"News of the Week"   Daily Local & Regional NewsWatch February, 2018 - Week 1

MJ Goyings ~~~~~~~~ Many thanks to our very own "MJ" Goyings, a resident of Ohio, for her daily research that provides us with the news related material that appears on the LACP & NAASCA web sites.

Super Bowl anti-terrorism documents left on plane

by Scott Glover and Drew Griffin

The Department of Homeland Security documents critiquing the response to a simulated anthrax attack on Super Bowl Sunday were marked "For Official Use Only" and "important for national security."

Recipients of the draft "after-action" reports were told to keep them locked up after business hours and to shred them prior to discarding. They were admonished not to share their contents with anyone who lacked "an operational need-to-know."

But security surrounding the December 2017 reports suffered an embarrassing breach:

A CNN employee discovered copies of them, along with other sensitive DHS material, in the seat-back pocket of a commercial plane. The reports were accompanied by the travel itinerary and boarding pass of the government scientist in charge of BioWatch, the DHS program that conducted the anthrax drills in preparation for Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis.

The reports were based on exercises designed to evaluate the ability of public health, law enforcement and emergency management officials to engage in a coordinated response were a biological attack to be carried out in Minneapolis on Super Bowl Sunday.

The exercises identified several areas for improvement, including the problem that "some local law enforcement and emergency management agencies possess only a cursory knowledge of the BioWatch program and its mission."

CNN decided to withhold publication of this article until after the Super Bowl after government officials voiced concerns that publishing it prior to the game could jeopardize security for the event. A DHS official told CNN that areas for improvement identified in the draft reports had been addressed prior to Sunday's game and that the agency had "great confidence" in its preparedness.

"This exercise was a resounding success and was not conducted in response to any specific, credible threat of a bioterrorism attack," said Tyler Q. Houlton, an agency spokeswoman.

Juliette Kayyem, a former DHS official who now serves as a CNN contributor, said it was not surprising that the documents highlighted deficiencies.

She said such exercises are designed to expose gaps in planning and preparedness so that authorities "are better equipped if something bad were to happen."

Nonetheless, she said, the misplacement of the documents was "a really stupid thing."

"Who knows who else could have picked this up," she said.

"The biggest consequence of this mistake," Kayyem said, "may have less to do with terrorists knowing our vulnerabilities and more to do with confidence in the Department of Homeland Security. In the end, confidence in the federal government at a time of crisis is what the American public deserves."

In addition to requesting that CNN not publish prior to the Super Bowl, DHS officials argued that disclosure of some material contained in the draft reports could threaten national security, regardless of when it was published. Based on that concern, CNN is withholding some details contained in the documents.

The after-action reports obtained by CNN are based on a pair of exercises conducted as part of DHS's BioWatch program, which operates a nationwide aerosol detection system designed to provide an early warning of a biological attack across all levels of government.

The exercises -- one in July, the other in early November — were built around the response to an intentional anthrax release that coincides with the Super Bowl.

Among the findings was that there were "differences of opinion" over how many people had been exposed, "which led to differences of opinion on courses of action."

The reports also noted there was confusion among local health agencies about the meaning of alerts issued during the exercise and with whom information could safely be shared during an emergency.

This "made it difficult for them to assess whether their city was at risk," the documents stated, and "creates a situation where local officials are deciding on courses of action from limited points of view."

CNN was unable to verify who left the documents on the plane. The travel itinerary and boarding pass accompanying the documents was in the name of Michael V. Walter.

Walter, a microbiologist, has been the program manager of BioWatch since 2009, according to his LinkedIn profile.

"I am responsible for developing and operating a budget that has ranged up to 90 million dollars and directed a staff or more than 50 members," his profile says.

He held previous posts with the Central Intelligence Agency and Naval Surface Warfare Center and has 20 years of experience with biological warfare research.

Walter, 59, did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

A DHS official said the missing documents were the subject of an "operational review" and that "DHS does not comment on personnel matters or potential pending personnel action."

There has been a drumbeat of criticism surrounding the BioWatch program since its inception in 2003.

Multiple government reports issued over the course of more than a decade have raised questions about its cost and effectiveness.

"Since 2003, approximately $1 billion has been spent on this program," according to a 2013 memo by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's oversight subcommittee. "After more than a decade of operation, DHS still lacks crucial data demonstrating the effectiveness of the current technology."

The report also noted differences of opinion within the government about the program.

"Several statements by DHS about the performance of the BioWatch program are disputed by other government scientists or contradicted by information obtained in this investigation," the document said.

A 2015 report by the Government Accountability Office struck a similar tone when it said "considerable uncertainty" exists about the types and sizes of biological attacks the system could detect. The report states that because DHS did not develop "performance requirements" for the program, the agency could not make informed decisions about how to upgrade it.

An agency official noted in an email to CNN that "Biodetection is one aspect of a layered approach to biodefense," and that "DHS continues to develop requirements and field enhancements to our national biodefense."

Florida

Miami schoolboy, 7, Baker Acted after allegedly punching teacher

by WSVN

MIAMI (WSVN) - Police took a 7-year-old boy away in handcuffs from a school in Miami after, they said, he attacked a teacher, leaving his parents distraught about the way authorities and school officials handled the situation.

Cellphone footage shows the child in handcuffs after the alleged attack. His mother was brought to tears at the sight.

“I feel like my heart is broken,” said the boy's mother, Mercy Alvarez.

“I was in shock. Shock,” said his father, Rolando Fuentes.

School police said it all started at the Coral Way K-8 Center in Miami, Thursday morning.

The boy had been taken out of the cafeteria for playing with his food, and that's when, according to the report, he “attacked the teacher by repeatedly punching her on her back, in the hallway.”

Once the child was restrained, the report said, the child continued to fight the female teacher with his fists and legs. The two then fell to the ground, but it didn't end there.

The report said, while they were on the ground, the student continued to fight the teacher, “grabbing her hair and pulling it towards him” before he was restrained once again.

The child eventually calmed down and was taken to the principal's office.

The teacher told police that she wanted to press charges.

“Says he's a danger to society. I said, ‘What? Seven years old? A danger to society?'” said Fuentes.

The boy's parents have a problem with what happened after incident.

They said they came to the school to talk to the principal and counselors and agreed that their son would be suspended for 10 days. However, the officer told them that she had to arrest the 7-year-old or take him in for psychiatric evaluation.

Speaking through a translator, Alvarez said it's not a mental health issue or an issue with aggression.

This wasn't her son's first run-in with the officer. He was accused of kicking a teacher back in November, but it was resolved with the school.

Alvarez said a psychologist said her son was OK.

While the boy's parents wait to see what happens next, they have continued to demand answers, because they believe the handcuffs crossed the line.

“We have to make justice,” said Fuentes.

In a statement, Miami-Dade Schools Police Ian Moffett said that similar incidents are rare, but, “This action was warranted to prevent his erratic and violent behavior from bringing further harm to others or himself. The manner in which he was transported to the receiving facility was done in accordance with Standard Operating Procedures.”

School police said this incident is under review.

https://wsvn.com/news/local/miami-schoolboy-7-baker-acted-after-allegedly-punching-teacher/

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Georgia

Policing Diversity: Law enforcement faces challenges

by Eve Guevara

VALDOSTA — Law-enforcement agencies should look like the communities they serve, Valdosta Police Chief Brian Childress said.

“I would think that would be common sense,” Childress said. “You should be diverse because it makes you stronger.”

Having officers who are able to understand people from as wide a background as possible is nothing but a positive, he said.

Childress said law-enforcement agencies across the nation have problems recruiting minorities and women. He stressed that agencies must look at city or county workforce demographics and compare the police force with the workforce.

Valdosta faces the same challenges as law-enforcement agencies throughout the SunLight Project area — Tifton, Dalton, Milledgeville, Moultrie, Thomasville, and Valdosta, Ga., and Live Oak, Fla.

While the agencies studied for this report do have minority representation — i.e., non-white — most are lagging behind county and city population numbers.

The majority of law-enforcement agencies interviewed by the SunLight Project team said they see a lack of diversity as a detriment and are taking steps to actively recruit and retain a more diverse workforce.

The Numbers

Lowndes County Sheriff's Office has 227 employees; 149 are white, 75 are black and one is Hispanic/Latino.

While the sheriff is white, two of the six captains are black and four are white. None are female.

Of the 227 LCSO employees, 67 are female.

The Valdosta Police Department has a total of 149 sworn officers; 117 are white, 27 are black and five are Hispanic/Latino. Of the non-sworn officers, 22 are white and 19 are black.

Sworn officers or mandated employees take an oath to support the Constitution, their state and the laws of the jurisdiction in which they work, and are authorized to make arrests and carry firearms. Non-sworn officers or non-mandated employees do not take an oath and have limited to no legal powers.

There are seven minorities with supervisor positions, including one deputy chief.

VPD has 27 sworn female officers and 30 non-sworn officers. There are nine females with supervisor positions, including three deputy chiefs.

The Tifton Police Department has a total of 49 employees, five are black and three are Hispanic/Latino.

There are 13 total leadership positions, two are held by black officers.

The Whitfield Sheriff's Office has a total of 60 mandated employees; 57 are white, one is black and two are Hispanic/Latino. Two are female.

There are 32 mandated white supervisors and two mandated Hispanic/Latino supervisors. There are also five non-mandated white supervisors. There are seven total females in supervisor positions at WCSO.

At the Whitfield County Correctional Center, there are 27 white employees, one black and four Hispanic/Latino.

Five of the employees are female.

The Moultrie Police Department is authorized for staffing of about 46 sworn officers and five civilian positions.

Currently, patrol-officer ranks are 49 percent black, 49 percent white and 2 percent Latino/Hispanic officers.

Police Chief Sean Ladson is white. Assistant Police Chief Tonero Bender is black. Chief Emeritus Frank Lang, whose office is involved in a community-policing initiative and who served as department chief for 14 years previously, is black.

Among upper management in road patrol positions, there are two black and two white corporals; two white sergeants and one black; one each white and Hispanic first sergeants; two white and two black lieutenants.

In senior office administration, there is one each white, black, and Hispanic officers.

Colquitt County Sheriff's Office has a total of 53 sworn officers with arrest powers. Seven are black and three are Hispanic/Latino.

Sworn officers without arrest powers total 35, with 13 being black and two Hispanic/Latino.

Additionally, CCSO has three clerical employees, all white.

Specific numbers for Milledgeville Police Department were not available, the department reports it does employ several black and Hispanic/Latino officers. Out of 59 sworn officers and 32 jail employees, the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office employs 47 white, 43 black, and one Hispanic/Latino officers.

Baldwin County's Sheriff's Office, which serves a county split roughly halfway between white and African-Americans, largely reflects the racial diversity of Baldwin County.

By contrast, the Dublin Police Department, which serves a city with slightly more black people than white, has 40 white officers compared to 19 black and 1 Hispanic. A records request for the racial makeup of the Laurens County Sheriff's Office was not returned.

Thomasville Police Department, with 57 sworn officers, has 18 officers in command leadership positions — 11 white men, four black men and three white females.

The black assistant police chief is at the top of executive management.

The criminal investigations division commander is black and also in an executive-management position.

Of the agency's nine detectives, including the black commander, six are white males and two are white females.

The agency is 54 percent black, 43 percent white, 2 percent Hispanic and 1 percent other.

The racial makeup of the Thomas County Sheriff's Office is “almost an even split” of black and white employees, said Capt. Steven Jones, sheriff's office public information officer.

Among the six key leadership positions, two are black and the remaining four are white.

There are two black investigators. The Thomas County narcotics division employs a black drug agent, along with a female agent.

There are also two female road-patrol officers.

Of the three school-resource officers, one is black and another is Hispanic.

“So they're the most diversified unit,” Jones said.

The Thomas County Sheriff's Office has a total of 86 employees.

Cairo Police Department employs 22 sworn officers. The racial makeup of the force includes two females, one Hispanic, one Native American and three blacks.

Of CPD's five shift commanders, four are white. The sole black woman among shift commanders is also the administrative supervisor.

CPD investigators include one Hispanic and four whites.

Chief Keith Sandefur said the department is 32 percent minorities, including females.

Grady County Sheriff Harry Young said his office is 60 percent black and 40 percent white.

One sworn black male officer works in the Grady County Jail.

The agency has 12 road deputies — six black and six white.

The Grady County Sheriff's Office investigation unit employs a black male lieutenant, a white female sergeant, a white male chief investigator and two white male investigators at the rank of lieutenant.

The captain over patrol is a white male.

Shift supervisors include a black male lieutenant, a black male sergeant and a white male sergeant.

Recruitment

One issue with recruiting is when agencies don't recruit from minority organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Valdosta Police Chief Brian Childress said every time the Valdosta Police Department puts a posting out for a new position, it makes sure the posting goes to the NAACP and other minority organizations.

“We have worked closer than we ever have with these civil-rights organizations and churches, and I think, at least by word of mouth, it's working,” Childress said.

Childress said he made sure the police department's recruitment team is comprised of a diverse range of people. The team is three black and three white with two females.

A lack of diversity is a consistent problem, but almost every law-enforcement agency in the SunLight Project area reports making an effort to recruit and retain a diverse workforce.

”I think I'd say, if you're hiring for the people that can do the best job, and you're throwing your net out wide enough, I think naturally that's going to create diversity, whether in (terms of) race or sex,” Moultrie Police Chief Sean Ladson said. “To be a truly effective law-enforcement agency, you're going to have to have diversity."

The Dalton Police Department reports it has 82 sworn officers with only four Hispanic officers and no black officers. All of its 20 executive, command and supervisory and command positions are filled by white men.

"Our experience in recruiting minority officers is about the same as other departments that are away from urban areas," said Jason Parker, former Dalton police chief.

Parker said total applications have been declining.

"Last year, for example, we had, I think, just over a hundred applications. And our hire rate is only about 3 percent of those who do apply," he said.

He said the department has recently re-instituted the position of recruiting officer, who attends job fairs across the state.

Parker said the department advertises and works to attract both minorities and women to the force.

Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood agrees; non-urban areas have difficulty attracting minority candidates.

“We participate in every job fair that we know about,” he said. “We take part in every school career day. We do programs at Dalton State College. We reach out to the community the best we can.”

Generally, he said the minority employees within the sheriff's department are from the area.

Major Lynnette LaRocque, head of the Support Services Division of the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office, which oversees the hiring process for all prospective deputies and jail or administrative employees, agrees.

“We do our best to recruit from different areas, and we also go to tons of job fairs as well,” she said. “I don't know the numbers off the top of my head, but remembering the physical training exams (for prospective deputies), the past few years have been pretty even.

“We do have an affirmative-action plan that we do our best to follow, and that plan is updated any time a census is done based on the information from our community."

Internal Perspective

Valdosta Police Department Patrol Cmdr. Bernard Robinson said a person's background is what defines them. He grew up during segregation, and with that, he formed negative stereotypes of white people.

He joined the VPD in 1987 and experienced a lot of racism, he said. He would hear racial slurs used against him. They wouldn't say it to his face, but he would hear about it second hand or overhear a conversation.

“That's not the culture now, and I can say that because I lived it,” Cmdr. Robinson said. “I believe they honestly work hard to hire minorities.”

This has to come from the top, he said. If bad behavior isn't punished, if it is swept under the rug, it is seen as acceptable behavior. Change has to come from the top down.

“The guy at the top has to draw a line in the sand and say this will not be tolerated,” Cmdr. Robinson said.

Having diversity also brings more acceptance by the community.

“Let's say there's a young black male who doesn't trust the police,” Cmdr. Robinson said. “He says that he doesn't trust white officers. Sometimes they won't say it, but they'll tell me they just don't trust that guy, but I'll talk to you.”

Capt. Eric Robinson has been with the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office for 24 years. He took the job as a necessity while he was in college, but it turned out he loved being a deputy, he said.

He saw law enforcement from a different perspective. When people don't have any knowledge about law enforcement then what they see on the news or on TV shows is all they know.

“They think they know and understand, but that's not a true perspective of cops,” Capt. Robinson said. “There are a lot of negatives out there. I would say to people to take the time to come out and see for yourself.”

When he became a cop, Capt. Robinson said the black community gave him flack for it. People called him sell-out, he said, and he constantly had to prove himself. There is more pressure put on him because of his race and the one-sided perspective people have of cops.

He said diversity is more than just white or black. It's important for an agency to have as wide a range of people as possible to do the job correctly. When Capt. Robinson first started working for LCSO, there were few black deputies. That has been changing, and he credits leadership for making diversity more of a priority.

“I was promoted on my merit not just because they needed to promote someone black,” Capt. Robinson said.

Dominic Ford, a black sergeant in Thomasville Police Department community relations, has worked in gang investigations and as juvenile liaison, DARE officer and school-resource officer.

"I'm also attached to the FBI gang task force," Ford said.

He said Chief Troy Rich and a former chief encouraged him to apply for the promotional process.

"I wasn't ready," Ford said.

In 2017, he applied for a promotion from senior officer to sergeant and received the promotion.

"At one point, I could almost count black officers on one hand," said Ford, a Thomasville PD employee for 13 years.

Virginia Williams, chief jailer for Thomas County Sheriff's Office for 11 years, said as a minority, she has not had difficulty growing in her almost three-decade enforcement career.

Williams said Thomas County Sheriff Carlton Powell looks for the best fit for the job, regardless of race or gender.

“The sheriff looks for the best person to put in a position when it becomes available,” Williams said. “He's always been fair. And that's what he looks for, the best people to get the job done.”

The Thomas County Sheriff's Office, Williams believes, is diverse, also noting Powell allows deputies the opportunity to grow in one's law-enforcement career.

Jeff Smith, a sheriff's office road patrol sergeant, also said he has not experienced any difficulty growing in his career.

“Ever since I was a little boy, I always wanted to do it,” Smith said of being in law enforcement.

Like Williams, Smith also believes the Thomas County Sheriff's Office has diverse demographics.

“Everybody's real fair here,” he said.

http://www.valdostadailytimes.com/news/local_news/policing-diversity-law-enforcement-faces-challenges/article_c113d598-c20d-5908-9384-4be0c6572240.html

California

Will the next LAPD chief build on Charlie Beck's community policing approach?

by Brenda Gazzar

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has said he'd like his next pick for police chief to be a good listener, even-keeled and an innovator.

“If there's one thing that's defined the success L.A. has had … is that we're looking at how do we reinvent ourselves,” Garcetti told reporters at a Jan. 19 news conference after LAPD Chief Charlie Beck surprised many with his announcement that he'll be retiring in late June, nearly a year-and-a-half before his second five-year term was set to expire.

Depending on whom you ask, reinventing LAPD's vision could be just what the community needs – or the last thing.

Longtime civil rights lawyer Connie Rice, who was once known for suing the police department and is now an outside adviser to Beck, said the chief took the “LAPD cultural transformation baton” from predecessor William “Bill” Bratton and ran the next leg of the relay as only department veteran Beck — the son of a retired LAPD deputy chief — could do.

Bratton, who was recruited to join the department in 2002, is credited with launching reforms at a time the department was still reeling from the 1992 Rodney King riots and the Rampart corruption scandal , in which scores of officers were implicated in misconduct.

Had Beck not accepted the job to succeed Bratton, Rice argued, LAPD would likely not have had the mission of turning the department and its roughly 10,000 officers into a police force that protected poor communities rather than “occupying them,” alienating them and triggering riots every decade or two.

“The next chief has to have deep fidelity to this long-term strategy,” Rice said. “If candidates come in talking about their new vision, they shouldn't get the job… We need someone who understands where we are in the race for change and cultural re-engineering of LAPD.”

At least two senior members of Beck's command staff have said they may apply for the post of top cop: First Assistant Chief Michel Moore, a 36-year LAPD veteran, and Assistant Chief Jorge Villegas, who formerly served as the deputy chief of the San Fernando Valley. Assistant Chief Beatrice Girmala, who could be the department's first female chief, has not said whether she intends to apply.

A work in progress

Among the important changes Beck has made is instituting the Preservation of Life Medal , which honors officers who have showed restraint in using deadly force in tense situations – something union officials strongly opposed, Rice said.

Beck also created the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) program, a collaboration between the city's Housing Authority and the department that aims to foster relationships with residents at public housing projects in South Los Angeles and Boyle Heights. The mission includes starting and supporting community and youth programs while helping to tackle quality-of-life issues.

“They're the only cops in LAPD who are promoted by demonstrating how they avoided arresting a kid,” Rice said.

That sentiment was echoed by Jorja Leap, a professor of social welfare at UCLA and a gang expert, who added that under Beck, the police department — in coordination with the mayor's office — has done “tremendous” work around combating gangs and gang intervention.

“It's not to say there haven't been issues — racial tensions and questions around officer involved shootings — but I think a sea change has begun,” Leap said.

Beck's successor must understand that LAPD is still a work in progress, however, and cannot afford to go backwards, she said.

The city needs someone who is not only devoted to change and reform but will use innovative thinking that is “inclusive and sensitive to all — underscore all” the needs of Angelenos, added Leap, who is married to a retired LAPD commander.

Differing visions

Not everyone in the community would agree that the department has been moving in the right direction.

Melina Abdullah, an organizer and original member of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, noted that fatal shootings by Los Angeles police officers have remained high under Beck, calling LAPD among the most “murderous” police agencies.

At least 16 people were fatally shot by LAPD officers last year, according to preliminary news releases from the department . The vast majority were said to be armed or a weapon was located at the scene. Meanwhile, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies fatally shot eight people last year, down from 16 the previous year, according to a spokeswoman.

And Abdullah argues that Beck's “expansionist” approach in which officers are now expected to engage in non-policing duties is counterproductive.

“They're being used to serve as social workers and mental health providers, basketball coaches when that's not the job of police, nor are they trained to do the work,” said Abdullah, who chairs Cal State Los Angeles' Pan African Studies Department.

A ideal chief, she said, would be one who is “courageous enough to admit” that policing is not the answer to everything and is willing to work in partnership with other agencies to more fully share resources.

Erroll Southers, director of USC's Safe Communities Institute and a former FBI special agent, argued that modern-day policing includes a host of challenges officers have not faced to the same extent before, including dealing with the homeless, those with mental illness and domestic violence and child abuse. To be effective, he said, the new chief will have to not only understand these challenges but embrace them.

Because LAPD has been thought of as a national leader in a number of areas, the new chief should build on that reputation, he said. But he acknowledged that's won't be an easy task.

“You know a reputation in a police department can change in five seconds when an incident happens and can go viral,” Southers said. “They need someone who can respond to that challenge, someone very nimble, very intelligent but more than anything very transparent — not just in words, but in regard to investigations, access and community outreach.”

https://www.dailynews.com/2018/01/28/will-the-next-lapd-chief-build-on-charlie-becks-community-policing-approach/

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Missouri

On Cherokee Street, St. Louis Police Try an Age-Old Experiment: Beat Cops

by Danny Wicentowski

Cherokee Street wakes up slowly.

It is a cold Friday morning in December, and the business district is basically deserted, its stasis disrupted only by the passing traffic and a bitter, whistling wind. Crunching their fingers inside thin gloves, two St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers walk west along the sidewalk.

The embroidery on the front of their uniform jackets says, incorrectly, "Downtown Bike Unit." Although Devin Guajardo and Jazmon Garrett also work assault investigations and pull overtime patrols all over the city, the two officers actually serve in a unit all their own. They belong to Cherokee Street.

Day to day, nine to five — or two to ten at night — they traverse a three-quarter-mile stretch populated with bars, restaurants, music venues, Mexican groceries, furniture stores, resale shops and antique emporiums. The pair represent a throwback to days of yore, back when the department had manpower to spare. They are "community policing" in action.

This stretch of Cherokee bustles with a potent mixture of family businesses, entrepreneurial energy and youth culture. At the same time, the area has seen more than its share of violent crime, so much so that, starting in 2015, the department plunged resources into Gravois Park and the surrounding area, with the intent to topple the crime rates that were leading the district.

Eventually, those resources would include two newbie officers, neither more than two years out of the academy, but who both showed a knack for a certain set of policing skills.

The taller of the two, Guajardo, has her eyes hidden behind slender black aviators. She clangs through the metal door to the Cherokee Market, in the midst of describing the duo's work on the assault team — "We're like part-time detectives," she says — when she's greeted by the man behind the register.

"I haven't seen you for a while," he says.

"We've been busy," says Garrett. She slides off her earmuffs. "They've got us doing so much."

Today, though, Guajardo and Garrett are back on the beat. They will return here several times over the next eight hours, not just to warm up, but to trade crucial gossip — about past crimes, new faces and potential signs of trouble. In the afternoon, Guajardo will post up near a rack of cheap snacks and stoically evaluate the crop of teenagers who start to flood the area when school lets out. One teen will take one look at the glowering cop and turn tail, bounding at a full sprint out of the shop.

Indeed, you work in one place long enough, and people will start to recognize you. Work as a cop in one place long enough, and people will start to depend on you, confide in you and maybe even befriend you. Others will try to avoid you, knowing they can't pull anything while you're around.

The radio on Guajardo's shoulder squawks. It's an incident on Ohio Avenue, just a few blocks away. "Male and female fighting ... male is making threats toward the female ... caller is also irate that police have not arrived yet."

Someone else is on their way to check out the altercation. On this morning, the officers have nowhere to be but where they are. Beyond this street, the regular patrol officers in District 3 bounce from crime to crime, taking incident reports and passing cases to detectives before driving by SUV to the next mugging, car theft, assault or domestic disturbance. The Cherokee beat officers stay put.

The dispatcher on Guajardo's radio interrupts with another loud alert — "Three 911 calls to the same address ... suspect known to carry a gun" — just as the two officers are saying goodbye to the shop owner and walking back into a blast of wind.

Guajardo and Garrett have a different job to do.

When Shawn Dace took over as captain of District 3 in 2015, he took special note of the communities surrounding Cherokee Street. His reasons were not the ones that have made the district a destination for food lovers and other young creatives. Cherokee itself may be one of the city's biggest success stories, but get one block off the street and things sometimes feel downright dangerous.

"I have thirteen neighborhoods, and when I started, they told me that two neighborhoods, Gravois Park and Dutchtown, drive crime in District 3," he says. "So we focused a lot of attention there."

Judging by the available crime stats, the attention has paid off. Compared to 2016, total crime in Gravois Park was down thirteen percent in 2017, while the informal collection of "Cherokee neighborhoods" (Gravois Park, Marine Villa, Benton Park and Benton Park West) has seen an overall drop of around eight percent. During the same period, homicides citywide surged past 200 — largely thanks to a concentration of murders in a handful of northern neighborhoods — and so the trend in south city is a notable bright spot.

That boost of attention, though, has a real cost. Dace's back office in Central Patrol headquarters on Jefferson Avenue sits opposite a bulletin board listing patrol officers and their respective car numbers. At full strength, District 3 should field 104 officers across south city. Dace only has 92, and five of them, he says, are on extended sick leave. Four are detached to other units. Practically, that leaves the district 21 officers short.

"That was my biggest concern with putting Jazmon and Devin on the street; we've sacrificed a lot to have them down there," Dace admits. But, he adds, "we're going to continue to have them down there as long as we can sustain it."

Packing neighborhoods with patrol cars takes bodies, which the SLMPD simply doesn't have.

Presently, the department's 1,184 commissioned officers — more than 100 short of its optimal strength — are spread between patrol duties and support staff. In his own district, Dace estimates, only seven to ten officers on average are patrolling during any given shift. In more affluent corners of the city, community improvement districts and business associations have turned to private security companies, staffed by off-duty St. Louis cops, to increase patrols. Aside from Soulard and parts of South Grand, District 3's neighborhoods are largely without that luxury.

The staffing shortages are nothing new. Still, Dace remembers that it wasn't long after he took command of the district in 2015 that business owners on Cherokee Street began lobbying for foot patrol officers. They complained that the departure of regular patrols from the street had created a safe zone for crimes both petty and serious.

"The more I attended meetings, that would be the thing, every time," he says. "And I got to realize that a lot of the issues we were having down there were from some of the juveniles. My thought process was, although I am forfeiting two officers, the possibility that these officers could get to know who the juveniles were, the ones who were possibly creating issues, would outweigh us losing a two-man car. I started to think about who would be good for that area."

In the summer of 2016, Dace found himself passing through a crowd on Cherokee during the year's National Night Out celebration, a block party that brought residents into the street to eat, drink and let loose. The air thumped with music. He spotted two blue uniforms: Jazmon Garrett and Devin Guajardo.

"I saw them out dancing with some young kids. I thought, 'They got a good rapport with the community,'" he recalls. He'd found his beat cops for Cherokee.

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/stlouis/on-cherokee-street-st-louis-police-try-an-age-old-experiment-beat-cops/Content?oid=13959819

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Threat assessment: 4 street drugs impacting police in 2018

The drug landscape in the U.S. over the last decade has shifted, with the opioid threat reaching epidemic levels and impacting significant portions of the country

by Keith Graves

The DEA's 2017 National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA) is a comprehensive strategic assessment of the threat posed to the United States by domestic and international drug trafficking and the abuse of illicit drugs.

According to that report, the drug landscape in the United States over the last decade has shifted, with the opioid threat reaching epidemic levels and impacting significant portions of the country.

This epidemic has unleashed new drugs that present a significant safety threat to America's law enforcement officers.

To add to that epidemic, more states are legalizing marijuana , which has allowed entrepreneurs to produce more potent strains of pot.

Let's take a look at the drugs that will cause the most issues for cops in 2018.

1. Fentanyl

Mexican drug cartels have seen the value of producing fentanyl over heroin. Fentanyl can be produced for as little as $3,300 per kilo, and that kilo is the dosage equivalent of 50 kilos of heroin. This makes it easier on the cartel supply chain and makes smuggling much easier.

To make matters worse, a recent study showed that the availability of naloxone makes it easier for addicts to take powerful drugs like fentanyl since they believe they have a safety net. One participant in the study asked a fellow user to get his naloxone kit ready because, “He knew the opioid he was about to use had fentanyl in it and was going to use anyway.”

Fentanyl will pose a significant threat to police officers, necessitating training in fentanyl safety .

2. Cocaine

There are two reasons why cocaine use will grow in the U.S. in 2018.

One is that all opiate epidemics are followed by surges in stimulant use.

The second reason is that there has been an increase in cocaine production in Colombia, which is the primary supplier of cocaine to the United States. We have not seen an increase like this in 20 years. The reason for this is a pending peace accord with Colombia's rebel group “Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,” or FARC.

As part of the peace accord, FARC will renounce drug trafficking and farmers will receive subsidies from the government to replace their coca fields with traditional crops.

Unfortunately, these farmers are increasing their cocaine production now so that they can receive more money from the government once the subsidies take effect.

3. Synthetic Drugs

These new drugs go by several names: Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS), research chemicals (RC), designer drugs or “herbal highs.”

These terms have all been used to describe drugs that were produced in a laboratory to skirt conventional laws.

The Controlled Substances Act (or the U.S.'s drug law) is not very nimble. A good example is Florida's past problem with “ Flakka .” As that drug ravaged Florida, the DEA placed it in schedule I (no medical necessity) and worked with China to make it illegal to manufacture it there. However, chemists in China and elsewhere picked new similar replacements to take up the slack. The new drugs that replaced Flakka were not listed in the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and were more difficult to prosecute under the “ Analog Law .” Chinese drug manufacturers have become adept at skirting our laws to produce these new synthetic drugs.

Another example is the drug U-47700 , also known as “Pink.” This synthetic opioid has been linked to numerous overdose deaths around the U.S. and was legal until the DEA placed it into schedule I of the CSA.

Recently, I have been seeing advertisements online for U-48800 and U-49900. These are slight variations of the original U-47700 and skirt our CSA.

4. Marijuana

As more states allow recreational use of marijuana , it will adversely affect those states that choose to keep marijuana illegal. As an example, California produced 13.5 million pounds of marijuana last year, but only consumed 2.5 million pounds. That means that Californians produced five times more marijuana than it used. Obviously, the rest is going to other states, including those that wish to remain marijuana free. With the freedom of recreational marijuana use brings innovation that makes marijuana more potent, as well as new marijuana products to the market.

Conclusion

The biggest threat to America right now is the surge in synthetic drug production. These new synthetic drugs, which include fentanyl and its analogs, will continue to skirt the CSA and cause damage in our communities. In just the past few weeks, the DEA said it will place all fentanyl analogs into the CSA, which was refreshing to hear. However, there are many other synthetic drugs that threaten our country and are not listed in the CSA. The demand for these drugs continues to grow and our laws are making it easy for drug users to go undetected and unabated.

https://www.policeone.com/drug-interdiction-narcotics/articles/470240006-Threat-assessment-4-street-drugs-impacting-police-in-2018/

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California

Police: Gun accidentally went off in girl's backpack at LA school

Police said the gun accidentally went off a girl's backpack, sending a single bullet tearing through the wrist of another girl before hitting a boy in the head

by Amanda Lee Myers and Mike Balsamo

LOS ANGELES — A semi-automatic handgun went off accidentally inside the backpack of a 12-year-old girl in a Los Angeles middle school classroom, sending a single bullet tearing through the wrist of another girl before hitting a boy in the head, police said Friday.

Los Angeles police spokesman Josh Rubenstein said detectives are trying to figure out where the girl got the gun, which was unregistered, and why she brought it to school. It wasn't clear what made it fire.

The girl, who was taken into custody minutes after the shooting, has retained an attorney and isn't answering questions, Rubenstein said. She is expected to be arraigned Monday on two felony charges, including being a minor in possession of a firearm and having a weapon on school grounds, prosecutors said.

Jordan Valenzuela, a 12-year-old classmate of the girl's, told The Associated Press that he was in the room next door when the gun went off and talked to her minutes later.

"She was crying," Jordan said. "She was like, 'I didn't mean to. I had the gun in my backpack and I didn't know it was loaded and my backpack fell and the gun went off.'"

Jordan said he saw a hole in the backpack, which the girl was holding, when she asked him to hide the gun for her.

"I said 'No,'" he said. "Then I moved away from her because I was a little bit scared."

The shooting sent children screaming and crying from the classroom as blood poured from the two students who were hit. Police descended on the school, which was put on lockdown, and the girl was arrested without incident.

Terrified parents rushed to the campus and waited for hours to be reunited with their children. Once they did, many children and parents sobbed as they hugged, walking from the school as they held each other.

The 15-year-old boy who was hit in the head with a bullet initially was in critical condition.

A spokesman at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center where the children were being treated didn't respond to messages about his condition Friday, though a doctor treating the boy said he expected him to make a full recovery.

The wrist wound to the 15-year-old girl was considered minor. Three others had superficial face or head injuries, some from broken glass.

A review of shootings nationwide by The Associated Press and USA TODAY Network found that at least 141 deaths of minors were attributed to unintentional or accidental shootings in 2015.

Most accidental shootings involve someone actually handling firearms, as opposed to guns getting dropped, said Pete Gagliardi, a former longtime agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

"It's pretty rare to hear about an incident like this," Gagliardi said of Thursday's shooting.

He said the gun wouldn't necessarily had to have been cocked to go off in the girl's backpack, but mostly likely would have had to have become entangled with something inside the bag for the trigger to have been pressed.

A strikingly similar shooting to Thursday's happened just south of Los Angeles in Gardena on Jan. 18, 2011, when a gun went off inside a 17-year-old boy's backpack after he set it on a desk, wounding two students with one bullet, including a girl who was shot in the head.

The teen was convicted of possessing and discharging a firearm in a school zone. He was sentenced to nine months in juvenile camp and put on probation until he turned 21.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has a policy requiring every middle and high school campus to conduct daily random searches by metal-detector wands at different hours of the school day for students in the sixth grade and up.

https://www.policeone.com/active-shooter/articles/470538006-Police-Gun-accidentally-went-off-in-girls-backpack-at-LA-school/

California

Middle school shooting renews debate over how L.A. Unified keeps students safe

by Sonali Kohli, Howard Blume, Ruben Vives and Anna M. Phillips

Frightened parents rushed to the scene of a Los Angeles middle school Thursday morning, crowding outside the gates, desperate to hear if their children were safe. Word had spread fast that a gun had gone off in a classroom and that students had been shot.

News helicopter footage showed a handcuffed girl in jeans and a sweatshirt being led away by police officers, one of them carrying her backpack.

Such scenes of anguish are not common in L.A., where until Thursday, seven years had passed without a student being shot inside a district school building.

But they have become a regular occurrence in the U.S. Thursday's incident was the 14th school shooting in the country in 2018, according to an analysis by Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group.

And even before the details of what had happened were clear, questions were being raised about how the nation's second-largest school system goes about protecting its students.

The incident at Sal Castro Middle School — less than a mile from the headquarters of the Los Angeles Unified School District — left two 15-year-old students with gunshot wounds. Authorities did not identify the victims or the 12-year-old taken into custody.

Children described huddling in darkened classrooms as police secured the building. Authorities raced to notify the families of the wounded.

"What is it that would make a child want to come to school with a gun?" said acting L.A. Unified Supt. Vivian Ekchian. "We have to address these issues as a community."

The male victim, who was shot in the head, was in stable condition Thursday afternoon. The other victim, a girl, had been shot in the wrist and was in fair condition. Both were taken to the L.A. County-USC Medical Center, where doctors said they should make a full recovery.

"This child was extremely lucky," trauma surgeon Aaron Strumwasser said of the boy, who had arrived at the hospital vomiting blood.

Three other people suffered minor injuries, said Capt. Erik Scott of the Los Angeles Fire Department. They were a 30-year-old woman, an 11-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl.

Inside the middle school, police ushered some students into the auditorium, where they waited to be interviewed about what they had seen. Some were handcuffed and searched for weapons before ultimately being released.

"We will attend to the needs of these students, the witnesses, very carefully, with the understanding that this is very traumatic," said Los Angeles School Police Chief Steve Zipperman.

Shortly after students were allowed to leave, a 12-year-old boy told a reporter that he had been in the classroom where the gun went off and had seen students "playing" with it beforehand. Benjamin, whose aunt asked that he be identified by only his first name, said he was in the back of the class when he heard a "loud pop" toward the front.

"Someone decided to bring a gun, I guess someone was accidentally playing around with it," he said. It "was an accident. They thought it was a fake gun."

Josh Rubenstein, an LAPD spokesman, said Thursday evening that police do not believe that what occurred was intentional.

The gunshot wounds, and the fact that a gun had made its way into a middle school, quickly revived an old debate within L.A. Unified over the best way to keep students safe. For years, district administrators and advocacy groups have sparred over how to strike a balance between security measures and the desire to make students feel welcome rather than under constant suspicion.

Under its current policy, the district requires all middle and high school campuses to conduct daily random searches. These are supposed to be done using the kind of hand-held metal detectors, or wands, typically seen at large sporting events and concerts. This regulation also applies to charter schools located in district buildings, a mandate that some charter leaders have objected to as unnecessary.

Sabrina Colon, 12, said she was in her seventh-grade math class at Sal Castro Middle School on Thursday, when she heard a loud bang from the class next door. She said that staff sometimes check backpacks, use wands, and pat students down.

"They do it every once in a while," she said. "They need to do it more often."

L.A. Unified has used random searches since 1993, when two high school students were shot and killed in district schools. That January, a 16-year-old boy was killed at Fairfax High School by a classmate who brought a gun to school in his backpack. A month later, a student was shot to death at Reseda High School.

In 2011, the school board decided on daily searches with wands after two students were injured in an accidental shooting at Gardena High School.

Some critics of the policy argue that the searches are anything but random and that they unfairly paint black and Latino students as would-be criminals. Others say that the process simply is ineffective.

Last year, the district released an internal audit that examined searches at 20 schools. It found that some schools weren't conducting them daily and about a quarter of those surveyed didn't have enough metal detectors. Records kept by the school district's police department show that between 2013 and 2017, L.A. Unified schools confiscated an average of 21 firearms a year from students. Only one of those guns was found by a metal detector.

School board member George McKenna said the shooting Thursday highlighted the need to continue the random searches.

"It's a tragedy, but it also reflects the ease with which students can access guns and the ease with which they can get them on campus despite our efforts to prevent it," he said. McKenna said that he used to oppose the searches, preferring "heartware over hardware," but that his views have changed.

"You're not going to get everyone with wanding, but you can't measure the ones you prevented," he said.

Board member Nick Melvoin, who has been sympathetic to the civil rights advocates who have criticized random searches, said he would need to know more about the shooting before deciding whether it should influence district practices.

"This is not just an L.A. Unified problem but an American problem," he said. "This has become an epidemic in this country."

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-school-shooting-belmont-20180202-story.html

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Pennsylvania

Erie pilots national community policing program

by Matthew Rink

The Erie Bureau of Police will serve as a national pilot program for community policing, Mayor Joe Schember announced during his weekly news conference Thursday morning.

“Strengthening Police and Community Partnerships” will bring together city police and key community groups in a meeting. After introductory comments, smaller groups will form to discuss issues facing the city, including what police are doing well and what they can do better. Then, new groups will be formed to discuss how the bureau can be more effective, especially at community policing, which has been a focus for Schember.

“Our goal is to restore hope for Erie,” Schember said.

Community policing involves building relationships with residents through proactive, non-enforcement interactions. Schember, who hopes to have the pilot program underway this spring, said patrol officers, representatives of the black community, refugee groups, nonprofits, the arts, religious leaders, business leaders, educators, neighborhood associations, and victims of violence will be part of the discussions.

The city has been working with Department of Justice in Philadelphia on the program.

“These initiatives fit into the prevention piece in Unified Erie, which is another program that is very important to me and the command staff,” said Schember, referring to the violence-reduction initiative. “As we move forward we want to strengthen police-community partnerships.”

Schember said the pilot program aligns with his administration's efforts of “getting out, listening to the community and building relationships.” In addition to Unified Erie, Schember said the program meets one of the components of Erie Refocused, the city's multi-year, comprehensive plan.

It's also a build-out of the city's Community Police Relations Group, which reconvened Jan. 26.

Mike Outlaw, community liaison for Schember's administration, and Deputy Chief Mike Nolan, were part of last week's CPRG meeting.

“When the group first convened, there was so much tension in the room, for me as an African-American and him (Nolan) as a law enforcement officer,” Outlaw said. “We both have implicit biases. We both bought into a certain belief system with one another, without knowing one another. But once we had an open and honest dialogue and conversation, those walls came down. From there the entire group kind of engaged and followed that lead. We began to admit our own faults, our own mistakes. And they did the same thing.”

Outlaw believes the Strengthening Police and Community Partnerships can take that dialogue to “another level” because it will be inclusive of the entire community.

Nolan said officers can lose a personal connection to the people they serve. For example, he said his work in the narcotics unit for 20 years hasn't involved interactions with crime victims or witnesses, or others impacted by crime.

“It got to a point that no matter what I did I couldn't change people's opinions about what we were doing,” he said. “They were generally unhappy with us.”

He had given up on trying to explain his job duties to some community members. However, Nolan said his thinking was “transformed” after his first meeting with the Community Police Relations Group.

“I heard a different perspective, I heard that I was wrong in my thinking,” he said.

Nolan said establishing trust not only will strengthen relationships between police and community members, it could lead to further reduction in crime because people might be more willing to report crime.

Schember on Thursday also highlighted the work of the bureau's Quebec unit and the Erie Housing Authority, which serves more than 8,000 resident. Schember said the Quebec unit has been engaged in community policing for 16 years at Housing Authority properties.

“From reading to kids that are 3 and 4 years old, to going to the YMCA and playing games with kids; We even had a junior police academy. We had five girls go through the academy,” Cpl. Tom Cavatto, who runs the unit, said of its community outreach. “From a young age all the way up to teens, and even seniors, it runs the whole gamut.”

Schember said the unit is integrated into the community it serves. Officers are involved in Housing Authority activities, know the neighbors and treat them with respect, he said. He called it a “model for the way policing should be done through all of Erie.”

“These officers realize that it is just as important to read to a 5-year-old as it is to arrest a criminal,” he said.

http://www.goerie.com/news/20180202/erie-pilots-national-community-policing-program

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Hawaii false missile alert snder says he thought drill was real

by Steve Almasy

The man who says he sent out the false ballistic missile alert last month in Hawaii that caused more than a half hour of panic said Friday he thinks he is being treated unfairly, and he was positive at the time the drill was real.

The man, who said he doesn't want to be identified for security reasons, was fired by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) earlier this week. He told CNN on Friday that he feels terrible about what happened, but he did what he was trained to do.

He hopes that by speaking out, he can help prevent a similar incident from happening in the 49 other states.

The drill began on the morning of January 13 as the man, who had been with the agency for 11 1/2 years, according to his lawyer, and his coworkers were just logging on to their computers at the beginning of their shifts, he said.

"I thought 100 percent it was real," said the former employee, who said he had been involved in about five prior missile drills.

The man said this time he never heard "exercise, exercise, exercise" over the secure phone for emergencies because someone picked up the handset before transferring it to a speaker.

The man said he heard the words "This is not a drill" in a voice he did not recognize and reacted as he was trained to do. He went on his computer and used a pull-down menu to send out the alert.

Bruce Oliveira, who conducted an HI-EMA investigation into the incident, said earlier this week that five other employees in the room heard the guidance that it was an exercise.

Oliveira, who retired from the Hawaii National Guard as brigadier general, also told reporters, "When it became apparent that the real-world alert was issued," the employee who sent it out "seemed confused, he froze and another employee had to take over his responsibilities."

The employee "had a history of confusing drill and real-world events," Oliveira said.

The man disagreed with the state's version of what happened and said there was no one in the room that said it was a drill.

The man blamed the incident on a variety of factors -- it was shift change, he and others lacked training, the drill was unannounced -- for the alert that wasn't corrected for 38 minutes.

He also said protocols for the drills he was involved in changed each time.

"The (state and the Federal Communications Commission) have false information in the reports," the man said.

Attorney Michael Green said his client was a scapegoat.

"No one was ready for this day," Green said by phone. "They were not ready and they were not programmed to do what they were supposed to do when this happened."

Green and his client pointed out there was no safeguard measures to withdraw the alert. Employees had to call in people from the IT department to get it canceled. The former employee said the whole thing was a failure in planning from top to bottom.

Report finds problems

An internal investigation found "that insufficient management controls, poor computer software design and human factors contributed" to the alert and a delayed correction message.

Maj. Gen. Joe Logan, Hawaii's state adjutant general, said Vern Miyagi, administrator of the state emergency management agency, resigned Tuesday.

Miyagi accepted full responsibility for the incident and the actions of his employees, Logan said. Another employee was suspended without pay and a third employee resigned before any disciplinary action was taken, Logan said.

Logan said he appointed Brig. Gen. Moses Kaoiwi, director of joint staff with the Hawaii National Guard, as interim agency administrator.

Recommendations are released

Oliveira made two dozen recommendations, including eliminating practice drills during a shift change, stronger confirmation prompts for those sending an alert, and improved training.

The former employee told CNN that the task he was assigned to do in sending the alert will now be a two-person job.

But he said that he thinks the military is better equipped for alerts. Before November, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency's alerts were predominantly were about hurricanes, possible tsunamis and other Earth-driven events.

FCC report

Oliveira's findings echoed an Federal Communications Commission report issued Tuesday.

The FCC report said the emergency management worker thought the state was under attack and sent out the warning that sent residents into panic.

"Many things went wrong in Hawaii," FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a published statement. "I don't say this for the purpose of casting blame or disparaging Hawaiian officials. We simply need to identify the problems in order to fix them -- not just in Hawaii, but anywhere else where they may exist."

The worker would not speak to FCC officials in person and submitted the account of the incident in writing, the report noted. The man told CNN that it was three days before someone talked to him about the incident and that was when a supervisor asked him to write a statement.

He said he then missed more than a week of work due to stress-related illness after learning death threats had been made against him to agency officials. He said he saw a doctor for sleep issues. He also had his hearing tested (no issues there, he said).

Green said his client got stuck in the middle of an unprepared department and urged others to check with their state agencies to make sure they have a proper process in place.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/03/us/hawaiis-false-alarm-sender-speaks/index.html

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Maryland

Instructor: Baltimore recruits set to hit the streets with poor understanding of law

A third of Baltimore Police recruits set to hit the streets lacking a basic understanding of the laws, the academy's legal instructor said

by Kevin Rector and Justin Fenton

BALTIMORE — A third of Baltimore Police recruits set to leave the academy and hit the streets lack a basic understanding of the laws governing constitutional policing and are being pushed through by the department nonetheless, according to the academy's head of legal instruction.

“We're giving them a badge and a gun tomorrow, the right to take someone's liberty, ultimately the right to take someone's life if it calls for it, and they have not demonstrated they can meet [basic] constitutional and legal standards,” said Sgt. Josh Rosenblatt Friday.

After a gun and badge ceremony at the academy Saturday, the recruits will receive eight weeks of training on the street before formally becoming Baltimore police officers, department officials noted.

But Rosenblatt, an attorney by training, said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun that 17 of those 50 recruits failed to pass scenario-based practical tests on legal standards related to basic police work, such as the need for probable cause before making arrests.

He said all did pass eventually, but only after he and other legal instructors were removed from administering the tests.

Some of the recruits, he said, have not been able to master basic material. Four have been in the academy for 18 months, having been recycled back from previous classes to continue their training, and still haven't grasped the legal concepts, he said.

“With 18 months of training, they're still failing to meet very basic legal standards,” he said. “Don't illegally arrest people. Don't illegally search people. These are not high standards.”

Acting Police Commissioner Darryl De Sousa said Friday night that he is looking into Rosenblatt's concerns and reviewing the curriculum at the academy.

“Under my watch, there isn't going to be a single police officer who does not satisfactorily pass any Maryland police training requirements,” De Sousa pledged. “They won't be allowed to go on the streets. It's plain and simple.”

A spokesman for Mayor Catherine Pugh said she is confident De Sousa is addressing the concerns. The Baltimore State's Attorney's office referred all questions to police.

Rosenblatt said he decided to speak to The Sun because academy leaders have ignored concerns raised by him and others.

After some recruits repeatedly failed legal tests, Rosenblatt said, academy officials returned to an old, less rigorous multiple-choice test.

Academy leaders also decided the tests would be administered by other police officers at the academy, rather than by Rosenblatt and other legally-trained instructors, Rosenblatt said.

“When I said that police officers are not more qualified to test on the law than lawyers are, I was forcefully told that I was wrong,” Rosenblatt said.

When the multiple choice test was administered, every recruit passed, he said.

De Sousa defended the testing, saying it met state standards. But he said he would be reviewing how the current recruit class was tested and would make “any modifications” that are needed.

“I'll take a look at that, and we're doing it really rapidly,” he said.

Rosenblatt said his more rigorous testing model was not new — he introduced it after becoming an academy instructor two or three years ago — and has not been a problem before.

Pugh and police officials have said that the department is hundreds of officers short, and is doing everything it can to fill those positions.

Pugh has said the department should have 3,000 officers, and called the fact that it has fewer than 2,000 on active duty working on the streets “really devastating.”

She has also said that her administration has made huge strides in recruitment — including by shortening the amount of time it takes to get new police officers on the job.

In September, then-Commissioner Kevin Davis — who Pugh fired last month — said that recruitment was outpacing attrition for the first time in years.

“There's rumors out there and urban legends out there about no one wants to come to Baltimore, no one wants to be a Baltimore cop,” Davis said. “That's all really a bunch of B.S.”

At a Neighborhoods Symposium Dec. 5, Pugh said she had used her Bloomberg Innovation Team, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, to brainstorm and come up with solutions to the shortage after two years of frozen police hiring and attrition rates of 20 to 25 officers a month had left the force depleted.

“I was in a position that I had to step up hiring police officers for our city,” she said. And she claimed her administration had been able to cut the time it takes to “become a police officer” dramatically.

The department has promised to improve training on constitutional policing as part of its consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice.

The decree, which mandates sweeping reforms to the police department, was the result of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that concluded the police department had engaged in widespread unconstitutional and discriminatory policing for years, particularly in poor, predominantly black neighborhoods.

The federal agency said illegitimate police stops, searches and seizures were a major problem for the department, as was a lack of adequate training for officers.

O.C. Man Charged with Producing Child Pornography and Child Sex Tourism for Allegedly Engaging in Sexual Conduct with Boy in China

LOS ANGELES – A federal grand jury today named an Aliso Viejo man in an indictment that accuses him of traveling to China to engage in illegal sexual activity with a 16-year-old and taking sexually explicit photographs of the victim.

Ezequiel Christopher Barragan, 51 – who previously was a Spanish teacher at Dana Hills High School, as well as a youth baseball coach – was charged today in a three-count indictment that accuses him of producing child pornography, traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, and engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor in a foreign place.

According to the indictment, Barragan traveled to China in August 2009, where he allegedly coerced a boy to engage in sexual conduct “for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct.”

The charge of producing child pornography carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years. The charges of international travel and engaging in illicit sexual activity each carry a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

Barragan, who is currently serving a state prison sentence in an unrelated case, will be arraigned on the indictment in the coming weeks.

The case against Barragan was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service, which received substantial assistance from the Los Angeles Joint Regional Intelligence Center and the Orange County Child Exploitation Task Force.

This case was indicted by Assistant United States Attorney Vanessa Baehr-Jones of the Violent and Organized Crime Section.

~~~

from: Thom Mrozek, Public Affairs Officer
thom.mrozek@usdoj.gov
(213) 894-6947

www.justice.gov/usao-cdca