California

21 arrested as hundreds of Trump supporters and counter-protesters clash at Berkeley rally

by Paige St. John

Hundreds of pro-Trump demonstrators and counter-protesters clashed Saturday at a “Patriots Day” rally in Berkeley, the third time the groups engaged in violent confrontations on city streets in recent months.

Fistfights broke out near Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, where Trump supporters had scheduled a rally. Fireworks and smoke bombs were thrown into the crowd, and a few demonstrators were doused with pepper spray.

Both groups threw rocks and sticks at each other and used a large trash bin as a battering ram as the crowd moved around the perimeter of the park. One bank boarded up its ATMs before the rally as a precaution.

About 250 police officers were deployed to the scene by mid-afternoon after officials sought assistance from the neighboring Oakland Police Department.

Twenty-one people were arrested, including some on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, according to Officer Byron White of the Berkeley Police Department. Eleven people were injured with at least six taken to a hospital for treatment, including one stabbing victim.

Police confiscated knives, stun guns and poles, White said.

Stewart Rhodes, founder of the citizen militia group known as the Oath Keepers, said he came from Montana with about 50 others to protect Trump supporters. They were joined by bikers and others who vowed to fight members of an anti-fascist group if they crossed police barricades.

“I don't mind hitting” the counter-demonstrators, Rhodes said. “In fact, I would kind of enjoy it.”

But Rhodes credited Berkeley police for new tactics that mostly kept the two sides apart and “our side chilled and relaxed,” though sporadic fights broke out among both groups throughout the morning and afternoon.

“It's getting sporty,” said Oath Keeper John Karriman, 59, who is from Missouri and was among the group's security leaders.

AJ Alegria, 31, of Sacramento said he also came to Berkeley to help defend Trump supporters. He said he pursued a counter-demonstrator down a side street and found himself surrounded by a dozen protesters in black masks who he said attacked him with sticks and pepper spray.

“These people create violence all the time... somebody has to stand up to them,” said Alegria, who was injured in the fight. He was treated by Trump supporters who bandaged his head, washed off the pepper spray and gave him encouragement, saying, “You've earned your stripes, bro.”

Alegria wasn't the only one injured.

“Stand up, America! Stand up!” shouted a Trump supporter in the middle of Center Street with a bandage on his head and streaks of blood on a sign that read “Stop Liberal Intolerance.”

Brenna Lundy, 28, said she drove from San Francisco to attend what she thought was an organizing event against the alt-right. As the violence unfolded, she stayed and attempted to talk to some of the people shouting insults at her.

“So I genuinely wanted to talk. I am trying to talk to you,” Lundy said to a woman screaming at her that “Obama hates blacks.”

Another woman from the pro-Trump side came up to Lundy and, putting a hand to her ear, said, “Ask her why she hates white people.”

Lundy looked confused. She gave up and turned away.

“This is more of a riot,” she said.

Meanwhile, giving a speech at a well-secured end of the park, alt-right blogger Lauren Southern railed against societal change, Kim Kardashian and the media. She called on members of her movement to “realize Trump is only a foot in the door.”

“We must become like them: subversive,” she said of her opponents.

The rally, one of many held across the country, was sponsored by the pro-Trump group Liberty Revival Alliance. A regularly scheduled farmer's market, which is usually held adjacent to the park, was canceled as a precaution.

A single vendor showed up Saturday to sell organic produce. “Rain or shine or fascism, we will be here,” said a young woman operating the cash register.

Berkeley Police Sgt. Andrew Frankel told CBS 5 that police would have extra patrols on duty in case things get out of hand. “We've staffed accordingly and are preparing for a number of different contingencies,” he said.

About two dozen police officers showed up at the park early Saturday and set up a narrow entrance to control access. Those entering the park were prohibited from bringing the following items: metal pipes, baseball bats, poles, bricks, Mace, knives, rocks, glass bottles, eggs and Tasers.

Dave Gottfried, 58, a self-employed Berkeley artist, passed “empathy kisses,” chocolate candy, out to both sides. He had hoped to “show empathy is the beginning of understanding."

“I feel we are going down the rabbit hole,” he said.

Last month, 10 people were arrested and seven others injured at what was supposed to be a pro-Trump rally in the famously liberal community. In February, a scheduled appearance by conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was canceled amid a violent protest at UC Berkeley.

The unrest underscores the heightened political tensions that have taken hold since President Trump took office in January.

Meanwhile, several thousand anti-Trump protesters marched through downtown Los Angeles on Saturday to demand the president release his tax returns.

The peaceful demonstration was one of dozens of “tax marches,” held in cities around the country on the traditional deadline for filing federal income tax returns.

Marchers filled blocks of closed-off streets as they walked from Pershing Square to City Hall, waving signs and chanting “Donald Trump has got to go.”

Among their placard messages: “Prove you have nothing to hide,” “Donald Ducks his Fair Share,” “No 1040, no peace” and “I pay for your golf trips. Do you?”

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-berkeley-trump-rally-20170415-story.html

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Pennsylvania

Editorial

Good cops, bad bill: Yes to community policing; no to body-cam freeze

Pittsburgh-Two Friday stories illustrated the challenges of improving police-community relations. One portended a step forward, the other a step back. One problem is that government officials, even those who say they want to listen to the public, too often want to tell the people what is good for them.

The first story explained Mayor Bill Peduto's plan to assign 18 officers to a new community policing program. Each will focus on a single neighborhood, with the goal of getting to know the merchants and business people there. That kind of visibility deters wrongdoing but also helps ensure that people trust police and come forward with details when crimes are committed.

Some of the 18 will be assigned to neighborhoods where crime is problematic and police-community relations aren't always good. The officers will need excellent people skills to pull off this mission, and it's important that early support come from civic leaders and community groups. The program has the potential to reap huge dividends.

The second story concerned a panel discussion that the American Civil Liberties Union organized on access to police body camera footage. The state Senate is considering legislation that would release footage to the public only when police and prosecutors believe it's appropriate to do so. Many police departments fight tooth and nail to keep their records out of public hands, so the legislation likely would have the effect of severely limiting the public's access to the video.

State Rep. Dom Costa, D-Stanton Heights, is considering the introduction of a House version of the bill. A former city police chief, he said he wants to solicit the public's input but views the video primarily as a law enforcement tool. He believes prosecutors should decide when to release it because they “know what they need and don't need.”

Brandi Fisher, director of the Alliance for Police Accountability, noted that camera footage also can shed light on incidents in which officers are accused of abuse. In those cases, she said, it's “ridiculous” to let law enforcement decide whether video should be released.

She's right. There has to be a compromise that balances the needs of police, prosecutors and the public. Neighborhood beat cops are a great way to boost police-community relations. But other tools, such as body camera footage, also should be brought to bear.

http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/2017/04/17/Good-cops-bad-bill-Yes-to-community-policing-no-to-body-cam-freeze/stories/201704300042?pgpageversion=pgevoke

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Illinois

Opinion

Public Safety falls short, students ask for more services

by Daniel Reyes

Pierce Horvath was a victim of an armed robbery in January.

Around 2:30 p.m., after returning to his car to get his art portfolio, Horvath was approached by a man with one of his hands in his hoodie pocket. The man pulled out a pistol while demanding Horvath to get down and give him everything he had.

Horvath lost his phone and his wallet in the armed robbery.

“Naturally, I cooperated and gave him my phone and wallet. No material item is worth a life,” Horvath said. “Once he grabbed those two things, he bolted down Montana Street towards the L station. After, I ran into the fine arts building and luckily found a Public Safety officer who helped me through the process of contacting the police and other necessary documentation.”

After Horvath's experience, he thinks more can be done by Public Safety to benefit the student body.

“I think that Public Safety should disclose more information regarding the description of these criminals, that way students know who to look for and whether or not they should report someone looking mysterious,” Horvath said. “I can almost guarantee that if Public Safety released descriptions of these people, there would be less open-ended crimes that us students have to concern ourselves with.”

Attending university in Chicago does not exclude students from the violence that plagues the city. DePaul's student body continues to be exposed to different environments that can potentially pose multiple threats. Public safety must tighten its programs in order to offer maximum security on both Loop and the Lincoln Park campuses.

It is commonplace for DePaul students to receive emails warning of multiple crimes that have taken place on or near the Lincoln Park and Loop campuses. These crimes tend to range from stolen belongings to criminal sexual assault and armed robbery. As these emails continue, DePaul students should question whether or not they are actually protected by Public Safety.

From Jan. 18 to March 27, there were four reported armed robberies in the Lincoln Park area. The string of serious crimes started on Jan. 16, when a DePaul student was sexually assaulted near Lincoln Park's Fullerton stop. In the Loop campus, reports of verbal harassment and criminal trespassing along with disturbances reports have tainted the university's downtown campus.

DePaul's Public Safety protects these two campuses. However, following these reports of armed robbery and criminal trespassing, one incident leading to the shooting of a DePaul student, protocol has remained the same. Changes in protocol must be implemented or crimes on both campuses will continue. More can be offered. Whether it be through email specifics, or ramping up security in the Loop campus, more can be done.

Public Safety offers five student service programs to ensure safety. The escort service, which is one of the most popular, runs from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and is a safe way for students to make it home.

However, this program falls short. To utilize the safety escort service, students are only able to contact Public Safety if they are located within the Lincoln Park area, not on the Loop campus.

Students accessing the escort service can only utilize the service from a certain time frame typically when evening classes end. But, according to Public Safety reports, armed robberies take place in broad daylight, usually between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.

“It's definitely disappointing to hear that there are not escort services in the Loop,” junior Jazz Ruiz said. “I have class sometimes until 9 p.m. and have to walk home by myself. There's definitely a big difference in Public Safety from Lincoln Park to the Loop.”

Students have expressed dissatisfaction towards the department. Anyone can step foot into the Loop's Student Center and cause a scene or harass students. Little to anything is being done to offer a sense of security.

Sophmore Daniel Ghisolf-Astacio has raised eyebrows over the years when it comes to Public Safety.

“Honestly, I do not have that much stock into their abilities,” Ghisolf-Astacio said. “The idea behind Public Safety is something that is comforting. However, having them around will not stop an armed robbery.”

Robert Wachowski, director of DePaul's Public Safety department, responded to the increase of armed robberies.

“DePaul takes a proactive approach to alerting our campus community — students, faculty and staff — with email alerts and door postings when Public Safety is made aware of a crime or incident that happens on or near campus.”

Addressing criticism of Loop's programs, Wachowski added that little can be done for the Loop campus when it comes to the Safe Escort Service.

“Unlike the Lincoln Park campus, where we have a service to escort students from campus building to campus building, in the Loop, because of limited resources, we do not provide this service.”

In regards to the recent disturbance reports, Wachowski added that there is a plan in the works between the Chicago Police Department and representatives from other downtown universities.

In response to the recent increase in armed robberies in the past couple of months, Public Safety has relatively remained the same.

While safety programs are intertwined within DePaul — more can be done. Change in the way crime is reported can be improved. Programs can be introduced or refined. Only with change will the presence of Public Safety be felt and students will be safe.

http://depauliaonline.com/2017/04/17/public-safety-falls-short-students-ask-services/

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SMS/MMS text messaging can help local governments and public-safety agencies connect to the public

by Cliff Holsenbeck

According to Pew Research, nine-in-ten American adults (92%) own a mobile phone of some kind. That reach is undisputed and why more and more industries are working to develop consumer mobile engagement strategies. This includes public-safety and local government agencies.

Currently, Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) are the official government communication vehicle for distributing urgent public-safety messages via the mobile channel, but is it possible these agencies could take mobile communication a step further by exploring the use of additional tools?

For instance, according to research conducted by Pew Research on smartphone usage, one of the most overlooked mobile features—yet most frequently used by consumers—is SMS/MMS text messaging. If utilized properly, this can provide a direct and ongoing line of engagement to local residents, which can become extremely important when trying to notify citizens of a major public-safety incident. However, in order to do that, access and approval to message with local mobile numbers is needed. One way some agencies have been accomplishing this is through the use of common short codes. These five- to six-digit codes let mobile users opt-in to receiving text-message notifications from a particular agency. They are universally accessible on most networks and mobile devices.

Most agencies—especially local governments in cities such as Anaheim and Seattle—already have messaging alert systems that local residents have the option to join. Right now, that is possible only via a website, which can limit residents' awareness of and engagement with these programs. In today's mobile first world, local governments can employ common short codes to increase engagement and get more residents connected and informed. This lets residents easily opt-in to alerts and announcements, and government agencies can promote them via advertisements, brochures and other collateral.

Another advantage of utilizing SMS/MMS is that it is targeted to a mobile subscriber's opt-in phone number, which may or may not physically be located in the geographic area where a person is currently located. For example, subscribers could sign up for weather alerts in the town where they have a vacation home or where family members live, to monitor their safety. WEA alerts only target an area where the subscriber is currently physically located and where the phone is turned on and is receiving a signal.

How can local public-safety and government agencies use common shorts codes to augment their current WEA efforts?

1. Timely information on weather or other conditions : Weather conditions can escalate quickly, putting safety at risk. Hot and dry summers can lead to brush fires; tornadoes or hurricanes can hit at any time; winter can bring frigid icy temperatures and heavy snow, and that snow and heavy rain eventually can lead to flooding. By opting into a messaging service—either with participating public-safety agencies (fire department or police) or the local city government—residents could receive timely information about these conditions, including what areas might be impacted most by unsafe conditions, who should be contacted for more detailed information, safety reminders, etc.

2. Shelter and Safety Refuge Center Locations: Displacement often follows severe weather and natural disasters, such as earthquakes. Getting people who have lost their homes to safety can be a massive effort. If residents already are receiving messages before or immediately following one of these public safety incidents (depending on conditions of cell towers) the process can become a highly organized and collaborative effort. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides a great example of how this can be initiated using common short codes. FEMA uses them to provide updates and information, including where to find disaster-relief shelters and recovery centers, as well as important safety tips.

3. School related public safety notifications: Public-safety incidents can happen at any time. Enabling parents or students to opt-in to a message service that provides timely updates about incidents, where to pick up children and other safety-related information can go a long way for public schools and universities trying to maintain an open line of communication and ensure campus safety. Similar to local governments, higher-education institutions like Walsh College already use text-messaging programs, but common short codes could be an option to make it easier for interested parties to access these programs and sign up.

4. Suspect Photos: During terror attacks, sending information and photos of a potential suspect can become difficult, because emergency personal is primarily relying on WEA, which doesn't support sending media files or clickable links. MMS texting supports rich content and could be used easily in such situations to complement communications being distributed by WEA.

5. Community Outreach: Establishing a texting program also can help local agencies increase transparency within their communities. They can be used to notify residents of community events or keep them aware of potential public-safety risks, such as heightened criminal activities. In addition, such programs can help create an open dialogue with local residents, providing them with a chance to meet and understand their local police and fire departments—a condition that can go a long way to improve public-safety communication and collaboration.

Messaging via common short codes provides an added layer of ubiquity, and the ability to push messages to mobile subscribers en masse makes them attractive to local government entities wanting to enhance their communication and engagement with residents. Recognizing that any communication method could be compromised in emergency situations, it is best to have multiple options—such as common short codes—to help alert, inform and engage residents in the moments that matter most.

http://urgentcomm.com/blog/smsmms-text-messaging-can-help-local-governments-and-public-safety-agencies-connect-public

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Delaware

Drones finding different ways to help public safety

by Esteban Parra

A small drone hovered over Paige Fitzgerald as she bobbed in a section of the Christina River that cuts through Wilmington Saturday morning.

When the drone was close enough, it released an inflatable flotation device that she was able to use to better stay afloat.

Fitzgerald, program administrator of Delaware Emergency Management Agency's drone program, was not in real danger. She was part of a demonstration showing off Wilmington police's new $22,000 drone.

The display also helps show how law enforcement, and other first responders, are adapting modern technology to aid in everyday public safety operations.

"In the future, drones will likely provide routine automated supplemental patrol functions by following an algorithm to take off, patrol a specific area, and return to its base, dock and then charge to be ready to go again," said Master Sgt. Adam B. Ringle, director of Wilmington Police Department's drone program.

"Drones are tools like any other robotic operations used in public safety," he added. "They provide results in real time while limiting the number of officers needed to put in a dangerous position which makes operations safer than without the technology. In this new era of transparency in policing, they can also provide a full-scale perspective of an active scene, seeing angles a single officer's body camera may not catch or be able to view."

Drones have been a growing tool for first responders because they can be easily deployed, improving their ability to enforce the law and protect lives, while saving valuable time, resources and tax dollars.

While drones delivering packages seems to get the most attention these days, Ryan Wood, vice president of sales at Rocky Mountain Unmanned Systems, which built Wilmington police's newest drone, said these instruments will impact many more other industries and much quicker.

Public safety agencies are already using drones in a number of catastrophic events, he said. This includes wildland firefighters, who can use the eye in the sky to find such things as fire lines; rescuers who can use the technology to deliver packages and rescue lines across rivers; and even groups searching for wildlife that cause damage to farmers and poses a danger to the public.

And their uses are still being discovered, Wood said.

"They're also used to spot sharks in both California and Australia," he added.

Fitzgerald, who was in the Christina River for Wilmington's demonstration, said DEMA initially purchased its drones to help them with assessing damage and environmental mapping. But because of the cross training that agencies with drones in Delaware participate in, they were able to find different functions for their unmanned aircraft.

"It expands our mission so basically we are able to stay involved in different public safety aspects," she said. "We can fly in support of law enforcement or we can fly in support of fire missions or we can fly in support of [the state Department of Transportation] if they're going to do traffic mapping."

Wilmington's newest drone helps the city, and other agencies that enlist its help, perform full-scale search and rescue missions, fly directly over water for rescue operations and generally fly a lot longer without having to land and change batteries, decreasing the chance of missing something of value, according to Ringle.

"This aircraft makes all our missions safer and provides the ability to deliver lifesaving payloads to a swimmer in distress while the boat is getting prepared, deliver medical supplies to officers under fire from an active shooter such as tourniquets and can assist in hostage negotiations or tactical calls by providing items such as a throw phone without any risk to officers on the ground," he said. "The possibilities with an aircraft of this type are endless for public safety agencies."

http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2017/04/12/drones-finding-different-ways-help-public-safety/100368632/

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Ohio

Cleveland police hunt for man who aired killing live on Facebook

Police are warning the public that the suspect, Steve Stephens, is considered armed and dangerous.

by PoliceOne Staff

CLEVELAND — Police are searching for a suspect they say shot and killed someone live on Facebook Sunday.

Police are warning the public that the suspect, Steve Stephens, is considered armed and dangerous.

Stephens also claimed to have "committed multiple other homicides which are yet to verified," police said.

The video of the killing was posted on Facebook for about three hours before it was removed. His Facebook page apparently was deactivated later Sunday afternoon.

Stephens is 6 foot 1 and is bald with a full beard. He is wearing a dark blue, and gray or black striped polo shirt.

Sources told FOX 8 he is driving a white Ford Fusion with temporary tags.

According to CNN, Stephens spoke to his mother, Maggie Green, on Sunday. Green told CNN that Stephens said he was "mad with his girlfriend that's why he is shooting people and he won't stop until his mother or girlfriend tell him to stop."

Green, who is in disbelief over the incident, told her son to stop, according to the report.

Police are searching multiple areas but no other victims have been found.

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.

https://www.policeone.com/active-shooter/articles/326888006-Cleveland-police-hunt-for-man-who-aired-killing-live-on-Facebook/

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P1 Research: De-policing and police morale are troubling trends post-Ferguson and Dallas

A total of 3,346 responses from verified sworn LE professionals revealed data that supports two narratives that had heretofore relied heavily on anecdotal evidence

by Doug Wylie

Editor's Note:

PoliceOne and LSU's 2017 "Policing in a Post-Ferguson Society" survey asked 3,346 sworn law enforcement professionals across all ranks and department sizes about the impact of major events like Ferguson and Dallas on their happiness and overall performance as law enforcers.

Our special report, Major Event Impact: How Ferguson and Dallas Changed Police Psychology, features expert analysis of the survey findings, covering critical topics like use of force, community relations and career satisfaction. Click here to learn more about the coverage.

Researchers at Louisiana State University recently partnered with PoliceOne to conduct a survey entitled Policing in a Post-Ferguson Society. The survey garnered a total of 3,346 responses from verified sworn law enforcement professionals across all ranks and department sizes. Respondents consisted of line officers and supervisors working patrol and other assignments in the profession.

The survey — which was reflective of the prevailing opinions of a sample size of American LEOs represented by PoliceOne members — was aimed at discovering police officers' opinions about their jobs following three seminal events. Officers were asked how their morale and job satisfaction, confidence in use of force, and sense of safety changed following the Michael Brown OIS in Ferguson, and the deadly ambush attacks on police in Dallas and Baton Rouge.

Among the wide-ranging results — which you can read more about here and here — I observed two key takeaways that support two widely-held beliefs in law enforcement for which we had heretofore mostly anecdotal evidence.

The first is that following Ferguson, officers across the country began to disengage in proactive police work (a phenomena dubbed “de-policing”). This concept continues to be widely discussed, and up to now, the only real data to support the theory are spotty changes in police reports of citizen contacts and a decrease in the number of arrests in some select places.

The second is that many police officers feel that they are under attack. This notion also has been widely perceived to be true, but up to now there has been scant quantitative data to support this assertion.

With the completion of the LSU/PoliceOne survey of PoliceOne readers, we now have data that shows that our anecdotal observations seem to be accurate.

De-policing

Asked about their feelings during the post-Ferguson period (August 2014 to June 2016), a full 45 percent of officers said that their motivation at work decreased. Further, nearly half of all respondents (47.29 percent) said that following Ferguson, the amount of stops they made (traffic and pedestrian) decreased. More than half of respondents (51 percent) said that their enjoyment at work decreased during that same time period.

In addition, in the aftermath of the fatal OIS on West Florissant Street, 39.80 percent of officers said that their apprehensiveness about using force increased. This is a surprising result, given the fact that 95 percent reported confidence in determining appropriate use of force, and 89 percent said they had confidence in UOF training.

Further, when queried about whether or not they are confident in their “ability to determine the appropriate decision in a shoot/don't shoot situation” 30 percent said they agree, and 65 percent said they strongly agree. That's a full 95 percent of officers polled who are confident that they will make the right decision when faced with a deadly threat scenario, and yet, a large number also say they have pulled back from proactive police work.

These are eye-opening responses. And frankly, it's a little concerning.

Several years ago I began writing about the notion of de-policing and deadly hesitation and have followed up on the topic on several occasions (see here and here and here).

That reportage was admittedly based on anecdotal evidence readily available at the time. It was based on conversations held with a relatively small, but well-informed, universe of law enforcement professionals. It was based on conclusions derived from those discussions.

According to the data derived from the LSU study, it was also accurate.

Based on the raw data from the LSU study, the trend of de-policing is real, and officers and police leaders alike need to figure out how to deal with it.

Under attack

Following the August 2014 fatal OIS of Michael Brown in Ferguson, 59 percent of officers responding to the LSU/PoliceOne survey said that their feelings of safety on the job decreased. Following the ambush attacks in Dallas and Baton Rouge in July of 2016, 67 percent of officers said they felt less safe on the job.

Think about that for a moment: two thirds of police officers polled said that they felt less safe simply performing their job after the ambush attacks that left five officers in Dallas dead and three Baton Rouge police officers slain (with many others in those cities wounded).

Following those ambush attacks, 41 percent of officers responding to the survey said that their feeling that most people don't respect the police increased. When asked if citizens would be more apt to obstruct the police than to cooperate with them, 36 percent of respondents said their agreement with that statement became even stronger.

The LSU study focuses on officers' opinions following the ambush attacks in Dallas and Baton Rouge, but according to preliminary data supplied to PoliceOne by NLEOMF, police officers have also been shot and killed in ambush attacks in Salt Lake City (Utah), Danville (Ohio), Bel Air (Maryland), Prince William (Virginia), Landover (Maryland), and Richmond (Virginia) in 2016 alone.

Indeed, according to the NLEOMF, the number of officers shot and killed in ambush attacks in 2016 was 20 — the highest total since 1995. The NLEOMF also reported that 44 officers were killed in fatal ambush shootings since 2014.

Not all ambush attacks are fatal. About 15 hours after the attack in Baton Rouge, two Sheboygan (Wisconsin) Police Department officers thwarted an ambush attempt during a robbery in progress call. In September 2016, University of Pennsylvania Police Officer Eddie Miller and Philadelphia Police Sergeant Sylvia Young survived a shooting rampage. Last October, two Boston police officers who were responding to a report of a domestic disturbance were wounded in an ambush attack. There were numerous others — too many to list here.

It's clear that these ambushes are having a major impact on officers — and a large number of officers responding to the LSU poll feel unsafe and under attack. Everyone in the profession needs to account and accommodate for this paradigm shift. Cops cannot conduct their daily duties effectively if they are feeling fear on the job.

Conclusion

In the past two or three years, we have perceived precipitous decline in morale among many police officers. As a consequence, the dominant focus of the 2017 LSU/PoliceOne survey was about officer morale.

The bad news is that in collecting the opinions of more than 3,300 police officers, we confirmed some of our assumptions that the profession is suffering — that these incidents impact officers' motivation to work and feeling of safety.

The good news is that there remains a strong core of officers who counter that opinion, saying that after the OIS in Ferguson and the numerous attacks on officers, they continued about their business, trying to not let those events affect their work.

I'm hopeful that this latter group of cops can positively influence the former, and that the proud profession of policing regains what confidence has been lost in recent years. They chose not to rely on self-destructive behaviors to deal with recent events, but found solace in family and fellow officers.

I'm hopeful also that the overwhelming majority of American citizens who respect and admire their police become more vocal in their support, somehow finding a way to drown out any anti-police sentiment which is pervading our public discourse and hurts officer morale.

With the data in hand from the LSU survey of PoliceOne members, perhaps we can affect these ends.

Regardless of what feelings officers express regarding the morale issues examined in the PoliceOne/LSU survey, we hope that the findings begin discussions that move us toward a more positive period for American police in the future.

In terms of possible solutions to these two problems, we need to at least open the conversation about what can be done. When faced with feelings that the public doesn't respect or support the police, officers can find on PoliceOne and other websites a number of positive stories of citizens committing random acts of kindness. With a perception that attacks on officers are increasing, agencies may want to consider the officer safety benefits of patrolling in pairs, and officers on the street should do their best to back up their fellow officers on as many calls as possible.

Alabama

Decatur Police Department seeks accreditation

by Anna Beahm

The Decatur Police Department is seeking accreditation for its community policing procedures and policies.

If accredited, through The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, DPD would be required to report yearly to CALEA to ensure it is following proper policing practices, essentially providing department oversight.

DPD is in the self-assessment stage of the accreditation process, and Chief Nate Allen said he is unsure when it will be complete. This stage could last up to three years, CALEA officials said.

“(Gaining accreditation) really helps us to show not only the community, but also our officers that these are the right practices for community policing and police work,” Allen said. “We're working hard at it every day and learning how we can do better.”

Community policing focuses on building relationships with the community.

This accreditation likely will not change the day-to-day operations of the department or require major changes in the department's policies, Allen said. However, it would ensure the department is following CALEA's standards for policies and procedures.

There are about 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the U.S. If accredited, DPD will become one of 676 in the nation and 12 agencies in the state to hold the accreditation.

CALEA is the only agency that provides accreditation for law enforcement agencies around the world, said Vince Dauro, CALEA Southeast Regional program manager.

The agency looks deeper than the law enforcement side of a department and into its management decisions and how it handles money received from citizens who purchase police reports and other documents, he said.

The department's current policies and procedures are based on CALEA standards, Allen said.

“We're pretty much there, but we have not had anyone come in and assess to make sure we are in line with best practices,” he said.

Police spokesman Lt. Proncey Robertson said the bulk of the work the department must do to become accredited is to rewrite and reorganize policies and procedures.

“There's a certain way CALEA wants us to have policies written,” Robertson said. “We'll have to rewrite some of our policies to meet their guidelines.”

Once the department feels it is ready for the site-based assessment, a team of evaluators will come to the department and spend three to four days observing the department's daily workings, doing ride-alongs with officers and interviewing members of the media and city officials to ensure the department is following its policies and procedures, Dauro said.

“Basically, they just have to prove that they are doing what they say they are,” he said.

The Police Department must submit annual reports to CALEA and participate in a yearly online assessment to maintain accreditation. Every four years, the department must participate in a site-based assessment to maintain accreditation.

Dauro, who retired from the Huntsville Police Department, said he was happy to hear Decatur was seeking accreditation.

“They wanted to do this to get better,” he said. “Our accredited agencies go through all this because they want to be the best.”

http://www.decaturdaily.com/news/morgan_county/decatur/decatur-police-department-seeks-accreditation/article_0dcfe4c3-7bdd-5ff4-823e-d8824533c99f.html

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Delaware

New Wilmington chief wants to replicate NYC, Chicago strategies

by Christina Jedra

Wilmington's new police chief, Robert J. Tracy, hopes to bring to Wilmington the crime reduction strategies he says were successful in New York City and Chicago.

"The overall philosophy is really to bring business management principles to police work," he said. "It's working with the communities, working with police officers, it's holding them accountable, it's giving them the resources to do their jobs, and holding myself accountable, too."

Tracy was chief of crime control strategies for Chicago from 2011 to 2016. Previously, he served 23 years with the New York City Police Department, where he ended his tenure as a captain and the director of the firearms suppression division. He also has private sector experience in security and crisis consulting.

Tracy's first day is Friday. In the coming weeks, he said he will conduct a "top to bottom review" of the department and will visit every neighborhood.

Unlike past chiefs, he has a lot of people to meet. Tracy's appointment marks the first time -- at least in the city's institutional memory -- that a chief has been hired from outside the department, according to John Rago, the mayor's deputy chief of staff for policy and communications.

"When it's been 125 years of (hirings) being internal, it's going to take getting used to," said Police Capt. Faheem Akil, who has served in Wilmington for over three decades. "But we move forward."

Tracy comes highly recommended with an impressive record of reducing crime in two major cities, Purzycki said.

We chose the chief in large measure because of his demonstrable technical and leadership skills, his reputation for fairness and building trust in the community and his unmatched background in advanced policing strategies," Purzycki said in announcing Tracy as his pick on Wednesday.

In Chicago, Tracy said he implemented crime reduction techniques that resulted in the lowest murder rate the city had seen in 50 years. He also said his strategies, policies and restructuring resulted in an over 30 percent reduction in crime during a four-year period and the lowest overall crime rate since 1972.

During Tracy's tenure, Chicago officials like Chief Garry McCarthy and Mayor Rahm Emanuel lauded the decrease. But some found the record crime drop unbelievable.

From 1993 to 2010, Chicago's annual crime levels dropped by 47 percent, according to Chicago police data reported by Chicago Magazine. But from 2010 to 2013, it dropped 56 percent -- nearly 19 percent every year -- the magazine reported.

The department's data tool, CompStat, put pressure on police personnel to decrease crime numbers, the magazine stated in its April 2014 report which relied on information from unnamed sources within the department and several case studies. The department's decrease in crime was in part attributed to changes to crime designations in the system, such as downgrading a homicide to "death investigation," the magazine reported.

Those findings were supported by a 2014 audit by the Chicago Inspector General, which found a 24 percent undercount in victim offenses and 21 percent error rate in the reporting sample the office examined. A follow-up audit the following year stated that the Chicago Police Department had fully corrected the problem.

Tracy stands by the crime reduction numbers on his résumé. He said they reflect numbers from after the follow-up audit.

"There was no pressure to fudge statistics," Tracy said. "I think it's holding them accountable for the job they're supposed to be doing and the strategies we have.... I'm looking for outcomes, I'm not looking for outputs."

Tracy is "definitely" bringing CompStat to Wilmington. He may also reimagine community policing in the city.

During his campaign, Purzycki said he wanted to bring back the community policing unit that was disbanded under Mayor Dennis P. Williams. The previous administration attempted to adopt a department-wide philosophy of community policing, wherein officers would engage more with residents, but residents have said they haven't seen the effects.

Tracy supports the department-wide strategy but will have to review its implementation, he said. He has ordered communication training for community police officers in the past, he said, and it might be necessary for Wilmington.

"Everyone has different personalities, but they also have a job to do, and they have to do it respectfully," Tracy said.

The new chief said he hopes to work collaboratively with county and federal partners to remove illegal guns from the street, which he calls "the gateway to murder."

"It's the gateway to them lashing out to get their respect," he said. "Twenty, thirty years ago they used rocks or fists. They're not doing that anymore."

The son of an NYPD homicide detective, Tracy is a husband and a father of five. He said he is moving his family into the city.

"I'm fully invested," he said.

Councilman Vash Turner said he was sad to see the departure of Chief Bobby Cummings, a Wilmington native.

"For the people born and raised here in Wilmington, you kind of lost one of your own," he said. As for Tracy, he is cautiously optimistic. "Data is one thing, but executing it in the community is another."

City Council President Hanifa Shabazz said she is looking forward to seeing Tracy's expertise in action.

"I don't think he comes with a silver bullet, but he comes with strategies that have proven to work in other cities."

http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2017/04/13/new-wilmington-chief-wants-replicate-success/100434016/

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New York

Neighborhood Policing Model Arrives in 115th Precinct in July

by Katie Honan and Nicholas Rizzi

JACKSON HEIGHTS — The city's new neighborhood policing initiative will be rolled out this summer in the 115th Precinct, officials said.

The policing approach, which was introduced in 2015 at a few precincts across the city, will begin in the precinct in July — bringing the number of neighborhood policing precincts to 47 out of 77.

The 106th Precinct in Howard Beach, the 83rd and 63rd Precincts in Brooklyn will also start the program in July.

The 123rd Precinct on Staten Island, along with the 25th Precinct in East Harlem, the 76th Precinct in Red Hook and the 94th Precinct in Greenpoint, will start April 24, the city announced Monday.

“Neighborhood policing is a philosophical change in the way that we police," NYPD Chief of Patrols Terence Monahan said at an event announcing the new precincts, and touting the program's successes.

"It's tying our cops to significant areas, to significant geography within the command.”

He, along with Commissioner James O'Neill, helped bring the ideology of the program to New York City after studying the community policing program in Los Angeles in 2014.

The goal was to re-evaluate how police officers worked, as crime reached record lows across the city.

Neighborhood coordination officers, or NCOs, are assigned to do proactive outreach in their precincts rather than wait to respond to 911 calls, according to the model. The NCOs get additional training, including getting public speaking and conflict resolution tools, to help improve their ability to build trust with locals to address crimes.

In the two years since it was launched in pilot precincts across the city, areas with NCOs saw a reduction in the seven major crimes, with the most significant decrease in shootings, newly-released statistics show.

Those were down nearly 30 percent over the last year. Shootings in precincts that aren't involved with the program saw a nearly 10 percent spike. during the same period.

But the initiative also saw heavy turnover, as officers left due to promotion. At the 101st Precinct in Far Rockaway, part of the pilot launch in 2015, 15 NCOs left.

Yet O'Neill said the new approach can help continue to keep crime down.

"This new philosophy will enable us, by working collectively with the public, to further reduce crime and keep New York the safest city in America," he said in a press release about NCOs.

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20170412/jackson-heights/115th-precinct-jackson-heights-corona-east-elmhurst-nco-neighborhood-policing

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Georgia

Editorial

Crime-fighting success should be extended elsewhere

Not long ago, people who lived in the city's Cann Park neighborhood west of MLK Jr. Boulevard and south of West Victory Dr. were prisoners in their own homes.

At night and even during daylight hours, the sounds of pop-pop-pop punctured the silence, as random gunfire reminded all that this residential area of Savannah was akin to a war zone.

Violent gang members controlled many of the leafy streets of this largely African-American, working-class neighborhood of tidy homes mostly within walking distance of Beach High School.

The older residents were intimidated by young gun-carrying hoodlums and were reluctant to cooperate with Metro police out of fear they would be targeted.

What an amazing difference the past year has made.

In March 2016, Metro police and the Chatham County District Attorney's Office combined forces with the federal government, including the U.S. Justice Department, to free Cann Park residents from the criminals who held them hostage.

The effort was a tremendous success. Nearly two dozen members of the two gangs that fought to control turf in Cann Park and terrorized its law-abiding residents — the aptly-named Cann Park Goons and the Fast Lane Gang — have fast-laned themselves into jail cells, where they belong.

The vastly improved crime statistics tell the story: Violent crime has dropped by 40 percent, aggravated assaults with a gun — which is police short-hand for gang members picking on residents or one another — are down a whopping 75 percent and “shots fired” calls to Metro police have fallen by half.

Residents who were once afraid to venture outside, sit on their porches or be seen talking to police officers now have their lives back for the first time in years. The quality of life, according to people who live there, has vastly improved.

This public safety turnaround in Cann Park is impressive and cause for celebration. Crime has long been a prime concern of citizens and voters here, and elsewhere. It has affected everything from property values to elections for public offices, including seats on City Council and the mayor's office.

And if this proven crime-fighting formula can work in Cann Park, there's no reason to think it can't work in other crime-riddled neighborhoods, like west Savannah, the Waters Avenue corridor in east Savannah, parts of the Victorian District, Tatumville, Edgemere-Sackville and other places too numerous to name.

In short, where there's a will to make a difference, which was the case with local and federal authorities in Cann Park, there's a way to do this elsewhere.

The 22 gang members who are now behind bars are off the streets because of the dedication of Metro Police Chief Joseph Lumpkin and his officers, District Attorney Meg Heap and her prosecutors, acting U.S. Attorney Jim Durham and his predecessor, U.S. Attorney Ed Tarver who resigned in March, and a host of unnamed federal agents and officers, who teamed up with local police to clean up the streets and make cases.

Their efforts were richly rewarded and should be much appreciated. And it's the kind of success that can't be measured by the number of arrests alone.

Lawmen also got 17 firearms off the street and seized what was termed a significant amount of illegal drugs, including heroin, cocaine, marijuana and MDMA.

The true measure of success is the degree to which Cann Park residents now feel more comfortable in their homes and neighborhoods. That comfort level has markedly improved.

The success of this operation also proved local authorities were correct in their earlier assumption that a relatively small group of criminals was responsible for much of the community's crime problems. Mr. Durham said he and his fellow lawmen were “in the business of removing the small number of folks who are causing violent crimes here in Savannah.”

“Today marks the end of a very successful operation,” he added. “Folks in Cann Park area (feel) little more safe.”

Those who were arrested on a variety of firearms and drug charges range in age from 19 to 44. They will receive federal prison terms with no parole and face supervised release sentences of three years when they finally get out.

While it is discouraging to see so many young men ruin their lives in this fashion, they made a choice and they chose poorly. Now they must pay a price.

Let's hope the punishments serves as a lesson and a deterrent. Indeed, would-be law-breakers should consider themselves warned.

Mr. Durham said federal prosecutions of violent crime by his office increased in 2016 by 50 percent. “We're going to charge even more this year,” he added.

Ms. Heap pointed out another essential part of this successful operation — building citizen trust of police, which had been fractured because of past police department scandals and the inability to fully implement community policing to allow for more interaction between patrol officers and citizens on their beats.

“It's going to take all of us,” she said, and she's right. Indeed, there are neighborhood watch signs on almost every block.

And while the good guys have won the battle for Cann Park against the gangs, the war for public safety continues in other neighborhoods of Savannah.

Local and federal authorities should extend this winning strategy elsewhere so that more Savannahians can feel safer on the streets and in their homes.

http://savannahnow.com/opinion/editorial/2017-04-12/editorial-crime-fighting-success-should-be-extended-elsewhere

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South Dakota

Drug crimes skyrocket in Deadwood

by Jaci Conrad

DEADWOOD — A drastic increase in drug related incidents and arrests constitute the number one threat to public safety in Deadwood, Police Chief Kelly Fuller, said as he shared stats regarding the issue as part of his annual report for 2016 to the city commission.

"In addition to our normal patrol duties and community policing activities, the department saw a drastic rise in drug related arrests and incidents," Fuller said. "In my opinion, the abuse and illegal distribution of methamphetamine, heroin, prescription drugs and other narcotics is the primary threat to public safety in our region."

In 2016, the Deadwood Police Department saw total drug offenses rise approximately 46 percent while felony drug arrests increased 130 percent.

"The majority of the felony drug arrests can be attributed to the possession or distribution of methamphetamine."

In an effort to combat the drug problem, the Deadwood City Commission agreed to fund a new position within the police department.

"This officer will serve as a fulltime drug investigator," Fuller said. "The drug investigator will not only investigate drug related crimes in our community, he will be involved with public drug related education and will assist other area law enforcement agencies to cooperatively fight this epidemic."

Fuller said this was the 14th year he has compiled and submitted the report, comparing numbers and looking for emerging trends or issues the community is having that changes the way he and Deadwood officers police.

"We take the information and develop strategies to keep the community safer," Fuller said. "A perfect example, go back to 2006. DUIs and assaults were the main life safety issues. Looking forward to today, 2016, we have developed strategies to combat that. Public transportation, taxes, trolleys, outside shuttle services and public education, to name a few. This year we had a record low of DUIs, 47, compared to 2006 when we had 252. So, we made headway making the highways safer."

A slight increase over 2015, the Deadwood Police Department made a total of 462 arrests in 2016.

Of the 47 DUI arrests made in 2016, 42 were misdemeanor arrests. Other misdemeanor arrests consisted of: simple assault, 52; possession of drug paraphernalia, 45; marijuana possession, 28; warrant arrests, 28; possession and consumption of alcohol under age 21, 27; public urination, 21; ingesting illegal substance, 22; displaying another's license, 21; disorderly conduct, 21; possession of revoked/suspended driver's license, 16; obstructing law enforcement officer, 14; resisting arrest, 13.

The Deadwood Police Department made 44 felony arrests in 2016.

"This number represents an approximate 36 percent rise in arrests for felonious crimes when compared to 2015," Fuller said.

Felony arrests in 2016 consisted of: possession of a controlled substance, 23; aggravated assault, three; grand theft, three; third offense DUI, three; refusal to supply DNA, three; aggravated domestic violence, two; fourth offense DUI, two; sexual contact without consent, one; failure to register as a sex offender, one; first degree burglary, one; fugitive from justice, two.

Officers also issued a total of 2,870 parking tickets in 2016, a 14 percent decrease compared to 2015, the most common violation being "overparked at the meter," which accounts for 63.3 percent of all issued tickets.

Fuller said that implementing new strategies to place officers on Main Street during bar closing has also resulted in a significant decrease in assaults.

"Bar fights are way down. Property damage is way down, just by having a presence on Main Street," Fuller said.

But some numbers continue to increase.

"The last couple years, the big thing is we have a drug problem," Fuller said. "Those numbers are alarming to me. Most can be contributed to meth possession or distribution, around 99 percent. We're already halfway to last year's totals by the end of March. It's not getting better. It's getting worse."

As of March 8, the department had already made 10 felony arrests for the possession and distribution of controlled substances.

Fuller said the drug problem affects other crimes.

"Burglaries, thefts, we've been getting increased reports of prostitution," Fuller said. "Often times violent crimes have a drug component to them. It's important to monitor what effect the drug problem is having on other types of crimes."

With 1,174 traffic stops and 5,923 calls for service, the Deadwood Police Department was busy over the past year.

"This tally (calls for service) represents a 4 percent decrease when compared to 2015," Fuller said. "One factor that undoubtedly attributed to this small decrease was the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Sturgis celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2015, which brought a record number of motorcycle enthusiasts into our region. The 2016 Sturgis Rally saw far fewer people in attendance and the demand for services were typical for a small Rally."

In 2016, the department issued a total of 356 citations and 818 written warnings for various traffic violations.

"Speeding continues to be the primary traffic safety issue impacting the community," Fuller said. "Officers issued 190 citations for speeding in 2016 and another 277 written warnings for this violation. Speeding accounts for 53 percent of all traffic citations issued and 34 percent of all written warnings. The area of Deadwood most affected by speeding issues continues to be U.S. Highway 85 (Deadwood Hill)."

In addition to speeding, no insurance, driving under suspension, stop light violations, open alcohol container in a motor vehicle, no valid driver's license and expired license plates accounted for the majority of citations issued.

In addition to speeding, headlights required, stop light violations, Lane driving, stop sign violations, tail light violations, no insurance and careless driving accounted for the majority of written warnings issued for traffic offenses.

"It should be noted that out of 1,174 traffic stops, warnings were issued approximately 70 percent of the time," Fuller said, clarifying why the department conducts traffic stops.

"We're trying to reduce accidents and improve public safety," Fuller said. "We don't want to penalize people. We want to gain compliance and a lot of times, that can be accomplished with a warning."

Fuller then pointed to several positive aspects of departmental efforts for 2017.

"On a positive note, we're extremely proud of our community policing efforts," Fuller said. "We've got one of the best school resource officer programs in the state, with an officer both at the elementary and high school, foot patrols, door checks. The success of any good community policing program is the relationships officers build with residents and business owners in the community."

As part of its community policing efforts over the past year, the Deadwood Police Department helped businesses train employees on CPR, made an effort to reduce resident response to scams with a training held at the VFW, among other efforts.

http://www.bhpioneer.com/local_news/drug-crimes-skyrocket-in-deadwood/article_5b204bc0-1f8e-11e7-81f2-c770b51daec8.html

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Connecticut

Norwalk Police Department takes to social media

by Leslie Lake and Barry Lytton

NORWALK — Police forces trying to get in get in touch with their communities have gone to where the people are — on social networks. Among the millions of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts online there are now countless agencies using social media to solve crimes, publicize anonymous tip lines and reach out.

Each department has adapted to the social media age at different times, and is using online tools and services in different ways. Some post photos of suspects and others recruit people to join their ranks. Several use accounts to publish missing people reports, public safety warnings and messages that show the lighter side of policing. A few departments even publish lost dog posters and help their constituents search for lost wedding rings.

“We utilize social media in a similar way to print media, but this is another way to reach the community with a variety of information,” Lt. Terry Blake, a Norwalk Police Department spokesman, said.

The police resource website, policeone.com, lays out four main goals of social media for police departments, which include: Building a trustworthy relationship and a sense of community; gaining control over the department's reputation with the community; providing a forum for people to ask questions and for police to share tips; and spreading knowledge quickly with information to protect the community, find missing persons and help catch suspects.

Within the past week, the Norwalk Police Department's Facebook page has posted reminders for residents to lock their cars after a rash of car burglaries; a release highlighting the achievements of Officers of the Month; notification of weekly Coffee With a Cop outreach events; and a request for help in locating a woman wanted for larceny and credit card theft.

Social media has also been a significant resource for police in crime-solving, Blake said.

“We receive information via social media, through our website or text tips, that have made a significant difference in some cases,” he said.

Blake is referring to anonymous contact information for the public that is posted on every news release from police.

“Anonymous tips can be left at any of the following: Norwalk police tip line 203-854-3111; anonymous internet tips sent to www.norwalkpd.com; and text tips by typing NPD into text field, followed by themessage, and sent to CRIMES (274637).”

The department uses a variety of social media, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

“We've been doing this for quite some time,” Blake said. “It's another way for us to communicate with the community.”

Monroe Police Chief John Salvatore, who is president of Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, said he's a fan of his department's social networking. His force's first post, a screenshot of a suspect on Jan. 5, 2016, was a big success.

“We received an overwhelming response and several tips,” he said. “These tips led to an arrest warrant and the person depicted in the photo was arrested.”

Salvatore said almost every police force in the state has a social media presence. Some are more savvy than others, he added, but the push to get agencies online has become common.

“It helps us solve crimes and it helps with community outreach,” Salvatore said. “I think everyone sees the value in it.”

Some departments handle social media through assigned officers, while others place it in community service or outreach offices.

Connecticut State Police, with 5,543 square miles of coverage, seems to have the most open approach to social media. In Middletown, where it is based, witticisms and public safety messages are posted by spokespeople, said Sgt. Eric Haglund. But throughout the state, several troopers have access to the department's Twitter account to post breaking news, including road closures or significant arrests.

The state police may be the most amusing Connecticut department on the web. During a recent snowstorm, it shared a wanted poster for Mother Nature while publishing photos of police dogs playing around in the snow.

Officers in departments across the state describe their approach to social media as cautious, but encouraged. Potential pitfalls, police say, are mistakenly releasing information that could harm an investigation, pointing to the wrong guy in a search for tips or even getting hacked. Moreover, they say, the web's expansiveness sometimes leads to unnecessary contention.

http://www.thehour.com/news/article/Norwalk-Police-Department-takes-to-social-media-11075567.php

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Pennsylvania

Things we learned from Pa. barracks ambush suspect's confession

The 33-year-old college dropout, who eluded capture for nearly seven weeks after the ambush, faces a potential death sentence if he's convicted

by Michael Rubinkam

MILFORD, Pa. — He decided to attack a state police barracks only a few days before squeezing the trigger. He was surprised the manhunt for him wasn't more aggressive. He feared he'd be shot by police but figured he had it coming.

Eric Frein's videotaped statement to police, recorded on the night of his 2014 capture and aired publicly for the first time during his capital murder trial last week, offered new details into what the suspect was thinking and doing before, during and after the deadly ambush that killed one trooper and left a second with devastating injuries.

While chain-smoking cigarettes given to him by police, Frein answered many of the investigators' questions with a nod or shake of the head - and, in the process, implicated himself over and over.

His attorney, Michael Weinstein, told reporters after the video was played in court that "it's not for us to decide if it's a confession." But he added the video showed Frein displayed "legitimate remorse."

The 33-year-old college dropout, who eluded capture for nearly seven weeks after the ambush, faces a potential death sentence if he's convicted in the attack that killed Cpl. Bryon Dickson. He's pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors have said they could rest their case this week.

Some things we learned about Frein from the video and from other evidence presented at his trial:

PLAN DEVELOPED QUICKLY

Frein told police he began plotting the ambush the first weekend of September, only a few days before the Sept. 12, 2014, attack. He used Google Earth to scope out state police barracks near his home in Canadensis, picking the Blooming Grove station because it was surrounded by woods and offered good cover. He said he didn't visit the area ahead of time and knew no one at the barracks.

___

HIDE AND SEEK

Frein wasn't exactly on the run during a large portion of the manhunt. He told police he spent most of his time as one of America's most wanted men living in an airplane hangar attached to a defunct and abandoned Poconos resort more than 20 miles from the shooting scene. It was stocked with everything he needed to live in relative comfort, though he did say he burglarized a home a few days before his capture to steal food. He called it "scary" and "a little bit disconcerting" to be the target of a manhunt but added he didn't care if he got caught.

___

RELUCTANT TO OFFER MOTIVE

Faced repeatedly with questions about why he did it, Frein demurred. "I don't know," he said at one point. At another, Frein seemed to suggest he was dissatisfied with his life as a 31-year-old man who lived with his parents and had few job prospects. Finally, toward the end, he agreed with the investigators' suggestions that he shot Dickson and Trooper Alex Douglass to "wake people up" and force a change in government. He complained there was no one worth voting for.

Another key piece of evidence - a letter to his parents - lends credence to the idea that Frein was a wannabe revolutionary. He wrote that only another revolution can "get us back the liberties we once had."

___

CLAIMS TO BE RELIGIOUS

Asked if he considered himself a man of faith, Frein nodded his head yes. He talked about Old Testament prophesy and the New Testament book of Luke. He made the sign of the cross when an investigator said "thank God" nobody got seriously hurt during the manhunt. He spoke of his soul and said "there's already enough to answer for."

And, in a handwritten journal recovered from the hangar, he asked Jesus Christ for mercy.

Frein did not square his professions and displays of piety with the sniper who plotted, laid in wait and chose his victims at random.

US Drops Most Powerful Non-Nuclear Bomb in Afghanistan

by Oriana Pawlyk

The U.S. military on Thursday dropped the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in its arsenal against the Islamic State in Afghanistan, marking the first ever combat use of the massive ordnance.

An Air Force MC-130 special operations aircraft dropped the 21-000-pound GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or MOAB, bomb against militants affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria's branch called Khorasan, or ISIS-K, which operates in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to U.S. Central Command.

"As ISIS-K's losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defense," Gen. John W. Nicholson, commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, said in a statement, referring to improvised explosive devices. "This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against ISIS-K."

The strike took place at 7:32 p.m. local time and targeted a tunnel complex in the Achin district in Nangarhar province, according to the statement.

The mission comes less than a week after a U.S. Green Beret was killed in action Saturday in the same province. Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, 37, of Edgewood, Maryland, died of injuries sustained when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

During a brief press conference, President Donald Trump was asked whether he authorized the mission.

"Everybody knows exactly what happened," he said. "We have given them total authorization and that's what they're doing," he added, referring to military leaders. "Frankly, that's why they've been so successfully lately ... we have incredible leaders in the military and ... we are very proud of them. This was another very, very successful mission."

When asked whether use of the bomb -- known as the "mother of all bombs" -- sends a message to North Korea, which has threatened to test more missiles and nuclear weapons, the president said, "I don't know … It doesn't make any difference if it does or doesn't. North Korea is a problem, the problem will be taken care of."

At a White House briefing earlier in the day, spokesman Sean Spicer confirmed the GBU-43 was dropped on a cave and tunnel complex used by the ISIS offshoot.

"We must deny them operational space, which we did," he said.

To illustrate how big the GBU-43 conventional ordnance is, a Tomahawk cruise missile -- the type of munition recently launched from U.S. warships into Syria in response to a chemical attack -- weigh about 1,000 pounds.

The bomb, which is made by Dynetics Inc., releases from a weapon cradle in the MC-130 within seconds and relies on Global Positioning Satellites, or GPS, for guidance, according to an Air Force official who spoke to Military.com on background. It features controllable fins to accurately maneuver to within less than eight meters of the intended target, the official said.

Based in part on technology from Soviet-era intercontinental ballistic missiles, as previously reported by DefenseOne, the MOAB was tested at Eglin in 2003 but until Thursday has never been used in combat.

The bomb has the highest yield of any conventional ordnance in the U.S. stockpile. (The biggest, however, is the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator.) Yet while the GBU-43 isn't a penetrating bomb, the force of the blast would likely kill militants in tunnels and potentially anyone in the vicinity.

"U.S. forces took every precaution to avoid civilian casualties with this strike," according to the statement, and "will continue offensive operations until ISIS-K is destroyed in Afghanistan."

Thomas Donnelly, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said it was "about time" the munition was employed.

"The narrow valleys of eastern Afghanistan have been redoubts of insurgents for centuries," he said. "The MOAB was made for operations like this, and perhaps the terrain even enhanced its effects."

Donnelly added, "While, as in Syria, one mission does not a doctrine make, this is a small but encouraging sign that the Trump team is getting serious about the wars it inherited; they might simply have thrown up their hands, blamed their predecessors for the sorry state of affairs and walked away."

Jason Dempsey, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and former Army infantry officer who deployed twice to Afghanistan and has written extensively about the country, said it's unlikely the strike caused many civilian casualties because Nangarhar is very remote and mountainous.

"I'm sure this is ISIS making a pretty big mistake of setting up something remotely and massing," he said in a telephone interview with Military.com.

Dempsey also downplayed the symbolism of the military's decision to use this particular munition.

"It's a bomb, it's the same as dropping 20 smaller bombs," he said. "And it's going for very distinct effect. It's a cave complex, and to destroy a cave complex you need a giant bomb. So for one, I'm not too wrapped up on the uniqueness of the bomb."

Dempsey added, "This is a reflection of our future in Afghanistan, and it's the best tool we have with the reduced footprint. As Afghanistan transitions to what will be almost solely a counterterrorism mission, we've got a group of folks there monitoring transnational terrorist threats, and when they pop up, we're going to bomb them. We certainly can't send the Afghans into a complex like this. This is the new normal for Afghanistan."

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/04/13/us-drops-most-powerful-non-nuclear-bomb-afghanistan.html

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Georgia

Second Gwinnett officer fired after new traffic stop video surfaces

by Tyler Estep and Christian Boone

One controversial incident has now led to the termination of two Gwinnett County police officers.

Gwinnett police announced just before 7 p.m. Thursday that Sgt. Michael Bongiovanni, who had been with the department for more than two decades, had been fired. The announcement came shortly after a new video from a Wednesday afternoon traffic stop near Lawrenceville surfaced — and just a few hours after a colleague, Master Police Officer Robert McDonald, was fired for his actions during the same incident.

McDonald was fired after a video posted on social media showed him kicking a suspect in a traffic stop in the face while he lied on the ground. A second video showing Bongiovanni, who had not previously been accused of wrongdoing, emerged online late in the afternoon.

It shows Bongiovanni punching the same suspect, 21-year-old Demetrius Hollins, in the face while Hollins has his hands up.

The second video gained traction after it was posted by a Twitter account called @GaFollowers. It was unclear who originally shot the video.

“The revelations uncovered in this entire investigation are shocking,” police department spokesman Cpl. Deon Washington said in a news release. “We are fortunate that this second video was found and we were able to move swiftly to terminate the supervisor who lied and stepped outside his training and state law.”

Bongiovanni did not mention the punch or any use of force in his incident report or in subsequent interviews with investigators, police Chief Butch Ayers said.

Bongiovanni was hired in 1998 and graduated from the police academy in February 1999, police said. The sergeant's personnel file was not immediately available.

A criminal investigation has been launched into Bongiovanni's actions, as well as those of McDonald. Before news of Bongiovanni's termination spread, Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said he “anticipated” there being criminal charges filed against his colleague.

“We acknowledge that the actions of these two officers have implications that will be felt for some time,” the department's final Thursday night news release said. “However, we also believe that our decisive action in terminating both officers speaks volumes about what is expected of each officer that wears a Gwinnett County police badge.”

The incident unfolded shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday when Bongiovanni tried to initiate a traffic stop near Sugarloaf Parkway and Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road.

The red Acura Integra driven by 21-year-old Demetrius Bryan Hollins did not have a license plate, and Hollins changed lanes multiple times without signalling, according to an incident report. Hollins' did not immediately pull over, but his car eventually stalled out.

According to Bongiovanni's report, the car smelled of marijuana and Hollins “began to act strange,” saying he wanted to call his mother. Bongiovanni asked Hollins to get out of the car and he resisted, the report said.

Bongiovanni eventually Tasered Hollins, pinned him on the ground and handcuffed him.

That's when the roughly two-minute cellphone video captured by bystander Kent Jones starts.

Bongiovanni struggles briefly with a screaming Hollins before bringing him under control. About 45 seconds into the video, McDonald is seen jogging into the frame, barely slowing down before stomping on Hollins' face.

“You're supposed to protect and serve,” Jones told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday. “That's not protecting and serving right there. That's brutality all day.”

Before the new video of Bongiovanni surfaced, Ayers said McDonald had been called as back-up after the suspect initially resisted arrest but that, by the time he arrived, the situation was largely under control. McDonald, said the police chief, was not.

“He was responding to a tense situation… and basically proceeded to get what I call tunnel vision,” the chief said. “He did something we don't teach in our academy.”

Jones' video ends as Hollins is placed on the trunk of his car.

Hollins was ultimately charged with possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and obstruction of a police officer as well as several traffic citations, including driving on a suspended or revoked license, operating a vehicle with suspended or revoked registration, failure to signal and “brake lights required.”

His bloodied nose and lips are clearly visible in his mug shot.

“All I can say is I wish this never happened to me,” Hollins told Channel 2 Action News after he was released from jail.

http://www.ajc.com/news/local/second-gwinnett-officer-fired-after-new-traffic-stop-video-surfaces/GsCfBeNhcjAXkTw7f2cPxL/

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New York

Police commissioner on homicides: ‘We are in the midst of a war'

by Newsday Staff

Two other young men found brutally slain in a Central Islip park this week were identified by their family Friday as a Brentwood teen and his cousin who had been visiting from Florida.

Michael Banegas, 18, of Brentwood, and Jefferson Villalobos, 18, of Pompano, Florida, were among the four bodies found in the park on Wednesday night, their families said. Villalobos had been visiting Banegas and had arrived with his family on Long Island last Friday, said a cousin, Yensy Fuentes.

Fuentes, 20, of Pompano, Florida, said police told her family Wednesday evening that the two were among the dead.

The families went to the park Friday morning to lay flowers and crosses at the site where the bodies werwere discovered.

“It just gives us peace in our hearts and makes us feel better,” Fuentes explained.

were discovered.

“It just gives us peace in our hearts and makes us feel better,” Fuentes explained.

Suffolk police have not officially released the identities of the victims. The families of the other two victims — Jorge Tigre, 18, of Bellport and Justin Llivicura, 16, of East Patchogue — said police had told them the young men were found murdered at the park.

The discovery of the bodies prompted Suffolk County's top cop Thursday to declare war on MS-13, a violent street gang believed to behind a spate of slayings in the Brentwood area.

Meanwhile, a graphic video purportedly depicting the dead bodies was sent Thursday to Justin's girlfriend; the teenager's family said the video showed their son to be among the bodies.

Suffolk police did not immediately comment on the video. But in a news conference Thursday afternoon, Suffolk Police Commissioner Timothy Sini called the slayings “a stark reminder that we are in the midst of a war.”

“We're going to continue that war,” Sini said, standing across the street from where the four bodies were found Wednesday night.

The victims had “significant trauma” to their bodies, Sini said.

Police discovered the victims about 8 p.m. Wednesday, several hundred feet south of a soccer field in a park bounded by Clayton Street and Lowell Avenue. But Sini would not say how police were alerted to the crime scene.

The four were apparently killed with a “sharp or edged instrument,” he said. Although the commissioner said investigators “have not ruled out other possibilities at this point,” he added that the manner of the slayings was “consistent with the modus operandi of MS-13.”

Sources familiar with the investigation said the bodies were mutilated, worked over with both blunt and sharpened weapons, presumably bats and machetes.

Sini said the exact date and time of the killings won't be released publicly, but that the four homicides occurred at the same time “within the past few days” at the park.

Just before 9 a.m. Friday, four Town of Islip Park Department employees were busy washing a section of a paved trail where the four bodies were found.

The section of trail is located at the southwest corner of the park, said Town Parks Commissioner Tom Owens, who was at the scene supervising the cleanup efforts. The trail can be accessed from an opening in the fence on Lowell Avenue, just a short distance from East Chestnut Street.

“They went through the fence to get back here, unfortunately,” said Owens.

Blanca Zhicat and Marcelo Llivicura said their son's girlfriend was sent a video of the bodies and in it they recognized their son, who was wearing the same clothes as when they last saw him Tuesday night. He had said he was going to a party in Manhattan.

When the girlfriend got the video Thursday afternoon, she alerted the parents, and they said they called the police.

Justin was reported as a missing person to Suffolk police on Wednesday at 7:08 p.m., and the investigation began “within three minutes,” police said.

On Friday morning, two friends of Justin's family sat in the living room of the family's light-yellow house in East Patchogue near an altar the family had created in the teenager's honor.

Four tall glass candles — two with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, one with Jesus, the other clear — sat on a white tablecloth in front of a framed photo of a then-10-year-old Justin.

“He was a good person,” Marcelo Llivicura said in Spanish. “He never got into gangs, never smoked. From what I saw here, I never saw anything bad.”

Llivicura said his son loved listening to traditional Ecuadorean music and working on his white Scion, which was still parked in the driveway Friday. He also enjoyed playing and talking with his three sisters, ages 4, 12 and 19.

“He was very laid-back,” he said.

Llivicura paused as photos of his son and Tigre flashed onto his television screen during a News 12 Long Island report on the murders.

“There he is,” Llivicura said in Spanish, before briefly switching to English to softly say, “The blue shirt.”

They often keep the television on to see if there are updates on the case.

Marcelo Llivicura's brother-in-law, José Yanza, 48, said in Spanish that his nephew “was very respectful, very well-mannered.”

Yanza said Justin volunteered to help not only around his own home, but at Yanza's, which is nearby in East Patchogue and where the teen would come a few days a week to socialize with Yanza's two daughters and son

“When someone was doing something, he always liked to help — in the kitchen, with work, cleaning the house, everything,” Yanza said.

Family was paramount, he said.

“I can't say anything bad about him,” he said. “He never did anything wrong.”

Relatives of Tigre said police told them he is among the dead. Tigre's brother, William Tigre, 21, of Bellport, told reporters that he got a call from a friend at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday saying his brother was injured and at the park.

“He told me my brother was hurt . . . He just told me, ‘quick your brother was there. I saw him there, and you've got to go there,' ” William Tigre said.

Tigre said he spoke to investigators at the scene, but he did not get any information from them.

Jorge Tigre had been reported missing to Suffolk police at 3:28 p.m. Wednesday and police began searching for him at 3:36 p.m., police said Thursday.

Police would not say Thursday whether the two young men were among the homicide victims.

Sini announced a $25,000 “fast cash reward” — to be paid within 72 hours and in conjunction with Suffolk Crime Stoppers — for information leading to the arrest of whomever committed the killings, and stressed that the department is working closely with the FBI to solve the case.

FBI spokeswoman Amy Thoreson said the FBI's Long Island Gang Task Force is working with Suffolk police on the investigation.

“The recent gang violence in the area is the Long Island Gang Task Force's number one priority, and we are asking anyone with information about what happened to contact us at 631-501-8600,” Thoreson said in a statement.

The discovery comes six weeks after more than a half-dozen members of MS-13 — the violent street gang with ties to El Salvador — were charged in the killings of Brentwood teens Kayla Cuevas, 16, and Nisa Mickens, 15, and an MS-13 member, Jose Peña-Hernandez, 18, officials said.

Sources said MS-13 members are under intense pressure under the gang's violent anti-social code to “put in work” — that is, to kill those perceived as rivals, such as members of other gangs or people believed to have disrespected the gang. Refusal to “put in work,” according to the sources, can result in the reluctant gang member being targeted for death for defying the gang code.

And increasing the pressure for violence, there are large numbers of gang members newly arrived on Long Island, mainly from El Salvador, who have yet to prove themselves unless they engage in violence, the sources said.

The killings of the Brentwood girls, who were found beaten with bats and machetes, and the discovery of several sets of skeletal remains of other young victims, shocked the community and prompted Suffolk police to conduct a monthslong sweep, resulting in more than 125 arrests on state charges, aimed at wiping out the street gang and gaining intelligence.

Sini said Thursday that investigators would continue with strategies, including concentrating on intelligence, that have been working to tamp down gang activity in an “all-hands-on-deck” assault. He added cops also would deploy new strategies that would not be publicly revealed.

“No doubt, we've made tremendous progress, we've solved several murders, including Nisa and Kayla. We've made hundreds of arrests,” Sini said. “But this is a long-term war. And make no mistake about it, it's a war.”

RECENT VICTIMS

Suffolk police have said they believe at least 11 homicides in Brentwood and Central Islip since September 2016 are gang-related.

•  Nisa Mickens, 15, found Sept. 13 in a wooded area in Brentwood.

•  Kayla Cuevas, 16, found Sept. 14 near where Mickens' body was found.

•  Oscar Acosta, 19, found Sept. 16 in a wooded, industrial area in Brentwood.

•  Miguel Garcia Morán, 15, found Sept. 21 in the same area near the LIRR tracks as Acosta's remains.

•  Dewann A.S. Stacks, 34, found Oct. 13 in Brentwood. Stacks had been walking along American Boulevard when he was assaulted, police said.

•  Jose Peña-Hernandez, 18, found on Oct. 17 in a wooded area of the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood.

•  Esteban Alvarado-Bonilla, 29, shot and killed inside a Central Islip deli on Jan. 30.

•  Four young men, found in a Central Islip park on Wednesday. Family members identified two of them as Justin Llivicura, 16, of East Patchogue, and Jorge Tigre, 18, of Bellport.

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/crime/other-2-bodies-in-central-islip-park-slaying-ided-by-police-1.13464988

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Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh focuses 'community policing' on 18 neighborhoods

by Bob Bauder

Pittsburgh has boosted its police ranks to the point where it can afford to have 18 officers walking daily beats in 18 city neighborhoods, officials said.

Mayor Bill Peduto and police Chief Scott Schubert outlined plans Thursday for the community police initiative set to begin this year. Schubert called the program an important crime-reduction effort and said he hopes to expand to other neighborhoods.

“It gives us an opportunity to have somebody in that particular neighborhood every day of the week, same time,” Schubert told reporters gathered for a police recruit graduation ceremony in East Liberty. “You get the familiarity with the officer and you build that relationship, you build that trust. It's going to help in the end by helping partner the officers with the community and hopefully reduce crime, reduce disorder and bring us together.”

A rift between the police bureau and residents in neighborhoods made up mostly of minorities, prompted Peduto and former Chief Cameron McLay to create programs geared toward mending community relations. Officers attended neighborhood gatherings and sponsored events designed to bring cops and residents together. McLay assigned officers to walk beats in crime-ridden neighborhoods such as Homewood.

Pittsburgh now has enough officers to expand those efforts, according to public safety spokeswoman Sonya Toler. Once numbering more than 1,000 officers, police ranks dipped below 800 in recent years because of the city's financial crisis. As of Thursday, the city had 912 officers including 28 recruits going through training, Toler said.

“This is not a change in philosophy or a change in policing,” she said. “It's the luxury of having enough staffing now where we can say, “Your patrol is going to include walking and talking and building those relationships.'”

Robert Swartzwelder, president of Fraternal Order of Police Fort Pitt Lodge No. 1, said the department continues to lose officers through retirements — 25 officers have resigned or retired so far this year. He said specialized details place a greater strain on patrol cops.

“Although it might be a good idea, you realistically don't have the staffing to do it,” he said of the neighborhood beats. “I'm sure our grievances are going to go up and our overtime is going to go up.”

Toler said officers assigned to neighborhoods would answer calls as they normally would, but have the added duty of meeting with residents. She said the program would be cost neutral.

The police bureau's budget for 2017 is $98.5 million, the largest in city government. It covers salaries for 1,070 employees, including 892 officers. Officers' base salaries range from $43,833 in the first year to $65,432 for those with more than four years service.

Schubert said commanders from the city's six stations would select officers to serve on the community patrols based on experience in building relationships and skills in problem solving and communications.

They will be assigned to the following neighborhoods: Brightwood, East Allegheny, Troy Hill, Downtown, Hill District, Uptown, Allentown, Carrick, Knoxville, Hazelwood, Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, East Hills, Homewood, Lincoln-Lemington, Beechview, Elliott and Sheraden.

Toler said neighborhoods were chosen by department supervisors based on crime and poverty levels and existing relations between officers and residents or business owners. She said Shadyside and Squirrel Hill aren't considered violent crime areas, but they have regular episodes of “nuisance” incidents that include such things as vandalism, purse snatchings and car break-ins.

“If you talk to the businesses out there in any of those districts you're going to hear shop owners talking about the nuisance type of crimes,” she said.

http://triblive.com/local/allegheny/12192614-74/pittsburgh-focuses-community-policing-on-18-neighborhoods

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Ohio

Editorial

Community, police must be partners

By now, many Columbus residents have seen the disturbing video of city police officer Zachary Rosen using brute force on a suspect who was being restrained and held face-down on the pavement by another officer.

Rosen is seen delivering a single kick to 26-year-old Demarko Anderson on Saturday in Linden. The police union leader says the kick was to the shoulder, not the head. Others disagree.

This is the important detail: A man who, at the moment, did not seem to be resisting, was kicked by an officer in such a way that his head bounced off the pavement. He was not seriously injured.

Yet the denunciations have piled on — from the mayor, state representatives and the NAACP. While this community has been willing to withhold judgment in several tragic police shootings until facts were examined, Rosen's involvement in this incident adds a new level of concern to this case: He was one of two plainclothes officers who fatally shot Henry Green, 23, last year in Linden. His actions were found by a grand jury to not warrant a charge.

The police chief said the incidents aren't connected. Except that they involve the same officer and the same question about an officer's judgment in using force, be it a kick or a trigger-pull.

And they are related in another way: The investigation in the Green case made it clear that witnesses can differ greatly in their perceptions and recollections. Green either pointed a gun at officers, or the officers jumped from their car and started shooting, depending on which witness is talking.

Likewise, as Police Chief Kim Jacobs points out in the Anderson case, the video represents a “snippet” in time. There is little context. What's not seen on the video is the scene reported earlier: Anderson is accused of firing into a house, terrifying residents, and bloodying an officer during an escape attempt.

Linden can be a rough neighborhood. And police have a tough job to keep the peace and stay alive. The real question is this: Was Rosen's kick appropriate force to subdue a suspect, or was there another motive? It's important not to rush to judgment and allow the chief to carry out her investigation, which she said she would complete in two weeks.

Regardless of what the investigation finds, this video drives home that this community and its police force have a lot of work to do. Just as people who live in a high-crime neighborhood shouldn't be seen as criminals — Linden is home to many good people trying to live a good life and raise families — all of Columbus police shouldn't be judged by the actions of a few.

We are all governed by law. That includes law-enforcement. Most people truly want to support officers, but that doesn't mean we can't critically review their actions to improve policing.

We've come to a standoff: Police have become targets, and residents of some neighborhoods — the black community in particular — are frightened.

Officers know that virtually everyone has a cellphone camera, and body cameras for officers are on the way. This must provide extra incentive for by-the-book behavior.

But legalistic conduct won't solve this problem. Police officers and the community must become partners in sincere problem-solving, not just crime-fighting in troubled communities. We can reduce tension and work toward better relations by seeing the world through each other's eyes and resolving to work with, not against, each other.

http://www.dispatch.com/opinion/20170414/editorial-community-police-must-be-partners

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Indiana

Town hall held on 'race, justice, policing'

by Kelley Smith

MICHIGAN CITY – Local professionals and public figures from La Porte County got together to discuss “Race, Justice, Community and Policing” in a town hall forum under the same name at the Michigan City High School auditorium Tuesday night.

Sparked by recent acts of violence between police and citizens and the national outrage and racial polarization that accompanies them, the town hall's intent was to foster dialogue among law enforcement, government officials, community leaders and the general public.

Moderator Garrard McClendon, host of Lakeshore Public Media's “CounterPoint with Garrard McClendon,” facilitated the televised discussion, directing questions to individual panelists. Audience members also asked questions from a microphone off-stage.

Panelists included La Porte County Prosecutor John Espar; Erika Stallworth, executive director of the La Porte County Juvenile Services Center; Kevin McElmurry, sociology professor at Indiana University Northwest and board member for ACLU Indiana; La Porte County NAACP President Wesley Scully; Michigan City Mayor Ron Meer; and Asst. Chief Julie Smith of the La Porte Police Department.

General topics of discussion included overt bias during traffic stops, de-escalation during police-civilian interaction, intervention for juvenile offenders, racial bias in prosecution and sentencing, community policing and racial representation within police departments, zero-tolerance policies, the school-to-prison pipeline, appropriate discussion of racial issues for children, white privilege versus “feeling other,” and more.

The panel also discussed specific, high-profile cases – including the 2016 police shootings of Philando Castile and Terence Crutcher, the 2014 death of Eric Garner at the hands of police, and the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin by a private citizen – and how such cases are relevant at the local level.

Smith's answers came from her background as a police officer. She said law enforcement functions based on significant personal discretion, but is supported by ongoing training on various topics, including diversity.

“Everyone brings their experiences to the table. If they're positive, everything will go well. If they're negative, things may go awry,” she said, referring to interactions between police and people of color.

She added that she encourages her officers to get out of their cars and engage the community, especially young people. “Get to know them on a human level, not a label level,” she said.

Meer said he feels it's his duty to try to minimize the racial divide in Michigan City, and cited multiple instances in which he has participated in joint initiatives involving local police, the NAACP, church and other community leaders, and the public.

He said job creation has been a priority for him, as he believes that eases some of the stress of the “very complex issue” of racial disparity; and likened the necessity of doing so to the necessity of caring for one's body. When one has an ailment or injury in one part of his or her body, the rest of the body is affected; just as when one segment of the community is struggling, it poses a problem for the community as a whole, he said.

Scully confirmed local police and government officials work with the NAACP and other groups in the community to open the lines of communication between law enforcement and civilians, namely people of color. He said he believes the low representation of black police officers is a result of the general lack of trust people of color have in police; and has been pushing for a minority hiring quota at the Michigan City Police Department like the one held by the Michigan City Fire Department.

Systemic racism is a topic Scully understands from the perspective of the group on the receiving end of it, he explained. Racism is deeper than individual biases; it is systemic and imposed by one group upon another. Specifically, he said, the black community in its minority status is not in a position to make decisions that affect the white community. The white community, however, functions as the majority, especially when it comes to positions of power, giving them the ability to affect many aspects of life for people of color.

“Until you deal with (racism) face-to-face, the separatism is just going to get wider and wider and wider,” he said.

McElmurry discussed how races function “together alone” at the local level, noting people of different races don't tend to live, shop or worship together. He said deeply embedded biases that people want to believe are a thing of the past still exist in 2017, causing arrest rates to be higher and prison terms to be longer for people of color. He contends the statistics are not anecdotal but facts that society must accept as reality; and said the challenge is to focus on what to do about them moving forward.

Espar said that when a crime appears to have been racially motivated, he wants his deputy prosecutors to be energized by the injustice as they work toward conviction and sentencing. He also acknowledged the existence of subtle racial bias in the prosecution of criminal cases; and said the key is to recognize where those biases exist, and consciously work to eliminate them.

Prosecution and sentencing should be based only on the gravity and nature of an offense and the offender's past criminal history, Espar said. “In truth, it's never easy. It's always a heavy responsibility.”

Stallworth, who is an attorney in addition to her role at the juvenile services center, said it's important to reach juvenile offenders as early as possible. With the proper interventions, as determined by various assessments, she believes the rate of re-offense will decrease. It's important, she said, that incarceration for juveniles be purposeful and rehabilitative in nature.

“With children, we have an opportunity to explore all the different reasons why they do what they do,” she said.

Stallworth noted the arrest rate for African American juveniles in La Porte County is 4.1 times higher than that for white juveniles. A specific reason for the disparity has yet to be identified; but she said local police, prosecutors and others in the community are working together to combat the issue.

Tuesday's town hall event was hosted by the Northwest Indiana Coalition for Civil Discourse and Lakeshore Public Media, and sponsored by NIPSCO.

http://www.thenewsdispatch.com/news/article_f347852c-4d6a-5dac-aaec-8adc7055357c.html

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Arizona

During border visit, AG Sessions outlines immigration plan

Jeff Sessions urged federal prosecutors to intensify their focus on immigration crimes such as illegal border crossing or smuggling others into the U.S.

by Astrid Galvan

NOGALES, Ariz. — Attorney General Jeff Sessions toured the U.S.-Mexico border Tuesday and unveiled what he described as a new get-tough approach to immigration prosecutions under President Donald Trump.

The nation's top law enforcement official outlined a series of changes that he said mark the start of a new push to rid American cities and the border of what he described as "filth" brought on by drug cartels and criminal organizations.

The tour included visiting a port of entry, where Sessions exited an SUV in a white shirt and baseball cap before entering a restricted area.

Sessions has been steadily expanding the Justice Department's role in the anti-immigration agenda of the Trump administration, but the border trip offered the most comprehensive look yet at his plans.

During his visit, he urged federal prosecutors to intensify their focus on immigration crimes such as illegal border crossing or smuggling others into the U.S.

Such prosecutions are already happening on a large scale. They made up more than half of all federal prosecutions in fiscal year 2016, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. But prosecutions were slightly down from fiscal year 2015.

In a three-page memo, Sessions told U.S. attorneys to prioritize immigration prosecutions by appointing a border security coordinator who can oversee investigations, keep statistics and provide legal advice and training to prosecutors. The coordinators would meet regularly with federal immigration authorities.

In addition, Sessions said federal prosecutors must consider bringing felony charges against those who have illegally entered the country more than once as well as those who marry to evade immigration laws. He also urged prosecutors to consider charging those illegally in the country with felony identity theft and document fraud.

"This is a new era. This is the Trump era," he said. "The lawlessness, the abdication of the duty to enforce our immigration laws, and the catch and release practices of old are over."

Sessions defended Trump's proposed border wall, saying it will be another tool to fight illegal immigration amid efforts within the Justice Department and other branches of government to punish and deter border crossers.

Critics blasted the initiatives announced by Sessions as fear-mongering and anti-immigrant rhetoric not rooted in facts.

"Once again, Attorney General Sessions is scaring the public by linking immigrants to criminals despite studies showing that immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than the native born," said Gregory Z. Chen, director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Sessions made the announcement in Nogales, a border city that has witnessed a dramatic drop in immigrant and drug smuggling in recent years as more people enter the country in Texas, many of them Central Americans fleeing violence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

The Border Patrol's Tucson sector, which comprises most of Arizona, saw about 65,000 arrests of immigrants last fiscal year, roughly half the number agents made in 2012, according to Border Patrol data. Marijuana seizures have also dropped by about 28 percent from 1 million pounds in 2012 to 728,000 last year.

Following the border tour, Sessions spoke to officials at an International Association of Chiefs of Police conference outside Phoenix. He'll also speak with service members at Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix.

Sessions' immigration plans have long been foreshadowed. Even as it plans to cut the Justice Department's budget by more than $1 billion, the Trump administration wants hundreds of millions of dollars to hire 60 federal prosecutors and 40 deputy U.S. marshals to focus on border cases.

It also wants to boost immigration courts by $80 million to pay for 75 additional teams of judges. That would speed up removal proceedings for people in the United States illegally and address a backlog of more than 540,000 pending cases. The proposal also calls for adding $1.5 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement's budget to find, detain and deport immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, along with more than $300 million to hire 500 new Border Patrol agents and 1,000 immigration agents.

North Carolina

High Point Community Against Violence holds meeting on community policing

by Carly Hildyard

HIGH POINT, N.C. -- Community policing -- it's what leaders in High Point say needs to happen to crack down on violence in the city.

High Point Community Against Violence members have advocated for safety for 20 years, but this year's surge in homicides has the group looking for new solutions.

"I have sold drugs. I used to smoke crack cocaine in the 90s. I lived in some of the worst times here in High Point," said Jerry Malloy, at Wednesday's HPCAV meeting.

Malloy escaped the cycle of violence in High Point.

"I know that ain't the way life was supposed to be for me," he said.

Even though he turned his life around, the crime continues. The city has seen eight homicides this year.

"We've had this bad uptick and it hurts," said Jim Summery, the executive director of HPCAV.

Police say more of them are related to drugs and gangs.

"A lot of kids, they don't have that stability in their home for whatever reason, or they don't have those values to fight back, Malloy said.

At Malloy's first HPVAC meeting on Wednesday, he spoke up. He believes individuals can make a big change in their community.

"It starts with us," he said.

He's starting a new initiative at Oak Grove Babtist Churst called "Love They Neighbor." The goal is to keep bridging the gap and create trust between the community and police. Malloy plans to go door to door, explaining what changed his point of view.

"That way the community can receive them a little better than the've been receiving them," he said.

"We don't want it to be the communitu versus the police, no. The police are a part of the community," Summey added.

High Point leaders say this kind of community policing is key to cutting down on violence.

"Is it going to touch everybgody? No. But the more people it touches, the better we are," Summey said.

"I'm not going out in the street trying to be a police officer," Malloy said. I want to go out there in the community and say, 'Hey, I love you.' Thats all I want to say, is, 'I love you and I want the best for you. No strings attached.' That's simple, that's free."

Malloy has not yet organized a first meeting for this new group. You can reach him by calling the churst at (336) 885-5204.

http://myfox8.com/2017/04/12/high-point-community-against-violence-holds-meeting-on-community-policing/

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Maryland

Restoring Trust in the Police

by Elijah Cummings

Here in Baltimore, our work to restore the public's trust in our police officers – so essential to effective public safety – continues.

With the full support of Baltimore's elected and appointed leaders and civil rights advocates from every section of our City, we are proceeding toward enforcement of a judicially supervised and enforced Federal Consent Decree that will govern the manner in which our law enforcement officers perform their duties.

The admittedly complex public safety issues confronting our community were exhaustively documented by the Obama Administration's Department of Justice in its “pattern or practice investigation” of the Baltimore City Police Department.

That investigation concluded that, despite the honorable and at times heroic service of most law enforcement officers, policing in Baltimore has far too often violated the constitutional rights of our citizens – especially our less affluent African American citizens.

Last week, United States Federal District Judge for the District of Maryland James K. Bredar concluded the hearing process and approved the Consent Decree that will assure federal judicial oversight of criminal justice reform in Baltimore during the decade to come.

Along with Maryland's Senators and Baltimore's other Representatives, I strongly support this reform process under federal judicial supervision.

Each of us in Baltimore's federal delegation has undertaken a solemn oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. We will not allow anyone to trample on the constitutional rights of our citizens.

For our courts, and for us all as citizens, this must remain our overriding and non-negotiable principle.

Now, we must redouble our efforts to assure that this mutually-agreed upon and broadly-supported blueprint for reform moves toward fruition as rapidly as possible. When our constitutional protections as Americans are threatened, delay is not an acceptable option.

As Judge Bredar himself observed, delay could further erode the public trust that is so essential to effective policing.

These are two of the reasons that I joined the rest of Baltimore's congressional delegation in vigorously objecting to the new Attorney General's efforts to delay the federal court proceedings in Baltimore. As we declared in our letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions:

“We are gravely concerned that the Justice Department will retreat from its obligation to protect the federal civil rights of the citizens of Baltimore….We urge the Justice Department to withdraw its request for a delay in proceedings and to continue working with Baltimore City and BPD as scheduled. We stand ready as a Congressional delegation to work closely with the Justice Department to rebuild public trust in the Baltimore City Police Department through these much-needed and long-overdue reforms.”

Fortunately, in approving the Consent Decree, Judge Bredar denied the Trump DOJ's requested delay. He found that request to be “untimely,” and that any such a delay “at the eleventh hour would unduly burden and inconvenience the Court, the other parties, and, most importantly, the public.”

We now are continuing on a path toward much-needed and long-overdue reforms that can make Baltimore's Police Department a model for the nation. Nevertheless, the Department of Justice's wavering is deeply troubling.

Underlying the Trump Administration's resistance seems to be a perception that Baltimore's reform efforts are somehow “anti-police.” If this, in fact, is the Administration's viewpoint, it is both uninformed and tragically misguided.

At the heart of the current Administration's perspective appears to be an unstated assumption: that constitutionally-sound policing cannot be effective in achieving public safety. I strongly disagree.

After months of investigation and serious reflection, the Obama Justice Department and Baltimore's leaders concluded that constitutional policing that respects our civil rights is also smart, effective public safety. Indeed, it is the foundation for the public trust and cooperation that our law enforcement officers need in order to effectively and safely perform their duties.

In the days and months to come, implementing the now-approved Consent Decree will require the best efforts of law enforcement, elected officials and the Baltimore community as a whole.

We must continue to make our case to President Trump's Justice Department – and any other doubters – that constitutionally sound policing is essential to keeping the public safe.

We must build upon the understanding that unconstitutional and racially disproportionate police practices have been major factors in law enforcement's losing the trust and cooperation of much of our community – and that without the public's full cooperation, effective policing of violent crime has become far more difficult.

The public's safety must not be allowed to become a politically partisan issue. To achieve real, lasting reform beyond the language of any court order, we must continue to make the better case that racial and socio-economic disparities in the enforcement of our laws are not only unconstitutional, they make all of us more vulnerable to violent crime.

In contrast, through our major reinvestment in our people and our recommitment to constitutional “community policing” that targets violent crime, we can restore the public's trust in their police – and achieve a safer, more equitable, and more prosperous community for us all.

Congressman Elijah Cummings represents Maryland's 7th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.

Washington D.C.

North Carolina police departments community focus lands Leland on safest places to live list

by Joe Cantenacci

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Council for Home Safety and Security has announced its annual Safest Cities in North Carolina Report for 2017. Leland and Carolina Beach made the Tar Heel State's Top 50 list, while Pinehurst, Waxhaw, Holly Springs, Havelock and Stallings highlight the top five.

North Carolina is the ninth-most populated state in the union. The state boasts nine cities with a population over 100,000. While the growing town of Leland is still far from cracking the state's most populous, it was ranked No. 14 in the safest cities report. Carolina Beach came in at No. 43.

Located just across the Cape Fear River from Wilmington, in northern Brunswick County, Leland is among the fastest growing areas in the state.

“It's been a collaborative effort between our men and women working at the Police Department and having the best citizens in the world,” Leland Police Chief Mike James said. “We don't have a lot of serious issues and it speaks of the character to the town and those who live here.”

Not too long ago, the town's police department was in the news due to investigations by the State Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Department of Justice. It led to former Chief Timothy Jayne's dismissal as part of what the town called a reorganization.

Upon James' arrival in November 2012, the department implemented a number of new initiatives to revitalize its reputation. A “community-policing” officer was put in place to act as a liaison with civic groups and citizens. The department also added L-3 camera systems in all Leland police vehicles—a recording system that tracks audio and video on each car and allows the department to view the recording or make copies, if needed. These changes were made almost immediately after James took over.

“Before I came here there was a lot of bad press,” said James. “And what I have found (in) putting a new team in place (is) we want to be a community-oriented police department. In the five years I've been here, it makes me proud to able to set the precedent, get out of the way and let our good men and women do their job.”

The council combined data from the most recent FBI Crime Reports, population data, and its own research to create its rankings. The council advocates for safe communities and home safety with a strong focus on community involvement.

“Our goal is to be able to stay on the list,” James said. “It's our duty to provide a good service to our citizens to make sure Leland is a safe place to live and work.”

In the report, “cities” were referred to as populations of 5,000 and over. They were ranked-based on the number of reported violent crimes (aggravated assault, murder, rape, and robbery) and property crimes (burglary, arson, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft) per 100,000 people. These variables were then weighted, with violent crimes accounting for 70 percent of the total (due to their severity) and property crimes accounting for 30 percent.

Preliminary FBI figures from January-June 2016 indicate law enforcement agencies throughout the nation showed an overall increase of 5.3 percent in the number of violent crimes for the first six months of 2016 when compared with figures reported for the same time in 2015.

During that same time, the overall crime rate in Leland was 40 percent lower than the national average. The number of total year-over-year crimes in Leland has decreased by 18 percent.

“While our call volume has gone up with the population growing in our town, it's only natural, but serious, violent crimes are slightly down in Leland,” James said. “We added seven additional officers last year because of the volume in calls and looking at adding another maybe another two officers in this upcoming year's budget.

“But, we are very conservative, want to protect our tax payer money. If we were to make a call to grow our department, we want the numbers to show it's needed,” James said.

http://portcitydaily.com/2017/04/12/north-carolina-police-departments-community-focus-lands-leland-on-safest-places-to-live-list/

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New York

Neighborhood coordination officers program to expand, as de Blasio touts success

by Alison Fox

City leaders said Monday that crime is comparatively lower in precincts with neighborhood coordination officers.

The statistics came as NYC plans to add four more precincts to the program by the end of the month.

“They really get to know the community. They really bond with not only community leaders, but everyday people in the community,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said, speaking in front of the 123rd Precinct in Staten Island, which will see the rollout of the NCO program by April 24. “This is the wave of the future. This is how policing will continue to get better.”

Overall crime decreased 6.2 percent for the first three months of the year, compared with the same time period last year, in NCO commands, where officers are posted to the same spot with the aim of establishing community relationships. In precincts where the NCO program hadn't been implemented yet, overall crime fell 4.1 percent, according to the NYPD.

Shootings were also way down in NCO commands: There was a 29.5 percent decrease in shootings in NCO commands for first quarter of 2017 compared with the first quarter of 2016. Citywide, shootings fell 23.2 percent for the same time period, according to the NYPD.

Murders were down 8.5 percent in NCO commands for the first three months of the year, compared with last year. In non-NCO commands, murders dropped 13 percent in the same time period.

In addition to the 123rd Precinct, on April 24 the NCO program will add the 25th Precinct in East Harlem, 76th Precinct in Red Hook, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens, and 94th Precinct in Greenpoint.

In July, the 63rd and 83rd Precincts in Brooklyn, and 106th and 115th Precincts in Queens will be added.

That will bring NCO commands to 47 out of the NYPD's 77 precincts, said Chief of Patrol Services Terence Monahan.

“Neighborhood policing is a philosophical change in the way that we police,” he said. “We allow our cops to resolve problems, we allow our cops to figure out how to provide services working together with the community.

“We trust our officers to have their discretion and to be able to resolve problems on their own,” Monahan added.

Staten Island Borough President James Oddo said he's a big believer in the neighborhood policing concept.

“Staten Islanders want to know their police officers,” he said. “I buy into the notion that we should train our police officers, equip them as best as we can and then put them out there and allow them to own situations.”

http://www.amny.com/news/neighborhood-coordination-officers-program-to-expand-as-de-blasio-touts-success-1.13420400

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Texas

Governor Launches 'Texas Transition Alliance' Aiding Military Families With Employment Training

The program comes two months after Abbott stripped grant funds from a specialized Veterans Court with similar aims in political dispute.

by Tony Cantu

AUSTIN, TX — Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday announced the launch of the Texas Transition Alliance designed to assist military service members with employment training on Tuesday, weeks after he stripped funds from a specially tailored Veterans Court in Travis County with similar aims.

The Texas Transition Alliance is aimed not only at expanding employment and training opportunities for military members, but for their families as well, according to Abbott's office. The newly launched program is a partnership among Operation Welcome Home, the Governor's Tri-Agency Workforce Initiative in which he charged the Texas Workforce Commission, Texas Education Agency and the Higher Education Coordinating Board to identify gaps in employment and education services—including those for veterans, and a number of veteran- and employment-specific organizations, he said. The program is designed to assist veterans and their families in the transition from active duty to civilian life, the governor added.

“This new program will provide the services and resources our veterans and their families deserve to complete a successful transition to civilian life,” Abbott said. “In order for Texas to compete in a 21st century economy, it is imperative we make investments in our workforce, and I can think of no better investment than our military service members. I thank the Tri-Agency Workforce Initiative for their work in developing this important program and look forward to building on its success in the coming years.”

Led by the Texas Workforce Commissioner Ruth R. Hughs, partners from state, local, and military entities met in Killeen, Texas, on Tuesday to review and enhance opportunities for military members who have expressed their intent to reside in Texas upon separation, according to the governor's office. The partners will coordinate to help streamline services to meet the needs of service members as they transition out of Texas military installations.

Abbott said the announcement highlights the state's commitment to partner with U.S. Military Installations in Texas to improve the state's ability to offer employment, education, and outreach services on location during a service member's 180-day transition period. The Alliance will develop and support events for military members transitioning from service to connect them with education and employment resources in Texas communities at the earliest stage of departure from service.

Texas Workforce Commission official Ruth R. Hughs echoed the sentiment: “The Texas Transition Alliance will work with partners and Texas employers to ensure they are provided with the skilled workforce needed to fill high-demand occupations. We know that veterans are hardworking and motivated team members that will bolster any employer's business, and we want to inform them of the many opportunities available to them so they can have a successful transition into civilian life.”

In February, Abbott stripped Travis County of $1.5 million in grants to various county-run community programs—money on which county officials annually rely—as political retribution against county Sheriff Sally Hernandez. The sheriff found herself at odds with Abbott over the governor's insistence that all undocumented immigrants in the county be rounded up for deportation—not just the high-level offenders the sheriff's office prefers to target for detention.

When Hernandez stuck to her preferred method (a measure to promote community policing and foster police trust), Abbott responded by stripping grant funds from non-law-enforcement programs run by the county.

One of the programs affected by the governor's cuts is the Veteran Treatment Court, which has as its mission "...to successfully rehabilitate veterans by diverting them from the traditional criminal justice system and provide them with the tools they need to lead a productive and law-abiding lifestyle."

As a result of his disagreement with Hernandez, the governor in retribution cut funds that would've benefited the specialized veterans court where officials had expected to receive $191,380 in grant monies this year.

https://patch.com/texas/downtownaustin/governor-launches-texas-transition-alliance-aiding-military-families-employment

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Washington D.C.

Trump's Attorney General Threatens To Revive War On Drugs That Did Not Work

by Sadie Gurman

For three decades, America got tough on crime.

Police used aggressive tactics and arrest rates soared. Small-time drug cases clogged the courts. Vigorous gun prosecutions sent young men away from their communities and to faraway prisons for long terms.

But as crime rates dropped since 2000, enforcement policies changed. Even conservative lawmakers sought to reduce mandatory minimum sentences and to lower prison populations, and law enforcement shifted to new models that emphasized community partnerships over mass arrests.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions often reflects fondly on the tough enforcement strategies of decades ago and sees today's comparatively low crime rates as a sign they worked. He is preparing to revive some of those practices even as some involved in criminal justice during that period have come to believe those approaches went too far, for too long.

“In many ways with this administration we are rolling back,” said David Baugh, who worked as a federal prosecutor in the 1970s and 1980s before becoming a defense lawyer in Richmond, Virginia. “We are implementing plans that have been proven not to work.”

Sessions, who cut his teeth as a federal prosecutor in Mobile, Alabama, at the height of the drug war, favors strict enforcement of drug laws and mandatory minimum sentences. He says a recent spike in violence in some cities shows the need for more aggressive work. The Justice Department said there won't be a repeat of past problems.

“The field of criminal justice has advanced leaps and bounds in the past several decades,” spokesman Ian Prior said. “It is not our intention to simply jettison every lesson learned from previous administrations.”

Sessions took another step back from recent practices when the Justice Department announced last week that it might back away from federal agreements that force cities to agree to major policing overhauls. His concern is that such deals might conflict with his crime-fighting agenda.

Consent decrees were a staple of the Obama administration's efforts to change troubled departments, but Sessions has said those agreements can unfairly malign an entire police force. He has advanced the unproven theory that heavy scrutiny of police in recent years has made officers less aggressive, leading to a rise in crime in Chicago and other cities.

Fear of return to aggressive policing

It's the latest worry for civil rights activists fretting about a return to the kind of aggressive policing that grew out of the drug war, when officers were encouraged to make large numbers of stops, searches and arrests, including for minor offenses. That technique is increasingly seen as more of a strain on police-community relationships than an effective way to deter crime, said Ronal Serpas, former police chief in New Orleans. He was a young officer in the 1980s when crack cocaine ravaged some communities.

Officers' orders were simple, Serpas said: “‘Go arrest everybody.' We had no idea what the answers were,” he said.

“Those of us who were on the front line of that era of policing have learned there are far more effective ways to arrest repeat, violent offenders, versus arresting a lot of people. That's what we have learned over the last 30 years.”

In a recent memo calling for aggressive prosecution of violent crime, Sessions told the nation's federal prosecutors that he soon would provide more guidance on how they should prosecute all criminal cases.

Sessions' approach is embodied in his encouraging cities to send certain gun cases to tougher federal courts, where the penalties are more severe than in state courts, and defendants are often sent out of state to serve their terms.

He credits one such program, Project Exile, with slowing murders in Richmond, Virginia, in the late 1990s. Its pioneer was FBI Director James Comey, who was then the lead federal prosecutor in the area.

In the community, billboards and ads warned anyone caught with an illegal gun faced harsh punishment. Homicides fell more than 30 percent in the first year in Richmond, and other cities adopted similar approaches.

But studies reached mixed conclusions about its long-term success. Defense lawyers such as Baugh said the program disproportionately hurt the black community by putting gun suspects in front of mostly white federal juries, as opposed to state juries drawn from predominantly black Richmond jury pools that might be more sympathetic to black defendants.

“They took a lot of young African-American men and took them off the streets and out of their communities and homes and placed them in federal prison,” said Robert Wagner, a federal public defender in Richmond.

Baugh argued the program was unconstitutional after a client was arrested for gun and marijuana possession during a traffic stop. He lost the argument, but a judge who revealed 90 percent of Project Exile defendants were black also shared concerns about the initiative.

Sessions has acknowledged the need to be sensitive to racial disparities, but has also said, “When you fight crime, you have to fight it where it is … if it's focused fairly and objectively on dangerous criminals, then you're doing the right thing.”

During the drug war, sentencing disparities between crack cocaine and powder cocaine crimes were seen as unfairly punishing black defendants. Sessions in 2010 co-sponsored legislation that reduced that disparity. But he later opposed bipartisan criminal justice overhaul efforts, warning that eliminating mandatory minimum sentences weakens the ability of law enforcement to protect the public.

“My vision of a smart way to do this is, let's take that arrest, lets hammer that criminal who's distributing drugs that have been imported in our country,” Sessions said in a recent speech to law enforcement officials.

The rhetoric sounds familiar to Mark Osler, who worked as a federal prosecutor in Detroit in the late 1990s, when possessing 5 grams of crack cocaine brought an automatic five-year prison sentence. Osler said he came onto the job expecting to go after international drug trafficking rings but “instead we were locking up 18-year-old kids selling a small amount of crack, and pretending it was an international trafficker.”

https://www.civilized.life/articles/trump-ag-jeff-sessions-war-on-drugs/

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Indiana

Ind. man arrested after stalking officer, telling others to booby trap cops

Police said Christopher Sutton suggested hiding boards with exposed nails and animal traps in thick grass and asked for videos of officers being injured

by Pharos-Tribune

KOKOMO, Ind. — A Russiaville man was arrested after allegedly encouraging Facebook friends to rig traps in their yards to injure Kokomo Police officers, states a press release from the Kokomo Police Department.

Christopher Sutton, 44, was arrested on a warrant for stalking, a level 5 felony, intimidation, a level 6 felony, and harassment, a class B misdemeanor.

On April 6, officers were notified of possible threats being made against them on social media, according to the press release, which went on to say investigation revealed Sutton allegedly made the threats.

On April 4, Sutton allegedly encouraged his friends and followers to “booby trap” their yards to injure officers, and specifically a Kokomo police officer, when they come onto their property. Specifically, the release says, he suggested hiding boards with exposed nails and animal traps in thick grass.

Sutton allegedly asked for videos of officers being injured, the press release says

The officer he directed the threat toward is assigned to the Code Enforcement Division of the Kokomo Police Department. Her duties include, but are not limited to, the enforcement of Kokomo ordinances within city limits, such as tagging and towing vehicles identified as abandoned by city code.

The press release states documentation exists indicating Sutton had allegedly been stalking that officer since 2014. In October 2014, the officer conducted a traffic stop on Sutton as he allegedly followed her at the completion of her shift. He was issued multiple traffic citations and plead guilty to the infractions.

Sutton turned himself in at the Howard County Jail on April 7.

Sutton's attorney did not return a call to comment for this story.

Korea

North Korea threatens US with nuclear strike as American warships approach

by Ju-Min Park

SEOUL, April 11 (Reuters) - North Korean state media on Tuesday warned of a nuclear attack on the United States at any sign of a U.S. pre-emptive strike as a U.S. Navy strike group led by a nuclear-powered aircraft steamed towards the western Pacific.

Tension has escalated sharply on the Korean peninsula with talk of military action by the United States gaining traction following its strikes last week against Syria and amid concerns the reclusive North may soon conduct a sixth nuclear test.

North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said the country was prepared to respond to any aggression by the United States.

"Our revolutionary strong army is keenly watching every move by enemy elements with our nuclear sight focused on the U.S. invasionary bases not only in South Korea and the Pacific operation theater but also in the U.S. mainland," it said.

South Korean acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn warned of "greater provocations" by North Korea and ordered the military to intensify monitoring and to ensure close communication with the United States.

"It is possible the North may wage greater provocations such as a nuclear test timed with various anniversaries including the Supreme People's Assembly," said Hwang, acting leader since former president Park Geun-hye was removed amid a graft scandal.

The North convened a Supreme People's Assembly session on Tuesday, one of its twice-yearly sessions in which major appointments are announced and national policy goals are formally approved.

But South Korean officials took pains to quell talk in social media of an impending security crisis or outbreak of war.

"We'd like to ask precaution so as not to get blinded by exaggerated assessment about the security situation on the Korean peninsula," Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-kyun said.

Saturday is the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the country's founding father and grandfather of current ruler, Kim Jong Un.

A military parade is expected in the North's capital, Pyongyang, to mark the day. North Korea often also marks important anniversaries with tests of its nuclear or missile capabilities in breach of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sent a message of congratulations to mark the event, lambasting "big powers" for their "expansionist" policy.

"The friendly two countries are celebrating this anniversary and, at the same time, conducting a war against big powers' wild ambition to subject all countries to their expansionist and dominationist policy and deprive them of their rights to self-determination," Russian news agency Tass quote the message as saying.

The North's foreign ministry, in a statement carried by its KCNA news agency, said the U.S. navy strike group's approach showed America's "reckless moves for invading had reached a serious phase."

"We never beg for peace but we will take the toughest counteraction against the provocateurs in order to defend ourselves by powerful force of arms and keep to the road chosen by ourselves," an unidentified ministry spokesman said.

North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The North regularly threatens to destroy the South and its main ally, the United States.

SANCTIONS WARNING

Delegates from around the North have been arriving in Pyongyang ahead of the assembly session. They visited statues of previous leaders Kim Il Sung and his son, Kim Jong Il, state media reported.

North Korea is emerging as one of the most pressing foreign policy problems facing the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. It has conducted five nuclear tests, two of them last year, and is working to develop nuclear-tipped missiles that can reach the United States.

The Trump administration is reviewing its policy towards North Korea and has said all options are on the table, including military strikes, but U.S. officials said non-military action appears to be at the top of the list if any action were to be taken.

Russia's foreign ministry, in a statement ahead of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, said it was concerned about many aspects of U.S. foreign policy, and particularly concerned about North Korea.

"We are really worried about what Washington has in mind for North Korea after it hinted at the possibility of a unilateral military scenario," a statement said.

"It's important to understand how that would tally with collective obligations on de-nuclearising the Korean peninsula, something that is underpinned in U.N. Security Council resolutions."

Russia slammed U.S. cruise missile strikes on a Syrian air base on Friday, calling them an illegal attack on a sovereign state.

The U.S. Navy strike group Carl Vinson was diverted from planned port calls to Australia and would move towards the western Pacific Ocean near the Korean peninsula as a show of force, a U.S. official told Reuters over the weekend.

U.S. officials said it would still take the strike group more than a week to arrive near the Korean peninsula.

Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, met in Florida last week and Trump pressed Xi to do more to curb North Korea's nuclear program.

China and South Korea agreed on Monday to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea if it carried out nuclear or long-range missile tests, a senior official in Seoul said.

On Tuesday, a fleet of North Korean cargo ships was heading home to the port of Nampo, the majority of it fully laden, after China ordered its trading companies to return coal from the isolated state to curb coal traffic, sources with direct knowledge of the trade said.

The order was given on April 7, just as Trump and Xi were set for the summit where the two agreed the North Korean nuclear advances had reached a "very serious stage," Tillerson said.

Following repeated missile tests that drew international criticism, China banned all imports of North Korean coal on Feb. 26, cutting off the country's most important export product.

As well as the anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth, there are several other North Korean anniversaries in April that could be opportunities for weapon tests, South Korean officials have said.

The North is seen ready to conduct its sixth nuclear test at any time, with movements detected by satellite at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/04/11/north-korea-threatens-us-with-nuclear-strike-as-american-warships-approach/22035090/

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Florida

Florida Sheriff's Militarized Warning to Heroin Dealers Is Tone Deaf, Say Drug Policy Experts

by Safia Samee Ali

A viral video from a Florida sheriff flanked by four masked officers in tactical gear while warning that he will "come after" heroin dealers is a misguided way to address the opioid epidemic, say drug policy experts.

Lake County Sheriff Peyton Grinnell put out the ominous clip on Friday, warning drug dealers who happened to be viewing his agency's Facebook page that he's "coming for" them.

"Enjoy trying to sleep tonight, wondering if tonight's the night our SWAT team blows your front door off the hinges," he says to the underlay of battle-ready music.

"If our agents can show the nexus between you the pusher of poison and the person that overdoses and dies, we will charge you with murder," he says at the end of the video. "We are coming for you. Run."

Some experts found it to be attention grabbing, which is the ultimate goal to promote awareness for any issue they said, but others found it at odds with more effective methods of combating the drug crisis.

"I liked it," said Sheriff Michael D. McCoy who sits on the Mayor's Community Coalition Against Heroin in Peoria County, Illinois. "I think it's one of several good approaches to this issue," he said.

"It definitely gets the point across," said Lt. Tom Fallen, Investigative Commander of the Hamilton County Heroin Drug Task Force in Ohio. "I think that's almost the message any community facing a heroin problem is trying to send."

But Fallen did note he's not sure the approach is "necessarily" something his jurisdiction would take — a sentiment shared by other law enforcement.

"The video could be effective if they really do have addresses, search warrants, and the other information they are saying," said Sheriff Chris Donelan, who sits on the Opioid Task Force of Franklin County and the North Quabbin Region of Massachusetts.

"But that's a lot of ifs," he said, adding that his jurisdiction uses a more community-based approach to the treatment and intervention.

In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel Monday, Grinnell said "I'm just doing what I'm elected to do."

The Lake County Sheriff's Office did not return requests for comment by NBC News.

Lake County, which has a population of just over 335,000, went from zero heroin-related fatalities in 2015 to six in 2016, according to the Fifth Circuit Medical Examiner's Office that tracks the county's data.

While the Sunshine state had a 73 percent increase in heroin deaths between 2014 and 2015, Lake county falls on the lower end, coming in at less than 5 heroin deaths per 100,000, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

While the video was seen as a unique approach to battling an epidemic that has swallowed several segments of the American population — sparking countless state and federal responses — many felt the video totally missed the mark.

"These kinds of brutal tactics never work to lessen drug trafficking," said Vanda Felbab-Brown, the director of the Improving Global Drug Policy Project at the Brookings Institute.

Most users are dealers to support their habits, and most are not violent, she said. "Throwing dealers and users in jails doesn't lessen drug abuse. On the contrary, scare tactics makes them "retreat into the shadows" instead of seeking help, she said.

Harm reduction policies have proven to be much more effective, she said. "This includes safe injection sites, providing new needles, and encouraging users to get tested," she said.

"There are a multitude of studies that show that stiffer penalties for using or dealing drugs does not result in a decrease in the behavior," said Khary Rigg, a professor at Department of Mental Health Law & Policy at the University of South Florida. "We have over three decades of data that show us that law enforcement crackdowns on street dealers and users should not be the primary strategy for addressing illicit drug use in our country."

Deaths from opioid drug overdoses have hit an all-time record in the U.S., rising 14 percent in just one year in 2014, and heroin deaths quadrupled between 2002 and 2013. During his last year in office, Former President Barack Obama asked for $1 billion to fight the opioid epidemic and signed the Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act to expand prevention efforts, training programs, and treatment access.

The Lake County approach "flies in the face" of how far many drug enforcement agencies have come with effective drug policy, said Ezekiel Edwards, director of the Criminal Law Reform Project the American Civil Liberties Union.

The most effective way to deal with opioid use is a more "humane, community-based" public-health program that looks at preventative measures, he said. "It's proven."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-sheriff-s-militarized-warning-heroin-dealers-tone-deaf-say-n744966

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Ohio

Ohio State beefs up response plans after car-and-knife attack

The university is beefing up its emergency alert system and streamlining the way officials communicate after the attack exposed flaws in the text-message procedure

by Andrew Welsh-Huggins

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State University is beefing up its emergency alert system and streamlining the way officials communicate in a crisis after a November car-and-knife attack exposed some flaws in the text-message procedure.

Some campus contractors and visitors weren't aware of campuswide "Buckeye Alerts" to seek shelter during the attack that wounded more than a dozen people, according to the report obtained by The Associated Press through an open records request.

Too much time passed between the 10 alerts, which were issued over a period of about seven hours, according to the report by the OSU Department of Public Safety. In addition, the initial alerts lacked specifics about the attack, according to the report.

The "After Action Review" also noted that the sheet-covered body of the attacker — shot dead by a police officer seconds after the attack began — was visible for hours, "potentially creating psychological trauma and panic."

In addition, communication between safety personnel and top university officials was cumbersome and some outside police departments weren't aware an "all-clear" message had been sent, the report said.

The report makes several recommendations for changes that the university is reviewing. Some have already been put in place.

"Public support for the law enforcement response has been gratifying, but we know there is always room for improvement," Monica Moll, director of the university Department of Public Safety, said in a statement.

The Nov. 28 attack began when first-year Ohio State student Abdul Razak Ali Artan drove into a crowd outside a classroom building, then attacked people with a knife. Thirteen people were injured in the attack.

In a coincidence, a nearby building had been evacuated minutes earlier after reports of a gas leak. A university police officer assisting at the scene shot and killed the 18-year-old Artan almost immediately.

Authorities believe the attack by the Somalia-born Artan was partly inspired by a cleric killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen. An investigation continues.

Among other problems and recommended fixes:

— The university phone operator transferred many calls from worried parents and the media to an already overloaded 911 call center, limiting dispatchers' "ability to focus on strategies/tactics" regarding the crisis. The report recommends the creation of a phone bank that could take such calls.

— Ohio State and City of Columbus police tactical teams had trouble communicating because their radios use different versions of encryption. The university plans to provide radios to its officers using the same encryption as Columbus.

— The alert system relies too heavily on text messages, which limits awareness of an emergency for people who haven't signed up for alerts. Ohio State plans to increase the use of "pop-up" emergency messages on computers, insert alerts into digital signs around campus and let visitors sign up for alerts for specific times on campus, such as sporting events.

— University police weren't trained to use a "fire alarm speaker system" to communicate with occupants in campus buildings. This meant that some people in buildings who weren't getting Buckeye Alerts were unaware of the emergency and didn't get updates. The report recommends training officers to use that speaker system and installing equipment allowing dispatchers to access the speakers remotely.

— To deal with "cumbersome" communication problems that developed between safety and senior academic officials, all top administrators will be relocated to the hall housing the university's Department of Public Safety in an emergency.

— The university has purchased equipment that would shield a body from onlookers while letting an investigation continue.

— Some students, faculty and staff don't know what to do in an emergency. The report recommends increasing opportunities around campus for learning the "Run, Hide, Fight" system for active-shooter situations. The report also recommends making sure the university's Department of Public Safety has enough employees to boost emergency prevention and preparedness initiatives.

— Officials will look at ways to make initial alerts less generic and continue to support dispatchers sending those initial alerts but will also allow emergency operations officials to take over responsibility for sending alerts as soon as possible.

— Policies will be developed for instructing campus bus drivers on what to do with passengers when "shelter in place" alerts go out.

— Only armed officers will be used to search inside the so-called hot zone after concerns arose about using unarmed security personnel in building-to-building searches.

— An effort will be made to sign up more outside police agencies for alerts to avoid the problem of some agencies not getting the "all clear" alert.

https://www.policeone.com/police-products/communications/articles/325584006-Ohio-State-beefs-up-response-plans-after-car-and-knife-attack/

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Illinois

Ill. trooper cadets to be trained to deal with hate crimes

The curriculum will provide the cadets with ideas on how to be more effective dealing with changing community norms

by the Associated Press

CHICAGO — The Illinois State Police is helping create a new curriculum that will make troopers better at recognizing and investigating hate crimes.

In a news release, Governor Bruce Rauner's office says the agency will work with the Anti-Defamation league to better train state police cadets before they hit the street.

The curriculum will focus on helping officers strengthen their understanding and skills dealing with hate crimes by providing up-to-date information and strategies. The curriculum will also provide the cadets with ideas on how to be more effective dealing with changing community norms.

The Anti-Defamation League says the training will strengthen the relationship between communities and law enforcement.

https://www.policeone.com/police-training/articles/325582006-Ill-trooper-cadets-to-be-trained-to-deal-with-hate-crimes/

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From the Department of Justice

Arson Awareness Week 2017 to Focus on Preventing Arson at Houses of Worship

The Justice Department today announced that its Civil Rights Division is partnering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency's U.S. Fire Administration on this year's Arson Awareness Week, May 7-13, with a focus on Preventing Arson at Houses of Worship.

There were an average of 103 arsons of houses of worship per year from 2000 to 2015. Half of all reported fires at houses of worship turn out to involve arson.

The Department of Justice enforces a number of federal statutes protecting places of worship from attack, including 18 U.S.C. § 247, known as the Church Arson Prevention Act, which was passed in the 1990s in response to a sharp increase in church arsons. That law makes it a federal crime to target religious property because of the religion or race of the congregation. In February of this year, the Department indicted an Idaho man under § 247 alleging that he set fire to a Catholic Church in Bonner's Ferry in April 2016. In 2013, an Indiana man was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for setting a fire at the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo.

FEMA and the Department of Justice have produced a number of materials to help congregations, community organizations and local law enforcement and fire safety officials to increase arson awareness and hold events highlighting proactive steps that can be taken to try to reduce house of worship arson. These materials are available at the Arson Awareness Week homepage, www.usfa.fema.gov/aaw.

“Arson against houses of worship is a serious crime that the Department of Justice is committed to prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Tom Wheeler of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. “But our role as prosecutors, while critically important, only comes after the fact when the damage is already done. That is why we encourage communities and local officials to take proactive steps to increase public awareness of the problem and measures that can be taken to reduce the likelihood of being a victim of house of worship arson.”

Further information about hate crimes, including arsons against on places of worship, is available at the Civil Rights Division hate crimes page, https://www.justice.gov/crt/hate-crimes-0.

Dept of Justice

Callifornia

PRESS RELEASE

Garden Grove Man Who Traveled to Canada to Have Sex with Girl He Met Online Sentenced to over 7 Years in Federal Prison

SANTA ANA, California – A Garden Grove man who convinced a 13-year-old girl he met online to send him explicit videos – and then traveled to Canada to have sex with the victim – was ordered this afternoon to serve 87 months in federal prison.

Paul Binh Do, 30, was sentenced by United States District Judge David O. Carter.

Once he completes the prison term, Do will be on supervised release for the rest of his life.

Do pleaded guilty in May 2016 to one count of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct and one count of receipt of child pornography.
According to documents filed in United States District Court, Do began an online relationship with the then-13-year-old girl in September 2013, and soon thereafter they began exchanging naked videos of themselves engaging in sexual conduct.

In May 2014, Do traveled to Canada from Orange County to celebrate the victim’s 14th birthday and have sex with her, but he was stopped by Canadian law enforcement as he attempted to enter into the country.

When he was stopped by Canadian authorities, Do possessed digital devices that contained naked videos of the victim. Following his arrest in Canada, Do obstructed justice when he contacted the victim and asked her to tell law enforcement that she had lied to Do about her age when, in fact, she had been completely truthful about being 13.

In a sentencing memorandum filed with the court, prosecutors noted that evidence gathered from Do’s digital devices “showed that defendant was having conversations of a sexual nature with five other individuals that had indicated that they were minor girls.”

In August 2016, after he pleaded guilty, Do’s bond was revoked and he was remanded into custody after he visited eight different Orange County parks on 12 different occasions in violation of the terms of his release. At the time, Do claimed that he was playing Pokemon Go when he went to the parks in July 2016.

The investigation into Do was conducted by the Orange County Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The Task Force received substantial assistance from HSI’s attaché office in Vancouver, the Calgary Police Service, Canada Border Services Agency, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Southern Alberta Internet Child Exploitation Unit.

The case against Do was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Vib Mittal of the Santa Ana Branch Office.

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FROM: Thom Mrozek, Spokesperson/Public Affairs Officer
United States Attorney’s Office, Central District of California (Los Angeles)

www.justice.gov/usao-cdca