Virginia

License plate readers: privacy vs. public safety

by Allison Brophy Champion

Culpeper-area law enforcement use of automatic license plate readers remains fairly limited even as the broader debate continues pitting personal liberty versus effective implementation of the crime-fighting tool recently used to great success in capturing the man accused of murdering two on-air Roanoke journalists.

Still making headlines is the story of how Virginia State Trooper Pamela Neff combined good police work and a license plate reader to catch Vester Lee Flanagan on August 26 in Fauquier County, less than five hours after he killed WDBJ7-TV employees Alison Parker and Adam Park at Smith Mountain Lake. But also making headlines is a Fairfax County judge's decision, two days later on August 28, refusing to dismiss the ACLU's suit challenging the Fairfax Police Department's use of electronic tag readers.

"This case is simple," said Rebecca Glenberg, legal director of the ACLU of Virginia, in a statement. "Our laws make clear that law-abiding Virginians should be free to travel around the commonwealth without police departments tracking, storing and sharing their vehicle's movements with other law enforcement agencies. We thank Judge (Grace) Carroll for allowing this case to move forward."

Virginia State Police Sgt. Les Tyler, with the Culpeper division, said automated license plate readers do not infringe on personal freedom.

"It's no more intrusive than a video camera on the side of a building," he said. "It doesn't track anybody. All it does is reads their tag as it comes by a specific officer at a specific location and logs a date and time and location where it was checked and that's all that's stored."

Results

The Virginia State Police automatically dumps the information collected after 24 hours, Tyler said, except in cases where the information is related to a criminal investigation. Car-mounted cameras photograph license plates then compare the data with the state police's "hot list" of wanted people, stolen cars and license plates and Amber Alerts.

Across Virginia from 2010 to 2014, state police have used the technology to recover 586 stolen vehicles, arrest 242 wanted people, recover 854 stolen license plates and apprehend 19 sex offenders, according to Tyler. In 2011, police in Stafford used a tag reader to arrest two suspects from Florida wanted in a double homicide, brothers who fled the scene in the victim's SUV.

The Virginia State Police has 44 readers in use, including one assigned to Trooper C.J. Horner, who patrols Culpeper, Madison and Orange. He said it's his personal opinion that the technology does not infringe on individual rights.

"For the public safety, you have to take certain measures that you may have to give up a little on the freedom side," Horner said. "I think it's worth it."

He added that Trooper Neff's use of the license plate reader to get Flanagan was "one for the good guys."

"It paid for itself," Horner said. "Lord knows how many lives it saved. I mean, that guy, where was he headed? Probably to Washington to do more havoc, more murder. I don't think you can put a price on a life. If the technology is there, I think we should take advantage of it."

Added Tyler of Trooper Neff, "She went from being a trooper sitting on the side of the road looking at every car that went by for that tag number to activating the system which could do it very rapidly. It can process an astronomical number of tags."

In Fairfax

According to the ACLU, the Virginia State Police used to keep a massive database of license plate numbers that allowed them to pinpoint the location of millions of cars on particular dates and times. That practice changed after former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in 2013 issued an opinion stating that while state police could collect "criminal intelligence information" it could not keep all of the other information amassed by license plate readers.

The Fairfax PD retains all of its data for 364 days, after which it is automatically purged unless involved in an active investigation, according to a news release from Fairfax County Government in May, when the lawsuit was filed. Chief Edwin Roessler "strongly believes" that keeping the information for that long "serves a legitimate law enforcement purpose," according to the release.

"This retention period is intended to increase protection of the community by providing an investigative tool to aid in the detection or investigation of terrorism or a series of related crimes," according to the release. "In fact, many other jurisdictions retain (the data) for up to two years. The stored images from Fairfax County and other law enforcement agencies in the National Capital region have proved to be a valuable investigative tool."

Trooper Horner said use of automatic tag readers is "just a starting point" in catching crooks and that law enforcement cannot assume that the person driving a vehicle with a specific license plate is the necessarily the vehicle's owner.

"They could steal your car at gunpoint and go down the road. We have to do our legwork to get it figured out," he said.

Tyler said the tag readers are becoming a very valuable law enforcement tool.

"We are hoping that based on the results we are getting that we do get funding for more of them," he said, noting the equipment is paid for through the state's Insurance Fraud Program and Homeland Security grants.

Local agencies weigh in

The Culpeper Police Department is one few local agencies that uses the technology, having one automated license plate reader it obtained a year ago, according to Major Chris Settle. He said the department has successfully used the equipment to locate stolen vehicles and stolen license plates in the town of Culpeper.

"The technology can also be utilized for Homeland Security initiatives, drug interdiction, gang interdiction and locating suspects relating to child exploitation or other violent crimes," Settle said.

The Culpeper PD stores the information collected by the license plate reader for 30 days, after which it is purged from the system and no longer available, he said.

Asked about its use potentially infringing on personal liberty, Settle said, "The Culpeper Police Department will continue to follow all established practices and case law that exists on the use of (license plate reader) technology. We continue to monitor state legislation on this topic and will use this tool accordingly."

The Madison County Sheriff's Office purchased its first license plate reader last year, said Sheriff Erik Weaver, but it is not yet in use due to funding constraints and a lack of technical support.

"Being a small department, we have to pick what is more important, and right now we have to get some funding to buy everybody a brand new bulletproof vest," he said. Weaver and his major made the decision to obtain a license plate reader.

"We are always trying to find things that are more proactive, pro law enforcement. There's lot of traffic going up and down U.S. 29 so we want to be proactive," he said.

Weaver said he thought state police did an outstanding job in using the technology to catch Vester Lee Flanagan.

"It's another tool for law enforcement," the sheriff said, acknowledging the privacy issue. "T hat's came up, but I think if you use it in the correct way, the way the state police does, you're OK."

Weaver said they hoped to have to their plate reader operational within the next several months.

Orange County Sheriff Mark Amos said they don't use the technology due to budgetary constraints and other needs, similar to the situation at the Culpeper County Sheriff's Office.

"We definitely have given thought to it," said CCSO spokeswoman Vanessa Blackstock. "In recent years, we haven't seen the grant funding for this type of technology, as it is very costly. However, it would be compatible with the mobile data computers we currently have installed and the infrastructure of our vehicles."

If necessary, she added, the CCSO has access to tag readers through the state police and town police department.

Evolving issue

Earlier this year, Gov. Terry McAuliffe vetoed a bill that would have limited how long law enforcement can store information from license plate readers and other technology: "It would be unwise for me to sign legislation that could limit the tools available for legitimate law enforcement purposes and negatively impact public safety, or derail major transportation projects and jeopardize time-saving technologies that are essential to our economy, our citizens, tourism and the efficient conduct of business," he said in his veto message.

McAuliffe referred the issue back to committee.

The Virginia ACLU says it is not asking, on its client's behalf, for the Fairfax PD to stop using automatic plate readers for active criminal investigations or for Amber or Blue Alerts, acknowledging the state police's recent success story.

Instead, said ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, they're "just asking that the Fairfax County Police Department stop using automatic license plate readers to collect everyone else's data, too."

http://www.dailyprogress.com/starexponent/license-plate-readers-privacy-vs-public-safety/article_557c3530-541a-11e5-9942-c7bf5688b250.html

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Public safety officials encourage disaster preparedness

by Shayla Patrick

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- From floods to wildfires and even hurricanes, 2015 has unleashed its share of natural disasters. And those in the business of disaster recovery are reminding us all to be prepared. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has designated September as National Preparedness Month.

"this year's theme is 'Don't wait, Communicate,'" said Chet Hunter, Director of the Greene County Office of Emergency Management.

"We want families to develop an emergency plan. And more than just having an emergency plan, really take the opportunity to communicate that to your family," Hunter explained.

Emergency management officials suggest agreeing on a designated location and figuring out how you're going to get there to meet loved ones if cell phone service goes down. They also recommend creating a portable kit filled with extra food, water, flashlights, batteries and copies of important records. For many families in the Ozarks, floods during June and July of 2015 highlighted the importance of being prepared.

"Preparedness kind of had a heightened view this summer with the fourth heaviest rainfall for the month of July on record," said Hunter.

"That had a lot of impact to a lot of people, weather it was the flow of traffic, impact to them personally like their home flooding or a business, so people had to really stop for a minute and think about how they are going to get around that. What we are asking people to do is ask themselves ' how will I get around those issues when I am affected,'" he added.

Emergency managers say college students or even people living alone in an apartment complex or near elderly residents should get together and create a plan. Downtown at the Public Safety Center they've got a cool resource that can help.

"We run a preparedness program in here called CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) and that's an opportunity for people to come in and get personalized training," said Hunter.

"It's a class that we offer to help people take preparedness to that next level on a personal basis. We talk about building kits, we talk about response, we talk about basic first aid stuff," Hunter explained.

Click here for more information on National Preparedness Month.

http://www.ky3.com/news/local/public-safety-officials-encourage-disaster-preparedness/21048998_35098264

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Michigan

Drone will give Shores public safety a bird's-eye view

by K. Michelle Moran

SHORES — Drones have gotten a lot of attention lately over concerns about privacy and safety, but at least one of these small flying devices will be serving the public.

Longtime Grosse Pointe Shores residents Harry and Lynn Kurtz recently donated a drone to the Shores Public Safety Department.

“We feel our dedicated public safety officers should have every tool possible available to them, especially equipment that may help protect officers in the course of their duties, as well as the general public,” Harry Kurtz said in an email interview.

Public Safety Director John Schulte said he and his department are thankful for the donation, which gives them a chance to test out a drone.

“We're very grateful for it,” Schulte said. “It possibly could have benefits to us.”

Kurtz said drones “can be used in a wide variety of circumstances, especially in situations where an officer on the ground may not be able to see people … or hazards involving heights.”

“The use of drones is relatively new to law enforcement and public safety departments, so this will provide an opportunity for Chief Schulte and his officers to experience trying out the drones without making a big, upfront investment for an unknown/untested result,” Kurtz said.

Schulte said he could see the department using the drone at the site of an accident to provide a vantage point not available to officers normally.

“It could be used to hover over an accident scene to capture video,” he said.

Kurtz said he and his wife are impressed by the Public Safety Department.

“We are always amazed by their bravery, skill and professionalism, and we are grateful (to them),” he said. “Grosse Pointe Shores had one of the first combined police and fire public safety departments in the country, so they have historically been on the cutting edge.”

According to the Shores' website, the Shores Public Safety Department — created in 1911, when the then-Village of Grosse Pointe Shores was incorporated — was the first in the country to combine police and fire services in a single department. In more recent years, the Shores reportedly became the first public safety department in the United States to be triple-trained in police, fire and emergency medical services. All of the officers are either certified as paramedics or as emergency medical technicians.

http://www.candgnews.com/news/drone-will-give-shores-public-safety-bird%E2%80%99s-eye-view-85940

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California

New website offers crime statistics at the click of a mouse

New website has data on in-custody deaths, arrest rates, officers attacked

by Brian Rokos

Information on in-custody deaths in the Inland Empire and around the state that once required numerous public-records requests and plenty of patience is now available almost instantaneously to anyone with a computer.

The state Department of Justice on Wednesday, Sept. 2, unveiled a state-run website that also provides data on law enforcement officers killed or assaulted in the line of duty, and arrests and bookings. Names of individual officers and inmates are not listed. State officials say the website will likely be expanded to include additional databases.

The OpenJustice database at the Attorney General's website, oag.ca.gov, is the culmination of months of work aimed at improving transparency and government accountability after incidents across the country sparked debate on police practices over the past year.

There are two components to the website's section on in-custody deaths from 2005 to 2014: a sortable Excel spreadsheet (some skill in spreadsheet sorting would be useful) and a web page that can be filtered by manner of death, ethnicity, county, year, and agency type, such as police, sheriff, CHP, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation or a specific agency.

Visitors will learn that there have been 119 reported in-custody deaths for the Riverside County Sheriff's Department and 123 reported for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department in the 10-year period. Those deaths are broken down by during arrest or transportation afterward, during the booking process or while awaiting charges, and after the person has been sentenced or while incarcerated.

The data are further separated by year, the person's age, race or ethnicity, and death rate of that agency compared with the general state inmate population.

Arrest rates, broken down by year, age, race/ethnicity and gender, span the years 1980 to 2013. Officer deaths include data separated by year and manner of death from 1980 to 2014.

Riverside County Assistant Sheriff Lee Wagner said law enforcement agencies are not required to submit information, but that some data is routinely provided to the state Department of Justice.

The website includes a brief analysis of the numbers, completed through a partnership between the state and professors at the University of California. Some conclusions so far are:

• There were 6,837 deaths in custody reported between 2005 and 2014, or an average of about 685 annually. Of the total, more than 61 percent were natural.

• About 76 percent of the 1,202 arrest-related deaths reported from 2005 to 2014 were homicides by law enforcement officers or staff; the average age of the victim was 34 years old.

• California law enforcement agencies have reported 345 officer deaths between 1980 and 2014, with an average of about 10 officer deaths reported annually.

• Over the past 30 years, reported property and violent crimes have been cut in half.

• The arrest rate peaked in 1989. And men are about 3.5 times more likely to be arrested than women.

Attorney General Kamala Harris, who led the news conference Wednesday in Los Angeles announcing the website, has come out in support of a state Assembly bill that would require law enforcement to report use-of-force incidents to the state. Officials say if the data are reported to them, it will also become part of what's provided to the public online.

“At this time, the Sheriff's Department has not taken a position on this issue,” Wagner said.

http://www.pe.com/articles/state-778976-deaths-reported.html

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From the Department of Homeland Security

You Play a Role in Protecting Your Community

Across the nation, we're all part of communities. In cities, on farms, and in the suburbs, we share everyday moments with our neighbors, colleagues, family, and friends. It's easy to take for granted the routine moments in our every day—going to work or school, the grocery store or the gas station. But your every day is different than your neighbor's—filled with the moments that make it uniquely yours. So if you see something you know shouldn't be there—or someone's behavior that doesn't seem quite right—say something. Because only you know what's supposed to be in your everyday.

Informed, alert communities play a critical role in keeping our nation safe. "If You See Something, Say Something™" engages the public in protecting our homeland through awareness–building, partnerships, and other outreach.

Do not report suspicious activity through this website or the campaign email address. Report suspicious activity to local law enforcement. Please use this site to inquire about partnerships with the DHS "If You See Something, Say Something™" campaign only.
Click here to learn how to partner with the campaign.

Feds Using 'Stingrays' To Spy On Cell Phones? Not Without A Warrant

by Alexandra Burlacu

The Justice Department has new rules in place for how federal law enforcement can track specific smartphones using electronic devices known as "stingrays."

The controversial devices basically dupe cell phones by emitting the same kind of radio signal as cellular phone towers to collect information — tricking phones into giving up their electronic signature. Using that data, combined with the strength of the signal, authorities can track the general location of a suspect's cellular device.

The technique has stirred plenty of criticism and the Justice Department has issued new rules for such cases. With the new guidelines, the use of stingray devices will be less abusive and more transparent. The policy now requires the FBI and other federal agencies to get a search warrant before using stingrays.

According to a press release from the Justice Department, the newly issued policy for using cell-site simulators will "enhance transparency and accountability, improve training and supervision, establish a higher and more consistent legal standard and increase privacy protections in relation to law enforcement's use of this critical technology."

The policy applies at the federal level, effective immediately, setting new management controls for leveraging such technology in federal investigations.

Sally Quillian Yates, Deputy Attorney General, further highlights how helpful cell-site simulator technology has been in a wide range of investigations — playing an instrumental role in handling kidnappings, complex narcotics cases and fugitive investigations. For this reason, the Justice Department wants to ensure that federal law enforcement follows proper protocols.

In addition to requiring federal agents to obtain warrants before using stingrays, the new policy also sets some boundaries that limit the type of data that can be collected, as well as for how long. More specifically, stingray-collected information is now restricted to the cellphone's signal direction, but not GPS data, and to the numbers dialed, not the content of conversations, messages, emails or app data.

At the same time, the new policy also forbids storing stingray-collected information for more than 30 days, if officers don't know the number of their specific target — or more than one day if they do.

Lastly, the new guidelines note that using the technology on aircraft now requires executive-level approval.

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/82064/20150905/feds-using-stingrays-to-spy-on-cell-phones-not-without-a-warrant.htm

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Kansas

Community policing builds trust, adds safety

by Jade DeGood

EL DORADO, Kan. -- The El Dorado Police Department doesn't have a special unit for community policing like other cities, instead officers say it's expected of all of them.

Patrol Sergeant Christopher Jones drives El Dorado's streets every day.

"We do a lot of proactive patrols as far as traffic or just checking neighborhoods we have issues in," said Sgt. Jones. "We also take multiple calls a day, accidents, disturbances and so forth."

But Jones said perhaps the most important part of his job is the aspect that involves interacting with the community when things aren't going wrong.

"It's important just to build the relationships with the people that we serve," he said. "One, it makes them trust us more. It also builds a bond with them if they understand we are not just there for the bad."

Those at the El Dorado Police Department have focused on community policing for many years. Sergeant Jones said in his experience, it all starts with kids.

"We've found a lot of times as we interact with the kids, it automatically brings the adults into the picture too," he said. "It's the general thought that people have when the police show up somewhere is 'Uh oh! What's wrong!' They notice that we're not there for any problem, we're just there to interact and they start lightning up and talking with us."

Jones said the more they get to know the people they serve and build that trust, the safer it will be for everyone.

"Our citizens are our best asset," he said. "They can help us in a lot of ways. There's only so many officers out there, but with a community that backs you and supports you and will help you. It keeps our officers safer and our communities safer as a whole."

http://www.kwch.com/news/local-news/el-dorado-community-policing-builds-trust-adds-safety/35114302

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Louisiana

Public safety concerns surround inmates released without bond in Jefferson Parish

by Travers Mackel

JEFFERSON PARISH, La. —The Orleans Parish Prison and conditions inside the facility have dominated headlines in recent weeks.

But it's the jail in neighboring Jefferson Parish that some believe is leading to potential public safety issues as some inmates are being allowed out without posting bond.

Anyone who is arrested and charged with a crime ends up in the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center. While judges in the nearby courthouse set bond for those arrested, some are not required to pay to get out of the JPCC.

Some bail bondsmen in Jefferson Parish are taking a new, high-tech approach to getting the word out on what they believe is a public safety issue in the parish.

A Facebook page called "Jefferson Parish Crime" was launched two weeks ago. The page shows the JPCC's inventory sheets, which show that some people who are arrested and booked are quickly being released because of jail overcrowding.

"I think it's just to get the word out that inmates are being released without any type of personal surety or property," said Robb Farmer of A-Affordable Bail Bonds.

Records show some of the people being released are charged with felony offenses.

"Violent offenders, domestic violence charges, guns, drug, robbery, you name it. All the big stuff. The bad stuff," said Steve Adams with #1 Bail Bonds.

The WDSU I-Team reported two years ago that some people being held at the JPCC in Gretna were being released because to overcrowding. The JPCC is barred from holding more than 1,100 inmates at any given time. The limit is set by the federal government, which is concerned about sanitary conditions and safety.

When the number exceeds 1,100 inmates, the JPSO has to start selectively releasing prisoners. In the two years since the I-Team report, some believe that the issue has not gotten any better. Instead, they believe that it's worse.

"People are getting out for free. They are committing crimes. There's no punitive punishment," Farmer said.

It's up to parish officials who they set free, which results in some suspects back on the street. In a 2013 interview, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said voters have rejected the idea of expanding the jail, and he has to make strategic decisions.

"The fact of the matter is, when presented with the jail's overcrowded condition, you (have to) do something. That's what we did in order to try and create a balance of interest," Normand said. "What we really want are those who have a high propensity for violent crime. We want those locked up first. Then we'll try and figure out what we're going to do with the rest."

Adams said its a public safety issue. He said people are getting arrested and officers are doing their jobs, but the jail is releasing people free of bond without the assurance that they will come back and to court.

Normand said crime in Jefferson Parish is on pace for a 40-year low.

http://www.wdsu.com/news/local-news/new-orleans/public-safety-concerns-surround-inmates-released-without-bond-in-jefferson-parish/35108260

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Are more police getting killed? A look at officer deaths

Shooting deaths of officers are actually down 13 percent compared with the same Jan. to Sept. period in 2014

by Michael Tarm

CHICAGO — The killing of a veteran police officer north of Chicago is the latest in a string of recent law enforcement deaths. Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz' death on Tuesday triggered a manhunt for three suspects around the small Illinois community where the 52-year-old officer worked. A look at some of the latest slayings and data on other officer killings:

How Many Officers Have Died?
Gliniewicz was the eighth law enforcement officer shot and killed in the U.S. in the last month and the fourth in 10 days, according to the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which tracks officers' deaths so their names can be enshrined on a Washington, D.C., memorial. Steve Groeninger, a spokesman for the group, said four fatal shootings in recent days is a higher rate than usual.

Is That An Incease?
No. Shooting deaths of officers are actually down 13 percent compared with the same January-to-September period in 2014. There were 30 shootings last year and 26 this year. Those figures include state and local officers, as well as federal agents. The figures also include two accidental shootings, Groeninger said. Suicides are not included.

Deaths have declined through the decades. The average number of officer shooting deaths for the first six months of each year — which is how the memorial fund gauges trends — was 62 through the 1970s.

The worst half-year period over the past five decades was in 1973, when 84 officers were shot and killed in the first six months alone. Through the early 2000s, the six-month average fell to 29.

More than 20,500 names are inscribed in marble on the memorial in Washington. They include officers killed in attacks and in accidents from 1791 through 2015.

Where Were The Other Recent Killings?
Darren Goforth was shot and killed Aug. 28 in suburban Houston as the Harris County deputy stopped to put gas in his patrol car. Henry Nelson, an officer in Sunset, Louisiana, was shot and killed Aug. 26 while responding to a domestic-violence call. Louisiana State trooper Steven J. Vincent died Aug. 14 after being shot in the head while assisting a motorist.

Do The Numbers Indicate Anything?
Groeninger cautioned that it was too soon to say if officer deaths are trending up. "The data doesn't say that yet," he said. He also said there is no clearly identifiable pattern in the killings and no conclusions to draw for now, other than "there are people out there who intend to harm police officers for whatever reason."

How Many Officers Have Been Specifically Targeted?
During the last 12 months, six officers appear to have been targeted specifically because they worked in law enforcement, according to the memorial fund. That includes the Texas deputy, as well as two New York City officers who were shot and killed in December as they sat in their patrol car.

Elsewhere, an officer for the Housing Authority of New Orleans was fatally shot in his patrol car on May 24. In California, a San Jose Police Department officer was killed March 24 responding to a call that a man was threatening to kill himself. A Pennsylvania State Police officer was shot and killed on Sept. 14, 2014, outside a police barracks by someone wielding a rifle.

What Agencies Did The Slain Officers Work For?
City police account for the largest number of officers killed in shootings. Out of the 26 officers killed nationwide so far this year, 17 were on city forces, four were with the county and three with the state. One federal agent and one tribal officer were also killed, according to the memorial fund.

http://www.policeone.com/lodd/articles/9485276-Are-more-police-getting-killed-A-look-at-officer-deaths

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Texas

Houston union asks FBI to investigate videos inciting violence against cops

Houston police union is weary of videos posted online inciting violence in wake of slain deputy

by PoliceOne Staff

HOUSTON — The Houston Police Officers Union has asked the FBI to investigate viral videos posted online that call for violence against officers, KCPR reported.

One video posted on YouTube by a man named King Noble states, “It's open killing season on cops.”

Another video posted by Louis Farrakhan, a Nation of Islam leader, tells audience members to “rise up and kill those who kill us.”

"We're all for the First Amendment and freedom of speech, but we're not for speech that's inciting people to go out and kill police officers." police union president Ray Hunt told the publication.

On the other side of the spectrum, another YouTube video by Nathan Ener blames the death of Deputy Darren Goforth on African-American protestors and threatens to hunt them down, saying “a thug's life don't matter,” while brandishing a shotgun.

Yolanda Smith, a member of the Houston chapter of the NAACP, said she would like to see federal agents investigate Ener's statements as well. She said the NAACP does not condone violence against anyone.

http://www.policeone.com/fbi/articles/9485066-Houston-union-asks-FBI-to-investigate-videos-inciting-violence-against-cops

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Illinois

$50K reward offered for capture of Ill. cop killers

Police have said they are seeking 3 men on the fourth day of the manhunt

by The Associated Press

FOX LAKE, Ill. — A $50,000 reward is being offered for the capture and conviction of those who killed a northern Illinois police officer.

Motorola Solutions Inc. Vice President Ali Kapadia said at a news conference Friday that the telecommunications company was offering the reward money.

Kapadia said many of the company's employees live in the area of Fox Lake, where police Lt. Charles Gliniewicz was slain on Tuesday.

Police have said they are seeking three men, two of whom are white and one who is black.

http://www.policeone.com/officer-shootings/articles/9485108--50K-reward-offered-for-capture-of-Ill-cop-killers

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Obama official: Calif. police department sets good example

The executive director of President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing said Oakland policing is one to emulate

by Rachel Swan

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Oakland Police Department is an example of what police agencies across the nation should emulate in the post-Ferguson era, the executive director of President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing said Thursday.

Ron Davis, the former East Palo Alto police chief who spent 20 years as an Oakland police officer, told The Chronicle editorial board Thursday that the Oakland Police Department is on the right path to building a stronger relationship with the community, change that was initiated by a court order stemming from the Riders police abuse scandal in 2003.

“I spent 20 years in Oakland; we know the history,” Davis acknowledged. But he pointed out that Oakland has found ways to repair the strained relationship it long had with the community it served, in part by using community leaders to talk with officers about community relations and by changing police tactics to avoid violent, if not fatal, confrontations.

Obama created the task force by executive order in December in the wake of mass demonstrations across the U.S. against police brutality and killings of civilians that were video-recorded by passersby and shared through social media. The task force has since issued a report with recommendations for police departments on building trust and reducing crime.

In July, Davis invited Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and Police Chief Sean Whent to participate in a White House forum on policing, and to share some of their strategies with the task force. Oakland was among 30 cities represented at that meeting. The chief and mayor brought along a delegation of clergy and community activists, including members of the Ceasefire Violent Crime Reduction Strategy, which offers services to divert people from crime.

Ceasefire is one in a slew of changes to Oakland's police culture, and it dovetails with other measures, such as the near-universal use of body cameras, a new foot-chase policy that bans officers from chasing suspects who jump backyard fences, and a “pipeline project” to set aside up to 40 seats in the cadet program for graduates of Oakland public schools, beginning in October.

“It's a way of sending a very clear message that we want people from this community to be the guardians of this community,” Schaaf said.

Such reforms are essential, Davis said, at a time of heightened scrutiny and national protests over police misconduct.

“When a new police chief comes in, in many cases you're starting a reconciliation process,” he said. “Part of that process is the acknowledgment in the role that law enforcement has played in Jim Crow, or the disparate arrests of young men of color.”

In the mid-'90s, Oakland police arrested roughly 30,000 people per year, and saw those statistics as a benchmark of success, according to Whent. Now, he said, the department arrests between 11,000 and 12,000 people a year — yet crime has dropped.

“It was a department that at the time did measure success by how many people can we arrest, and how many tickets can we write, whereas now we're really trying to focus on arresting the right people,” Whent said.

He added that a large part of the reform process in Oakland is to change both the perception of police and the roles that officers are playing.

Schaaf has pledged to boost the department's staff to about 800 officers by the end of her term in 2018. But Whent wants those officers to meld seamlessly into the community, getting out of their cars to meet people rather than just stopping in to make arrests.

Oakland's use-of-force complaints were down 40 percent between 2013 and 2014, along with a precipitous decrease in crime. A recent Chronicle analysis showed that homicides declined from 126 in 2012 to 80 in 2014.

Whent expects that the Oakland Police Department will soon be freed from federal oversight, and he's optimistic the reforms will continue.

http://www.policeone.com/community-policing/articles/9485270-Obama-official-Calif-police-department-sets-good-example

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Connecticut

Police recruitment getting tougher in Conn.

Representatives of police departments across the country say they're having a tough time filling the ranks

by Jesse Leavenworth

MANCHESTER, Conn. — Finding qualified police officer candidates is a growing challenge in Manchester and across the nation.

"It's not necessarily that we don't get applications, but we have such a stringent hiring process that it's very difficult to find the quality candidates that we're looking for," police spokesman Capt. Christopher Davis said.

Funded for 119 officers, the department is down to 105 sworn personnel and is set to host a recruitment fair on Sept. 12 to attract a wider pool of applicants. The starting salary for a local patrol officer was boosted recently to a regionally competitive $57,162, but candidates must have either 60 college credits or two years of full-time military service with an honorable discharge. And that's before they even start a series of physical, written and oral examinations.

Representatives of police departments across the country say they're having a tough time filling the ranks, in part because of strict qualifications, but also due to relatively low pay compared with other career opportunities, budget cuts and the recent turmoil over both police use of force and violence against police officers.

Irresponsible media reports on police shootings of suspects have exacerbated the problem, John Thompson, deputy executive director of the Virginia-based National Sheriffs' Association, said.

"I wouldn't want my kid to be a police officer in this atmosphere," the former Maryland police chief said. "These young men and women, they almost can't win."

In Connecticut, a major stumbling block to a law enforcement career includes candidates' poor decisions in the past. Even a one-time use of LSD, for example, disqualifies an applicant in Manchester, Police Chief Marc Montminy said.

"What I hear from chiefs around the state," Connecticut Municipal Police Academy Administrator Thomas Flaherty said, "is that they have more and more recruits that seem to have questionable backgrounds."

That includes not only criminal records, Flaherty said, but issues revealed during polygraph and psychological examinations and in checks of references and employment histories.

Because honesty and integrity are primary, Manchester police eliminate about half the applicants for a position after the polygraph test, Montminy said. Marijuana use, for example, is not an automatic disqualifier, but lying about smoking pot is, he said.

Before the polygraph, applicants must pass a physical agility test and a written exam that determines reading comprehension and knowledge of basic mathematics and spelling. Successful applicants then go before an oral board of local police officers.

Manchester police Sgt. Stephen Bresciano and Windsor Locks police Officer Jeff Lampson, a former Manchester police lieutenant, both sat on oral boards in Manchester. Board members look for candidates who answer questions "in a meaningful, decisive and logical way," Lampson said.

Questions often center on the person's honesty, cultural sensitivity and ability to communicate and solve problems, Lampson said. Bresciano said qualities he looked for included confidence, a willingness to make decisions, common sense and a nonjudgmental character.

"You try to throw six or seven questions that give you a snapshot of the way this person's mind works," Lampson said.

Each applicant also undergoes a thorough background check. Police talk to relatives, neighbors, current and former employers, anyone with a connection to the applicant.

"What I tell candidates is that we're gonna know more about you than your parents," Montminy said.

Successful candidates must complete six months of training at the municipal academy and then undergo three months of field training. From 20 to 25 percent of candidates do not successfully complete field training, Davis said.

But for those who believe they can make it, the job offers daily challenges and variety and a chance to meet and help many people, Davis said. Manchester police particularly seek qualified minority and female candidates and police officers from other agencies, he said.

The recruitment fair on Sept. 12 is set for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the police station, 239 E. Middle Turnpike. The fair includes a tour of the department, talks with field training officers and overviews of programs and units. Call the human resource recruitment line to register — 860-647-3170.

U.S. report cites poor police response during Ferguson unrest

by Carey Gillam

Police forces need more training and other improvements to avoid a repeat of mistakes made in response to last year's race-related protests and riots in Ferguson, Missouri, according to a U.S. Justice Department report issued on Thursday.

The "after action" report represents the final version of a draft summary seen by Reuters in June and is little changed from the earlier document.

The report focuses on the tactics of police from Ferguson, St. Louis, St. Louis County and the Missouri Highway Patrol.

All four agencies were involved in efforts to quell the protests and riots that broke out after a white Ferguson police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, on Aug. 9, 2014.

The officer, Darren Wilson, was not charged in the case and the killing set off months of protests about police treatment of minorities that expanded to cities around the country.

St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said in a statement the report was only a "snapshot" of time and did not reflect actions throughout the months of protest. Belmar said he was "extremely proud" of his officers.

The St. Louis Police Department said it had launched a "community engagement" program and was making other changes due to lessons learned in Ferguson. "What our officers encountered during those first 17 days of unrest has forever changed policing," it said in a statement.

The other agencies did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

The report covers event over the 17 days following the shooting and is highly critical of police actions, saying police lacked effective protocols, were not adequately trained, struggled with communication and coordination, and made mistakes that sometimes heightened tensions.

It recommends that law-enforcement agencies protect and provide for protesters to exercise their First Amendment rights to free speech; provide sufficient training on how officers can "de-escalate" tense situations; improve internal and external communications; improve transparency and accessibility for citizen complaints about officer actions.

The use of dogs for crowd control during the Ferguson protests was "inappropriate," inciting fear and anger in the crowd, the report says. It says police were inconsistent in using force and making arrests, and teargas was used inappropriately.

In March, a separate report by the Justice Department documented discriminatory actions by Ferguson police and the small community's municipal court system. That report led to upheaval in the city's leadership.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/03/us-usa-missouri-shooting-idUSKCN0R31OB20150903

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Florida

Arby's offers free meals to S. FL officers Friday

by Fox News Staff

MIAMI (FOX 13) - Fast food chain Arby's says it's offering free combo meals to local police officers at any of their restaurants in Miami-Dade and Broward counties on Friday. This move comes after a Pembroke Pines Police officer was refused service by one of the workers in the drive through earlier this week.

"I am offended and appalled that an individual within our community would treat a police officer in such a manner. It is unacceptable," stated Police Chief Dan Giustino earlier this week

Arby's CEO Paul Brown and Senior Vice President of Operations Scott Boatwright, called Police Chief Dan Giustino and apologized, calling it an isolated incident.

Law enforcement wives picketed the store on Wednesday after the incident, and when Arby's workers called police, responding officers brought all of the picketers Slurpees.

Competitors of the chain have also come out in support of the officers.

WSVN reported McDonald's partnered with Magic 102.7 FM to deliver pancakes and McMuffins to the department Thursday morning. Whole Foods also put out a spread for law enforcers, and local residents brought boxes of Dunkin' Donuts and coffee.

"We appreciate the outpouring of support that we've received from the community throughout this whole ordeal, and we're just very, very appreciative and humbled by it," said a Pembroke Pines police officer.

http://www.fox32chicago.com/news/dont-miss/16103772-story

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Maryland

On The Watch: Will Community Policing Efforts In Baltimore Include Everyone?

by Mary Rose Madden

On the some of the hottest days of this summer, 14-year-old LaAsia Griffin and her big brother Jamal popped a white canopy tent and set up penny candy, chips, and crackers for sale on two long tables at a busy stop light in West Baltimore's Poppleton Neighborhood.

Throughout the summer, the candy shop has made the teens a few hundred dollars. It also, unexpectedly, put them in place to help one day when there was an emergency a few blocks over. In the middle of the day, they heard a woman crying for help.

"She locked the keys in the car," Jamal says, "She was going to the back of the truck to get another child seat out to put in the backseat, but in the process she locked all the doors by mistake. And all the babies was locked in the car."

The mother had called the police, but she was frantic. Jamal and his cousin went to help her, and 40 minutes later, just as they got the trunk popped and the windows down, the police finally showed up. For Jamal it was an example of how some people in his community take care of each other: because they have to. Because where are the police when you really need them?

Jamal says in their community, calling the police is a crap shoot.

"They always say that the police is here for our safety, and for our support and help," he says. "A lot of people are scared to call on them now."

But it wasn't always this way, says LaAsia and Jamal's mom Nessa. As recently as six months ago, before the riots, there were officers who reached out.

"They used to patrol this neighborhood – I know two of them, or three, and they was real nice. Real nice. I mean, they did they jobs, and weren't disrespectful, and asked us, 'Is everything okay round here?'" Nessa says. "They wanted to know if anybody needed assistance. They were gonna look out for us no matter what."

That's community policing in a nutshell: when officers get out of their cars and mix with the people they're trying to serve and protect. It happens here in Baltimore – and doing a better job of it is one of the main goals of the city's new police commissioner. But in neighborhoods like Nessa's, especially since the riots, it feels like a rarity. And many people have given up on the police.

"It's a whole lot of people don't even want to deal with them," she says.

Baltimore Police have new riot gear. They have new training in how to manage stressful situations. They have a new "war room" – a centralized spot for local investigators to collaborate with federal agencies and catch repeat offenders, the high level criminals.

But what's being done to help police-community relations? To really deal with police misconduct, and the community's mistrust of police?

The monthly meeting of The Community Relations Council – or CRC – in each of the city's police districts is supposed to be one of the main opportunities for citizens to talk with the officers who police them, face-to-face, in a forum for solving problems. At July's meeting in the Western District, there was a notable absence of young people.

The district's new major, Sheree Briscoe, took the mic and introduced herself to the older crowd. Briscoe is the sixth commander of the Western in the past six years, and she's tasked with establishing a new relationship with the community.

But, about the most basic symbol of that change – officers getting out of their cars and engaging residents more – she says: "That piece, I can tell you, will not change overnight."

Most of the citizens who've come to the meeting want to talk about the drugs, burglaries, and shootings on the rise this summer. Briscoe tells them they can call on her as often as they need to.

But people who show up at a CRC typically know that already, says Kevin Davis, Baltimore's new police commissioner.

"Community relations councils across America, and it's not unique to Baltimore, are made up of the little church ladies," Davis says. "And they're very, very important. But they're the choir. So we're always preaching to the choir.... That's a traditional outreach group for police departments, but we've missed the boat. We need to up our game with our community policing strategies."

Davis says true community policing means getting his officers to break out of their comfort zones, to acknowledge their shortcomings – and that's a huge challenge.

"We train people for six and a half months, for the very worst-case scenarios in our profession," he says. "But throughout a police officer's day – and it can be in the most challenged community in the city or in the country – we deal with far more people who just want to speak to a police officer."

"We have to do a better job at actually training people how to do that," Davis continues.

"We have to recognize when someone's in crisis, and then deal with that moment of crisis accordingly, and without the cynicism, and without the sarcasm, and without the disrespect."

One of Davis's first big tests as commissioner is the current standoff between Baltimore police and one of the groups they find hard to reach: the city's young, and mostly poor and black, dirt bike riders, known as the "wheelie boys."

Straddling a red and white bike, and sporting red gloves, gold teeth, tattoos on his arms, Ying cuts an imposing figure. He says police target him and other riders because they look a certain way. But, he concedes, he and his friends make the mistake of profiling cops, too, often expecting the worst from them. Ying says, they could all come together on the issue of riding their dirt bikes through the city.

"Right now we fighting for a park, so we can have a certain area we can ride, and have a certain area for the audience just to watch," he says. "If [police officers] want to come to me in a good approach, I will talk to them. I will give them hints to what to do to make it better for us."

Davis says he's not going the "zero tolerance route" – he wants to collaborate with the riders and find a solution.

But there's more to it, say Ying and his friends. As he talks, other young men approach. Jackboy Dummy, a 30-something friend, says the way police routinely talk to them is degrading.

"So now when they pull up on us, they tell us shit like: 'Go on your porch,' or 'Go in your backyard," he says.

He says it seems like the police don't care to know them. But according to Davis, Dummy and his friends are exactly the population police most need to hear from – and the one they're missing through avenues like that community meeting.

Dummy says he never hears about such forums – if he did, he would like to participate.

"I don't really hear nothing about nothing being done as far as changing what they doing. Now you might find a bunch of stuff about changing what's going on out here. But as far as they actions? Nah. I don't see nothing transpiring as far as changing what they doing,[ sic ]" he says, looking at the group of young men gathered around.

"We need to be heard," he says.

http://news.wypr.org/post/watch-will-community-policing-efforts-baltimore-include-everyone#stream/0

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Illinois

Chicago's Underfunded Community Policing Program

by John Vanderkloot

Crime in Chicago has long drawn the attention of politicians, media, and the general public. In particular, the influx of violent crime often associated with gang activity and rising shooting rates continue to trouble the city. Chicagoans know contemporary gang violence in a homogenized form. It is seen as an issue which primarily affects low-income, minority communities. When analyzing statistics, historically poor communities suffering from high unemployment display drastically higher violent crime rates. Members of these communities continuously take part in the fight for violent crime reduction and seek assistance from the rest of the city in doing so. While different initiatives have been put forth by both the city and grassroots organizations, funding is hard to come by.

According to James C. Howell, a senior research associate with the National Gang Center in Tallahassee, Florida, 20-50% of all homicides in U.S. urban cities involve a gang member as either perpetrator or victim. To be certain, this phenomenon is not Chicago's alone despite media coverage suggesting otherwise. Gang involvement has risen in the last five years nationally. However, in terms of population, Chicago homicide and shooting rates remain alarmingly high ahead of the larger municipalities of New York and Los Angeles.

Just as the roots to Chicago's gang issues are multifaceted, thoughts on possible solutions to handling gun violence abound. Gun control brings about some of the strongest rhetoric amongst politicians despite varying opinions as to any potential legislation's impact. There has also been discord within the academic community over gun control since research began on the issue. Those against increased measures point to Illinois' strict gun laws as proof of their inadequacy. Those in favor reference the loose regulation in states surrounding Illinois as the problem. This debate has and continues to rage on; however, it does not seem as though gun control legislation alone could ever change the culture of violence to which Chicagoans and others have grown accustomed or desensitized. Accordingly, any future reduction must be accompanied by a shift in attitudes.

The University of Chicago Crime Lab, a university sponsored think-tank, notes that “[d]espite the enormous toll gun violence takes on young people in Chicago, and across the United States, the evidence about what works to reduce youth gun violence is extremely limited.” While politicians and talking heads argue for different methods, rarely are specific programs or success stories referenced as support. However, official strategies for strengthening law enforcement bonds to communities have existed for quite some time. The U.S. Department of Justice refers to the 1990s as the founding era of community policing and points to Chicago as one of the first cities to use this approach.

The Chicago Police Department (CPD) initiated the Community Alternative Policing Strategies (CAPS) program in 1993. After a brief exploratory period in several of the police districts, the program was expanded in 1995 to include the entire city. The rationale behind the program shifts focus to prevention at the community level instead of merely reacting to reports of criminal wrongdoing. Monthly beat meetings for community advisory boards and CPD officers look to establish trust and an open space for discussion. According to the CPD website,

CAPS has been recognized as one of the most ambitious community policing initiatives in the United States. It has been cited as a model by numerous national experts, including officials at the U.S. Department of Justice and academic authorities on community policing.

CAPS aims to make community members more active participants in law enforcement and to reduce both the physical and psychological distance between themselves and police officers. Individuals, church groups, school affiliated organizations, and non-profits all make an effort to attend and work in coordination with the police. The meetings seek to normalize interaction between the two groups and open a forum to discuss anything related to crime reduction. Reports from the early 2000s by officials at Northwestern University and others monitoring the program noted an improvement in police perception amongst various community members and overall crime reduction. While the extent to which these improvements can be directly attributed to CAPS is not clear, the program did offer some encouraging results.

CAPS continues to be used by CPD and serves as a model for other community policing initiatives around the country. However, the program has not been universally regarded as successful in bridging the community-law enforcement gap. Many note that CAPS suffers from the typical bureaucratic lapses and lack of interest associated with such programs. Creating meaningful relationships requires both parties to attend meetings and to value the strategies enacted. Community members have been critical of police attitudes towards the program and police have expressed similar skeptical outlooks towards meeting attendance and overall community member involvement. In essence, many believe the program to have good intentions, but to fall short of producing meaningful change.

Criticism of the program prompted Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy to amend CAPS in 2015 in an effort to combat some of its criticism. Coming at the height of the Emanuel reelection campaign, the changes were in response to a peak in Chicago shootings which had brought staunch disapproval for the Mayor's policing strategy. In a press conference, Emanuel noted that the program newly envisioned would have to apply the existing budget in a different manner. “You can have the same 50 people, but if they're in the downtown headquarters, they're not doing community policing.”

Emanuel's plan established permanent CAPS offices in each of Chicago's 22 police districts and, according to him, moved officers from city desks to foot and bike patrol in their jurisdictions. The Mayor makes an important point in noting that community policing efforts necessarily must have officers in the communities forging ties. Yet not allocating new funds makes one wonder about Emanuel's dedication to the program. Without incentivizing police officers to become more active participants, or finances to increase program engagement, the enacted changes seem superficial. Those most affected by gun violence have grown accustomed to inequity in terms of city funding. By structurally reshaping the program instead of increasing funding, the mayor's action appears more like empty campaign rhetoric than something likely to be impactful.

Time and time again, inner city communities are told that the problems they face are being taken seriously and yet, programs envisioned as potential solutions struggle to maintain funding and support. Chicago's budgetary crisis should be taken seriously, but lives of city residents should always remain the top priority. The events in Ferguson and Baltimore during the previous year displayed, amongst other things, that serious mistrust exists between many of the country's urban minority communities and their police forces. As noted, these issues are widespread and by no means unique to Chicago. However, attitudes must change towards city crime and violence. The intentions behind CAPS and similar programs are in the right place and greater urgency, importance, and resources must be directed towards solving these problems.

Florida

Arby's apologizes after Florida police officer says employee refused to serve her food

by Cliff Pinckard

A police department in Florida says a worker at an Arby's refused to serve one of its officers, drawing a quick apology from the fast-food chain's CEO.

However, the 19-year-old employee involved says it was a misunderstanding.

The incident occurred Tuesday night when Sgt. Jennifer Martin of the Pembroke Pines, Fla., Police Department pulled up to the drive-thru at an Arby's, the Sun-Sentinel reports. Martin was in uniform and in a police vehicle.

According to an "offense report" filed by Martin, she said when she pulled up to the drive-thru window she handed a credit card to Arby's employee Kenneth Davenport, 19.

In her report, Martin says the restaurant's manager, Angel Mirabal, told her that Davenport didn't want to serve her because she is a police officer. She said Mirabal had to order Davenport to process her credit card. She also said Mirabal told her Davenport had a right to refuse her service.

Martin told Mirabal she was no longer comfortable with the food prepared for her and feared it might not be safe. She went inside the restaurant to get a refund and said Davenport "refused to have contact with me, ignored me and refused to provide his contact information to me."

The police department issued a news release detailing the incident, which has gained plenty of attention on social media.

"I am offended and appalled that an individual within our community would treat a police officer in such a manner," Pembroke Pines Police Chief Dan Giustino said in the release.

Arby's Chief Executive Officer Paul Brown and Senior Vice President of Operations Scott Boatwright contacted Pembroke Pines Police Chief Dan Giustino less than two hours after the release and apologized, USA Today reports.

"We take this isolated matter very seriously as we respect and support police officers in our local communities," Arby's spokesman Jason Rollins said a statement, according to USA Today. "We will be following up with our team members to be sure that our policy of inclusion is understood and adhered to."

Davenport tells the Miami Herald that he wasn't aware Martin was a police officer and that he couldn't serve her because he was too busy with other customers, asking his manager for help.

Davenport said his manager made a joke about him not serving Martin because she is a police officer, according to news reports.

"[My manager] just made a joke and she couldn't take it the right way, she has no sense of humor," Davenport tells NBCMiami.com. "It was busy and then she was probably one of the last cars we had; she wasn't for the joke I guess. We're too busy so my manager's like 'Oh, I get to serve you instead of him,' like he's getting overboard for that?"

Davenport tells NBCMiami.com that he believes the incident might be a publicity stunt.

"Why is this so worldwide, like you guys say?" he said. "To me I'm just gonna keep living my life and whatever happens happens, there's nothing I can do at this point."

A South Florida police union is calling for a national boycott of Arby's because of the incident, the Herald reports.

http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2015/09/arbys_apologizes_after_worker.html

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Maryland

Judge Rejects Effort to Try Officers Together in Freddie Gray Death

by GENEVA SANDS

The six Baltimore police officers charged in connection with Freddie Gray's death can have separate trials, a judge ruled today.

Deputy State's Attorney Janice Bledsoe had argued at the pre-trial hearing today at Baltimore City Circuit Court that three of the officers should be tried together, saying they exhibited "degrees of the same breach of care."

But Judge Barry Williams agreed with the defense that evidence in one trial would not necessarily be admissible in another, concluding that trying everyone together "is not in the interest of justice."

Williams also ruled that the charges against the six police officers will not be dismissed and that State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby will not be recused from the case.

Williams denied the two defense motions. None of the six officers charged was present, only their lawyers.

Andrew Graham, who represented all six officers in the argument for dismissal of charges because of "prosecutorial misconduct," said State's Attorney Mosby, the chief prosecutor for Baltimore, "violated public conduct" and was "reckless" during her May 1 news conference about the arrests by implying guilt of the officers and discussing evidence. Mosby was present in court today but did not speak.

Graham hammered home the fact that Mosby used the phrase "no justice, no peace" -- a common protest chant in the Black Lives Matter movement -- noting that it was "tantamount to saying no conviction, no peace."

Graham also argued that Mosby discussed evidence in the case and that it wasn't her job to represent the Gray family.

Michael Schatzow, there to represent the State's Attorney's office, argued that the defense was taking Mosby's comments out of context and that she only remarked on probable cause, which was a matter of public record.

"She never expressed personal opinion of guilt," Schatzow said.

That's when Judge Williams interrupted and rhetorically snapped, "Is it the prosecutors job to calm the city or to prosecute cases?"

Judedge Williams also dismissed the defense's motion to recuse Mosby and her office from the case. The judge said that it was "troubling and condescending" for the defense to argue that Mosby was compromised and should be recused because of her marriage to Baltimore City Councilman Nick Mosby.

Officers Caesar Goodson Jr., William Porter, Edward Nero and Garrett Miller, Lt. Brian Rice and Sgt. Alicia White were arrested and charged in May in relation to Gray's death. The charges are varied and include murder and involuntary manslaughter. All six have pleaded not guilty. Gray, 25, was placed under police custody in Baltimore on April 12, and he sustained a spinal injury during that time, authorities said. Gray went into a coma several days later and died a week after his arrest.

A small group of protesters gathered today outside the courthouse in downtown Baltimore and nearby streets, briefly blocking the roadway, according to the Baltimore Police Department, noting that there was one arrest during the protests.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/judge-rejects-dismissal-charges-officers-charged-freddie-gray/story?id=33482171

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'Who needs this?' Police recruits abandon dream amid anti-cop climate

by Edmund DeMarche

Police departments face a recruiting shortage amid a growing anti-cop mood that some fear has taken the pride out of peacekeeping and put targets on the backs of the men and women in blue.

Open calls for the killing of police have been followed by assassinations, including last week's murder in Texas of a Harris County sheriff's deputy. Instead of dialing back the incendiary rhetoric, groups including "Black Lives Matter" have instead doubled down at demonstrations with chants of "Pigs in a blanket, fry em like bacon." Public safety officials fear the net effect has been to demonize police, and diminish the job.

"It's a lot harder to sell now," Jeff Roorda, business manager of the St. Louis Police Officers Association and former state representative, told FoxNews.com. "This is a very real phenomenon."

"We're sitting ducks. We're in these uniforms, brightly colored cars and there's nothing we can do."

- Sgt. Delroy Burton, DC Police Union in Washington

Roorda's colleagues witnessed the fierce, anti-police rioting that followed the police shooting last year of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson, Missouri. Even though a grand jury and a federal Justice Department inquiry did not fault Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, debunked claims that the cop killed Brown as he held his hands up and begged for his life have animated the Black Lives Matter movement as it spread around the nation.

Roorda, who spoke in defense of police in the aftermath of the Ferguson shooting, said protesters took to Twitter to promote a #KillRoorda hashtag.

"You no longer just have to worry about your life while in uniform," he said. "Now you have to be worried about the well-being of your family," he said.

Roorda said the new academy class continues to be delayed and the police force loses about double the amount of officers per year than in the past.

Knowing police face public scorn or career-ending legal battles even if they acted properly has convinced many prospective cops to abandon their dreams of patrolling America's streets.

"I saw all this anti-cop propaganda and I was like, 'Who needs this?'” said Antonio, a New Yorker who asked that only his first name be used. The 32-year-old had applied and been accepted into the NYPD academy, but withdrew his candidacy amid the cop-bashing climate sweeping the country.

Even top police brass understand why the shield has lost its shine.

"Right now, policing is not the most attractive occupation that they could probably get into," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey told CBS.

Recruitment nationally is "way down," said Jonathan Thompson, executive director of the National Sheriff's Association. He said some sheriffs around the country say the number of applications has fallen by as much as 50 percent.

While blatant calls for killing cops are unusual, the job has always been dangerous. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which monitors the number of police officers killed in the line of duty, tabulated 48 police officers around the nation were killed by gunfire in 2014. So far this year, 26 law enforcement officers have been shot to death on duty, putting the nation on track for a 19 percent decrease. But these numbers do not identify police officers intentionally targeted for the mere fact that they wear a badge.

Police in Texas believe that may have been the sole motivation for the murder Friday night of Harris County Sheriff's Officer Darren Goforth at a gas station in a Houston suburb. The suspect in that case, Shannon Jaruay Miles, allegedly came up behind Goforth as he pumped gas and shot the officer 15 times.

In December 2014, New York City Police Officers Wenjian Liu and his partner Rafael Ramos were killed in an ambush while sitting inside their patrol car on a Brooklyn streetcorner.

"No warning, no provocation," Police Commissioner William Bratton said at the time. "They were quite simply assassinated, targeted for their uniform."

The gunman reportedly announced online that he was planning to shoot two "pigs" to avenge the death of Eric Garner, a Staten Island, N.Y., man who died after being put in a chokehold by police who were arresting him for selling loose cigarettes.

"I'm putting wings on pigs today. They take 1 of ours, let's take 2 of theirs," Ismaaiyl Brinsley wrote on an Instagram account. Brinsley killed himself on a subway platform as police closed in on him.

There is currently a massive manhunt in Fox Lake, Ill., after a police officer was shot and killed while pursuing a group of men. Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, known affectionately as "GI Joe" was giving chase to three men on foot.

In addition to the Brown and Garner cases, the anti-police sentiment has been fueled by the April death in police custody of Freddie Gray in Baltimore and the fatal shooting, also in April, of Walter Scott in South Carolina. Six Baltimore police officers face charges in the death of Gray, who died of injuries suffered while being transported in a police van. North Charleston Police Officer Michael Slager has been charged with murder in Scott's shooting.

Galvanized by the deaths, Black Lives Matter has sought to bring attention to the issue of police brutality with protests around the nation.

"What's more uncomfortable, shouting, stopping freeways and interrupting speeches -- or being murdered by police and having your body left in the street for more than four hours, or turning up dead in a jail cell after a traffic stop?" the group posted on Facebook.

Some law enforcement officials believe President Obama has fanned the flames by not denouncing the movement more unequivocally, although he did personally call the widow of Goforth and has condemned violence against police.

"President Obama has breathed life into this ugly movement," Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke told "Fox & Friends." "And it is time now for good, law-abiding Americans to rise up. We now have to counter this slime, this filth coming out of these cop haters."

Sgt. Delroy Burton, chairman of the DC Police Union in Washington, compared the current treatment of police to veterans returning from the Vietnam War.

"We have to fight the bad guys, and the policymakers go unnoticed," he said.

Burton, who was born in Jamaica and is a former U.S. Marine, said his police force is about 131 officers understaffed and has seen nearly 600 officers resign in the past 19 months -- a number he said is unheard of.

"We're sitting ducks," he said. "We're in these uniforms, brightly colored cars and there's nothing we can do. And the vast majority supports this loud vocal minority."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/09/02/who-needs-this-police-recruits-abandon-dream-amid-anti-cop-climate/

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Opinion

Violence tears at the fabric of all our lives

by E.J. Dionne

SAN FRANCISCO -- We have a choice to make.

We can look at both violence and racism as scourges that all of us must join together to fight. Or we can turn the issues of crime and policing into fodder for racial and political division.

In principle, it shouldn't be hard to recognize two truths.

Too many young African-Americans have been killed in confrontations with police when lethal force should not have been used. We should mourn their deaths and demand justice. Black Lives Matter turned into a social movement because there is legitimate anger over the reality that — to be very personal about it — I do not have to worry about my son being shot by the police in the way an African-American parent does.

At the same time, too many of our police forces are killed while doing their jobs. According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 1,466 men and women in law enforcement died in the line of duty over the last decade. We should mourn their deaths, appreciate the dangers they face, and honor their courage.

Now I'll admit: It's easy for me to type these words on a computer screen. Circumstances are more complicated for those on either side of confrontations over the obligations of our police forces. Things get said (or, often, shouted) that call forth a reaction from the other side. A few demonstrators can scream vile slogans that can be used to taint a whole movement. Rage escalates.

Moreover, there are substantive disagreements over what needs to be done. Those trying to stop unjust police killings want to establish new rules and practices that many rank-and-file officers resist, arguing that the various measures could prevent them from doing their jobs. This resistance, in turn, only heightens mistrust of the police among their critics.

But politicians and, yes, even political commentators have an obligation: to try to make things better, not worse. There is always a choice between the politics of resentment and the politics of remedy. Resentment is easier.

And so it was this week that the murder of Texas Sheriff's Deputy Darren Goforth inspired Sen. Ted Cruz to say on Monday: "Whether it's in Ferguson or Baltimore, the response of senior officials of the president, of the attorney general, is to vilify law enforcement. That is fundamentally wrong, and it is endangering the safety and security of us all." For good measure, the next day, Cruz condemned President Obama's "silence" on Goforth's murder.

The problem? For starters, Obama was not silent. He called the slain officer's widow on Monday and issued a statement saying he had told Kathleen Goforth "that Michelle and I would keep her and her family in our prayers. I also promised that I would continue to highlight the uncommon bravery that police officers show in our communities every single day. They put their lives on the line for our safety." Obama has made statements of this sort over and over. Vilification this is not.

Over at Fox News, the campaign against Black Lives Matter has become fierce. Bill O'Reilly called the organization a "hate group" and declared: "I'm going to put them out of business."

Let's take five steps back. The movement for police reform was not the invention of some leftist claque. It was a response to real and genuinely tragic events. Silencing protesters won't make anything better.

And some potential solutions don't even make the political agenda. The easy availability of guns on American streets is a threat to police officers and to African-Americans in our most violent neighborhoods. Why are those who seek reasonable gun regulations regularly blocked by interests far more powerful than those who demonstrate in our streets?

On April 5, 1968, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Robert F. Kennedy — who himself would be fatally shot exactly two months later — said this to the Cleveland City Club:

"Whenever any American's life is taken by another American unnecessarily — whether it is done in the name of the law or in defiance of the law, by one man or by a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence — whenever we tear at the fabric of our lives which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, whenever we do this, then the whole nation is degraded."

How much more pain must we endure before we recognize that these words are still true?

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/2905775-155/dionne-violence-tears-at-the-fabric

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New York

U.S. appeals court asked to halt NSA phone spying program

by Joseph Lax

A U.S. appeals court appeared reluctant on Wednesday to put an immediate halt to the federal government's collection of millions of Americans' phone records, with the controversial spy program set to expire in November.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York previously found the program illegal in May, ruling that the Patriot Act did not authorize the National Security Agency to install such sweeping surveillance. The decision came in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

At the time, the court noted that the relevant sections of the Patriot Act were set to expire on June 1 and declined to stop the program, saying Congress should have the opportunity to decide whether to permit it to continue.

Under the USA Freedom Act, which Congress passed in June, new privacy provisions take effect on Nov. 29 that will end the bulk collection, first disclosed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013.

The program collects "metadata" such as the number dialed and the duration of calls but does not include their content.

Arguments on Wednesday centered on whether the program may continue operating between now and November.

Henry Whitaker, a lawyer for the Obama administration, told the three-judge panel that Congress clearly intended the collection to continue while the NSA transitions to the new system.

But Alex Abdo, an ACLU lawyer, said the statute explicitly extended the same Patriot Act provisions that the court concluded do not permit bulk collection.

The judges expressed concern that, as Circuit Judge Robert Sack put it, halting the program would "short-circuit" a process already under way.

Saying the ACLU had won a "historic achievement," Sack asked, "Why don't you declare victory and withdraw?"

Abdo said the ongoing collection harmed the ACLU's ability to confer with clients, such as whistleblowers, without worrying about whether the communications would be swept up by the NSA.

The Freedom Act requires companies like Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) and AT&T Inc (T.N) to collect metadata. Instead of feeding the data to intelligence agencies, the companies must do so only if a government request is approved by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The 2nd Circuit is the only appeals court to rule on the program's legality. Last week, an appeals court in Washington threw out a lower court's ruling that would have blocked the program, saying the plaintiffs had not shown their specific data was collected.

The 9th Circuit in San Francisco is considering a similar challenge.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/02/us-usa-security-nsa-idUSKCN0R22FW20150902

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Maryland

On The Watch: What's Essential To Community Policing?

by Mary Rose Madden

On the some of the hottest days of this summer, 14-year-old LaAsia Griffin and her big brother Jamal popped a white canopy tent and set up penny candy, chips, and crackers for sale on two long tables at a busy stop light in West Baltimore's Poppleton Neighborhood.

Throughout the summer, the candy shop has made the teens a few hundred dollars. It also, unexpectedly, put them in place to help one day when there was an emergency a few blocks over. In the middle of the day, they heard a woman crying for help.

"She locked the keys in the car," Jamal says, "She was going to the back of the truck to get another child seat out to put in the backseat, but in the process she locked all the doors by mistake. And all the babies was locked in the car."

The mother had called the police, but she was frantic. Jamal and his cousin went to help her, and 40 minutes later, just as they got the trunk popped and the windows down, the police finally showed up. For Jamal it was an example of how some people in his community take care of each other: because they have to. Because where are the police when you really need them?

Jamal says in their community, calling the police is a crap shoot.

"They always say that the police is here for our safety, and for our support and help," he says. "A lot of people are scared to call on them now."

But it wasn't always this way, says LaAsia and Jamal's mom Nessa. As recently as six months ago, before the riots, there were officers who reached out.

"They used to patrol this neighborhood – I know two of them, or three, and they was real nice. Real nice. I mean, they did they jobs, and weren't disrespectful, and asked us, 'Is everything okay round here?'" Nessa says. "They wanted to know if anybody needed assistance. They were gonna look out for us no matter what."

That's community policing in a nutshell: when officers get out of their cars and mix with the people they're trying to serve and protect. It happens here in Baltimore – and doing a better job of it is one of the main goals of the city's new police commissioner. But in neighborhoods like Nessa's, especially since the riots, it feels like a rarity. And many people have given up on the police.

"It's a whole lot of people don't even want to deal with them," she says.

Baltimore Police have new riot gear. They have new training in how to manage stressful situations. They have a new "war room" – a centralized spot for local investigators to collaborate with federal agencies and catch repeat offenders, the high level criminals.

But what's being done to help police-community relations? To really deal with police misconduct, and the community's mistrust of police?

The monthly meeting of The Community Relations Council – or CRC – in each of the city's police districts is supposed to be one of the main opportunities for citizens to talk with the officers who police them, face-to-face, in a forum for solving problems. At July's meeting in the Western District, there was a notable absence of young people.

The district's new major, Sheree Briscoe, took the mic and introduced herself to the older crowd. Briscoe is the sixth commander of the Western in the past six years, and she's tasked with establishing a new relationship with the community.

But, about the most basic symbol of that change – officers getting out of their cars and engaging residents more – she says: "That piece, I can tell you, will not change overnight."

Most of the citizens who've come to the meeting want to talk about the drugs, burglaries, and shootings on the rise this summer. Briscoe tells them they can call on her as often as they need to.

But people who show up at a CRC typically know that already, says Kevin Davis, Baltimore's new police commissioner.

"Community relations councils across America, and it's not unique to Baltimore, are made up of the little church ladies," Davis says. "And they're very, very important. But they're the choir. So we're always preaching to the choir.... That's a traditional outreach group for police departments, but we've missed the boat. We need to up our game with our community policing strategies."

Davis says true community policing means getting his officers to break out of their comfort zones, to acknowledge their shortcomings – and that's a huge challenge.

"We train people for six and a half months, for the very worst-case scenarios in our profession," he says. "But throughout a police officer's day – and it can be in the most challenged community in the city or in the country – we deal with far more people who just want to speak to a police officer."

"We have to do a better job at actually training people how to do that," Davis continues.

"We have to recognize when someone's in crisis, and then deal with that moment of crisis accordingly, and without the cynicism, and without the sarcasm, and without the disrespect."

One of Davis's first big tests as commissioner is the current standoff between Baltimore police and one of the groups they find hard to reach: the city's young, and mostly poor and black, dirt bike riders, known as the "wheelie boys."

Straddling a red and white bike, and sporting red gloves, gold teeth, tattoos on his arms, Ying cuts an imposing figure. He says police target him and other riders because they look a certain way. But, he concedes, he and his friends make the mistake of profiling cops, too, often expecting the worst from them. Ying says, they could all come together on the issue of riding their dirt bikes through the city.

"Right now we fighting for a park, so we can have a certain area we can ride, and have a certain area for the audience just to watch," he says. "If [police officers] want to come to me in a good approach, I will talk to them. I will give them hints to what to do to make it better for us."

Davis says he's not going the "zero tolerance route" – he wants to collaborate with the riders and find a solution.

But there's more to it, say Ying and his friends. As he talks, other young men approach. Jackboy Dummy, a 30-something friend, says the way police routinely talk to them is degrading.

"So now when they pull up on us, they tell us shit like: 'Go on your porch,' or 'Go in your backyard," he says.

He says it seems like the police don't care to know them. But according to Davis, Dummy and his friends are exactly the population police most need to hear from – and the one they're missing through avenues like that community meeting.

Dummy says he never hears about such forums – if he did, he would like to participate.

"I don't really hear nothing about nothing being done as far as changing what they doing. Now you might find a bunch of stuff about changing what's going on out here. But as far as they actions? Nah. I don't see nothing transpiring as far as changing what they doing," he says, looking at the group of young men gathered around.

"We need to be heard," he says.

http://news.wypr.org/post/watch-what-s-essential-community-policing#stream/0

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Ohio

Lima's first community police substation to open Thursday

by Craig Kelly

LIMA — After months of preparation, the Lima Police Department will open the first substation of its revived community-oriented policing program Thursday at New Life Assembly Church, 1003 E. Kibby St.

During Mayor David Berger's weekly news conference, Lima Police Chief Kevin Martin expressed excitement in bringing community police officers back, with the program previously running from 1995 to 2002.

“We have never gotten away from the philosophy of community policing,” he said. “But nothing we have done since having lost the neighborhood substations has been as effective, from my perspective, as having neighborhood substations and having neighborhood officers assigned to specific high-crime areas and interact on a much more personal level with residents.”

This station, located at the back of the church, will be the first in what the department hopes will be five substations located in various areas of the city with high crime rates. This station, which will be manned by Patrolman Aaron Rode, will center on the neighborhood stretching roughly bordered by Linden Street, Michael Avenue, St. John's Avenue and Calumet Avenue.

The station will open Thursday, with open office hours available from 9 a.m. to noon Tuesdays and 1 to 4 p.m. Thursdays. Rode, who is currently on his honeymoon, will not be at the station until Sept. 10, with Sgt. Jason Garlock set to man the station Thursday.

According to Lt. Andy Green, Rode will have his own cruiser, complete with a laptop that can be detached and used in the substation, giving him access to the same information whether he is in the office or out in the neighborhood.

“He'll be able to not only see information on our Facebook page, along with paperwork that he has to do, but he will also see our call screen with active calls and know what's going on in this neighborhood,” Green said.

The substation already has a social media presence with its new Facebook page, “Lima Police Department Precinct Two Community SubStation.” According to Green, Rode hopes to keep in close contact with people in the neighborhood through social media and personal interaction.

“He's extremely excited to start,” he said. “He's got a lot of work ahead of him.”

Illinois

Illinois police officer shot and killed; hunt on for 3 suspects

by Ashley Fantz

An Illinois police officer was shot and killed in Lake County on Tuesday, authorities said, and search is on for three suspects.

Law enforcement on foot and in helicopters are combing the area, said Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Christopher Covelli.

The shooting happened about 10 minutes before 8 a.m. local time, according to the sergeant. The slain officer worked for Fox Lake Police, a community of about 60,000 people within Lake County.

The officer radioed that he was pursuing three suspects on foot, according to Cavelli.

The officer described them as two white men and one black man, he told CNN. Radio communication dropped off and backup officers were sent. They found the officer with a gunshot wound. He was a 32-year veteran of the police force, CNN learned from a law enforcement source.

Canine units have also been dispatched, and agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting.

Residents have been asked to remain inside their homes and businesses, he said. Some schools have been placed on lockdown, he said.

"We asked residents to report any suspicious activity they happen to see, whether they think it's something minor or major and to keep an eye out for these three individuals," Covelli said.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/01/us/illinois-police-officer-shot/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

California

California To End Unlimited Isolation For Most Gang Leaders

SACRAMENTO (AP) — California on Tuesday agreed to end its unlimited isolation of imprisoned gang leaders, restricting a practice that once kept hundreds of inmates in notorious segregation units for a decade or longer.

No other state keeps so many inmates segregated for so long, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights. The New York City-based nonprofit center represents inmates in a class-action federal lawsuit settled Tuesday on behalf of nearly 3,000 inmates held in segregation statewide.

The state is agreeing to segregate only inmates who commit new crimes behind bars and will no longer lock gang members in soundproofed, windowless cells solely to keep them from directing illegal activities by gang members.

“It will move California more into the mainstream of what other states are doing while still allowing us the ability to deal with people who are presenting problems within our system, but do so in a way where we rely less on the use of segregation,” Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Jeffrey Beard said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press.

The conditions triggered intermittent hunger strikes by tens of thousands of inmates throughout the prison system in recent years. Yearslong segregation also drew criticism this summer from President Barack Obama and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

The lawsuit was initially filed in 2009 by two killers serving time in the security housing unit at Pelican Bay on California's North Coast. By 2012, Todd Ashker and Danny Troxell were among 78 prisoners confined in Pelican Bay's isolation unit for more than 20 years, though Troxell has since been moved to another prison. More than 500 had been in the unit for more than 10 years, though recent policy changes reduced that to 62 inmates isolated for a decade or longer as of late July.

The suit contended that isolating inmates in 80-square-foot cells for all but about 90 minutes each day amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

About half the nearly 3,000 inmates held in such units statewide are in solitary confinement. Inmates have no physical contact with visitors and are allowed only limited reading materials and communications with the outside world.

The settlement will limit how long inmates can spend in isolation, while creating “restricted custody” units for inmates who refuse to participate in rehabilitation programs or keep breaking prison rules.

They will also house those who might be in danger if they live with other inmates. For instance, 71-year-old Hugo Pinell was killed by fellow inmates in August just days after he was released from isolation, decades after he became infamous for his role in a failed 1971 San Quentin State Prison escape attempt that killed six.

Beard said the settlement expands on recent changes.

Officials have reduced the number of segregated inmates statewide from 4,153 in January 2012 to 2,858 currently. They are reviewing each inmate's case to see if they can be transferred out of the segregation units or if they qualify for a program that lets them gradually earn their way out by behaving and avoiding gang activity.

Until recently, gang members could serve unlimited time in isolation. Under the settlement, they and other inmates can be segregated for up to five years for crimes committed in prison, though gang members can receive another two years in segregation.

Beard said the segregation system was adopted about 35 years ago after a series of slayings of inmates and guards and wasn't reconsidered until recently because California corrections officials were consumed with other crises, including severe crowding.

“We probably had too many people locked up too long, because over 70 percent of the people that were reviewed were actually released, and we've had very, very few problems with those releases,” Beard said.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/09/01/california-to-end-unlimited-isolation-for-most-gang-leaders/

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Texas

Video shows man lift hands before being shot by Texas deputies

by Joshua Berlinger

)Gilbert Flores is shirtless, running in front of a home in San Antonio as the two sheriff's deputies approach him.

A minute later, he's putting his hands up.

Then the shots ring out, and he falls to the ground.

Cell phone video obtained by CNN affiliate KSAT appears to show sheriff's deputies in Bexar County, Texas, shooting and killing the 41-year-old Friday.

"He put his hands in the air and then he had his hands up for a few seconds and the cops shot him twice," Michael Thomas, the man who filmed the video, told CNN.

Authorities in Bexar County addressed the existence of the video Friday, the day Flores was killed. They confirmed it was Flores on Monday.

The incident comes at a time when law enforcement officers are under scrutiny for how and when they resort to lethal force. The killings of several individuals by police over the past year have heightened tensions between police and the communities they serve, especially among minorities.

The scrutiny of officer-involved shootings is the reason Thomas recorded the scene in Bexar County.

"I thought with everything going on in the world, with police shootings and everything, I thought I would record what was happening," he told CNN.

The Bexar County Sheriff's Office said Flores was armed with a knife and resisting arrest when deputies showed up. Neither deputy was wearing a body camera.

"We are aware that there is recorded video which appears to show the final moments of this deputy-involved shooting," Bexar County Sheriff Susan Pamerleau said Friday. "It's among many pieces of evidence that we are collecting to determine what happened."

The video is shot from far away, so it's not clear whether Flores is brandishing a weapon. The man steps behind a sheriff's car and cannot be seen at certain times. The only audio that was captured was that of the gunshots.

Though it's clear Flores has one hand up, the other is briefly obscured by a utility pole.

Still, the footage appears to show that Flores is not a direct threat to the responding officers.

"As the guy and police were going back and forth, the man acted like he was going to run back inside his house and then ran around the cars by the cop car and the cops started pursuing closer to him," Thomas told CNN.

The deputies had their weapons trained on Flores throughout the encounter, he added.

He opened his arms and stepped toward the two deputies before taking a few steps back, Thomas said.

Police say he was resisting arrest

Pamerleau said the incident occurred after authorities responded to a domestic disturbance call coming from Flores' home Friday morning. When they arrived, they found a woman and baby, both of whom appeared to be injured.

The woman had suffered a cut on her head, and the baby also appeared hurt, the sheriff's office said.

Authorities say Flores resisted arrest, and nonlethal force -- stun guns and shields -- were used to try to subdue him, but those didn't work, Pamerleau said.

"Certainly what's in the video is a cause for concern," Pamerleau said. "But it's important to let the investigation go through its course so we can ensure a thorough and complete review of all that occurred."

She said both deputies fired shots after a "lengthy confrontation."

The sheriff's office identified the deputies as Greg Vasquez and Robert Sanchez. CNN attempted to contact them late Monday.

Vasquez and Sanchez have been with the Bexar County Sheriff's Office for more than 10 years, according to Pamerleau. They have been placed on administrative leave.

The Bexar County District Attorney's Office has joined the investigation, according to KSAT.

Nicholas "Nico" LaHood, the Bexar County district attorney, told KSAT there's a second video of the incident that has a closer and clearer view of what happened.

"This is a very unique situation where we actually have the shooting on video," LaHood said. "That gives us a whole different perspective that we've never had to deal with before."

James Keith, media relations officer for the Bexar County Sheriff's Office, confirmed to CNN that his office has a second video of the shooting by someone else, but he would not go into detail about what it shows.

Flores had previous run-ins with the law. He was cited for possession of marijuana in 1995, criminal trespassing and aggravated assault in 1999, and aggravated robbery in 2003.

'Threats to our deputies' lives'

The station posted what it said was the entire video on its website Monday. "Other than editing for language, the video is the entirety of what we received from Michael Thomas," it said.

The station told the sheriff's office about the video and sent it there, but the station did not give any warning that it would post the entire raw video Monday, Keith said.

Now, Keith says, the sheriff's office is worried about the safety of its deputies in light of the video's public release.

On Monday, the sheriff's office tweeted a statement that said "broadcasting a man's death for $100 sparked threats to our deputies' lives. Let KSAT know what you think."

CNN reached out to KSAT about the sheriff's office's claims late Monday but did not immediately receive a response. It's not uncommon for television stations to pay for user video to license it.

When asked about the tweet, Keith cited the case of Darren Goforth, a deputy who was shot from behind and killed while filling up his car at a gas station.

"After what happened in Harris County, we are not going to take any chances," Keith said. "Now our deputies are coming to work in civilian clothes because of their concern for safety."

Hours later, the sheriff's office sent out a message with the following statement: "In regards to the deputy involved shooting, we're asking for calm and patience. We are diligently working to complete the investigation so we can move to the next step. We want to get this right for the Flores family, our deputies and our community."

San Antonio, the second-largest city in Texas, is in Bexar County.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/01/us/san-antonio-bexar-county-texas-police-shooting/

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Texas

DPS: Gangs Still a Major Public Safety Threat in Texas

by TWC News Staff

AUSTIN, Texas -- Gangs continue to present a major public safety threat in Texas because of their involvement in violence.

That's according to the Texas Department of Public Safety's Gang Threat Assessment, released Monday.

The report classifies gangs in order to determine which ones pose the biggest threat.

Tier One gangs including Tango Blast with 15,000 members, Texas Mexican Mafia with over 4,700 members, and Texas Syndicate with more than 3,400, pose the biggest threat.

DPS says they present a bigger danger because of their direct ties to Mexican cartels, and overall statewide presence.

"DPS, law enforcement as a whole we are all working together to combat this problem. This is not a city problem or county problem, this is a statewide problem. We are all doing our part to combat this problem," said Sgt. Jason Reyes with DPS.

Authorities said the gangs in Texas remain active in human smuggling and human trafficking operations.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Gangs continue to present a major public safety threat in Texas because of their involvement in violence.

That's according to the Texas Department of Public Safety's Gang Threat Assessment, released Monday.

The report classifies gangs in order to determine which ones pose the biggest threat.

Tier One gangs including Tango Blast with 15,000 members, Texas Mexican Mafia with over 4,700 members, and Texas Syndicate with more than 3,400, pose the biggest threat.

DPS says they present a bigger danger because of their direct ties to Mexican cartels, and overall statewide presence.

"DPS, law enforcement as a whole we are all working together to combat this problem. This is not a city problem or county problem, this is a statewide problem. We are all doing our part to combat this problem," said Sgt. Jason Reyes with DPS.

Authorities said the gangs in Texas remain active in human smuggling and human trafficking operations.

You can view the full DPS gang assessment HERE.

http://www.twcnews.com/tx/austin/news/2015/08/31/dps--gangs-still-a-major-public-safety-threat-in-texas.html

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Maryland

The war room, the street: 2 responses to Baltimore violence

Community leaders are mobilizing on the ground with grassroots efforts to instill lessons of nonviolence

by Juliet Linderman

BALTIMORE — There are only three rules at the Kids Safe Zone: Sign in, clean up after yourself, and read for 15 minutes before playing with the toys stacked around the space, a converted laundromat in West Baltimore.

Ericka Alston — who launched the center in the poor, crime-riddled neighborhood in response to the violence that followed the death of Freddie Gray — said she considered different rules: no fighting, no cursing, no violence. But she thought better of it.

"I said to myself: 'If we don't post those things, they won't think about those things,'" Alston said. "We hug them. We say positive things to them. We let them know how special they are. That's what's missing from their home. We made a decision to be the village."

It has been a bloody summer in cities across the country. Milwaukee surpassed its 2014 homicide total by mid-July. The nation's capital reached that milestone last week.

And in nearby Baltimore — where the spike in killing has combined with unrest over a national spate of deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police — an especially daunting challenge has emerged, and produced two very different responses.

In April, officers arrested Gray, a 25-year-old black man, just blocks from where the Kids Safe Zone now stands. He suffered a critical spine injury in the police transport van and died seven days later. His death spawned protests that gave way to violence and looting, and the city's homicide rate began to skyrocket.

The police commissioner lost his job, and half a dozen officers were indicted in connection with Gray's death, but the violence continued. July was the city's deadliest month in 43 years. This year has seen 222 homicides so far, compared with 211 for all of 2014, with four months to go.

Community leaders such as Alston are mobilizing on the ground, with grassroots efforts to instill lessons of nonviolence. Across town, in a high-rise conference room downtown, Baltimore police are working on a very different message. Last month, the police department launched the war room, a physical and metaphorical effort to combat the spike in killings.

"We are going to war, and we're doing it collaboratively," State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby said at a news conference announcing the war room's formation.

Inside, the war room is lined with monitors blinking with closed-circuit TV footage from around the city. Operation commander Lt. Col. Sean Miller sits at a table in the center of the room. He calls roll at 3 p.m. daily, checking in with each federal agency that makes up the task force: the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Marshals Service; and the Secret Service. The Police Department's homicide unit, Mosby's office and other law enforcement agencies also are represented.

In total, Miller said, more than a dozen organizations are involved, and the war room is the sole assignment for about 200 people.

"Everything is on the table," Miller said. "What used to take weeks or months is now taking days: formulating a plan, operationalizing that plan, and putting cops on the ground to attack it."

At a recent meeting, an ATF agent said criminals had robbed a warehouse full of semiautomatic firearms, and those guns were loose on the streets. DEA agents reported that wiretaps were up on the cellphones of two members of drug organizations. And an FBI agent narrated a web of connections between a recent homicide and other crimes: the victim himself was a suspect in two other unsolved murders, suggesting retaliation as a motive.

In the months since Gray's death, the city's systemic dysfunction has been thrown into sharp focus: the pervasive and decades-old problem of economic disparity, lack of job opportunities for young black men, tens of thousands of vacant housing units, and a dearth of resources for disenfranchised children. But the problem of violence has dominated the conversation.

Miller said the majority of violent crime is committed by a handful of high-level criminals — 25 to 30 of whom are identified as "war board targets." And 238 more people are identified as "top trigger-pullers" — persons of interest in shootings, or those with criminal backgrounds who've been shot and may be likely to retaliate, Miller said.

Despite those lists, Miller said the agencies of the war room aren't "declaring war on anyone." But, he added, "the mindset of declaring war on the bad guys is something we need to do."

At the Kids Safe Zone, Alston took issue with the word "war." She said she worries that combat language could embolden some to "soldier up" and strain the already tenuous relationship between the police and the public.

"Why not 'peace room?'" Alston said. "The terminology of war incites fight. I think our Police Department and elected officials want the very best for our community, but they can at times be disconnected."

Of all the neighborhoods in the city, West Baltimore has been disproportionately affected by the violence this summer. Its corners are flanked by whole blocks of vacant buildings, often wrapped in yellow police tape. The western district has seen 43 homicides this year — far more than any other district in the city.

In the heart of the neighborhood, just a month after the Kids Safe Zone opened, a group of children on an outing at a park had to be escorted back to the center after a man was shot and killed half a block away.

Elsewhere in West Baltimore, gang members are going into schools to talk to students about nonviolence. And the 300 Men March, an organization dedicated to promoting peace and empowerment, launched Youth COR, which pays young black men to undergo leadership training. Every Wednesday at twilight, the group takes an hourlong bike ride through the city, donning T-shirts that read: "We Must Stop Killing Each Other."

And inside the Kids Safe Zone, there is no fighting, no kicking, no cursing.

One morning, as children danced, played and colored, one boy complained that another had taken out a DVD he'd been watching. Alston took the boy's face in her hands and kissed his forehead. She pinched his cheek and asked him if he'd put the DVD back in and apologize. Without another word, he did.

http://www.policeone.com/patrol-issues/articles/9316640-The-war-room-the-street-2-responses-to-Baltimore-violence

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Florida

Fla. sheriffs join forces to create cold case team

The team will be tasked with helping agencies shake the dust off some of their oldest and most frustrating cases

by Elizabeth Behrman

TAMPA, Fla. — When a bill that would have created a state task force dedicated to solving cold cases failed in committee earlier this year, sheriffs across Florida decided to strike out on their own.

The Florida Sheriffs Association, a not-for-profit corporation made up the state's 67 sheriffs and thousands of Florida citizens, recently announced the formation of the Cold Case Review Team, which will be tasked with helping law enforcement agencies shake the dust off some of their oldest and most frustrating cases.

“The sheriffs felt strongly enough about this that they wanted to pick it up anyway and move forward with it,” said David Brand, the association's law enforcement coordinator.

The team is led by Marion County Sheriff Chris Blair, Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell and Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey. It includes a medical examiner, a prosecutor, a DNA scientist, a polygraphist and experienced homicide detectives.

All of those parties together will provide a fresh look and pump new, modern resources into solving cases that need a boost, officials said.

“What everyone knows who does this work is that it really takes a big team effort because you truly need those experts,” said Erin Kimmerle, a forensic anthropologist and associate professor at the University of South Florida. “If you're a lone detective in a small agency and you don't know what those resources are, then you're stuck.”

USF's anthropology lab already provides resources for law enforcement agencies that include facial reconstructions and other forensic analysis, she said. Almost 10 years ago, the university launched the Tampa Bay Cold Case Project, which works to help give names and faces to unidentified remains and apply new investigative technology to local cold cases.

There are more than 500 unsolved cases, most of them homicides, in West-Central Florida, Kimmerle said. No agency tracks how many there are across the state, but her team estimates there are thousands.

Kimmerle wanted to start something at the state level for a few years, and when she heard the sheriffs association was starting a cold case committee, she was happy to get involved.

“I'm really thrilled that that's something we can make sure gets the same attention and resources,” she said.

The Florida cold case team was modeled after one started by the Sheriffs' Association of Texas in 1985, Brand said. That group meets quarterly to give advice to agencies who present their cold cases and ask for help.

The team has been hugely successful in the past 30 years, said Bob Alford, sheriff of Johnson County in Texas and chair of the Texas association. His association's team was formed when it was rare for a law enforcement agency to have a dedicated cold case team of its own, he said.

“We're a big think tank,” Alford said.

The 25-member team, which also includes multiple sheriffs, deputies, forensics experts and prosecutors, provides insight on cold cases presented to them by agencies who have hit a wall and need some help, he said.

All of the members of the Florida cold case team are sponsored by their own agencies so there is no additional cost to taxpayers, Brand said. The group also will meet quarterly in different locations across the state.

The cold case team provides an interdisciplinary approach to solving cases that are often put on a shelf or shuffled from desk to desk as investigators are promoted, moved around or retire, Brand said.

“The whole point of this is to get a fresh set of eyes looking at it and see if we can solve them,” Brand said.

The team will be especially useful for smaller law enforcement agencies that don't have investigators dedicated solely to cold cases, said Greg Thomas, a master detective with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

He is one of two detectives HCSO dedicates to its about 250 cold cases. The oldest one dates back to 1956.

The Hillsborough sheriff's office was one of the first agencies in the state to dedicate resources solely to cold cases, Thomas said. In 2006, the agency received a grant from the National Institute of Justice to submit DNA evidence from its unsolved homicides, unidentified remains and missing persons cases. Deputies made seven arrests as a result of that project, Thomas said.

Since that time, the Hillsborough sheriff's office also has been coordinating a handful of community volunteers who review old cases with detectives and meet to discuss what other avenues can be explored in the investigation. The volunteers give a fresh look at the cases and help investigators go over old suspect and witness interviews and ask questions about the evidence.

“It helps out a lot,” Thomas said. “Otherwise you're just going through volumes of cases.”

That volume of cold cases all across is the state is why Ryan Backmann thinks that while the Florida Sheriffs cold case team will be beneficial, more needs to be done.

Authorities have not caught the man who shot his father in the back robbed him of his wallet in 2009. Since his father's murder, Backmann has become an advocate for victims' families and has dedicated himself to getting more resources aimed toward reducing the number of unsolved homicides in Florida and across the country. He started Project: Cold Case earlier this year and works from his Jacksonville home, posting weekly cold case “spotlights” on social media and putting them into a database.

He worked closely with Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, on drafting the bill that would have created a Cold Case Task Force under the umbrella of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. That bill failed in committee during the legislative session earlier this year because of budget concerns. It was Bean's second attempt to push the legislation through, and he plans to try again next year, Backmann said.

“At the end of the day, it's truly a public safety issue,” he said. “These murderers are walking around out here. They're a danger. They're a threat to our family members, to our friends.”

There should be a task force that includes community members and is subject to state public records laws that will determine how many cold cases there are in Florida and create a standard for what makes a case “go cold” and how to best investigate them, Backmann said.

“I think there's a lot of work to be done,” he said.

Cold cases require a lot of patience and effort, Thomas said. Most of the time, he said, each case has been thoroughly investigated; the detectives just need a small piece of evidence to break it open.

“It's an extremely frustrating form of investigation,” Thomas said. “But it can be very gratifying.”

Vermont

Public safety workers over the limits

by Elizabeth Murray

At least eight public safety workers have been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving so far this year — a number state prosecutors and law enforcement officials are calling "unique" and troubling.

These officials include police officers, firefighters, a Vermont State Police trooper, a Department of Homeland Security law enforcement supervisor and a Vermont Probation and Parole officer, a Burlington Free Press investigation found.

All cases involve allegations of first offense driving under the influence. Two of the cases involve impaired driving while on duty. In one case, prosecutors say an impaired off-duty police officer caused a crash that killed a man.

Through August, three of the cases have settled, with officials pleading guilty to drunken driving.

The number of public safety officials arrested this year is "concerning," Assistant Attorney General John Treadwell and Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn agreed. But they said they had little reason to believe the incidents represent a growing trend.

"It seems like an unusually high number," Treadwell said. The Free Press during its investigation brought this year's number of DUI arrests involving public safety workers to the attention of Treadwell and Flynn.

In 2013 and 2014, there appeared to be a small number of impaired-driving arrests involving public safety officials, with one to three people arrested and charged, according to local media reports and archives.

State statistics from the Vermont Crime Information Center from 2010 to 2013 show that DUI numbers statewide have stayed between 2,600 and 2,800 annually. Statistics for 2014 were not available online, and VCIC director Jeff Wallin could not be reached last week.

This year, the following public safety officials have been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving:

• Former Rutland City Police Officer Justin Barrell.

• James Hart of the Bethel Volunteer Fire Department. Hart was responding to a crash scene when he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving.

• Probation and Parole Officer Andre Laliberte.

• South Burlington Police Lt. Jeffrey Martel.

• Law enforcement supervisor for Department of Homeland Security John F. Peters.

• Former Rutland-based Vermont State Trooper Eric Rademacher. Rademacher was on-call the morning of the suspected intoxication, and court papers show he allegedly responded to a crash while intoxicated.

• David Roberts of the Burlington Fire Department.

• Burlington Police Officer Leanne Werner. Werner is accused of crossing the center line on Lower Newton Road in St. Albans and crashing into a car with two occupants, killing the driver Omer Martin, 74. She has pleaded not guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol with death resulting. If convicted, she faces up to 15 years in prison and $15,000 in fines.

Why are the people who respond to crashes that involve alcohol or arrest those driving under the influence doing it themselves?

Local therapist Sonny Provetto — a former police officer who provides care to current officers and other public safety workers — said the relationship between policing and alcohol is longstanding. Police use alcohol as a coping mechanism, he said, after experiencing traumatic events.

In turn, alcohol negatively affects judgment and decision-making.

"It's no secret that officers cope with what they see on the job by using alcohol, which is legal and acceptable," Provetto said. "Part of the culture has basically looked the other way. I'm talking in general terms here. ... We know that police officers use alcohol twice as much as the general population."

Silent sufferers

Provetto has been involved since the 1990s in attempting to reverse the culture of officers' avoiding help when they need assistance. A stigma exists in the public safety world where many believe seeking help is a sign of weakness.

Officers also are trained to manage high-stress situations, which sometimes lowers their awareness or willingness to handle any personal struggles they might be experiencing. That can lead to self-medication, Provetto said.

"If you think about every time a police officer in Vermont has responded to either a bank robbery, school shooting or these fatalities on the interstate, these officers perform exceptionally well," Provetto said. "We see them suffer in silence."

Provetto said these public safety officials may avoid showing both coworkers and spouses that the fatality affected them, and turn to alcohol instead.

Vermont is ahead of the curve in providing help for police officers, Provetto said. The Burlington Police Department and the Vermont State Police have programs that provide education, training and intervention for employees. The Department of Corrections and the Department for Children and Families also have contacted Provetto to discuss setting up similar programs, the therapist added.

"Less than 2 percent of all police departments in the U.S. have a program like the one we have going here in Vermont," Provetto said.

Stress is less of the problem for public safety officials — the real issue is trauma, Provetto said. He considers trauma a psychological injury. And if trauma builds up, that affects how public safety officials interact with the world around them.

Several situations, Provetto said, are particularly harmful to police officers psychologically: taking someone's life in the line of duty, and any case involving children, including suicides, sexual assaults and neglect.

"Eight months into my own career, I almost shot a teenager who had a knife," Provetto said, adding he now avoids visiting the area of Burlington where the incident took place. Provetto first worked as a Burlington police officer, and then a Vermont State Police trooper.

He added that "95 percent of what cops do is boring. We drive around the car. We do sort of mundane service complaints. Then that other 5 percent is sheer terror.

"You'll have an officer who will be driving around on a beautiful day like today, and then 10 seconds later will be responding to a domestic violence situation involving a gun."

From coping to DUI

Most officers choose to self-medicate with alcohol in their own living rooms, which can lead to other issues such as addiction and even suicide, Provetto said.

However, as shown by the eight cases this year, some public safety officials get into a car and attempt to drive. Provetto said, speaking generally, that alcohol lowers a person's capacity to make good decisions.

"The first thing we need to do is to still educate our police officers about addiction and alcohol," Provetto said. He added, "When you mix alcohol with driving, I think we know as a society that doesn't work. These people are just human, and they're people who have given up a piece of themselves to do this public service. I think that's what people forget."

Although Vermont is a leader in treating officers who have experienced trauma, Provetto said there is work to do in preventing alcohol dependence and addiction. Provetto continues to work to get the word out to public safety workers that help is out there, and it's okay to ask for it.

Provetto works with officers one-on-one to try to unpack some of the trauma and lighten the weight of the job. He has also brought in mindfulness coaches and yoga instructors to some departments. The Burlington Police Department also encourages fitness activities while officers are on duty as a stress-management technique.

"The best way to combat this is to invest in your people," Provetto said. "Incorporating partners from the community – yoga instructors, mindfulness trainers, some of your local gyms and dieticians – all of that stuff helps build up a resilient organization."

State reaction

Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn said he is concerned that eight public safety officials have been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. Still, he added, the officials are human. They should be provided the resources and education to deal with mental health issues or alcohol addiction that might lead to these actions, Flynn said.

"Part of our mission certainly has to be that we have people who are prepared to handle both the physical and mental requirements of the job while they're on the job, and also find releases when they're not working," Flynn said. "That's a modern policing approach that I think not only I'm cognizant of, but many other leaders of law enforcement agencies in this state are also thinking about those."

Flynn said he believes the stigma in law enforcement around seeking help has diminished, but there is more progress that can be made. The Vermont State Police have contracted counselors for times when troopers experience trauma, he said.

Assistant Attorney General John Treadwell believes the punishment in place for public safety officials who commit a crime works as designed: rehabilitates and punishes in an appropriate way, while deterring the person from committing the crime again.

For example, Vermont Probation and Parole Officer Andre Laliberte received the maximum fine of $750 in exchange for pleading guilty to DUI in St. Johnsbury. He will have to take a drinking driver assessment course before earning his license back, Treadwell said.

"They are a public official, they are a representative of the government as a whole, and it is something we consider when we decide what we believe an appropriate resolution of the case is," Treadwell said. "I think you can draw a conclusion from the fact that the one case we have been involved in resolving is a maximum fine."

Law enforcement supervisor for the Department of Homeland Security John F. Peters was sentenced on a DUI conviction.

Laliberte resigned voluntarily in May.

Flynn and Treadwell agreed that this year's higher number of public safety arrests is an anomaly.

"It's disturbing, certainly, that people in law enforcement, who have in many cases a first-hand knowledge of what driving under the influence can do, that that would be a choice that would be made," Flynn said. "That's also a view I hold in regard to anyone who operates a motor vehicle when they're under the influence of alcohol, under the influence of a drug, or both."

Cases settled so far

Three of the eight cases this year have ended in settlements.

Treadwell said Laliberte, 40, pleaded guilty in June. Police said his blood alcohol content was 0.196 percent at the time of the March 11 incident.

The legal limit for drivers is 0.08 percent.

South Burlington Police Lt. Jeffrey Martel, 48, of Colchester pleaded guilty to DUI at his arraignment in April. Martel, a department veteran, was ordered to pay $652 in fines and surcharges, complete the CRASH drinking driver assessment course, and his driver's license was suspended for 90 days.

Martel was also suspended without pay from the department for 20 work days, and his pay rate was reduced by 7 percent when he returned because he was unable to perform all job functions, specifically driving a car.

The Colchester Police Department, which arrested Martel, said he registered a BAC of 0.113 percent.

Department of Homeland Security law enforcement supervisor John F. Peters was sentenced earlier in August after he pleaded guilty in St. Albans to DUI. A charge of leaving the scene of a crash was dismissed. He was sentenced to pay $707 in fines and surcharges, complete CRASH and the DUI reparative board, and to perform 10 hours of community service. He also will be on probation for one to three months.

Homeland Security failed to respond to multiple requests for comment this month about Peters' employment status or about the case in general.

Court papers show Peters registered a 0.204 percent BAC during his preliminary roadside breath test at least five hours after the crash. An court-admissible test completed 45 minutes later reflected a 0.106 percent BAC.

All other cases remain pending in court. The maximum sentence for a first offense of driving under the influence is up to two years in prison or up to $750 in fines or both. The maximum sentence for driving under the influence with death resulting is one to 15 years in prison or a fine of up to $10,000 or both.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/local/vermont/2015/08/30/public-safety-limits/71331900/

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Indiana

Shots fired at South Bend police officer

by Jeff Harrell

A South Bend police officer working a routine investigation Sunday morning suddenly found himself the target of gunfire from a passing car.

Shots were fired at the officer as he was taking a vandalism report in the 1800 block of Brookfield Street at around 5:30 a.m., said South Bend Police spokesman Lt. Joe Galea.

“No one was injured,” Galea said, adding that the officer “heard shots fired” then saw “a vehicle speeding out of the area.” The officer and a witness in the area described the vehicle as a late-model red, four-door Ford Focus, Galea noted.

South Bend police responded to the scene near Brookfield and Hamilton Street, where they found “a bunch of shell casings,” Galea said.

Galea said the South Bend officer was apparently targeted at random.

The incident occurred just two days after Texas sheriff's Deputy Darren H. Goforth was gunned down execution-style as he was fueling his patrol car near Houston. That suspect, identified as Shannon J. Miles, was arrested on Saturday.

“You always got to be aware of your surroundings,” Galea replied when asked if South Bend police have been on high alert in light of the Texas shooting. “You just keep your guard up, because it could happen anywhere or anytime.”

Galea is urging anyone with information on the shooting, or the red, four-door Ford Focus seen leaving the area to contact Crime Stoppers at 574-288-STOP or 800-342-STOP.

http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/publicsafety/shots-fired-at-south-bend-police-officer/article_45ea59d6-4f46-11e5-9369-3f70b93fb6e8.html

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Virginia

Naming cops involved in shootings a balancing act for PDs

One Va. city tries to find a way to balance the public interest and their right to know with officer's safety

by Peter Dujardin

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — There's no settled convention around the country on whether police officers involved in police shootings should be publicly named.

Newport News Police Chief Richard W. Myers talked at recent news conference of "a national discussion going on among police leaders" on whether — and when — to make public the names of officers who shoot in the line of duty.

The Newport News Police Department's "historic policy and practice" — similar to many other local agencies — is to withhold the name of the officer being investigated. "Our current policy prohibits the release prior to any criminal charges being filed," Myers said.

A group of pastors he called the "the Concerned Clergy," Myers said, urged him to "be fair and consistent and follow our policy the same in all cases." Another factor, he said, is whether there's any "intelligence on threats to the officers involved."

Myers told the Daily Press that there were threats on social media against the officer who shot and killed Kawanza Beaty, though the chief declined to get into specifics.

The commonwealth's attorney's practice, Myers said, is to release the officers' names when the final prosecutor's report is complete. The chief said that he and Commonwealth's Attorney Howard Gwynn have jointly decided they will follow the same course in the pending investigation.

The identification of the shooter by prosecutors typically comes within the context that the shooting has been ruled justified. Of 19 fatal police shootings on the Peninsula over the past 25 years, prosecutors ruled 17 justified. In two other shootings, the cases were referred to grand juries that declined to indict the officers.

But in recent years, some police reformers around the country have contended that the names of officers involved in fatal shootings should become public far sooner — and that citizens have the right to know which officers have used deadly force on the job.

That has been echoed locally, as well.

Andrew Shannon, president of the Peninsula chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said releasing of the name helps to build public trust.

"All information should be made available, including the name of the officer," Shannon said. "I believe that because I believe in open government. … Everyone should feel good about the process, and that no one is being shielded and no one is above the law."

Shannon said withholding the identity of the officer shooter "will only heighten the tension" in the community. "If you want to reduce tensions, you got to be open and provide information to the citizens," he said. "They should give the name up."

Norfolk community activist Michael Muhammad, who often gets involved in police shootings, likewise called on Newport News police to "immediately" release the names. "What we're finding" around the country, he said, is that officers who use deadly force often have done so before.

Different department chiefs handle the matter differently.

After a police shooting in Roanoke in late July, the Roanoke Police Department released the names of the two officers who shot and injured a man. The officers said the man pointed a gun at them before they opened fire.

But the York-Poquoson Sheriff's Office withheld the name of the deputy who shot and killed a man who pointed a gun at the officer following a traffic accident. The deputy's version of the threat was backed up by body camera footage viewed by the Daily Press.

A model police policy on deadly force investigations provided by the International Association of Chiefs of Police goes into great detail on many aspects of an investigation. But it doesn't say anything on whether it's a good idea to name the officers involved.

Likewise, a recent comprehensive national report by a group of scholars and police chiefs — from the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing — didn't address the issue of whether officers involved in shootings should be named.

"We did not issue any recommendations on that," said Laurie Robinson, a George Mason University criminologist and co-chairman of the task force. "It really varies among jurisdictions, with the laws in different states and the different chiefs have different ways of approaching it."

It's a balancing act, she said, and "it's hard to draw hard and fast rules."

"In the ideal world, you would be sharing information with the community," Robinson said. "Part of what we were urging broadly in our report was to provide information early and often in areas that have the potential to be areas of discord with the community."

"But if there are concerns about protecting the officer, or issues about the case itself, it's hard to say in every case we do X or in every case we do Y," she said. "If there are good reasons not to provide it — the integrity of the case or someone's physical security," then it could be withheld.

The Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police also doesn't have guidance or a model policy on the issue of naming the officers who have shot suspects, said Dana Schrad, the group's executive director.

"It's hard to standardize something like this because there's so many facts and perceived risks," she said. "The rule of thumb is to release information as quickly as you can and as safely as you can. … Release as much information as possible, but use good judgment to determine when release of information would put an individual in harm's way."

One factor, Schrad said, is the "civility of the community."

"If it involves race relations or a volatile situation, in one circumstance it might be safe and in another community there would be a concern," she said. "Officers have rights too and have the right to be treated safely … and all those things are taken into consideration."

Candace McCoy, a criminologist at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York, said that to protect the investigation and the police officer, a department is well within its discretion to withhold the name from the public.

"The (investigative) process needs to unfold without bias," she said. "I am very much for police reform, but we're talking about individual people's lives and sometimes a serious likelihood of reprisal. …. We should not discount threats to people's lives."

McCoy said, however, that the officer's name should ultimately be released by the prosecutor's office once it makes its final finding — even if the officer is cleared.

"If somebody has been shot dead, there's a great public interest," she said. "There should be a presumption of releasing the name when the investigation is done." McCoy added, however, that there could be exceptions, and "you can't make a hard and fast rule."

Public Accountability

Journalism experts say that media organizations are acting properly to identify the police officers who have used deadly force once they have them on good sourcing.

Roy Peter Clark, vice president and senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, a journalism training center in St. Petersburg, Fla., said news organizations should name key players in newsworthy events.

It's long been part of the job that police officers have had to fire their weapons while on duty, he said. "Most often, they do that responsibly," Clark said. "In some cases, they do it irresponsibility or criminally. And in other cases, there are gray areas."

"I think what's different now is that the stakes have been raised in the past year — that a police shooting, especially when the person who is shot is African-American, has become part of a much larger story in America about race, and about justice and equality. In a sense, the news of these shootings has a higher news value than it has in the past."

What that means, Clark said, is "all of the persons who are named in the story are more vulnerable than they have been in the past."

"The person who is shot, their lives and activities and actions, will come under much greater scrutiny. And the police officers will be scrutinized not just in a formal way, but in a very, very heated environment where there may be protests." That can include, Clark said, "people who may want to reach out against him in some way."

"But I believe that the appropriate action for the news organization is to name the key figures and the stakeholders," Clark said. How the story is played in the paper, including whether the officer is pictured, how the story is sensationalized, "are subject to the good judgment of the editors."

Likewise, a former dean at Columbia University School Graduate School Journalism said the standard journalistic practice is to name people in the news — and that should apply to police shootings, he said.

"I would come down on the side of naming the officer," Nicholas Lemann, dean emeritus at Columbia, wrote in an email. "Using real names is a general journalistic convention, and it seems off in these cases if one side gets named and the other gets protected."

If a newspaper withholds the name of officer who shot someone, Lemann said, it "comes across, intentionally or not, as the paper's being on the police's side."

Myers, for his part, has provided "limited backgrounds" into the three officers at the scene that day — the narcotics detective who fired the three shots, as well as a canine officer and police sergeant.

The shooter is a detective with eight years' experience and was involved in one prior police shooting. The canine officer has 10 years on the force and no prior shootings. The sergeant has nine years with the force and no prior shootings.

http://www.policeone.com/officer-survival/articles/8851912-Naming-cops-involved-in-shootings-a-balancing-act-for-PDs

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Louisiana

Rapid Response: Civilians take down a cop killer (and what it says about Americans)

Cops are rightly filled with anger and sadness about yet another ambush attack on a LEO, but one element to this story can be held up and praised: the actions of ordinary citizens who rushed to his aid

by Doug Wylie

What Happened: On a highway near Bell City, a Louisiana State Trooper stopped a man suspected of drunk driving. The cop was suddenly ambushed — shot in the head at close range with a sawed-off shotgun. A day after he was attacked, Senior Trooper Steven Vincent succumbed to his wounds. He leaves behind a wife and nine-year-old son.

This nation lost a hero. Cops are rightly filled with anger and sadness about yet another ambush attack on an LEO, but one element to this story can be held up and praised: the actions of ordinary citizens who rushed to his aid.

As Vincent fell to the ground and the assailant stood over him and taunted him, several motorists stopped and rushed to subdue the attacker. They tackled the assailant, disarmed him, and used the wounded cop's cuffs to secure him. They ran to the patrol vehicle to call on the radio for help. They are living proof that law-abiding citizens will rush into danger to help a cop.

Why it's Significant: Bad guys hate the police — this is not news — but it sure as hell is good to see such a stark reminder that they're outnumbered by good, kind, brave, law-abiding citizens who do not.

Despite the drumbeat which would have us believe that current anti-cop fervor represents the feeling of a majority of Americans, we are prompted by this incident to recall that there is a significant segment of the population who love and admire their cops. They so support cops that they'd willingly endanger their own lives to help an LEO under attack.

Top Takeaways: We now know the name of at least one of the Good Samaritans — Robert LeDoux — who leaped into action near the intersection of Highway 14 and Fruge Road. LeDoux later said of his actions, “That doesn't make me a hero. That just makes me a good person.”

Well, we know that Robert LeDoux really is a hero, even if he doesn't see it that way. We know also that Robert LeDoux is in good company.

1. Remember Mike Elgas — an ordinary FedEx guy enjoying breakfast at a Jack in the Box restaurant — who took down a suspect and helped save an officer's life in a March 2014 incident. Elgas later said, “I feel good inside that I did something good.”

Remember this hero.

2. Remember Ray Robinson — a “short and slender Walgreens employee” — who came to the aid of two Chicago police officers beaten and on the verge of getting shot by a 6-foot-3, 250-pound shoplifting suspect. Robinson later said, “I just did what I had to do at that moment.”

Remember this hero.

3. Remember your training — be advised that your next call could go to hell as quickly as this incident near Bell City, and you have to be ready to respond to protect yourself. But remember too that some anonymous citizen may be standing nearby to help you win and go home at the end of your tour.

Remember that you do this job for these good and honorable Americans — not the bad guys.

What's Next: When they return home to the United States, Anthony Sadler, Spencer Stone, and Alek Skarlatos — newly adorned with medals signifying they are the recipients of Legion of Honor, France's highest recognition — will probably be on every cable news channel until “the next big thing” seizes the spotlight. They will correctly be praised as heroes. It's a shame that the motorists in Louisiana will probably not receive the same level of recognition on the 24-7 networks.

President François Hollande said of the three American heroes on the bullet train, “They gave us an example of what is possible to do in these kinds of situations.”

The same can be said of a motorist named Robert LeDoux in Louisiana.

The Louisiana State Police now mourns one of their own, and cops across the country mourn with them. At the appropriate time in the future, the agency — and we, too — should make an effort to pin some medal of valor on his chest.