Law Enforcement

LAPD: 39 People Murdered In Los Angeles In August
Thirty-nine people were murdered in Los Angeles in August, marking the deadliest month in the city in eight years, according to the LAPD. A major effort is currently underway to try and curb this burst of deadly street violence, most of which took place in South Los Angeles. The latest example occurred early Friday morning. One person was killed and two others were wounded in an apparent car-to-car shooting in the 9400 block of Central Avenue in South L.A.
ABC 7

Sprint to create mobile apps for LAPD officers
Sprint was contracted to deploy the 'Connected officer' programme at LAPD that will assist the LAPD in facilitating its 'to protect and to serve' mission for each officer. When fully deployed, 7,000 officers can use mobile apps for access to mobile field reporting, resources for the community and real-time data to improve criminal investigations and enhance officer safety.
telecompaper

As Crime Rises, a Downtown Cop Offers Tips to Stay Safe
Downtowners have been fretting since the Los Angeles Police Department revealed that crime has increased sharply in the first half of the year. Although overall crime rose 12% in Los Angeles through June compared to the same period last year, Downtown saw a 34% jump. Violent crime in Downtown, meanwhile, soared by 60%. While shifts are being made in how and where officers are deployed, Central Division, which patrols Downtown Los Angeles, is also trying to rope in more local workers and residents to keep the community safe. Sgt. Michael Flanagan, who heads the Community Relations Unit at Central, spoke with Los Angeles Downtown News last week about what every Downtown resident can and should do about crime. The key takeaway: Be involved.
LA Downtown News

L.A. County Deputy Shot By Firefighter Husband In Alleged Murder-Suicide
An L.A. County firefighter allegedly shot and killed his wife, a sheriff's deputy—while at home with their 6-year-old son—before taking his own life. Deputies responded to reports of a woman screaming at a home in the 5000 block of Crown Avenue in La Canada Flintridge around 10 p.m. Sunday night, reports KTLA. When they arrived, they found the door open and inside, the deputy—a 32-year-old woman—dead of an apparent gunshot wound. Her identity has not yet been released, but she's described as an off-duty L.A. County Sheriff's deputy who had been with the department for two years. An initial investigation indicates that she and her husband—a county firefighter—had been involved in a fight, before he allegedly shot her and fled the home.
LAist

Hermosa Beach police install high-tech training facility
In the wake of mass shootings nationwide and widespread public concern about lethal use of force by police, the city of Hermosa Beach has opened a new $380,000 facility to give officers the latest tools in situational training. The facility's combined shooting range and interactive video simulator will allow the agency's roughly three dozen officers to regularly practice firing their guns and using less-than-deadly weapons, including stun guns, batons and pepper spray.
Daily Breeze

Activist Charged in Calif. Police Confrontation
A local Black Lives Matter activist who is among the Los Angeles and Pasadena police departments' most vocal critics was charged with a felony Friday in connection with a confrontation at a Pasadena park. Pasadena police arrested Jasmine Richards earlier this week as part of an investigation into a group of people they claim interfered with the arrest of a battery suspect Aug. 29 at a local park. The group consisted of members of Black Lives Matter activists.
Officer.com

Las Vegas shooting: Officers ambushed at traffic light, police say
A man ambushed two officers who'd stopped their patrol car at a traffic light Sunday in Las Vegas, police said. An officer who was shot in the hand was being treated at a hospital, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sgt. John Sheahan said. He was in good condition. "Luckily -- I want to repeat, luckily -- our officer was only hit in the hand. It could have been much, much worse," he said.
CNN.com

Unions

LA Mayor Joins Thousands Of Union Members For 36th Annual Labor Day March In Wilmington
Thousands of union members, their families and supporters turned out Monday for the 36th Annual Labor Day March in Wilmington. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was slated to attend and lend his support. The event is organized by several unions from across the Southland, including the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), Piledrivers and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
CBS Los Angeles

On Labor Day, a look at the state of the unions
What would happen if, when Americans show up at work tomorrow, after the Labor Day cookouts and trips to the beach, they all were to vote on whether to join a union? The data may surprise you: more than fifty percent of nonunion workers say that, if an election were held in their workplace tomorrow, they would vote for union representation. And yet: while the desire to join a union has grown steadily since the 1980s, actual union membership continues its long, steady decline.
Brookings

Pensions

L.A. plans to undo 2012 pension cuts in new union pay deal
At L.A. City Hall, it was the most hotly debated policy initiative of 2012: a new law aimed at reining in retirement benefits for thousands of future public employees. Alarmed by steadily growing pension costs, the City Council voted to scale back the size of pensions offered to each civilian worker hired after July 2013, over the furious objections of organized labor. Since that vote, nearly 2,200 people — librarians, trash truck drivers and many others — have gotten city jobs that included those reduced benefits. Now, the retirement savings generated over the last two years are about to disappear.
Los Angeles Times

Homelessness

U.S. task force warns cities on efforts against homeless camps
A year ago, Mayor Eric Garcetti stood with First Lady Michelle Obama before a crowd of 900 in the ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza and pledged to end veteran homelessness in the city by 2016. Six months later, Garcetti and the U.S. secretaries for Housing and Veterans Affairs led columns of volunteers, advance men and news media past the derelict lean-tos and ragged tents of skid row for the official homeless count.
Los Angeles Times