriously.

"It was a joke, obviously," he later told investigators. "I'm not a felon. I'm not a criminal."

His recordings also included images of arrests that typically would be tagged as evidence and shown to defense attorneys. Last year, prosecutors undertook more work to identify and notify those defendants or their representatives.

http://www.policeone.com/dash-cam-2/articles/8068695-Ohio-cop-says-he-secretly-recorded-to-protect-himself

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New York

Many New Yorkers, Police Mourn Their Losses, Fear the Future

by Daryl Khan

It has been more than 20 years since the day Nicholas Heyward Jr. was shot by a police officer while he was playing cops and robbers as a 13-year-old with his friends in the stairwell of the Gowanus Houses in Brooklyn.

At the time, police officer Wenjian Liu was, like Nicholas Jr. just a child himself at 12, and police officer Rafael Ramos, just on the brink of adulthood, would not join the police department for another 18 years.

Saturday afternoon, the 20 years separating the dead boy and the two officers collapsed. Heyward Jr.'s father recounted the shooting of his son, who was holding a orange-striped pop gun with a cork, and the devastating aftermath. At the same time, police helicopters swooped overhead, flying northeast where officers Liu and Ramos lay dying.

Heyward stood in front of a packed crowd at the Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew in Brooklyn for a “Breaking Broken-Windows” town hall event for advocates to end police brutality. A massive black banner hanging in front of the altar read: “When We Breathe We Breathe Together.” That was an allusion to the final words of Eric Garner, who died after a widely publicized confrontation with police while he was being arrested for selling individual cigarettes.

Heyward began to choke up and cry as he remembered his son's death and Nicholas Jr.'s mother's frantic efforts to get to him in a housing project stairwell as he lay bleeding to death from a gunshot to his abdomen.

“This is very, very tough,” he said. “I've been in pain for the past 20 years.”

The police officer who shot him was not charged in the killing.

Just an hour before Heyward took the stage to recount his two-decade-old tragedy, a fresh one was unfolding less than two miles away in the heart of Bedford-Stuyvesant at the Tompkins Houses. Ismaaiyl Brinsley, a 28-year-old drifter with a laundry list of prior arrests and a history of mental illness, took a bus from Baltimore and came to Brooklyn to kill police officers. During his trip Brinsley posted a promise on Instagram that he was going to kill two New York Police Department officers in retaliation for the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in Staten Island.

He ambushed police officers Ramos, 40, and Liu, 32, while they sat in their patrol car Saturday afternoon. They never had the chance to defend themselves. Brinsley then fled onto the nearby G train and turned the gun on himself.

In the weeks leading up to the shooting of the two officers, New York has been in the grip of passionate protests calling for sweeping reforms to police policy. Many see the current policies as leading to the unnecessary deaths of black and Latino men and boys.

Those protests have been sparked most recently by the lack of an indictment in Garner's choking death. But the tensions and resentments have been building for years as police killings of unarmed New Yorkers continue. To drive home the point, organizers in the church handed out a sheet of pictures of unarmed people slain by the police. They were all black and Latino.

Almost 90 percent of the 186 people killed by the NYPD since the 1999 shooting death of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed livery cab driver slain while reaching for his wallet, have been black or Latino. In those killings, only one officer was convicted.

Police officers, especially those working the streets of poorer, minority neighborhoods, have said their working conditions have been abysmal. Before the shooting, one officer from the 73rd Precinct said he had never seen the relationship between the NYPD and neighborhoods with majority black or Latino communities this strained.

“It's terrible out there,” he said. “It's a nightmare. They hate us right now.”

The protests and the political response to them has led to a rift between City Hall and the NYPD.

Now, after the shooting, the tensions have only mounted. Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch has said Mayor Bill de Blasio has as much blood on his hands as the shooter. When de Blasio left a press conference related to the killing of Liu and Ramos, police turned their backs on him as he walked past.

Protesters feel they voted in a progressive in de Blasio and for their efforts were given Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, widely credited for developing the Broken Windows method of policing that they are now fighting to dismantle.

Across the street from housing projects, the NYPD came to pay respect to its own. Everyone from fellow officers to department brass, including Bratton, came to recognize the fallen officers.

Victoria Phillips helped organize the Broken Windows town hall. She said she has had to teach her 11-year-old son, who got snacks for guests and ran errands during the meeting, not to run from police. He once told her he can run fast. She told him if he did that he could get shot in the back.

She pointed to him to explain why she has dedicated her life to ending police brutality.

“I think there's a civil war going on right now,” she said.

A few weeks ago, while Phillips was driving home from a protest, she was tailed by police investigators, she said. She posted a video describing it in real time. She records everything now, she said, because she doesn't know what could happen to her.

“The people who do the things that I do are either dead or in prison or on the run,” she said.

She has seen police cars parked in front of her building. She has warned her son not to open the door if someone knocks. She recently let him walk to school with his younger cousins for the first time and he was stopped by police officers.

“They asked him what his gang affiliation is,” Phillips said.

She has stopped letting him walk to school by himself.

Phillips sees herself and her fellow advocates for police abuse reform as the modern incarnation of the civil rights movement. She knows that to many New Yorkers consumed by the monotonous, daily demands of work and family she and her fellow protesters may seem like a nuisance.

“I would ask them one question though before they say, ‘Oh, look at these fools lying down in the street,'” Phillips said. “I want you to think about what must we have gone through that we would risk getting run over by a car to have you hear me. I need you to hear me.”

Dennis Flores, who runs a cop watch program, premiered a short video at the town hall meeting. It showed Ray Tillery, a young black man, getting swarmed by several cops for tossing a cigarette onto a Brooklyn street. Flores said he is concerned that the brutal killing of Liu and Ramos is going to give the NYPD a pretext to crush the police reform movement.

“This is a historical moment,” he said. “We've never seen this kind of movement organize around police violence around the city, and around the country, like this before. What I fear is that the language coming from the police department and the politicians. They're waging war on activism. After this shooting, it's a wartime police department. It sets a violent tone and now they're going to be going after people in a very aggressive way — and that's scary.”

Josmar Trujillo, another protester and police violence activist, also worries about a law enforcement witch hunt in the wake of the shooting. He described it as a post-modern McCarthyism built on NYPD's conflation of legal protests and assembly with the slaying of the officers by a killer with no connection to any protest movement.

“We're all going to be looked at as insurgent now,” he said. “We deplore violence. we've lost people to violence. Now I'm personally scared.”

Trujillo added that the atmosphere of fear created by this assassination is going to lead to even more pressure on the communities he is fighting to help.

“Can you imagine what it's going to be like to be a young black man in Brooklyn right now?” he said. “He's going to be scrutinized even more so than he was before.”

Residents of the Tompkins Houses are worried that their community will now be targeted even though the shooter came from out of state and picked the location for his murderous rampage at random. One mother, who identified herself by her nickname China, was walking with her son in the Tompkins Houses courtyards after a trip to the store. She said Saturday was the first time she ever let her special needs 14-year-old son Bubba leave the house by himself. He had gone to take out the garbage when the gunshots rang out.

“He doesn't know that life,” she said. “He doesn't understand that kind of violence. He calls the boys out here who get into trouble the strays. Now, between the police and the strays what is he supposed to do?”

She said her heart goes out to the police officers' families, but added that she is frustrated that her home will now live in infamy as the place where this assassination happened.

“Unfortunately, I have to show him what's going on,” she said. “He has to know what the reality is. He's not able to be himself. He can't be innocent anymore.”

She said she and her husband are going to leave the Tompkins Houses as soon as they can.

Even as they mourned, the police were dealing with more threats. In Brownsville — a poor, mostly black, high-crime neighborhood in Brooklyn — a teenager turned himself in to police Sunday night after posting threats about police on Facebook. He had been questioned by police on Friday after officers responded to an unrelated call between the suspect and his brother where they mentioned guns. During the search of the house, he got into an argument with one of the officers about how the police had “murdered” Eric Garner.

As darkness fell Sunday evening, well-wishers held a candlelight vigil to commemorate the lives of officers Ramos and Liu. Hundreds of residents from the neighborhood and around the city gathered around the burgeoning, sprawling mound of tributes. A panel of wood painted blue leaned against the wall just a few feet from where the officers were gunned down. It had the words “Gone But Not Forgotten” on it next to a splotch of red in the shape of a bullet wound that ran down the middle. Someone taped an American flag to a steel door.

For a city that had been in the throes of tumultuous protests and intense demonstrations — many of them invoking the neighborhood where the vigil was being held — for some it was a refreshing mix of police officers and black and Latino residents meeting in public for a common purpose. Some of the mourners sang “We Shall Overcome,” a song recently sung in protests against the police and now sung to honor them — a plea to end violence against the police.

A clutch of politicians stood in front of the massive memorial made up of bouquets and votive candles and stuffed animals. They repeated different versions of the same message — regardless of race or neighborhood this was a tragedy for all New Yorkers.

As they took turns reassuring the crowd that violence against the police was not going to be tolerated, a long line of police officers stretched from the sidewalk toward the intersection. Each had something for the memorial: a bouquet of bodega flowers wrapped in cellophane, a candle in a glass holder, flickering in a bitter wind.

As they waited their turn to kneel down and pay their respects to their fallen brothers, one of their radios chirped and crackled to life. The voice had an important message. It was for all “members of service,” known in cop lingo as MOS, working in any publicly marked police vehicle — a patrol car, a van, a scooter.

“Remain armed,” the voice crackled. “Remain armed at all times.”

After his speech, Heyward slipped into the church lobby, where he was told about the killing of officers Liu and Ramos. When he learned they had been shot by someone looking for vengeance, he became visibly shaken. He touched his face in shock and wobbled before collecting himself.

He has spent the years since his son was killed working to reform police overreach and abuse, he said.

“I've been out here pleading for two decades,” Heyward said. “But my pleas have fallen on deaf ears.”

The year before his son was killed, an officer had grabbed Nicholas Jr. as part of a sweep of arrests in the houses. They took him to the local precinct. Heyward said when he picked up his son, who wasn't charged, he was petrified. He coaxed an explanation out of his son.

“He told me that the officer told him if he didn't talk he was going to pull a gun up his butt and pull the trigger,” he said.

Heyward filed a complaint with the Civilian Complaint Review Board. In 1999, five years after his son's death, he received a form letter from the board. It notified him that the police department had acted lawfully.

He stood wordlessly for a moment in the dull light of the lobby, gathering his thoughts.

“This is not going to bring any change,” he said of the killing of officers Ramos and Liu. “It's a tragedy. It's sad that he took the lives of two innocent officers, two officers who probably never even hurt anybody. But some people are so stressed out, they feel so desperate. There's no help at the end of the tunnel.”

As for the officers' parents, he offered them his condolences. He said he understands what they are going through.

http://jjie.org/many-new-yorkers-police-mourn-their-losses-fear-the-future/108140/

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California

Program Allowing Undocumented Immigrants to Obtain Driving Licenses Begins

The state Department of Motor Vehicles expects 1.4 million people to seek a license in the first three years of the AB60 program.

by Michael Larkin

Immigrants living in California illegally can start applying for driver's licenses from Friday.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles expects 1.4 million people to seek a license in the first three years of the AB 60 program.

It is claimed the move will boost road safety, while also making life easier for undocumented immigrants.

Officials said they cannot predict how many people will line up immediately to apply, but the number of people making appointments for a license more than doubled when immigrants were allowed to sign up.

Appointments are required to apply for a license except at four newly-created DMV offices.

California is one of 10 states that now provide licenses to immigrants in the country illegally. The licenses issued to immigrants without legal status will include a distinctive marking and are not considered a valid form of federal identification.

Immigrants in the country illegally have not been allowed to apply for a driver's license in California since the state began requiring proof of legal presence during the 1990s.

Immigrant advocates have cheered the licenses as a way to integrate immigrants who must drive to work and shuttle children to school. But critics have questioned state officials' ability to verify the identity of foreign applicants, citing security concerns.

Law enforcement officials say the program will improve road safety because licensed drivers must be tested and insured. A DMV study of 23 years of crash data found that unlicensed drivers were more likely to cause a fatal collision than licensed drivers.

State insurance officials hope the change will increase the number of drivers holding auto insurance.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Program-Allowing-Undocumented-Immigrants-to-Obtain-Driving-Licenses-Begins--287325991.html

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West Virginia

Two West Virginia cops shot in roadside gun fight that turns up 2 dead bodies: police

The officers are expected to survive after the 4 p.m. New Year's Day shootout outside Lewisburg, W. Va., that ended with the arrest of a father and son duo from Texas suspected in a multistate crime spree. The bodies of a North Carolina couple were found in the bed of a stolen truck, police said.

by Sasha Goldstein

Two West Virginia police officers were shot during a New Year's Day traffic stop gun fight that turned up the dead bodies of a North Carolina couple hidden under a mattress in a truck bed.

The two officers are expected to survive their injuries from the afternoon shootout outside Lewisburg, W. Va., where officers pulled over a white Chevrolet SUV around 4 p.m. after the North Carolina plates turned up stolen, police said.

At the same time, a red truck pulled over nearby and opened fire on the cops, striking them both as they returned fire, hitting the gunman.

The gunman took off, where he was later apprehended in a patch of woods, while the driver of the SUV took off a hid further up the road a few miles before turning himself in about 90 minutes after the shootout.

Cops later revealed the still unidentified men are father and son from Texas who apparently went on a multistate crime scene that ended in the West Virginia shootout, WVNS-TV reported.

A search of the truck turned up the dead bodies of Jerome Faulkner, 73, and his 62-year-old wife, Dora. Police believe the suspects burst into the couple's Oak Hill, N.C., home around 7 a.m. Thursday, killed the couple, set the house afire and stole the victim's truck before driving off to West Virginia, authorities told WRAL-TV.

"When we first got the call, we thought it was just a structure fire," Granville County, N.C., Sheriff Brindell Wilkins Jr. told the station. “As things progressed, we found some things here that didn't look right.”

The wounded suspect was shot in the leg and is expected to recover, while the two cops are in “good but stable condition,” a hospital spokesman told West Virginia MetroNews.

“We're fortunate as we start 2015 that we didn't have two officers that were killed here,” West Virginia State Police spokesman Lt. Michael Baylous told the outlet. “Our hopes and prayers for them is a speedy recovery.”

The suspects are in custody and expected to be charged with malicious assault and attempted murder of a police officer.

Authorities in North Carolina say the murdered couple were likely the victims of a random robbery. They were well-known in the community, where Jerome Faulkner had served as a fire chief.

"Everyone in the community thought a lot of (the Faulkners)," Sheriff Wilkins told WRAL. "The community at this point is in shock. This kind of thing does not happen here."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/w-va-cops-shot-stop-turns-2-bodies-police-article-1.2063578

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South Carolina

Upstate group calls for community policing

by Liz Lohuis

GREENVILLE, S.C. —An Upstate racial relations group is demanding more community policing and better training.

Beyond Differences held a forum Wednesday night in Greenville to address public safety concerns.

More than 50 people packed the meeting, including the police chief.

It comes one week after the controversial arrest of an autistic man.

Tario Anderson, 34, was arrested just before midnight on Christmas Eve, as police were investigating possible shots being fired near Sullivan and Burns streets.

Officers said they saw Tario walking on the sidewalk and wanted him to question him about the possible gunshot.

Officers said when they put a spotlight on Tario, he put his hands in his pockets, started walking the other way, and eventually started running from them.

They said Tario was shocked with a Taser and arrested because he didn't follow commands and tried to run from them.

“It doesn't have anything to do with black law enforcement white law enforcement, but you put your foot on this (Tario) child,” said Paul Guy, executive director of Beyond Differences.

Guy said Greenville will be a divided community if some changes in law enforcement aren't made.

“It's Greenville city policy that says we can tase you multiple times when you're handcuffed,” said Guy.

Guy said he doesn't want to pit the black community against Greenville law enforcement, but he wants to see changes in local policing.

“We are going to change those policies because we have good law enforcement, we have bad law enforcement and everyone ain't bad, but we have to move toward community policing,” said Guy.

Some said a community policing approach many have prevented this situation.

“If so, you would have seen brother Tario at some point in that community and would have known that he was mentally challenged, that he was autistic,” said a community member.

Police Chief Ken Miller was at the forum, but didn't address the crowd.

“I view it as an opportunity to hear, but I think we have to work on the dialogue piece still,” said Miller.

He said the next step is sit down and talk through some of the concerns heard Wednesday night.

"A way to resolve conflict is not about taking up arms on either side, it's by working through the core of the issues and the core issues within a relationship,” said Miller.

http://www.wyff4.com/news/upstate-group-calls-for-community-policing/30482650

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Community Policing: Challenges, solutions for a new era

by KRNV

WASHINGTON (MyNews4.com & KRNV) -- At the beginning of 2014, community policing was likely not on President Obama's agenda; but with the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner at the hands of police, the conversation about police overreach became front and center.

According to the White House, the goals of the task force on 21st century policing are to strengthen community policing and strengthen trust among law enforcement and the communities they serve.

Philadelphia police chief Charles Ramsey is heading up the effort.

“It gives us an opportunity now to repair the damage and really move forward,” says Ramsey.

So far, there have been few criticisms of the president's plan; only the question of what another task force really achieve.

Laurie Robinson is the co-chair of the task force.

"These problems didn't occur overnight and they won't be solved overnight but we have to work on changing the culture in many police departments,” says Robinson.

Robinson says changing the culture could mean increasing the use of less than lethal weapons, as well as body cameras and new training.

It could eventually mean an overhaul of the entire system -- more than 17,000 different departments in the United States.

"We don't have a centralized police system in this country as you would find in Germany or France or England; and that's the kind of system that we want," Robinson adds.

The challenge, she says, will be finding a balance that keeps both community members and police officers as safe as possible.

http://www.mynews4.com/news/story/Community-Policing-Challenges-solutions-for-a-new/c2ifq70p0k-u5_MnFT1nyQ.cspx

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From the Department of Justice

Statement from Attorney General Holder on Yearly Law Enforcement Officer Fatality Statistics

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund today released preliminary fatality statistics for 2014. The data in the report shows that 126 federal, state, local, tribal and territorial officers were killed in the line of duty this year. The report further showed that in 2014, 50 officers were killed by firearms, 49 officers were killed in traffic-related incidents, and 27 officers died due to other causes including 24 who suffered from job-related illnesses—such as heart attacks—while performing their duties.

Attorney General Eric Holder made the following statement today:

"These troubling statistics underscore the very real dangers that America's brave law enforcement officers face every time they put on their uniforms. Each loss is both tragic and unacceptable -- a beloved father, mother, son, or daughter who never came home to their loved ones.

"That's why, over the last six years, my colleagues and I have taken action to support these courageous men and women. As we speak, the Justice Department continues its efforts to empower local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement personnel to do their jobs as safely and effectively as possible. In 2011, I created an Officer Safety Working Group in response to concerns about violence directed at law enforcement. The department is currently funding thorough analysis of 2014 officer fatalities, including ambushes of law enforcement and other incidents, so we can mitigate risks in the future. And through groundbreaking initiatives like VALOR, we are providing cutting-edge training to help prevent violence against law enforcement, to improve officer resilience, and to increase survivability during violent encounters.

"Through our Bulletproof Vest Partnership Program, we're helping to provide lifesaving equipment to those who serve on the front lines. And through the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program, we're offering our strongest support to our brave officers and their loved ones in the toughest of times.

"Going forward, this unshakeable commitment to those who serve will continue to guide our efforts to improve 21st-century policing and build trust between law enforcement and the communities they protect.

"I have always been proud to support these selfless public servants. All Americans owe our courageous law enforcement personnel a tremendous debt of gratitude for their patriotic service, for their often-unheralded sacrifices, and for the dangers they routinely face in the name of public safety."

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/statement-attorney-general-holder-yearly-law-enforcement-officer-fatality-statistics

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Washington

Community Policing: Healing the heart of a nation

by KRNV News

WASHINGTON (MyNews4.com & KRNV) -- Charles Ramsey never intended to become a police officer, let alone President Barack Obama's point man to lead a national task force on policing in the 21st century.

"I became a police officer accidentally," says Ramsey, chair of the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

What is no accident is the position Ramsey now finds himself in.

The top cop on a presidential commission charged with rebuilding a broken trust -- in a deeply divided nation that sees police officers as either a friend or a foe.

"For the President to select me to undertake this particular task, at a time in our history where it is very important -- I mean, the eyes of the entire nation [are] really on this particular issue."

Ramsey's career in law enforcement started in Chicago in 1968; for him, wearing a blue uniform was simply a way at first to pay for college.

"The big deal when I first started was really trying to get black and white officers to work together -- that was the big push: to have integrated police cars -- they called them 'salt and pepper' cars," he says.

By 1998, he was shaking hands with presidents while serving as police chief in the District of Columbia; he's now commissioner of the Phildelphia Police Department.

"Everyone is not upset with police, even people of color in neighborhoods that are very challenged. That doesn't mean we don't have a lot of improvement to do as a profession, because believe me we do."

In the majority of deadly police shootings Ramsey has reviewed, he believes officers more often than not resorted to what he calls poor tactics.

"They may have been justified; but had they taken a different approach, used different tactics they might have been able to have a different outcome."

Ramsey's original goal was to study medicine -- now he's tasked with healing the heart of the nation.

Wednesday, we will take a closer look at the task force and what Ramsey and the President hope to accomplish.

http://www.mynews4.com/news/story/Community-Policing-Healing-the-heart-of-a-nation/Xs4NDEjmOU2lYByLTWpUhA.cspx

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Op-Ed

Liberals, Trojan Horses and the Myth of Police-Community Relations

by Josmar Trujillo

Often, the loudest voices pushing the idea that we should build (rebuild and rebuild) trust between communities and police belong to seemingly sympathetic liberals. Conversations that focus on this ever-elusive "trust," however, sidestep calls from the grassroots that say we need a fundamentally different relationship with police - not simply a less suspicious one. The recent shooting deaths of two NYPD officers have now thrown that conversation into disarray, but there was never reason to believe people could or should kiss and makeup with cops.

In New York this year, a seemingly nonstop parade of police brutality videos followed by massive protests in December after the choking death of Eric Garner and the non-indictment of his killer have raised penetrating questions over a historically fraught relationship with cops. Protesters in the streets - continuing to connect the dots from Ferguson to New York that Mayor Bill de Blasio didn't want them to connect - aren't just defiant, they're fed up.

And rightly so. There have been plenty of dots just this year in addition to the killings of Garner and, more recently, Akai Gurley: in 2014, cops roughed up a Latino student in Queens, telling him to get a "taco"; bloodied an 84-year old Asian man, trying to cite him for jaywalking; wrestled a Black man for having his leg on subway seat; threw a 14-year old Black teen through a window; broke the face of a young Black man for fare-beating; assaulted a Black man in the teeth with the tip of a gun; kicked a Mexican street vendor in the back; and even threw a pregnant Colombian woman to the ground.

But the early rhetoric this year from de Blasio focused on improved police-community relations. Recently, the mayor doubled down, claiming, in fact, that relations had improved. Those words rang hollow when a video of Daniel Pantaleo choking Garner over some cigarettes emerged. Almost 1,000 miles away, protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the police shooting death of Michael Brown had demonstrators face to face with cops outfitted like occupying soldiers. Streets there were becoming ground zero for a reawakened national policing movement that would soon light a fire in New York.

Amid the marches, a crucial factor linking the cases of Brown and Garner, while also undercutting the nagging narrative of "trust," pointed at something familiar to New Yorkers: the Broken Windows theory of policing. Arguably the dominant policing philosophy in America, the theory was ushered into New York City by Bill Bratton in the '90s and subsequently exported to other cities over the years.

Broken Windows policing obsessively focuses on low-level crime and "disorder" as a means to prevent larger crime. We can, in fact, draw a direct line between Broken Windows and the interaction that brought Pantaleo and Garner together in July. After the Garner death, Bratton, back in New York under de Blasio, defended his signature policing theory and insisted that the NYPD was "not a racist organization."

"Are there more minorities impacted by enforcement? Yes. I'm not denying that… But it's not an intentional focus on minorities. It's a focus on behavior."

In Ferguson, Mike Brown was walking off the curb with his friend before his interaction-turned-altercation with Darren Wilson ended in gunshots. Ferguson, like other towns in the St. Louis area, closely follows the tenets of Broken Windows. One town over, in Jennings, Missouri, the police department's "zero-tolerance" policing parallels Bratton's - funneling cops into Black neighborhoods while strictly enforcing small violations and crimes.

"If there's a violation, whether it's something as simple as . . . an outstanding warrant or a traffic violation, there's a zero-tolerance policy . . . And the good citizens of the precinct that we patrol appreciate that, because it has had a very positive impact on crime stats," said one St. Louis cop. "We put police where crime is, and we saturate areas where we're trying to displace crime . . . And through no fault of their own, a lot of young black men are right in the middle of that," said another.

Wrapped in a veneer of purportedly colorblind crime-fighting objectivity, Broken Windows policing today indulges in a multitude of tactics to create mass interactions with people, mostly in communities of color. Yet instead of having a conversation about how we've perhaps managed to codify racism through law enforcement, aka the Black Codes, we're given a thick layer of public relations in the name of community policing.

This past September marked 20 years since the passing of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Passage of the largest crime bill in history coincided with the first year Bratton began to steer the NYPD toward aggressive, "pro-active" policing. The bill, signed by Bill Clinton and written by Joe Biden, both Democrats, provided funding for more than 100,000 new cops across the nation and enjoyed broad bipartisan support from a congress looking to be tough on crime. The complex bill also established the Department of Justice's office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). Serving primarily as a conduit for federal money working its way down into local police coffers, COPS perhaps began in earnest a national framework for community policing, which it defines as a "philosophy that promotes organizational strategies, which support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques, to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to . . . crime, social disorder, and fear of crime."

If that's not clear, you're not alone. Few understand what "community policing" is. On paper, it advocates cops working with community groups and institutions to "proactively" police communities. This can mean a community affairs officer at local events, maybe even organizing youth programs. More often than not "community policing" is public relations mixed in with attempts by cops to build a rapport with community members who might come in handy down the road.

More importantly, "community policing," at its core, serves as a Trojan horse for more policing and more funding of it. At the end of September, outgoing US Attorney General Eric Holder announced a new $124 Million grant from COPS to police departments across the country. He emphasized "community policing." Earlier this month, President Barack Obama, sitting down with officials including one Mayor de Blasio, called for more "trust" and announced a $263 million initiative - paying for body cams and training - to go along with a new task force that would work with COPS to bolster the concept of "community policing."

Community policing today is little more than a talking point, an echo. Bratton, who originally scoffed at the idea of cops as "social workers," now embraces what he calls "collaborative" policing. And while local police unions laugh at it, community policing's most strident advocates are liberals who fundamentally believe in the role of the police as it stands.

The liberal mind that says government, even that which dons a gun and badge, should be the guarantor of "civility" and "order" are natural proactive policing champions. De Blasio certainly falls into that category, with his embrace of Broken Windows, though he's not alone. A long list of local Democrats from former mayor David Dinkins, often associated with community policing, to failed mayoral candidate Mark Green, who openly courted Bratton and his zero-tolerance approach, fit the bill. And don't forget Clinton and Biden's omnibus bill, which was all about adding more cops to the beat.

Eyebrows would be raised if more people knew that George Kelling, coauthor of the article that birthed Broken Windows theory, was influenced by liberal icon Jane Jacobs and her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Or that the great liberal piggy bank, the Ford Foundation, created the Police Foundation, which funded the Kelling's research on Broken Windows.

Burdened with the responsibility of policing us for our own good, liberalism loves a good cop - and would just like us to be more trusting of them.

Thankfully, the tired trope of "trust" may be on its last legs. While "community policing" sound bytes might buy politicians time, they've done little to affect people's distrust of the police. And that's a good thing. Distrust of cops is not only justified; it's healthy. The video of Garner's last moments might not have been taken if the community trusted those Staten Island cops. And then there's the long view of police that goes back generations. Those old enough to have felt the teeth of police dogs as well as the young people marching today don't need much to be reminded of that crucial ingredient in American policing's historical relationship with communities of color, Blacks in particular: violence.

This isn't necessarily news, but it does shatter the myths around police-community relations. Forced to make a sobering assessment of what our relationship with cops actually is and not simply striving to make nice, we must move beyond the public relations attempts of Obama and, locally, de Blasio.

De Blasio, quick to reference his bi-racial son, still speaks of bringing us closer to cops instead of setting boundaries. And while boundaries must be strengthened and clear lines drawn, the size and power of the police must also be dramatically rolled back or else nothing will have changed. The concept of "community policing" works in the exact opposite direction - seeking to blur those lines and expand the size and scope of the police.

Reformers should also note that the primary alternative to expanded policing is stronger communities - not by melding the two together, but by replacing the former with the latter. A radical new shift toward social investment that addresses the root causes of crime, such as poverty, doesn't require cops, but does require resources. The 2015 budget for the NYPD will be over $4.7 billion, not including the private fundraising capabilities of the Police Foundation (that little known police cash cow funded primarily by wealthy donors). This belongs in the hands of the community. Police-community relations don't simply boil down to whether a cop tips his or her hat or hosts basketball tournaments; they're more directly tied to the role of police in our city as indicated by their share of our resources.

Some people, though, won't change course or take their feet off the gas. Doubling down on the zero-tolerance views that shape zero-tolerance policies, champions of aggressive policing know they reinforce antagonism toward police, but they've learned how to adapt.

At the beginning of the year, Bratton announced he'd be tweaking a key Ray Kelly era program, Operation Impact, which floods high-crime neighborhoods with cops, but which people criticized as excessive. Bratton, harping on the idea of collaboration, announced that street cops would be paired with merchants and clergy members (often the most hawkish neighborhood voices on crime) to help identify potential criminals. Here was "community policing" not as a talking point, but as a reality on the ground. In it, one couldn't help but sense a faint reminder of hearts-and-minds strategies devised by military occupiers.

Ultimately though, tweaks and reforms won't satisfy the thousands of people who continue to march, disrupt the city and risk arrest. The core values of demonstrators are not only incompatible with men like Bratton, they are in conflict with them. People in the street see the criminal justice system as a problem, not a solution. Policy-makers and authorities couldn't disagree more. Take the interesting parallels between comments Missouri Lt. Governor Peter Kinder made recently about Ferguson unrest to remarks made by both Bratton and Broken Windows cofounder Kelling earlier this year:

Kinder: "We do not do justice in America in the streets, though. We have legal processes that are set in motion, that are designed after centuries of Anglo-American jurisprudence tradition. They're designed to protect the rights and liberties of everyone involved."

Bratton, arguing after the Garner death that New Yorkers want more policing, similarly insisted "You must submit to arrest . . . The place to argue your case is in court, not in the streets." Kelling, explaining to an audience at the Manhattan Institute how 19th century British policing set the stage for modern-day policing, introduced Bratton as "one of the three most important police leaders in the history of policing in the Anglo-Saxon world."

All three of these men share not only a staunch belief in our criminal justice system and an affinity for the Anglo-Saxon tradition, but they also wield the power to impose their ideas on our communities. Until their ideas are unearthed and examined, both in New York and across the country, there will be little, if any, of the change that so many people are marching for.

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/28267-liberals-trojan-horses-and-the-myth-of-police-community-relations

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Police fatalities up 24 percent in 2014: report

by David Sherfinski

Law enforcement fatalities in the United States rose 24 percent in 2014 to 126 and ambush-style attacks were the No. 1 cause of felonious officer deaths for the fifth straight year, according to preliminary data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

The NLEOMF report said 126 federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial officers were killed in the line of duty this year, compared to 102 in 2013. The number of officers killed by firearms in 2014 — 50 — is up 56 percent from the 32 killed last year.

Fifteen officers nationwide were killed in ambush assaults in 2014, and the recent shooting deaths of New York City Police Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos have attracted national attention and contributed to tension between police and the city's elected leaders.

The total of 15 ambush assaults matched 2012 for the highest total since 1995.

"With the increasing number of ambush-style attacks against our officers, I am deeply concerned that a growing anti-government sentiment in America is influencing weak-minded individuals to launch violent assaults against the men and women working to enforce our laws and keep our nation safe," NLEOMF Chairman and CEO Craig W. Floyd said.

The deaths of unarmed black men in altercations with white police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York, this year have sparked protests across the country. Ismaaiyl Brinsley referenced those two killings on social media before shooting a girlfriend near Baltimore and traveling to New York to kill the officers on Dec. 20 before taking his own life.

In 2011, officer fatalities were at 171, prompting a number of initiatives aimed at promoting safety. Line-of-duty deaths then declined to 123 in 2013 and 102 in 2013 — the lowest fatality figure since 1944.

Over the past decade, the average annual number of officer deaths has been 151, the NLEOMF report said.

Last year, 49 officers were killed in traffic-related incidents — a 13 percent increase from 2013 — and 27 died due to other causes, including 24 who suffered from job-related illnesses like heart attacks while performing their duties, the report said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/30/police-fatalities-24-percent-2014-report/

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Michigan

Poll: Community Policing?

by Kristine Frazao

Over the last few months there's been extensive coverage of police believed to be overly violent by the public.

But there is another aspect of the job, rarely discussed.

It's called Community Policing.

"I think you still have to do things the old fashioned way," said Captain Paul Starks.

Maryland Police Officer Captain Paul Starks says that means attending community meetings, talking to residents while out other calls, and showing that they are in fact the good guys.

"We need their help just like they need our help," said Captain Starks.

Police say it's a common misconception - So often it's believed they sit around their office waiting for calls to come in.

But so many officers do like to get out into the community, building relationships with residents.

"If we're a person and not just a uniform in a marked police car that's cruising through a neighborhood, then they know, 'hey, I can trust her or him,'" said Captain Starks.

When two officers were shot and killed in New York earlier this month, it was a reminder once again of the dangers of the job.

2014 has been particularly deadly for officers in this country with 126 killed - a 23 percent increase from last year.

Officers like Rick Gooddale, who works as a School Resource Officer, says community policing is extremely effective.

But he also acknowledges police can do a better job too, especially when they stop someone who turns out not to be a suspect.

"Once we realize somebody is not part of a crime that were looking for a lot of times we'll just send them on their way without taking a few seconds to say, 'hey this is why I stopped you, this is what's going on, thank you for being cooperative,'" said Gooddale.

A few extra minutes, and a little extra effort, he says can go a long way.

http://www.uppermichiganssource.com/news/story.aspx?id=1142286#.VKKi6CcGA

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Georgia

Community policing efforts on Japonica Ave.

by Rheya Spigner

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW) - Residents living on Japonica Avenue have made 44 calls to the Richmond County Sheriff's office in the past six months. One neighbor says he's not surprised by the amount of crime, but that something should be done about it.

Johnny Hatney has lived in this neighborhood for 50 years and says crime is definitely a problem but that's not the only one.

"I won't say that our community isn't worse than any other, in fact, I know it's not, but at the same time one unnecessary death is too many," said Hatney.

He's talking about the shooting that happened Friday night involving 19-year-old Troy Francis, he says it's one of the scenes far too common in this area.

"The police should be as visible... at least as visible as the postman... everyone knows their postman," said Hatney

Sergeant Shane Mcdaniel with the Richmond County Sheriff's Office says law enforcement try their best to get involved with the community and to be seen.

"We educate the public, we want to let them know we're in the area, we are in the subdivisions we are in the community," said Mcdaniel.

Mcdaniel adds anywhere between ten to 15 lieutenants can be out in certain zones, including the neighborhood around River Glen Apartments. A traffic division was created to free up more deputies and put them on the street.

"We've got so many deputies out in the street our response time has actually cut down from three to four minutes to about 30 seconds to a minute... in a situation like this past weekend, that can actually be life saving," said Mcdaniel.

Mcdaniel adds it's about communication, Hatney says it's about presence and that somewhere in the middle the two should meet.

http://www.wrdw.com/home/headlines/Community-policing-efforts-on-Japonica-Ave-287057651.html

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From the FBI

Most Wanted Talent -- FBI Seeking Tech Experts to Become Cyber Special Agents

Since its earliest days, the FBI has looked for recruits with specialized skills to fill its special agent ranks: lawyers, accountants, scientists, and engineers, to name a few. Today, however, the most sought-after candidates possess a uniquely 21st century quality: cyber expertise.

Investigating cyber crimes—such as website hacks, intrusions, data theft, botnets, and denial of service attacks—is a top priority for the FBI. To keep pace with the evolving threat, the Bureau is appealing to experienced and certified cyber experts to consider joining the FBI to apply their well-honed tradecraft as cyber special agents.

“The FBI seeks highly talented, technically trained individuals who are motivated by the FBI's mission to protect our nation and the American people from the rapidly evolving cyber threat,” said Robert Anderson, Jr., executive assistant director for the Bureau's Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. “What we want are people who are going to come and be part of a team that is working different very complex types of investigations and to utilize their skillsets in that team environment.”

The Bureau recently launched a campaign to bring aboard more technical talent, including computer scientists, IT specialists, and engineers. In a job posting —open until January 20—the FBI says no other organization will apply the expertise of successful candidates like the FBI.

“One thing that no one else can offer is the mission and the camaraderie and the teamwork the FBI brings to the table,” Anderson said. “Cyber agents will be integrated into all the different violations that we work. So whether it's a counterterrorism or counterintelligence investigation, they could be the lead agent in the case.”

Key requirements to be a special agent include passing a rigorous background check and fitness test. Agents must be at least 23 and no older than 37. Prospective cyber special agents are expected to meet the same threshold as special agents, but also have a wealth of experience in computers and technology. Preferred backgrounds include computer programming and security, database administration, malware analysis, digital forensics, and even ethical hacking. An extensive list of sought-after backgrounds and certifications can be seen on the job posting.

“Cyber permeates every aspect of what we do, whether it's counterterrorism, criminal investigations, or traditional cyber attacks, as we've seen in the recent past,” Anderson said. “That's why these type of people are so important to get into the pipeline and come into our organization.”

Bank robberies help illustrate how the landscape has shifted. Traditionally, a team of agents responding to an armed bank robbery would cordon off a crime scene, interview witnesses, and collect evidence, such as fingerprints and security video. However, if the money was stolen through a cyber intrusion into the bank's holdings, the approach would be very different: a cyber agent would request firewall logs and forensic copies of hard drives, in addition to interviews.

The FBI already has a lengthy track record fighting cyber crimes. In June, the FBI announced its role in the multinational effort to disrupt the GameOver Zeus botnet, believed to be responsible for the theft of millions of dollars from businesses and around the world. A month earlier, the FBI announced charges against distributors of malicious software that infected millions of computers. Forty FBI field offices executed more than 100 search warrants and seized more than 1,900 domains used by Blackshades users to control victims' computers.

But the FBI wants to grow to meet tomorrow's challenges. “We're looking to hire a lot of cyber agents now,” Anderson said. “It's an area where the FBI and the whole U.S. government will be looking for this talent for years to come.”

Cyber agents can expect continued specialized training once onboard and to work on some of the Bureau's most complex cases. Given the broad scope of the FBI's work, Anderson says there is no other place like it.

“I do think the biggest thing you can offer to anyone that comes to work at the FBI is the mission and the scale of investigations,” Anderson said. “It doesn't matter where you go, it doesn't matter who you work for, you can't get that anywhere else but the FBI.”

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/december/fbi-seeking-tech-experts-to-become-cyber-special-agents/fbi-seeking-tech-experts-to-become-cyber-special-agents

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Digital Billboard Initiative -- Catching Fugitives in the Information Age

In April 2013, a Buffalo grand jury indicted 33-year-old Oscar Romero and other suspected members of the Loiza Boys gang, charging them with heroin and cocaine distribution. After nearly a year on the run, investigators received information that Romero had returned to the Buffalo area from Puerto Rico, and the FBI deployed a powerful weapon to help capture the fugitive—digital billboards.

The electronic billboards featuring Romero's face—along with the words “Wanted” and “Drug Charges” and a number to call—were posted in the Buffalo area on March 31, 2014. Four days later, Romero turned himself in.

“When our billboards went live, Oscar Romero had been a federal fugitive for just shy of a year,” said Brian Boetig, special agent in charge of the FBI's Buffalo Division. “Our partnership with the local billboard company generated media attention and conversations throughout Romero's West Side neighborhood, which pressured him into safely surrendering.”

Similar events have occurred around the country, thanks to the FBI's National Digital Billboard Initiative, which began in 2007 in Philadelphia when a graduate of the FBI's Citizens Academy—who happened to be an executive with Clear Channel Outdoor—offered to provide free space on the company's digital billboards to help catch criminals and rescue missing children.

Since then, the program has recorded impressive growth—and results. To date, the FBI has captured 53 individuals as a direct result of billboard publicity, and the Bureau now has access to more than 5,200 billboards nationwide made available by a number of companies. The billboard initiative is an excellent example of how law enforcement, the private sector, and the public can all work together to bring criminals to justice in today's information age.

“We view the partnership with the FBI as a model of public service,” said Nancy Fletcher, president and CEO of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA). “The billboard program makes a difference, using the latest technology on behalf of public safety.”

The FBI has formal partnerships with OAAA, Clear Channel Outdoor, Lamar Advertising Company, Outfront Media (formerly CBS Outdoor), Adams Outdoor Advertising, the Fairway Media Group, CEMUSA, and the Outdoor Advertising Association of Georgia. All these organizations—including other digital advertisers who informally support the program—have been critical to the success of numerous investigative efforts, because digital billboards are extremely effective in reaching the public with information about fugitives, missing persons, and public safety issues.

“The companies' willingness to assist us in bringing criminals to justice, as well as the speed in which they are able to publicize the information, is a tribute to their organizations,” said Mike Kortan, assistant director for the FBI's Office of Public Affairs. “Their efforts have given us an added edge to identify, locate, and apprehend fugitives—and that, in turn, has helped to stop many criminals from further victimizing the public.”

Because digital billboards can be quickly changed and updated, information about a kidnapped child, a bank robbery, or a matter of public safety can immediately be displayed. And messages can be targeted to specific geographic locations, which is important when time is of the essence.

And as the program expands, we are adding new formats. Fugitive information, for example, is now being displayed on digital bus shelters in Washington, D.C., and digital newsstands in New York City. “Thanks to our partnerships, the billboard initiative has been a tremendous success,” Kortan said. “We look forward to its continued growth.”

A Partnership is Born

In 2007, a vice president at Clear Channel Outdoor joined one of our Citizens Academy classes in Philadelphia to learn more about the FBI. She soon realized how helpful her company's digital billboards could be to the Bureau, and in September of that year, images of 11 violent fugitives were posted on eight city billboards along with a hotline number for the public to call.

By October, two of those fugitives were captured as a direct result of the publicity. Weeks later, when a Philadelphia police officer was killed while responding to an armed robbery, law enforcement was quickly able to publicize the suspect on Clear Channel's digital billboards. (He was later apprehended in Florida.)

Based on the success of the Philadelphia program, the National Digital Billboard Initiative was created, and today—thanks to the participation of other companies who donate space—the FBI has access to more than 5,200 billboards nationwide.

Notable examples of billboard successes include:

- In 2013, aware of a media campaign featuring digital billboards that was focusing on his criminal activities, Antoine Brooks—wanted for drug distribution—turned himself in to the Philadelphia Police Department.

- During a 2013 confrontation with police in Newark, New Jersey, Hassan Kendrick allegedly opened fired on several officers and was wanted for aggravated assault. A citizen viewed Kendrick's image on a digital billboard and provided a tip leading to his capture in Florida in May 2014.

- In 2008, Richard Franklin Wiggins, Jr. was arrested for money laundering and for ties to a drug trafficking organization three weeks after his image appeared on digital billboards in the Norfolk, Virginia area. Wiggins reportedly turned himself in at the insistence of family and friends.

- Billboards have been incorporated into major investigations, including Operation Cross Country—an annual nationwide enforcement action focusing on underage victims of prostitution—and the effort to identify victims of suspected serial child predator William James Vahey.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/december/digital-billboard-initiative/digital-billboard-initiative

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New York

Bratton's Unsought Role: Peacemaker Between His Officers and His Boss

by J. David Goodman

When William J. Bratton returned to lead the New York Police Department for the second time in two decades, the once headline-grabbing commissioner seemed determined to adopt a lower profile.

He stood beside — and in some ways in the shadow of — the reform-minded liberal mayor who asked him to come back to the city and repair the relationship between the minority communities and the police force.

But Mr. Bratton, it seems, cannot stay out of the spotlight anymore.

Mr. Bratton, 67, who grew up in Boston, has been thrust into the role of a peacemaker between rank-and-file officers furious over what they see as disrespect from City Hall, and Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has spoken about trying to bring about a city in which minority residents feel they are being treated fairly by the police.

On Sunday, both aims were apparent as Mr. Bratton criticized officers who turned their back on the mayor during the eulogy for Officer Rafael Ramos, who was shot and killed on Dec. 20 in Brooklyn along with Officer Wenjian Liu.

Mr. Bratton said he did not support the actions of the officers who turned away from a screen showing the mayor speaking inside a church in Queens where hundreds had gathered to mourn Officer Ramos.

“He is the mayor of New York,” Mr. Bratton said on the CBS program “Face the Nation.” “He is there representing the citizens of New York to express their remorse and their regret at that death. It was very inappropriate.”

But he also emphasized that he understood the emotions present in the display. “At the same time,” he added, “it is reflective, unfortunately, of the feelings of some of our officers at this juncture.”

The action by the officers followed days of heated comments from union officials, including the president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, Patrick J. Lynch. On the night Officers Ramos and Liu were killed, Mr. Lynch said the blood “starts on the steps of City Hall.”

Mr. Bratton, who started his police career in Boston in 1970, became commissioner in New York for the first time in 1994. He clashed with Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, a Republican, in part, over Mr. Bratton's high profile in the news media at a time when both men sought credit for the city's deep declines in crime.

This time around, Mr. Bratton has maintained a close relationship with Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, with few apparent disagreements. Before the police killings, Mr. Bratton marveled at how safe the city had become and how much he enjoyed the job the second time around.

Mr. Bratton meets with the mayor on Friday mornings and often talks to him several times a day by phone. For weeks, the commissioner has responded publicly to attacks from union officials, often in the frank terms that are the hallmark of his style. Even before the killings, he said Mr. Lynch had gone too far in his comments about the mayor.

Last Monday, in a joint news conference, Mr. Bratton stepped in with a joke after Mr. de Blasio's popularity with officers came into question, saying that “amazingly” some officers do not like him either.

New York City mayors have long tussled with police unions, with off-duty officers rallying on the steps of City Hall or showing up at mayoral events with protest banners. But several city officials as well as current and former officers said the public protest by officers on Saturday at what was a highly ordered and solemn occasion appeared to have little precedent.

“You crossed the line,” said Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, a Democrat and a former police officer. “We all played by one rule: that when you have that uniform on, you don't get involved in the political atmosphere.”

On Monday, Mr. de Blasio is again expected to address hundreds of officers at a Police Academy graduation at Madison Square Garden.

The silent rebuke by the officers on Saturday left some inside the department debating whether it was appropriate.

“I understand the climate, I understand the frustration that the officers were feeling,” said one high-ranking Police Department official, who requested anonymity to speak about politics. “But as humans, there should have been some restraint.”

Detective Yuseff Hamm, the president of the Guardians, a fraternal organization of black officers, said he objected to the time and place of the protest. “It could happen every other time he speaks, great,” he said. “But that particular time, as he is addressing the funeral, that was not the time for it.”

From the start, Mr. de Blasio's selection of Mr. Bratton seemed to serve as a signal to officers and to a city always wary of the specter of rising crime that despite his promises of reform, the new mayor would not completely transform how New York City is policed. Mr. de Blasio has stood by the “broken windows” strategy of addressing minor crime to prevent major ones — Mr. Bratton's signature approach to policing from the 1990s — even as liberal criticism of the tactic has mounted. The commissioner, for his part, has repeatedly emphasized the millions of dollars the mayor has secured for the Police Department outside of its usual budget.

On Sunday, it was Mr. Bratton, not Mr. de Blasio, who went on national television. He sought to explain the mayor's words for officers who have been angered by them. At other points, he empathized with the frustrations of officers, who he said had been saddled with societal ills that extend far beyond the doors of any police station.

Officers have bristled at the protests that have paralyzed parts of the city after a grand jury declined to bring any criminal charges in the death of Eric Garner, a black Staten Island man who died after a chokehold was used during his arrest in July. Some became enraged after the mayor spoke empathically about the Garner family and recounted telling his own biracial son about the “dangers he may face” in interactions with the police.

Mr. Bratton endorsed the mayor's sentiment on Sunday. “I interact quite frequently with African-Americans of all classes, from the rich to the poor, and there is not a single one that has not expressed this concern,” he said on “Meet the Press” on NBC.

“Their perception,” he added, “is the reality that we have to deal with.”

In recent days, the mayor has taken pains to avoid engaging his critics. A spokesman, Wiley Norvell, said on Sunday, “Since the night we lost our two officers, the mayor has focused on helping these families through their ordeal, and on being a responsible voice working to heal this city.”

The night of the killings, Mr. Lynch and the president of the sergeants' union, Edward D. Mullins, and a small group of other officers turned away from Mr. de Blasio as he walked past them at the hospital where the bodies of the two officers had been taken.

But on Sunday, union officials were quick to distance themselves from the display at the funeral, which they described as spontaneous. “I actually didn't know it happened until after the funeral,” Mr. Mullins said. “I don't criticize them for doing it.” (The wake for Officer Liu is planned for Saturday at Aievoli Funeral Home in Brooklyn, its owner, Joseph Aievoli, said, with the funeral to follow there on Sunday.)

Mr. de Blasio and Mr. Bratton will meet with union leaders, but the commissioner did not hold out hope that frayed relations between the mayor and many rank-and-file officers, whose contract expired in 2010, would be quickly repaired. “It is probably a rift that is going to go on for a while longer,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/29/nyregion/bratton-calls-police-officers-protest-of-de-blasio-inappropriate.html?_r=0

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Obama: America 'less racially divided' since 2009

by Fox News

President Obama says that race relations in the U.S. have improved during his six years in the White House, amid recent racial tensions sparked by the deaths of two black males during separate police encounters.

“I actually think that it's probably in its day-to-day interactions less racially divided," said the president, according to excerpts of an interview with National Public Radio to be aired starting Monday.

Obama also told the radio network that Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress when members return next week means they can no longer blame the gridlock on him and fellow Democrats who formally controlled the Senate.

“Now you've got Republicans in a position where it's not enough for them simply to grind the wheels of Congress to a halt and then blame me," he said.

Obama suggested in the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown -- an unarmed black teen who was killed by a white police officer in August in Ferguson, Missouri -- that race relations in America have improved in the past 40 or 50 years.

"We have made enormous progress in race relations over the course of the last several decades,” Obama said in late November after a grand jury decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson. “I have witnessed that in my own life and to deny that progress, I think, is to deny America's capacity for change.

A new Gallup poll shows Americans' perception of race relations essential unchanged since 2002, with roughly 66 percent of black respondents saying relations are good, compared to 72 percent for non-Hispanic whites.

Obama also told NPR, in the year-end interview with “Morning Edition” host Steve Inskeep, that “low morale around race relations in the U.S. is exaggerated by the national conversation about the recent violence and not an accurate reflection of the state of affairs around the country.”

The death of Brown and Eric Garner in July has sparked widespread protests and concerns about how police officers interact with members of black communities across the country.

Garner, 43, died after a Staten Island, New York, police officer pressed a police baton across his neck in an effort to arrest him. A video of the incident resurfaced after Brown's death.

The Obama interviews will be broadcast in three installments through Wednesday. The president spoke on camera in the Oval Office just before he left Washington with his family for a two-week vacation in Hawaii. He also discussed his recent executive actions on immigration and Cuba, foreign policy, health care and his relationship with Congress, according to NPR.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/12/28/obama-america-less-racially-divided-since-took-office-in-200/

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North Carolina

Cops on the corner: Has APD left community policing behind?

Emphasis on downtown, community policing has varied throughout last 40 years

by Jon Ostendorff

ASHEVILLE – Downtown crime landed on Dwight Butner's doorstep in a horrible way.

A 16-year-old stabbed a Baltimore man to death last year outside Vincenzo's, a North Market Street restaurant Butner has owned for 24 years.

He had to testify in the trial recently. It still upsets him.

"I got to see his life blood pool in the cracks in cobble stones outside in front of my business," he said.

Butner said police got there fast. He called 911. But the response time is not the issue, he said.

He and his wife live above the restaurant. For years they've heard what he called "the carousing" that goes on in the early morning hours, and they've told that to police.

"That conflict was imminently predictable," he said. "It was predictable. And a response time is not going to prevent that from happening. What prevents it from happening is a police officer standing on the corner with a gun."

But officers on the corner is something he, and other downtown business leaders, say they don't see enough of. Others in the city says the police department is doing a better job connecting with neighborhoods.

Asheville's emphasis on the downtown and on community policing has varied throughout the last 40 years. Some chiefs have put a high priority on it. Others have focused less.

Police controversy in recent years has put the spotlight on other issues. But as the city looks to hire what would be its third police chief in four years, some residents and business owners say they want to see focus returned to the basics — preventing crime and interacting with people.

Chief William Anderson will retire amid controversy on Dec. 31. Some of the controversy centers on staffing issues and moral.

Community policing will probably be a top issue for the city's next chief as the nation continues a public debate about police tactics and the city department works to implement an improvement plan that calls for officers to be more connected to residents.

Downtown security concerns

Nothing changed after murder at downtown restaurant

Nothing has changed in the wake of the homicide in front of Butner's restaurant, he said. Police have not approached him about beefing up security.

More police presence is critical between midnight and 5 a.m. downtown, he said.

The department is using what's called augment shifts, which means volunteers, to add extra officers downtown.

Downtown, business leaders say, brings in the bulk of the tax revenue for the city but, they said, it is not getting the service it deserves.

Property values downtown increased about $100 million, or 15 percent, at the last revaluation, Butner said.

He said the increase meant more tax revenues for the city.

"And we don't have the foresight to prevent a knifing," he said. "I have real problems with that."

He was part of the group that wanted a business improvement district, which would have paid for downtown "ambassadors" he said would have picked up cigarette butts, given directions to tourists and provided a second set of eyes at night for police. The businesses would have paid for it.

City Hall didn't like the idea, Butner and others said.

Downtown is generally safe, he said. But the safety is due to luck, to some extent.

"We don't need to be taking these risks," he said

Ruth Summers, director of the Grove Arcade's business properties, said early morning, when the bars and restaurants close, are critical for downtown security.

"I think our biggest concerns were the officers that were here were overworked, there weren't enough in the central business district and we really felt like the patrols needed to be beefed up after hours," she said.

Downtown businesses also don't like panhandling.

Last spring, she said, police were more aggressive with the annual travelers that stop in Asheville. But more needs to be done and it will take cooperation from state lawmakers, the county and the city, she said.

Summers said losing seasoned officers because of low pay is also an issue.

She said the drop in downtown staffing really started in the summer of 2012. Crime is up downtown, she noted. Graffiti continues to be a problem as does crime in Pritchard Park.

Officer resignations are up 57 percent over 2011 with 22 in the last year. Violent crime is up 25 percent since 2011.

The city, in announcing Anderson's retirement, praised him for improved evidence room operations, establishing a public housing unit and developing plans for "community-based solutions" to problems.

But there is evidence some of the praise might be misplaced or aimed at programs the city has long offered.

A police lieutenant during a recent civil service board hearing alleged trailers used for storage of evidence had been without alarms, which is a violation of the department's policy.

The police department has had a housing unit since at least the late 1990s.

City spokesman Brian Postelle had no immediate response to questions about why Anderson was credited with creating the unit beyond offering documents outlining his proposal.

Anderson has made a difference with the unit.

He launched it in 2012 shortly after taking the top job. Violent crime dropped 15 percent in the city's 10 public housing communities last year.

The number of arrests was down in every complex except Klondyke. At Hillcrest Apartments, the number fell from 434 in 2012 to 359 in 2013. Arrests at Pisgah View Apartments dropped from 221 to 93 in the same period.

The public housing unit is a three-year trial program.

The U.S. Justice Department gave the city a $711,000 Community Oriented Policing Services grant to pay for it. The Asheville Housing Authority contributed $218,000.

Anderson is retiring amid an internal certifications audit, a state standards inquiry and the potential for the department to lose its voluntary accreditation.

He will get $35,000 in exchange for not suing the city under labor laws.

Some in the city say the department, once known as a leader in the state in community policing programs like the housing unit, has moved away from that philosophy under Anderson and before him, Chief Bill Hogan.

Others gave it high marks for being in touch with neighborhood concerns.

Cops on the corner

Roll call was once at neighborhood substations

The department won awards, and grant money, for community policing at one time, said former Chief Will Annarino.

It used to have roll call for officers at its neighborhood substations. Roll call is a meeting between officers and supervisors at the beginning of each shift.

Today, roll call is at police headquarters. That's been the case regularly for the last six months, said Deputy Chief Wade Wood.

The change came when the department moved to a citywide watch commander system. Anderson created the system. The watch commander, typically a lieutenant, is in charge of the city for an entire 12-hour shift.

Wood said the move to central roll call was recommended by a consultant that reviewed the department last year. It is meant to improve the relay of information among all units.

Officers and line commanders still work out of five substations though the offices do not have regular hours.

In the past, volunteers had staffed the substations to help neighborhood residents connect with officers, Annarino said.

The program, he said, had community buy-in. West Asheville even funded its substation building.

Annarino said the idea was to get the officers out of the building and into neighborhoods.

They had the authority to craft solutions tailored to a specific neighborhood.

They wrote proposals, based on crime data and approved by command staff, to get more resources for big projects. Teams were formed to address an issue and then disbanded once the project was complete.

On smaller issues, like a rash of break-ins along a neighborhood street, they were able to act on their own.

Annarino said it meant putting a lot of trust in officers and line supervisors.

It also drove some police supervisors crazy because they had to deal with staggered shifts, in some cases, and officers being assigned to temporary duties.

But, he said, it was worth it.

He said city government, as a whole, was community-focused at the time.

City managers would walk neighborhoods to learn about street light problems, junky properties, abandoned buildings or bad roads, he said.

"We were addressing problems instead of the symptoms of problems," he said. "It sure made our job easier."

Patrol, today, has decreased officers from 175 in 2011 to a low of 167 in 2012 and up to 172 in 2014, according to city budgets.

The department has decreased its undercover drug enforcement activities and drug awareness work from 200 operations in 2012, when Anderson, started to a target of 110 this fiscal year.

But an increase has been the trend for drug enforcement and awareness activities overall until recently.

The high of 200 drug enforcement and awareness events is double what the department did in 2008, according to city budgets.

The department has also decreased its base goal of hiring minorities.

In 2010, it hired eight but this year has a base goal of five, according to budgets.

The department's expectation is that it will exceed that by three times and actually hire 15 minorities this year, said Tony McDowell, the city's budget manager.

City residents say they want police who are more in touch with communities.

About 30 people attended a meeting at Hill Street Baptist Church on Dec. 16 to hear a panel of 12 that included city officials and community activists.

Activists said the city's civil service board has too much authority over promotions and firing.

They were also concerned that the job description for the new chief the city outline did not address the civil service board's power.

Hill Street Baptist Church the Rev. Keith Ogden, a supporter of Anderson, called leadership at the department a "revolving door."

Concerns are found in other parts of the city, too.

Byron Greiner, president of the Downtown Asheville Association, which represents businesses and residents, says the group pushed for a downtown police substation, and finally got one, but without a staff most of the time.

A laminated sign hangs from a suction cup on the door at the office on Haywood Street saying the officers are out on patrol and to call police headquarters or 911 for help.

The office had been staffed with volunteers until June 2014, Wood said. He hopes to bring the volunteers back this year.

He said other substations have not had volunteer staffs for several years.

Downtown staffing levels became a big issue this summer.

Anderson ordered police to work more augment shifts and the department burned through about 40 percent of its overtime budget in a single quarter, according to a petition officers would later sign.

He also ordered trainees to take downtown shifts when the department could not get enough other officers to volunteer.

The trainees would work with senior officers for guidance but not special field training officers, as the department had used in the past.

Lt. Mark Byrd raised the issue of not having enough downtown officers in July. He was transferred to a desk job shortly after and later filed a grievance saying Anderson was punishing him for bring the problem to light.

The civil service board declined to hear his case, saying he had not filed his grievance in time.

Other officers were also concerned, according to new internal documents obtained by the Citizen-Times.

A sergeant in an email to then-Capt. Tim Splain raised liability concerns this summer. A rookie might not be ready to handle a group of people like those who participated in the Occupy Movement, he said in his example.

Splain responded that he understood and the chief had been briefed on that concern.

"At the end, the chief said to use the trainees for the appearance of additional manpower and to give them exposure to downtown so that's what we are doing," he wrote on June 9, 2014, in a message to the sergeant.

Greiner said Chief Hogan opened the downtown substation and promised officers but never fully staffed it.

He said Anderson staffed it for a while but that ended when officers were brought back to headquarters for shift roll calls, Greiner said.

"We want more visible policemen downtown," he said.

Downtown is a tough beat for police officers.

It often takes a nuanced approach to deal with residents, tourism- dependent businesses, protestors using their First Amendment rights, and nuisance crimes like panhandling and drunks.

"You almost have to want to be a downtown officer," Greiner said. "The needs are unique."

In West Asheville, where the businesses funded the city's first police substation years ago, community policing helped curtail prostitution and other crime.

But lately, police presence has diminished, said Austin Walker, president of the West Asheville Business Association.

He said the department has two or three officers assigned to West Asheville.

He said break-ins have increased. One night a year ago about 75 percent of the buildings along Haywood Road were tagged with graffiti, he said.

"You can't tell me that scope of that graffiti can happen with someone on the main commercial corridor patrolling," he said. "Has the service been what we need? No, definitely not. And the tie to the community hasn't been as strong because they have less folks and they have had turnover with lieutenants."

Wilke, who has been at the center of controversy under Anderson, was one of the best commanders, he said.

"He was phenomenal when he was over there," he said.

Others in the community give Anderson and the police department higher marks.

Good reviews

Montford association, others pleased with department under Anderson

Brian Elston, president of the Montford Neighborhood Association, said his group has been pleased with the department under Anderson.

The downtown neighborhood is mixed with low income and affluent sections.

"Overall it has been very responsive," he said. "The neighborhood has been happy with the response times."

He said the department has a community resource officer who comes to the association meetings and is available to take calls from residents. The officers also checks a list-serve the group maintains for issues.

On Halloween night, the group paid the officer to give out candy.

He said the officers and supervisors assigned to Montford have changed. The group had Lt. Bill Wilke as a sergeant briefly and really liked him.

"Honestly I don't have anything negative to say," he said.

David Patterson, the secretary and past president of the association, also generally gave the department high marks.

He said the neighborhood has had a community resource officer at least 10 years.

Anderson came to a neighborhood meeting in April 2012, where he explained his department's response to a drug bust that turned into a car chase through the neighborhood.

The suspect rammed a car with four city officers inside while trying to escape the undercover sting.

Three construction workers were injured. Children were getting off a school bus nearby just before the chase started.

A police review later determined officers acted appropriately and the chase was not a chase as defined by department policy.

Still, it rankled Montford residents.

Patterson said Anderson explained the situation at the meeting.

"I think his explanation was adequate," he said.

Patterson said beyond that meeting, he hasn't known Anderson.

He has seen the department lose longtime officers, which he says is concerning.

"They have lost a lot of good people over the years," he said.

Norma Baynes, liaison for the historically African-American community of Shiloh, said she got to know Anderson and is sorry to see him leave the city.

She said she's surprised by the allegations and feels Anderson did not have the support he needed and was not given enough time to make changes at the department — a feeling echoed in other parts of the city.

"To me, he is open and he has seen that people, especially in the Shiloh community, had the resources they needed from the resource officers. To me he is a good chief," she said.

The community of about 5,000 is in South Asheville between Hendersonville Road and Sweeten Creek Road.

"We were able to go to him and get his support," she said.

She said having the first black police chief has been important to the African-American community, just like having the first black mayor in Terry Bellamy was important.

She wants to see the service under Anderson continue in Shiloh.

Leaders in the city's public housing neighborhoods, where police have historically focused on drug crimes, said Anderson was easy to talk to and routine harassment by officers had declined under his command.

Sir Charles Gardner, president of the Pisgah View Apartments residents council, said the department under Hogan was constantly targeting public housing.

"Under the new chief, the harassment cut down a whole lot," he said. "And I started noticing more people of opposite color getting pulled over in our neighborhoods rather than always black."

The neighborhood in West Asheville is the city's largest public housing complex with 256 families.

Iindia Pearson, also a Pisgah View resident and vice president of the residents council, said Anderson came to the neighborhood to talk to people.

She did not see Hogan make that effort.

"Just the simple fact that when he got his position, he came to public housing. That says a lot right there," she said.

She said Anderson asked for input. He also made it clear that drug enforcement was important because of the drug trade's impact on children.

"Hopefully we can find someone like that in the future that doesn't come to the public housing development and say Hey we know you all are dealing drugs over here," she said. "We want somebody to come in and say hey you are a part of the community. You are just like anybody else. We are not going to treat you any different."

Gardner said controversy surrounding Anderson has a racial component. He's lived in Asheville his entire life and doesn't remember another chief being attacked the way Anderson was.

"The only difference I see is the color of his skin," he said. "No matter where you are at in life, the color of your skin matters. Look what he went through and it's not because of the work that he performed; it's all, I think, because of the color of his skin."

Gardner feels like crime is down in public housing because the department "started targeting the right people instead of everyone."

Violent crime is up across the city.

Elaine Edwards, president of the Bartlett Arms Apartments residents council, said housing police have recently tried to win the trust of children by visiting with kids and handing out stickers.

They have a unit based at Aston Park Towers.

"Housing has always had involvement with the police but not at this level, I don't think," she said. "They were kind of like behind the curtain types of things before. They were there, they were working with housing. But they weren't going through the communities stating, you know, we are here to get to know you, we want the kids to understand that as soon as you see a police car you don't start running and telling everybody that someone is looking for someone."

The department's K-9 unit recently brought Christmas gifts to families in Pisgah View.

Whether there are enough officers in public housing to provide security is hard to say, public housing residents said.

Pearson said having a black chief was important. She also said Anderson was willing to listen, a trait she hopes the next chief has.

"We see someone our skin color, in this position, especially as children, and it's like oh so I can be an officer and I can do good things because we have one the same complexion as me," she said.

City officials are putting their faith in a consultant-driven selection process designed to find the new chief.

http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2014/12/28/cops-corner-apd-left-community-policing-behind/20952035/