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February, 2017 - Week 2
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Pennsylvania
Sandusky's son arrested for child sexual assault
(video on site)
by Mallory Lane
Bellefonte, Centre County, Pa -- Pennsylvania State Police arrested Jeffrey Sandusky, 41, and charged him with asking two girls for sexual favors.
Sandusky is the adopted son of Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State football coach who was convicted on multiple counts of child sex abuse.
Sandusky was arraigned on charges Monday afternoon in Bellefonte. His mother, Dottie Sandusky, was also at the District Magistrate's office.
Pennsylvania State Police began an investigation in November 2016 after a child claims to have received text messages from Sandusky, including some that asked for naked photographs.
A second victim claims Sandusky asked her for oral sex.
The explicit text messages where shared with the child's father, who then notified police.
Monday afternoon bail was set at $200,000.
Sandusky is prohibited from any contact with minors and he was ordered to surrender his passport. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, February 22.
http://www.wearecentralpa.com/news/sanduskys-son-arrested-for-child-sexual-assault/655479630
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New Jersey
Long Island man arrested for human trafficking
by Rodrigo Torrejon
A New York man, who was wanted for allegedly trafficking underage girls as prostitutes, is awaiting extradition to New Jersey after being arrested Thursday on Long Island.
Jamel Griffin, 25, was arrested on charges of human trafficking, promoting prostitution of a juvenile and endangering the welfare of a child, Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal announced.
Griffin was arrested in Brentwood, N.Y. The arrest was the result of a joint investigation by the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, the South Hackensack Police Department and the FBI.
Griffin's was wanted since October when authorities learned that girls were being forced into prostitution at township motels.
On Oct. 2, the South Hackensack Police Department received a report of girls being forced to engage in prostitution in South Hackensack. The South Hackensack Police found three girls who had been taken to a South Hackensack motel as prostitutes, Grewal has said.
The South Hackensack Police Department notified the Bergen County Special Victims Unit and three people were arrested on Oct. 12.
At the time, Edwin A. Boneta, of Central Islip, N.Y., Jefferson Contreras, of Bay Shore, N.Y. and Selena Boneta of West Babylon, N.Y. were arrested by police in Long Island's Suffolk County. Each were charged with human trafficking, promoting prostitution of a juvenile and endangering the welfare of a child.
Stephanie Boneta, of Paterson, was also arrested and charged with facilitation of human trafficking and endangering the welfare of a child.
According to Grewal's statement today, authorities were unable to find Griffin at the time of the October arrests. The FBI issued an unlawful flight to avoid prosecution warrant in response.
Griffin is being held in the Suffolk County Jail, pending his extradition to New Jersey.
http://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/south-hackensack/2017/02/02/long-island-man-arrested-human-trafficking/97418604/
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Missouri
Frank Ancona, KKK Imperial Wizard, Found Dead in a Missouri River
by Kirsten West Savali
The body of Frank Ancona, 51, Imperial Wizard of the Traditional American Knights of Ku Klux Klan, was discovered Saturday on the bank of Big River outside of Belgrade, Mo., four days after he went missing from his Leadwood, Mo., home.
Local law enforcement said they discovered Ancona was missing Thursday on Facebook. A Federal Forestry Service employee located Ancona's vehicle on a forestry service road on Friday, the Daily Journal Online reports.
“Deputies responded on Friday and located [Ancona's] vehicle and secured it,” said Washington County Sheriff Zach Jacobsen. “We left deputies at the scene and secured it overnight due to the loss of light. On Saturday morning we conducted a search of the area by foot by member of the Potosi Fire Protection District and the sheriff's office. We didn't locate much of anything in the woods, but we did locate evidence of a burn pile near Mr. Ancona's vehicle.”
Ancona's body was discovered Saturday by a family who had gone to Big River for a fishing trip.
According to Leadwood Police Chief William Dickey, Malissa Ancona, Frank Ancona's wife, was the last person to see her husband alive Wednesday. She claimed that Ancona received a call from work informing him that he would have to travel across the state to deliver a part.
The name of Ancona's place of employment has not been reported, but they did tell police that they did not send him anywhere and he didn't come in to work.
Malissa Ancona made a Facebook post the day after her husband went missing in which she inquired about a roommate. She told law enforcement that she made the post because she and Ancona had discussed divorce and he took a bag of clothes with him when he left, so she assumed she would need a roommate.
According to law enforcement officials, a safe in Ancona's home had been forced open with a crowbar and emptied, and all of his firearms were gone. They do not suspect burglary.
Ancona, who is known for claiming that the Ku Klux Klan is a Christian organization, not a racist one—as if the two are always mutually exclusive—waged war on protestors in Ferguson, Mo., after Darren Wilson executed Michael Brown, Jr. on Canfield Drive in 2014.
Ancona called peaceful protestors “terrorists” and began posting recruitment flyers. The virulent racist said that protestors had awakened a “sleeping giant” and the KKK would use lethal force to defend themselves, their families and police officers.
In a November 12, 2014, segment of MSNBC's All In With Chris Hayes , Ancona said that the call for white supremacist violence was supported by many people throughout St. Louis County.
No police officers were killed in Ferguson and no white people were injured. The full violent force of the state was directly solely at black people seeking justice for Mike Brown.
http://www.theroot.com/frank-ancona-kkk-imperial-wizard-found-dead-in-a-miss-1792267188
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Illinois
2 Girls Critically Wounded In Separate Shootings
by Charlie De Mar
Chicago (CBS) — Two girls, ages 11 and 12, are fighting for their lives Sunday after they were shot in separate incidents Saturday night.
CBS 2's Charlie De Mar spoke with the families of both of the girls; neither of which were the intended targets of the shootings.
“Her heart stopped three times this morning,” said Rochetta Taylor, a relative of 12-year-old Kanari Gentry-Bowers.
Kanari was shot in the head while playing with friends in a school parking lot on 57th and Winchester in West Englewood.
“She was just playing basketball outside, and I guess a car came up and got to shooting,” Taylor said.
Kanari's uncle, D'Juan Donald, added, “Kids can't play in a school playground.”
In a separate shooting, that occurred less than 30 min. later, 11-year-old Takiya Holmes was also shot in the head in the Parkway Gardens neighborhood in the 6500 block of South King Drive.
Takiya's grandmother, Patsy Holmes, said her granddaughter was in the back seat of a mini van when bullets came flying through the window. Takiya's mother was in the front seat at the wheel.
“Shots rang out, she told everybody to get down, and once they stopped she asked if everybody was OK and Takiya did not respond,” Holmes said.
Reports reveal that at least 10 kids under the age of 14 have been shot in 2017.
“These babies haven't even lived their life, they are in grammar school,” Taylor said.
No arrests have been made in either case.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2017/02/12/families-of-2-girls-shot-both-in-critical-condition/
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Washington
Commentary
County's law enforcement, community groups need to talk
by Luis Moscoso
Two years ago I worked with various law enforcement officials and prosecutors to present a House Public Safety Committee work session on Fostering Constructive Relationships Between Police and the Community (TVW: tinyurl.com/TVWpolicecomm).
I told my friends in law enforcement that I wanted them to help me design a session from their perspective on this very important issue. I did this because I knew it was too easy to just criticize police behavior given the increasing number of police shootings in national and local news coverage. I wanted law enforcement representatives to have the opportunity to give their point of view on police and community relations.
We can all empathize with the difficulties law enforcement officers face every day on the job. At the same time we're concerned that discussions that police training and behavior across the country have become increasingly polarized. Blue lives, black lives and all lives. How are we to make sense of the fear and apprehension growing between communities of color and police? And what does it look like here in Snohomish County?
Last year four elected officials from Snohomish County served on the The Joint Legislative Task Force On Community Policing Standards For A Safer Washington. 39th District Sen. Kirk Pearson, R-Monroe, 10th District Rep. David Hayes, R-Camano Island, Snohomish County Councilwoman Stephanie Wright and Snohomish County Prosecutor Mark Roe worked on a report which has recommended that the Legislature change the state law that now protects law enforcement from prosecution after officers kill people in the line of duty. There is no tally for individual votes on the final report. But organizations that Rep. Hayes and Prosecutor Roe belong to did not support the recommendations in full. Now it's up to us, the community, to contact our legislative delegations and ask them what they think and how we'd like them to vote on the legislation. Communities of color especially need to know how our sheriff and local police departments feel about the proposed law.
A community conversation with law enforcement about how to handle police shootings related to the legislation is more critical now than ever.
Police and community relations will remain tense if we don't start talking to each other now. For example, last month the Snohomish County Deputy Sheriffs Association made an unfounded accusation against Superior Court Judge Eric Lucas, who is black. The deputy sheriffs association over-reacted to a social media rumor that Judge Lucas allegedly said that police “execute black people.” The deputies should have contacted the judge in person to discover the truth of the matter rather than issuing a press release attacking the judge.
I know from my personal experience on the Mountlake Terrace Community Policing Board in the 1990s and six years on the House Public Safety Committee that deputy sheriffs and other law enforcement agencies are concerned about what people of color think of them.
After meeting with county officials last week I am confident that we can all work together to initiate community-wide conversations to discuss these issues and clear up any misperceptions we all may have. I am glad that the county is interested in promoting community discussions that will allow law enforcement officials and community leaders to better understand how we can work together to improve relations among the community and police.
http://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/commentary-countys-law-enforcement-community-groups-need-to-talk/
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Massachusetts
Dennis Police offering 15th Citizens Police Academy
Limited to 30 participants
by Cape Cod Today Staff
Chief Peter DiMatteo has announced that the Dennis Police Department will offer its 15 th Citizens Police Academy this spring. The CPA will be held on consecutive Wednesdays beginning March 8 th and continuing through May 10 th . Classes will be held at the Dennis Police Station at 90 Bob Crowell Road in South Dennis from 6:30pm to 10:00pm.
The citizens academy in Dennis has long been a great tool for both the police and the community, bringing everyone together to provide a better understanding of the police function. By establishing relationships and connections with the community, an efficient working partnership is developed and helps contribute to the overall safety and high quality of life in the Town of Dennis.
The officers of the Community Services Unit oversee the administration of the academy and are constantly enhancing and improving the curriculum. This year's topics of instruction will include: Community Policing; Patrol Functions; Investigative Functions; Law; Use of Force and Defensive Tactics; Communications; Specialized Units; and other topics related to policing. Classes are taught by officers that specialize in the particular field of instruction.
Due to the large pool of applicants the department will give preference to Dennis residents and those who work in the town. Applicants must be 18 years of age and will be subject to a criminal background check. The number of participants will be capped at 30.
Applications can be obtained at the Dennis Police Station, via the department website www.dennispolice.com, or by contacting the Community Policing Unit at 774-352-1528. The deadline for the submittal of an application is March 1, 2017.
http://www.capecodtoday.com/article/2017/02/13/230628-Dennis-Police-offering-15th-Citizens-Police-Academy
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Texas
Austin police car set on fire during immigration protest
One person has been arrested in Austin for throwing lit fireworks into a city police car, setting it on fire, during a protest
by The Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas — One person has been arrested in Austin for throwing lit fireworks into a city police car, setting it on fire, during a protest at an intersection where immigrants illegally in the country have been arrested in recent days.
Authorities say the man who tossed the fireworks into the patrol car got into another vehicle that drove off, was followed by officers and was apprehended when he tried fleeing on foot during a traffic stop early Sunday.
He's held initially on a charge of evading arrest.
Police say a second person has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault in a separate similar protest stemming from what Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say is an operation in South and Central Texas to round up people illegally in the country.
https://www.policeone.com/Crowd-Control/articles/290048006-Austin-police-car-set-on-fire-during-immigration-protest/
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What is 'clearly established law' in the context of civil rights lawsuits against police?
The facts of the White v. Pauly case center on a 911 call by two women reporting a potential drunk-driving motorist
by Terrence P. Dwyer
On January 9, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court released a per curiam decision in White v. Pauly, which is not only significant in determining police officer liability, but is also instructive to lower courts on the proper standard for defining what constitutes “clearly established law” in the context of a civil rights lawsuit. The facts of the case center on a 911 call by two women reporting a potential drunk-driving motorist.
The women callers followed the vehicle and were noticed by the vehicle's operator. At some point there was a brief, non-violent roadside encounter after which the motorist, Daniel Pauly, left the area and drove a short distance to his home where he lived with his brother, Samuel Pauly. The women's 911 call was eventually responded to by an officer who arrived at the off-ramp where the non-violent confrontation took place.
The officer was later joined by two other officers. After talking with the women and conferring among themselves, the officers decided that there was not enough probable cause to arrest Daniel. However, two of the officers decided to go to the Pauly home, located less than a half-mile away, to talk with Daniel as part of their continuing investigation. The trial record indicated there were three reasons for the officers' decision to speak with Daniel: one, to get his side of the story; two, to ensure “nothing else happened”; and three, to determine if he was intoxicated. The third officer, Ray White, initially stayed behind with the women in case Daniel returned.
The two officers, Truesdale and Mariscal, arrived at the designated address for Pauly and found two houses on the property. The area was secluded and the first house was unlit, but the second house, located on a hill, had lights on. The officers covertly approached the second house, found Daniel's truck parked there and observed two men moving around inside the house. They radioed White that they located the truck and he left the off-ramp to join them.
At some point the Paulys became aware someone was moving around outside the house and yelled out “Who are you?” and “What do you want?” The officers' response was to laugh and then state: “Hey (expletive), we got you surrounded. Come out or we're coming in.” It was after this statement that Truesdale announced they were police and demanded the occupants to open the door. Mariscal also yelled for them to open the door. The Pauly brothers heard the yelling and the words “we're coming in,” but according to trial testimony, neither heard the officers identify themselves as police. The brothers armed themselves with guns and yelled back to the officers that they were armed.
Meanwhile, White arrived on scene. While approaching the house, he heard one of the brothers state, “We have guns.” White then drew his firearm and took cover 50 feet from the front of the house. Daniel stepped part way out of a back door and fired his shotgun twice. His brother Samuel followed a few seconds later by opening the front window and pointing a handgun in White's direction. Mariscal fired and missed, but White shot “four to five seconds later” and killed Samuel.
Excessive use of force
The resulting excessive use of force lawsuit under the federal civil rights statute, 42 USC §1983, centered on the fact that White did not issue a warning prior to firing his weapon. The officer's motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity was denied by the district court. White had argued that his use of force did not violate the Fourth Amendment and there was no clearly established law favoring Pauly's right to be free from deadly physical force. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the district court and held that a jury could have concluded White's use of force was not reasonable. Furthermore, the 10th Circuit held that a reasonable officer in a similar position would believe a warning was required prior to the use of deadly force and this was clearly established law at the time.
The U.S. Supreme Court vacated the circuit court and remanded the case to the district court for further proceedings after deciding the circuit court misunderstood the “clearly established law” analysis. The significance of this case is the U.S. Supreme Court's instruction to lower courts regarding the proper standard for determining if a law is “clearly established.”
Qualified immunity
Since qualified immunity is an important defense that is lost once a case is allowed to go to trial, the U.S. Supreme Court warned against lower courts applying a general level of analysis. For instance, the per curiam opinion noted that both Tennessee v. Garner and Graham v. Connor express only general principles of law which do not “by themselves create clearly established law outside an ‘obvious case'.”
Instead, reviewing courts have to consider the particularized facts of the case. The danger in not doing so is the creation of potentially limitless liability claims. A civil rights plaintiff cannot rely on general statements of the law announced in prior court decisions; rather the complaint must be based on a particular legal rule or principle applied to the situation the officer faced. While this decision does not foreclose civil rights lawsuits against the police, it does more narrowly proscribe certain use of force claims and place a greater pleading burden upon a plaintiff in order to overcome a qualified immunity defense. However, it should be noted that the decision applies only to the qualified immunity defense asserted by White and not to the other two officers.
In the 2009 case of Pearson v. Callahan the U.S. Supreme Court, through Justice Alito, stated: “Qualified immunity balances two important interests—the need to hold public officials accountable when they exercise power irresponsibly and the need to shield officials from harassment, distraction, and liability when they perform their duties reasonably.” Pearson, also coincidentally on appeal from the Tenth Circuit, limited the prior two-step Saucier v. Katz inquiry used by lower courts to determine whether qualified immunity applied. Since the Pearson case the U.S. Supreme Court has issued opinions in at least six cases directly on the issue of qualified immunity (with four of them issued during 2012).
The bottom line in each case was a finding in favor of qualified immunity. The U.S. Supreme Court has been steadily sharpening the focus on what is considered “clearly established law.” Justice White wrote in Malley v. Briggs, 465 U.S. 335, 341 (1986),”[A]s the qualified immunity defense has evolved, it provides ample protection to all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law.” The White v. Pauly decision continues a line of U.S. Supreme Court cases since 2009 instructing lower courts to more carefully consider decisions denying police officer qualified immunity defenses.
About the author
Terrence P. Dwyer retired from the New York State Police after a 22-year career as a Trooper and Investigator. He is now a tenured Professor in the Justice and Law Administration Department at Western Connecticut State University and an attorney in private practice representing law enforcement officers in disciplinary cases, critical incidents, and employment matters. He is the author of Legal Issues in Homeland Security, Looseleaf Law Publications.
https://www.policeone.com/legal/articles/289155006-What-is-clearly-established-law-in-the-context-of-civil-rights-lawsuits-against-police/
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North Korea Fires Ballistic Missile, Challenging Trump
by Choe Sang-Hun
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea launched a ballistic missile toward the sea off its eastern coast on Sunday, in what South Korea called the North's first attempt to test President Trump's policy on the isolated country.
A projectile believed to be a modified version of the North's intermediate-range ballistic missile Musudan took off at 7:55 a.m. from Banghyon, a town near North Korea's northwestern border with China, and flew 310 miles before falling in the sea, the South Korean military said. Earlier, the United States Strategic Command issued a statement identifying the missile as a medium- or intermediate-range system that “did not pose a threat to North America.”
South Korea condemned the missile launching, saying that it violated a series of United Nations Security Council resolutions that bar North Korea from developing or testing ballistic missile and nuclear weapons technologies. It also said the North had launched the missile to raise tensions over its weapons programs and to use it as leverage in dealing with the Trump administration.
“We see this as part of an attempt by the North to grab attention by demonstrating its nuclear and missile capabilities and to counter the new United States administration's strong policy line against North Korea,” the South Korean military said in its statement.
The missile launch came as Mr. Trump is hosting Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, on an official visit, but it was unclear if the test was intended as a political message.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Abe hastily arranged a joint appearance in response. “North Korea's most recent missile launch is absolutely intolerable,” Mr. Abe said, calling on the country to comply with all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Looking grim, Mr. Trump said nothing about the missile launch, but pledged to staunchly back Japan. “I just want everybody to understand and fully know that the United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent,” he said. The two leaders are at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump's club in Palm Beach, Fla., where they are meeting over the weekend.
The United States Strategic Command statement identified the missile North Korea launched as “a medium- or intermediate-range ballistic missile.”
“The missile was tracked over North Korea and into the Sea of Japan,” the statement added. “The North American Aerospace Defense Command determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America.”
South Korea's Foreign Ministry said the test, the first by the North this year, demonstrated the “maniacal obsession” of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, with developing a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile.
The test came less than two days after Mr. Trump said on Friday that defending against the nuclear and missile threats from North Korea was a “very, very high priority.” Mr. Trump made the comment at a news conference with Mr. Abe at the White House. In their joint statement, the two leaders had urged North Korea “to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and not to take any further provocative actions.”
The test of an intercontinental-range system would have been especially provocative because it would mean that North Korea was trying to develop the ability to strike the United States. South Korean officials said they believed that the North has been using the Musudan, its intermediate-range missile, to develop and test some intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, technologies.
North Korea has deployed and often tested short-range Scud and midrange Rodong ballistic missiles that can reach most of South Korea and Japan, but it has had a spotty record in test-launching the Musudan, its only missile with a range long enough to reach American military bases in the Pacific, including those on Guam. North Korea's last Musudan test ended in failure in October.
In a New Year's Day speech, Mr. Kim said his country had reached a “final stage” in preparing to conduct its first test of an ICBM. That drew a Twitter post the next day from Mr. Trump that said, “It won't happen!”
North Korea has since warned that it could test-launch an ICBM “anytime and anywhere,” in its first challenge to the new American president.
The American defense secretary, Jim Mattis, visited South Korea on his first official trip abroad and agreed with South Korea to boost the allies' joint defense abilities against North Korea. The two allies also agreed to push ahead with their plan to deploy an advanced American missile defense system known as Thaad in South Korea by the end of the year, despite a strong protest from China.
Although North Korea has vowed to develop the ability to attack the United States with nuclear warheads and has tested missiles that can reach throughout the Korean Peninsula and its vicinity, it has never tested a long-range missile that could fly across the Pacific.
It remains unclear how close North Korea has come to building a reliable ICBM, although it has boasted of successfully testing crucial technologies in the past year, such as long-range missile engines and heat shields for an ICBM.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/11/world/asia/north-korea-missile-test-trump.html?_r=0
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Washington D.C.
Democrats, advocates question ICE raids after hundreds of arrests
by Tal Kopan
Washington (CNN)Immigrant rights activists and Democrats are raising concerns this weekend about recent immigration enforcement actions -- though immigration officials maintain that only routine actions targeting criminals were underway.
Fear is running high among immigrant communities since President Donald Trump's inauguration -- and after the recent publicized deportation of an undocumented Arizona mother of two after a routine visit with immigration officials, reports have been spreading of Immigration and Customs Enforcement stepping up its actions in the Southwest.
The actions are the first concerted effort by ICE under the Trump administration to arrest targeted undocumented immigrants for deportation proceedings.
It's unclear at this point in the nascent administration whether it was a sign of things to come, or whether the actions were conducted under any different procedures than could have been in place under the Obama administration. It was the uncertainty, the publicity of the raids and the high tensions raised by public comments on immigration by Trump administration officials that had Democrats asking for more information.
California Rep. Lou Correa sent a letter to immigration officials, outlining the unanswered questions related to the latest immigration enforcement actions.
"These activities have caused fear and uncertainty for many of constituents," Correa wrote, and listed 10 questions for ICE, among them "What are the agency's priorities for removal? and "How far in advance were these enforcement activities planned?"
David Marin, Los Angeles field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said planning for the immigration operation carried out this week began during the Obama administration.
"This operation was in the planning stages before the current administration issued its executive order," Marin told reporters Friday. Trump signed an executive order regarding detention of undocumented immigrants on January 25. Marin said generally it takes weeks of planning before an operation is carried out because the agency needs the time to develop case targets and leads.
Officials are trying to stress that these actions are consistent with regular enforcement.
"We do these operations two to three times a year," Marin said. "This is on par with past operations."
Immigration activists are concerned, however, that these raids may have targeted a wider scope of individuals than had been common in the Obama administration.
Separately, a former Obama administration ICE said that administration "targeted felons," and noted that under the Trump administration, the enforcement priorities laid out in his interior executive order were much broader and could include a wider range of targets than the Obama administration's enforcement priorities.
The official also questioned the Trump administration including in its general targets individuals with previous deportation orders. These are undocumented immigrants who went through court proceedings before and had a final order of removal, but had not been deported by the previous administration. The Los Angeles ICE office confirmed among its arrests five had no criminal histories but prior orders of removal.
"We ultimately decided those people were not a priority as there are literally millions of them and most have never committed any crime," the official said referring to violent crimes or felonies.
The official said that one appeal of targeting individuals with removal orders is that they can be deported "quickly," because no further court action would be necessary.
Operation leads to nationwide arrests
ICE in Los Angeles said it had conducted a five-day operation targeting criminals and fugitives, and said that the vast majority of those arrested had criminal histories.
Seeking to push back on reports of indiscriminate raids, ICE released the results of the operation from its Los Angeles office, saying about 160 foreign nationals were arrested during the week. Of those, 150 had criminal histories, and of the remaining arrests, five had final orders of removal or were previously deported. Ninety-five percent were male, they said.
A Homeland Security official told CNN on Saturday that 37 of those detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in California this week as part of the enforcement crackdown have now been deported to Mexico. The official said they had already been deported and had come back to the country illegally or had deportation orders against them. This group did not have to go through the adjudication process because they had already received deportation orders, the official said.
While specific numbers weren't available, ICE said "many" of the arrested individuals had prior felony convictions including violent charges like child sex crimes, weapons or assault charges.
An ICE official confirmed Atlanta had conducted a similar surge this week, and roughly 200 arrests were made in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina in a similar routine enforcement action. Texas Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro said in a statement that he had confirmed with ICE's San Antonio field office that similar actions were conducted across Texas, calling the action "Operation Cross Check." He said he would be following up to make sure the actions were targeting the worst offenders.
Full numbers for the actions across the country will be made available Monday, the agency said.
Across the Midwest, ICE officials made more than 200 arrests in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Kansas and Missouri by day's end Friday, according to a statement released by the ICE Chicago office.
The ICE enforcement operation targeted "criminal aliens, illegal re-entrants, and immigration fugitives," the majority of those arrested "had criminal convictions," officials said. Some arrested during the Midwest sweep "will face criminal prosecutions by the U.S. Attorney's Office for illegal entry and illegal re-entry after deportation."
Democrats, immigrant activists react
Still, as Trump continues to talk about cracking down on illegal immigration, advocates remain concerned that the new administration could be stepping up enforcement against otherwise peaceful undocumented immigrants.
On Thursday, protests sprang up at the deportation of Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, a 35-year-old mother of two, who had checked in with ICE at an office in Phoenix the day before, as she had regularly since a 2008 conviction of using a fake Social Security number.
Friday, Democrats decried the actions nationwide as needlessly causing fear for immigrant communities.
"These reports show the serious consequences of the president's executive order, which allows all undocumented immigrants to be categorized as criminals and requires increased enforcement in communities, rather than prioritizing dangerous criminals," California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said in a statement responding to media reports of the stepped up enforcement, including some accounts that the actions were targeting low-priority undocumented immigrants, including family men and women.
"The President wants to show off and it appears he has unleashed the Department of Homeland Security to kick-out large numbers of immigrants and anyone they encounter, without much oversight, review or due process," said Illinois Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez. "The goal of such policies is to inject fear into immigrant communities, frighten families and children, and drive immigrants farther underground. It damages public safety and the fabric of American communities while putting a burden on local social services and the foster-care system."
Gutierrez's concerns were echoed by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, a Democrat from California.
"I am outraged to hear of the recent ICE arrests in southern California. If the Trump administration is genuinely concerned about threats to American security, it should prioritize violent felons and others who pose real danger," Roybal-Allard said in a statement. "My office has been working to get detailed information from ICE."
And a city councilman from Austin, Texas, said he was concerned that ICE was making a public show of force in his city as retribution for being a sanctuary city.
"ICE actions like these are beyond reprehensible," Greg Casar said in a statement. "They instill fear in the community, and they make everyday people fear for their lives."
Trump's campaign promises on immigration
Trump made cracking down on illegal immigration a central focus of his presidential campaign.
While ICE characterized the actions as routine, fear remains that the Trump administration's recent executive order beefing up interior enforcement of immigration laws could mean a vast expansion of deportations of undocumented immigrants.
While the Obama administration had clear guidance prioritizing deportation of high-level criminals, an executive order signed by Trump in his first week set up enforcement priorities that could include virtually any undocumented immigrant living in the US.
On Saturday, the President defend another part of his campaign promise on immigration, vowing to keep costs down on a border wall that would span the US southern border with Mexico.
"I am reading that the great border WALL will cost more than the government originally thought, but I have not gotten involved in the ... design or negotiations yet. When I do, just like with the F-35 FighterJet or the Air Force One Program, price will come WAY DOWN!" Trump wrote in two consecutive tweets.
A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said overall about the agency's actions that everything is "routine," and are not part of casting a widespread net.
"ICE Fugitive Operations teams are out every day as part of routine, targeted enforcement operations," said acting press secretary Gillian Christensen. "These are existing, established fugitive operations teams. ICE does not conduct sweeps or raids that target aliens indiscriminately. ICE only conducts targeted enforcement of criminal aliens and other individuals who are in violation of our nation's immigration laws."
DHS secretary John Kelly told reporters at San Ysidro Port of Entry between San Diego and Tijuana on Friday that his department isn't "rounding anyone up."
"The people that ICE apprehend are people who are illegal and then some," he said. "ICE is executing the law and I would tell you I've been around a lot of pretty darn good men and women in the armed forces and what I saw today, the professionalism that I personally observed in a very potentially dangerous environment gave me great pride."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/10/politics/democrats-question-ice-enforcement-raids/index.html
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Iowa
University of Iowa wants to expand community policing efforts
by KCRG
IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG-TV9) - The University of Iowa wants to expand its student security officer program. The students help with building checks, monitoring artwork, athletic events and other security-related tasks.
The program is only a few years old, and currently employs about 60 student security officers, but it hopes to grow to nearly 125.
Jonathon Ron a security supervisor says it's part of an effort to improve security on campus, but with a friendlier face.
"On one hand it provides security to the different buildings in the assignment and on the other hand you get students who are part of the culture part of the environment here working together and I think it's a perfect suit for that,” Ron said.
Sarah Ingwerson works at the art museum and keeps a watchful eye over the artwork.
"We do a lot of the jobs of just kind of being the first face that people see and it makes them feel safe makes them know that someone's there who knows what they're doing and being a student we can really integrate the rest of the community,” Ingwerson said.
Ron says the program has seen success in some medical instances.
"We had a lot of medical incidents where students found other students that are in bad shape called police or EMS right away and let them take over and help the students,” Ron said.
Ingwerson says it also improves relations between police officers and students.
“I think especially with some of the climates that we're in now politically or socially I think it's important to involve students in the security and safety on campus because I think we bring a different perspective with some of our ideas but then it also shows kind of the challenges that a lot of the officers and the public safety department,” Ingwerson said.
http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/University-of-Iowa-wants-to-expand-community-policing-efforts-413507683.html
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Florida
Community policing at it's best during the State Fair
HCSO deputy walks his beat with a purpose
by Michael Paluska
TAMPA, Fla. - Cpl. Jason Himmel's co-workers will probably be the first ones to tell you, that he loves his job, and loves to talk. To Himmel, talk is code for community policing.
Working his 19th fair, Himmel, wanders through the crowd with ease. The screams, roar of the rides, and sea of people are his comfort zone.
“Hey ladies, you are on TV,” Himmel tells a group of girls.
“You are on candid camera,” he yells out to a guy walking by.
“Tell him you aren't going to buy him any fried Oreos that way,” Himmel tells a husband and wife searching for the exit.
A giant news camera in his face, Himmel, still at ease.
“You meet everybody. It's a good way for us to interact with them,” Himmel said. So, it's nice. It's different. It's a good change because most interactions you have is a traffic stop and no one likes getting a ticket.”
There are hundreds of law enforcement officers working the fair. Some are in uniform, some undercover.
Himmel said they are trained for numerous scenarios from an active shooter to a terrorist attack. The biggest problem they have, unruly teens. This year there is a zero tolerance policy. If you knock into someone on purpose or start arguing and fighting, you are gone.
So far a handful of kids have been thrown out of the fair. With thousands of people coming out to enjoy the food, rides, and atmosphere, Himmel hopes kids will do the same and not start any trouble.
“If they see a cop they say, hey maybe I shouldn't act up,” Himmel said.
A few seconds later, Himmel was back doing what he loves the most…you guessed it…talking to people.
“Don't take any more garbage from him. Tell him no food, that's good stuff my man,” Himmel said and kept walking.
http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/community-policing-at-its-best-during-the-state-fair
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Kansas
Community policing will make a real difference in Hutchinson
by Jason Probst
Thanks to the leadership in the Hutchinson Police Department, the city will see the return of community policing – and the start of a movement to restore relationships between law enforcement and the public it serves.
The concept of community policing is simple: Make sure the public knows that members of the police department are on the same side, working in concert for the better of the community. While it is a simple concept – and one that is true – it has been muddied in recent years.
Relationships between law enforcement and the public have eroded over the years, in part because of a distrust among people, particularly in impoverished neighborhoods, that the police are more interested in arresting people than in helping them solve critical issues of safety and well-being. And while Hutchinson has not suffered the level of distrust seen in larger cities, there's no reason to wait until it exists to take steps to foster better communication and understanding.
“We need to get back in there to show we do care and that we're here to help,” Hutchinson Police Captain Troy Hoover said. “We may not be the ones, ultimately, to solve the problems, but we can help find who is and get them engaged, to find the right people to go to, to do things the right way.”
Already, the community policing effort has included training on how to identify issues that are social in nature, as well as identification of the local resources that are available to help people find resolution. Additionally, the three-person crew and the department at large has spent time visiting with people in the neighborhoods, at schools and at downtown events like Third Thursday, to show that they are vested members of the community. The community policing officers – Darrell Tossie, Anna Ruzhanovska and Stephen Schaffer -- indicated that they plan to help neighbors get to know one another, educate them on community resources and serve as a trusted contact when there is a problem.
“Eventually I think we will see a reduction in crime and call volume,” Schaffer said. “Most likely because people are going to realize some of these things they can fix themselves.”
The goodness of this effort cannot be overstated – for a variety of reasons. It is one that should have support from the community, the city of Hutchinson – and one that should be allowed time to develop into a successful program.
The animosity that exists between police and the public in this country serves no one; it creates a cycle of distrust that only grows worse over time. At some point there must be a goal to find a solution rather than allow the perpetual escalation of distrust, and ultimately violence, that we've been trapped in. For many, the police have been viewed as apart from the community, instead of as an integral part of the community. In truth, however, the officers have as much, if not more, reason to want to create an environment in which the community and the police work in tandem. And for whatever institutional problems might exist in some police departments, by and large, the men and women who sign up to work as officers are good and dedicated people who see their service as a way to contribute to and improve the community in which they live.
Hutchinson should welcome this endeavor with enthusiastic support. It's a real effort by leadership to make lasting changes, changes that will result in time with greatly improved cooperation between the public and police. That it's been included as part of the department's operating budget demonstrates a long-term commitment, and a belief in the program's ability to succeed.
http://www.hutchnews.com/opinion/editorials/community-policing-will-make-a-real-difference-in-hutchinson/article_372a0018-3f36-5a8d-b392-86b3b3697ba4.html
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Ohio
University police departments say community tactics are working
by Casey Smith
Jack Walker, a junior at Ball State University, wasn't a fan of the police before going to college, and after he got his first drinking ticket his freshman year, he couldn't imagine ever having a “pleasant thing” to say to an officer in the future.
“I thought the police were just out to get college kids for anything and everything they did wrong and that was their whole job,” Walker said. “It was always my impression that the police were to be avoided at all costs, and a run-in with a cop could never be a good thing.”
Walker said he tried staying cynical towards law enforcement, but after frequent encounters with university police officers at his residence hall, he said he had a “serious change of heart.”
“I would come back late from work a lot during the week, and most nights there was a UPD officer just hanging out by the desk,” Walker said. “For a long time I would just kind of nod my head, but after a few weeks, we would start recognizing each other and then we would start cracking jokes and then eventually we actually started talking like friends.”
“Community policing” has been a buzzword for law enforcement officials across the country, and university police forces are among those embracing the approach.
What is community policing? The Bureau of Justice and Statistics defines it as a philosophy that encourages all members of police departments to partner with community members to work together and develop problem-solving techniques. The relationships can help make communities safer, and, according to the bureau, the policing practice is slowly becoming more prevalent on college campuses.
“Community policing isn't a program — it's a philosophy and mindset for how we approach police work,” Ball State University police chief James Duckham told USA TODAY College. “It's how you're going to engage with the community, how you're going to problem solve with the community and try to become a part of it instead of being seen as a separate entity.”
At universities, where the population of students stays the same age from year to year, it's important that officers are able to understand the unique needs of the community and find unique ways to shape community policing practices to their advantage, according to Duckham.
At Ball State, officers are required to participate in daily routines that aren't like that of others, Duckham said. Daily shifts are likely to include multiple non-call-related interactions including eating lunch with students, participating in or attending panel discussions and walking through campus on foot.
“It used to be that when you saw a cop in a residence hall or outside of a building, it was a bad thing,” Duckham said. “But I expect (officers) to go and talk to the students who live or work there and get to know them better. I expect them to be a positive presence in the community whenever they can and just be humans and talk to people.”
Duckham said the routine presence has allowed members of the campus community to feel more comfortable approaching officers — and in some instances has even helped students come forward to officers with questions or information about crimes.
Recently, the community-focused policing approach has cut down on crime, and Duckham said some off-campus break-ins and burglaries, especially, decreased by more than 50%.
“When officers start taking ownership of their daily interactions, students and the community and whoever they engage with, they see that and they remember that,” Duckham said. “This student knows you, that student knows you – I think it's still a nontraditional approach for officers in many ways, but that's exactly what we're trying to do. That's why community policing is so important.”
Adi Miller, a 2015 Ball State graduate, said that even after moving on from the university, her relationships with officers on the campus still resonate with her.
“I'll always remember the high-fives and jokes, but the conversations and advice — I'll keep those with me for the rest of my life,” Miller said.
Now a graduate student at Ohio State, Miller said she's striving to have the same relationships with officers on her new campus.
“It's easier for me now to know how to reach out to university police and make those relationships happen,” Miller said. “I see officers every day, but now I realize part of the responsibility is on me to make community policing as effective as it is.”
At Binghamton University, police chief Timothy Faughnan said he even assigns his officers to weekly shifts on a “community response team.” These shifts, he said, allow officers to make their way around campus and interact with students casually.
“Allowing officers go out and community police, even while there are other officers still on patrol, shows students we care,” Faughnan said. “It helps the student community get more informed about what our officers do, but it also makes our officers more informed about who we serve.”
Community policing has also helped keep crime down, Faughnan said. And although officers are still required to do “police things” on a daily basis, better knowledge and relationships with the community have helped to make those interactions easier, too.
“We feel that as students go out into the world, they will see our model of policing as a high standard that works, and that they can use that model as an example of appropriate policing as they become involved in their own communities,” Faughnan said. “I have always felt that there is only so much the police can do that can overcome what the community won't do. It's a true team effort.”
Pastor Charles Harrison, president of the Indianapolis Ten Point Coalition, said citizen partnerships with local police departments has been crucial to improving citizen-police relationships, and in his community, has helped make everyone safer.
“With the community policing model, it shows that there are different things that without the community, the police can't do on their own,” Harrison said. “The community and the police both have rolls to play, and they have to work together.”
Harrison said the Ten Point program is keeping young adults out of jail and helping members of his community stay informed about to keep themselves and others from getting involved in criminal or high-risk activities. In 2016, the program even helped three Indianapolis neighborhoods go an entire year without homicides — something Harrison is a big step forward.
“There's nothing more important than relationships and understanding how we all contribute to our own safety as a community,” Harrison said. “Working as an ally (with police) empowers the neighborhood and gets them involved, it gets them to care.”
Harrison said the key is exposing students to the relationships they should hope to have with members of law enforcement to help make their communities safer and more welcoming the future.
“It's a very good model that everyone needs to look at,” he said. “Getting people fired up about this is going to lead to an even bigger impact than what we're already seeing. The police are going to do their jobs regardless, but if we work with them and they work with us, we're making our neighborhoods safer, and we're helping build some really important relationships that all communities need to have.”
http://college.usatoday.com/2017/02/10/community-policing-tactics-are-growing-on-college-campuses/
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Mississippi
Community engagement remains a work in progress
by Caleb Bedillion
TUPELO – Recommendations made last fall to remedy racial rifts mostly remain under discussion or in the early implementation phases by Mayor Jason Shelton's administration.
These recommendations were all compiled by temporary study committees appointed by Tupelo's elected leadership and dealt with community policing, community outreach by City Hall and the creation of a more diverse city workforce.
A few measures are more or less in place. Shelton created the position of community outreach liaison and filled it by hiring Marcus Gary.
The mayor's administration also revised the job duties of the neighborhood coordinator aimed at ensuring a broader vision of city-wide cohesiveness.
Compiling a directory of faith-based organizations and social services remains ongoing
For now, efforts to bring more minorities onto Tupelo's payroll, particularly at the police department, will focus on a recruitment partnership with the historically-black Rust College, in Holly Springs.
However, a recommendation to bring outside observers onto hiring and promotion panels in order to ensure impartiality was dismissed by the administration.
Efforts to strengthen community policing mostly await full implementation.
Last summer, after protesters made allegations of prejudice and excessive force against the Tupelo Police Department, civil rights advocates demanded a stronger commitment to the philosophy of community–oriented policing.
Tupelo's leadership, including Shelton and Police Chief Bart Aguirre, have insisted that a commitment to community policing has existed for years.
However, the study committee devoted to the topic suggested ways to expand current efforts.
Those suggested included neighborhood foot patrols as well as the resurrection of defunct programs like bike patrols and “coffee with a cop.”
Tupelo Chief Operations Officer Don Lewis said bike patrols are back by request for special events. Implementation of foot patrols remains under discussion, as does the coffee with a cop program, which was designed to foster one-on-one conversations between community members and police officers.
One new initiative is on the calendar. A March 6 public forum is scheduled to promote dialogue around Tupelo's police department.
“What we are going to be doing is implementing an ‘All-America Conversation' on various topics,” said Lewis. “This one is going to be a welcome to the TPD. And we are going to have an All-America Conversation about the police department.”
Lewis added that the city is seeking to raise awareness around police department initiatives and events through the city's neighborhood coordinator and outreach liaison.
“They are out in the neighborhoods, spreading the word about what's going on,” said Lewis. “They are carrying the mayor's message.”
Shelton is also emphasizing the need to ensure that new hires in the police department understand the importance of the community policing mindset.
“I met with three new officers and went over how proud we are of them,” said Shelton. “I went through some of the recent history of what we've gone through as a city and pledged to them that the city is always going to have their back, they are always going to have the city's support. But as law enforcement officers they are representatives of the city. We expect the officers to be professional and conduct themselves in a manner befitting the city of Tupelo.”
http://djournal.com/news/community-engagement-remains-work-progress/
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Homeland Security head is pressed to define 'sanctuary city'
The blunt-spoken, retired four-star general went on to say it was inconceivable why any jurisdiction wouldn't want criminals removed from their communities
by Elliot Spagat
SAN DIEGO — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told law enforcement officials on a tour of nation's border with Mexico Friday that he couldn't define a sanctuary city, which President Donald Trump has targeted for withdrawal of federal funding for refusing to cooperate with immigration authorities.
Trump's executive order on immigration last month says a "sanctuary jurisdiction" defies federal law by shielding people in the country illegally and that they have caused "immeasurable harm to the American people and to the very fabric of our Republic." While sanctuary cities are broadly understood to mean a refusal to cooperate with the federal government on immigration enforcement, a precise definition has eluded many, including in law enforcement.
"I don't have a clue," Kelly told San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman when she asked for a definition.
The blunt-spoken, retired four-star general went on to say it was inconceivable why any jurisdiction wouldn't want criminals removed from their communities. "I'm stunned when people say, 'Well, we're not going to cooperate with you even in the event of convicted criminals," he said.
Kelly said it would be difficult to justify immigration enforcement grants to cities that refuse to cooperate.
"I promise you we'll work with you and will make no Draconian moves until I fully understand what a given locale might be doing or not doing," he told Zimmerman and other local police chiefs and sheriffs.
Kelly spoke near the end of a two-day tour of the border in Arizona and California. In San Diego, he joined agents on two house visits to deport people in the country illegally and toured a cross-border drug tunnel. Last week he toured the border in south Texas.
The secretary said he got "an earful" of suggestions from his employees on where to extend a border wall with Mexico, which currently covers about 700 miles of the 2,000-mile international divide.
"I'll take that on board, we'll bring it back to Washington, put in the blender and come up with a solution," he told federal, state and local law enforcement officials at San Diego's San Ysidro port of entry, the nation's busiest border crossing.
On Tuesday, Kelly told lawmakers that he would like to see wall construction "well underway" within two years, but he held open the possibility that it wouldn't extend to areas where there are natural physical barriers.
San Diego, which has one of the most fortified stretches of border, is often cited as an example of how walls can slow illegal crossings, but critics say fencing only forced people to more remote areas, particularly in Arizona, where many have died in extreme heat.
Kelly later told reporters that he worried about a federal appeals court's refusal to reinstate Trump's ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries. He said vetting practices in those countries "are loose at best" and that the countries include failing or faltering states.
"I am concerned in that we are unable to vet these folks who are coming here in a more meaningful way," he said.
Asked about reports from advocacy groups that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents did a large roundup of people in the country illegally in Southern California and made arrests elsewhere, Kelly said authorities are executing the law. He didn't specifically address the reports but rejected the term 'roundup' and said officials cannot ignore federal laws. He said Congress should change the law if it sees fit.
At the meeting with law enforcement officials, San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore sought help for legal authority to hold criminals in the country illegally after they finish their sentences, giving ICE authorities more time to pick them up at county jails. Kelly said he didn't know if that was possible but would do so if he could.
https://www.policeone.com/border-patrol/articles/289762006-Homeland-Security-head-is-pressed-to-define-sanctuary-city/
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Florida
Fla. police testing gun-mounted cameras
The St. Petersburg Police Department is testing gun mounted cameras and bodycams and weighing the pros and cons
by Andrea Fox
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The St. Petersburg Police Department is testing a gun mounted camera, along with body cameras, for possible officer deployment.
Last year, there were 205 incidents in which St. Petersburg officers drew their weapons, according to the local Fox affiliate. The city and the department is considering cameras in order to build trust, said Chief Anthony Holloway.
Made by Centinel Solutions, the gun-mounted camera sits under under the barrel of the gun. Encrypted video can be stored on local servers or in Amazon's AWS Government Cloud infrastructure.
The camera automatically records as the weapon is drawn, which also alerts police department computers via mobile application.
Holloway said he appreciates the alert feature because back up can be sent right away to the precise location, according to CNBC. Officers appreciate not having to worry about positioning their bodies when officers are looking through their gun sights, he added.
Weighing Video Data Storage Costs & Privacy
Civic leadership and police agencies weigh the costs and privacy of managing law enforcement data before purchasing any cameras.
Only producing video footage when a gun is drawn means that gun mounted cameras would require less video footage the police department and the city of St. Petersburg would have to manage, store and pay for.
Holloway said he does have privacy concerns about the bodycam option. He is part of a panel convened by the American Bar Association to discuss public policy implications.
But when a gun is drawn, “that's what you want to see ‘what did I do when I was using deadly force?,'” said Holloway.
Resolving Use of Gun-Mounted Flashlights
One sticking point for St. Petersburg is that the gun-mounted camera uses the same mount as gun mounted flashlights.
The Police Benevolent Association (PBA), which is the bargaining body for St. Pete's police officers, would not be willing to replace the police department's gun-mounted flashlights with the gun-mounted cameras.
In 2011, a St. Pete officer lost his life when he was shot while juggling a flashlight in one hand and his weapon in the other. After that, the department deployed new sidearms with flashlight mounts.
“Now that we've got the increased technology and the better equipment, we're not willing to give that up, just so somebody else can sit back and watch on Youtube what's going on,” said George Lofton, the PBA president.
But if the flashlight issue can be resolved, the PGA supports gun mounted cameras for the pros — reduced video storage and the “appropriateness” of police officers recording when guns are drawn.
Next Steps and Dash Cams
So far, St. Petersburg police officers have only tested the gun mounted cameras at the range.
The next step is street testing, which would be followed by budget and process implementation discussions.
Currently St. Petersburg street crimes and driving under the influence units have dashboard mounted cameras, but will soon deploy dash cams in all of patrol vehicles.
https://www.policeone.com/police-products/firearms/accessories/articles/289488006-Fla-police-testing-gun-mounted-cameras/
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France
Foiled France terror plot appears ISIS-inspired, source says
by Paul Cruickshank, Rebecca Coleman and Eric Levenson, CNN
Suspects arrested Friday in a foiled terror plot in France had just started making the same powerful explosive used in the ISIS-directed Paris and Brussels attacks, and they appear to have been inspired by the terror group, a source close to the investigation told CNN.
French police "thwarted an imminent attack on French soil" when they arrested four people, including a 16-year-old girl and three men, in cities across France, the interior minister Bruno Le Roux said in a statement. The girl had pledged allegiance to ISIS in a cell phone video, the source said.
All four suspects are French nationals, a source familiar with the investigation said.
A partially assembled improvised explosive device was also found as part of the investigation, according to Le Roux's statement.
When they were arrested, the plotters had just begun making TATP, the same explosive used in Paris and Brussels, the source tells CNN. TATP, or triacetone triperoxide, is a chemical powder made from common household objects that can explode when subject to heat or friction.
The arrests in Montpellier, Clapiers and Marseillan follow a two-week investigation led by the anti-terrorist division of the Paris Public Prosecutor in collaboration with the judicial police of Montpellier and the national police force, the statement said.
Le Roux praised the work of investigators that led to the arrests, "among them three directly suspected of preparing a violent attack against our territory."
French anti-terrorist police on Friday raided this apartment, where suspects believed to be involved in plotting an attack were arrested, in Clapiers, near Montpellier, southern France.
The announcement came a week after a soldier shot a man wielding a machete near the Louvre museum in Paris . French authorities opened a terror investigation after police said the man, a 29-year-old Egyptian and a resident of the United Arab Emirates, wielded the knife and shouted "Allahu akbar," an Arabic phrase that translates to "God is greatest." One soldier was injured.
France has been under a state of emergency since the Paris terror attacks in November 2015 , in which 130 people were killed and hundreds injured in massacres at a theater, a stadium and cafes. That January, 17 people were killed in attacks in Paris on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and at a kosher grocery store, and in the Paris suburb of Montrouge.
Last July, a radicalized Tunisian plowed a 20-ton truck into crowds on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice during a Bastille Day celebration, killing 86 people and injuring 200 others.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/10/europe/france-terror-arrest/index.html
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California
Want to Learn How Police Work? Hermosa Beach Community Police Academy's Looking for Participants
Designed to increase the understanding of the Police Department's operations, the Academy is conducted over an eight week period.
by Alexander Nguyen
HERMOSA BEACH, CA -- The Hermosa Beach Police Department is currently seeking participants and is now accepting applications for the upcoming Community Police Academy.
The next session starts Thursday, March 23, 2017. Students meet every Thursday night thereafter for a total of eight weeks.
Classes begin at 6 p.m. and end at 9 p.m. and meet at the Hermosa Beach City Council Chambers.
Designed to increase the understanding of the Police Department's operations, the Academy is conducted over an eight week period and is open to people who live and/or work in the City.
Participants will learn from department personnel who are experts in the areas of Patrol, Detectives, Motors, Narcotics, Firearms and K-9. All participants will take part in practical demonstrations (live scenarios) and an optional ride-along sometime after the Academy.
Participants will gain an overall knowledge of the Hermosa Beach Police Department, how we are organized and how we serve the community. Even though the subject matter is similar to a traditional police academy, the CPA is not designed to prepare students to be police officers.
There is no physical exercise/exams in this academy and we encourage all people 21 years of age and older to apply. A typical class will consist of 12-16 people of varying backgrounds. All graduates are eligible (although not required) to apply to our Volunteers in Policing Program within the Police Department.
Participants will meet the Chief of Police, managers, supervisors, patrol officers, detectives, records staff, and other department employees. We encourage questions and want everyone to express their concerns about pertinent issues.
A major goal of the CPA is to increase understanding between our community and the Police Department, and to enhance the strong relationship which already exists.
CPA participants will enjoy a variety of experiences, including the following: Police facility tour, make simulated car stops, fingerprinting/processing a crime scene, K-9 demonstration, shoot or don't shoot scenarios, jail booking and more. Participants may opt out of any portion of the scenarios and do not have to participate in the “hands-on” exercises if desired.
PARTICIPANT REQUIREMENTS
Potential candidates for the CPA must meet the following criteria:
Minimum age of 21 years
Live or work in Hermosa Beach
No prior felony arrests
No misdemeanor arrests within one year of application
Valid CA Driver's License
Must be willing to sign City of Hermosa Beach Liability Release Waiver
SELECTION PROCEDURE
Approximately one week after the application is submitted, participants will be notified via e-mail and/or phone of acceptance or denial.
For a CPA application, please contact:
Sergeant Mick Gaglia
Hermosa Beach Police Department
540 Pier Ave
Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
(310) 750-3580
mgaglia@hermosapolice.org
http://patch.com/california/hermosabeach/want-learn-how-police-work-hermosa-beach-community-police-academys-looking
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New York
Opinion
When policing stats do more harm than good: Column
by Joseph L. Giacalone and Alex S. Vitale
Pressure to raise numbers unjustly pushes police into minority neighborhoods — and into bloating crime statistics
On Jan. 23, New York City announced a $75 million payout to settle a class-action lawsuit against the New York Police Department. The complainants successfully argued that the NYPD issued more than 900,000 unlawful criminal summonses. Lawsuits like these are preventable, but only if we bring about substantial changes in the organizational culture of police, most important their overreliance on a numbers- and data-driven statistics (or CompStat) system.
CompStat was created in the mid-1990s by then-NYPD Commissioner William Bratton and his Deputy Commissioner Jack Maples, as a way to reorient police toward reducing crime through enhanced information sharing and accountability. It's now used by departments across the country. The CompStat (which originally stood for comparative statistics) system is multilayered. It is first a computer database of crime statistics (murders, robberies, rapes, larcenies, car thefts) and police activity (stops, tickets, summonses, arrests) for a given district or precinct. District data are analyzed during regional meetings, also called CompStat.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/policing/spotlight/2017/02/09/compstat-computer-police-policing-the-usa-community/97568874/
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Maryland
Bodycam shows man pointing gun at Baltimore officer before fatal shooting
Curtis Deal was fatally shot by police after allegedly jumping out of a vehicle being tailed by officers, fleeing and aiming his gun at the pursuing detective
by Kevin Rector
BALTIMORE — For the third time in a month, 18-year-old Curtis Deal had been arrested on gun or drug charges. Judge Nicole Taylor wanted to be sure the young man understood what was expected if she released him to wait for trial.
"You're not going out at night, you're not going to get food, you're not going to meet your girlfriend. You're in your house," Taylor told him at Monday's bail review hearing, raising her voice.
"I'm giving you an opportunity to go to school and not be in jail pending this trial. The curfew is 1 p.m., 7 days a week."
Deal said he understood. Taylor wished him luck.
The next day about 3 p.m., Deal was fatally shot by a Baltimore police detective after allegedly jumping out of a vehicle being tailed by officers and fleeing through the same neighborhood where he'd been arrested the week before. Police said the detective chasing Deal shot him because he feared for his own life. The officer's body camera captured Deal pointing his gun at the detective just before the shooting.
Almost immediately, the circumstances of Deal's release became a flash point in the growing debate in Baltimore over perceived leniency for repeat gun offenders.
"It shows dysfunction, I believe, in our criminal justice system," said Mayor Catherine Pugh. "People who have those many gun charges probably should not be on our streets."
Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said authorities need to "make sure people carrying guns in the community are held accountable." He said that Deal's death was "tragic" but that the detective was "put in a situation maybe he shouldn't have been in."
An aunt said Thursday that the family was not prepared to make a statement. Deal's attorney, Jerome Bivens, also declined to comment Thursday.
Smith, Pugh and Rosenstein all emphasized the context for their comments: a city reeling from gun violence, with more than a killing a day so far in 2017.
Police released body camera footage of the shooting Thursday, identifying Detective David Kincaid Jr. as the officer who fired and struck Deal four times in the abdomen, hip and finger. Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said that the shooting was justified and that he was proud of Kincaid for his brave work.
"I expect police officers to chase people who bail out of cars with guns," Davis said.
Davis also criticized Judge Taylor's decision not to keep Deal in custody Monday, saying his department "could very well be planning a police funeral right now."
Taylor declined to comment through a court spokesman. A recording of Deal's 20-minute bail review hearing the day before his death. along with court records from his prior arrests, provides insight into the judge's decision.
Deal, who turned 18 in November, was first arrested as an adult in the city just a month ago. On Jan. 4, he was charged with four handgun counts. According to court records, plainclothes officers were in an unmarked vehicle in the 1100 block of S. Carey St. that day when they observed Deal, whom they recognized, standing on a corner. Upon seeing the officers, Deal looked startled, "put his hands up in the air and shouted 'I'm leaving,'" police wrote.
As he did, an officer saw a bulge in his waistline, which the officer believed to be a gun, the records say. One of the officers got out of the vehicle and Deal ran, thus beginning an extended foot chase.
Eventually Deal was caught. The officer chasing him said he'd heard Deal throw the gun in an alley, and it was recovered, the records say. At the time, Deal was already prohibited from possessing a firearm after a previous juvenile arrest.
Deal was taken to the hospital because "he was complaining that he couldn't breathe," and later was charged. He posted $100,000 bail the next day and was released.
On Jan. 30, Deal was arrested a second time -- again by plainclothes officers, again after an extended pursuit. According to court records, he'd been spotted approaching a vehicle, seeing officers, then taking off with a clenched fist, court records say.
Deal allegedly tossed a bag of suspected heroin under a car before he was caught, court records say. He was released on his own recognizance the next day.
At Deal's bail review hearing Monday, Taylor began considering his third arrest, from last week, in which he was charged with nine new gun and drug counts.
Police alleged that Deal had been involved in a large-scale drug operation in several vacant homes in the 1900 block of Frederick Ave., according to court records. Raiding the homes, officers netted a gun, ammunition, hundreds of gel caps of suspected heroin, and thousands of dollars in cash, records show. Deal had run from the location with a co-defendant in the case and both had been arrested, police said. Officers had pinned the entire haul on the pair.
In court, Taylor pressed prosecutors about the charges against Deal. She acknowledged that drug transactions were occurring at the home and that Deal and his co-defendant were in the area and had wanted to escape when police rushed in. But she noted a difference between Deal and the co-defendant.
"They want to get out of that yard, and in the yard there's a lot of money, and on his co-defendant there's a lot of money and there's lots of gel caps. But on Mr. Deal there's no money, no drugs, no gun?" Taylor asked.
"He's an active participant in a large-scale sale of drugs," said Assistant State's Attorney David Chiu, arguing for the state. "This isn't someone who just happened to be there."
Chiu pointed out that Deal was already out on $100,000 bail from his previous gun case at the time of this arrest.
"Given the connection of violence and drugs and guns and the enormous amount of drugs that were being sold here, while he's out on bail for guns, the state thinks he poses a continuing and extreme risk to public safety," Chiu said.
Taylor asked Bivens, Deal's attorney, what he thought.
"Judge, this was a lot of confusion, a whole lot of people, and this is the standard scenario: We see two black guys running, we're going to lock them up," Bivens said.
Bivens said Deal was in his last year at Digital Harbor High School. His family attended church, he played basketball. "He tells me that his intention is to go into the Army and to study engineering," Bivens said.
Taylor said she understood all the facts in the case weren't clear, but noted Deal's pending gun and drug charges.
"And now here he is running allegedly from an area where there's lots of guns and drugs," Taylor said.
She then released Deal on a $250,000 unsecured bond -- meaning he put no money down -- under the conditions that he follow his curfew and provide proof of his attending school to the court.
"Best of luck to you, Mr. Deal," Taylor said as the hearing concluded.
https://www.policeone.com/police-products/body-cameras/articles/289379006-Bodycam-shows-man-pointing-gun-at-Baltimore-officer-before-fatal-shooting/
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New orders by Trump make law and order a key priority
The directives suggest that the White House wants to prioritize law and order and align itself closely with local LE
by Eric Tucker
WASHINGTON — With Jeff Sessions sworn in as the nation's attorney general, the Trump administration signaled some of its priorities for a revamped Justice Department in a series of executive orders aimed at reducing crime and drug trafficking and protecting police officers.
One executive order announced Thursday directs the Justice Department to define new federal crimes, and increase penalties for existing ones, to further protect local and federal officers from acts of violence.
Another order calls for the creation of a task force to reduce violent crime — even though the murder rate has declined sharply in recent decades — and a third is aimed at dismantling international drug cartels.
Taken together, the directives, announced amid a national dialogue about racial bias in policing and appropriate police use of force, suggest that the White House wants to prioritize law and order and align itself closely with local law enforcement.
"We must better protect those who protect us. Our men and women in blue need to know that we're with them 100 percent as they patrol our streets. Unfortunately, this has not always been the case," White House spokesman Sean Spicer said at a press briefing.
That was perhaps a reference to criticism directed at one of Sessions' predecessors, former Attorney General Eric Holder, by some local law enforcement officials who saw him as insensitive to the challenges of their jobs and as overly sympathetic to the concerns of black protesters. Holder denied those accusations, repeatedly noting his support for the police and that his brother was a retired officer.
On Thursday, in response to the executive order, Holder posted on Twitter a Justice Department press release from 2011 announcing an initiative aimed at preventing police officer deaths. "It worked and continues to protect," Holder wrote.
Sessions, who represented Alabama in the Senate for the last 20 years, was sworn in Thursday after being confirmed the night before. The executive orders are in keeping with his commitment to represent law-and-order interests. He said at his confirmation hearing last month that he was concerned that a recent uptick in homicides in American cities could become a trend.
"Protecting the people of this country from crime, and especially from violent crime, is the high calling of the men and women of the Department of Justice. Today, I am afraid, that has become more important than ever," Sessions said in his prepared remarks.
In a video statement Thursday to Justice Department employees, Sessions said the department plays a critical role in "maintaining and strengthening the rule of law which forms the foundation for our liberty, our safety, and our prosperity."
Aside from the executive orders, Sessions, a conservative Republican known in the Senate for his hard-line views on immigration, is likely to pursue a different agenda than his Democratic predecessors in areas of civil rights and the criminal justice system.
In an interview Thursday, Pat O'Carroll, executive director of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, said the executive order sent an important message of support at a time of increased attacks and ambushes against police officers.
But others said the executive orders purported to address problems that don't exist.
Under existing law, federal prosecutors already have the ability to pursue the death penalty in some cases involving the murders of law enforcement officers. And murder rates, despite an increase in some American cities, are well below where they were overall in the 1970s and 1980s.
"President Trump intends to build task forces to investigate and stop national trends that don't exist," Jeffrey Robinson, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.
"We have seen historic lows in the country's crime rate and a downward trend in killings against police officers since the 1980s," Robinson said. "The president not only doesn't acknowledge these facts about our nation's safety, he persists in ignoring the all-too-real deaths of black and brown people at the hands of law enforcement."
https://www.policeone.com/Officer-Safety/articles/289387006-New-orders-by-Trump-make-law-and-order-a-key-priority/
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Read what the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks wrote to President Obama in 2015
by Thomas Gibbons-Neff
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, wrote a letter to President Obama in 2015 that accused the United States of bringing the attacks upon itself, calling them a “natural reaction” to “destructive policies.”
Even though the 18-page letter was penned in 2015, it was only recently sent to the White House during the final days of Obama's presidency after its delivery was ordered by a military judge at Guantanamo Bay, according to a report in the Miami Herald, which published the letter Wednesday.
Mohammed, who is in the midst of a series of pretrial hearings, is one of the handful of remaining detainees at the U.S. military's prison in Cuba. He starts the letter by calling Obama an “evildoer” and says it is beneath him to address the letter directly to the 44th president.
Some of the highlights from the letter are below.
On U.S. foreign policy:
“You have escaped from being prosecuted for your own brutal and savage massacres against the American Indian and your crimes in Vietnam, Korea, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden and Latin America; and for your support for the Chinese dictator, Chiang Kai-shek, and Mexico's dictator, Santa Ana. But Allah helped us to defend ourselves and attack your most significant military and commercial targets in your land for your crimes in our lands. You can keep your military bases in Japan, Germany, Italy and elsewhere, but Muslim land will never accept infidels' army bases in their land.”
On Palestine:
“You have been killing Muslims in Palestine for 60 years: expelling more than 4 million Palestinians; destroying their homes, schools, mosques and markets by supporting Israel militarily, economically and politically; and by protecting all of their crimes through the U.N. Security Council. In return for those 60 years, Allah aided us in conducting 9/11, destroying the capitalist economy, catching you with your pants down, and exposing all the hypocrisy of your long-held claim to democracy and freedom.”
On the media and Abraham Lincoln:
“You and your mass media are experts in distorting the facts and coloring things to deceive your nation and hide your crimes. As President Abraham Lincoln said, ‘You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.' It was not we who started the war against you in 9/11; it was you and your dictators in our land.”
On the war in Iraq:
“You turned Iraq into a blood-soaked canvas. Did your predecessor find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? No, but they found an excellent site for the largest American embassy in the world, built to serve the employees of the oil companies that profit from the oil-rich resources of the Iraqi people, profits that flow to the lobbyists and pressure groups who hold the keys to your office. Did your predecessor find any evidence demonstrating direct cooperation between the government of Iraq and al-Qaeda as your intelligence and secretary of state erroneously claimed? You and your allies have broken Iraq into a thousand pieces.”
On civilian casualties:
“May Allah have mercy upon Sheikh Osama bin Laden, a man of morals and principles, in war and in peace. He succeeded in targeting New York City, the capital of your economy, without destroying any schools, hospitals, retirement homes or churches, nor any residential area in a city with a population of over 8 million. Compare this with the conduct of the U.S. Air Force, where 100 percent of the victims of many of their bombardments were children, e.g., the 12 children killed in Kunar Province while they were collecting firewood, the 23 women and children killed in Yemen, and those killed at a wedding ceremony in Nangarhar Province. Moreover, Nader Nadery of the U.N. identified only 80 civilians killed in night raids by U.S. Special Forces in 2010 in Afghanistan, but the true number is probably over 400.”
On the bin Laden raid:
“The entire world watched your morals in that when you made a decision to kill Sheikh Osama bin Laden without trial and watched the lawyer-president make a decision to throw his body in the sea.”
Read the entire letter here.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/02/08/read-what-the-alleged-mastermind-of-the-sept-11-attacks-wrote-to-president-obama-in-2015/?utm_term=.67d8891ff122
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Washington D.C.
Homeland Security Secretary: Travel Vetting Could Include Passwords, Tweets
by Brian Naylor
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly says the U.S. needs to "do a better job to vet" residents of seven majority-Muslim countries that the Trump administration has temporarily banned from entering the U.S.
In an interview with Morning Edition host Rachel Martin, the retired Marine Corps general said the ban, which has been blocked by a district court order that is now being reviewed by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, "is not based on religion in any way."
He said the seven countries — Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Somalia, Libya and Yemen — are unable to vet their citizens and "provide us with information that we're comfortable with."
Kelly said the administration is considering requiring residents of the seven countries to provide lists of the websites they've visited and their passwords, to enable officials "to get on those websites to see what they're looking at."
Kelly said some of the other "ballpark things" that his department is considering is looking at applicants' social media use "to see what they tweet," as well as financial information and cellphone contacts so that officials can check the numbers against databases kept by the U.S. and the European Union.
Kelly took the blame for the rocky rollout of the travel ban, and as he said in a hearing on Tuesday, he admitted he should have prepared congressional leaders ahead of the policy's implementation. He told NPR that in the future he will tell administration officials, "OK, give that to me and I will roll it out and I will tell you how I'm going to do it." Kelly said the rollout will include notification to select members of Congress and the press.
Kelly showed a willingness to work with the news media that has not been evident from some other members of the Trump administration. It is "very important to engage the press," he told NPR, "because if you engage the responsible press, they will help you write an accurate story." It may "not be the story you want," Kelly said, "but it will be an accurate story."
Kelly said "the great success" of the U.S. has been people from diverse backgrounds coming here "following every kind of religion," or "not following any religion at all."
Asked about President Trump's comments that his promised border wall was "getting designed right now," Kelly said he is traveling to the southwest this week to speak with Customs and Border Protection agents. He said those he has spoken with so far have asked for a barrier they can see through so they can react quicker.
"You can't build it all at once," he said, but the administration is deciding "where to put it immediately given financing" and construction capacity. Kelly said any wall "has to be backed up by people, and it has to be reinforced, if you will, by technology."
As the former commander of U.S. Southern Command, Kelly said it "breaks my heart" when he hears about people from Central America who have lost their lives trying to enter the country: "It's a humanitarian thing to me to somehow create an environment that deters them from leaving."
Kelly said the U.S. "has a moral responsibility" to help people in those nations economically, with investment. He also said the drug demand in the U.S. is creating most of the problems in countries to the south, and even "if we don't care about" drug use here, "we ought to care about what it does to other countries."
http://www.npr.org/2017/02/09/514175464/homeland-security-secretary-travel-vetting-could-include-passwords-tweets
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Washington D. C.
Trump meets with law enforcement leaders in Washington
President Donald Trump said he expects to find allies among law enforcement officials in the legal testing of his travel ban
by Emily Ngo
WASHINGTON — Even a “bad high school student” would understand the law permitting the president to restrict the entry into the country of people he deems a threat, President Donald Trump said Wednesday morning in Washington, D.C., condemning legal challenges to his travel ban.
“You can be a lawyer or you don't have to be a lawyer, if you were a good student in high school or a bad student in high school, you can understand this,” Trump said in remarks to a meeting of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. “And it's really incredible to me that we have a court case that's going on so long. Again, a bad high school student would understand this. Anybody would understand this.”
The president has signaled earlier that he expected to find allies among police chiefs and other law enforcement officials against the “horrible, dangerous and wrong” legal testing of his controversial executive order.
At the chiefs' conference, he read a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to a receptive audience while criticizing a panel of federal appeals court judges who are currently challenging the legal basis of his travel ban.
“They are interpreting things differently than probably 100 percent of people in this room,” Trump said.
Earlier in the morning he had tweeted: “If the U.S. does not win this case as it so obviously should, we can never have the security and safety to which we are entitled. Politics!”
He continued that he will be addressing “police chiefs and sheriffs and will be discussing the horrible, dangerous and wrong decision.”
The president has expressed increasing frustration with the mounting legal challenges against his executive order barring the entry of nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries and refugees from all over the world. The broadest of the court rulings has halted the travel ban nationwide.
Among the questions facing the administration is whether Trump has the authority to enact such restrictions and whether the ban is discrimination against Muslims.
Trump maintains the executive order is in the interest of national security.
The president had found sympathetic voices among the county sheriffs he gathered at the White House on Tuesday.
The group discussed immigrants arriving illegally to the United States, but there were no specific mentions of a terror threat linked to the Islamic State — which Trump has cited as justification for the ban.
“You have a big problem with the refugees pouring in, don't you?” Trump had asked Hennepin County, Minnesota, Sheriff Richard W. Stanek.
The sheriff replied: “Yes, we do, sir. ... Rule of law is strong and the proper vetting of individuals is really important to us.”
https://www.policeone.com/legal-issues/articles/288678006-Trump-meets-with-law-enforcement-leaders-in-Washington/
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Mississippi
Miss. House passes 'Back the Badge' bill
The House voted to triple the penalties for committing violence against law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency responders
by Emily Wagster Pettus
JACKSON, Miss. — The Mississippi House voted Wednesday to triple the penalties for committing violence against law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency responders.
House Bill 645 is called the "Back the Badge Act of 2017." Judiciary B Committee Chairman Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, said it was written in response to attacks on law enforcement officers across the nation.
The 85-31 vote to pass the bill came only after several black representatives talked about how they or their loved ones have been racially profiled or treated harshly by the police.
Rep. Adrienne Wooten, D-Jackson, said that when she was a teenager growing up in Meridian, she and some of her friends were standing around, minding their own business, when officers stopped and beat the African-American young men in their group for no reason.
Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville, said when he was serving in the military in 1989, he was driving from Fort Hood, Texas, back to Mississippi and was stopped by officers on a highway in Louisiana. Hines said he wasn't speeding and after he showed his driver's license and military identification, an officer told him, "'Boy, you're out here mighty late.'" Hines said his sister and a friend were also in the car, and the officer asked why he had so much luggage, then made him unpack everything on the side of the highway as mosquitoes bit him.
"A bunch of other officers were sitting on the side of the road, waiting for me to react," Hines said.
Rep. Christopher Bell, D-Jackson, told about being stopped on a busy road in a Jackson suburb years ago. He said an officer asked him what he was doing there, what he does for a living, why he was driving the vehicle he was driving and whether he had never been arrested.
"I'm 25 years old and I'm out on Lakeland Drive at night and this man is standing there with his hand on gun telling me, 'Do not move,'" said Bell, who had never been arrested. "That was one of the most frightening experiences in my life."
Rep. Jeff Hale, R-Nesbit, who is white, urged the House to support the bill. Hale has worked as a firefighter, and he said emergency responders and law enforcement officers put their lives at risk to help others.
"We don't see race," Hale said. "We see a human being that is in distress and needs help."
Hale also said there is tension in society about some relationships involving law enforcement officers, but the officers are not at fault.
"I think a lot of this stems from the news media putting the twist on it the way they do," Hale said.
Bell tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to require 10 percent pay raises for law enforcement officers and firefighters.
The Senate has passed a similar measure, Senate Bill 2469, which is called the "Blue, Red and Med Lives Matter Act." It says any crime committed against emergency personnel because of their status as police officers, firefighters or emergency medical technicians would be a hate crime. State law currently doubles penalties for targeting people because of race, ethnicity, religion or gender.
The House and Senate will exchange bills for more work.
https://www.policeone.com/Officer-Safety/articles/288870006-Miss-House-passes-Back-the-Badge-bill/
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North Carolina
Duke students invent robot cop for traffic stops
The robot enables police to stay in their patrol car while interacting with drivers
by PoliceOne Staff
DURHAM, N.C. — Two Duke University students invented a “robot cop” designed to change the way police officers conduct traffic stops.
Vaibhav Tadepalli and Chris Reyes told WRAL that the “Sentinel” deploys from the officer's cruiser and drives itself to the window of the civilian's car. Police interact with the driver through a television screen.
The students said the robot records video and will populate data as the driver and officer are interacting, such as the make and model of the vehicle and its license plate number.
The data is then transferred to the officer's laptop.
Vaibhav and Reyes told the news station they hope to make Sentinel more cost-efficient than other law enforcement robots.
https://www.policeone.com/police-products/police-technology/robots/articles/288765006-Duke-students-invent-robot-cop-for-traffic-stops/
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Georgia
Suspect in murders of four women kills himself in Georgia
by USA Today
WEST POINT, Ga. — Authorities say one of two people wanted in the deaths of four women has killed himself, ending a Tuesday standoff at a west Georgia motel and a multi-state crime spree.
Escambia (Fla.) County Sheriff David Morgan said William Boyette died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and that another suspect, Mary Rice, surrendered and is in custody. The pair is charged with killings that sparked a manhunt throughout southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, where the crimes occurred.
Deputies in Florida responded to a citizen tip Tuesday afternoon and found Boyette and Rice holed up at the West Point Motel in West Point, Ga., along with a car that was stolen Monday morning from Kayla Crocker's home in Pensacola, Fla. Crocker, 28, was shot and died Tuesday afternoon at an area hospital.
According to Sgt. Smith with Troup County Sheriff's Office, police made multiple attempts to contact Boyette and Rice inside the hotel with no luck.
Rice came out of the motel room where she was holed up with Boyette shortly after the Georgia SWAT team arrived. Within minutes of Rice being put in handcuffs and led away from the motel, police heard a single gunshot from inside the motel room, according to Troup County Georgia Sheriff James Woodruff.
Officers entered the room and found Boyette dead, Woodruff said.
The tip was received at about 2:30 p.m. today from a citizen who spotted the car that was being discussed in the media and on social media, Woodruff said. An officer was dispatched to the motel and confirmed it was the car stolen from Crocker.
A clerk at the motel told deputies that Rice checked into the motel Monday night under her own name. Deputies confirmed there were people inside the room because Boyette and Rice opened the curtains periodically and waved at law enforcement.
Deputies set up a perimeter around the hotel and just as SWAT was preparing to enter, Rice came outside, Woodruff said.
“We are always glad when something this seriously is resolved and no one is injured and no one is killed,” Woodruff told media gathered outside the motel. “We knew going in, them having killed several people already, that this could end very badly.”
Dominic Guadagnoli of the U.S. Marshals Service said federal, state and local law enforcement officials were on the scene.
The shooting of Crocker Monday morning in her home was the most recent attack in the crime spree that began Jan. 31.
Two women, Alicia Greer and Jacqueline Moore, were killed at the Emerald Sands Inn in Milton, Fla., on Jan. 31. Boyette and Rice are are then thought to have killed Peggy Broz at her Lillian, Ala., home the morning of Feb. 3 in order to steal her vehicle.
Baldwin County (Ala.) Sheriff's Office information officer Anthony Lowery confirmed that a warrant for capital murder had been issued for Boyette and Rice for the ambush and killing of Broz.
It's alleged that Rice and Boyette followed Broz to her home early on the morning of Feb. 3, where they shot and killed Broz in her front yard. Lowery said BCSO has found no other connection between the suspects and the victim other than the fact she had a vehicle they wanted.
“We believe at this point that obviously they selected her to prey on, they don't have any ties that tie them together at this point,” he said.
Broz worked at Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, but Lowery wasn't able to confirm whether Boyette and Rice had followed Broz all the way from Pensacola to her home, or whether they were already located in Alabama when they found her.
In a press conference at the Santa Rosa county sheriff's office Tuesday morning, Sheriff Bob Johnson said a warrant for accessory after the fact to capital murder has been issued for Rice, who Johnson says is a "willing participant."
Records show that Boyette was a habitual violent offender, having been accused of beating and stabbing previous girlfriends in the years leading up to his killing spree and eventual death.
The prosecution was forced to drop a number of charges as the victims either couldn't be located or recanted their statements on Boyette's abuse, and as such he never served more than a year in jail for his domestic violence accusations.
Boyette had only been out of jail four months for a probation violation when he allegedly committed the Milton double homicide.
Aside from the known relationship between Boyette and Greer, police can't point to any other connection between Boyette and Rice to the other three victims.
State Attorney Bill Eddins said Rice faces charges of accessory after the fact to capital murder in the Milton double homicide, and charges are still pending in the attack on Crocker.
Baldwin County Sheriff's Office public information officer Anthony Lowery said Rice is facing charges of capital murder in the Alabama jurisdiction for her involvement with Broz's killing.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/02/07/triple-murder-suspect-kills-self-after-motel-standoff-georgia/97614162/
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Texas
Border officers find nearly 2 tons of weed camouflaged as limes
by CNN Wire
At first glance, these limes look like a normal shipment of the green fruit. But they don't contain the citrus juice you would squeeze into your margarita on a hot summer day.
Instead the phony limes were packed full of marijuana. US Customs and Border Protection officers in Pharr, Texas, seized a total of 3,947 pounds of weed in the commercial shipment of key limes on January 30, officials said.
The truck hauling the “produce” crossed the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge along the Texas-Mexico border near the Gulf of Mexico. Over 34,000 of the fake fruit packages were discovered by an imaging inspection system and narcotics K-9 team.
“This is an outstanding interception of narcotics. Our CBP officers continue to excel in their knowledge of smuggling techniques, which allows them to intercept these kinds of attempts to introduce narcotics into our country,” said Port Director Efrain Solis Jr. in a statement.
The drugs are valued at approximately $789,467, according to the US Customs and Border Protection statement. The case is under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security.
This isn't the first time smugglers tried to use fake produce to bring drugs into the United States. Last year, agents found 2,493 pounds of marijuana stuffed into fake carrots at the same border
http://pix11.com/2017/02/08/border-officers-find-nearly-2-tons-of-weed-camouflaged-as-limes/
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Iowa
Student security officer program advances community policing efforts
Program is ‘first step' in building a community policing culture on campus
by Hayley Bruce
The University of Iowa Department of Public Safety is expanding its student security officer program as part of a growing effort to build a community policing culture on campus.
“When students set foot on our campus, I want them to see our officers as an approachable resource,” says Scott Beckner, assistant vice president and director of Public Safety. “We want to focus on building positive relationships with students, and that means coming up with innovative ways to break down barriers.”
One of those innovations includes creating an opportunity for students to get a behind-the-scenes look at how the department works while also allowing them to play a role in keeping their own community safe.
“When students come here, we want them to feel comfortable sharing their concerns,” says Beckner. “They often have a better sense of the pulse of their community, and inviting them to help us keep campus safe is a great way to get honest feedback.”
Though the department historically has employed a handful of students each semester to help with security-related duties, it hopes to hire about 125 students to help with building checks, dorm patrol, fingerprinting, athletic events, and other special events. The program also will feature opportunities for students to advance to supervisory positions to assist with additional daily operations.
Sarah Ingwersen, a senior health sciences major from Council Bluffs who recently was promoted to security supervisor for the UI Museum of Art, says the experience will help her further her professional career.
“Learning how to work with people and understanding how law enforcement functions behind the scenes has been very valuable to me from both a student and a citizen perspective,” says Ingwersen. “The leadership skills I've gained in this setting will be applicable no matter what I do after graduation.”
All students hired for the program attend in-house training that pertains to their assignment. In addition to training, each student employee carries a radio that connects directly to the department's dispatch system, where they have the support of fulltime security staff and police officers who are prepared to assist at any time.
Daisy Torres, a sophomore criminology major from Chicago who joined the program last September, says the experience has been particularly rewarding given her interest in a law enforcement career.
“What I like about this job is that I get to practice policing skills and community service before I even enter the force,” says Torres. “It was intimidating at first, but the officers I've worked with have really helped me build my confidence, and now I have a better sense of whether I want to be a police officer after graduation.”
Torres says the experience also changed some of her previous perceptions about law enforcement.
“Before I took on this role, I had a tendency to feel intimidated when I ran into a security guard or police officer on campus,” says Torres. “But now that I've been in their shoes, I understand the role they play on campus and why it's so important.”
Security Supervisor Jonathan Ron says that's exactly what expanding the program is all about—creating more opportunities for students to have positive experiences with the department while gaining valuable life skills.
“This program not only gives our officers a chance to get to know students but provides students with valuable experiences that are critical to the function of this institution,” says Ron. “By teaching our student security officers to think on their toes and interact with people on campus, they're learning more about us as people and building soft skills that are valuable in any field.”
https://now.uiowa.edu/2017/02/student-security-officer-program-advances-community-policing-efforts
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California
Court weighs halting release of videos of fatal police shootings
A federal appeals court considered whether to automatically halt lower court orders publicly releasing video of fatal shootings by police to prevent potential violence
by Brian Melley
PASADENA, Calif. — A federal appeals court considered Monday whether to automatically halt lower court orders publicly releasing video of fatal shootings by police to prevent potential violence.
Judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel acknowledged that the case involving a 2013 shooting of an unarmed man by police in the Los Angeles suburb of Gardena was largely moot because the video was released and widely published.
But in considering whether U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson abused his discretion by denying Gardena a stay of execution and releasing videos sought by The Associated Press and other news organizations, the court questioned if future video releases should be put on hold to offer a chance of appeal.
Judge Andrew Kleinfeld said stays are automatically granted in other types of cases. He repeatedly questioned a news media lawyer about why it was in the public interest to release videos that might incite violence and rioting.
Attorney Kelli Sager said the law favored public disclosure of the video that was evidence in a lawsuit Gardena settled for nearly $5 million. Sager said the city failed to properly seek a stay of execution in 2015 and had presented a weak case for permanently sealing the video.
"They simply said it's a police video and it might lead to riots even though the shooting was two years earlier," Sager said. "In fact, the record shows that didn't happen."
The videos were sought by AP, the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg at a time when intense public scrutiny was starting to focus on police shootings nationwide. The news media argued the videos should be unsealed under a First Amendment right to access court documents.
Wilson ordered the footage released after saying it was important for the public to see whether the shooting was justified and so taxpayers could understand why Gardena paid $4.7 million to settle the case with the family of Ricardo Diaz-Zeferino, who was killed, and a friend who was wounded.
Wilson rejected a stay of execution and the videos were public before the city could get a temporary stay from a 9th Circuit judge.
Attorney Scott Davenport said the city of Gardena realized it had lost, but said the issue was "bigger than this case" and was pursuing the appeal for other law enforcement agencies to avoid a repeat occurrence.
The three judges, however, cast doubts on parts of the appeal, saying the city had not met criteria for a stay from the trial court. They questioned the assertion that the same situation would play itself out again, which they said was an overly broad interpretation of the law.
Diaz-Zeferino was killed June 2, 2013, by police searching for a bike thief. In a tragic twist, Diaz-Zeferino was searching for the same bike — stolen from his brother — when he and two friends were stopped by police.
The theft had erroneously been relayed by dispatchers as a robbery, raising the possibility suspects could be armed.
Footage showed Diaz-Zeferino, who was drunk and had methamphetamine in his system, failing to follow police orders to keep his hands up. The video shot from two cruisers showed him lower his hands three times despite an officer yelling, "Get your hands up."
One camera showed he had his palms open and facing upward in front of him as he removed his ball cap and lowered his hands a final time. Footage shot from the side showed his right hand briefly disappear from view at his waist as shots were fired and he crumpled to the pavement.
The officers said they feared he was reaching for a weapon, though they later found he was not armed. Prosecutors said the shooting was justified and declined to bring charges.
https://www.policeone.com/officer-shootings/articles/287916006-Court-weighs-halting-release-of-videos-of-fatal-police-shootings/
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Texas
Golden Chick fires employee who refused to serve cop
Dallas Police Association President Michael Mata said this was an "unfortunate isolated incident," and the restaurant has always been a supportive community partner of the police
by Susan McFarland
DALLAS — A restaurant chain that gives back to the community, including raising money for local police, is under fire for an employee who refused service to an officer.
The incident occurred last week at a central Oak Cliff store in Kiest Boulevard, according to CBSDFW.com.
After the incident, in which an employee told the officer “we don't serve your kind here,” social media protests began including promises of a boycott from the law enforcement community.
As complaints about the incident were put on Golden Chick's Facebook page, the restaurant responded.
“We are extremely disappointed with the exchange that occurred with a Golden Chick employee and a Dallas police officer, and immediately terminated the employee. This does not reflect our restaurants' pride in serving the Dallas Police Department and all police departments throughout the communities our restaurants are located.”
Golden Chick Store Director Ike Ugokwe said his restaurant has donated hundreds of school supplies to students, given box dinners to the homeless and offers discounts to police officers on duty, according to CBS.
“All those things that we had worked over the years to build see you can see it crashing down because of one simple comment,” Ugokwe told CBS.
A Facebook post by Michael Mata, president of Dallas Police Association, said this was an “unfortunate isolated incident,” and said “Golden Chick has been an amazing community partner with DPD and the Dallas Police Association. The tremendous company and its employees raised money to support the families of the fallen from the July 7th tragedy. I and all officers appreciate their continued support.”
Last month, a Fort Worth police officer was refused service at Wendy's. Last year, a McDonald's employee was fired for refusing service to a Brenham police officer.
https://www.policeone.com/Officer-Safety/articles/288157006-Golden-Chick-fires-employee-who-refused-to-serve-cop/
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Florida
Florida Panhandle Sheriff Warns a Killer Is 'In Our Midst'
by The Associated Press
A Florida Panhandle sheriff's office has doubled the number of deputies on patrol as a multistate search enters its second week for a man suspected in the deaths of three women and the attempted death of a fourth.
On Monday afternoon, Escambia County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Chip Simmons warned the public to be on the lookout for William "Billy" Boyette, 44, and Mary Rice, 37, who are suspected of shooting a young mother during a home invasion near Pensacola on Monday, and taking her car.
"In short we have a killer, he is in our midst . everyone, and I mean everyone, should be aware of this, should be aware of what they look like," Simmons said.
Boyette and Rice are also suspected in the deaths of Alicia Greer, 30, and Jacqueline Jeanette Moore, 39, whose bodies were found at the Emerald Sands Inn in nearby Milton on Jan. 31, and the death of Peggy Broz in Lillian, Alabama, on Friday. Investigators said the two also stole Broz' car.
Agencies across the Panhandle and southern Alabama are searching for Boyette and Rice, who had previously been considered a person of interest in the attacks. On Monday she was upgraded to an official suspect. Authorities said she had multiple chances to flee or ask for help. She has been spotted on surveillance video entering stores on her own.
On Monday morning, the mother of Kayla Crocker went to check on her after the 28-year-old woman didn't show up for work. She found Crocker with a gunshot wound. Her 2-year-old son was not injured, sheriff's officials said.
Crocker's white Chevrolet Cobalt was stolen and Sheriff David Morgan told local news outlets that video surveillance confirmed Boyette and Rice took the car to a nearby Shell station and ate at a Hardee's restaurant a short time after the attack.
Morgan said Boyette has a history of drug trafficking and is known to be a heavy user of the drug Spice.
He said his agency has been "chasing a lot of shadows and a lot of rumors" in the search for the pair. He warned residents to stay alert.
"When you go to work, when you come home, make sure a friend or family member knows where you are ..., " Morgan said. He added that while the measures may seem extreme, "we're dealing with an extreme situation here."
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/sheriff-warns-public-lookout-suspected-killers-45317789
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Illinois
US aggressively pursued police reform under Obama, but Trump's intentions are unknown
Under Obama, the Justice Department entered into agreements with 12 police departments, four times as many as under President George W. Bush
by Jaweed Kaleem
CHICAGO — After the U.S. Justice Department recently issued a scathing report saying police in Chicago routinely violated the Constitution by using excessive force, many activists expected reforms — and federal oversight —to follow.
The findings on Chicago officers set the stage for the city to negotiate a court-enforced agreement with the federal government, called a consent decree, to change how it polices, with federal oversight. Police reform advocates applauded a similar agreement Justice officials recently announced with Baltimore after the department found that city's officers discriminated against blacks.
Some police say the government has been heavy-handed, and that its agreements with cities have cost too much and taken too long to implement. Some activists say the agreements, which often require extra training in use of force and better tracking of personnel issues, don't go far enough.
But over the nearly 20 years the Justice Department has gone to court to force changes in police agencies in more than two dozen cities, the results have largely been positive, according to data and criminologists.
“Having been in policing for 34 years, consent decrees certainly do work,” said Ronal Serpas, a criminal justice professor at Loyola University New Orleans who was the city's police chief in 2012 when it agreed to reforms. “These agreements give you a road map, though it doesn't mean things change with the snap of a finger.”
In Baltimore, a pending agreement with the Justice Department that awaits court approval was announced as tension continues over the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died from a spinal cord injury after his arrest in 2015. Among other things, the agreement would require a community oversight task force for police in addition to officer training in de-escalation and implicit bias.
But while the Justice Department rushed to release its Chicago report and make its Baltimore announcement in the waning days of Barack Obama's presidency in hopes of ensuring reforms, experts say the road ahead is unclear in the Trump administration.
“There can be backsliding,” said Samuel Walker, a former University of Omaha criminal justice professor who specializes in police accountability. “One thing it often depends on is who is leading police and how much they invest in change.”
On the national level, that's the attorney general, the top law enforcement official.
Under Obama, the Justice Department entered into agreements with 12 police departments, four times as many as under President George W. Bush.
Trump's pick for attorney general, Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, said during his confirmation hearing that current decrees with police departments would “remain in force until and if they are changed,” adding that they were not “necessarily a bad thing.”
But Sessions also said there's “concern that good police officers and good departments” get punished because of a few bad ones.
In 2008, he had stronger words. Consent decrees are “dangerous,” he wrote, calling them “exercises of raw power” that “constitute an end run around the democratic process.”
Serpas, who left New Orleans police in 2014, said that he understood concerns but that “if policing improves in the end, it's certainly worth it.”
In its investigation of Serpas' officers, the Justice Department said they had a pattern of racial profiling, excessive force and unconstitutional stops and arrests. In a September report, an outside monitor described a “remarkable turnaround” in how police worked with sexual assault victims and praised the use of body camera. The monitor also said police still had to do more to improve community relations.
Experts say it's too early to assess the results of consent decrees signed in recent years for cities such as Cleveland, or Ferguson, Mo., where the police shooting of Michael Brown fueled the Black Lives Matter movement.
An independent lawyer hired to monitor Ferguson's progress said last month that the city had missed recent deadlines to set up new policies in basic policing issues but was still acting in “good faith” toward improvements, such as implementing a new policy on use of force and a city ordinance to create a civilian review board to look at police misconduct complaints.
While many consent decrees are set up for five years — with the costs of outside monitoring paid by the cities — they can be extended to last much longer if officers don't improve. In Oakland, Calif., police have worked for 13 years under monitoring stemming from findings of racial profiling and police brutality.
Congress gave the federal government the power to police local law enforcement departments in 1994, after the 1991 beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles. The law lets the government sue local police if they don't comply with reforms.
It was 1997 before Pittsburgh became the first city to enter a consent decree after the American Civil Liberties Union sued over police abuses. The results there have been mixed. Use of force has gone up and down over the years, and a series of high-profile incidents, including a 2012 shooting of an unarmed black man that left him paralyzed, have tarnished the department's image.
Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, pointed to an agreement with Los Angeles as a model.
The city was under monitoring for 12 years after investigations by the Justice Department over civil rights violations, including routine false arrests and excessive force. The agreement, which ended in 2013, pushed for better training of officers and tracking of misconduct, among other requirements.
In a 2009 review, Harvard criminal justice professors found the “quality of enforcement activity” among police had improved, with stops more frequently leading to arrests, and arrests more frequently leading to charges. Public approval had also gone up, with residents saying they were less fearful of crime and more trusting of police. Still, black and Latino residents were more likely than whites to say they were unsatisfied, and protests over police tactics and shootings have persisted.
“The process with these can move much more slowly than the public demand,” Wexler said. “But often they achieve real results.”
https://www.policeone.com/training/articles/287709006-US-aggressively-pursued-police-reform-under-Obama-but-Trumps-intentions-are-unknown/
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Ohio
Marchers thank Cleveland police for work in teen murder case
Police found 14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze's body three days after she went missing
by PoliceOne Staff
(Video on site)
CLEVELAND — When 14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze went missing on her way to school on Jan. 26, Cleveland police went out in full force to find the teen.
On Jan. 29, officers found her body in an abandoned building and arrested Christopher Whitaker for aggravated murder, Cleveland.com reported.
Black on Black Crime Inc. wanted to show police how thankful they were for their swift, dedicated action in the case.
Officers from the Fourth District were surprised to find over 100 marchers outside their headquarters Saturday waiting to thank them.
Together, they made their way to the abandoned building where they held a makeshift memorial service for DeFreeze.
Police thanked the public for their help as well. Commander Brandon Kutz told the publication they couldn't have solved the case without the public's assistance.
"It's definitely effective in combating crime as team effort," Kutz said. "We always have a lot of help with this particular community here in the Fourth District."
March organizer Al Porter Jr. said the family is grateful the arrest came so quickly.
DNA linked Whitaker, a convicted sex offender, to DeFreeze's death. He has prior convictions dating back to 1996. Her is currently being held on $3 million bond and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Feb. 14.
https://www.policeone.com/police-heroes/articles/287682006-Video-Marchers-thank-Cleveland-police-for-work-in-teen-murder-case/
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From the Department of Homeland Security
Statement on Countries Currently Suspended from Travel to the United States
WASHINGTON - The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would like to clarify the classes of aliens affected by the 90-day temporary pause on travel, with case-by-base exceptions and waivers, as outlined in the President's Executive Order entitled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.”
To ensure that the U.S. government can conduct a thorough analysis of the national security risks faced by our immigration system, the Executive Order imposes a 90-day pause on the entry into the United States of nationals from Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen. This pause does not apply to Lawful Permanent Residents, dual citizens with passports from a country other than the seven listed, or those traveling on diplomatic, NATO, or UN visas. Special Immigrant Visa holders who are nationals of these seven countries may board U.S.-bound planes, and apply for and receive a national interest exception to the pause upon arrival.
Importantly, these seven countries are the only countries to which the pause on entry applies. No other countries face such treatment. Nor have any other countries been identified as warranting future inclusion at this time, contrary to false reports.
As directed by the Executive Order, DHS is working with the Department of State and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to conduct a country-by-country review of the information provided by countries in order for their nationals to apply for myriad visas, immigration benefits, or otherwise seek admission into the United States. This review is needed to ensure that individuals seeking to enter the U.S. are who they claim to be and do not pose a security or public-safety threat.
The results of this review will be provided to the President within 30 days of the Executive Order's signing. This review, conducted in consultation with our interagency partners, will determine which countries do not provide adequate information on their nationals seeking immigration benefits or admission into the United States. Principally, the goal is to ensure that those admitted to this country do not bear hostile attitudes toward the United States and its founding principles.
Based on that report, the State Department will ask any foreign governments who were determined to not be supplying adequate information on their nationals to begin providing such information within 60 days.
In order to protect Americans, and to advance the national interest, the United States must ensure that we have adequate information about individuals seeking to enter this country to ensure that they do not bear malicious intent toward the United States and its people.
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2017/02/03/statement-countries-currently-suspended-travel-united-states#
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From the FBI
New FBI Wanted App
Making It Easier to Find Fugitives and Missing Persons
You're watching your local news on TV when you see a story on a wanted fugitive in your community. The person looks like someone you've seen living a few blocks away. You grab your cell phone, open the FBI Wanted app, search your city name, and quickly locate the individual's profile with additional pictures and information. The similarity is striking. So you tap the “Call the FBI” button in the app and report what you know.
This situation illustrates exactly the kind of technology-driven crime fighting that is now possible—thanks to a new FBI Wanted mobile application launching today.
The app allows the public to view, search, sort, filter, and bookmark the full range of information issued by the FBI. That includes pictures and descriptions of wanted fugitives, missing persons, crime suspects, deceased victims, and others the Bureau is seeking to locate or identify.
The app is free and works on Apple and Android devices, including smartphones, iPads, and iPods. Depending on your device, it can be downloaded from the Apple App store or Google Play.
“Since the earliest days of the Bureau—when wanted flyers were tacked to post office walls—the public has played a vital role in helping the FBI and its partners locate criminals on the run and solving cases of all kinds,” says Christopher Allen, head of the Investigative Publicity and Public Affairs Unit in the FBI's Office of Public Affairs. “This app is designed to put another digital tool in the hands of concerned citizens so they can help protect their families and communities.”
The information in the app is also posted on the FBI website, but the app includes several features and capabilities that make it especially fast and easy to use. For example, with the app you can:
Access information in one user-friendly interface, with a single tap of the app icon bringing up all Wanted profiles;
Take advantage of a suite of search and filtering options (see sidebar);
Easily report information by using buttons that either call the FBI or link directly to the Bureau's online form for providing tips;
Bookmark individual profiles with one touch, adding them to a favorites page so you can easily access them later; and
Customize your home screen to display the information that is most relevant or interesting to you.
Along with the TV news scenario described above, the app could be useful in a number of situations. You might see someone who is acting in a suspicious or dangerous manner and wish to determine whether that person is wanted by the FBI. Or you might be interested in which cases the Bureau needs help with in your area.
FBI Wanted is the third mobile app built by the Bureau. The Child ID app, introduced in 2011, allows parents to electronically store their children's pictures and vital information in case their kids go missing; it has been downloaded nearly 350,000 times. The FBI Bank Robbers app was launched in August 2016, publicizing unknown violent and serial robbers sought by the Bureau.
“Thousands of cases have been solved over the years thanks to the watchful eyes of concerned citizens, and that has made the country a safer place for all of us,” said Allen. “The FBI Wanted app will help carry on this tradition of partnership. We encourage everyone to download it and report any pertinent tips to the FBI.”
Search and Filtering Capabilities
The new FBI Wanted App provides a range of search and filtering options to browse information and locate specific individuals or cases. The app enables you to:
Quickly scroll through the entire list of Wanted profiles (currently more than 500);
Use the search feature to locate individuals by name, alias, city, state, country, or any other terms mentioned in the descriptions;
Sort information alphabetically by the FBI field office working the case;
List data chronologically according to when it was published or updated;
Filter profiles by status (deceased, located, etc.);
View listings by subject or crime categories, including Case of the Week, Ten Most Wanted, Fugitives, Terrorism, Kidnappings/Missing Persons, Seeking Information, Parental Kidnappings, Known Bank Robbers, Endangered Child Alert Program, and Violent Criminal Apprehension Program; and
Use the search and filtering tools in various combinations—for instance, you can sort all terrorism profiles by field office or list the most recently published kidnappings.
Digital Technologies Help Find Fugitives
Since 1996—when the FBI began posting wanted flyers on its new website—the Bureau has used a number of digital technologies to enlist the public's help in locating and identifying various individuals. These tools include:
Social Media: The FBI publicizes information about fugitives, missing persons, and other individuals through more than 60 separate social media pages or sites, including a dedicated FBI Most Wanted Twitter page with 50,000 followers.
Digital Billboards: Since 2007, the FBI has partnered with outdoor advertising companies to place urgent public safety messages—including notifications on wanted fugitives and missing children—on approximately 6,700 digital billboards around the nation. The result has been nearly 60 captures and rescues.
Audio and Video Podcasts: The Bureau publishes a regular series of podcasts in its Wanted By the FBI series that are available for download on iTunes and FBI.gov. Video podcasts—or vodcasts—can be viewed on YouTube or the FBI website.
RSS Feeds: On FBI.gov, you can subscribe to 170 different feeds that deliver Bureau news and information. More than 70 of these feeds involve Wanted information.
Mobile App: Based on the Bank Robbers website, the FBI Bank Robbers App maps the location of robberies locally and nationally and enables people to sign up for new listings.
Widgets: The FBI has created various widgets or modules that can be incorporated into other websites or blogs, including four related to the Wanted program: Ten Most Wanted, Wanted By the FBI, Predators and Missing Persons, and Most Wanted Bank Robbers.
https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/new-fbi-wanted-app |