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January, 2015 - Week 2

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Belgium

Belgium terror suspects had police uniforms, report says

by Fox News

The two terror suspects killed in a Belgium raid Thursday had police uniforms at their hideout, along with a cache of assault rifles, knives and explosives, Sky News reported.

The raid in Verviers, in which a third suspect was arrested, was one of 10 across the country that authorities say preempted an imminent terror attack against police targets, at a time when Europe is on edge following the Charlie Hebdo massacre in France.

Fake IDs were found among the weapons cache, which included AK-47s.

Sky News also reported that more than 25 people were being held in Belgium, France and Germany amid fears of another terror attack. In Belgium alone, 13 people were in custody, five of whom were later charged with "participating in the activities of a terrorist group."

Belgian federal magistrate Eric Van der Sypt said the terrorists' goal was to kill police on the street or in their offices.

The magistrate added that some of the terror suspects had recently returned from Syria, where they had been training and fighting with the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, or ISIL.

Also on Friday, President Obama met with British Prime Minister David Cameron at the White House in their first meeting since the Charlie Hebdo attacks and their aftermath claimed the lives of 17 victims last week. Obama argued that a resurgent fear of terrorism across Europe and the United States should not lead countries to overreact and shed privacy protections, even as Cameron pressed for more government access to encrypted communications used by U.S. companies.

In the wake of last week's attacks, Cameron has redoubled efforts to get more access to online information, while the French government plans to present new anti-terrorism measures next week that would allow for more phone-tapping and other surveillance.

"As technology develops, as the world moves on, we should try to avoid the safe havens that could otherwise be created for terrorists to talk to each other," Cameron said in a joint news conference with Obama.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/01/17/belgium-terror-suspects-had-police-uniforms-as-planned-to-kill-cops-report-says/

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Arizona

Citizenship test might be required for graduation

States could adopt laws similar to what Arizona passed.

by TheAssociated Press

PHOENIX -- Arizona's new law requiring high school students to pass the U.S. citizenship test in order to graduate appears likely to be adopted in a handful of other states this year, though educators warn it's not a fix-all solution to the nation's dire knowledge of civics.

Fewer than a dozen states currently require students to take a civics exam, and passing it isn't necessary to graduate in all of them. In most states, civic education instead revolves around a one-semester U.S. history course.

Arizona on Thursday became the first to specifically require the U.S. citizenship test, a 100-question exam that tests knowledge of facts on subjects like the Founding Fathers, the Bill of Rights and U.S. presidents.

"This has been building for a long time," said Ted McConnell, executive director of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools, a civic learning coalition co-chaired by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. McConnell said he and others are wary that legislators are only skimming the surface of what students need to know.

"The folks who are civic educators and experts by and large are pushing for a much, much more well-rounded approach," said Paul Baumann, director of the National Center for Learning and Civic Engagement at the Education Commission of the States, a state-led research organization.

For years, education leaders have sounded the alarm on the state of civic education.

Just 13 percent of high school seniors scored as "proficient" or higher in American history on the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Voter participation in the most recent midterm elections was the lowest in decades, and even entertainers like Jay Leno have tapped into the country's weak civic knowledge with laughable pop-quiz history tests.

The Arizona-based Joe Foss Institute has set a goal of having all 50 states adopt the U.S. citizenship requirement for high school students by 2017, the 230th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution. The institute says legislatures in 15 states are expected to consider it this year. The North Dakota House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the same measure Thursday, but Arizona's proposal was the first to become law.

The Foss Institute promotes the test to state legislatures as a way to increase knowledge of basic government by students. The leader of the organization is former California U.S. Rep. Frank Riggs, who came in last in Arizona's Republican primary for governor after running a hard-right campaign.

The Arizona law requires high school students to correctly answer 60 of 100 questions on the civics portion of the test for those aspiring to become U.S. citizens. Passing is required to earn a high school or GED diploma starting in the 2016-17 school year.

Utah, South Dakota, Tennessee and other states have bills already presented or about to be introduced.

McConnell said he believes the Foss Institute's projection that more than a dozen states will pass the requirement this year is accurate. Yet he and others who have been pushing for improved civic education sum up the effort like this: "Right problem, wrong solution."

"The leaders in the civics education field I've spoken about this with are generally concerned that this exam does not capture the full breadth and scope of the competencies and outcomes we're looking for students to develop," Baumann said.

Baumann said states that do have a civics exam -- other than Arizona -- test knowledge that the U.S. citizenship exam does not: Valuing equality before the law, the purpose of democratic government, and good citizenship practices.

The citizenship exam, by contrast, only requires "very basic knowledge of U.S. government," he said.

"We fear this test would take away the precious little time awarded for civic education now and drive instruction toward dry, rote memorization of facts that would quickly be forgotten," McConnell said.

O'Connor, the co-chair of McConnell's group, initially supported the Foss Institute's work but did not back the U.S. citizenship test requirement bill; judicial work precluded her from being involved in any legislative initiative. It was unclear whether she favored the test as a component of civic education.

The U.S. citizenship test requirement also comes amid a larger debate over concerns that testing required under No Child Left Behind and other laws has resulted in a narrowing of the curriculum -- taking away time from instruction in topics like civics. One Center for Education Policy study found that 27 percent of districts surveyed reported reducing time on social studies either somewhat or to a great extent.

http://www.thonline.com/news/national_world/article_34f770cf-0c91-591b-9024-f0e508b2acb4.html

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DEA has been collecting information on your telephone calls

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department revealed Friday the existence of but one more database of U.S. phone records, adding new information to the disclosures in current years about mass government surveillance.

The database, maintained by the Drug Enforcement Administration, contains the records of calls created in between telephone numbers in the United States and overseas, even if there is no proof that the callers have been involved in criminal activity.

The DEA shared this information with other law-enforcement agencies, including the FBI, IRS, Homeland Security and intelligence agencies, according to records reviewed by Reuters.

The government stored the numbers, the time and date of the contact and the length, but the database did not incorporate names, other personal identifying information and facts or the content material of the conversations.

The government stated it collected calls in between Americans and persons in countries that had connections to international drug trafficking and connected criminal activities.

Based on how broadly the government interpreted that definition, it could have collected facts on calls to numerous nations about the planet.

The database, which was disclosed by the government in a court filing, “could be applied to query a telephone quantity exactly where federal law-enforcement officials had a affordable articulable suspicion that the telephone number at challenge was associated to an ongoing federal criminal investigation,” it stated.

The database is one of many troves of facts on U.S. phone records revealed in current years.

The most controversial is kept by the National Security Agency and contains records on every single U.S. phone contact. Counterterrorism officials use it when conducting investigations, but civil-liberties advocates have questioned the practice.

The DEA system was stopped in September 2013 and will not be reinstated, the Justice Division mentioned in yet another filing.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked the department in 2014 not to reinstate the program and to make it public.

Facts from Reuters was incorporated in this story.

http://www.uniongazette.com/local/dea-has-been-collecting-information-on-your-telephone-calls-h1599.html

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Texas

Johnson Co-Hosts the 2015 Community Policing Summit

ARLINGTON—Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30) and Congressman Marc Veasey (TX-33) co-hosted the 2015 Community Policing Summit with participants from the Texas State Conference of the NAACP. Event special guests included Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18) and Congressman Al Green (TX-9).

Amid the rally cries and demonstrations held throughout the nation this morning, local elected officials, pastors, academic scholars, legal advocates and activists from the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex assembled to carve out rules and best practices for preventing tragedies like those seen in Ferguson, Missouri and New York City. Congresswoman Johnson kicked off the daylong event that was conceptualized in an effort to improve the safety and security of communities of color by saying, “law enforcement and members of the larger community must work together to create a "common ground" in America. There is a problem between the police and minority communities throughout the United States.”

The goal of the day long summit was to define the criteria for model community policing legislation that will reduce the mounting discourse between communities of color and local law enforcement. The discussion was divided into a series of three panels: “Public Safety: Lessons Learned from Ferguson;” “Building Trust: Identifying Impediments to Peaceful Police-citizen Encounters;” and “Models for Effective Community Policing: Identifying Training Needs and Methods for Improving Community-Police Interaction,” that were geared toward increasing community engagement and improving relationships.

"We need to be appreciative of our police," said Congressman Al Green, who referenced legislation he will be proposing in the 114th Congress that would require body cameras to be worn by all police officers. In echoing those sentiments, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee and Congressman Marc Veasey stated that relationships between police and members of minority communities must change. "Police represent a safety net,” said Congresswoman Jackson-Lee. "All law abiding people should communicate with law enforcement.” Following member presentations, attendees voiced their concerns with members of Congress.

“We must work with our elected officials to bring about a climate where there is an active, mutually beneficial relationship between citizens and law enforcement,” said Gary Bledsoe, President of the Texas NAACP. In closing remarks Congresswoman Johnson reiterated the importance of these conversations “the problem between the police and minority communities throughout the United States are evident. For the most part, we have great police in our country, the problem is with the one- percent who behaves otherwise.

As a result of today's conversations, I believe we can find a solution.”

U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson is the ranking member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and the highest-ranking Texan on the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure. She represents the 30th Congressional District of Texas, which includes Downtown Dallas, Fair Park, Kessler Park, Old East Dallas, Pleasant Grove, South Dallas & South Oak Cliff; all of Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Duncanville, Hutchins, Lancaster & Wilmer and parts of Ferris, Glenn Heights, South Grand Prairie, Oak Lawn, Ovilla, Uptown/Victory Park and West Dallas.

http://focusdailynews.com/johnson-cohosts-the-community-policing-summit-p14408-1.htm

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Utah

One year down for Provo police chief; crime is reduced and other great strides made

by Kurt Hanson

PROVO — It's a few thousand miles and what seems like a different world between Provo and its police chief's former stomping grounds on the East Coast.

Chief John King has been the Provo police chief for a little more than a year now after an extensive law enforcement career spent mostly in Maryland. King brought his successful leadership from the east to Provo residents, as the city had one of its lowest years for crime in recent history in 2014.

King came to Provo after a stint as police chief in Gaithersburg, Maryland, a city of 65,000 people near both Washington and Baltimore. Earlier in his career he spent time with the Montgomery County (Maryland) Sheriff's Office, one of the departments that investigated the D.C. sniper case in 2002.

King admitted that coming to Provo has been a slight adjustment -- not just as a police chief.

“I'm used to crowds; my wife likes it being more spread out,” King said. “It isn't as consolidated and congested as I'm used to.”

King has had many opportunities throughout his career that have framed his perspective on police work, from law enforcement in big East Coast cities like Baltimore to his work with the U.S. State Department in helping oversee police activity in more remote locations such as Romania or Mali.

“The policing we have here is really important in that it's a democratic society where we work for the people,” King said. “I saw it where you would have a national police instead of a local police. They were like troops of occupation in their own country.

"That's part of the philosophy I bring with the community policing. I have a clear understanding of civilian control. We work for the people we serve.”

That emphasis on community policing was key to his police work in past positions.

“If people get to know us personally as opposed to ‘the police,' you're going to have more respect,” King said.

Community policing has become better known as ‘beat policing,' for those familiar with King's work in Provo. The program is fairly standard throughout the country, but wasn't yet implemented locally when King first arrived. But since its inception, police work within Provo has become more efficient than in previous years.

King's plan has the city divided geographically into four regions, or beats. Officers are assigned a beat to cover, providing them an opportunity to interact with their community on a more individual basis.

“Beforehand, they were doing a good job, but it wasn't efficient,” King said. “From the citizens' standpoint, the benefit is that in a true emergency, our response time is going to be quicker.”

Since implementing the beat plan and giving police officers the chance to familiarize themselves better with the community, King said there has been a 12.5 percent reduction in serious crimes throughout Provo.

Lt. Brandon Post of the Provo Police Department said though it is a bit early in the process, the statistics are plain to see -- the beat plan has made a difference.

“The beat plan's new, but the numbers are saying it's effective,” Post said. “Our whole job is to stop crime and the fear of crime.”

But King doesn't want the glory. He said there are many factors at play, such as economic stability and quality of life, that impact the drop in crime.

“But you can't negate ... the work of the officers and the staff here,” King said. “We've targeted crime. We don't just go out there randomly. We pick top-five crimes that occur here in the city and then we aggressively go after [them].”

King said he plans to be in Provo for awhile, a significant change considering the high turnover in previous city police chiefs.

“This is a great place and we've got good people,” he said.

King said he wants to utilize some of these good people to communicate better with the community. In the near future, he plans on assembling a community advisory board, a diverse group of citizens who will council with him and other police administration on how to best serve Provo.

“He's very open to community input,” Post said. “We need input in order to effectively communicate.”

King also said the department will have a new LEAD program, which stands for Law Enforcement Aiming for Degrees.

The LEAD program will help officers who don't have college degrees have an opportunity to go to school and better their education. King said he's hoping the program will be taken advantage of by his officers who need it.

King said his time in Provo has been very satisfying so far, and he is thankful for the support the citizens lend him and the department.

“It's been great. I literally couldn't be happier,” King said. “This is a very special community and I'm very grateful to be here.”

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/one-year-down-for-provo-police-chief-crime-is-reduced/article_092356a6-1340-533a-9e99-de8dacf2ba51.html

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Ohio

Kasich Administration Rolls Out Community-Police Relations Task Force

Sparked by a series of cases involving police use of force, this week Governor John Kasich announced a new statewide committee tapped to analyze the relationships between communities and law enforcement. One committee member is former longtime democratic U.S. Representative Louis Stokes, who told ideastream's Amy Hansen the group's mission is vital.

As part of the responsibilities of the Ohio Task Force on Community-Police Relations, Stokes and 17 other committee members--mostly former and current politicians and government officials--will host four hearings to learn the public's thoughts on current policing practices.

Aside from community input, Congressman Stokes says the group will look into the criminal justice system in the state, along with hiring procedures and the level of psychiatric training officers may be receiving.

“We must do something in terms of the means by which we investigate and have a fair hearing of any type of killings by police,” said Stokes.

The group's first meeting will be held in Cleveland early next week, and is expected to issue recommendations by the end of April.

http://www.ideastream.org/news/feature/kasich-administration-rolls-out-community-police-relations-task-force

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Tennessee

Residents still needed to take part in community policing program

by Jim Rodenbush

Murphysboro police chief Brian Hollo said Wednesday that he is still looking for four residents to take part in his new community outreach program ICICLE.

"Improving our Community by Involving Citizens and Law Enforcement" will be made up of two residents from each of Murphysboro's five wards. Those 10 residents will meet with Hollo and other members of the police department on a monthly basis.

Hollo said that he needs one resident from Ward 3, one from Ward 5 and two from Ward 2.

Anyone interested in joining ICICLE is encouraged to contact alderman Mark Costa for Ward 3, alderman Mike Bastien for Ward 5, and aldermen Sandra Bullar and Dan Bratton for Ward 2. Contact information can be found here.

http://www.murphysboroamerican.com/article/20150115/News/150119634

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Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh police chief pitches 'community policing' to cut homicides

by Bobby Kerlik

Shamara Gorman-Hodges knows somebody knows something about the murder of her ex-husband, gunned down in October as he waited to start his shift as a Pittsburgh sanitation worker. She's hoping the police can find that person.

“I pray every night that he's brought to justice — whoever did this,” said Gorman-Hodges, 33. “I'm nervous and scared for me and my children's lives. If it was intentional, who's to say their job is finished?”

Her former spouse who was “like a best friend,” Omar Hodges, 29, was among the city's 71 homicides in 2014, the most killings since 2008. His case is also among the 42 in which detectives have not made an arrest.

Pittsburgh police Chief Cameron McLay on Thursday called the spike in killings “a public health emergency” and pledged that police plan to focus on “a tiny percentage of the population here in Pittsburgh who are our violent offenders.”

McLay laid out a multistep approach to combat the violence:

• Engage with the affected communities to collaborate with police.

• Bring intense law enforcement heat and focus increased police attention on known individuals prone to violence and crime.

• Make arrests, thus deterring others from committing crime.

• Offer alternative services to young people in affected communities.

“It involves law enforcement coming together with all of our criminal justice partners, comparing notes and identifying who is that tiny percentage of the population here in Pittsburgh who are our violent offenders. The community members know who they are; a lot of the law enforcement officers know who they are. ... We all have to focus our attention, place them on notice that the violence stops today,” McLay said.

“We let them know, ‘We know what you're doing, and the next time a body hits the ground, you and those who are associated with you involved in this criminal conduct are going to bear the full weight of the criminal justice system.' ”

Critics fault police brass

McLay said the combination of drugs, guns and low-income neighborhoods has led to retaliatory violence between groups. He touted the department's witness protection program, which he said has a 100 percent success rate for those who stay in the program.

The plan mirrors the languishing Pittsburgh Initiative to Reduce Crime, a prevention project that critics said did not work because police brass failed to cooperate. McLay has said that will change.

David M. Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at City University of New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice, developed the program model. He said he's been in touch with McLay.

“The Pittsburgh Initiative to Reduce Crime was never remotely properly implemented. The city has looked at revisiting that, correctly,” Kennedy said.

Such programs are effective against small groups in cities that are responsible for the majority of homicides, Kennedy said. The program involves calling a meeting with known gangs or cliques, he said, and letting them know that if the shootings don't stop, police will look at any and all means of arresting group members for everything from guns, drugs and probation violations to child support violations and stolen cable.

“You tell them that ahead of time, that violence is going to bring that attention,” Kennedy said. “When the whole group knows that, you find they police each other.”

Fear of retaliation real

Hodges' lack of criminal activity is what makes his killing so perplexing, his mother said. He had three jobs, was not engaged in street violence and did not have a record.

“(My son) was exactly where he was supposed to be: at work,” said Carolyn Hodges of Homewood. “I appreciate the fact they're still working on it. It's extremely frustrating because somebody had to see something, but nobody wants to come forward. It's not like he was out in the street doing this and that.

“I don't understand how people think it's OK to take a life. I've been trying to write thank-you cards to everyone who sent cards and flowers and financial assistance, but every time I sit down to write, I just break down. That's been the hardest thing to do.”

Richard Garland, a visiting instructor at the University of Pittsburgh who is reviewing homicides, said the community needs to be more engaged in violence prevention.

“The community doesn't trust the police,” said Garland, a former gang member who founded the now-defunct anti-violence group One Vision One Life. “These young boys don't trust the police, I can tell you that. We've got to find a way for the community and the police to mend ways and begin to have a conversation of how they need to really work together. Most people are not coming forward because of fear of retaliation.”

Thelma Glenn is among those hoping community engagement can bring justice for her sister's killer. Kimberly Waller, 43, a jitney driver, was shot in the head and neck in late December while she drove in her car in Knoxville.

“Sometimes if you didn't have the money for the ride, she would actually give you the ride and say, ‘That's OK, God's got me,' ” Glenn said Thursday as she held a picture of her sister. “Somebody knows something about my sister's murder. We're making a public plea for information, so we can find the person that did this to my sister.”

http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/7570414-74/police-community-pittsburgh#axzz3OzMiAKtd

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Europe

More Than a Dozen Detained as Europe Moves to Sweep Up Potential Terrorists

by MELISSA EDDY and ALAN COWELL

BERLIN — As European investigators moved on a broad front to sweep up suspected radicals, the Belgian police said on Friday that 13 people had been detained in Belgium and two in France after a shootout in which two men believed to be militants were killed.

Eric Van Der Sypt, a Belgian federal magistrate, also said the authorities had conducted searches at a dozen locations where the police had found four weapons normally used by the military, including AK-47 assault rifles, The Associated Press reported.

The magistrate was speaking hours after a gun battle in the eastern town of Verviers as officials in Paris and Berlin also announced a series of arrests and interrogations.

In Paris, the prime minister, Manuel Valls, said he did not believe there was a direct connection between the events in Belgium and the carnage in France last week when gunmen conducted a three-day onslaught that left 17 people dead.

“There doesn't seem to be a link, but we must always remain cautious,” he said. “France must protect itself against this jihadist terrorism, this radical Islam.”

He spoke after prosecutors questioned a dozen people held overnight.

Agnès Thibault-Lecuivre, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor, said the detainees belonged to the “entourage” of Amedy Coulibaly, one of the three gunmen involved in attacks in and near Paris last week.

“We believe that they provided logistical support,” Ms. Thibaut-Lecuivre said, referring to the detainees. She did not give further details about the suspects, which included eight men and four women.

Mr. Coulibaly was accused of shooting dead a police officer on Jan. 8 and taking hostages at a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris the next day, killing four of them.

Two other assailants, the brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, began the onslaught on Jan. 7 with an attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. The three gunmen were killed in virtually simultaneous police operations.

Since then, investigators have been trying to establish whether the men operated alone or with the support of a broad cell of militants — as the latest detentions in Paris seemed to suggest.

In Germany, the police arrested two Turkish men suspected of having links to an organization supporting the militant Islamic State and other radical groups fighting in Syria.

In a statement, prosecutors in Berlin said they had no indication that the men had immediate plans to stage an attack.

It was not immediately clear whether the arrests in Berlin were linked to other investigations in Europe. But the sudden flurry of activity seemed to reflect heightened alarm after last week's assaults in Paris, where, on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry met with Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and then with President François Hollande.

In Belgium, Thierry Werts, a representative of the federal prosecutor, said that the targets of several raids on Thursday had been plotting “imminent” attacks on a substantial scale in the country.

The raids were said to have been aimed at people who had joined Islamic extremist groups in Syria or other battle zones, and then returned to Europe — a category of militants that has troubled intelligence and security services since well before the Paris attacks.

In Germany, prosecutors said that 250 officers had raided 11 apartments after months of tracking a group that was said to support the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, with money and the recruitment of combatants. Both of the arrested men were Turkish citizens, and they are formally suspected of planning a serious attack in Syria and of money laundering.

One of the detained men, identified only as Ismet D., 41, in keeping with German privacy laws, is suspected of serving as an “emir,” or leader, of a radical Islamist group that was not identified by name. “He is suspected of radicalizing this extremist group through ‘Islam lessons' he held, and encouraging participation in jihad against ‘unbelievers' in the war in Syria,” prosecutors said.

The other man, identified only as Ermin F., 43, is suspected of providing financial support to members of the group and of helping them prepare for travel to Syria.

As the waves of alarm spread, the only Orthodox Jewish school in the Netherlands was closed on Friday, Reuters reported, even though there was no specific threat against it.

In Belgium, Jewish schools in Antwerp and Brussels were also closed temporarily, Reuters said.

As first light broke over Paris on Friday, officials ordered the evacuation of one of the city's main train stations, the Gare de l'Est, after personnel found an unidentified piece of baggage that seemed to have been abandoned, the national railway operator S.N.C.F. said.

Images from the scene showed crowds of commuters huddled outside after the evacuation, which was ordered under heightened security precautions imposed after last week's attacks, the authority said.

In Verviers, Belgium, the police lifted most roadblocks except those around the area where gunfire was exchanged on the Rue de la Colline, German news reports said on Friday.

Dozens of masked police officers and detectives were present, along with officers wearing protective white suits and carrying boxes of evidence from the house where the shooting occurred, according to the daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Verviers is home to one of the biggest mosques in French-speaking Belgium, the newspaper reported.

Mourad Touati, 28, interviewed near the scene of the shooting, said he lived around the corner from the house and had raced there after hearing two or three minutes of gunfire on Thursday night.

“We are shocked,” he told a reporter from the German newspaper. “We didn't know that there were people living in that house who had come back from Syria.”

The attacks last week provoked alarm, not simply about terrorism but also about a wider range of issues relating to the balance between liberty and security, the limits of free speech and fears among European leaders of a surge in both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

Charlie Hebdo, whose staff took the heaviest casualties, is known for its readiness to lampoon the Prophet Muhammad in caricatures that many Muslims consider blasphemous.

Its first cover since the attack, indeed, featured a cartoon showing a weeping Muhammad holding a placard with the slogan that has become the token of support for the newspaper: “Je Suis Charlie,” or “I Am Charlie.”

Despite a vastly increased print run, the newspaper has been selling out at Paris newsstands and, in London, where a version was to be distributed on Friday, lines of people wanting to buy a copy formed before daybreak.

Such is the concern about a spike in anti-Muslim sentiments that the Muslim Council of Britain, seen as an anti-extremist organization, said it would hold interfaith prayer meetings on Friday — the Muslim holy day — with prayers to evoke the “beautiful qualities of patience, peace and tolerance of the Prophet Muhammad.”

The editorial director of Charlie Hebdo, Stéphane Charbonnier, who signed his drawings with the name “Charb,” was buried on Friday in Pontoise, near Paris, where he had lived as a child.

Several left-wing politicians including Pierre Laurent, the national secretary of the Communist Party, paid tribute to a man many called their “comrade.” The speeches were punctuated by the Communist anthem “The Internationale,” and “Amazing Grace,” performed by a bagpipe player. The guests at the funeral included several members of the French government, including the education minister, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/17/world/europe/europe-arrests-terrorism-links.html?_r=0

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Washington

John Boehner credits NSA snooping with helping to stop ISIS backer's plot against Capitol

The House Speaker credited the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act with helping the FBI in charging Christopher Cornell in relation to a plan to detonate pipe bombs in the Capitol building.

by Dan Friedman

WASHINGTON - National Security Administration snooping helped stop an ISIS backer's plot against the Capitol, House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday.

He credited the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, saying: "We would have never known about this had it not been for FISA program and our ability to collect information on people who pose an imminent threat.”

Speaking at a news conference at a retreat for House and Senate Republicans in Hershey, Pa., he Ohio Republican said he wanted to emphasize the issue because Congress will consider renewing the FISA act in coming months.

"Our government does not spy on Americans, unless they are Americans who are doing things that frankly tip off our law enforcement officials to an imminent threat," he said. "It was those law enforcement officials and those programs that helped us stop this person before he committed a heinous crime in our nation's capital."

The FBI arrested Christopher Cornell, 20, of Green Township, Ohio, near Cincinnati, Wednesday, and charged him with plotting to detonate pipe bombs in the Capitol building.

Caldwell is an apparent Islamic State supporter and talked of setting up an ISIS cell in the United States, authorities say. He was charged after sharing his plans with an uncover informant dispatched by the FBI. They received a tip that Caldwell was making pro-ISIS statements on Twitter under an alias.

Boehner said federal authorities relied on additional capabilities to catch Caldwell, but declined to say more.

"It was far more than just that," he said.

The FBI field office in Cincinnati declined to comment.

Boehner also for the first time publicly addressed threats against him by a former bartender at a country club he frequents. Michael Hoyt, 44, was indicted last week on charges of threatening to shoot or poison the Speaker.

"It's one thing to get a threat from far away. It's another when it's three doors from where you live," said Boehner. "And obviously this young man has got some health issues, mental health issues, that need to be addressed, and I hope that he gets the help that he needs."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/boehner-credits-nsa-stopping-isis-plot-capitol-article-1.2080689

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Texas

Texas Congress members hold community policing summit

by Demond Fernandez

DALLAS — The protests, tensions, and rally cries for community policing change across the county are catching the attention of many lawmakers, policy makers, and police.

The issues and circumstances fueling protests since officer-involved deaths in Ferguson, New York, Cleveland and other cities was the major topic at the Texas Congressional Community Policing Summit on Thursday.

"The public has really been disturbed," said Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson.

Johnson hosted the Summit at the University of Texas at Arlington, with her colleagues: Congressman Al Green, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Congressman Marc Veasey, and the Texas State Conference of the NAACP.

"The attitude generally that I'm getting feedback from in the country is fear of out-of-control police." said Congresswoman Johnson.

Several police agencies, lawyers, community and civil rights groups gathered for the Summit. The goal, according to organizers, was to discuss the tensions in hopes of coming up with strategies for change. They hoped to find ways to create partnerships for community policing.

"Without dialogue, then you are left with trying to come up with solutions by yourself," said Chief Will Johnson of Arlington Police Department.

Some panelists discussed the need for improved data collection in police departments and diversity in recruiting. Chief Deputy Marian Brown discussed challenges of cultural diversity training for law enforcement programs.

"The training is only as good as the content that is given in the training," said Brown. "So, what we've been discussing is how to make our content more substantive, if you will, so that we can further reach our community."

The Congress members say they plan to share the ideas and strategies discussed during the Summit with their colleagues and the White House Task Force.

http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/2015/01/15/texas-congress-members-hold-community-policing-summit/21831209/

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Louisiana

St. Tammany sheriff, Covington police chief discuss community policing with NAACP audience

by Heather Nolan

St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain and Covington Police Chief Tim Lentz addressed the Greater Covington NAACP this week, talking to a small group about community policing and their efforts to build a better relationship with the citizens.

NAACP President James "Gus" Davis said he invited the law enforcement leaders to speak at the group's Tuesday (Jan. 13) night meeting because the community needs to be "proactive" with police.

"Too many of our kids are coming up now thinking the police are enemies," he said. "That's not the case."

Strain said his department works with Covington police and other agencies on community policing. It's an effort "to make sure you know our mission and what our goals are," he said.

"There must be an incredible partnership between the citizens and law enforcement," he said. "The public evaluates us. If we don't do our job, we answer to the people."

Lentz said since he's been in office, his department has made an effort to have a presence in the community.

"For at least the last 14 months, we've been trying to build relationships," he said. "We realize we can't do this alone."

Lentz said his officers have passed out meals to people on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, and have given out ice cream cones instead of tickets on traffic stops.

Before Christmas, Lentz's officers passed out $100 bills in the community. The money came from an anonymous donor.

The intent of such programs is to build goodwill between police and the residents they serve.

Several at the meeting praised Lentz and his department for their efforts to have a presence in the community.

Community policing and police-citizen relationships have been hot topics nationally in recent months.

In the wake of an officer-involved shooting in Ferguson, Mo., President Barack Obama in December proposed a plan to strengthen community policing. The shooting and grand jury's decision to not indict the officer led to protests there and across the U.S.

Obama also has proposed a plan to finance the purchase of thousands of body-worn cameras for police departments nationwide.

Both the Covington Police Department and the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office are in the process of implementing body cameras for its officers.

Covington police should be wearing the cameras by the end of the month. The sheriff's office has a few deputies testing cameras in the field and Strain said his goal is to have cameras on all patrol deputies by the end of the summer.

Slidell police also are in the testing phase, and Mandeville police have said they hope to purchase cameras in the next budget year.

Both Strain and Lentz said they think the cameras will be a positive asset for the agencies.

Lentz said the vast majority of police officers are good people. He compared police officers to airline pilots, saying people only hear about the ones who crash even though other pilots land airplanes every day without incident.

"We don't want bad police officers," he said. "We love this profession. We don't want it tainted."

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/01/st_tammany_sheriff_covington_p.html

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Pennsylvania

Improving community-police relations will be ‘legacy item' of Obama administration

by Wesley Lowery

PHILADELPHIA — Attorney General Eric Holder vowed Thursday afternoon that the renewed push to reform policing and rebuild trust of law enforcement in minority communities will be a "legacy item" of the Obama administration.

Calling the current national discussion around race, justice and policing "an opportunity that we cannot afford to squander," Holder insisted to a packed conference room of community leaders and police officials here that it will take candid conversations to repair broken lines of trust — which will make things safer for both residents and officers.

"The mistrust that exists in certain communities is real, it's not something that's made up. It's not something that's a media invention," Holder said, later adding: "If we break down this distrust, at the end of the day it's good for people in uniform."

The attorney general's remarks came as he began his fifth in a series of community forums with police and community leaders, an initiative launched by Holder and the Justice Department as part of the administration's response to the ongoing unrest and Black Lives Matter protests against police impunity sparked by the deaths of several black men at the hands of police last year, including Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York City.

Thursday's forum featured dozens of community leaders, heads of local civil rights organizations and police leaders. In a second, separate meeting, Holder sat for a private conversation with half a dozen rank-and-file Philadelphia police officers.

"Many citizens do feel that they have been abused, that they've felt the oppressive hand of law enforcement, that they have encountered prejudice," said Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (D). "At the same time, we saw the tragedy in New York, for no other reason than wearing the uniform, two officers were assassinated."

Nutter and Holder both stressed that it will take candid conversations between police officers and communities to find common ground and policy proposals that could appease both sides.

"These are real issues," Nutter said "So as we try to bridge that gap and calm things down ... the real question for us is: What are we going to do about it?"

Prior to his trip to Philadelphia, Holder had held similar forums in Cleveland, Chicago, Atlanta and Memphis, and a sixth is planned for Oakland.

The outgoing attorney general has long served as the Obama administration's foremost spokesman on issues of race and justice — often staking out positions and rhetoric seen as a step further than those voiced personally by Obama, who discussed issues of race openly and often during his 2008 presidential campaign but has been often forced to be more deliberate and less candid on issues of race since his election as the nation's first black president.

During a speech in D.C. earlier Thursday, Holder said it was unacceptable that no accurate federal database exists about the number of use-of-force incidents by police or the number of officers wounded or killed in the line of duty each year.

“The troubling reality is that we lack the ability right now to comprehensively track the number of incidents of either uses of force directed at police officers or uses of force by police,” Holder said Thursday morning at a ceremony honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., according to his prepared remarks. “This strikes many — including me — as unacceptable.”

The expanded deployment of Holder and other top Justice Department officials across the country comes as the administration continues its attempt to shepherd tangible policing reforms at both the federal and state levels in response to the Brown and Garner cases.

Earlier this week, the White House Task Force on 21st Century Policing — created in November after a grand jury decision not to indict the officer who shot and killed Brown — held the first in a series of public forums that will inform the report it is preparing for the president.

The task force, co-chaired by Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, is tasked with delivering specific policy recommendations to Obama by March 2.

"We still have our work cut out for us in terms of building the kind of trust we need," Ramsey said. "It's a doable task."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/01/15/holder-improving-community-police-relations-will-be-legacy-item-of-obama-administration/

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Ohio

Kasich appoints members of Community-Police Relations task force

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio Gov. John R. Kasich appointed 18 members to the Ohio Task Force on Community-Police Relations, which he announced in December after a series of incidents in Ohio and around the nation that highlighted tensions between communities and police.

The task force will hold its initial forum on January 20 from 4:30 – 8:30 p.m. at Cleveland State University in the Waetjen Auditorium at 2001 Euclid Avenue.

Kasich has asked the task force to issue a report by April 30 to provide ideas for how communities across the state can build constructive relationships between communities and police that are built on mutual understanding and respect.

The following appointments were made with terms beginning January 7, 2015 and ending April 30, 2015:

•  The Hon. George V. Voinovich of Cleveland (Cuyahoga Co.), former U.S. senator, governor and mayor of Cleveland, Honorary Co-Chair

•  The Hon. Louis Stokes of Beachwood (Cuyahoga Co.), former member of Congress, Honorary Co-Chair

•  The Hon. Eve Stratton of Columbus (Franklin Co.), former Ohio Supreme Court justice, Honorary Co-Chair

•  Dir. John T. Born of Lancaster (Fairfield Co.), Ohio Department of Public Safety, Chair

•  The Hon. Nina L. Turner of Cleveland (Cuyahoga Co.), former Ohio senator, Co-Chair

•  Officer Brian S. Armstead of Akron (Summit Co.), Akron Police Department and member of the Fraternal Order of Police

•  Phil Cole of Columbus (Franklin Co.), executive director, Ohio Association of Communication Action Agencies

•  Dr. Ronnie Dunn of Cleveland (Cuyahoga Co.), Cleveland State University associate professor, member of the NAACP Criminal Justice Committee

•  The Rev. Damon Lynch III of Cincinnati (Hamilton Co.), senior pastor, New Prospect Baptist Church

•  Bernie Moreno of Westlake (Cuyahoga Co.), president, the Collection Auto Group;

•  Anthony Munoz of Cincinnati (Hamilton Co.), former Cincinnati Bengals football player, member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame

•  Councilwoman Amy Murray of Cincinnati (Hamilton Co.)

•  The Most Rev. George Murry of Youngstown (Mahoning Co.), Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Youngstown

•  Chief Michael J. Navarre of Toledo (Lucas Co.), currently with the Oregon Police Department, formerly with the Toledo Police Department, member of the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police

•  The Hon. Ronald J. O'Brien of Columbus (Franklin Co.), Franklin County Prosecutor

•  Dir. Andre T. Porter of Gahanna (Franklin Co.), Ohio Department of Commerce

•  Sheriff Vernon P. Stanforth of Washington Court House (Fayette Co.), member of the Buckeye State Sheriffs' Association

•  The Hon. Thomas E. Roberts of Dayton (Montgomery Co.), former Ohio senator, life member of the NAACP, member of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission

In addition to these gubernatorial appointments, the following members will serve on the task force, as defined in Kasich's Executive Order. Additional appointments are possible:

•  Sen. Cliff K. Hite of Findlay (Hancock Co.), Senate President designee

•  Sen. Sandra Williams of Cleveland (Cuyahoga Co.), Senate Minority Leader designee

•  Rep. Tim Derickson of Hanover Twp. (Butler Co.), House Majority designee

•  Rep. Alicia M. Reece of Cincinnati (Hamilton Co.), president, Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, House Minority Leader designee

•  Sara Andrews of Columbus (Franklin Co.), Chief Justice's designee

•  Tannisha D. Bell of Columbus (Franklin Co.), Attorney General's designee

In the coming months, the task force will conduct at least four public forums throughout the state to gather input from all Ohioans. Issues the task force is charged with exploring include best community policing practices, law enforcement training, standards for law enforcement interaction with the community, the criminal justice system and community oversight and involvement in law enforcement.

http://www.wkyc.com/story/news/local/northeast-ohio/2015/01/14/kasich-appoints-members-of-community-police-relations-task-force/21760507/

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Massachusetts

Officers address homicide, race, community policing at Rox meeting

Mothers of murder victims seek improvements in relations with Homicide cops

by Sandra Larson

Boston Police Department Superintendent-in-Chief William Gross and Deputy Superintendent John Brown spoke Jan. 10 to a gathering of people who have lost loved ones to homicide in communities of color. The event, held at Roxbury's Bethel Baptist Church, was organized by the Women Survivors of Homicide movement.

In an hour-long session, the two officers fielded questions on homicide investigations, officer diversity, community policing, 911 response times and other issues of concern to community members frustrated with unsolved murders and perceived lower levels of police responsiveness in black neighborhoods.

A woman whose brother was murdered nearly five years ago said she's heard nothing from the detective, and asked what she can do besides wait.

“I just want to know that his file is not just collecting dust,” she said.

Brown, who since early 2014 has led BPD's Criminal Investigation Division, including the homicide unit, said, “These officers are in court every day. They don't call you when there's nothing new. I know it's difficult when it's unsolved, but I will make sure you get what you need.” He approached her after the meeting for more details.

Brown outlined changes and improvements he is instituting for homicide handling: new monthly case review meetings where the homicide unit and the district attorney's office go over every case together; meetings with victims' families in their homes instead of at police headquarters; more dialogues with teens and partnerships with youth-serving organizations; homicide unit web pages that highlight unsolved cases and victim-witness support services; and new detectives of color recently added to the homicide unit.

“I'm doing everything I possibly can to make the homicide unit a better place,” he said. “I want nothing but justice for those who have suffered their loved ones murdered.”

A personal outrage

Women Survivors of Homicide founder Mary Franklin's husband Melvin was murdered in Dorchester on Oct. 15, 1996. He had taken the bus that night from his job as a Northwest Airlines skycap at Logan Airport. Walking the last few blocks toward their Woodrow Avenue home, he interrupted a robbery in progress and was shot and killed. The case remains unsolved, and the apparent intended victim has never come forward.

Franklin has told this story many times. She remains haunted by the knowledge that someone escaped harm that night and yet did not help identify the shooter.

“How does that person sleep?” she asked, her outrage loud and clear.

Franklin has channeled her pain into helping others. She started the Melvin's Mission Day Program, a six-week program for women who have lost someone to homicide. In addition, she has become an increasingly vocal activist. Through the WSOH movement, she is calling for more minority and female homicide detectives, a better witness protection system and increased cooperation by murder witnesses.

At the meeting, Franklin pressed Brown on the diversity numbers. Of 38 people in the homicide unit (including an accident reconstruction team), 10 are people of color, including a Cape Verdean resident of Dorchester, Brown said. The number of females is two, down from three as a black female homicide detective recently was promoted to sergeant.

Gross noted that homicide work is not for everyone; many officers, white and black, are not ready to take on the middle-of-the-night calls or the grim nature of homicide work.

“You do not pressure people to come to homicide unit — you'll get poor investigators,” Gross said. “You motivate them so when they're ready, then they come. It's one of the toughest assignments, and we want the right people in place.”

Off the homicide topic, several attendees spoke of a persistent feeling that police and dispatchers place a lower priority on the city's black neighborhoods and people. They recounted making 911 calls and having no police come, taking detailed notice of an incident and informing police but never being contacted as a witness, and being stopped and subjected to disrespectful treatment by police for no apparent reason except being a black man.

Open dialogue

Gross countered these tales with assertions that much has improved at BPD since times past, and that BPD is known far and wide for its good community policing.

“Ten years ago, I never thought I'd be a police chief,” he said. “It's totally different now. I'm black, I know what you're talking about — but the game is changing.”

His descriptions of BPD's programs for seniors and visits to local schools, and Brown's highlighting of the gun buyback program and the restraint BPD officers showed during Black Lives Matter protests did not quell audience assertions that the game hasn't changed enough.

When Gross noted that many dispatchers are black and live in the neighborhoods and “They're not going to not send someone just because it's a black neighborhood,” a ripple of murmurs erupted, leading him to add, “But it's up to us to change that perception.”

During and after the meeting, the offers stressed that having an open dialogue is crucial and that they and the community need to work together. They expressed hope that residents would go to the BPD website and see the information and positive stories there.

Franklin vowed to hold police accountable to the community, and also exhorted attendees to take action, be vocal and urge their neighbors to say something when they see something.

“The police cannot do it all,” she said. “We can't keep being afraid. How do people live with themselves, if they have quality information about murders and won't step up? I understand the witness protection program isn't sufficient right now — but the Women Survivors of Homicide movement is working on that.”

WSOH is working now to engage Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley on improving witness protection so residents will be more willing to speak to police, she said.

Franklin is also circulating a petition asking Mayor Martin Walsh to designate the impact of homicide on women as a public health crisis. She announced she has secured a one-on-one meeting with the mayor later this month to discuss what she believes homicide survivors need from city government.

On the topic of unsolved murder cases, the officers echoed Franklin's call for people to speak up when they know something.

“We're not magic,” Gross said. “We can't go forward if we have no witnesses. The plan has to be to get everyone involved, so if you see something you say something.”

Brown added, “You will never get these cases done without credible witness testimony. We need someone to come and say, ‘That's the guy who did it.'”

http://baystatebanner.com/news/2015/jan/15/officers-address-homicide-race-community-policing-/

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France

France arrests 54 for defending terror; announces crackdown

by Lori Hinnant

PARIS (AP) — France ordered prosecutors around the country Wednesday to crack down on hate speech, anti-Semitism and glorifying terrorism, announcing that 54 people had been arrested for those offenses since the Paris terror attacks.

The order came as Charlie Hebdo's defiant new issue sold out before dawn around Paris, with scuffles at kiosks over dwindling copies of the satirical newspaper fronting the Prophet Muhammad.

Like many European countries, France has strong laws against hate speech and especially anti-Semitism in the wake of the Holocaust. In a message distributed to all French prosecutors and judges, the Justice Ministry laid out the legal basis for rounding up those who defend the Paris terror attacks as well as those responsible for racist or anti-Semitic words or acts.

Among those detained was Dieudonne, a controversial, popular comic with repeated convictions for racism and anti-Semitism.

The attacks that left 17 people dead are prompting France to tighten security measures but none of the 54 people detained have been linked by authorities to the attacks. That is raising questions about whether the government is impinging on the freedom of speech that Charlie Hebdo so vigorously defends.

The core of the irreverent newspaper's staff perished a week ago when gunmen stormed its offices, killing 12 people. It was the opening salvo of three days of terror and bloodshed in the Paris region, ending when security forces killed all three gunmen on Friday.

A top leader of Yemen's al-Qaida branch claimed responsibility Wednesday for the Charlie Hebdo attack, saying in a video the massacre was in "vengeance for the prophet." Charlie Hebdo had received repeated threats previously for posting caricatures of Muhammad and was firebombed in 2011.

Those who survived last week's massacre worked out of borrowed offices to put out the issue that appeared Wednesday with a print run of 3 million — more than 50 times the usual circulation. Another run was planned, one columnist said.

The Justice Ministry said 54 people — including four minors — have been detained for defending or verbally threatening terrorism since the Charlie Hebdo attack. Several have already been convicted under special measures for immediate sentencing.

The government is also working on new phone-tapping and other intelligence efforts against terrorism that it wants nailed down by next week, government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said Wednesday.

The government is also launching a deeper project to rethink education, urban policies and its integration model, in an apparent recognition that the attacks exposed deeper problems of inequality both in France and especially at its neglected, often violence-ridden suburban housing projects.

French police say as many as six members of a terrorist cell that carried out the Paris attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket may still be at large, including a man seen driving a car registered to the widow of one of the gunmen. The country has deployed 10,000 troops to protect sensitive sites, including Jewish schools and synagogues, mosques and travel hubs.

Dieudonne, a comic who popularized an arm gesture that resembles a Nazi salute and who has been convicted repeatedly of racism and anti-Semitism, is no stranger to controversy. His provocative performances were banned last year but he has a core following among many of France's disaffected young people.

The Facebook post in question, which was swiftly deleted, said he felt like "Charlie Coulibaly" — merging the names of Charlie Hebdo and Amedy Coulibaly, the gunman who seized a kosher market and killed four hostages, along with a policewoman.

In a separate post Monday afternoon, the day the investigation was opened into Dieudonne, the comic wrote an open letter to France's interior minister.

"Whenever I speak, you do not try to understand what I'm trying to say, you do not want to listen to me. You are looking for a pretext to forbid me. You consider me like Amedy Coulibaly when I am not any different from Charlie," he wrote.

In a posthumous video, Coulibaly had claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group. Brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, who stormed Charlie Hebdo, had told survivors they were sent by al-Qaida in Yemen.

In an 11-minute video on Wednesday, Nasr al-Ansi, a top commander of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP as the branch is known, says Yemen's al-Qaida branch "chose the target, laid out the plan and financed the operation."

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2015-01-14/charlie-hebdo-sells-out-before-dawn-with-muhammad-on-cover

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New Mexico

Another Albuquerque officer involved in shooting

by Russell Contreras

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Just a day after a district attorney announced murder charges against two Albuquerque police officers, authorities said another city police officer shot and killed a man Tuesday night.

Police said the latest shooting happened just before 5 p.m. after officers were dispatched to a busy eastern Albuquerque street after a report of suspicious criminal activity.

The officers arrived and took one man into custody, but another man fled on foot, police said.

Albuquerque police spokeswoman Celina Espinoza said the fleeing man later fired shots at the officers, and at least one officer returned fire, killing the suspect. The man was wearing body armor, and his weapon was found near his body, Espinoza said.

The man's name was not released. The name of officer who fired shots also was not released.

Albuquerque Deputy Chief Robert Huntsman told reporters that no officers were seriously injured.

Patrick Dowless, who lives near where the shooting took place, told that Journal that he saw what he believes is a body lying near the scene of the shooting.

"I heard 11 to 14 shots and heard screeching tires and sirens, so I knew something was happening," Dowless said. "I went outside and saw lots of officers running towards a body and some running the other way. The officers were standing over the body but when the paramedics arrived they stood up right away."

Tuesday's shooting marks the department's third this year — first fatal one — and comes a day after Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg announced that she was seeking murder charges against two officers for the March shooting of James Boyd, a 38-year-old homeless man who authorities said suffered from mental illness.

Last week, police say Lt. Greg Brachle shot and critically wounded by a fellow officer during an undercover drug bust. Police Chief Gordon Eden said preliminary information shows both officers were working undercover and were in plain clothes when the shooting happened.

Earlier this month, Albuquerque police officer Lou Golson fired his weapon after he was shot and wounded during a traffic stop. Authorities say Golson is in stable condition at a hospital. The suspect, who was not injured in the shooting, is being held on attempted murder and other charges.

The shootings also come as the city of Albuquerque and the U.S. Justice Department are working to finalize an agreement to overhaul the police department following a harsh report on its use of force. The agreement now is before a federal judge, and both sides are working to approve a monitoring team.

In addition, Albuquerque police had been under scrutiny for more than 40 police shootings since 2010.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/01/14/albuquerque-officer-involved-shooting/21737615/

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Texas

HCSO introduces body cam program for community policing

by Haley Hernandez

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - - The Harris County Sheriff's Office is adding extra sets of eyes to keep us safe. They plan to add hundreds more cameras to their arsenal, including body cameras on deputies.

Thanks to a contribution of $900,000 from the Harris County District Attorney's Office, Sheriff Adrian Garcia said the program is moving forward and cameras have already been deployed on patrol cars, K-9 units and deputies.

The Sheriff's Office currently has almost 40 body cameras on deputies around the county and within the first few months of the year, Garcia said he wants about 800 more. The sheriff said it's for the sake of everyone's safety.

"The body cams obviously is an opportunity to enhance transparency and to strengthen mutual trust between law enforcement and the community we are meant to serve and protect," said Garcia.

He said in addition to the body cameras, there's the HCSO SecureWatch program, which he calls a public/private partnership where dispatch will have access to security cameras.

A demonstration showed real-time video of a SecureWatch camera already in use. If a call is made to 911, deputies can look through this system and see what's going on before they even arrive on scene.

"I am excited about the fact we have launched our pilot project and we are quickly moving and learning from our project as we speak," Garcia said.

Garcia said the cameras will help deputies deal with crimes as they occur. They'll also assist the Sheriff's Office to piece together and investigate crime scenes.

There are some issues with rushing to put out body cameras, because the sheriff says they haven't figured out what to do when deputies are interviewing sexual assault victims or juveniles.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/watch-live-hcso-introduces-body-cam-program-for-community-policing/30677074

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Pennsylvania

Philly Leaders Attend 21st Century Policing Meeting

by Kelly Bayliss and Vince Lattanzio

Police need to get back to their roots to improve relations with the communities they serve says Philly's top cop.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey made the remarks Tuesday in Washington D.C. at the first public meeting of the President's Task Force for 21st Century Policing.

Chair of the task force, Ramsey believes it can be done through practicing community policing and showing respect to citizens.

"We have to get back to our roots in terms of serving community, respecting community," Ramsey told NBC10. "Not new ideas, but something we have to reinforce and get back to."

Police officers, leaders of major policing organizations, activists and community members and leaders spoke before the task force during the day's earlier sessions. The testimony, at times, was heated as officials cited budget troubles and negative opinions about law enforcement as barriers to community policing initiatives.

International Association of Chiefs of Police President Richard Beary said most of the contact officers have with the public is nonconfrontational, but that is not how it's being presented to the public.

"Each year there are more than 50,000 assaults on police," he said. "The current smear campaign puts our officers' lives at jeopardy. I encourage you to look at the facts ... we are policing in an armed society."

Ramsey said it's vital to hear different opinions to ensure the task force makes actionable recommendations.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is speaking before the task force on Tuesday afternoon. He echoed Ramsey's remarks saying respect is a two-way street that must be practiced by police and community members.

The task force will present a series of action items to President Barack Obama that can be employed by police departments to improve public trust while also reducing crime. An initial report is due to the president in March.

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Philly-Leaders-Attend-21st-Century-Policing-Meeting-288392351.html

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Minnesota

Community Policing a Must For Stopping Terrorism Too

by Ryan Gustafson

Terrorist groups have called on their supporters around the world to attack police and other areas of authority in the U-S and the rest of the West.

While police in France searched for those that gunned down cartoonists and editors of a French satirical magazine, other terrorist groups were using the occasion to call for more attacks throughout the western world, with a focus on government entities.

But as far as terrorism is concerned, that's a tactic police are already trained in, and just one of the many problems they face.

Director of Mankato Public Safety, Todd Miller says, "Terrorists are not the only ones attacking law enforcement. From a general standpoint, all officers have to be concerned with officer safety no matter what."

Miller says Mankato's focus on community policing, making contacts with as many people as they can throughout the neighborhoods of the city, will have the same benefit with terror prevention as it does with policing.

"Whether it's a crime or terrorism, information is key. The way you get information is get to know the people, build trust with the communities that you serve, and then information will get shared both ways."

http://www.keyc.com/story/27832844/community-policing-a-must-for-stopping-terrorism-too

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Virginia

NAACP Talks Community, Police Relations

by Jaclyn Piermarini

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA -- The local NAACP met to talk about how to improve the relationship from both sides.

Some members felt that there is a disconnect with the officers. One-time city councilor Holly Edwards pointed out that cost of living plays a role in that issue.

"Police do not live in the community that they serve and the argument has been that the housing is not affordable."

One member says officers don't get as much of an opportunity to interact with the community they police.

"People need to know something about each other in order to appreciate what each one brings to the table."

NAACP President Rick Turner says mutual respect is the only way to get to a better place.

"Community policing as far as i know is a two way street between the police and members of the community.

Turner says improvement that has to come from both sides.

http://www.newsplex.com/home/headlines/NAACP-Talks-Community-Police-Relations-288353661.html

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Community leaders weigh in on debate over police presence

by Pete Zervakis

MADISON (WKOW) – A pair of community leaders are calling for more dialogue on how the justice system impacts racial disparities in Madison.

Michael Johnson, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Dane County, said he respects the efforts of the Young Gifted and Black Coalition to drive social change.

Citing racial disparities shown in arrests and incarcerations in the city, the group sent an open letter to police chief Mike Koval on Friday calling for reforms to the Madison Police Department and the local justice system it believes will help to fix injustices in the current system.

You can read the letter in full here.

Koval on Monday released a blog post in response in which he said the racial disparities discussed by the Young Gifted and Black Coalition are a serious issue. But he said his department is not to blame for the startling statistics.

Koval's full blog post can be found here.

Johnson said it was appropriate for Koval to respond to the Young Gifted and Black Coalition's concerns. He said he does not agree with the group's demand to have police presence, which it sees as occupying forces, removed from the city's communities.

“I don't think we can make broad statements like that,” Johnson said.

“I don't think as a community we should ever say we don't want police support in our backyards,” he said.

Johnson also praised the Young Gifted and Black Coalition's acknowledgment of the Madison Police Department's efforts to accommodate the group's protests in the wake of the officer-involved shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Koval's blog post said the department had put a considerable amount of money and time towards policing the protests in a way that did not infringe on the Young Gifted and Black Coalition's right to free speech.

Johnson also praised the police force's efforts.

“I've watched this police department respond to the protests taking place here and they were not confrontational with the protesters. I think our police officers were very respectful,” Johnson said.

Ald. Maurice Cheeks, of the Madison Common Council, said it's important the Madison community address racial disparities in the justice system.

“It's imperative our community be discussing this,” Cheeks said.

Cheeks said he believes the community can play an active role in policing itself, citing the work of the Mothers in the Neighborhood group in his district.

But he said close ties with police officers are essential to effective policing. He said the relationships add to civilian confidence in the police.

Both Cheeks and Johnson said that, while the criminal justice system must be reformed, they do not believe the Madison Police Department is responsible for racial disparities in incarcerations.

“It's a systemic issue,” Johnson said.

“We have to look at the prosecution of crimes,” Johnson said. “A lot of times people of color will get arrested. People who come from middle or upper class communities have the funds to pay for a lawyer and then those who don't have the means to do that get caught up in the system.”

Johnson said he too supports civilian policing as a supplement to the MPD's efforts. He's proposed a program to Koval and the Mayor that would implement volunteer, advisory boards to oversee community policing in conjunction with the Madison Police Department's efforts in each of the city's districts.

Johnson said he believes Koval and the Young Gifted and Black Coalition can sit down in a room together and hash out their differences.

“They have to have a conversation” Johnson said. “In leadership, while we don't always agree, we have to sit down at a table and compromise.”

http://www.wkow.com/story/27833132/2015/01/12/community-leaders-weigh-in-on-debate-over-police-presence

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Massachusetts

Editorial

Public safety is only real if it applies to everyone

Racial tensions and the relationships between police officers and communities of color are top issues demanding attention. In recent months, protesters have taken to streets across the nation over killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island and the failure to indict police officers involved in their deaths.

Some of these protests took place in the Valley, including a Nov. 25 rally on the steps of Northampton City Hall, after which protesters spontaneously marched through downtown chanting slogans expressing their outrage. The fault lines of this national crisis ran through Northampton that night. They mustn't be seen as lines of simple blame.

Outrage isn't pretty. The demonstration, chants uttered by marchers and remarks made by a city councilor on the steps of City Hall have generated more than a dozen letters to the editor and several guest columns on this page.

About 500 people turned out for the rally, during which they listened to speakers, including Ward 7 City Councilor Alisa Klein. She ticked off a list of more than a dozen people killed under similar circumstances as Michael Brown around the country, and said that when she hears that it's a matter of officer safety, “I say bull----!” she told the crowd. “This wasn't a tragic accident,” she said. “It's murder, it's racism, it's injustice. It's inhumanity. The lives of black and brown people matter everywhere.”

After the rally, holding signs that read “Black Lives Matter,” marchers shut down Main Street when they took to the streets for 45 minutes. Some of them loudly expressed outrage at the police who killed Brown and Eric Garner, and yes, at police as an institution. Northampton officers did an admirable job keeping the peace. The work they do is difficult and stressful. For some Northampton police officers and former members of the department, chants from marchers and remarks made by Klein stung deeply. They say those comments paint all police officers in one broad stroke.

Northampton Police Officer Joshua R. Wallace, president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers Local #390, wrote a guest column in which he said “vile vitriol” has been spewed at police officers over recent months, calling Klein a “direct contributor.” Wallace and other letter-writers suggest that Klein's comments encourage people of color to fear and hate police.

It is understandable that police officers of great integrity who pledge to serve and protect their communities feel beleaguered. The vast majority of them chose their profession out of a desire to serve, and now their motivations are being questioned. However, it's a disservice to this important conversation about race to criticize someone for articulating the view that in this country many people of color fear the police. Legitimate questions about the deaths of Brown and Garner can be raised without casting aspersions on all police officers.

What Klein and other protesters are lamenting is institutional racism, a much more covert and insidious threat to society. Klein has a right as a citizen to speak out against that. Her position as an elected representative in Northampton should not preclude her from engaging with this issue. In fact, Klein's constituents have a right to expect her to show leadership on this matter.

When outraged, people tend to skip the diplomacy. At the same time, Klein and others must appreciate how hard it is for responsible police officers to hear speeches and chants decrying their profession from one of their city's own leaders.

We made space on this page in the last two weeks for commentaries by two writers associated with the Northampton Police Department. It is important for the community, in responding to what's happening nationally, to hear from all quarters. The term “public safety” makes a grand promise. It is only by facing up to its occasionally tragic failures that it can be achieved.

http://www.gazettenet.com/home/15140553-95/editorial-public-safety-is-only-real-if-it-applies-to-everyone

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France

'We are Charlie': Across France, nearly 4 million march to honor victims of terrorist attacks

by Fox News

At least 3.7 million people including more than 40 world leaders are marching throughout France on Sunday in a rally of national unity to honor the 17 victims of a three-day terror spree that took place around the French capital.

The French Interior Ministry said the rally for unity against terrorism is the largest demonstration in France's history, more than the numbers who took to Paris streets when the Allies liberated the city from the Nazis in World War II.

The ministry said between 1.2 million and 1.6 million marched the Paris streets. But it said a precise account is impossible given the enormity of the turnout in the capital.

The aftermath of the attacks remained raw, with video emerging of one of the gunmen killed during police raids pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and detailing how the attacks were going to unfold. Also, a new shooting was linked to that gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, who was killed Friday along with the brothers behind a massacre at satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in nearly simultaneous raids by security forces

"Today, Paris is the capital of the world," said French President Francois Hollande. "Our entire country will rise up toward something better."

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were among the leaders attending, as were top representatives of Russia and Ukraine. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron were alongside Hollande at the front of the crowd, estimated to be around one million people, Sky News reports.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is in Paris this week to attend a meeting on fighting terrorism, but did not participate in the march.

Before the march began, a moment of silence was observed for the 17 who died in the violence.

As the march progressed through Paris Sunday, small groups sang the French national anthem while giant letters spelling out the word “Why?” were attached to a statue in the Place de la Republique, Sky News reports.

Idriss Nouar, 41, told the Guardian that people took to the streets to seek “closure.”

“For three days we have been glued to our television screens, we cried, we lit candles- we didn't know what to do or how to explain how we felt,” he said. “Today, here, with the chants, the clapping, the slow walking, it's a way of expressing our distress and it's some kind of closure.”

Southeast of Paris, in Saint-Etienne, around 60,000 people joined a march from the city's rail station to its town hall.

Rallies were also planned in London, Madrid and New York -- all attacked by Al Qaeda-linked extremists -- as well as Cairo, Sydney, Stockholm, Tokyo and elsewhere.

"We are all Charlie, we are all police, we are all Jews of France," Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Saturday, referring to the victims of the attacks that included employees at Charlie Hebdo, shoppers at a kosher grocery and three police officers.

Valls also declared Saturday that France was at war with radical Islam, according to the New York Times.

“It is a war against terrorism, against jihadism, against radical Islam, against everything that is aimed at breaking fraternity, freedom, solidarity,” he said at a speech in Évry, south of Paris.

Leaders from France's Jewish community said after a meeting with Hollande Sunday that the French leader had told them new security measures would be in place at all Jewish institutions over the next two days.

"We have decided to live our Judaism and we will continue to live normally, as we can't give in to violence", said Roger Cukierman, President of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions, according to the BBC.

The three days of terror began Wednesday when brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi stormed the newsroom of Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people. Al Qaeda's branch in Yemen said it directed the attack by the masked gunmen to avenge the honor of the Prophet Muhammad, a frequent target of the weekly's satire. On Thursday, police said Coulibaly killed a policewoman on the outskirts of Paris and on Friday, the attackers converged.

While the Kouachi brothers holed up in a printing plant near Charles de Gaulle airport, Coulibaly seized hostages inside a kosher market. It all ended at dusk Friday with near-simultaneous raids at the printing plant and the market that left all three gunmen dead. Four hostages at the market were also killed.

The bodies of the four French Jews killed at the grocery store will be buried in Israel, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.

Netanyahu said he had "acceded to the request of the families of the victims of the murderous terror attack" and directed "all the relevant government bodies" to assist in bringing the bodies to Israel. A funeral is tentatively set for Tuesday.

Five people who were held in connection with the attacks were freed late Saturday, leaving no one in custody, according to the Paris prosecutor's office. The widow of the man who attacked the kosher market is still being sought and was last traced near the Turkey-Syrian border.

Early Sunday, police in Germany detained two men suspected of an arson attack against a newspaper that republished the Charlie Hebdo cartoons. No one was injured in that attack.

"The terrorists want two things: they want to scare us and they want to divide us. We must do the opposite. We must stand up and we must stay united," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told French TV channel iTele on Sunday.

It was France's deadliest terrorist attack in decades, and the country remains on high alert while investigators determine whether the attackers were part of a larger extremist network. More than 5,500 police and soldiers were being deployed on Sunday across France, about half of them to protect the march. The others were guarding synagogues, mosques, schools and other sites around France.

"I hope that we will again be able to say we are happy to be Jews in France," said Haim Korsia, the chief rabbi in France, who planned to attend the rally.

"I hope that at the end of the day everyone is united. Everyone, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists," added Zakaria Moumni, who was at Republique early Sunday. "We are humans first of all. And nobody deserves to be murdered like that. Nobody."

At an international conference in India, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the world stood with the people of France "not just in anger and in outrage, but in solidarity and commitment to the cause of confronting extremism and in the cause that extremists fear so much and that has always united our countries: freedom."

Posthumous video emerged Sunday of Coulibaly, who prosecutors said was newly linked by ballistics tests to a third shooting -- the Wednesday attack on a jogger in a Paris suburb that left the 32-year-old man gravely injured. In the video, Coulibaly speaks fluent French and broken Arabic, pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group and detailing the terror operation he said was about to unfold.

The Kouachi brothers claimed the attacks were planned and financed by Al Qaeda in Yemen.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/01/11/are-charlie-thousands-to-march-to-honor-victims-paris-attack/

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Kerry announces planned Paris trip, says criticism for missing march 'quibbling'

by Fox News

Secretary of State John Kerry called criticism that no top U.S. officials attended Sunday's massive march against terrorism in Paris "quibbling" Monday, even as he announced a trip to the French capital later this week for talks on countering Islamist violence.

Kerry announced his plans at a press conference in the Indian city of Ahmedabad, where he had made a long-scheduled appearance at an international investment conference Sunday ahead of President Barack Obama's planned visit to that country later this month.

"I would have personally very much wanted to have been [in Paris]," Kerry said, "but couldn't do so because of the commitment that I had here and it is important to keep these kinds of commitments."

When asked about criticism directed at the Obama administration for not sending a high-ranking official to take part in the march, Kerry said, "I really think that this is sort of quibbling a little bit in the sense that our Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was there and marched, our ambassador [to France Jane Hartley] was there and marched, many people from the embassy were there and marched."

Nuland, in fact, attended a march in Washington.

Kerry also said at a news conference that U.S. officials, including himself and President Barack Obama, had been "deeply engaged" with French authorities almost immediately after the first attack occurred Wednesday and had offered intelligence assistance.

More than 40 world leaders, along with more than a million ordinary French citizens, marched arm in arm through the streets of Paris Sunday to rally for unity and freedom of expression and to honor the 17 victims killed in three separate terror attacks last week.

Among the world leaders who did march, under heavy security, were French President Francois Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Attorney General Eric Holder did not take part, despite being in Paris for meetings on counterterrorism.

Kerry said he is going to France to reaffirm U.S. solidarity with America's oldest ally. He said as soon as he heard about the march, he asked his team what the earliest time was that he could go.

"That is why I am going there on the way home and to make it crystal clear how passionately we feel about the events that have taken place there," he said. "I don't think he people of France have any doubt about America's understanding about what happened, about our personal sense of loss and our deep commitment to the people of France in this moment of trial."

Kerry will arrive in Paris on Thursday after stops in Sofia, Bulgaria and Geneva, Switzerland. In Geneva, on Wednesday Kerry will he meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif to discuss the status of nuclear negotiations that are to resume the following day.

Kerry will be the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit France since the terrorist attacks on a French newspaper and a kosher supermarket. Authorities say one of those involved in the attacks pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in a video. He and two other suspected extremists were killed during police raids.

"I want to emphasize that the relationship with France is not about one day or one particular moment," Kerry said. "It is an ongoing longtime relationship that is deeply, deeply based in the shared values, and particularly the commitment that we share to freedom of expression."

"No single act of terror, no two people with a AK-47s, no hostage-taking at a grocery store is ever going to prevent those who are committed to the march for freedom to continue to march and to ultimately see all people enjoy their rights, to be able to enjoy the protections that come with that freedom," he added.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/12/kerry-announces-planned-paris-trip-says-criticism-for-missing-march-quibbling/

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New York

Terror threat puts NYPD on high alert

NEW YORK (CNN) - The New York Police Department is on high alert after a repeated threat from the Islamic State group.

Someone re-released a September 2014 message that tells followers to "rise up and kill intelligence officers, police officers, soldiers, and civilians."

The threat specifically named the U.S., France, Australia and Canada as targets.

In an internal memo, NYPD employees were told to "remain alert and consider tactics at all times while on patrol," especially in light of the attacks in France.

The FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a similar bulletin to law enforcement across the country.

Authorities say the message is consistent with previous threats that the Islamic State group and others, including Al Qaeda, have issued.

http://www.wdam.com/story/27823842/terror-threat-puts-nypd-on-high-alert

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Washington

Paris terrorist attacks raise stakes for looming immigration fight

by Alexander Bolton and Scott Wong

Terrorist attacks by Islamic fundamentalists in Paris and Sydney have raised the stakes in a looming battle over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, say Republican and Democratic officials.

Senate and House Republicans are warning against a standoff with President Obama and Senate Democrats that could shut down the department tasked with protecting the homeland within weeks of terrorist attacks against Western targets.

They worry the GOP could wind up taking the blame, which is what happened when a dispute over implementation of the Affordable Care Act shuttered the federal government for 16 days.

While Republicans are unified in their desire to reverse the executive order Obama issued after Election Day shielding an estimated 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation, some are warning Tea Party colleagues such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) not to take the fight too far.

“Defunding that part of the bill that deals with enforcing the executive order makes sense but we can't go too far here because look what happened in Paris. The Department of Homeland Security needs to be up and running,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

Former Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) on Friday called it “absolutely essential” that counterterrorism be funded given the spate of attacks around the world.

A Senate GOP aide warned that Democrats would pounce on a departmental shutdown to accuse Republicans of prioritizing the desires of their conservative base over national security.

“There's no question that if the DHS shuts down in some way, Democrats will do everything to take full advantage of the situation,” the aide said.

A senior Senate Democratic aide said Republicans would lose the public relations battle over homeland security, especially after the deadly attacks on the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

“Republican efforts to play politics with Department of Homeland Security, which is actively engaged against the threat posed by ISIS, is a dangerous and risky move that can backfire,” the aide said, making reference to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

“The House proposal is an attempt to throw a hunk of red meat to the right at a time when the nation is at risk for attack,” the aide added.

House Republicans held a closed-door meeting Friday to discuss using the Homeland Security funding bill to fight Obama's immigration policies, just as authorities in Paris were in two separate standoffs with suspected terrorists.

Leaders “kept emphasizing” the House package would be narrowly tailored toward stopping Obama's executive actions and would not jeopardize funding for things like border security and counterterrorism measures, said Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.).

They plan to move legislation next week that would fund the department through the end of the fiscal year along with amendments to block Obama's unilateral action on immigration, fulfilling a promise many Republicans campaigned on in the fall.

One amendment would halt the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which Obama enacted in 2012 to shield illegal immigrants who came to the county at a young age, continuously resided in the country, and have a clean record.

Another would prohibit the department from using fees to carry Obama's executive orders, which are otherwise insulated from congressional spending decisions.

Senate Republicans say they will do everything possible to pick off enough centrist Democrats to pass it over the 60-vote hurdle required of most major legislation in the Senate, but Democrats declared it dead on arrival.

“It's a joke. Not only will it not pass the Senate, it won't put any pressure on Democrats because it's way too far to the right,” said a senior Democratic aide.

Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist and former House and Senate leadership aide, said the GOP would likely get blamed for a homeland security shutdown if they could not get a bill to Obama's desk.

He said if Obama vetoes the funding bill because of immigration language, “the problem would reside with Obama.”

But he cautioned Obama would only be held responsible if Republicans can actually get the legislation out of the Senate.

“If it gets stuck in legislative quicksand because of immigration and we have a terrorist attack in the United States, the GOP would be in a more precarious position,” he said. “They're in the majority, they have the responsibility to get the homeland security measure through.”

Democratic leaders feel confident they can stop the House measure, which is expected to pass the lower chamber next week.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, is already exploring legislative options that could muster 60 votes in case the House bill flounders.

But some Senate conservatives argue that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) should draw a hard line and refuse to pass any Homeland Security funding measure that doesn't include language rolling back the president's executive actions.

“The [2013] government shutdown ultimately didn't matter. It hurt Republicans in the short term but didn't hut them in the election,” said a conservative GOP aide.

The aide argued that failure to pass a funding bill by the Feb. 27 deadline would not impact the department's security operations significantly. The aide argued the Antideficiency Act would ensure that essential personal with important security responsibilities would still be required to show up for work.

The aide said Republican lawmakers would face a greater backlash from conservative voters if they backed down on their campaign promises to block Obama's executive action or postponed a showdown.

“I don't think that will be well received by conservatives,” the aide said.

http://thehill.com/homenews/news/229111-paris-raises-stakes-for-immigration-fight

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California

LAPD's Community Policing Strategy Serves As Prime Example For NYPD

by Rahel Gebreyes

Tense race relations following the Rodney King beating quickly made the Los Angeles Police Department one of the most notorious law enforcement organizations of the 1990s. But the New York Police Department may have just dethroned its southern California counterpart thanks to Eric Garner's chokehold death at the hands of police officer Daniel Pantaleo.

As New York City grapples with its police-community relations following Garner's death, the Big Apple could learn a thing or two from LA's progress in the last two decades. In a HuffPost Live conversation on Thursday, USC law professor Jody Armour said that Los Angeles' trajectory since the Rodney King riots serves as a prime example for the NYPD.

“We need to celebrate [the success of the LAPD] and make sure that New York, that now has [police chief Bill] Bratton, doesn't move towards a broken windows policy, but start to emulate the LAPD. I never thought I'd hear myself saying that,” Armour said.

Taking a more serious tone, Armour suggested that Los Angeles' successful community relations approach is one that should be spread to police departments across the United States.

While Bratton came to Los Angeles as a broken-windows policy supporter who pledged to focus additional police forces on high-crime areas, he embraced the consent decree, which placed the LAPD under strict federal oversight stemming from the 1999 Rampart scandal. After officers from the Rampart Division were revealed to have abused suspects, tampered with evidence and committed perjury, the LAPD underwent a serious overhaul, much of which was spearheaded by Bratton.

“Bratton knows it. He came out to LA in 2002 from a broken windows background, but the consent decree made him not follow that particular policy and adopt a different one,” Armour told host Nancy Redd.

As police chief of the LAPD, Bratton made race relations a priority and routinely met with black leaders within church and community circles. By 2009, the LAPD's approval ratings greatly increased since the days of the Rampart controversy and LA riots. Eight in 10 registered voters said that they "strongly approve" or "somewhat approve" of police performance in Los Angeles, while percentages of black and Latino voters who approve of the police department rose by double digits.

“The crime has gone down ... with a community-oriented approach, not the paramilitary broken windows approach. So we have the empirical evidence before us. We need to learn from it and make sure that it's spread across the nation,” Armour added.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/10/lapd-nypd-community-policing-nypd_n_6446740.html

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Indiana

WNIT's "Politically Speaking" discusses police-community relations

by Maria Catanzarite

SOUTH BEND, Ind. --- A panel comprised of community leaders, college professors, and police chiefs tackled the topic of police-community relations on Sunday. The ten guests appeared on WNIT's weekly public affairs program, "Politically Speaking."

The recent deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown thrusted community policing into the forefront of many conversations across the country. Plus, other officer-involved deaths dotted 2014, making some people question: Where do we go from here? Panelists discussed how race and the high incarceration rate in the United States interplay.

"We were told, 'Drive down crime,'" said South Bend Police Chief Ron Teachman. "We went [into neighborhoods] with a zero tolerance attitude and swept a lot of people into jail and lowered crime."

The disdain toward crime strained families, Teachman suggested.

"But the collateral damage: we've broken families. We've severed parts of our community. We need to heal that," he said.

Charlotte Pfeiffer, associate faculty member at IU-South Bend, said conversations on race (and policing) are difficult to have because people feel unsafe.

"The way to get people to really hear each other is that safety has to be established," Pfeiffer said. "If I am worried about saying something that's going to offend you, then I'm not going to say anything -- or I'm going to be very careful. We're not going to have these real conversations.

Panelists hinted that these talks can be a compass.

"You have to have that communication where you can sit down and have meaningful dialogue with the community," said Elkhart Police Chief Laura Koch.

Sam Centellas, Executive Cirector of La Casa de Amistad said conversations between the police and community are indispensable.

"We've opened up great lines of communication with chiefs of police for them to say, 'We would like you to call us more often about other things -- not just major crimes -- but call us about 'We're seeing this in the neighborhood' or 'This is going on at the store."

Centellas added it is key to maintain clear channels instead of waiting until "something bad happens."

Retired South Bend police officer Lynn Coleman said police officers have to respect their authority.

"Often times, we hear, 'You give respect to get it?' Well, it starts with us -- the police -- meaning we have to give the respect."

Among other issues, the group delved into diversifying the police recruitment process and having a stronger police presence at community events.

Viewers and the public also weighed in on the weekly topic.

WNIT will rebroadcast "Police-Community Relations" this Monday, January 12 at 5 p.m. on Channel 34.2 and again at 7 p.m. on Thursday, January 15 on Channel 34.1.

http://www.wndu.com/home/headlines/Local-leaders-tackle-police-community-relations-on-public-affairs-program-288221181.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

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Adopt-A-School Program

Bringing a Message of Hope to Students

Twenty years ago, the FBI began a program to help kids steer clear of drugs and gangs while learning core values that would make them good citizens. Since the Adopt-A-School Program was established in 1994, special agents and other FBI employees have volunteered thousands of hours to make a positive impact on young people around the nation.

The Adopt-A-School Program identifies schools in disadvantaged communities—where kids may face greater exposure to gangs, drugs, and criminal activity—and sends Bureau employees there to be tutors and mentors.

“This is a great program that can have a profound influence on young people,” said Special Agent Paul Geiger, chief of the Community Relations Unit at FBI Headquarters in Washington. “We teach students that despite any hardships they may be facing now, if they work hard and make the right decisions, they can accomplish anything they want with their lives.”

The Adopt-A-School Program contains different components aimed at specific age groups. The Junior Special Agent program, for example, is directed at fifth- and sixth-graders. A mentorship program is aimed at second- and fourth-graders, and the Future Agents in Training program is for high school students between the ages of 16 and 18. Depending on the component, Bureau employees may visit schools once a week for several months, or every other week for an entire school year.

“It's all volunteer on the part of FBI employees,” Geiger explained, “and there is no cost to the taxpayer because funds needed for field trips and other items are typically raised through our Citizens Academy Alumni Associations.” (See sidebar.)

In the last fiscal year—October 1, 2013 to September 30, 2014—28 FBI field offices had active Adopt-A-School programs, and more than 800 students nationwide graduated from Junior Special Agent programs.

The Washington Field Office, located near FBI Headquarters, has one of the largest—and oldest—Adopt-A-School programs. This year, community outreach specialists there are administering the program to six different schools in the region, and more than 300 young people are participating.

“We have a curriculum with core blocks of instruction that integrates with what the kids are learning in the classroom,” said Special Agent William Woodson. “Students also learn about what the men and women of the FBI do—from bomb techs and SWAT teams to evidence collectors and investigators.”

“We teach our Junior Special Agents about the dangers of gangs and drugs, about cyber-bullying, and how to stay safe online,” Woodson added. “We teach them core values like honesty, integrity, and responsibility.” Fitness is also an important part of the program, and before they graduate and become Junior Special Agents, students must pass a fit test.

During the school year, youngsters in the Washington Field Office program are taken on field trips to the White House, the U.S. Capitol, and nearby Civil War sites. “The trips are fun but also educational,” Woodson explained. “We are not going to an amusement park. We are doing things that are educational.”

He added that for many of the students, who come from difficult socio-economic backgrounds, the field trips are a rare privilege. “Even though some of these kids live only a few miles from downtown Washington, they might never see the Capitol or the White House if not for this program.”

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2015/january/adopt-a-school-program-part-1-bringing-a-message-of-hope-to-students/adopt-a-school-program-part-1-bringing-a-message-of-hope-to-students