Law Enforcement

Fallen Officers Honored at Candlelight Vigil
On Wednesday night, more than 20,000 law enforcement officers, family members and survivors attended the 27th annual Candlelight Vigil at the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. to honor those who have died in the line of duty. This year, 273 names were added to the memorial walls. The names of 117 officers lost in 2014 joined the names of 156 officers who died in past year and were being recognized for the first time.
Officer.com

Public Safety: Ceremonies will remember Inland officers who have died
Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz hopes that the annual Riverside County Peace Officers Memorial ceremony on Monday, May 18, will serve as a reminder that those who lost their lives in service to the public are “real human beings” and not just names etched on a monument. For Diaz, officer safety is personal. His son-in-law is an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. “On top of the 380 I worry about here, I worry about the one,” Diaz said. The public is invited to the ceremony, which begins at 6:15 p.m. next to the Safe in His Arms statue at 4102 Orange St., Riverside.
The Press Enterprise

San Pedro shooting victim stable as police continue search for suspects
A woman shot in the chest this week at Point Fermin Park in San Pedro was reported in stable condition Thursday at County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center as detectives continued efforts to identify up to four suspects. “There are no new leads,” said Los Angeles police Detective Joe Rios of the department's media relations center. The incident occurred at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in the scenic park atop San Pedro's southern ocean cliffs. LAPD Officer Drake Madison said two groups of people had been having a verbal dispute when someone from one of the groups went to a car and returned with a gun, shooting the victim in the chest.
Daily Breeze

Huntington Beach police arrest 4 in suspected murder-for-hire plot
Huntington Beach police arrested four men who are suspected of conspiring to kill someone they knew for monetary gain. Huntington Beach residents John Reid Taylor, 67, and his sons Joseph Jordan Taylor, 29, and Matthew Austin Taylor, 27, were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of solicitation to commit murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Matthew Taylor had additional charges of resisting arrest and failing to provide a DNA sample, police said.
Los Angeles Times

Son Of Fallen Sheriff's Deputy Given Dad's Squad Car By Generous Stranger
The son of a sheriff's deputy who was killed in the line of duty was heartbroken when he lost the auction to buy his dad's former squad car. Until the auction winner handed him the keys. Tanner Brownlee wanted to own a part of his father's legacy, and after nearly five years since losing him, Tanner had a chance to buy his dad's squad car at auction. Colorado brothers Tanner and Chase Brownlee wanted to own a part of their father's legacy, and after nearly five years since losing him, they had a chance to buy their dad's squad car, according to ABC News.
ABC 7

Percentage of African-Americans in U.S. Police Departments Remains Flat Since 2007
The percentage of African-Americans in U.S. police departments has remained flat since before the recession, even as police hiring of other minorities has increased, according to a U.S. Department of Justice survey released Thursday.
Wall Street Journal

City Government

Mayor Eric Garcetti concerned about paid time off in L.A. wage plan
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Thursday that a City Council proposal to raise the minimum wage should not move ahead without further scrutiny of a largely overlooked piece of the plan that could also require businesses to grant their workers a specific number of paid days off. “It's unstudied, and it's big; I would be very uncomfortable without any study,” Garcetti said of the provision, which went mostly unmentioned in Wednesday's deliberations over the plan to hike the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020.
Los Angeles Times

Prop. 47

Mindful of Prop. 47 sentence reductions, Brown aims to scale back private prisons
Gov. Jerry Brown proposes to cut California's reliance on out-of-state private prisons by half, but seeks to postpone long-term discussion about the state's own aging lockups and need to rent space from others until next year. The governor's latest plans, contained in revised spending proposals released Thursday, call for shrinking the number of inmates housed outside California in the next year by 4,000 -- reducing related state spending by $73 million. As of this week, the state had a little more than 8,000 inmates in private prisons in Arizona, Mississippi and Oklahoma, and another 6,250 prisoners in contracted lockups within the state.
Los Angeles Times