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January, 2015 - Week 4

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Ohio

Ohio Delays All 2015 Executions As It Tries to Find Drugs

Ohio has postponed all six of its scheduled executions this year until 2016 as it tries to find supplies of drugs to use in lethal injections.

The move by the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Friday comes amid controversy over how states execute those sentenced to death. The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to take up a legal challenge to Oklahoma's method. The execution dates for inmates scheduled to die in 2016 remained unchanged, the department said in a statement.

Some states have been struggling to find drugs to execute inmates by lethal injection after manufacturers of the drugs that had been used in the past stopped selling them for the purposes of putting people to death.

Ohio this month scrapped an execution-drug combination it had used when it put Dennis McGuire to death in January of 2014. McGuire was put to death with midazolam and hydromorphone, and the convicted rapist and murderer appeared to gasp during the 26 minutes it took him to die. The state said it would switch to pentobarbital and sodium thiopental, but since manufacturers refuse to sell it for executions, states have to take the more difficult route of obtaining the drugs from compounding pharmacies.

Ronald Phillips had been the next Ohio inmate sentenced to die before the executions were pushed back. Phillips, convicted of raping and murdering a 3-year-old, was scheduled to be executed on Feb. 11. His execution was rescheduled for Jan. 21, 2016, according to the department.

The Supreme Court this week agreed to hear a challenge brought by three death-row inmates in Oklahoma who argue that the three-drug combination the state uses in executions is unconstitutional.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/lethal-injection/ohio-delays-all-2015-executions-it-tries-find-drugs-n297466

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Wisconsin

Community Policing

by Matt Pommer

A protest group wants to end community policing in Madison to help cut in half the number of poor and black people who get arrested. It's a local spin growing out of incidents across the nation between police and black citizens.

The group, called the Young, Gifted and Black Coalition, said police have become an “occupying force” in neighborhoods of minority residents. “The relationship we desire to have with the police is simple: no interaction,” the group said in an open letter.

“Our people need opportunities for self-determination, not policing,” the group added.

Madison Police Chief Mike Koval, who is white, blistered the criticism, defending his officers who participate in community policing to improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods and create better relationships. Drugs and guns are major issues. Community policing efforts allow officers to help, rather than just focus on making arrests.

“People in our neighborhoods rely on our assistance and hope that our influence will make these challenged neighborhoods safer,” Koval responded.

“Are you really advocating the police abdicate our responsibilities to these folks?” he asked rhetorically.

Unsaid was that older citizens in the challenged neighborhoods may not agree with the idea of removing officers from their streets and playgrounds. Koval said he hears from neighborhood residents who like the added presence of his officers.

Community policing is growing in America. In Madison, it is a decentralized approach in which officers work with other city departments to help provide services to challenged neighborhoods. Incidents between police and African-American residents in Missouri and New York City have triggered protest activities in many areas, including Madison. The demonstrations have included rallies at City Hall and people laying down in shopping malls. The group also has opposed expanding the Dane County Jail, saying the $8 million should be used to help poor people.

Koval said it was time for the protestors “to look a lot closer at issues besetting our people of color and stop pandering to the ‘blame game' of throwing my department to the wolves.''

The chief said the Wisconsin Legislature could make changes in laws that would reduce any racial bias in law enforcement. Possible changes include ending the practice of trying 17-year-olds as adults, using “restorative justice” courts to keep people from quickly ending up in the state justice system, and changing drug possession laws.

It's doubtful elected state officials would tackle that agenda. They could face criticism in the media that they are “soft on crime.”

Last April, 65 percent of Dane County voters said “yes” to an advisory ballot question on whether the state should legalize marijuana. But the issue has lots of twists and turns. In December, the Dane County board rejected a federal grant from the Cannabis Enforcement and Suppression Effort program. In previous years, the county had received tens of thousands of dollars from the federal program.

The grant provides money to fight heroin, other drugs and gun traffic. Supervisors who opposed accepting the money said they wanted to send a signal about racial disparity in drug-related arrests.

The drug issues have attracted more attention with a substantial increase in the number of heroin deaths. In 2013, Dane County saw a 350 percent increase in heroin deaths – the majority were white citizens.

Turning down federal money to make a point is familiar to Wisconsin citizens. Gov. Scott Walker has rejected hundreds of millions of federal dollars to expand Medicaid, saying he doubted the federal government could continue the program.

http://www.hngnews.com/deforest_times/opinion/columns/article_0848766c-a8c5-11e4-9a98-97fa852e869a.html

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South Carolina

North Augusta Public Safety reminding of anonymous tip line

NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. (WRDW) -- North Augusta Public Safety is reminding people of their anonymous tip line to report suspicious or criminal activity.

The tip line is available to anyone at any time to call with information about suspicious behavior in neighborhoods. It's also used to report bits of helpful information to unsolved crimes, Tim Thornton said.

All calls will remain anonymous unless the caller leaves their personal information and requests a return call, North Augusta Public Safety said.

The number is: 279-2824 (or 27-WATCH).

http://www.wrdw.com/home/headlines/North-Augusta-Public-Safety-reminding-of-anonymous-tip-line-290336021.html

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Colorado

Denver police chief orders review of moving-car shootings over past 2 years

by Fox News

Denver's police chief has ordered a review of cases where an officer fired at a moving car after perceiving it to be a threat following an outcry over the shooting of a 17-year-old earlier this week.

Jessica Hernandez was killed early Monday when two officers shot at the stolen car they said she was driving toward them. The shooting was the fourth time in seven months that a Denver officer fired at a moving vehicle.

"Despite the fact that I think we have a very restrictive policy we still had four incidents in the last year," Chief Robert White said Thursday. Department policy encourages officers to move out of the way of a moving car rather than use their firearm. But it also allows them to shoot if they have no other reasonable way to prevent death or serious injury.

White's review will look at all such cases over the past two years.

"We've all seen the current policy and you all understand there are very serious questions about whether this shooting was a direct violation of the police department's policy," Mark Silverstein, legal director of the ACLU of Colorado, told the Denver Post.

One of the officers involved in the shooting suffered a leg injury, though White told reporters Thursday that it was not clear how he was hurt.

"Whether it occured as a result of his attempt to get out of the way of the moving vehicle or being struck by the moving vehicle, that's part of the investigation," he said.

White's initially said Monday that the officers opened fire after one was struck by the car. White said the officers told Hernandez and the four other teens in the car several times to get out of the vehicle.

White would not comment further on Thursday about the sequence of events or what prompted the officers to fire, stressing that the investigation is in its early stages.

A spokeswoman for the local district attorney's office told the Post that Hernandez had "prior contact" with law enforcement in Denver, a term which could refer to any offense from a traffic ticket to more serious felonies. However, the spokeswoman said no records would be released until the investigation into the officers is complete.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/01/30/denver-police-chief-orders-review-moving-car-shootings-over-past-2-years/

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California

Editorial

A strong start on community policing in Sacramento

by the Editorial Board

Police Chief Sam Somers presented an expansive – and expensive – list of options to ramp up community policing in Sacramento, both to reduce crime and increase public trust.

Now, the City Council should set priorities among the strategies, aiming for a better police force, not necessarily a bigger one.

There are some good ideas among those Somers outlined to council members Tuesday night. It would be helpful for dispatchers and officers to get more training to identify signs of mental illness and for more officers to know a second language. Body cameras for officers are worth pursuing.

It's important to improve recruiting to build a more diverse police force that better reflects the city. It's worth looking at financial incentives to get more officers to live in Sacramento. Reopening public counters at three substations would strengthen neighborhood ties.

These initiatives come with a cost – a total of as much as $860,000 upfront and an ongoing cost of $3.9 million a year.

While Somers isn't requesting the money in his budget, council members have made clear that public safety is their top priority so will likely consider some additions in spending plans for 2015-16 and beyond.

The most expensive proposal – and one of the most controversial – is to significantly beef up the police force. The department has 723 sworn officers, but that's still 81 fewer officers than the pre-Great Recession peak. Somers put forward a goal to reach 1,000 sworn officers by 2035 – adding 15 officers a year for the next 20 years. That would cost $1.4 million a year, plus vehicles and equipment. With that price tag alone, it should get close scrutiny.

Led by Mayor Kevin Johnson, the council asked for the police chief's report amid the national protests over the grand jury decisions not to indict officers involved in the deaths of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y.

Somers disclosed that the department has agreed to take part in a three-year national study being done by UCLA researchers on racial profiling and use of force.

Still, several residents complained that the report didn't address their concerns about police brutality against protesters and others, and didn't focus enough on the department's accountability. Johnson said the community will have a chance to add to the to-do list. But those activists calling for fewer officers on the street don't speak for many Sacramentans, who are pleased with the significant drop in violent crime.

We also have to keep in mind that public safety isn't just the responsibility of police. For instance, there would be fewer confrontations with the homeless or mentally ill if there were more shelters and treatment options. There would be fewer young people in gangs with enhanced youth programs.

What Somers has given the city is a good starting point to come up with a strategy that works in each neighborhood, that taxpayers can afford and that will get Sacramento closer to being a national model for community policing.

http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorials/article8528675.html

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From the FBI

New Most Wanted Terrorist
Naturalized U.S. Citizen Born in Somalia Added to FBI List

(Picture on site)

Liban Haji Mohamed, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Somalia, has been named to the FBI's list of Most Wanted Terrorists, and a reward of up to $50,000 is being offered for information leading to his arrest and conviction. Mohamed is charged with providing material support and resources to al Qaeda and al Shabaab, a Somali-based terrorist organization.

“Al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for many bombings in Somalia and Uganda and the 2013 attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya,” said Carl Ghattas, special agent in charge of the Counterterrorism Division at the FBI's Washington Field Office. “Liban Mohamed is believed to have left the U.S. with the intent to join al Shabaab in East Africa. We believe he is currently there operating on behalf of that terrorist organization.”

Traveling with his U.S. passport, Mohamed is thought to have left the United States on or about July 5, 2012. Before his departure, the 29-year-old lived in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., where he worked as a cab driver.

“While living in Northern Virginia, Mohamed was a recruiter and radicalizer for al Shabaab, which historically has targeted Westerners to go to Somalia and fight for them,” Ghattas said. “Not only did Mohamed choose to go to Somalia and fight with al Shabaab, he took a prominent role in trying to recruit people and have them train with weapons.”

A federal warrant for Mohamed's arrest was unsealed today by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Virginia. In addition to today's announcement adding Mohamed to the terrorist list and offering a reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction, the FBI is publicizing the case on social media channels in Somalia and elsewhere to encourage people to come forward with information about the fugitive.

“It is important for us to locate Mohamed because he has knowledge of the Washington, D.C. area's infrastructure such as shopping areas, Metro, airports, and government buildings,” Ghattas explained. “This makes him an asset to his terrorist associates who might plot attacks on U.S. soil.”

Shortly after leaving the U.S, the international police organization Interpol issued a blue notice for Mohamed to collect additional information about his identity, location, and activities. On August 15, 2014, Interpol issued a red notice to seek him as a wanted fugitive.

Mohamed speaks English, Somali, and Arabic. He is black, 6 feet tall, weighs about 194 pounds, and has black hair and brown eyes. He could be using aliases including Abu Ayrow, Shirwa, Shirwac, Qatiluhum, and Qatil. Mohamed was a close associate of convicted terrorist Zachary Chesser, who was sentenced in 2011 to 25 years in prison for attempting to provide material support to al Shabaab.

There are currently 31 individuals on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list. Those on the list have been charged in the U.S. for their alleged involvement in various terrorist attacks or planned attacks around the world against U.S. interests or persons.

The FBI also announced today it is seeking information about another individual, Ghazi Nasr Al-Din, regarding fundraising efforts on behalf of the terrorist group Hizballah (see sidebar).

Anyone with information about Liban Haji Mohamed or Ghazi Nasr Al-Din should contact the FBI or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate. Tips can be submitted anonymously online.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2015/january/new-most-wanted-terrorist/new-most-wanted-terrorist

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From the Departent of Homeland Security

Remarks by Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson:
"DHS 2015: The Secretary's Progress Report"

Introduction

Good afternoon. I want to start with a family photograph.

Though you won't believe this, this is me and my kid sister in 1966. I was 8 years old, standing next to my Dad's 1966 Buick convertible. The most striking thing about the photograph is that as recently as 1966, a private, everyday family of tourists like ours could drive our car onto the grounds of the U.S. Capitol and park it, with no inspection or prior notice, just a few feet from the building.

This is the same spot, today. The public parking lot is gone, replaced by a few black Suburbans, police vehicles, and heavily-armed members of the Capitol Police. Sadly, there are threats to our homeland security today that did not exist in 1966. The Department of which I am Secretary is responsible for addressing those threats.

A year ago I stood here and spelled out my vision for the future of the Department of Homeland Security. I was then new to the job. Now, a year later, I'm here to provide a progress report on our efforts, with the benefit of a year's experience.

I thank Jane Harman and the Wilson Center for once again providing me with the forum for this speech. Jane Harman is a wise supporter, advisor and mentor. In this town, people like her mean a lot to people like me. We could not govern without you. Thank you and the Wilson Center for everything that you do.

Improving the Manner in Which We Deliver Homeland Security

On New Year's Day I wrote out a set of New Year's Resolutions for the senior leadership of DHS. At the top of the list were things that go to the manner in which we conduct business and deliver homeland security. The reality is that DHS is a very large conglomerate of 22 components that is only 12 years old. We are a large bureaucracy. We are still finding our way, but we are headed in the right direction.

Filling the vacancies. First, over the last year we have filled almost all the senior-level vacancies that existed in the Department. Just prior to the time I took office a year ago, the Department of Homeland Security had no Secretary, no Deputy Secretary, and vacancies at a number of senior-level positions.

We now have a new Secretary (me), a new Deputy Secretary (Alejandro Mayorkas), a new Under Secretary for National Protection and Programs Directorate (Suzanne Spaulding), a new Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis (General Frank Taylor), a new Under Secretary for Science and Technology (Dr. Reggie Brothers), a new Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (Gil Kerlikowske), a new Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services (Leon Rodriguez), a new Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Sarah Saldana), a new Chief Financial Officer (Chip Fulghum), a new Deputy Administrator of FEMA (Admiral Joe Nimmich),a new Inspector General (John Roth), a new Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs (Brian de Vallance), and a new Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs (Tanya Bradsher).

We are actively working through slates of candidates to fill the vacancies that have arisen in the past year: a permanent Director of the Secret Service and Administrator of TSA.

Unity of Effort. We are restructuring the whole manner in which we make decisions within the Department of Homeland Security. In April I directed a “Unity of Effort” initiative, which has brought about a more centralized and integrated process for making decisions concerning budget requests, acquisition, strategy and other department functions. We are moving away from decisions made in stove pipes. As part of this initiative, we have created a Joint Requirements Council consisting of senior leaders from the DHS components, to identify and recommend investments to maximize efficiency. We have also realigned seven major DHS headquarters functions, to consolidate like functions and promote efficiency.

A commitment to transparency. Next, as I said here last year, we are committed to greater transparency. Government transparency breeds credibility and confidence; government secrecy breeds suspicion. One of our executive actions that the President announced on November 20 is to direct our Office of Immigration Statistics to collect, maintain and report consolidated DHS-wide data on the number of people we apprehend, remove, return or repatriate every year, in a manner that can be made public. Here again, we've been far too stove-piped in how we collect and report this information. I applaud Chief Fisher for making public the Border Patrol's use of force policy last year, and Commissioner Kerlikowske for making public the recommendations of the independent Police Executive Research Forum about use of force by the Border Patrol, two documents long sought by the media.

Improving Morale. The Deputy Secretary and I are on an aggressive, multi-faceted campaign to improve morale within components of DHS. In October of last year we restored the Secretary's Awards Program, which had been dormant since 2008, to recognize more than 300 employees who have made outstanding achievements across DHS.

Getting off the GAO High Risk List. Next, DHS is one of 16 departments and agencies on GAO's so-called "High Risk List." We are on a path to get off that list soon. Indeed, GAO has informed us that our interactions with GAO serve as a “model” for how other federal agencies can work to address GAO's high risk designations.

Improving responsiveness to Congress. We have improved the Department's responsiveness to Congress. This, despite the challenge of -- depending on how you count -- 92 committees and subcommittees of Congress who claim an oversight role over this Department. Members of Congress 1 on both sides of the aisle, including some of our biggest critics, have taken note.

From Worst to First in Plain Language. Finally, and my favorite one, which I learned about last week, in the judgment of the Center for Plain Language, the Department of Homeland Security has gone from worst to first among federal agencies in our ability to communicate in plain language – one of my personal passions.

* * * *

In these challenging times, management reform is itself a homeland security imperative. Now, here is where we are on the substance of some of our important missions:

Counterterrorism

I said here a year ago, as long as I am Secretary, counterterrorism will remain the cornerstone of the Department of Homeland Security's mission. Thirteen and a half years after 9/11, it's still a dangerous world. And, in 2015, we must recognize that we have evolved to a new phase in the global terrorist threat. Today the terrorist threat is more decentralized, more diffuse, and more complex.

We are concerned about the so-called foreign fighter who leaves his home country, travels to another country to take up the fight there, links up with terrorist extremists, and may return home – whether it's this country or one of our allies -- with a terrorist extremist purpose.

We are concerned about terrorist organizations' new, slick and skilled use of the internet to publicly recruit individuals to conduct attacks within their own homelands. AQAP no longer builds bombs in secret; it has now publicized its instruction manual, and has called for people to use it.

We are concerned about the domestic-based threat lurking in our midst -- the so-called "lone wolf" -- who may become inspired by this extremist propaganda on the internet, and who could strike with little or no notice.

So, what are we doing about this in 2015?

First, as everyone knows, we are taking the fight to these groups, in places like Iraq and Syria.

Our intelligence community continues to detect terrorist plots at their earliest stages.

Domestically, the FBI investigates, interdicts and prosecutes terrorist plots in the homeland.

In response to the recent attacks in Paris, Ottawa, Sydney and elsewhere, and the public calls by terrorist organizations for attacks in the West, I directed that the Federal Protective Service increase its presence at federal buildings in major cities in the United States.

We continue to tailor and enhance our security through every appropriate method. For example, the visa waiver program we offer to 38 nations is a valuable tool for international commerce and travel. It is a program that must continue, but there are ways in which the security of the program can be improved. To enhance security while maintaining the integrity of the program, last November we identified added information fields to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization – or “ESTA” – to learn more about those who travel to the United States from countries for which we do not require a visa. We are considering further security enhancements.

We are engaging our allies in Europe and elsewhere to encourage them to maintain and share travel information about individuals of suspicion.

We are sharing more information and training with state and local law enforcement in this country. Given the manner in which the terrorist threat is evolving, the cop on the beat must be as vigilant as the intelligence analyst.

Engaging the community

Our efforts must include public engagement. DHS, along with the Justice Department, are engaging communities, organizations and institutions here at home that are themselves in a position to deter others who may be turning toward violence. In 2014, DHS held over 70 of these roundtables, meetings and other events in 14 cities around the country. I personally participated in these meetings in Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, Minneapolis, Boston and Los Angeles.

If You See Something Say Something™

We are doubling-down on our "If You See Something, Say Something™" campaign. Yesterday at a pre-Super Bowl press conference in Phoenix I rolled out this new, enhanced program. This must be more than a slogan.

Aviation security

Our counterterrorism efforts also include continued vigilance in aviation security. Last summer I directed that we enhance aviation security at overseas airports with flights directly to the United States. Several weeks ago TSA made further enhancements, and we are reviewing whether more is necessary.

As Secretary I have made it a DHS priority to establish pre-clearance by Customs and aviation security personnel at overseas airports, before a passenger gets on a flight bound for the United States. At present, we have pre-clearance in 15 overseas airports at which we have screened more than 16 million passengers before they arrived in the United States. The newest of these pre-clearance operations, at Abu Dhabi in the UAE, opened early last year. Since that time, at Abu Dhabi alone, we have already screened 364,000 passengers and crew bound for the U.S., and denied boarding to 571 individuals, including a number who were in the terrorist screening database.

We want to build more of these, at overseas airports where it makes sense from a homeland security point of view, and in a way that U.S air carriers will support. Last year we put out a solicitation and received 25 letters of interest from airports around the world.

Fixing our Broken Immigration System

We are taking steps to fix our broken immigration system. Some say we should have waited for Congress to act. Let's not forget that we did wait, for years, and Congress did not act. The President continues to urge Congress to finish the job and pass a comprehensive, bipartisan immigration bill. He is willing to work with any serious partner – Democrat, Republican or Independent – who wants to fix the system. In the meantime, we must improve the system within our existing legal authorities. We did that, and the President announced these set of reforms on November 20, 2014.

We've established a new program of deferred action for undocumented adults. Those who have committed no serious crimes, have been in this country since January 1, 2010, and have children here who are citizens or lawful permanent residents, are eligible to be considered for this program. The reality is that these immigrants are not enforcement priorities. Therefore, we want to encourage these people to come out of the shadows, be accountable, pay taxes, and get on the books, so we know who they are.

Our executive actions also prioritize the removal of felons over families, includes a number of measures to further secure the border, discontinue the Secure Communities program and replace it with a new program, streamline legal immigration to boost the economy and promote naturalization, support military families, and enhance options for foreign-born high-skilled workers, entrepreneurs and businesses.

Strengthening Border Security

We are taking a number of steps to further secure the border. I'm on a mission to strengthen border security, and to also replace public misperception with the facts.

In June 2013, Pew Research conducted a survey and asked the following question: "Just your best guess -- compared with ten years ago, do you think the number of immigrants entering the U.S. illegally today is higher, lower, or about the same?" Amazingly, 55% of respondents answered higher, and only 15% answered lower.

The reality is on this slide. In the year 2000, apprehensions on the southern border-- which are a direct indicator of total attempts to cross the border illegally -- exceeded 1.6 million. Apprehensions on the southern border have dropped considerably since then, to around 400,000 a year in recent years. Apprehensions are in fact at their lowest rate since the 1970s.

These numbers are no doubt partially due to economic conditions and trends in the U.S., Mexico and Central America, but also due to the very large investment this Nation has made in border security over the last 15 years.

Today's Border Patrol has the largest deployment of people, vehicles, aircraft, boats and equipment along the southwest border in its 90-year history. This includes a budget of $3.5 billion, a total of 23,000 personnel, and 20,833 border patrol agents.

Without a doubt, we had a challenge last summer, with the unprecedented number of unaccompanied children and others who crossed a narrow area of our southern border into the Rio Grande Valley, in search of a family member and a better life in this country. We responded aggressively with more people and resources on the southern border. Beginning in mid-June the numbers of unaccompanied children crossing the southern border declined sharply, and are now at far lower levels.

But, we are not declaring “mission accomplished.”

The President and I are committed to building an even more secure border, and a smart strategy to get there. Much of illegal migration is seasonal. The poverty and violence that are the “push factors” in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador still exist. The economy in this country – a “pull factor” -- is getting better. There is still more we can and should do.

We are pursuing a risk-based strategy for border security. This means focusing resources where our intelligence and our surveillance tell us the threats exist. This is a smart, effective and efficient use of taxpayer resources.

There are more aircraft, surveillance, radar technology and other equipment that our experts have determined we need, which we have requested for FY 2015.

In December we opened a new family facility in Dilley, Texas that will house up to 2,400 individuals.

We are continuing aggressive public awareness messaging in Central America and elsewhere. This "know the facts" campaign was launched on January 5 th . On January 21, I wrote another open letter in the Spanish language press to repeat the message.

Finally, we have launched a Department of Homeland Security-wide Southern Border Campaign Plan. We are doing away with the stove-piped approach to border security. Instead, we are putting to use, in a combined and coordinated way, the assets and personnel of CBP, ICE, CIS, the Coast Guard, toward the goal of border security.

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

Lawful trade and travel

A key part of our mission is to facilitate lawful trade and travel. This is vital to commerce and our economy. President Obama is committed to this.

Last year TSA continued to expand the very popular TSA Pre-check program, enrolling 800,000 new participants. At the same time, TSA screened 653 million total air passengers -- 14 million more than the year before -- 443 million checked bags, and 1.7 billion carry-on bags.

Last year CBP screened 374 million passengers at land, sea and airports, an increase of 4% from the year before, and enrolled an additional 1.25 million travelers in the various Trusted Traveler Programs, to bring total enrollment to 3.3 million members. In 2014, CBP also processed $2.4 trillion in trade, an increase of 4% from the year before, and 25.7 million cargo containers through ports of entry, a 4.5% increase from the year before.

We are working with Canada and Mexico on programs and initiatives to facilitate the lawful and secure movement of goods and people between our countries. In response to President Obama's executive order, DHS is leading a 47-agency effort to create a national, electronic “Single Window” trade processing system for importers and exporters to do business with the United States. We are working to modernize in other areas to promote lawful trade and travel.

Cybersecurity

We need to make strides in cybersecurity.

Through our National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, or "NCCIC," DHS is responsible for assisting and sharing information with the private sector concerning cyberattacks and threats, and for securing the civilian .gov networks.

I was pleased that, last year, Congress provided bipartisan support for our efforts, with the passage of legislation which codifies DHS's authority to assist the private sector, codifies DHS's authority to assist other federal agencies, and legislation to enhance DHS's ability to hire cyber talent.

We need to go further. On January 14, President Obama came to the NCCIC and announced his Administration's support for more cybersecurity legislation that will ensure our economic prosperity, national security and individual civil liberties. We are proposing legislation to (1) encourage the private sector to share cyber threat indicators with the NCCIC, (2) protect the private sector with limits on civil and criminal liability when they do, (3) require businesses to notify victims and the government when there is a data breach at that company, and (4) enhance criminal penalties for cybercrime.

The Secret Service

The Secret Service is the finest protection service in the world. No other agency of any government in the world could protect 135 world leaders all at once when they gather for the UN General Assembly. The Secret Service does this each year with great professionalism and without incident. The Secret Service continues to enjoy the President's trust and confidence, as it protects him and his family. It has built tremendous talent and capability to pursue cyber and financial crimes.

However, recent events have highlighted the need for change. In October I appointed an independent panel to take a hard look at the Secret Service. In December the panel reported its findings back to me. Those recommendations were astute, thorough and fair. A number of security enhancements have already been made and implemented by Acting Director Clancy, but the Secret Service must also commit to longer term and more systemic change. For my part, I am committed to sustained and encouraged oversight of the Secret Service, to ensure that it has what it needs to get the job done.

FLETC

Last year our Federal Law Enforcement Training Center trained over 59,000 officers and agents from federal, state, local, tribal and international law enforcement.

The Coast Guard

We are ensuring that the Coast Guard has what it needs to get its job done. These are exciting times for the Coast Guard, as it is replacing its aging fleet with new vessels. Four new National Security Cutters are in service and a fifth will be commissioned this summer. Twelve new Fast Response Cutters have been delivered and are making a difference every day in south Florida, and we are more than halfway to completing the replacement of our fleet of aged patrol boats. Meanwhile, the Coast Guard is in the design phase of a new mid-size Offshore Patrol Cutter. I am committed to ensuring this project is affordable before going forward with the selection of a general contractor and production.

FEMA

FEMA has become the premier emergency management agency in the country and has earned the confidence of federal, state and local leaders throughout. In the year I've been in office, I have personally had the opportunity to observe this at disaster recovery sites.

Support from Congress

Finally, DHS cannot pursue all these important missions alone. I cannot print money. I cannot appropriate money. We need a continued partnership with Congress. We need a FY 2015 appropriations bill.

At present DHS is operating on a continuing resolution which expires on February 27. As long as we are on a CR, we are restricted to last year's spending levels, and cannot engage in any new spending and activities.

This means we cannot pay for the added border security that I talked about.

This means we cannot invest in the things the independent panel recommended to improve the Secret Service; we cannot hire new Secret Service agents for the coming presidential election cycle.

This means we cannot fund new non-disaster grants for state and local governments that mayors, police chiefs, fire chiefs, and governors depend on.

Our ability to fund aviation security, maritime security, port security and homeland security is severely constrained as long as we are on a CR.

As originally introduced by the House Appropriations Committee, the FY 2015 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security was a good bill. It appropriated $39.7 billion for the Department and funded many of the things we need. On the House floor the bill was amended to include politically-charged language to defund all our executive actions to fix the immigration system. The President has vowed to veto any bill that includes such language.

The clock to February 27 is ticking. In these times, the homeland security budget of this government should not be a political football. I urge Congress to pass an appropriations bill for DHS, free and clear of politically-charged amendments.

Conclusion

I will end with the very last two words I ended last year's speech with. Last year, I said that, in the name of homeland security, we should not sacrifice our values as a Nation of people who cherish privacy and freedom, celebrate diversity, and are not afraid . Fear is corrosive.

In the final analysis, courage and resolve in the face of challenge are the greatest strengths of any nation. Terrorism cannot advance if we refuse to be terrorized. Whether in response to a terrorist threat, a natural disaster, a deadly virus, or in the pursuit of a more perfect union, courage and resolve will always prevail.

Thank you for listening.

[1] Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-TX):

“Mr. Secretary, I want to begin by thanking you for your accountability. . . Your responsiveness to our requests and our questions and your commitment to transparency – I think there's a long way still to go within the department, but in the last 12 months, we've seen more transparency than we've seen in years. And so I really do appreciate that.”

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT):

“I can tell you, since you've taken office, the production and the response to Congress in terms of responding to our letters and inquiries is – the difference, I cannot tell you how much better it is. And I thank you and the people who work on this. I do appreciate [that].”

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK):

“Jeh Johnson has proven to be a capable leader, a transparent partner with Congress , and committed to making tough decisions and improving the Department.” #

http://www.dhs.gov/news/2015/01/29/remarks-secretary-johnson-dhs-2015-secretarys-progress-report

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Secretary Johnson Highlights Super Bowl XLIX Security Operations

PHOENIX— Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson was in Arizona to meet with local law enforcement officials and oversee the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) security operations surrounding Super Bowl XLIX. Secretary Johnson announced the re-launch of the Department's “If You See Something, Say Something” public awareness campaign and continued partnership with the National Football League (NFL) to help ensure the safety and security of employees, players and fans during Super Bowl XLIX.

“Public awareness, support and participation in our homeland security efforts are essential,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson. “As I've said before ‘if you see something, say something' is more than just a slogan. Whether you are on the plains of Iowa, the streets of Manhattan or a fan at the Super Bowl, we all play a role in keeping our neighborhoods and communities safe. Our partnership with the NFL on the “If You See Something, Say Something™” public awareness campaign during the Super Bowl is a critical part of our efforts to ensure the safety of every employee, player and fan.”

More than 100,000 fans and visitors in and around the Phoenix area will see the “If You See Something, Say Something™” message at hotels, on buses, billboards, magazines and visitor guides. For the first time ever, individuals in Arizona who are using their smart phones to play games using the Game Day and NFL Experience mobile applications may see campaign messaging throughout Super Bowl Weekend. The newly revamped materials highlight the individual role of everyday citizens to protect their neighbors and the communities they call home, by recognizing and reporting suspicious activity.

The “If You See Something, Say Something™” materials are just one part of the support DHS has provided for the Super Bowl since the inception of the Department. Hundreds of employees from DHS, and assets from across the Department, will support our state and local partners charged with securing this event.

DHS Operations - Super Bowl XLIX

•  As the principal Federal official for domestic incident management Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson has appointed Federal Coordinator Matthew Allen (Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement/ Homeland Security Investigations, Phoenix) and Deputy Federal Coordinator Cristina Beloud (Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Secret Service, Phoenix) to serve as the Secretary's representatives locally and federal points of contact for facilitating planning and support.

•  DHS is providing security assessments and training to state and local law enforcement, local hotels, and others to help them identify potential risks and take steps needed to address them

•  DHS is continuing our partnership with the NFL with a newly revamped “If You See Something, Say Something” public awareness campaign. Fans and visitors in the area will see the “If You See Something, Say Something™” message at hotels, and on buses, billboards and for the first-time ever mobile applications. The message will also appear in the game day program, the official fan guide, and on the video board during the game.

•  The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is sending additional officers and increasing the number of checkpoint lanes at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport for the influx of fans traveling for the game. TSA will deploy nearly 90 additional Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) and supervisors as well as four Passenger Screening Canine teams.

•  TSA's Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams, comprised of Federal Air Marshals, surface/aviation transportation security inspectors, Behavioral Detection Officers, TSOs, and canine teams are helping secure mass transit locations in and around the Phoenix area.

•  The U.S. Secret Service will support open-source social media monitoring for situational awareness and has been assisting with cyber security vulnerability assessments and mitigation. The Secret Service also conducted magnetometer training for University of Phoenix Stadium security personnel.

•  U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will conduct operations specifically targeting counterfeit vendors and local merchants of game-related sportswear. This is part of a crackdown on intellectual property rights (IPR) violations and to ensure fans are getting official Super Bowl related memorabilia.

•  CBP officers and non-intrusive inspection equipment will scan the cargo entering the stadium for contraband such as narcotics, weapons, and explosives.

•  CBP Office of Air and Marine will provide surveillance and assist the Department of Defense in providing airspace security around the venue.

•  The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trained 85 Arizona responders through the Healthcare Leadership for Mass Casualty Incidents and the Hospital Emergency Response Training for Mass Casualty Incidents courses. All of the responders participated in a hands-on mass casualty exercise, where the trainees responded to a simulated mass casualty event in which “injured” role players were triaged, transported and treated in the midst of a chaotic situation that was still unfolding.

•  FEMA is also providing Mobile Emergency Response Support units to ensure that, in the event of an emergency, state and local security personnel could quickly link and coordinate with federal partners. MERS provides mobile telecommunications, operational support, life support, and power generation assets for the on-site management of a disaster.

•  DHS Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) is deploying Mobile Detection Deployment Units (MDDUs), radiological and nuclear detection “surge” assets designed to supplement first responders' existing radiological and nuclear detection and reporting capabilities.

•  DHS Office of Health Affairs (OHA) will deploy a network of BioWatch detectors to provide public health officials with a warning in the event of a biological agent release. OHA's National Biosurveillance Integration Center is providing state and local officials with information on potential health threats and their indicators, increasing situational awareness and decision support for public health partners prior to the event.

•  DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD):

•  Cybersecurity: NPPD's National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center's Training and Exercise Team led a training exercise to enhance the cyber preparedness and resilience of public and private partners and venues involved in Super Bowl XLIX. Since then, DHS cybersecurity experts have been conducting weekly vulnerability scanning on internet accessible devices associated with facilities being used by NFL teams.

•  Bombing Prevention Training: Since 2012, the DHS Office of Infrastructure Protection (IP) Office for Bombing Prevention has conducted 14 Counter-Improvised Explosive Device and Risk Mitigation Training events for more than 650 public and private sector security partners in Maricopa County.

•  Active Shooter Preparedness: NPPD IP conducted an active shooter preparedness workshop, training 150 participants, including members of the Super Bowl Planning Committee.

•  Securing Federal Facilities: The Federal Protective Service will provide protection to Federal facilities in the Phoenix metropolitan area and ensure the continuance of government business and services to the public.

•  DHS Blue Campaign — the unified voice for efforts to combat human trafficking— partnered with the City of Phoenix and the Arizona Human Trafficking Council of the Governor's Office for Children, Youth and Families to provide training and awareness materials to help individuals and communities identify and recognize indicators of human trafficking. High-profile special events, such as the Super Bowl, draw large crowds and have become lucrative opportunities for criminals engaged in human trafficking.

For more information, visit www.dhs.gov.

http://www.dhs.gov/news/2015/01/28/secretary-johnson-highlights-super-bowl-xlix-security-operations?utm_source=hp_feature&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=dhs_hp

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Arizona

No specific threat but Super Bowl security will be tight

by Steve Keating

Super Bowl security officials acknowledge the NFL championship game represents a high profile target on a world stage but are unaware of any specific credible threats against Sunday's showcase.

In advance of one of the world's biggest single day sporting events, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson was in Glendale on Wednesday to review security preparations and tour University of Phoenix Stadium where the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots will battle.

Deadly shootings in Paris and arrest of suspects in Belgium, Greece and Germany heightened fears of more attacks around the world and social media accounts linked to Middle East militant groups have carried a number of threats to attack high-profile U.S. events.

"There is no specific credible threat," said Johnson, who has appointed a "federal coordination team" to work with local, state and federal agencies to ensure safety of fans, players and other workers associated with the Super Bowl. "I'm confident we will have a safe and secure and successful event."

Sunday's game has been given a Special Event Assessment Rating (SEAR) 1 rating, the same as in previous years, except for the year after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, when a higher level was declared.

But security will be tight and visible around Super Bowl-related events as well as during the game itself. All fans will pass through metal detectors and pat downs.

Over 4,000 private security personnel will be deployed and the almost 3,000 member Phoenix police force will be on Super Bowl duty.

Nuclear device sniffing teams will be deployed and a network of Bio-Watch detectors will be set up to provide a warning in the event of a biological attack.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a press release it had held special cyber-security and anti-sniper training sessions.

A U.S. official said the Transportation Security Administration, which is responsible for screening airline passengers, will add screeners and checkpoint lanes at airports.

Federal air marshals, "behavior detection officers" and dog teams will help to secure transportation systems in the area.

"We will be ramping it (security) up on Sunday, there is no doubt about that," said Federal Coordinator Matthew Allen, the DHS point of contact for planning and support. "I have every confidence the public safety agencies that represented in the planning process are going to have their best and brightest out there this weekend and we will have a very safe Super Bowl."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/28/us-nfl-superbowl-security-idUSKBN0L12JR20150128

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Washington

Drone company looks to restrict flight areas in D.C.

by Cassie Spodak

Washington -It's a tale almost too "this town" even for Washington.

A man -- a government intelligence agency employee, no less -- took to the top of his G Street building late at night to show off his drone to a female companion. He had been drinking. It crashed. On the White House grounds.

At least that's the story that's emerged from the latest details revealed by law enforcement regarding the incident that occurred on Monday.

According to the Secret Service, in the early hours of Monday morning a two-foot wide recreational quadcopter took off from a neighborhood about 10 blocks east of the White House and flew over the President's residence before crashing on the southeast side of the complex. The Secret Service locked down the White House shortly after 3 a.m. after an officer on the south grounds spotted the drone flying at a very low altitude.

President Barack Obama and the first lady are both away, traveling in India.

The man who was flying the drone "self-reported" his involvement in the incident and said he was using it for recreational purposes, the Secret Service told CNN.

The man, who works for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), a government entity with mapping and national security duties, was operating it from either his building's balcony or roof when he lost control and saw it head down G Street, Secret Service sources told CNN's Peter Morris. Another source close to the investigation told CNN's Pamela Brown he was demonstrating the drone to a woman who was also in the apartment.

Sources told CNN that in the Secret Service interview the man said he was drinking when he flew the drone.

The company that manufactures the drone that crashed on White House grounds announced on Wednesday that it will move to disable its drones from flying in much of Washington.

The Chinese company, SZ DJI Technology Co., Ltd., will be releasing a firmware update in the next few days that prevents DJI drones from flying into restricted areas like those over the White House and Capitol Hill.

"This is in accordance with [Federal Aviation Administration] rules that already exist that restrict flight over D.C., so we're just releasing software that more clearly follows these rules," company spokesman Michael Perry told CNN. "We are in the process of testing it right now, should be able to release it in the next few days."

While it will be up to the customers to install the update, Perry said it is a mandatory update, meaning future enhancements will require the new version of the software.

Deputy White House press secretary Eric Schultz said on Wednesday the White House has full confidence in the ability of the Secret Service to secure the safety and security of the grounds.

"This technology is not new to the Secret Service. This is something they've been working through for some time and so they also are constantly reviewing emerging technologies. This is no different," Schultz said.

Obama, in an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria on Tuesday, said the incident highlights the need for stronger regulations surrounding the use of drones.

"I've actually asked the FAA and a number of agencies to examine how we are managing this new technology because the drone that landed in the White House, you buy in Radio Shack."

The NGA confirmed in a statement issued on Tuesday one of its employees was the operator of the drone. The employee was off duty and the drone flight was not work-related, according to the statement.

In a brief phone conversation the operator declined to comment when pressed on whether he was intoxicated while flying the drone.

"I can't really speak right now. I hope you understand," he told CNN's Jim Acosta.

As the incident comes into focus it calls into question how much responsibility drone manufacturers should place in the hands of their customers.

DJI's Michael Perry told CNN that his company is leading the way when it comes to putting in place safety restrictions.

"After the incident this week it was important to demonstrate responsibility, demonstrate that we are keeping the skies safe, and open for innovations," Perry said. "We want to provide tools that make sure people are flying in accordance with the existing rules and flying processes on their first flight," Perry said.

"We also want to make sure the product becomes more popular and more widespread."

Perry explained that with the update, if a drone tries to lift off in a restricted area its motors won't even turn on. If a drone is outside a restricted area GPS data will send an alert that it is nearing restricted air space and it will automatically activate a "return to home" feature.

Before the drone can take off it marks where "home" is, so that if the drone loses connection with the operator (or nears a restricted area) it will rise to 50-100 feet and then head towards home.

An operator must maintain line of sight with the drone in order to operate it; if it flies more than 600 feet out of the line of sight it will lose that connection. The drone communicates with the operator through radio transmissions so obstructions like trees and buildings can interrupt the connection.

This raises questions about how far away the operator of Monday morning's drone was from the White House and how far it could have traveled before losing connection.

Secret Service sources have floated the idea that the drone could have been traveling down G Street when it lost connection with the operator and attempted to return home before getting stuck on the White House grounds.

Like any computer system there is the possibility of this new software being hacked and modified but Perry claims it would be difficult.

"Our system is pretty unique. We don't allow programmers to access the flight controller," he told CNN. "It would take a lot of hacking."

According to Perry they already have software in place that stops drones from flying in restricted airspace near airports. The company will also release an update that prevents drones from crossing national borders, following an incident where a smuggler's drone flying from Mexico crash-landed just south of the U.S. border in a failed drug delivery on January 23.

As investigators look into the incident it is still unclear exactly what path the drone followed. But Perry says that the information is stored within the flight controller and could be accessed if the customer explicitly requests it.

Perry said that as of Wednesday afternoon, no law enforcement agency had been in touch about the case.

"If presented with a subpoena or warrant we would work together with law enforcement in accordance with what information we are legally able to share with them," he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/28/politics/white-house-drone-crash/

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Opinion

Could drones be used against U.S.?

by Peter Bergen

Peter Bergen is CNN's national security analyst, a vice president at New America and professor of practice at Arizona State University. He is the co-editor of "Drone Wars: Transforming Conflict, Law, and Policy." This is an updated version of an article originally published in May 2014.

(CNN)A small drone crashed onto the White House grounds on Monday. Described as a 2-foot-long quadcopter -- a drone with four propellers -- the event raises some troubling questions about the possibility that terrorists using armed drones could one day attack the White House or other tightly guarded U.S. government locations.

The White House incident occurred the same day a CIA drone strike was launched in Yemen, the first such strike in almost two months, following the Yemeni government being forced out of office last week. This indicates that the CIA drone program is still moving forward despite the instability in Yemen.

Not so long ago, launching a U.S. strike on the other side of the world with an armed drone would have been something from science fiction. Before 9/11, the United States had only a handful of experimental drones that had never been used to kill anyone. Today, there are at least 7,000 drones in the U.S. arsenal, more than 200 of which are armed drones that have killed thousands of people.

This large American fleet of drones is a harbinger of an important trend. Armed drones will likely prove as important to the future of warfare as tanks were during World War II. We can, of course, expect to see them used not only by the United States, but also by other countries such as China and Russia that are jumping into the production of armed drones. But we will also see them being used by terrorist groups. A harbinger of this was Hezbollah, the militant Shiite group based in Lebanon, that in September reportedly used drones to bomb a building in neighboring Syria used by the al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front. The drone attack killed a number of militants.

Iran is the key sponsor for Hezbollah and has plausibly claimed for the past several years to have manufactured armed drones.

Hezbollah's use of drones marked a milestone for terrorist groups worldwide: It would be the first time a terrorist group used armed drones successfully to carry out an attack.

That said, it will likely be many years before other countries or terrorist groups are able to build up the capacity that the United States has to carry out lethal drone strikes. After all, the United States has had drone bases in countries such as Afghanistan, Djibouti and Saudi Arabia.

And it isn't as easy as some might think to arm a drone. Such weapons systems require specific electrical engineering: The wings must be reinforced for the aircraft to sustain the force of launching a missile; the drone must be equipped with fire control systems and built-in mounting brackets are needed to attach munitions to the vehicle.

Still, even with these inherent limitations, the drone industry thrives, and more companies and nations continue to jump on board the drone bandwagon. According to a count by New America, some 80 countries have some kind of drone capability, but few of them have succeeded in arming their drones.

The United States' aggressive and secretive drone campaign against al Qaeda and its affiliates in countries such as Yemen appears to be setting a powerful international precedent about the use of armed drones.

Despite this fact, there has been virtually no substantive public discussion about what an international legal framework governing such drone attacks should be among policymakers at the international level. It's long past due for that conversation to happen.

Perhaps a drone landing inside the White House perimeter will help precipitate a wider discussion about how we might prevent a future drone flying into the White House grounds, one that might actually be armed.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/26/opinion/bergen-drones-future/index.html

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Seattle Cop Pepper Sprays Non-Hostile Citizens Strolling by During MLK March, Prompting Lawsuit

by Carlos Miller

A frantic Seattle cop was caught on camera pepper spraying citizens as they strolled by during a anti-police brutality protest on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, including a teacher who had just finished speaking and was on the phone with family when he was sprayed.

The cop has not been identified but she is the second female Seattle cop to make the news in two days, the first being Cynthia Whitlatch, who is still on the force despite being proven a liar after she was caught on dash cam video arresting an elderly black man for using a golf club as a walking cane, accusing him of swinging it at her as a weapon.

The teacher, Jesse Hagopian, filed a lawsuit Wednesday, the same day the video was posted.

A Seattle police spokesperson refused to comment, claiming he had not seen the video, even though it is quickly going viral (they always claim even though it's their job to watch these videos in order to comment).

Jesse Hagopian, a history teacher at Garfield High School, spoke during an MLK rally in Seattle and says he was on the phone while leaving the January 19th event. As Hagopian, a father of two, was walking to meet family, he says he was pepper sprayed by a Seattle police officer.

The incident was captured on video and uploaded to YouTube Wednesday, the same day Hagopian's attorney filed a claim against the city.

“I felt the piercing pain shoot through my eye, my ear drum and my nostril, all over my cheek and face,” Hagopian said, recalling the incident. “I yelled out. My mom was in distress as she heard me yell.”

Seattle Police spokesman Patrick Michaud said he hadn't seen the video as of Wednesday afternoon and couldn't comment. Michaud said the video was not taken by SPD staff.

The cop will likely claim she was in fear for her life as you can hear her yelling “get back!” to people as she stood behind her bicycle, liberally pepper spraying the unsuspecting crowd.

Like Whitlatch, this woman has no business being a cop.

http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/01/seattle-cop-pepper-sprays-non-hostile-citizens-strolling-mlk-march/

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Conneticut

New Haven police chief named to national community policing board

by Darren Kramer

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH)– In the wake of racial tension and violence between urban communities and the police departments that serve them, New Haven's police chief has been tapped to help come up with a plan to improve those relationships.

New Haven police chief Dean Esserman has been appointed to a national board designed to build trust between communities and their police departments. Esserman has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice. The group is a push by the Department of Justice, Yale University School of Law, and several other groups to try to build trust between minority communities and the criminal justice system.

The goal of “The National Initiative” will push for frank conversations between minority communities and law enforcement to try to ease what the group calls “Historic tensions, grievances, and misconceptions between them and reset relationships. “

According to a news release, Chief Esserman said' “The New Haven Police Department is proud to be invited to take a leadership roll in this important national initiative”.

http://wtnh.com/2015/01/28/new-haven-police-chief-named-to-national-community-policing-board/

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Michigan

Michigan State Police testing unmanned aircraft 'to support public safety'

From a Michigan State Police media release:

The Michigan State Police (MSP) is working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to become one of the first police agencies in the nation to obtain statewide authorization to fly an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) to support public safety efforts.

In Sept. 2013, the MSP purchased an Aeryon SkyRanger with an eye on the future potential of this technology to support law enforcement missions. This device was selected because of its high rating in the federal Robotic Aircraft for Public Safety (RAPS) survey. This survey evaluated different systems for safety, capability and reliability. Since that time, the MSP has worked closely with the FAA to meet all safety and training requirements, as well as to develop policies and procedures for the safe and effective implementation of this equipment.

In Feb. 2014, the MSP received a Certificate of Authorization (COA) from the FAA to conduct training flights with the UAS near the MSP Training Academy.

A site visit with the FAA is scheduled in the near future to review the MSP's request for authorization to fly the Aeryon SkyRanger for law enforcement support missions statewide. Potential missions include search and rescue, crime scene and crash investigations.

MSP policy dictates the UAS is always flown by a two-person crew, with one acting as the pilot and the other as a safety observer. The FAA certified pilot has received specific training from the manufacturer in the safe operation of the Aeryon SkyRanger. The device must remain below 400 feet and always be within line of sight of the crew. Many additional safety factors are included with the design of the device.

http://www.wndu.com/home/headlines/Michigan-State-Police-testing-unmanned-aircraft-to-support-public-safety-289986841.html

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New Zealand

Honour our Holocaust survivors, don't be a bystander

by Dame Susan Devoy

70 years ago in the early hours of the morning and in the middle of a bitter snowstorm, Auschwitz Concentration Camp was liberated. Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, this afternoon some incredible New Zealanders – our own Holocaust survivors - will honour us with their presence at Makara Cemetery. Together we will remember millions of innocent men, women and children who were murdered by a ruthless, racist regime.

So today of all days, as we stand alongside our Holocaust survivors we must ask ourselves, have we learnt anything at all? Are we honouring their legacy?

I'd like to share a story with you, a pre-school boy walking home from kindy with his mother is confronted by angry adults who abuse him because he is a Jew.

They rip the yarmulke off his small head and scream hate at him and his mum.

Did this attack take place 75 years ago? Was that little boy from Berlin or Warsaw?

I'm ashamed to say that no, this didn't happen long ago and neither did it happen far away.

This small Kiwi boy lives in Mt Eden and he faced race hate only a few months ago, on the streets of our biggest city.

Sadly Muslim Kiwis have reported similar attacks on their children and mums on the way home from school.

When our kids are scared to wear a yarmulke or a head scarf because some adult may abuse or attack them: what kind of New Zealand are we living in?

Some may argue we shouldn't be too worried because we don't have the same rate of attacks as other countries. But this argument is flawed.

Because as our Holocaust survivors will tell you, hate starts small.

Hate is born when a small child and his mother are abused as they walk home.

Hate grows when their neighbours and friends stand by and do nothing.

Hate triumphs when intolerance and prejudice becomes engrained across an entire society, from the pages of newspapers to the halls of Government, from schoolrooms to boardrooms.

If there is any lesson everyday New Zealanders can learn from the Holocaust - it's don't be a bystander.

Don't stand by and do nothing when you see people spreading hate and prejudice in your community, or your neighbourhood. I can't help but wonder whether anyone supported that small boy and his mum. Did someone let them know they weren't alone? Did someone challenge the cowards who abused them?

Those who spread hate and prejudice in our communities need to know their hatred is not welcome: and it's everyday New Zealanders who need to give them that message.

Everyday New Zealanders need to challenge prejudice and hate wherever, whenever we see it. We have an excellent international human rights record but it is not worth the paper it is written on if New Zealanders are under attack because they're Jewish, Muslim, Chinese or Maori.

Human rights aren't just found in a declaration at the United Nations.

Our human rights must be found here where we live and work, on the streets of Mt Eden, outside a synagogue in Central Wellington, or a mosque in Kilbirnie. Human Rights begin at home. They are rights we are all responsible for, ours to hold and ours to lose.

I'd like to see more young Kiwis attend Holocaust Remembrance Day. With all that is going on in the world right now our youngest New Zealanders need to hear first hand from some of our oldest New Zealanders, people who can tell them exactly what race hate, prejudice and genocide is all about.

The lesson we learn from the Holocaust is that hate starts small, on the streets we live in, at the places we shop and gather. It grows when good people stand by and do nothing. It's up to everyday New Zealanders to stand up for peace and human rights right here at home. This is how we honour the past and guarantee a future we can be proud to leave our children and grandchildren.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1501/S00094/devoy-honour-our-holocaust-survivors-dont-be-a-bystander.htm

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Minnesota

Two cops shot, suspect killed at chaotic Minnesota city council meeting

'Everybody get down!': Hero city councilman John Elder prompts fellow pols to take cover, pulls handgun to defend chamber after shots ring out during Monday meeting in New Hope, Minn. Two police officers were wounded but the gunman was shot and killed, police said.

by Jason Molinet

Shots rang out during a city council meeting Monday in New Hope, Minn., sending some local politicians diving for cover and prompting another to pull out his handgun.

Two police officers were wounded when a man suddenly opened fire immediately after the swearing in of cops in the council chambers. The man, whose name has not been released, was shot and killed by police, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

The gunfire erupted just outside the chambers at 7:15 p.m. and brought the meeting to an immediate halt.

That's when John Elder, a New Hope council member who also works as public information officer of the Minneapolis Police Department, shouted at his fellow council members: "Everybody get down!"

"That went right through the door," another council member said. "Somebody got shot."

Elder, now crouched behind his council seat, pulled his pistol and took aim.

The chaotic scene was caught on cable-access video and posted to YouTube.

Hennepin County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Mike Carlson said the two officers are in good condition and are expected to survive, KARE reported.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/2-cops-shot-suspect-killed-chaotic-minn-council-meeting-article-1.2093139

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The DEA Is Spying on Millions of Cars All Over the U.S.

With sweeping power to monitor the movements of so many Americans, the federal agency will continue to lose the hopeless drug war.

by Conor Friedersdorf

Once again, Americans face a tradeoff between liberty and security. On one hand, the Drug Enforcement Administration has been building "a database to track in real time the movement of vehicles around the U.S., a secret domestic intelligence-gathering program that scans and stores hundreds of millions of records." If you drive in populated areas your movements have very likely been tracked.

On the other hand, the result is that illegal drugs are no longer sold on U.S. streets, the price of getting high is too high for most to pay, and international drug cartels are all but gone, as are overdose deaths and street gangs that profit from narcotics.

I kid, of course–not about the huge imposition on the privacy of innocents that the federal government is perpetrating with a license plate tracking program run by the DEA, which is real, so much as the notion that the DEA will achieve success with it.

The DEA will obviously continue to lose the War on Drugs.

We've traded our freedom to drive around without being tracked for next to nothing. Those who would cede essential liberty for the promise of security may deserve neither, but ceding it for the promise of a drug free America is just delusional. The federal government could imprison every recreational drug user in America and it still couldn't win the drug war because, among other things, the federal government can't even prevent heavy drug use within the federal prison system .

Even if the DEA spied on millions of Americans' phone calls it still wouldn't be able to win the War on Drugs, which I know because the DEA was also doing exactly that.

Not that the DEA thinks this is about winning the drug war so much as perpetuating itself. Says the Wall Street Journal , "One email written in 2010 said the primary purpose of the program was asset forfeiture—a controversial practice in which law-enforcement agencies seize cars, cash and other valuables from suspected criminals."

The ACLU, which exposed large swaths of this program by doggedly filing Freedom of Information Act requests, put out a statement that aptly articulates why the government's actions here are so wrong. Said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst, collecting location information about Americans not suspected of any crimes "raises very serious privacy questions. It's unconscionable that technology with such far-reaching potential would be deployed in such secrecy. People might disagree about exactly how we should use such powerful surveillance technologies, but it should be democratically decided, it shouldn't be done in secret.''

Unfortunately, leaders in the U.S. law enforcement community feel that they're justified in secretly adopting sweeping new methods with huge civil liberties implications.

Their behavior is an affront to self-government.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/01/the-dea-is-spying-on-millions-of-cars/384864/

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Arizona

75 guns confiscated at Sky Harbor in 2014, 4th-highest in nation

12 seized at Tucson International Airport

by Karla Liriano

PHOENIX – The Transportation Security Administration confiscated 75 guns at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in 2014, the fourth-highest total in the nation, a Cronkite News review found.

Phoenix followed Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, which had 116 confiscations, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which had 107, and Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport, which had 76.

Sky Harbor's total was up from 65 in 2013 and 53 in 2012.

Tucson International Airport had 12 confiscations in 2014, up from eight in 2013. Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport hasn't had any since 2012.

The data came from weekly updates posted to the TSA's blog and information compiled by the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative.

Jeffrey C. Price, an aerospace science professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver and an expert in aviation security, said state gun laws contributed to how the top airports ranked.

“If you look at the states where there's the highest number of confiscations, they're all states that have rather liberal conceal-and-carry laws and a lot of people carry firearms,” Price said.

The most common type of weapon confiscated at Sky Harbor was a 9mm pistol, with 19 of those seized, followed by a .38-caliber pistol, with 11 seized the data showed.

In 2014, TSA security checkpoints confiscated 2,155 weapons in 229 airports across the country, averaging to almost six a day and up 14 percent from last year, according to the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative. More than 1,800 of those were loaded.

A decade ago, weapon seizures were at only two a day nationally, according to TSA spokesman Nico Melendez.

“Passengers aren't doing the research themselves before they come to the airport,” he said.

Rules that been in place since 9/11 are available at TSA.gov or through the My TSA mobile app.

The TSA has the legal authority to assess civil penalties up to $7,500 when its workers find guns in carry-on items. The agency then alerts local law enforcement to determine whether there was criminal intent.

Richard Bloom, director of terrorism, intelligence and security studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said most people who bring these type of weapons to the airport don't pose any kind of security threat.

“The statistical trends just reflect the fact that people often forget they're carrying because weapons are a daily part of their life,” Bloom said. “These type of situations rarely, if ever, have involved any kind of terrorist attacks.”

Price noted that those with conceal-and-carry permits are instructed to check the laws of other states when traveling, but he said many aren't clear that in transit they are only allowed to transport firearms in checked baggage.

“The problem we're hearing more of is people thinking they can actually bring it on the plane because they have a conceal-and-carry permit,” he said. “There might be some education that needs to take place on these programs.”

Bloom agreed, adding that spreading the word about the potential penalties could cut down on weapons brought to airports.

“More effective communication has to occur, not only about what the rules are but also about the consequences so that people are likely to comply with the rules,” he said.

http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/012615_sky_harbor_guns/75-guns-confiscated-sky-harbor-2014-4th-highest-nation/

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Ohio

Police investigate series of shots fired at Cincinnati tower

CINCINNATI (AP) — Police in Cincinnati say they're investigating a series of shots fired over the past week at the city's largest building.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports authorities closed a downtown tunnel Tuesday morning to investigate shots fired after business hours Monday at the Great American Tower. Police say it's the fourth time in the last week that someone has shot and hit a window of the building.

Police say nighttime security personnel have been the only occupants during the shootings and no one has been injured. The investigation is ongoing and police have made no arrests.

Authorities say they're working with building representatives on security measures, but don't plan on imposing restrictions on employees.

The 41-story tower houses tenants including Insight Global, Key Bank and Lafayette Life Insurance.

http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/crime/article/Police-investigate-series-of-shots-fired-at-6042477.php

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Ohio

125 U.S. prisoners exonerated last year, including 6 in Ohio

by Alan Johnson

A record 125 exonerations were reported in the U.S. last year in cases where convictions for serious crimes were reversed, sometimes decades after the original offense.

Six exonerations were from Ohio, which was fifth behind Texas (39), New York (17), Illinois (7) and Michigan (7), according to the National Registry of Exonerations report released today.

The six Ohio men exonerated had served a combined 173 years in prison: Kwame Ajamu (Cleveland, murder); Wiley Bridgemen (Cleveland, murder); Joel Covender (Lorain, child sex abuse); Ricky Jackson (Cleveland, murder); Dewey Jones (Akron, murder); and Anthony Lemons (Cleveland, murder).

The annual exonerations report, compiled since 1989 by the University of Michigan Law School, found 125 cases nationally in which people eventually were found innocent after prior criminal convictions. That topped the previous high of 91 exonerations in 2013. The registry has cited 1,535 wrongful convictions in the past 16 years.

Samuel Gross, the Michigan law professor who edits the registry, said more significant than the increase in exonerations was that 54 percent of the clearances of innocent people were initiated or supported by law enforcement and prosecutors.

“The big story for the year is that more prosecutors are working hard to identify and investigate claims of innocence. And many more innocent defendants were exonerated after pleading guilty to crimes they did not commit,” Gross said in a statement.

The big increase was fueled in part by 33 cases in Houston, where crime-lab analyses proved to be wrong in detecting illegal drugs.

The registry tracks cases in which someone has been convicted of a crime but later is proved innocent by DNA evidence or other means. The crimes range from murder and child abuse to sexual assault and drugs.

The full National Registry of Exonerations report is available online: http://bit.ly/1C4YwIk

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/01/27/125-u-s--prisoners-exonerated-last-year-including-6-in-ohio.html

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Why some cops hate Waze, the app highway drivers love

by Lindsey Bever

Before cop killer Ismaaiyl Brinsley ambushed two New York police officers last month, police said, he wrote on his Instagram: “I'm putting wings on pigs today. They take 1 of ours, let's take 2 of theirs.” He apparently expressed support on social media for Michael Brown and Eric Garner, who were killed by police.

Brinsley also posted a screenshot from Waze, a navigation app that allows millions of users to help each other track traffic, road hazards, construction zones and the whereabouts of police officers watching for speeders, among other things. It's immensely popular, particularly with people who spend a lot of time on interstates.

Investigators don't think Brinsley used the app in his attack against NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu — partly because he threw out his cellphone more than two miles from the scene. But a Los Angeles police chief doesn't buy it, and he fears the technology could aid others who want to hunt and kill cops. He's not alone.

In a letter, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck urged Google, which owns the app, to disable the feature that warns drivers when cops are close by.

Waze described how it works on its Web site.

After typing in their destination address, users just drive with the app open on their phone to passively contribute traffic and other road data, but they can also take a more active role by sharing road reports on accidents, police traps, or any other hazards along the way, helping to give other users in the area a ‘heads-up' about what's to come. In addition to the local communities of drivers using the app, Waze is also home to an active community of online map editors who ensure that the data in their areas is as up-to-date as possible.

A driver who spots a construction crew, a stalled vehicle or a cop car simply taps an icon on the app. The warning — in the form of a cartoonish symbol — then pops up on everyone else's Waze map at the same location. Bluetooth enables voice notification to drivers as well, alerting them that a police car is up ahead.

There's no way, however, to know whether a cop is awaiting speeders, aiding a disabled vehicle or doing something else. Sometimes, the patrol car is gone by the time the driver reaches the area. In any case, Beck said, it's a safety concern.

“I am concerned about the safety of law enforcement officers and the community, and the potential for your Waze product to be misused by those with criminal intent,” he wrote to Google chief executive Larry Page, according to NBC Los Angeles. “I look forward to opening a dialogue with you as to how Google can prevent the future misuse of the Waze app to track law enforcement officers, thereby avoiding any future deaths or injury.

“I am confident your company did not intend the Waze app to be a means to allow those who wish to commit crimes to use the unwitting Waze community as their lookouts for the location of police officers.”

After Beck's letter, sheriffs spoke at the National Sheriffs Association winter conference last week in Washington, D.C. One referenced the app as the “police stalker.”

“The police community needs to coordinate an effort to have the owner, Google, act like the responsible corporate citizen they have always been and remove this feature from the application even before any litigation or statutory action,” Sheriff Mike Brown from Bedford County, Va., said, according to the Associated Press. Brown is also the chairman of the association's technology committee.

Southern California reserve deputy sheriff Sergio Kopelev brought the issue to Brown's attention during a funeral for one of the fallen NYPD officers. He calls his attempt to ban the app's feature his “personal jihad."

Waze has since responded to concerns.

“These relationships keep citizens safe, promote faster emergency response and help alleviate traffic congestion,” Waze spokesman Julie Mossler said in a statement. “Police partners support Waze and its features, including reports of police presence, because most users tend to drive more carefully when they believe law enforcement is nearby.”

Google declined comment to the AP.

If the company did discontinue the police-tracking component, it wouldn't be the first to do so. Amid pushback from from legislators, Nokia killed the sobriety-check tracking function from its Trapster app, the AP reported. The app was discontinued last year as Waze came to dominate.

But some law enforcement officers say they want their whereabouts known.

“We want to be seen,” San Jose Police Sgt. Heather Randol told the San Jose Mercury News. She said there's a purpose to “being highly visible on patrol”: to reduce crime.

In fact, some say the app's feature could even be called helpful.

“Someone is less likely to speed if they know a police officer is around the corner,” San Francisco Police spokesman Albie Esparza told the newspaper. “It also helps with public safety so people know where there is an officer to get help.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/01/27/why-some-cops-hate-waze-the-app-highway-drivers-love/

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Washington

White House gets drone defense wake-up call

by James Rogers

The quadcopter drone that crashed onto the White House grounds overnight has highlighted the growing security threat posed by small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), experts warn.

The White House incident comes less than two weeks after a drone flew over the French presidential palace in Paris.

“I do think it's a wake-up call for the government to start thinking about how it will protect against this type of thing -- it's important for the government and the military in general,” Missy Cummings, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Duke University, told FoxNews.com. “This [White House drone] was harmless, but in the future it might not be.”

The Secret Service said Monday that the drone was a 2-foot-long commercially available "quadcopter." Brian Leary, a Secret Service spokesman, said an officer posted on the south grounds of the White House complex "heard and observed" the device "flying at a very low altitude" shortly after 3 a.m. ET. The commercially available device was said to pose no threat.

Caroline Baylon, a cybersecurity researcher at the The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, in London, told FoxNews.com that drones, thanks to their small size and ability to hover low over the ground, can pose a huge security headache.

“They have opened up this whole area that we haven't defended against before,” she said. “Most radar can't deal with drones that fly really low.”

Baylon, who has studied the spate of drone incidents in the French nuclear industry, explained that taking down a drone is no easy task. “You can shoot a drone down, but it requires a certain level of marksmanship,” she said. “It's easier said than done.”

The researcher told FoxNews.com that technologies being considered to combat UAVs include a new breed of ‘interceptor' drones.

One interceptor that has attracted plenty of attention is the Rapere drone. The developers behind the technology say Rapere will hover over a target drone and lower a “tangle-line” to disable its rotor blades. “Right now we are flying under the radar for commercial reasons, but all will be revealed in time,” explains the Rapere project website.

“All you have to do is get something in the rotors,” noted Cummings, a former fighter pilot, but warned that it can be hard for an interceptor drone to find the “enemy drone.”

The Rapere drone uses 12 cameras pointing in every direction. The device uses a range-imaging technique called ‘structure from motion' to reach its target, according to the project website.

The U.S. military is also ramping up its anti-drone efforts. Last year, for example, the Office of Naval Research announced plans to build a laser weapon to shoot down drones.

However, Cummings believes that this type of technology, like the U.S. military's “Black Dart” anti-drone program, will be more effective at taking down much larger drones. She also noted the risk of collateral damage that laser weapons pose in a densely-populated area.

For secure locations such as the White House, quickly identifying small, low-flying drones will be key, according to Cummings. “They need to figure out how to detect these things,” she said. “Radar doesn't detect them so you really need some new camera vision technology.”

Wireless technology could also be a crucial weapon in combating the drone threat, enabling authorities to locate UAVs and also identify IP addresses associated with the devices.

Scott Schober, CEO of Metuchen, N.J.-based wireless specialist Berkeley Varitronics Systems told FoxNews.com that his company sells a drone detection tool. “All these commercial drones are using standard open Wi-Fi for video telemetry and control and communication,” he said. “We can pick up an approaching drone that might be a threat, the model number, its altitude and approach speed.”

The company's Yellowjacket tablet Wi-Fi analyzer also can find the precise location of a drone and its pilot, according to Schober.

A man has claimed responsibility for the drone that crashed onto the White House grounds early Monday, an incident that triggered an immediate lockdown and a Secret Service investigation.

Secret Service spokeswoman Nicole B. Mainor said the individual contacted the agency Monday morning to "self-report" the incident. According to Mainor, "initial indications are that this incident occurred as a result of recreational use of the device."

A U.S. official told The Associated Press the man said he didn't mean to fly the drone over the White House; he is said to be cooperating with investigators. The New York Times reported he is a government employee, though he does not work for the White House.

The FAA is referring inquiries about today's incident to the White House.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/01/27/why-white-house-quadcopter-is-drone-defense-wake-up-call/

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Mayors Examine Community Policing

Building trust, improving police practices and addressing racial and economic disparities are some of the recommendations of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which has been studying the issue of community policing.

Their recommendations take on added significance after the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner at the hands of police. But how much will it cost to implement those recommendations?

Gary, Ind., Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson chairs the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Working Group of Mayors and Police Chiefs, which spent four months reviewing community policing practices in the wake of the Michael Brown shooting last summer in Ferguson, Missouri. She discusses their conclusions and recommendations with Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson.

Interview Highlights

Defining ‘community policing'

“For me, community policing means a way that law enforcement engages the community not just when there is a crisis, but in their daily duties and in the day-to-day activities of law enforcement. So it is creating a connection, it's creating a relationship with members of the community — particularly the law abiding citizens, so that when an incident occurs they will have a connection that will give citizens the confidence that if they provide information that it will be acted upon and that it will be held confidentially. It also gives citizens the confidence that when there is a crisis such as a police-involved death, that because the preexisting relationship exists, they know that it will be investigated in a manner that will give the community comfort.”

On practicing community policing

“The practice of community-oriented policing is very common. Increasingly, police departments are training, are encouraging all their officers… Initially there was a program, it was called the COPs program — Community Oriented Policing — you would have one or two, or maybe three or four, officers whose job it was to go into the community and connect with citizens. Now, police departments large and small are understanding that that has to be the protocol. That people are wanting to have relationships with the police department that are not necessarily related to a call, and that it benefits officers to have a connection to the community that supersedes any specific law enforcement activity… It can't be a program, it can't be one or two officers, it really does have to be a way of doing business in your department.”

On investing in community policing

“It can work in an era of tighter budgets. Tighter budgets should really drive more departments to engage in community-oriented policing because you don't have as many officers on the street, you don't have some of the resources that you have traditionally had. So it's important that you have a relationship with the law abiding citizens of the community.”

On last year's police-involved shootings

“I think what people often forget is that as a rule, is that African-Americans tend to be more law and order than a lot of people think. And so we want the police to, in fact, engage in our communities, we count on that to happen. It's a matter of how it happens and the approach that they take. I think it also goes to recruiting, it also goes to training, and it also goes to discipline of officers.”

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/01/26/mayors-community-policing

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Washington

2 Seattle planes evacuated, 3rd diverted over security concerns

by The Associated Press

SEATAC, Wash. — Two planes were evacuated on arrival Sunday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport due to what a spokesman called a “security concern.”

Airport spokesman Perry Cooper said a JetBlue flight from Long Beach (Los Angeles County) and a regional SkyWest jet from Phoenix were the aircraft involved.

Cooper said that out of an abundance of caution, passengers were bused to their gates from the airport's third runway. He said the matter was under investigation, and he did not have further details.

Additionally, a Delta Air Lines spokesman says a flight from Los Angeles to Orlando, Fla., was diverted to Dallas on Sunday afternoon due to “a security concern.” Spokesman Morgan Durrant said passengers on Flight 1061 got off the Boeing 737 -900 so authorities could search the aircraft.

Laura Eimiller, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Los Angeles, said online threats targeted the JetBlue and Delta flights. She said there was no known threat to any aircraft that departed from the Los Angeles area and that as part of the investigation agents will determine whether the threats were related.

The flight disruptions come a day after bomb threats targeted two jets bound for Atlanta, prompting F-16 fighter jets to escort the planes. The threats posted on the social media network Twitter targeted Southwest Airlines Flight 2492, which arrived at Atlanta from Milwaukee, and Delta Air Lines Flight 1156, which arrived from Portland, Ore. No explosives were found.

It was unclear if any of threats were connected.

Spokesman Morgan Durrant did not give specifics about the nature of the concern about Flight 1061, saying the company would defer to authorities on providing further details. He said passengers exited the Boeing 737-900, which was being examined by authorities.

Dallas-Fort Worth Airport spokesman David Magana told KXAS-TV that “the airport is responding per protocol.”

An FAA spokesman said the agency has no jurisdiction in security matters and directed inquiries to the airlines, FBI and TSA. Representatives of TSA could not immediately be reached.

http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/2-Seattle-planes-evacuated-3rd-diverted-over-6039638.php

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Lousiana

Residents: Police Shortage Is a Security Risk for Mardi Gras

by Cain Burdeau

NEW ORLEANS -- Throughout the quieter parts of the French Quarter, residents and businesses have posted signs that read "Caution: Walk in Large Groups. We (heart) N.O.P.D. We Just Need More."

It's an unsettling message about violent crime in the Big Easy for the 1 million revelers about to descend for Carnival season, which this year ends on Feb. 17, Fat Tuesday.

The signs are an embarrassment for a city that likes to say how safe it makes Mardi Gras year in and year out, despite the debauchery. During Carnival, the streets crawl not only with partiers but with cops, state troopers, federal agents and private security officers.

Despite their presence, shootings have occurred in nightclubs, on Bourbon Street, or along Carnival parade routes — many of which end at or near the Quarter — in at least eight of the past 11 years. At least 27 people were injured and one killed in those attacks.

Since November, a series of more than 60 robberies in and around the Quarter has shocked residents and sparked outrage directed not so much at the New Orleans Police Department but at Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who is pushing back against complaints that he paints a too-flattering picture of his crime-fighting efforts.

Fears have been stoked by images of the attacks caught by a growing network of private surveillance cameras. The attackers have used knives, guns, fists, sharp objects, pepper spray and even purses on pedestrians.

"These are crimes of opportunity, these people are lying in wait," said Harry Widmann, a lawyer whose California colleague was beaten unconscious in December after he was attacked on his way back to his hotel. "You need to have a police presence."

NOPD Superintendent Michael Harrison said the number of robberies is up somewhat from last year and that the attacks "are becoming more brazen."

Applying pressure on Landrieu has been Sidney Torres IV, a wealthy 39-year-old French Quarter entrepreneur, who paid for a series of TV ads blaming the mayor. He said he couldn't sit idle after his mansion on an oak-lined avenue along one edge of the Quarter was burglarized in December, and then Buffa's Bar & Restaurant next door to his home was robbed by two armed men.

"Enough is enough," Torres said.

Landrieu has sent more officers into the Quarter, and police say they're cracking down.

Harrison said he welcomed the new signs advising visitors to walk in large groups. "That's good advice wherever you go in the world, and so, we're not offended by that," the superintendent said.

The French Quarter's narrow, 300-year-old streets contribute to its charm, but also make it a haven for muggings, especially between October and March, the height of the tourism and convention season. A Loyola University study of robberies in tourist areas during those months in 2007 and 2008 found visitors were the targets in 34 out of 155 robberies. The study put some of the blame on outsiders themselves, many of whom apparently were inebriated and lured to unsafe places in search of drugs and sex.

"As we move into the Carnival season, you are going to see a robust force on the streets," Landrieu said. "I've authorized as much overtime as is necessary."

The trouble with this pledge is that the NOPD is understaffed.

The force has lost about 500 officers since Katrina struck in 2005 and it is now down to about 1,150 — far fewer than the 1,600 that Landrieu would like. As few as 250 officers were found to be on patrol duty and responding to calls for help in May 2013, a city inspector general report found last May.

"I have been to some roll calls where there is one cop, two cops," said Michael Glasser, president of the Police Association of New Orleans, a police union.

Some officers have been forced to leave, many have simply retired and others are seeking better paying jobs. Low morale, hiring freezes and a lack of large pay increases, plus higher standards required as part of a deal to resolve a U.S. Justice Department probe, are contributing to the depleted force.

Department leaders say they are recruiting more aggressively and broadening their candidate pool to bolster the ranks.

For now, though, residents will keep posting the signs warning visitors to walk in large groups.

"We want them to know that, especially at night, it's not safe to walk by yourself because you are a target," French Quarter resident Crystal Hinds said as she put up signs recently. "It's such a historic area, and it's priceless. So, we definitely hope that something will be done about it."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/residents-police-shortage-security-risk-mardi-gras-28480753

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Georgia

Metro Police Chief Addresses Public Safety at NAACP Meeting

by Andrew James

SAVANNAH, GA - Safety and reducing crime in Savannah is a community effort--that's the message Metro Police Chief Jack Lumpkin made at the NAACP meeting tonight. This gathering, is just one of many the chief and NAACP members will hold to get more people involved in crime prevention.

"We had thirty two murders, one is too many," said Lumpkin who has been on the job for just more than two months.

He points to the past violent crime rates and says Savannah can do better. Lumpkin sees department vacancies as an obstacle to improving public safety.

"We plan to recruit which is essentially the number one priority at this point cause we have such a vacancy rate."

The Chief says that rate has remained steady at thirteen percent. Another major point Lumpkin made clear, stopping crime in Savannah will be a community effort.

"Our collective safety is everyone's responsibility," he adds that, “"our tool is arrest, your tool can be something else.”

Lumpkin says officers are doing a good job and has a message for the critics.

"Don't criticize the police department without stepping forward and helping us solve the problem."

The chief says moving forward he wants to create more positive relationships with officers and children in the community. NAACP Savannah chapter president Al Scott, says he hears Metro's top cop loud and clear.

"the police department can't do it alone they need the support of the citizens of this community and we think we can help him along those lines,” says Scott.

http://www.wsav.com/story/27936509/metro-police-chief-addresses-public-safety-at-naacp-meeting

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Iowa

Public safety: Stop texting and walk already

Officials: Distracted walkers an up-and-coming public safety risk

by B.A. Morelli

IOWA CITY — You've heard about texting and driving. But public safety and transportation officials say texting and walking can be just as dangerous.

As more people are using smartphones, distracted pedestrians texting or talking are too often stepping into traffic, stumbling off curbs, or walking into signs, officials say. With the University of Iowa back in session, the habit is readily apparent here in this tech-savvy, pedestrian-heavy community.

“This problem of people walking while distracted by devices is on the rise, especially with teens and young adults,” said Jodie Plumert, a UI psychology professor who studies pedestrian behavior. “They are on their mobile devices a lot and they have to get somewhere. That can be a lethal combination, or at least a dangerous one.”

She cites a 2013 study by Safe Kids Worldwide, a global effort to prevent accidental childhood injury, that found 1-in-5 high school students and 1-in-8 middle school students crossed the street while distracted by mobile devices.

In Iowa City, observe the busy crosswalks between campus and downtown for several minutes, and you'll quickly lose count of pedestrians with heads buried in their smartphones.

“Yeah, I probably could have been hit by a car,” Jenna Monday, a sophomore from Lake Zurich, Ill., admits while she and a friend looked at their phones while crossing Clinton Street to campus.

Students have a tight window to respond to messages or calls between classes, so on the urban campus sending off a text or chatting on the phone while crossing a street is almost second-nature.

“You just kind of do it,” Allison Harmon, a sophomore from Dubuque, said after crossing onto the Pentacrest while reading a group text that had spiraled longer and longer during her last class. “You get out of class, and you don't really have a lot of time.”

Plumert is studying how mobile devices affect people's attention, decision making and motor skills in UI's Hank Virtual Environment Lab.

Plumert said distracted pedestrians make riskier choices in judging the gaps between cars, and they walk more slowly, increasing the chance of being struck by a vehicle.

“One of the situations I've seen is a group of students will start crossing Clinton Street, and somebody who is distracted on a mobile device may be lagging behind,” Plumert said. “Those are the situations when I've seen close calls.”

A study beginning this spring will examine whether mobile phone alerts synced to GPS effectively warn distracted walkers when approaching a street, she said.

While researchers say distracted walking is an issue, much of the evidence is anecdotal. Documentation has proved difficult.

Law enforcement in Iowa City and at the UI say their records don't indicate it's been a problem, and UI Hospitals and Clinics emergency room data is dispersed and incomplete.

In Cedar Rapids this past year, police issued more than 25 citations for pedestrians not using the proper crosswalks in the area between Coe College and past 15th Street East along First Avenue. But there was no documentation or reports of cellphone distractions, said Greg Buelow, public safety spokesman.

One of the few pieces of data available is an analysis by Stateline, a division of the Pew Charitable Trust, which found emergency visits nationwide for injuries related to talking or texting on a cellphone by pedestrians were up 35 percent since 2010.

More typically, officials look at overall pedestrian incidents as an indicator of problems.

The 76,000 pedestrian injuries in 2012 was the most since 2001, and the 4,743 pedestrian fatalities was the most since 2009, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has acknowledged distracted walking is a threat to keeping people safe.

In Iowa, the numbers have been fairly stagnant.

In the past five years, pedestrians have averaged 21 fatalities and 480 injuries a year, according to data from the Iowa Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau and the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Another DOT data set housed at the UI Injury Prevention Research Center shows pedestrian incidents in Johnson County was at a seven-year high in 2013, at 39, and there were 82 pedestrian injuries involving distractions from 2007-13.

Corrine Peek-Asa, a UI professor and director of the injury center, said the numbers are “widely recognized as being undercounted.”

Patrick Hoye, chief of the Iowa Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau, agreed.

“It is just an issue that is being overlooked in the traffic-safety realm,” Hoye said. “Law enforcement will tell you the same thing because you are relying on the injured people they are not willing to tell you, ‘I walked off the curb and was hit.'”

Hoye said NHTSA has asked states this year to make pedestrian and bike safety a focus area, in part because of distracted walking. The bureau will be providing cities with grants worth up to $4,200, or possibly more for large cities, to address distracted walking through educational outreach, Hoye said.

The public should be seeing those efforts beginning in April, he said.

“Five to 10 years ago, cellphones weren't as prominent,” Hoye said. “Now everyone has a cellphone, and they are not just driving, but walking, and more people are involved in texting.”

http://thegazette.com/subject/news/public-safety-stop-texting-and-walk-already-20150124

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Washington

New Campaign Seeks to Sharply Reduce Youth Incarceration

by Gary Gately

WASHINGTON — A national juvenile justice campaign launched today with the ambitious goals of halving youth incarceration in 15 states over the next five years while expanding community-based alternatives for offenders.

The Youth First! Initiative — founded by longtime juvenile justice advocate Liz Ryan — will also seek to reduce rampant racial and ethnic disparities in juvenile incarceration.

“The vast majority of [incarcerated] kids are in for things like misdemeanors, status offenses [such as cutting school or alcohol possession], property offenses, drug offenses, even probation and parole violations,” Ryan said. “To me, it just underscores that at a minimum, we could experience another 50 percent drop in youth incarceration.”

She said she is focusing on 15 states for starters — she would not name them, saying some details need to be worked out first — because that's enough to form a “tipping point,” or critical mass, exemplifying effective “decarceration.”

Ryan noted that each day some 60,000 juveniles are in residential placement nationwide at a cost to taxpayers of about $5 billion a year. She said the money saved from closing juvenile correctional facilities could go toward paying for much more effective community-based alternatives that better serve one of the juvenile justice system's central missions: rehabilitation of youths.

Juvenile justice advocates partnering with Youth First! welcomed its launch.

“What's key for us is the Youth First! initiative will really leverage the kind of information that organizations like JPI and other organizations produce,” said Jason Ziedenberg, director of policy and research at the Justice Policy Institute think tank.

For example, last month JPI released the report “ Sticker Shock: The Full Price Tag for Youth Incarceration,” which revealed that in 33 states, taxpayers can spend $100,000 or more a year to incarcerate a youth. By contrast, effective community-based approaches individually tailored to a youth's needs can cost as little as $27,375 a year.

The report also analyzed long-term costs of confinement, including costs to victims and taxpayers because of the increased likelihood an incarcerated youth will later commit another offense; the costs of lost educational opportunities and, in turn, a youth's ability to work and pay taxes; and the costs of their reliance on public assistance later. Conservatively, the report said, the long-term costs of incarcerating youths total up to $21 billion a year.

“This is the information we need to get out there,” Ziedenberg said. “It needs to be concretely attached to efforts on the ground to make changes on these issues. These could be changes to a law or changing a budget so that more young people are served outside a correctional setting, or it could be just building public support for policies like screening misdemeanors out of the system or developing better ways of serving young people close to home.”

While juvenile arrests have fallen and incarceration rates have hit an all-time low, many nonviolent offenders are still locked up in dangerous, prisonlike facilities where abuse is common, Ryan said. Recidivism among these youths is extremely high, and being incarcerated as a youngster greatly increases the risk of entering the adult criminal justice system.

The latest statistics on youths incarcerated in state facilities show about one in four had committed violent offenses. The remainder had been incarcerated for nonviolent offenses, according to the figures for 2011 from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

“We have a system that I think is still primarily relying on the most expensive and most ineffective way of handling kids in the juvenile justice system,” Ryan said. “Most of these kids don't need to be locked up.

“I think we can really fundamentally change how children are treated in the system, particularly by closing of institutions that house kids and particularly these deep-end training schools, youth prisons, correctional facilities — whatever you want to call them,” she said. “With the [incarceration] numbers going down and continuing to go down, that offers us an opportunity to really rethink and relook at what we have been doing and make more dramatic changes.”

States including Alabama, California, New York, Ohio and Texas along with the District of Columbia have begun shutting down juvenile facilities and reallocating funds for community-based programs.

There's also increasing bipartisan support in the states for juvenile justice reform, as more and more Republicans and Democrats alike have come to view mass incarceration of youth as a costly failure — in terms of money, wasted potential of young lives and high recidivism.

Ryan also pointed to recent research showing adolescents' brains are not fully developed and showing youths are more susceptible than adults to peer pressure, more impulsive, more likely to take risks, less likely to consider long-term consequences — and thus less culpable. But the research also shows youths are amenable to rehabilitation.

“There's a window of opportunity to reform here,” Ryan said.

Youth First!, which is Washington-based, is to partner with national and state organizations on state-based campaigns to close youth facilities and advocate for policies that significantly reduce youth incarceration, decrease racial and ethnic disparities and expand community-based alternatives.

Partners include the New York City-based American Civil Liberties Union, the Washington-based Justice Policy Institute, the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, the Harrisburg, Pa.-based Youth Advocate Programs Inc. (YAP) and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington-based think tank.

Law students at Northwestern University Law School will provide the initiative with legal research, policy analysis and help devising strategies.

In a letter sent to juvenile justice advocates Thursday, Ryan said the initiative will provide “robust” communications and media relations support at the state and national level; offer technical assistance to state-based campaigns on research, budget analysis, advocacy and strategy; connect state campaigns to one another and to national juvenile justice reform organizations; engage families of youths affected by the juvenile justice systems, and document and disseminate models of what works.

Shaena Fazal, national policy director for YAP, which provides community-based alternatives to out-of-home placements in 17 states, said Youth First! and YAP have common values on juvenile justice.

“We share a vision of a more just society where kids get what they need and don't get locked in cages, and I think together we can help get them out,” Fazal said.

She said many youths are locked up for their behavior when they pose no risk to public safety.

“There's no need to remove a child from their families and communities and put them in a punitive setting if they have an unmet need, especially when they're not a threat to public safety,” Fazal said.

The initiative is receiving funding from the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Washington-based Butler Family Fund and the Washington-based Public Welfare Foundation.

Ryan brings to her new role deep knowledge of juvenile justice issues. She is the former CEO of the Campaign for Youth Justice, which she founded in 2004. The Washington-based nonprofit focuses on ending the practice of trying, sentencing and incarcerating youth in the adult criminal justice system.

She also led the launch of the Act 4 Juvenile Justice campaign to reauthorize the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act and has served in numerous other juvenile justice roles and written widely on the subject.

http://jjie.org/new-campaign-seeks-to-sharply-reduce-youth-incarceration/108260/

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Public Health Approach Being Adapted for Kids in Trouble with Substances, the Law

by Stell Simonton

Many of the kids in juvenile detention with substance abuse disorders get poor or no treatment, according to Reclaiming Futures, a nonprofit that helps young people in trouble with drugs, alcohol and crime.

It's now experimenting with a public health approach to the situation.

With a $2 million grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, it is setting up a three-year pilot program using SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment.)

SBIRT was originally developed for medical settings such as health clinics and doctors' offices, but “our setting is the juvenile justice system,” said Jim Carlton, deputy director of Reclaiming Futures.

Among kids at risk for court involvement, 17 percent have substance abuse problems. However, by the time they go before a judge and receive permanent placement in the justice system, the proportion is 47 percent, the organization says.

Another organization, Policy Research Associates, has also received a Hilton grant to pioneer the use of SBIRT in juvenile justice work.

Reclaiming Futures normally works with kids who are already on probation or are incarcerated, Carlton said. However, it will use SBIRT with kids who “bump up against the juvenile justice system but are not quite in it yet,” he said.

Evan Elkin, special projects director for Reclaiming Futures, will adapt SBIRT to this use and be the clinical director of the program. SBIRT will be folded into several diversion programs.

“The first arrest is a great prevention point,” Elkin said. “It's a great opportunity to catch a kid when a behavior issue has first emerged.”

Under SBIRT, a short questionnaire assesses a young person's risky use of drugs or alcohol. Then the adult administering the questionnaire has a brief conversation with the youth using motivational interviewing.

When young people indicate risky use, the adult provides information and elicits possible motivations to change.

SBIRT doesn't just focus on kids with full-fledged addictions, but on the large middle ground of those who engage in risky use. It's not about punishment. It approaches risky use as a health issue that the young person can choose to address in different ways.

Carlton said SBIRT will be added to three existing Reclaiming Futures sites in Charlotte, N.C., Seattle and Long Island, N.Y.

In addition, Reclaiming Futures will set up two new sites — one in Vermont and one in Washington County, Ore. — where SBIRT will be included.

In Charlotte, SBIRT will be used as an option in school-based arrests, Elkin said. In Seattle, the King County School System will use it with chronically absent or truant kids.

When SBIRT is adapted for use in juvenile justice, police and probation officers may be the ones administering it.

Elkin said they'll be trained to use a lighter touch than they usually do in talking to kids about drugs.

They'll learn to ask with curiosity, to express interest and to elicit the context of a kid's use. They will be trained to suggest options — “to essentially do nothing,” Elkins said — rather than dictating the kid's next move.

In 2012, the Hilton Foundation launched a substance abuse strategy based on prevention and early intervention. It sees SBIRT as a promising model that has not been widely used in the United States.

http://jjie.org/public-health-approach-being-adapted-for-kids-in-trouble-with-the-law/108257/