Turkey

Manhunt underway after massacre at Istanbul nightclub, officials say

by Erin Cunninghan and Kareem Fahim

ISTANBUL — Turkish authorities on Sunday were hunting for the lone gunman who opened fire on a New Year's celebration at one of Istanbul's most popular nightclubs, killing dozens of people, including a number of foreigners, and wounding scores more in what officials have called an act of terrorism.

At least 39 people were killed, and another 70 people wounded, in the latest in a string of attacks that has shaken Turkey as it faces an array of threats both at home and as a result of the ongoing civil war in Syria.

Early Sunday, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the attack at the Reina Club, which began with a spray of gunfire around 1 a.m., was carried out by a single assailant, who has not yet been identified. Speaking to reporters outside an Istanbul hospital, Soylu said the attacker changed clothes in order to escape the scene.

“Our security forces have started the necessary operations,” Soylu said, calling the attack “a massacre.”

Authorities identified 20 of the victims, Soylu said, adding that at least 15 of those killed are foreign nationals. Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency, quoting Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya, reported that citizens of Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Lebanon, and Libya were among those killed. Israel's Foreign Ministry on Sunday confirmed that an Israeli woman, 19-year-old Leanne Nasser, was killed in the attack. Her friend, 18-year-old Ruaa Mansour, was injured, according to Israeli media reports.

Three Lebanese citizens were wounded, including the daughter of a member of parliament, the Associated Press reported, quoting Lebanon's Foreign Ministry. Another five victims are Turkish citizens, including nightclub employees, Soylu said.

Witnesses and officials described at least one gunman storming the club with a long-barreled rifle, and stampedes of panicked patrons scrambling for cover at the waterside. The sprawling and cosmopolitan venue, perched on the Bosphorus strait, is popular with Istanbul's elite, including artists, singers and soccer stars. That the victims included many foreigners speaks to the club's reputation among expats and international clientele.

The assault began when a gunman shot and killed a police officer who was guarding the door, according to Istanbul Mayor Vasip Sahin, who spoke to reporters in front of the club about two hours after the shooting. After killing the policeman, the gunman “brutally and violently attacked innocent people who came here to enjoy themselves,” Sahin said.

Sefa Boydas, a professional soccer player who was at the club, described the scene on Twitter . He said he did not see who was shooting but that the attack happened quickly. Police arrived soon after, he said, and he carried his girlfriend, who was wearing high heels, out of the club to safety.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodgan condemned the attack in a statement Sunday, saying the perpetrators sought to “create chaos” in Turkey, and that the nation was “determined to do whatever is necessary in the region to ensure its citizens safety and peace.” The statement was posted on the presidency's official website.

The U.S. Embassy issued a statement Sunday denying reports that the U.S. government had information about threats to specific venues, including Reina. The nightclub's owner, Mehmet Kocarslan, had told the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet that there had been increased security at the club for a week or more, because of warnings from "American intelligence."

"The U.S. Government did not warn Americans to stay away from specific venues or neighborhoods," the statement said.

Turkey's top cleric and head of the government's presidency for religious affairs, Prof. Mehmet Gormuz, also condemned the shootings Sunday, saying such an attack would be just as heinous if it took place in a mosque.

"The targets of terrorists are not places but the people, the country, the nation, and humanity overall," Gormuz said in a statement distributed by the prime minister's office. Such an attack, he said, "no Muslim conscience can accept."

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting. The mass killing at the nightclub was at least the fourth major attack in Turkey in less than a month, raising questions about the ability of the government, a NATO member and critical regional ally of the United States, to counter threats stemming from the war across Turkey's border in Syria, as well as an escalating conflict with Kurdish militants inside Turkey.

At least one of the recent assaults — a suicide bombing at a soccer stadium in central Istanbul — was claimed by a Kurdish militant group. Authorities are still investigating who might have planned other attacks, including the Dec. 19 assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey, by a police officer who denounced the carnage in Syria's civil war.

Turkey recently took a central role in trying to halt the hostilities in Syria, in coordination with Russia, which is allied with the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. A recent cease-fire announced by Turkey and Russia was endorsed by several Syrian rebel groups, but it did not include others, including radical Islamist groups that might seek to retaliate against Erdogan's government because of its cooperation with Russia.

The attacks have come despite a widening security dragnet by authorities and a broad crackdown by the government on those officials have branded as terrorists.

Ned Price, a White House National Security Council spokesman, released a statement condemning the attack. “That such an atrocity could be perpetrated upon innocent revelers, many of whom were celebrating New Year's Eve, underscores the savagery of the attackers,” the statement said.

President Obama was briefed on the assault and has “directed his team to offer appropriate assistance to the Turkish authorities,” said Eric Schultz, White House deputy press secretary .

At the time of the attack early Sunday, according to local media, hundreds of people were inside the club. Patrons reportedly jumped into the water to escape the gunfire, and dozens of ambulances could be heard heading in the direction of the club in Istanbul's Ortakoy district.

“We were there, we were having fun, when all of a sudden people started running,” club patron Sinem Uyanik, told Hurriyet. Uyanik was waiting outside a hospital, where her husband, who had also been at the club, was being treated for gunshot wounds.

“It was so horrible. It smelled like gunpowder,” Uyanik said. At some point, she fainted, and then “woke up and saw my husband covered in blood,” she told the paper.

“So many people were covered in blood,” she said.

Security forces later stormed the nightclub, Uyanik said. Police in riot gear and armored vehicles blocked the area around the venue, the Associated Press reported. Photos published by the state-run Anadolu news agency showed ambulances lined up outside the building.

Turkish authorities issued a temporary gag order on reporting from the scene of the nightclub. The order also barred media outlets from publishing any information on potential suspects, unless released through official statements.

Such bans are frequent in Turkey, where the government has embarked on a far-reaching crackdown on the news media. Still, images of the carnage circulated on social media early Sunday.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/turkish-manhunt-underway-after-massacre-at-istanbul-nightclub-officials-say/2017/01/01/513673ee-d003-11e6-b8a2-8c2a61b0436f_story.html?utm_term=.1940de61a2e2

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Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania State Trooper killed; suspect later shot

by Julie Shaw, Chris Mondics, and Jessica Parks

The domestic call came from Sherry Robison's house on Bakers Hollow Road in rural Juniata Township - from someone reporting her son had violated a protection from abuse order.

State Trooper Landon Weaver, 23, went alone to investigate. There, he met purple-haired Jason Michael Robison, 32, who just a week before Christmas had posted on Facebook, "F- THE POLICE!!! The only good cop is a dead cop."

About 6:30 p.m. Friday, gunfire from within the house ripped the cold night air.

Weaver, a rookie trooper, a newlywed, and a dean's list criminology major, was fatally wounded. He became the 97th Pennsylvania state trooper to be killed in action since the department's inception in 1905.

Fellow troopers rushed to the house "and tactically removed" Weaver, Capt. David Cain said at a news conference Saturday afternoon. "Tragically, Trooper Weaver succumbed to his wounds," said Cain, the Troop G commanding officer.

He said officers didn't know for some time whether Robison was still in his mother's home after the shooting.

An all-night manhunt mobilized with nearly 100 troopers, FBI agents, and other law enforcement officers scouring areas near the popular Raystown Lake vacation area of Huntingdon County, near Altoona, posting roadblocks and searching residences.

A late-night advisory described Robison as armed, dangerous, and having "purple hair." A photograph showed a thin-faced man, scruffy and unshaven.

Troopers found Robison after daybreak, armed and holed up in an unoccupied mobile home.

The Hesston man, who had had numerous scrapes with the law, was shot and killed by troopers about 10 a.m. State police said he had threatened the officers and refused demands to surrender.

"When confronted by the troopers, the armed suspect failed to obey commands and made an overt threat toward the troopers," Cain said. "Faced with a deadly situation, troopers were forced to discharge their weapons, resulting in the suspect being fatally wounded."

The mobile home was near the house of Robison's mother, where Weaver had been shot about 16 hours earlier.

State Police reported on Facebook and Twitter that they had found and killed Robison.

The unidentified officers involved in shooting Robison will be routinely placed on administrative leave during the investigation, Cain said.

He was asked whether Robison had shot at anyone Saturday before he was killed. "He killed one of my troopers yesterday," Cain replied. The suspect, Cain said later, had not fired at anyone Saturday.

Weaver had joined the state police on Dec. 14, 2015. On its Facebook page, State Police posted a photograph of him in uniform with the note "End of Watch: Dec. 30, 2016."

Weaver, raised in the tiny south-central Pennsylvania town of East Freedom, graduated from the state police academy in June. He was a 2012 graduate of Central High School in Martinsburg, Blair County. He and his high school sweetheart, Macy Gottshall, were married in June.

The two were pictured, arm-in-arm in cap and gown, at their high school graduation ceremony in a school district newsletter.

On his Facebook timeline, Weaver listed several jobs, including as a night supervisor at Kmart, which he left to join the Pennsylvania State Police.

He studied at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, majoring in criminology.

Condolences poured in through Facebook and other social media sites as word spread of Weaver's killing. Pennlive.com reported firefighters and police officers around the state hoisting American flags in Weaver's honor from highway overpasses.

Cain would not say why Weaver responded by himself to the Robison address, which he said was being investigated.

And Cain would not answer questions about who else may have been at the Robison home when Weaver answered the call complaining of a protection-from-abuse violation. He also would not say who had originally obtained the PFA order. That would be revealed in "due time," Cain said.

Weaver "was interviewing the suspect inside the residence when the suspect gained access to a firearm" and shot him, Cain said. The State Police captain said it has not been determined who owned the firearm. He did not describe the weapon.

Huntingdon County court records online show that Robison had been arrested Dec. 6 on charges stemming from Oct. 27, including theft, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, and driving without a license. He also faced April 4 charges of unlawful restraint, simple assault, and harassment.

In June 2014, he pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of a controlled substance and served jail time. In 2012, he pleaded guilty to simple assault and spent time in jail.

Robison vented his feelings toward police on his Facebook page, but those comments - including the Dec. 17 "dead cop" post - appeared to have been deleted Saturday afternoon.

Gov. Wolf offered condolences to Weaver's family, saying the officer "will always be remembered for his bravery, his sacrifice, and his willingness to serve."

Pennsylvania State Troopers Association president Joseph R. Kovel called Weaver "a brave hero who will forever be remembered for his ultimate sacrifice."

The Robison manhunt evoked memories of the 2014 search for suspect Eric Frein in the shooting of two state troopers. Frein is charged with killing Cpl. Bryon Dickson II and wounding another trooper outside the Blooming Grove barracks in September 2014. He led police on a 48-day manhunt before U.S. marshals found him about 30 miles from the shooting scene. Jury selection is slated in March in Chester County for a panel to be bused to Pike County for Frein's trial, according to the Associated Press.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20170101_Trooper_killed__suspect_later_shot.html

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Illinois

762 murdered in Chicago in 2016

by Laura Podesta

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago police have released crime statistics from 2016, with a police spokesman calling it an "unacceptable rise in violence."

In the worst violence in nearly 20 years, Chicago saw 762 murders, 3,550 shooting incidents and 4,331 shooting victims.

On Saturday, more than 700 crosses were carried down Michigan Avenue, led by Father Michael Pfleger. They represented each life lost due to violence in the city of Chicago in 2016.

The crosses were handmade by a man named George Zanis, who has been building memorials, in Aurora, for mass shootings like Newtown and Orlando.

Police are blaming the vast majority of the violence on gangs and illegal guns on the streets. They took 8,300 guns off the streets in 2016, which police said is a 20 percent increase from 2015.

http://abc7chicago.com/news/762-murdered-in-chicago-in-2016/1681356/

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Illinois

CPD begins 2017 initiatives to reduce violence

by The Sun-Times Wire

After a violent year, the Chicago Police Department announces plans for several initiatives beginning in 2017.

In 2016, five police districts on the South and West sides of the city accounted for the 65 percent increase in murders, according to a statement from Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. The majority of violence was not random, more than 80 percent of shooting victims were identified by police as likely to be involved in gun violence. This year, attacks on officers nearly doubled which falls in line with statistics from the rest of the country.

Five districts on the North and Northwest sides saw declines in murder or remained the same, police said. Officers were able to recover about 8,300 guns, which was a 20 percent increase from 2015.

Some of the initiatives in 2017 focus on hiring additional officers, funding economic growth and providing support for young men in violent neighborhoods, police said. By the end of the year nearly 1,000 more beat officers, detectives, lieutenants, sergeants, field training officers and more will be working for the police department. The mayor will invest in mentoring programs for men in the 20 most violent neighborhoods and offer incentives for commercial retail and industrial developers. The mayor will also financially support the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund and the Community Catalyst Fund, police said.

Another important focus will be working with state legislators on a bill that would increase sentencing for repeat gun offenders which is a “key factor” in reducing Chicago's violence, police said. Police hope by creating a culture of accountability people might be deterred from violence. They are also working with the States Attorney's office to strengthen how gun cases are investigated and prosecuted.

In the coming year, Chicago Police will emphasize technology, training and transparency in the department, police said. By the end of the year, officers from all districts will wear body cameras. Gunshot detection systems are set to be expanded in District 7 and 11. In this same area, more than 44 street cameras were installed this past year.

More than 2,400 officers were trained in crisis intervention and learned skills to best help people with mental illness or in trauma and crisis situations, police said. As a result, CIT trained officers were able to respond to 13,258 incidents through October 2016.

For the first time, a revised use of force policy focused on the sanctity of life and was released for public comment, police said. The Community Policing Advisory Panel was a strategic effort to increase community-based policing and gain the trust residents. A few months into 2017, CPAP will make recommendations for a revised community policing strategy.

“The violence in 2016 was driven by emboldened offenders who acted without a fear of penalty from the criminal justice system,” said Supt. Eddie Johnson. “The challenge we face as a city is serious, and like other cities it is significant. We will be adding to our police department, we are committed to partnering with residents, we will benefit from the investments being made by the Mayor, and if we come together and work together I know we can turn the tide in 2017.”

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/cpd-begins-2017-initiatives-to-reduce-violence/

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Texas

DWI cop's mission: To help others avoid her pain

In 1995, Officer Stacie Brown's sister was killed while driving drunk

by Naomi Martin

DALLAS — Happy hour isn't even over yet, and she's already landed one.

“Starting off with a bang,” Officer Stacie Brown says as she walks behind the Arlington police station. It's dusk on a cold Wednesday, and the sky is streaked with pink.

Brown is a cop who arrests drunken drivers, and the holiday season is her busiest time of year. This time, Brown didn't have to scour the highways looking for an intoxicated driver. One came to her.

Well, other cops brought him to her. They said he'd led them on a high-speed chase through a neighborhood before he crashed and fought the officers. His three kids were in the car; one had a huge knot on his head.

“Hi,” Brown says as she approaches the slumped, handcuffed man in the backseat of the squad car. He's young and tattooed all over his arms and neck. He answers her questions in quiet gasps, heaving and shaking.

What were you doing when you got pulled over?

Going to buy meth.

Why did you run?

Panicked.

“I appreciate you being honest,” Brown says.

She talks to the man with respect, no condescension. It's not just a tactic to gain cooperation — though it does work. Brown genuinely does not judge the people she arrests.

She knows many of them are good people who just made a bad decision. She knows this all too well.

———

Brown is 45. Twenty years ago, she was teaching special education and coaching track at Sam Houston High School in Arlington. It was another life, another time.

Around 9:30 p.m. on Dec. 14, 1995, Brown was watching “ER” when she got a phone call that her 28-year-old sister, Shelli Lacy, had been in a car accident. She was dying.

The driver at fault was intoxicated.

The driver at fault was her sister.

“She's the bad guy we all talk about, right?” Brown said. “That, I had a hard time with.”

After her sister's death, Brown went into a deep depression. She'd lost not just her big sis, but her best friend. It was the most painful thing in her life. Still is.

She realized she needed to do something to prevent other families from having to go through the same thing. She joined the Arlington police force in 2005, and was picked for the driving while intoxicated unit two years later. She'd found her purpose.

Since then, she's arrested hundreds of people. Most of them get mad, call her names. She has to remind herself that's just the alcohol or drugs talking.

“This is not the worst thing that could happen to you — be glad you weren't killed,” she often tells them. It doesn't always go over well.

But some people do thank her.

———

Nationwide, drunken driving deaths have fallen by more than half since 1982. But it remains a stubborn problem in Texas, where the rate of drunken driving fatalities per capita is nearly double the national average, according to the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility.

In Texas last year, 960 people died in DWI-related crashes, state records show. Thirty-seven of those deaths were in Tarrant County, and 83 were in Dallas County.

Brown wants to make a bigger dent in those numbers. She knows her arrests help, but she tries to focus on prevention, too.

She speaks often at high schools, driver's ed courses and court-ordered classes for DWI offenders, sharing her experience as a victim's sister and as a cop. She shows the audience pictures of smashed cars and explains: Not one of these drivers expected to die that night. This could be you.

“They pay attention to her because she comes from both sides,” said Terri Peaks, of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. “Her goal is to save lives. She's doing that in a number of ways, and we all benefit from it.”

The department now lets Brown spend most of her shifts at speaking engagements. She has given 140 presentations this year.

“That wasn't in our job description, and she made it part of her job description,” said Brown's partner, Officer Brendan Banks. “As officers, our experiences are what help us be really good or not — and that's what makes her great at what she does.”

Brown and her husband, Allen, a dog trainer, raised her sister's daughters, who were 9 and 1 when their mom died. They never had kids of their own, but they go on adventures together around the world, even scuba diving with sharks. They adopted and rehabbed Saint, a malnourished dog they saw on TV, who had been tied to a tree and shot with a pellet gun.

Brown has also led the “Santa Cop” program, which gives donated gifts to hundreds of poor kids at Christmastime.

“If I could sum Stacie up in one word,” Banks said, “she's selfless.”

———

Outside the police station, Brown glides a black pen from one side of the tattooed man's face to the other, telling him to watch it without moving his head. As she pauses on each side, the man's pupils bounce slightly back toward the middle.

That involuntary jerking is indicative of being on alcohol or drugs, Brown later says.

The man denies doing any drugs today — though he admits to doing meth yesterday. Brown thinks he's lying.

Still, she remains respectful.

“They said you were combative out there, but you're being really nice to me,” she tells him, taking his handcuffs off.

He needs his arms free to balance for the next sobriety tests. Walking foot to foot down a straight line. Balancing on one foot while counting. He fails both.

Brown tells him she thinks he's intoxicated and she needs a sample of his blood. He can either allow a nurse to take his blood, or she can secure a judge's warrant and force him.

“Are you willing to give a specimen of blood?” she asks.

“Yes,” he mumbles.

“I appreciate that,” Brown says.

They head to the hospital.

“I get cooperation because I treat them like a human being,” Brown says as she drives. “I arrest a lot of really nice people. He's got an addiction. It's sad because it's affecting the kids.”

———

At work, Brown tries not to dwell on her sister. She keeps a photo of her in her back pocket at all times, but on her cubicle wall, it's her nieces and husband who smile down as she types reports.

There are times, though, when she can't help but be reminded of Shelli. Last November, Brown and Banks had just left a MADD event when they were dispatched to investigate a bad wreck. A 25-year-old mother had driven into a telephone pole, injuring four of her kids.

They headed for the hospital to test the woman's sobriety. They determined that Valencia Freeman was drunk. (She would later plead guilty.) A doctor told the cops that the woman's 5-year-old daughter had died in a nearby room.

The officers looked at each other and knew what they had to do. It was unorthodox and definitely not department policy, but they decided to allow their suspect to say goodbye to her daughter.

“She's already getting cold,” Freeman had sobbed as she hugged her daughter.

The scene stuck with Brown. Brown had that same thought when she'd raced to her sister's side in the hospital. That's when she realized that “when the spirit's gone, the body changes.”

Brown felt sympathy for the mother, despite being angry about what she had done. Banks cried too, thinking about his five children at home.

Then they took the woman to jail.

———

At Medical Center Arlington, a nurse pierces the suspect's arm and fills a syringe with his blood. If it tests positive for drugs, the evidence will later be used against him in court.

Swallowing back tears, the suspect — Christopher Tafolla, 26 — asks Brown what charges he'll face.
She ticks them off: Evading arrest. DWI with a child in the car. Endangering a child. Possession of cocaine.

“How bad is DWI with a child?” he asks.

“It's a state jail felony,” she says.

He knows he's likely to be locked up for a long time for violating parole. His life as a free man, for now, is over.

But the way Brown sees it, his arrest actually gave him a chance to live. In fact, she wishes the cops had stopped her sister that night, before her crash.

At least she'd still be alive.

https://www.policeone.com/patrol-issues/articles/252645006-DWI-cops-mission-To-help-others-avoid-her-pain/

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Connecticut

New Haven homicides and shooting down in 2016; community policing credited with other programs

by Juliemar Ortiz

NEW HAVEN >> As 2017 begins, statistics on last year's shootings continue to show that crime has been decreasing in New Haven since 2011 and Assistant Chief of Police Archie Generoso said it's a result of community policing efforts.

“The difference is how we police here now, we're doubling our community policing efforts, we're working with all our partners to keep crime down and it's working,” Generoso said.

The numbers of homicides, non-fatal shootings, and shots fired have been consistently lower since 2011. Generoso said the real indicator of violence is not homicides, it's total shootings and shots fired. Records show,that between 2003 and 2012, the city we averaged 126 total shootings a year. The average from 2013 to 2016 was 63.

“That's half,” Generoso said. “We've been able to cut that in half.”

Records of shots fired only go back to 2011. That year there were around 450 “shots fired” complaints, which includes using technology to detect them. Since then, the New Haven Police Department has expanded its Shotspotter program, which uses audio sensors and triangulation to determine the location of gunfire. Earlier in 2016, the city increased its Shotspotter coverage area by three times, placing the technology in neighborhoods with the highest number of such crimes. Even with that expansion, the number of reported shots fired only went up to an average of 150.

“We're keeping the level of violence down, there's a consistency in that, we're showing now, we have a 4-year stat showing that,” Generoso said.

Programs such Project Longevity, daily intelligence meetings, CompStat, and other community policing efforts are all part of the formula that helped New Haven go from having 34 homicides in 2011, to 13 in 2016. There were 15 homicides in the city in 2015 and 13 homicides in 2014.

Project Longevity features customized notifications, which is when Project Manager Stacy R. Spell and other community members visit the homes of teens who are at risk of being victims or perpetrators of a violent crime. The program aims to work with individuals identified as being in gangs or groups who are in danger of being perpetrators or victims of violence. They are invited to a “call in,” a sort of intervention, where services are offered as incentives not to engage in gun-related violence, including help with getting high school diplomas, driver's licenses and housing assistance.

According to a 2015 study by Yale University sociologists. Project Longevity has had a positive impact in reducing shootings and homicides in New Haven.

“So it's no mistake that our first call in was in 2012,” Generoso said.

Police Lt. Herb Johnson said he is very proud about the numbers this year and looks forward to reducing crime even more in 2017.

“It doesn't happen with just us, it's a great collaborative effort. When all the wheels are turning together that's when we strive, and with the community as well,” Johnson said. “I'm looking forward to the new year, we're going to have some changes, we got a lot of work to continue to do year, but we have great young talent here.”

In addition to preventative measures, the Police Department also continues to aggressively investigate shootings and homicides, both to seek justice and bring closure to grieving families.

Of the 13 homicides in New Haven this year, 10 were victims of shootings and 12 were under the age of 36. Two victims were stabbed, and one was strangled. There were arrests made in two of the cases and the others remain open investigations.

The 2016 victims included:

Jan. 1: Chamar Suggs, 34

New Haven police were dispatched to the 300 block of Winthrop Avenue at 2 p.m. on New Year's Day after a caller to 911 reported a stabbing. Upon arrival, officers learned from firefighters that Chamar Suggs, 34, of New Haven, was suffering from a stab wound to the abdomen and had no pulse.

Suggs was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital where he underwent surgery. He was removed from life support on Jan. 7 and died as a result of the assault.

A 17-year-old Hamden teen, Levon Player Jr., who claimed he acted in self-defense, was charged in Suggs' killing with murder and first-degree manslaughter after turning himself in to New Haven police. A Superior Court jury found Player not guilty in October.

March 4: Brent Bennett, 25

Brent D. Bennett, 25, of West Haven was rushed to Yale New Haven Hospital after detectives found him in a car on State Street suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest late on March 4. Bennett was pronounced dead at the hospital at 9:55 p.m. He was a father of two young children. There have been no arrests made in his homicide and police continue to investigate the case.

April 7: Robert Richardson, 22

Police continue to investigate the death of Robert Richardson, 22, of New Haven, who was rushed to the Yale New Haven Hospital after emergency crews found him with a gunshot wound to the back of his head. Richardson, who lived on State Street, died at the hospital shortly before 2 a.m. on April 7. He attended school in the New Haven School District and graduated from James Hillhouse High School. Police said an SUV was spotted leaving the scene with its headlights off at about the time the shots rang out. There have been no arrests made in this homicide.

April 22: Tysean Johnson, 25

Police discovered Tysean Johnson's body inside a running vehicle April 22 on Huntington Street. He had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. Johnson was a born in New Haven and was 25 at the time of his death. According to his obituary, he loved to play basketball, video games, rap music and was a lover of sneakers. This investigation is ongoing.

May 19: Kwasiada L. Robinson, 22

Relatives found Kwasiada L. Robinson, 22, strangled in her apartment at 7 Daisy St. on May 19. That same day, Robinson's partner, Jerome Reddick, 38, of Ellsworth Avenue, was found hanged from a tree in St. Bernard Cemetery. Police believe Reddick committed suicide and was a suspect in Robinson's death. Police said the two had been involved in a “turbulent relationship,” and had lived together for several years. Reddick had been sought on a 2014 arrest warrant on second-degree domestic assault charges involving Robinson at the time of his death.

July 23: Daryl Wayne Belton, 22

Daryl Wayne Belton was found in the street between on Kensington Street between Chapel Street and Edgewood Avenue with a single gunshot wound to the back on July 23. A ShotSpotter alert at about 1:30 a.m. had brought police to the area where they found the victim. Belton, who lived on Garden Street, was rushed to Yale New Haven Hospital by ambulance but was pronounced dead within the hour. Witnesses told police that Belton was with others when he was hit but none of Belton's companions stayed at the scene. There have been no arrests made in his homicide and police continue to investigate the case.

Aug. 7: James Edward Foley, 50

Police were called to 195 Saltonstall Ave. just after 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 7 on a report that someone in the residence had been stabbed. James Edward Foley, who lived on State Street, was transported to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he died a few hours later from multiple stab wounds to his chest and upper body. Carlos Berrios, 42, of Filmore Street was arrested the next day and charged with the slaying. Police believed Berrios was the boyfriend of Foley's estranged wife, who lived in the apartment where the stabbing took place. The case is still pending and Berrios's next court date is Jan. 9.

Aug. 30: Tyree McCrea, 36, and Dyshant Levi Mclean, 25

Police believe two men were targeted in a double shooting on Dewitt Street that claimed the lives of Tyree McCaray, 36 and Dyshant McClean, 25 on Aug. 30. Mclean, of Dixwell Avenue, Hamden, was already dead when police arrived on scene after being shot multiple times in the chest, just like McCrea. McCrea was rushed to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he died about an hour later.

McCrea, who lived on West Street, was remembered as a loving husband and father of five. He had been looking forward to the first day of school that week for his children and had been excited about the start of his son's upcoming football season. McCrea's sister decried the city's gun violence and said asked anyone with information to come forward.

There have been no arrests made in his homicide and police continue to investigate the case.

Sept. 21: Levern Bellamy, 31

Police were dispatched at about 10 p.m. on Sept. 21 on a report that someone had been shot in Newhallville. They found Levern Bellamy, 31, in the rear yard of the light-blue house on Dorman Street. He was rushed to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Bellamy lived on Dorman Street, a small street between Sherman Parkway and Dixwell Avenue. Police continue to investigate this homicide.

Oct. 18: Muhanad Jawad, 21

A 21-year-old New Haven man fatally shot at his own store on Ferry Street one fall afternoon. Muhanad “Momo” Jawad was the owner of E&M Smoke Shop at 545 Ferry St., where he was shot and killed just before 2 p.m. on Oct. 18. Police said evidence and surveillance suggests Jawad was targeted. Jawad had several pending criminal cases, including firearm theft, assault on a police officer and charges he was dealing drugs.

Outside the convenience store on the night of his death, those who knew Jawad said he was well-spoken, a faithful worker and “a great guy.” Many were shocked to hear of the shooting and said it usually is a quiet neighborhood. The case remains under investigation.

Nov. 24: Dyrail Martaye Reddick, 30

Dyrail Martaye Reddick, 30, was found suffering from a gunshot wound in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Cherry Ann Street in New Haven around 3:12 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Reddick was rushed to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he was pronounced dead soon after. Investigators suspected the shooting took place following a dispute in that parking lot. The investigation is ongoing.

Dec. 5: Dontray D. Hammond, 22

Dontray D. Hammond, 22, was found at the basketball court behind 24 Victory Drive with a gunshot wound to his head on Dec. 5. Emergency crews were dispatched to the basketball court at about 2:40 p.m. Hammond had died at the scene. Hammond was found about a mile from his home on Plant Street, which is off Fountain Street in the Amity section of the city. Hammond was known as “Millie Tray” by his friends. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, he moved to New Haven four years ago with mother.

Anyone who has information related to these homicide investigation is urged to call New Haven Police detectives at 203-946-6304. Calls may be made anonymously.

http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20161231/new-haven-homicides-and-shooting-down-in-2016-community-policing-credited-with-other-programs

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Florida

Opinion

‘Stop and frisk,' no; community policing, yes

by Rick Christie

It's never pretty when a politician becomes noticeably frustrated about something.

Though well-meaning, they tend to react by saying and doing things they later come to regret. That is, if they have a political conscience.

That was the case last week with Riviera Beach Mayor Thomas Masters — maybe, all except for the political conscience part.

Desperate times? That had to be what the five-term mayor was thinking as he hastily rolled out proposals on Monday and Tuesday to curb the long-running issue of gun violence in his city by the sea.

How else to explain the mayor's seeming to propose violating people's civil rights to solve this problem.

“If I had it my way, I'd stop everything moving,” he said in a news conference Monday, and repeated again Tuesday. He warned youth, in particular, “You never know when you might be stopped and searched.”

Say what? Here's where the mayor didn't quite think things through. Because “stopped and searched” sounds disturbingly like “stop and frisk,” a violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. You know, the one that among other things, protects citizens from illegal search and seizure.

Taking Masters at his word, one would believe that a “suspicious-looking” young man or woman driving — or even walking — into Riviera Beach could be arbitrarily stopped by a law enforcement officer and searched.

That sends off “racial profiling” alarm bells, as this is the same type of police action that civil rights and community advocates — like Masters — have been fighting against for decades when it comes to young black men.

Let me backpedal, er… clarify

The good news is that at some point this all became apparent to Masters. And early Thursday morning he backpedaled on the statement — at about the five-minute mark of an an 18½-minute Facebook Live event asking residents to pray for the community.

“I don't want you to think there will be any stopping and frisking; that's strictly unconstitutional,” he says on the video. “The rights of our young people must be protected, must be respected.”

This time, Masters got it right. A federal judge ruled in 2013 that New York City's stop-and-frisk program was unconstitutional in how it was carried out, calling it “a form of racial profiling” of black and Hispanic young men.

But at no time did Masters acknowledge that he was walking back a previous statement — which he clearly had made before TV cameras.

The mayor did say that he isn't calling for stop-and-frisk procedures along his city's borders, but is still urging police to do “everything they legally can” to curtail the city's recent string of gun violence, including implementing checkpoints.

It's a distinction without much of a difference.

Yes, Masters' frustration is as understandable as it is palpable. And it is a frustration shared by many Riviera Beach residents. Which is likely why he will be forgiven his earlier misstatement.

As City Councilwoman Dawn Pardo said at Tuesday's news conference: “The city of Riviera Beach is under siege.”

Gun violence a stubborn problem

Give the mayor credit for trying — again. He has presided over a seemingly intractable problem with regard to gun-related homicides. Particularly difficult to staunch has been the amount of gun violence involving young people in the city.

To be sure, Riviera Beach is not the only city in Palm Beach County facing this issue. West Palm Beach, just south of Riviera Beach, suffered through a horrible rash of youth gun violence in the summer of 2015. But while both cities have reduced that number this year, officials admit the problem remains.

And none has gone as far as Masters appeared willing to go last week when he proposed ramping up a slew of measures — checkpoints, curfew enforcement, a gun buy-back program.

The latter two, along with “midnight basketball” are well-known to most urban areas as ways to help control crime. But checkpoints, and being “stopped and searched,” are a whole other ballgame.

At the news conferences, Masters was largely expressing exasperation with a recent spate of shootings that left a number of young people injured and dead.

Most of the 11 people killed in Riviera Beach this year were younger than 40, a Palm Beach Post database shows. One was only 3 years of age. Three were teenagers, like 15-year-old Makayla Dennard, who was shot in the head on Dec. 23 and died Tuesday night.

She was shot in the head at the same address where three people — a 14-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl and 25-year-old man — were shot and wounded Nov. 19.

Many of the city's shootings are connected, Masters says, and stem from “the spirit of revenge.”

The shooters primarily are young, in their teens or early 20s, Riviera Beach Police spokeswoman Rose Anne Brown said, and affiliated with groups on either side of the Riviera-West Palm Beach border.

Police track the two main groups and have interrupted some of their planned shootings, Brown said. But some, like the Dec. 23 shooting, “slipped past us,” she said.

Shots rang out in Riviera Beach again Monday because of a fight over a woman, Brown said. A 55-year-old man is critically injured.

Another way … better community policing?

But while that explains a great deal, it excuses little when it comes to trampling on folks' civil rights. Masters, in the video posted just hours after city police announced that Dennard had died, backed away from earlier sounding as though he was endorsing “stop and frisk.”

He continued, however, to push checkpoints as a legal way for police to curb gun violence in the city. He stressed that those stops will check for items such as valid driver's licenses, car registration, proof of insurance or “to make sure your lights are working … safety measures, basically.”

“It's all about protecting our children,” Masters said in the video.

As laudable a goal as that is, checkpoints — even random ones — can be a slippery slope. It invites accusations of racial profiling, as one man's “safety measure” can be another man's “harassment.”

Imagine if the white mayors of Wellington, West Palm Beach, Boynton Beach or Palm Beach Gardens proposed such a thing. The outcry of potential racial profiling would be deafening.

Better the mayor push harder for the kind of community policing where, as he said, “officers get out of their cars and walk the beat the old-time way.” Every local law enforcement agency in the country has acknowledged that building trust through stronger ties in the community makes a huge difference in not only preventing but solving violent crimes.

Asking residents to pray seven times a day, as Masters did for the first 13 minutes of the Thursday morning video, is good.

Asking them to cooperate with the police officers who are trying to protect and serve their community on a daily basis is even better.

Proposing anything that sounds even remotely like “stop and frisk,” even out of shared frustration, is not helpful.

From the FBI

A Look Back: A Small Office with a Big Mission

The FBI's World War II-Era Cover Company at Rockefeller Center

Everyone knows that the holiday season is well under way when the giant Christmas tree is lit at Rockefeller Center in New York City. What is less well known, however, is the connection between Rockefeller Center and the birth of America's civilian foreign intelligence efforts.

It was 1940 and the world had plunged into war the previous summer. Although America remained neutral at that time, it did not ignore the massive international threat, and an FBI operation—small but critical to America's response to that threat—was centered in the heart of New York City in Rockefeller Center. It was called the Importers and Exporters Service Company and operated out of room 4332 at 30 Rockefeller Center—the RCA Building—beginning in August 1940.

Importers and Exporters was the Bureau's first attempt to set up a long-term cover company for our covert program, the Special Intelligence Service (SIS). The SIS was the United States' first civilian foreign intelligence service and was less than a year old. Under a 1940 agreement signed by the Army, Navy, and FBI and approved by President Roosevelt, the FBI was given responsibility for “foreign intelligence work in the Western Hemisphere.” This saw us gathering intelligence about espionage, counterespionage, subversion, and sabotage concerns—especially about Nazi activities—pertaining to civilians in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. We were to create an undercover force that would proactively protect America's security from threats in our international neighborhood. Given that our past success was mostly in criminal matters, taking on this task would be a steep learning experience.

To begin, we wanted to center the operation away from traditional FBI facilities and wanted to anchor it in commercial efforts, because they would provide the freedom of movement and access our agents would need. Although it is not clear why the Bureau chose to establish a presence at 30 Rock, it likely had something to do with the support that Nelson Rockefeller had provided to President Roosevelt's intelligence work. Furthermore, on multiple occasions after the SIS's creation, our personnel were afforded cover by Nelson Rockefeller's Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs.

The RCA Building placed the FBI within a hotbed of foreign activity, both allied and enemy. The Rockefellers provided space in the same building at little or no cost to British Security Coordination, an intelligence agency/liaison service. It also hosted Italian, German, and Japanese tenants until the U.S. government detained them as enemy aliens when America entered World War II. And the Soviet Union had office space in the building as well.

Of course, the sign on the door did not read “FBI/SIS—Spies Welcome.” Instead, the Importers and Exporters Service Company—which never imported or exported anything—was supposed to be completely unidentifiable with the Bureau and would provide “backstopping” or cover identities, employment, and other necessary tools for our agents to operate undercover. With these new identities, representatives of the company were to travel throughout the hemisphere to collect intelligence and help to disrupt the Axis threat.

It looked good on paper; however, the plan took an unexpected turn because Bureau personnel had to fend off daily advances from unsuspecting salesmen and other parties knocking on the door wanting to do business with the new company. The FBI ended up shutting down the Importers and Exporters business in June 1941, but we kept the office itself open until November 1945, using it to quietly handle logistics for deploying SIS personnel.

Exterior of the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center during the 1940s. (© 2015 Rockefeller Group Inc/Rockefeller Center Archives)

Although the Importers and Exporters Service Company was a short-lived enterprise, its method of operation, providing what is known as “non-official cover” in the spy business, became crucial to the SIS's intelligence activities and its subsequent successes. Learning from its Importers and Exporters experience, the Bureau—instead of maintaining one single cover company—enlisted the assistance of accommodating U.S. companies that agreed to provide cover jobs for Bureau personnel. (And in a boon for some of those companies, many of the individuals who filled these positions worked so enthusiastically that they became nearly indispensable to their cover employers.)

Room 4332 at 30 Rock and what went on there more than 70 years ago is little remembered now—the room itself doesn't even exist anymore because the floor it was located on has an open plan today. However, those who enjoy the Christmas tree and skating rink at Rockefeller Center during the holiday season might take a minute to reflect on the building's role in America's first civilian foreign intelligence service.

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/the-fbis-world-war-ii-era-cover-company-at-rockefeller-center

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From the Department of Homeland Security

DHS Releases End of Year Fiscal Year 2016 Statistics

WASHINGTON – Today the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released its end of Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 statistics. These statistics reflect the Department's immigration enforcement efforts prioritizing convicted criminals and threats to public safety, border security and national security.

Overall, in FY 2016, the Department apprehended 530,250 individuals nationwide and conducted a total of 450,954 removals and returns. The U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) reported 415,816 apprehensions nationwide, compared to 337,117 in FY 2015; and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 114, 434 individuals, compared to 125,211 in FY 2015. Although apprehensions by the USBP in FY 2016 increased from FY 2015, they remain a fraction of the number of apprehensions routinely observed from the 1980s through 2008. In addition, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Field Operations (OFO) identified 274,821 inadmissible individuals at ports of entry, compared to 253,509 in FY 2015. ICE removed or returned 240,255 individuals in FY 2016, compared to 235,413 in FY 2015.

The Department continues to successfully implement the civil immigration enforcement priorities announced by Secretary Johnson in November 2014. In FY 2016, 98 percent of initial enforcement actions – a set of actions that includes USBP apprehensions, OFO determinations of inadmissibility, and ICE administrative arrests – involved individuals classified within one of the three enforcement priority categories. Ninety-one percent were among the top priority (Priority 1), which includes national security threats, individuals apprehended at the border while attempting to enter unlawfully, and the most serious categories of convicted criminals as well as gang members.

Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson made the following statement concerning the FY 2016 numbers:

The immigration statistics released in today's report reflect the continued effort by this Administration to dedicate the Department of Homeland Security's resources to smart enforcement of our nation's immigration laws, with a particular focus on public safety and border security.

We continued to strengthen the federal government's decades-long investment in border security. These investments have paid off. Apprehensions on the border in recent years – a strong indicator of total attempts to cross the border – are much lower than they used to be. In FY 2016, total apprehensions by the Border Patrol on the southwest border numbered 408,870. This represents a fraction of the number of apprehensions routinely observed from the 1980s through 2008.

In FY 2016, we continued to better focus our interior resources on removing individuals who may pose threats to public safety—specifically, convicted criminals and threats to national security. This prioritization is reflected in actual results. Overall, 98% of all initial immigration enforcement actions and over 99% of all removals and returns in FY 2016 aligned with the immigration enforcement priorities that I established in November 2014. Significantly, an increasing percentage of those deported from the interior were convicted of serious crimes – over 90% in 2016 as compared to 51% in 2009.

The information released today includes a new, consolidated Immigration Enforcement report by our Department's Office of Immigration Statistics. It is part of our effort to improve the transparency of DHS's immigration enforcement efforts by releasing the end of year statistics of CBP and ICE together rather than piecemeal. This marks the third year in a row we have done this. As my term comes to an end, I strongly encourage the next Administration to continue publishing this report and to continue to enhance the transparency of DHS's immigration enforcement efforts.

Overall Immigration Enforcement Outcomes

At every point in the immigration enforcement process, the Department has successfully implemented the enforcement priorities established by Secretary Johnson in his November 20, 2014 memorandum, Policies for the Apprehension, Detention and Removal of Undocumented Immigrants .

Immigration enforcement agents and officers initiated new enforcement actions against 805, 071 inadmissible or deportable aliens in FY 2016. These actions included 415,816 USBP apprehensions, 274,821 inadmissibility determinations by OFO, and 114,434 ICE arrests. Overall, 98 percent of these actions involved individuals who were classified within one of the Department's enforcement priority categories. Ninety-one percent of initial enforcement actions involved individuals classified within the highest-level Priority 1 categories, which include national security threats, individuals apprehended at the border while attempting to enter unlawfully, and the most serious categories of convicted criminals as well as gang members.

Subsequent enforcement actions were similarly focused on the Department's enforcement priorities. ICE placed 352,882 individuals in a civil detention facility in FY 2016, 98 percent of whom were classified within an enumerated priority category, and less than 0.3 percent who were classified as “other federal interest.” (Priority data was unavailable for 1.7 percent of aliens placed in detention.)

ICE and CBP repatriated a total of 450,954 individuals in FY 2016, which consisted of 344,354 removals and 106,600 returns. Overall, 94 percent of removals and returns were classified within a Priority 1 category, five percent were classified within a Priority 2 category ( i.e. , serious and repeat misdemeanants, individuals who unlawfully entered the United States on or after January 1, 2014, and significant abusers of the visa system or visa waiver program), and one percent were classified within a Priority 3 category (individuals issued a final order of removal on or after January 1, 2014). Less than 0.1 percent of removals and returns involved individuals classified as other federal interests, and less than 0.3 percent had unknown priority classifications.

For a comprehensive discussion of DHS-wide enforcement actions in FY 2016 please click here.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Enforcement Efforts At and Between Ports of Entry

While the total number of apprehensions by the USBP nationwide between ports of entry increased in FY 2016 from FY 2015, USBP apprehensions remain lower than both FY 2014 and FY 2013. Meanwhile, the demographics of illegal migration on our southern border have changed significantly over the last 15 years – far fewer Mexicans and single adults are attempting to cross the border without authorization, but more families and unaccompanied children are fleeing poverty and violence in Central America. In 2014, Central Americans apprehended on the southern border outnumbered Mexicans for the first time. In 2016, Central Americans again outnumbered Mexicans in apprehensions on the southern border.

In FY 2016, the USBP apprehended a total of 59,757 unaccompanied children and 77,857 family units nationwide.

CBP continues to monitor the arrival of unaccompanied children and family units from Central America and is working closely to support federal interagency efforts to manage these flows and address the underlying factors causing this migration.

Enforcement actions at ports of entry continued to yield important border security achievements. At ports of entry in FY 2016, CBP officers arrested 8,129 individuals wanted for serious crimes. Officers also stopped 274,821 inadmissible individuals from entering the United States through ports of entry, an increase of 7.6 percent from FY 2015. Depending on the circumstances, these individuals were placed in removal proceedings, allowed to voluntarily return to their country of origin, or allowed to withdraw their applications for admission into the United States. Inadmissibility grounds included those related to an inability to satisfy documentary requirements, previous immigration violations, as well as criminal and national security-related reasons.

As part of these efforts, CBP also identified 14,293 high-risk travelers who would have been found inadmissible had they traveled to the United States, and who were instead prevented from boarding flights destined for the United States. For a comprehensive breakdown of CBP's FY 2016 enforcement efforts, please click here.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Interior Border Enforcement Efforts

In FY 2016, ICE removed or returned 240,255 individuals. Of these, 174,923 removals were of individuals apprehended at or near the border or ports of entry. The remaining 65,332 were apprehended by ICE officers in the interior of the United States.

Of ICE's FY 2016 removals, 99.3 percent, or 238,466, met one or more of ICE's stated civil immigration enforcement priorities. Of the 101,586 aliens removed who had no criminal conviction, 95 percent, or 96,572, were apprehended at or near the border or ports of entry. ICE's interior enforcement activities led to an increase in the percentage of interior removals that were of convicted criminals, growing from 82 percent in FY 2013 to 92 percent in FY 2016. These numbers clearly illustrate the agency's continued commitment to focus on the removal of convicted criminals and others posing a threat to public safety in the interior of the United States.

The Department's civil immigration enforcement priorities have impacted how ICE conducts removals, as the priorities have heightened ICE's focus on the greatest threats to national security, public safety, and border security. Rather than expending limited resources on individuals who have been in this country for many years or those charged or convicted of traffic and other minor offenses, ICE instead focuses its resources on those who pose a threat to public safety and on recent unlawful entrants, consistent with the Secretary's November 20, 2014 memorandum, Policies for the Apprehension, Detention and Removal of Undocumented Immigrants .

FY 2016 was the first full year of implementation of these priorities, as they went into effect in mid-FY 2015. In FY 2016, 99.3 percent of total ICE removals and returns were of individuals that were a civil enforcement priority and 83.7 percent were of Priority 1 individuals.

Level of Cooperation from State and Local Law Enforcement Partners

A significant factor impacting removal operations has been the number of state and local law enforcement jurisdictions that have limited or declined cooperation with ICE, due to the enactment of numerous state statutes and local ordinances reducing and/or preventing cooperation with ICE, in addition to federal court decisions that created the perception of liability concerns for cooperating law enforcement agencies. Declined detainers result in convicted criminals being released back into U.S. communities with the potential to re-offend. Moreover, they draw resources away from other ICE efforts to protect public safety, by requiring ICE to expend additional resources to locate and arrest convicted criminals at-large rather than safely taking custody of such individuals in jails.

To address this problem, on November 20, 2014, Secretary Johnson announced the creation of the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP). Implemented in July 2015, PEP is designed to be flexible, allowing ICE to tailor the program to fit the needs of each jurisdiction and achieve mutual law enforcement goals. PEP improves the process of transferring individuals who pose a threat to public safety from state and local custody by enabling ICE to take custody of priority individuals without damaging trust with local communities. Throughout 2015 and 2016, DHS and ICE conducted a nationwide effort to implement PEP and promote collaboration, reaching out to thousands of local law enforcement agencies and government officials. Because of these efforts, 21 of the top 25 jurisdictions with the largest number of previously declined detainers agreed to participate in PEP.

Increased CBP Apprehensions

ICE supports border security efforts by detaining and removing certain individuals arrested by CBP; historically, a significant number of ICE's removals have been of individuals that CBP apprehended at the border. In FY 2016, the total number of USBP apprehensions was approximately 415,816, an increase of 23 percent from FY 2015. This in turn resulted in a 26 percent increase in FY 2016 ICE intakes resulting from CBP apprehensions, from 193,951 intakes from CBP to ICE in FY 2015 to 244,510 such intakes in FY 2016.

Changing Migrant Demographics

Changing migrant demographics also impacted ICE removal operations in FY 2016, as illegal entries by Mexicans continued to decrease while illegal entries by Central Americans continued to increase. More time, personnel resources, detention capacity, and funding are required to complete the removal process for individuals from non-contiguous countries, as compared to Mexican nationals apprehended at the border, because removals of non-Mexican nationals require ICE to secure travel documents from the host country and to arrange air transportation. Perhaps most significantly, many Central American nationals, including family units and unaccompanied minors, are asserting claims of credible or reasonable fear of persecution. Such cases require additional adjudication, and therefore, take significantly longer to process.

For a comprehensive breakdown of ICE's FY 2016 removal numbers, please see the FY 2016 report here.

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/12/30/dhs-releases-end-year-fiscal-year-2016-statistics

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From ICE

New enforcement effort targets dangerous electronics

WASHINGTON – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) – with support from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) – have launched an initiative targeting the illegal importation and distribution of counterfeit consumer electronics known to present health and safety hazards by overheating, igniting, and causing severe injuries and extensive property damage.

The operation, named “Surge Protector”, will focus on electronics vulnerable to counterfeiting, including phony digital media devices, power adapters and consumer technology powered by lithium ion batteries. Counterfeit electronics are routinely the second most seized commodity during the course of intellectual property enforcement conducted by ICE and CBP. From Fiscal Year 2013 to FY 2015, homeland security personnel made over 17,000 seizures related to counterfeit consumer electronics, and the new effort will provide additional resources to agents and allow investigators to more effectively track arrests, indictments and convictions surrounding the illicit sale of these items.

“Our collaboration with industry and external law-enforcement agencies has revealed that counterfeit electronics are a serious threat to public safety on par with fake pharmaceuticals and bogus automotive parts,” said ICE – Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Executive Associate Director Peter Edge. “We are committed to conducting aggressive investigations and targeting individuals who would violate consumer trust by recklessly selling dangerous imitation products.”

Operation Surge Protector is being coordinated by the ICE-led National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center), which houses both the FBI and HSI intellectual property units. HSI's IP section has been active in the area of counterfeit consumer electronics by providing support to agents investigating organized fraud and counterfeiting schemes targeting multinational technology companies. There are several dozen active investigations into the illegal sale of fake consumer electronics, as well as multiple pending federal criminal prosecutions brought by DOJ.

“The malfunction or failure of counterfeit consumer electronics could have dangerous consequences to U.S. consumers,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of DOJ's Criminal Division. “The Justice Department will continue to prosecute traffickers and manufacturers of these counterfeit electronics who choose profit over public health and safety.”

In FY 2016, CBP seized nearly 108,000 hoverboards worth an estimated $46.4 million at 54 different ports of entry for copyright violations, and recent increased enforcement actions focused on fake electronics resulted in hundreds of seizures, which prompted the IPR Center to review its operational portfolio and initiate a new effort dedicated to consumer electronics. Consumers planning to purchase technology, powered by lithium ion batteries, from brick-and-mortar retailers or online from independent sellers and third-party marketplaces can protect themselves by confirming the presence of an authentic Underwriters' Laboratories (UL) certification seal on the product.

“Working for a safer world is UL's mission and we take that responsibility very seriously,” said UL's Chief Security Officer Brian Monks. “We will continue to do our part in helping protect people, products and places from counterfeit UL marked products and support law enforcement efforts to take unsafe products out of the hands of criminals and prevent them from reaching the hands of consumers.”

Founded in 2000, the IPR Center – formally codified in the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 – is one of the U.S. government's key weapons in the fight against criminal counterfeiting and piracy. The center uses the expertise of its 23 member agencies to share information, develop initiatives, coordinate enforcement actions, and conduct investigations related to IP theft. Through this strategic interagency partnership, the IPR Center protects the public's health and safety, the U.S. economy and the war fighters.