"News of the Week"   Daily Local & Regional NewsWatch June 2019 - Week 1

Terri Lanahan ~~~~~~~~~~ Many thanks to NAASCA's Terri Lanahan, Butte, Montana, for her research into the news that appears on the LACP & NAASCA web sites.

Making sense of community policing

by Tosin Osasona

To the perceptive, one of the puzzling changes to governance in the last 20 years is the progressive weakening of the all-powerful-state and the rise of groups, businesses and personages, who wield more influence and possess more economic resources than so many countries. For instance, Walmart –the largest retailer in the world, generated a revenue of over $510bn in 2018 which is far more than the amount Nigeria and her 180 million hardworking citizens made that year. It is not shocking when one puts in perspective the fact that Alhaji Aliko Dangote in 2018 earned more money than some states in Nigeria.

Perhaps, it is the understanding of the changing dynamics of governance that is driving nations to outsource roles that were once jewels of state bureaucracies. Developed and developing states now outsource punishment, detention and deployment of violence to private companies; in fact, a 2017 UK Guardian newspaper report states that at least half the world's population live in countries where there are more private security workers than public police officers. The answer to the question –what is government and who governs– has no simple answers again and this has great implications on security sector reform and governance, especially police and policing in Nigeria.

The information above is critical for proper contextualising of the recent announcement by the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the adoption of a community policing system to combat growing security threats across Nigeria. There is nothing novel about the announcement, the concept of community policing is arguably the single most utilized policing tool across the world, but why is Nigeria just adopting the idea? A distressful hand-wringing display of impotence by the managers of Nigeria's security architecture in the face of growing insecurity? A genuine shift in orientation and an indication of Nigeria's deepening of democratic culture? A new-found willingness by the Federal Government to share power of control with growingly assertive sub-national units over the police force? Agenda-setting by international development partners who have invested millions of dollars in security sector reform in Nigeria? Or perhaps, it is just another of Nigeria's penchant for mimicry?

Also, whose and which of the many applications of community policing is Nigeria adopting? Is the government planning to adopt the principles of community policing as the driving philosophy of the many policing actors in Nigeria? As a philosophy, the focus of policing authorities will be on a focused, problem-solving approach to public safety and security. Or does the government want to adopt community policing as the primary strategy for addressing the issue of Nigeria's worrisome security situation? As a strategy, police and communities will have to work together as partners in addressing local law and order issues. Will the government favour the Anglo-Saxon model, the French, the South African transitional justice variant or the Chinese?

Irrespective of the community policing choice that the Buhari government favours, it is essential to engage with all the representative components of the Nigerian state to decide the exact roles that the various communities in Nigeria want the police to fulfil in order to determine the type and model that will serve the Nigerian people. The police are the singular most important agency of law and order in any democratic government, therefore the responsibility of determining its ideological and functional leaning is beyond what the Inspector General of Police can singlehandedly determine. A community policing policy framework without the input of all the critical stakeholders in Nigeria is sheer waste of time.

Realistically, can any community policing policy work with the current centralised command and control structure in which the IGP, an appointee of the president, determines both policy and operational matters? Can a policeman be reasonably tasked with driving community policing initiative in a community in which he neither speaks its language nor understands its basic cultural drivers? Can an inherited policing system that is designed to use – ‘strangers to police strangers' deliver optimally a system based on community cooperation and collaboration? Will the wide cultural, religious and linguistic differences in Nigeria be countenanced in the design of the community policy framework?

Has the government thought through the strategy for financing the proposed community policing intervention? Looking at dwindling resources and ever-increasing demand, can only the Federal Government be tasked with bearing the major burden of financing the community policing rollout? Or perhaps, the government expects community policing initiative to magically make disappear the consequences of the continuous political and fiscal decisions to underfund the police?

While the constitution expressly prohibits the establishment of local policing outfits, state government-financed, community-based informal policing groups and networks are ubiquitous across Nigeria and are an integral part of the security landscape, providing security services in many of Nigeria's governed and ungoverned spaces. What is the plan of the government about integrating these varied outfits into the proposed community policing framework? Is this perhaps a gradual movement towards state policing (whatever that means) and a tacit acknowledgement of the government's weakened capacity to protect life and property?

One should equally be interested in the government's plan to address the overwhelmingly negative public perception on the performance of the police in Nigeria as a precursor to the rollout of community policing across Nigeria. Can communities and the police genuinely collaborate in an environment blighted by mistrust and fear? Where are the long- and short-term plans to make the Nigeria Police Force an accountable, transparent and responsive service delivery agency?

Irrespective of how the government eventually conceptualises and implements the concept of community policing in Nigeria, whether as a philosophy of policing or an operational strategy, it should be aimed at creating a connection between the police and communities it serves and change once and for all the perception of the police in Nigeria as a force of ‘kill and go' to a civil one that is built on community partnership and problem solving. A partnership that is built on making police officers an organic component of the communities they serve to control and prevent crimes and a problem-solving strategy to understand and tackle as appropriate, the underlying causes of crime.

For what it's worth, the government should be applauded for adopting the principles of community policing as the guiding framework for policing in Nigeria. However, it must be stated that the adoption will not necessarily reverse the current tragic national descent into anomie. Government must first ensure the competence of the police force as well as the suitability of Nigeria's policing policy, appropriate budget management process, credibility of government's commitment and the ability to adapt policing to social and political dynamics, before any discussion on community policing.

Despite its very sad state, the Nigeria Police Force is the most visible symbol of state power and a primary institution of social control in the hands of the managers of public safety and consciousness in Nigeria; policing is too consequential to be treated without the utmost care, and to deliberately or negligently underfund it is to threaten the security of the Nigerian state. Community policing or not, if we continue as a nation to expect police officers to personally fuel operational vehicles, pay for uniforms and other operational exigencies, print bail bonds, individually handle work-related trauma and yet bear the burden of providing security-a public good that every Nigerian supposedly enjoys, then the grim consequences are what we will daily continue to see around us.

https://punchng.com/making-sense-of-community-policing/amp/

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Hawaii

Former Las Vegas Captain Adapts To New World As Kauai Police Chief

Todd Raybuck commanded one of nine patrol divisions packed into a single city. Now he oversees a short-staffed department, and it can get lonely out there.

by Allan Parachini

LIHUE, Kauai — As a Las Vegas Police Department captain, Todd Raybuck was flying back to that city on Oct. 1, 2017, when his flight was diverted to Phoenix because, the pilot told passengers, there was an active shooting incident at the Las Vegas airport.

Hours later, Raybuck finally made it back to the city, where he was assigned to be one of the top commanders at the scene of the horrific mass shooting not at the airport but from the 32nd floor of the MGM Mandalay Bay hotel and casino. Fifty-eight people were killed and more than 500 injured at a concert venue below.

Over the next several days, Raybuck watched hundreds of supplementary law enforcement personnel pour into Las Vegas to help in the massive investigation. The FBI, alone, Raybuck said one day recently, dispatched 300 agents.

He is acutely aware that his new job — chief of the Kauai Police Department — might be in an entirely different world from the Las Vegas law enforcement to which he grew accustomed. On Kauai, Raybuck's department is authorized to have 168 officers, though attrition and difficulty recruiting new cops — an epidemic problem across Hawaii — means that, as an actual matter, he is down 22 officers from the authorized strength.

Todd Raybuck took over as chief of the Kauai Police Department in April after both he and his wife retired from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Allan Parachini/Civil Beat

And, of course, any police emergency on Kauai will occur without any prospect of significant back-up resources. There is no next city or county over that can easily send help. As it is, an officer who needs assistance on Kauai lives with the reality that the next closest officer to come to his or her aid may be 25 minutes or more away.

“It hurts a lot of things,” Raybuck says of the staffing shortage. “That's one of the challenges that I have to figure out. Not only are we literally isolated on this island, our resources are also limited. One of the things I'll be looking at over the next couple months is what are our manpower needs and where are our resources assigned.”

He's open to public input on the topic.

“Community involvement in the police department is one of the most important things that law enforcement has to embrace today,” Raybuck says.

He's been doing a concentrated series of ride-alongs with his officers to get to know directly the conditions under which they work. It's not like Las Vegas.

“I go out every day and represent the men and women on this police department who may be in a patrol car at three o'clock in the morning and a very dark place, as I was two weekends ago,” Raybuck says. “You can't see anything. Your radios don't work. Your telephone doesn't work and you're just out there doing the best you can for the people.”

All of that said, though, it's clear Raybuck relishes his new job.

The chief, who took over the department in late April, retired in February from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, where he served for nearly 27 years and rose to the rank of captain commanding one of the department's nine patrol divisions.

His wife, Kelly, was on the Las Vegas department for 22 years before she, too, retired. The couple has two high school-aged sons, Kyle and Connor.

Raybuck actually started his law enforcement career on Oahu, where he was stationed at what was then called Wheeler Air Force Base (now Schofield Barracks/Wheeler Army Airfield) from 1987 to 1990.

In Las Vegas, Raybuck's division included about 80 square miles and 250,000 residents—almost four times the population of Kauai.

In the KPD, Raybuck says, “I saw an organization that in recent years has been progressive and innovative and was moving in the direction of 21st century policing.

“The people in (the department) are very dedicated and passionate about serving this community,” he says. “It's an organization that's looking to get better. I wanted to join an organization on the path of moving forward in policing today … modern policing.”

Kauai Police Dept signage on police vehicle.

On Kauai, police officers must live with the knowledge that their nearest backup might be 25 minutes or more away.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

It was significant to Raybuck that KPD has embraced use of body cameras, which all officers now wear. Las Vegas, he said, was a pioneer in the field. The issue was critical to Raybuck, he said, because it signifies a commitment to transparency.

“It used to be that the most important tool on your body was your firearm,” he says. “Because the gun is going to keep you alive. The body-worn camera today, I think, is probably the most important tool. You can go your whole career without ever having to use your firearm. I did, fortunately.

“The gun will save your life, but the body-worn camera can save your career. Law enforcement as a whole owns the fallout of not being able to be trusted in some regard, as to what we say and what we do. The body-worn camera doesn't lie, though it certainly doesn't tell the whole story. But it's a tool that can help paint a picture of what occurred and what didn't.”

Raybuck was impressed that Kauai's police commission has the power to hire and fire a chief on its own, without approval from the mayor or County Council. He said he was warned by commission members about the costs of food and housing.

“They wanted to make sure I knew what I'm getting into with this job,” he says.

“Not only was Todd the best qualified candidate, he was also the best fit for our Kauai community,” Police Commission Chair Mary Kay Hertog — herself a former military police officer — said in a statement announcing Raybuck's hiring.

Raybuck was also told that he would be earning less than several members of his new department through the anomalous system of “salary inversion.” It affects the Kauai fire and police departments and many other county agencies, as top deputies to the chief remain qualified to receive overtime because they don't lose their union membership when promoted into senior positions.

“I was aware when I came here that my salary would be lower than my executive staff,” Raybuck says.

As chief, he gets a base salary of $127,313 per year. But with typical overtime, the assistant chief of police earns $199,980 and some sergeants get as much as $191,764, according to a recent report of the Kauai County Salary Commission. Even some patrol officers earn more than the chief, with overtime, according to the commission.

“Salary inversion” has been the target of vocal criticism from the County Council.

“The challenge that I have moving forward is fixing the inversion,” Raybuck says. “It isn't about me getting more pay.”

https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/06/former-las-vegas-captain-adapts-to-new-world-as-kauai-police-chief/

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Pakistan

Community policing producing results: IG

LAHORE: Punjab Inspector General of Police Cap (R) Arif Nawaz Khan has said that Punjab police is working to maintain law and order along with the speedy solution of the problems of public according to the principles of community policing which is also enhancing the service delivery and trust between public and police.

He expressed these views during a meeting with provincial ministers Nauman Ahmad Langrial and Sardar Asif Nakai. During the meeting law and order situation and issues of mutual interest were discussed.

The IG Punjab said SP complaints in all districts were working to resolve the public complaints with ensuring timely registration of FIR. He also informed the meeting about new projects and reforms in policing system. He said Punjab police has established Police Khidmat Marakaz in all districts where citizens are availing 14 different services about police under one roof.

Provincial ministers praised the security arrangements during Ramazan and said due to the effective actions by Punjab police the incidents of terrorism had declined significantly where as research on 8,787 IGP complaint cell and Khidmat Marakaz by renowned educational institutes was evidence of its success. They said Punjab police was equal to developed forces of the world in terms of IT usage and the IT projects of Punjab police were worth adoption and replication by police forces of other provinces.

https://www.thenews.com.pk/amp/479006-community-policing-producing-results-ig

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Atlantic City, NJ

New ACPD program brings back old-fashioned neighborhood policing

by Lynda Cohen

Albert Herbert remembers knowing the police officers who lived around him when he was growing up in Atlantic City.

“Because there were guys in the neighborhood doing the job, friendly, it kind of broke down the barriers,” he recalled Tuesday as he stood in Chelsea Heights, where he still lives and now patrols.

The Atlantic City police officer is one of 16 assigned to the new Neighborhood Coordination Officer Program, which has assigned two officers to each of the city's six wards along with four who will work homeless outreach.

Herbert and his partner, Jerard Ingenito, have a strong connection to their new beat.

Both men own homes in the neighborhood. Herbert grew up here. Ingenito has been here since 1999.

As they went on their inaugural rounds Tuesday, it didn't take long to bump into those they knew, including the officers who influenced them.

“What they did is they changed the perception,” Ingenito said as he stood next to Detective Joe Corson and retired Patrolman Connie Hackney.

“Every day you would see them coming around and they would stop and, ‘How's your mom? I heard she was sick,'” Ingenito continued. “And that's the kind of thing this program is trying to bring back. It's trying to bring back. That we need officers on the street, getting to know the residents.”

This is the first of what will be an expanded program, Police Chief Henry White promised as the officers were officially introduced in City Council chambers.

“What we're seeing here is exactly what's supposed to happen when everyone is working together,” White said, surrounded by officials including Mayor Frank Gilliam and Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon Tyner.

Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver was supposed to be an the announcement but was sick Tuesday.

“No one is more excited than I am,” said Lt. Will Santiago, who is leading the officers.

“As a young child walking the streets of Atlantic City, I was approached by police officers walking the beat, they instilled in me why I really wanted to become a police officer,” he recalled.

Residents will have these officers' cell phone numbers and be able to reach out to them whenever they need.

At least two of the officers speak Spanish. Officer Syed Shah, who is in Ward 5, speaks Punjabi, Urdu and Pashto.

https://www.breakingac.com/2019/05/new-acpd-program/

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Chicago, Illinois/ Providence, Rhode Island

Chicago looks to Providence for community policing solutions

by Steph Machado

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Chicago had nine homicides last week. The week before, the Midwest's most populous city clocked in at 11 homicides.

It's about as many murders as Providence investigates in an entire year. So what can Chicago Police learn from a police department in a New England city one-fifteenth its size?

More than you think.

"A city with a major crisis of gunfire and gang activity and homicides by guns looked around the country for answers," Providence Police Col. Hugh Clements said in a recent interview with Eyewitness News. "They're in the news every single weekend. And they looked to Providence, Rhode Island."

The Chicago Police recently sent four commanders to Providence, along with several community partner groups, to learn about how Providence is using community policing to tamp down on violent crime including gang shootings and homicides.

Violent crime down in Providence

Providence Police data shows a consistent downward trend in overall crime over the past two decades, cutting the crime rate nearly in half. In the year 2001, there were 14,185 crimes in Providence, according to FBI data. In 2018, that number was 7,302, city data shows. (The full FBI crime report for 2018 has not yet been released.)

From 2013 to 2018, homicides in Providence were down 21%. Aggravated assaults were down 14%, with firearm-related assaults down 27%. Overall violent crime was down 7% over the five year period.

Only sexual offenses saw a statistical increase, up 19% over five years. Clements attributes that to increased reporting of those crimes, rather than an increase in incidents. The only other violent crime that didn't see a decrease in the time period was robbery with a firearm, basically flat at a 1% increase, though robberies overall were down 9%.

"Had you told me as a young patrolman, '15 years from now Providence Police will make half the arrests they make now,' I would say, 'Crime will double,'" Clements said. "But it's not. Crime has been cut in half."

And he's clear on how he thinks it happened: "How much of our success can be related to community-oriented policing? I'd say all of it."

The community policing model isn't new in the U.S, and it's not new to Providence. The program launched in 2003 under then-Col. Dean Esserman. The idea: decentralize the police department, setting up districts throughout the city instead of focusing on one headquarters and a shift model. There are nine police districts in Providence, and Clements was a district commander when the program first launched.

"You're a mini-police chief in your area," Clements said. "We brought the police department ... to the community." He said the key to community-oriented policing is partnering up with neighborhood groups, activists, social service agencies, elected officials and other law enforcement agencies. There are more groups than Clements can count on the so-called "power chart."

At the same time that community policing launched, Clements said the department started using the CompStat program, which tracks day-to-day, week-to-week and year-to-year crime stats to allow police to pinpoint trouble spots, direct resources and study overall trends.

At a recent Tuesday morning meeting of the Providence command staff, the stats from the previous week were displayed on an overhead projector as officers gave reports to the commanders. Five guns were taken off the street that week, one officer reported. There had been no shootings.

Providence still has its share of violence. There have been some particularly violent weekends, like in September when three people were shot in one weekend, one fatally, and shots were fired near a Pop Warner football game. Or in January 2018, when there were five shootings in four days.

"It's not perfect and we're going to have our upticks," Clements said. "When you look in the long run for the three-month period ... or you look at the year or the five-year average, it's really impressive what we've done over the years."

Chicago looks east for answers

Chief Clements is clear: "We're not going to teach the Chicago Police anything about policing." The Midwestern city has hundreds of homicides per year with a great deal of experienced detectives working to solve them. But when it comes to community efforts, he said the commanders "marveled" at what he called "the success that we've had over the last several years."

"They're looking at their individual district commanders and what they can do to replicate Providence, and replicate hopefully the success," Clements said.

While Providence's violent crime rates were going down over the past several years, Chicago's spiked in 2016. According to FBI data, there were 768 homicides that year, the deadliest in two decades. The number decreased to 653 in 2017.

Chicago Police Commander Ernest Cato said police are looking all over the country for input, from major metropolitan cities like New York and Los Angeles to smaller cities, like Providence.

"Just because a city may be smaller, that doesn't mean a larger city can't learn from them," said Cato, who runs that city's 15th district. "We have to listen to everyone — everyone who has an idea — because the main goal is to reduce violence."

Chicago has actually had a community policing program in place since 1993, but a 2017 report determined the department had lapsed in its efforts. The report, released by the Community Policing Advisory Panel, said "the department's failure to continue focus on community policing has eroded the gains made in the early years of implementation."

The panel was commissioned to make recommendations to reimplement community policing, and was made up of police officers, community members, public safety experts, and more. The group held multiple community conversations, writing about several issues in the report including multiple comments that officers "never get out of their cars unless they are responding to calls."

Following the report, the Chicago Police Department announced plans in 2018 to reinvigorate its community policing efforts as part of Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson's new strategic plan.

When visiting Providence, Cato said he was particularly impressed by the access community members had to high-ranking police commanders and even the mayor's office.

"What I was gathering was the relationship they had built with the gang interrupters," Cato said. And he said he learned it can useful to involve community members in the conversation who have previously committed crimes or even been incarcerated. "We have to collaborate with community organizations.

We have to be more open minded to those that may have created the violent act so that we're able to utilize them in a positive manner," Cato said.

One of the major groups that works with Providence Police is the Nonviolence Institute, headed up by P.J. Fox. Fox says the relationship between the Institute and the police wasn't always so positive.

"The culture was much different than it was when I started at the Institute," Fox said. "The department has come a long way." His organization's street workers deal directly with at-risk youth and gang members to try and prevent violence.

"It's a very fine line, because there is still a lot of mistrust for law enforcement," Fox said. "And we have to acknowledge that and we have to operate around that premise. ... Some of the damage that has been done with policing and the community, it didn't happen overnight. It was kind of a systemic issue that built up."

He agrees with Clements that community policing efforts have contributed to the overall decline in crime in Providence.

"It's very hard to prove what you prevented," Fox acknowledged. "But you can see the trends over the years ... you can see the change in the crime rates."

Room for improvement

Moving forward, Clements said an increase in officers will allow Providence to increase and improve its community policing efforts. The department will add 50 officers to its ranks this summer, bringing the total number to 453.

Clements says the plan is to have more foot and bike patrols in neighborhoods throughout the city.

"With our limited resources we've been unable to do that," Clements said. "So I think what we can do better is put out those foot-posts once we go plus 50."

Fox agrees the increase in officers will benefit community efforts.

"The more manpower they have, the more they can commit to getting out of the car, having substations open," Fox said.

The new recruits graduate in late June.

https://www.wpri.com/amp/news/local-news/providence/big-city-looks-to-providence-for-community-policing-solutions/2006916271

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Illinois

Neighbors app puts community policing into hands of Naperville residents by sharing video from Ring devices

The Naperville Police Department is partnering with the makers of the Neighbors, a smartphone app that allows residents to share videos of suspicious incidents and police to send emergency and crime alerts.

by Suzanne Baker

Posting home security video on social media platforms has become the Neighborhood Watch of the 2000s, and the Naperville Police Department is partnering with one of those platforms to help solve crimes and alert residents.

Neighbors by Ring is a free app available on Apple or Android devices that allows people to post and watch home security videos of suspicious people or incidents in and near their neighborhoods.

Deputy Chief Jason Arres said in Naperville, the app is the chance for residents to help keep city neighborhoods among the safest in the country and provide police with valuable information to help catch crooks.

The app not only allows users to watch and share videos so everyone can see what's happening nearby, it lets the police issue real-time crime and safety alerts, Arres said.

People don't need a Ring security camera or any other video doorbell device to download the Neighbors by Ring app.

Arres said residents can use what they see on the app to identify possible suspects or vehicles and that, in turn, can provide vital information for investigators trying to make arrests.

That said, the deputy chief stressed the app should never replace alerting police of a crime.

“What we know is that crimes are committed and they are not reported,” Arres said. “Sometimes people don't think it's a big enough deal.”

Such was the case recently when a Naperville resident posted a video on the app of a thief stealing a package off the porch.

When Arres reached out to the resident, he learned no police report was filed because all that was taken was pet food.

While the incident seemed trivial to the resident, Arres said that's not always the case.

“For us it's important because this could be the start of a pattern,” he said.

Arres sees the app as supplementing traditional door-to-door canvassing by police.

In the case of home burglaries, for example, Arres said thieves tend to park their car blocks away, not in front of the house. A canvass of nearby homes sometimes won't net any residents who might have seen a strange car parked on the block, he said.

“We could knock on 50 doors, but what if it was the 51st door that could provide information,” he said. “The app can be the 51st to 100th door.”

Arres said videos on social media are tools and cannot replace face-to-face contact with police officers. “It's just a new form of community policing,” he said.

And because the Neighbors app is not monitored 24/7 by police staff, residents need call 911 in an emergency, he said.

Neighbors does not reveal how many Naperville customers are signed up on the app, but when the police department joined the network, they were told more than 5,500 already were using it here, Arres said.

“This partnership offers another unique opportunity that we believe will benefit our community and enhance the strong collaboration we enjoy with Naperville's residents,” Naperville Police Chief Robert Marshall said in a release.

“We're eager to join the crime and safety conversations that are already taking place through the app as well as expand our investigative reach by encouraging residents to share photos, videos and information to help us reduce and solve crime in their neighborhoods.”

Jamie Siminoff, chief inventor and founder of the home security company Ring, said in the release the company is excited to have the Naperville Police Department join Neighbors and keep the community up-to-date on local crime and safety information.

“Over the past few years we have learned that when neighbors, the Ring team and law enforcement all work together, we can create safer communities,” Siminoff said. “Neighbors is meant to facilitate communication between these groups, while maintaining neighbor privacy first and foremost.”

Ring donates free security devices to the city based on the number of people in the community who are enrolled in Neighbors. Those Ring doorbell cameras are given to crime victims who've lost their sense of security or to people who can't afford them, Arres said.

To download the Neighbors app on iOS and Android, go to:

https://download.ring.com/naperville

or text napervillepd to 555888 from a smartphone

Residents can opt-in to join their neighborhood or customize the geographic area for which they want to receive notifications. Users must verify where they are located and cannot participate in other neighborhoods.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/naperville-sun/ct-nvs-ring-app-naperville-police-st-0515-story,amp.html

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Ohio

Evanston man: Neighbors need to speak up to stop rising tide of crime

by Mariel Carbone

CINCINNATI — Two days after a shooting in Evanston claimed the life of 25-year-old David Lynn Jr., shots sounded again on a nearby residential street. According to the Cincinnati Police Department, the neighborhood has been the scene of 188 reported crimes since January.

One concerned neighbor, who asked not to be publicly identified for his own safety, said he's been behind some of the reports. He believes the neighborhood has experienced a major rise in crime — drugs, drag-racing and now shootings — during his 30-year residence, and he wants others in the community to speak up about it.

“It wasn't a child this time, but it was still someone's son,” he said of Friday's fatal shooting. “And it didn't even need to happen. God forbid, I would hate to see a child get hurt or someone else get killed over stupidity.”

The Cincinnati Police Department has increased its walking detail since April, and officers are working to strengthen community policing and build relationships with Evanston's young people.

Still, the neighbor said he wants more.

“I'll keep reporting it until they get tired of it,” he said. “There's nothing I can do. I am only one person and I'm trying to make a big noise. That's all I can do.”

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/hamilton-county/cincinnati/evanston/evanston-man-neighbors-need-to-speak-up-to-stop-rising-tide-of-crime

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Racisim in Policing

New Database Shows Thousands Of Cops Publicly Post Racist and Pro-Violent Views To Facebook

by MEGAN SIMS

Police and community relations are seemingly worse than ever as many high profile cases of disturbing brutality and death continue to make headlines. With many arguing that these are “isolated incidents” a recently created database delves into the deeply entrenched racism and bigotry that plagues countless police departments around the country.

The Plain View Project (PVP) is a searchable database created by lawyer Emily Baker-White that shows countless social media posts made by thousands of police officers around the country. It took Baker-White 18 months to create the database of 5,000 posts and comments made by police officers through verified accounts. About 2,800 of the officers, some of them high-ranking, are still on the job.

The posts were chosen against criteria that posed one simple question: “Is this post a that might erode public trust in policing?” PVP also looked for content that glorified violence whether it be excessive force by officers, bias against a certain group of people or dehumanizing language. The database allows anyone who wants to find out whether an officer has a disturbing post to his or her credit by looking up that officer's name and city.

Baker-White started the project after participating in a fellowship where she was assigned to write and investigate police brutality in Philadelphia.

“I stumbled upon the public profiles of several officers in that neighborhood, and I was stunned. I thought, “Oh my God, how can this information be public — why are these guys saying this stuff to the world?” Baker-White said.

Eight departments were honed in on and include some bigger populated areas like Dallas, Philadelphia, Phoenix and St. Louis.

“Yes, police officers have an incredibly hard job,” Baker-White said. “There's probably an incredible amount of PTSD; there's an incredible amount of stress. But it's not O.K. then to say, ‘Let's go get these animals tonight.'”

In Philadelphia, the Inquirer reported that 15 of the city's high-ranking officers are in the database because of racist, misogynist, Islamophobic and pro-violence posts. One Facebook post made by Captain George Mullen was a meme featuring the image of the late Sammy Davis Jr. holding a microphone and pointing to the viewer. The words going across the image stated: “Instead Of Hands Up Don't Shoot How About Pull Your Pants Up Don't Loot.”

At the St. Louis Police Department one officer, Ronald Hasty, who went by the name “Ron Nighthawk” on Facebook, posted several racist memes, including one with a Confederate flag and the words “If The Confederate Flag Is Racist, So Is Black History Month.” He also shared another post by a group called “Proud to be a White American” that read “March is national ‘Stop Blaming White People Month!' Accept responsibility for your own bad choices. Hug a white person!”

https://newsone.com/3853740/racist-police-facebook-database/amp/

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New York City

NYPD Crime Stats: May Murders Hit Record Low, But Hate Crimes Rise Sharply

by Dave Evans -- reports on the latest NYPD crime statistics.

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The number of murders and shooting incidents in New York City in May was the lowest recorded total in any May of the CompStat era, according to new crime statistics released by the NYPD Tuesday.

"In terms of statistics we've been keeping for decades, this was the safest may we have ever had," Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

Overall annual crime is down by more than 2,300 incidents for the year, a 6.2 percent decrease. However, hate crimes have increased a whopping 90 percent.

Police say anti-Semitic crimes make up more than half of all the reported hate crimes, and last year at this time, there were 58 incidents. This year, it's jumped to 110.

The numbers are so troubling that the mayor will open a hate crimes office this summer instead of in November, which will focus on helping victims and educating young people about bigotry.

"It is comforting to know we're taking it as seriously as possible," said Joseph Potasnik, with the New York Board of Rabbis. "And I do think we've got to do a better job in reaching young people today."

The NYPD says there is no place for such crimes in New York City, and the detectives with the Hate Crimes Task Force are working diligently to eliminate bias incidents and bring perpetrators to justice.

There were 15 murders recorded in May, down from 25 in May of 2018, while the 106 total murders is 15 fewer than this point last year.

"We can't take this as a given," NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said. "We all have to continue to work, not just us, the entire criminal justice system, it's got to be, quite frankly, all 8.6 million New Yorkers working to do this."

Rapes, robberies, felony assaults, burglaries and grand larcenies also declined both compared to last May and to last year through May.

"New York City has seen a continued reduction in crime, which is reflective of the hard work of members of the NYPD and the commitment of residents across the city," O'Neill said. "Safety is a shared responsibility, and through neighborhood policing and focusing on criminals with precision, we will continue to strengthen bonds with members of the community.

https://abc7ny.com/amp/nypd-may-murders-hit-record-low-but-hate-crimes-rise-sharply/5330352/

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New Mexico

On violence and policing in Albuquerque

by August March

It sure goes fast. Our narrative so far:

A UNM undergrad was shot dead by a known prior offender after engaging in a drunken, closing time fight with others at a club near main campus, in Nob Hill of all places. The shooter was out on a pass from the judge—even though he had been involved another shoot 'em up Downtown at another nightclub recently—and apparently used that free time to revisit old ways. That's called recidivism, citizens, and it happens when a society punishes without embracing community responsibility while simultaneously commodifying values like violence and power.

The magical ability of the prime murder suspect and his suspected accomplice—alleged shooter Darian Bashir and alleged getaway driver D'Angelo McNeal—to perpetrate such a heinous crime is due to the fact that Bashir had been previously released from custody in an upcoming, gun-related case—due to a judge's decision that was based on a new set of laws meant to reform the criminal justice system in 2017.

Besides setting off a furor about the bail reform amendment which went into effect in New Mexico a couple years ago, the crime demonstrated just how lawless stretches of Albuquerque have become.

Following this transgression of the normative by chaotic, ill-defined but nonetheless violent forces that have arisen as a result of endemic poverty, lack of proper funding and community engagement, et cetera, Mayor Keller met with leaders from all over the state and at all levels and stations of responsibility to discuss plans to bring violence, particularly gun violence, under control in Albuquerque.

Bring the Police

Among the strategies to be employed: 50 New Mexico State Police officers would be stationed in Albuquerque from various parts of the state—mostly assigned to patrol late night and early morning hours, mind you—to help with traffic patrol, callouts and to generally boost the police presence in Burque's sprawling scene.

Weekly Alibi staffers witnessed three separate groupings of these state police patrols three separate times in the past week. All of them were on the Westside. And yeah, their presence in places where people sometimes drive very dangerously—where road rage is common, street people abundant and the after-dark shopping vibe corroded by fear of petty crime—definitely had an initially ameliorative effect on the overall neighborhood vibe, to our mind and way of thinking. After all, what could go wrong?

A History of Violence

But the response on social media—and ultimately the community response as a whole, if you have been listening, dear reader—was not nearly as supportive. Many of those locals who objected to having state police officers driving around town worried that their presence signaled outright oppression. At least two commenters in our respective news feeds were concerned that the state police presence was being inordinately and unreasonably felt in the International District, and that it was by any reckoning, the people of color in that part of town who would be most likely to be negatively affected by this brazen display of jack booted power. Or something like that.

Is this really the next step in a city plagued by crime but committed to police reform at the behest of common sense, progressive politics and federal authorities?

Certainly, the amount of violent lawlessness in this town is at at an all-time high; what do we expect as citizens, as a society? Of course the state police are operating here, primos. We brought them here through years of inaction, through years of letting Republicans advance an agenda that meant fewer government social services and more privatized incarceration.

We've seen some crazy things on the streets in the past couple years that one could not have imagined going down in this town just 15 years ago. The sheer number of outrageous, criminal incidents currently being foisted off on this city requires immediate and practical solutions, including more city cops on the beat.

But the current thinking on entrusting state police officers (often seen by the public as the next level in a policing authority hierarchy) with specific duties here in the metropolitan area is ill conceived. The plan may have been poorly executed and does nothing to advance a progressive agenda designed to lower crime by dismantling its root causes and instituting community policing practices.

This latest move by the Keller administration complicates political relationships for a citizenry repeatedly exposed to years of violent policing techniques foisted on a mostly brown public as a means of demonstrating power and status by the ruling class. Old wounds—emotional triggers really—were surely exposed in some neighborhoods graced this week by the presence of state troopers in their shiny black SUVs. Meanwhile, the whole thing continues to crest, as if it's on some awful, gravitational autopilot.

The most sadly ironic thing about the violence in the city situation came late Thursday night—and it came right from the belly of the beast in the middle of Burque. Two state cops on patrol—neither from Albuquerque, one from Farmington and the other a patrolman in the Gallup area—were involved in two separate, on-duty shootings that evening.

One of the shootings happened at the busy corner of Lomas and Washington; the suspect fled, leaving locals to ponder the contagion of gun violence happening in their midst. Earlier that evening, the first officer-involved shooting happened in the valley and resulted in the arrest of a wanted man who ran a red light and was then pursued.

Neither of these encounters followed current APD policy—governed by that same DOJ settlement by the way—on encounters with offenders, chases or use of force, according to local news reports.

By the weekend, it had become clear that the idea of dropping unfamiliar, outsider cops into the milieu—law enforcement officers who are certainly competent and willing to interact positively with the Albuquerque community but do not have to work within the city policing framework that is part of the city's settlement with the DOJ—was not going unscathed by observers in the either the community or the press.

A Community Solution

On Saturday, the crime problem in Albuquerque became the feature for a story in Santa Fe's daily. Quoting experts who conclude that the fear of violence is often exacerbated and drawn out into public anxiety by a news media that's more concerned with “sensationalizing with the aim of getting better ratings,” (a bunch of hooey at an alternative newspaper, by the way) the paper also quoted a rightly concerned director of the ACLU, who went on record about the elephant that is still ensconced in our city's living room.

Peter Simonson, executive director of New Mexico's branch of the ACLU said, “For years the Albuquerque Police Department operated with impunity, shooting and killing someone practically every month. We don't want to return to those days. We're deeply concerned that the deployment of New Mexico State Police officers in our communities threatens to wreck progress towards constitutional policing in Albuquerque at a time when there is still much reform to be made.”

We wholeheartedly agree.

Ending violence, especially gun violence, in Albuquerque is bound to be a long process involving delicate extraction techniques. That group of humans being evolved away from unnecessary gun violence must include law enforcement. Ultimately changing the perception of guns among a wide percentage of the population is necessary and the outcome—a peaceful, law-abiding community where police are not seen as part of the patterns of force that previously defined this city's culture—will result.

We all need to be reminded that special masters of the Department of Justice descended on Burque to confirm what many already knew to be true—that the 47 officer-involved shootings starting in 2009 and leading up to the death of James Boyd in March of 2014 pointed to a culture of oppression and violence at APD—more than five years ago in a place where return is impossible by progressive standards.

But folks love their guns in The Land of Enchantment; that's part of the Western mythos carved into the operating patriarchy in these parts. It's not something that can be easily erased or even altered. Yet in order to advance, the city and state must strive for policing solutions that are in line with community values and generally eschew violence as an immediate response.

In retrospect—and despite the immediate shock value induced by seeing State Police personnel filling in for beleaguered city police officers—this particular part of the plan to eradicate lawlessness in Albuquerque seems heavy-handed. A law and order response is typical of Republican governance methods and clearly a tool from the right's bag of democracy-limiting implements; such machinations have no part in a progressive platform.

The fact that two officer-involved shootings can already be traced to outsiders acting without the Albuquerque/DOJ agreement on use-of-force—in mind and in practice—should be a cause for deep reflection among the NMSP, the mayor and the governor, not a reason to crow that the problem is only now being properly addressed.

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Texas

‘We Can't Police Violence Away'

by Deven Clarke

It took Xavier Castile a month to learn how to walk again.

But Castile, a father of two who was shot in what he believes was a case of mistaken identity, believes he is one of the more fortunate ones.

“My little cousin just got shot, and that affected a lot of people because he was young,” Castile said.

Castile's cousin was one of the 200 incidents of aggravated assaults in his San Antonio, Tx., neighborhood. Castile said his cousin died in the shooting.

According to the San Antonio crime tracker map, there were more than 200 reports of aggravated assaults in Castile's neighborhood last year.

Milo Colton, a criminology professor at St. Mary's University, said the reasons for the violence are deep-rooted.

“It boils down to: If you want justice you're going to have to get it yourself.” Colton said.

“We all grew up with the norm, ‘You don't snitch.' Traditionally, African Americans have had to struggle in the system, and on many occasions, don't put a lot of faith in the criminal justice system.”

Based on decades of experience studying crime trends in San Antonio, Colton said he believes the violence could be quelled by creating more job training and educational opportunities, along with more proactive attitude on the part of local law enforcement to improve relationships with residents.

Colton said the issue, however, also lies within members of the community.

“There are those who resent others who are trying to succeed,” Colton said.

Castile remains determined to push through. After recovering, he got the opportunity to play arena football and decided to create his own job opportunities.

“As it is, they tried to cripple me, so it only made me power up. I started my own security business, Checkmate Security,” said Castile.

“We've been going on for about four or five years strong already.” Castile has this message for his community, “The tough days and trying-to-get-stripes days, trying-to-prove-something days, are over with,” Castile said.

KSAT12 explored the roots of violence in several San Antonio neighborhoods as part of its Crime and Justice series.

District 5, on the city's West Side, is home to hard-working families, some of whom have built their own businesses.

Unfortunately, the area also claims an unfavorable distinction as being one of the most murderous districts.

In 2018 alone, the San Antonio Police Department Cracker Tracker Map shows there were 16 reported murders in District 5, a 22 square-mile area, where the median annual income is about $25,000.

For District 5 resident, Coque Onetime, hearing about murders in his community comes as no surprise. He said he knows about six or seven people murdered in the area within the last five years.

“Friends, relatives, neighbors … You get immune to it, like, it's an everyday thing,” Onetime said. “There are people that are panhandling and stuff, because they don't got to eat.”

Poverty and lack of opportunity are the driving factors that contribute to violence, said Prof. Colton. “It puts stress on family relations. Odds are you're in jobs that have no guarantee.”

In many cases, people don't have jobs at all.

Matthew Idrogo, for instance, is homeless and believes he hasn't been able to secure a job because of a lack of education. He said he uses drugs to feel better and sells drugs to get by.

“I sell Klimax (a kind of synthetic marijuana) on Zarzamora (Street). I was a big-time dope dealer,” he said.

“[We do it] for food, for clothes. We don't do it to do it, to enjoy seeing people get hurt.”

According to Idrogo, it's a life that was born out of necessity, one that catapulted him into the criminal justice system and into the cycle of indigence.

“From state prison, I went to county jail, went back to prison. I been (in and) out of prison almost my whole life,” he said.

Creating a better future for the underserved isn't easy, but according to Colton, this can be done over time, starting with better transportation options and school systems.

“What we need is a unified school district, and that way we can make sure that the monies are distributed more evenly,” he said.

Local politicians agree.

“We can't police (violence ) away because the crime is a symptom of larger issues,” said Keith Toney, who was running as a candidate for San Antonio city council.

Toney believes the key to reducing violent crime in San Antonio's neighborhoods lies in creating educational and job opportunities for idle minds.

“If they get trained up and they're working a trade and they're redoing buildings, then they are working a shift,” Toney said.

“”They won't have time to shift into crime, to shift into aggravated assault,”

Toney believes the key to reducing violent crime lies in creating educational and job opportunities for idle minds.

“If they get trained up and they're working a trade and they're redoing buildings, then they are working a shift so that they won't have time to shift into crime, to shift into aggravated assault,” Toney said.

He wants to challenge big developers.

“I want training opportunities, and they can do that in the trades. Not everyone's going to college, but one thing that they'll need is workers for the various projects that they're bringing in here,” Toney said.

Candidate Jada Andrews-Sullivan offered a different perspective.

She believes reducing violence begins with improving relationships among residents.

“Truly educate one another, get back to our community policing, which is, ‘I know my neighbor. My neighbor knows me,'” Andrews-Sullivan said.

She also wants to locally address what she said are deep-rooted, nationwide tensions between law enforcement and people of color.

“Sitting down with the chief and saying that it's not so much that we need the forcefulness of the Police Department but we truly need the heart of the Police Department,” Andrews-Sullivan said.

“We truly need you to get out of those squad cars and walk up and down the neighborhoods and get to know who lives here.

https://thecrimereport.org/2019/05/20/we-cant-police-violence-away/

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Lagos

Community Policing: DIG urges residents to take ownership of Lagos Neighbourhood Corps

Lagos State Neighborhood Safety Agency (LNSA) on Tuesday appealed to residents to take ownership of its operatives to curb crimes in the state. Ajao, a retired Deputy Inspector General of police (DIG), made the appeal during the Badagry Stakeholders Interactive Seminar themed: “Neighborhood Safety as a Strategy for Effective Crime Control in Lagos State”.

“I urge you to take the Neighborhood Safety Corps as your personal police. They are not strangers to you. You cannot control crime effectively without the cooperation of the people. “Since the law states that they must be residents of the community they are being posted to, we will adhere to this to ensure effective community policing because they will know the community better.

“We need your support for free flow of information. If you see something wrong, please do not keep it to yourself because you may be the next victim. “The police are not magicians; they can't know criminals without your information. Please have that confidence in the structure that the government had put in place to ensure a crime free society,” he said. Ajao urged the public to report or call anonymously the toll free lines 112 and 767, assuring that such information would be treated with confidence. “This information will be processed and immediately given to the police to act on.

The Lagos Neighborhood Safety Corps has made several arrests and recovered dangerous weapons from criminals without carrying arms,” he said. The Chairman further cited insurgencies in the North East as example of where civilians were recruited into the Joint Task Force to tackle the menace. “We don't need to wait till the situation gets worse, let's join hands together and say no to crime in the state,” he said. He further commended the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, for his support since the establishment of the agency. Mrs Aderonke Ogabi, an LNSA Board Member, also commended the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, for his support and assured the Governor-elect, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, of the agency's support. “LNSA deserves respect, support and encouragement to continue in its effective discharge of duty.

LNSA has become a vital part of security system in Lagos, hence the support. “LNSA has been working closely with other security agencies to rid the state of crime. Criminals are being arrested by the Safety Corps and some had been handed over for rehabilitation at various correctional institutions. “We also ensure peaceful coexistence and respect for one another through timely intervention in crisis. Our corps is very decent and well trained. They always display due diligence to avoid contravention of law,” she said. (NAN).

https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/community-policing-dig-urges-residents-to-take-ownership-of-lagos-neighbourhood-corps.html

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LAW & JUSTICE

How Cars Transformed Policing

Before the mass adoption of the car, most communities barely had a police force and citizens shared responsibility for enforcing laws. Then the car changed everything.

by SARAH A. SEO

Excerpted from Policing the Open Road: How Cars Transformed American Freedom by Sarah A. Seo, published by Harvard University Press.

On April 11, 1916, eight years after the Model T's debut and just two years after the perfection of its moving assembly line, the Tucson, Arizona, sheriff's office received a call around midnight about a robbery and assault at Pastime Park, a pleasure resort just north of the city. Three officers jumped into a “public service automobile” and, on their way to the scene of the crime, saw a car that seemed to be heading toward them suddenly turn around. Suspicious, they sped up to the car and yelled “Stop!” and “We are officers!” to no avail. Deputy Sheriff Thomas Johns testified that he then fired his pistol at the wheel “to puncture the tire.” He fired a second shot, Deputy Sheriff Joseph Wiley fired the third shot, and Police Officer Ramon Salazar followed with a fourth shot—all to “find out who the parties were in the car.” As it turned out, Captain John Bates and his wife, Mary, innocent parties, were driving home from a friend's house. One of the shots struck and killed Mrs. Bates. All three officers faced murder charges.

The developments that led to the overpolicing of minorities did not originate with an intention to do so. Instead, the shift began with the mass production of the automobile and the imperative to regulate the motoring public.

At trial, Captain Bates testified that his car was “very noisy” and the road “rough,” which could have described all motor vehicles and country roads at the time. The “chains which hold up the tailboard were rattling up and down on the fenders which are over each rear wheel; in fact, every time [he] hit a bump they would jump up and down; the muffler of the machine was wide open, and the exhaust [was] directly in front of the driver, underneath the footboard.” The driver of the public service automobile testified that his muffler was “wide open” as well. With all the racket that the cars were making, it was impossible for the Bateses to hear the officers' shouts for them to stop. This, plus the fact of the Bateses' actual innocence, convinced the jury that the three defendants had acted beyond their lawful authority and were guilty of murder. In the case of Wiley v. State, which affirmed the guilt of Deputy Sheriff Johns, whose shot had killed Mrs. Bates, the Arizona Supreme Court maintained that even if the Bateses had heard the shouts and refused to stop, the officers' manner of pursuit “was more suggestive of a holdup by highwaymen than an arrest by peace officers.”

Police forces at the time were tiny compared to today, and officers shared the task of enforcing the criminal laws with citizens and private patrol services. Because private citizens also pursued, arrested, and prosecuted those who had injured or wronged them, the common law clearly circumscribed the right to arrest in order to distinguish a lawful seizure of a person from a kidnapping or assault. Legal requirements ensured that arrestees would know the exact reason for the apprehension. When Captain Bates and his wife were driving home that evening, they had no reason to believe, as the court noted, that officers, rather than highway bandits, were after them, firing away.

Recognizable police cars with black and white color blocks would not exist for another two decades, and the first revolving emergency light, the “Beacon Ray,” would not be invented until 1948. If police cars had any markings at all, they were either small signs attached to the front grill or the initials “P.D.” painted on the door—nothing that drivers could easily discern, especially at nighttime. As late as 1934, a consultant recommended that the police department in Dallas, Texas, paint its patrol cars “some unusual color, such as fire department red or bright yellow or perhaps with a fine grade of aluminum paint.” Without “definite identification,” his report warned of precisely what had happened to the Bateses: it was “not inconceivable that a frightened motorist thinking he is to be robbed may attempt to run away from officers, thereby creating a situation embarrassing and undesirable at its best and which may result in a serious accident or even in the officer, through mistaken identity, actually firing on and killing a reputable citizen.”

http://bostonreview.net/law-justice/sarah-seo-how-cars-transformed-policing

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Illinois

Chatham kids learn about policing at Junior Training Academy

by Steven Spearie

CHATHAM — Kids had probably not played a game of hide-and-seek like this before.

At the end of this week's Junior Training Academy, 20 kids, who had spent the day operating radar guns and investigating a "crime scene" for clues, became "cover officers." They were helping police dog Dagz and his handler, Chatham Police Officer Jacob Bouldin, locate Officer David Leach, who had hidden in the small park on the Village Square.

Setting off in a pack, some more sure where Leach had hidden than others, Bouldin and Dagz made relatively quick work of the search, much to the delight of the "cover officers."

"How do you think he found him? (Dagz is) smelling (Leach's) human odor," Bouldin reminded the group.

Leach said that this is the first time the department has held a youth training academy and enrollment filled up quickly. He said it further cements relationships the police have with kids.

"We're very involved in the (Ball-Chatham) schools," Leach said during Thursday's event. "We give safety presentations and talks about bullying. (To the older students) we talk about the Fourth Amendment and probable cause.

"This (training academy) is designed to give them a glimpse of what we do as police."

Not surprisingly, Dagz, a German shepherd who turns 3 years old this month, was a big hit.

During one demonstration, Bouldin set out five buckets, filled separately with beef jerky, tennis balls, rubber toys, potato chips and a training aid that smells like an illegal drug.

"Dagz is only supposed to find the illegal drugs," Bouldin told the group. "If he finds the tennis ball, that doesn't help us, right?"

On cue, Dagz sniffed out the training aid, announcing his finding by barking.

Even when the kids re-arranged the buckets, Dagz was equal to the task.

They got see Bouldin's K9 squad car. Bouldin explained to them the cruiser is kept cool because of Dagz's thick coat of fur.

If the air conditioning fails, he said, an automatic sensor goes off, the windows go down and Bouldin is alerted to the trouble by a special pager.

"Dagz is usually in the back rocking to rock music," Bouldin told the group.

Dagz's training — Bouldin and Dagz spend two full days a month training in Springfield — and work acumen left everyone impressed.

"He works hard to find things," said Aidan Schwartz, 8, of Chatham.

"My favorite part was when Dagz was trying to find (the training aid that smelled like an illegal drug)," said Avery DeJaynes, 9, of Chatham.

"He's a nice dog," said 10-year-old Dexter Groth of Chatham, "and pretty cute."

The junior cadets got to hit the sirens and lights on the squad car.

Braden Beavin, 10, of Springfield, and Mitchell Schultz, 8, of Chatham, found out how difficult it was to try to escape from the secured back seat of one of the cruisers.

So did Mahi Chanpura, 9, of Springfield.

"I got to be the bad guy," Chanpura said.

"But it was just for fun," she quickly added. "I didn't do anything."

Margo Goldstein and Ian Bostrom, both 9, were trying to catch would-be speeders on Main Street with a radar gun.

Transgressors got a stern rebuke from Goldstein.

"Slow down!" Goldstein admonished.

"Sometimes they don't listen," Leach said.

CPD Officer Scott Williams led groups through a "crime scene re-enactment." Part of the demonstration was dusting for fingerprints, using a mix of volcanic ash with little bits of metal.

The cadets dabbed the brushes over sheets of paper to reveal, to their delight, their fingerprints.

"You see the lines on your thumbs?" Williams asked, in explaining the procedure. "Do you know that not a single other person in the world has the exact same lines that you have? "We constantly have a little bit of oil and moisture on our fingers, so when you touch an object you leave a little bit of oil. That's what actually transfers the fingerprints."

The day began with a tour of police headquarters where dispatcher Dacia Marsaglia works.

"Should you call 911 if you need help with your homework?" Marsaglia asked the group.

"No!" they shot back in unison.

"What if your brother takes your toy?"

"No!" they answered again.

"What if your house is on fire?"

"Yes!" they shouted.

At the end of the two-hour session, participants got a certificate of completion, a CPD patch and a T-shirt.

Zane Perry, 11, of Loami said he wants to be a Navy SEAL or FBI SWAT officer.

"When I think of police, I think of people who protect and serve," Perry said. "I've seen the police in action, usually handling crashes."

Leach said with Thursday's turnout, he's hoping the CPD can put on future training academies.

"We want (these kids)," Leach said, "to feel comfortable around officers and build a level of trust with them.

https://www.lincolncourier.com/news/20190607/chatham-kids-learn-about-policing-at-junior-training-academy?template=ampart

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Biometrics

Global police forces recognise biometrics as the key tool for enhancing public safety and effective policing

Police forces recognise biometrics as a potentially critical tool to improving the quality and efficiency of policing across the globe. As part of a diverse Digital Authentication strategy, automated facial recognition surveillance is becoming an integral part of our digital policing, with the UK Home Office planning to invest a huge £97 million into a broader biometric technology approach to safeguard our streets.

Automated facial recognition surveillance

Digital fingerprint-based authentication is still widely regarded as having a higher level of maturity.

However, the latest court case against the South Wales Police as well as the Amazon backlash over the sale of its technology to the US police has highlighted that acceptance of the use of biometric technology as much as the maturing of the technology is important to achieve the expected benefits for the police.

Digital fingerprint-based authentication is still widely regarded as having a higher level of maturity, has an implicit acceptance linked to the identity of the individual and delivers a lower false positive result. Facial recognition, when used as a stand-alone biometric, suffers from the risk of challenge or refusal to accept as in the case of the challenge to the South Wales Police pilot program. In addition, gender and racial bias as well as scenarios such as poor lighting and individuals wearing accessories impacts on reliability.

Advancements in biometrics

There is clearly a need to focus on how biometrics, as technology matures, can support identity verification at scale and to gain widespread public acceptance as part of a wider digital policing initiative according to Jason Tooley, Chief Revenue Officer at Veridium.

Jason comments: “Police forces around the world are looking to integrate the latest advancements in technology to enhance public security and cut costs, and biometric solutions are integral to this movement. With the maturing of biometrics techniques and many different scenarios to address, it's imperative to use the right biometrics for the right requirements and to create a strategy that facilitates the use of multiple biometrics. We would advocate an approach that abstracts the identity verification and digital authentication processes from the services and creates a biometric platform to match the specific requirements of the police and the public.”

Fingerprint recognition

Fingerprint, being the most mature and widely used biometrics, has high levels of acceptance today.

He adds, “There are current barriers to the acceptance of biometrics which will be overcome as trust in the technology becomes the norm. Fingerprint, being the most mature and widely used has high levels of acceptance today and is easily adopted by police and public. It requires public acceptance and doesn't work for wider surveillance techniques but for individual verification, police moving to a digital fingerprint capture mechanism rather than physical has great benefits and the public are more likely to be accepting of enrolment. Facial recognition would be a surveillance at scale solution but the challenges of maturity and external factors as well as public acceptance are challenges to be overcome in the future.”

Jason continues, “It is imperative for police forces to take a strategic approach as they trial biometric technologies, and not solely focus on a single biometric approach. With the rapid rate of innovation in the field, an open biometric strategy that delivers the ability for the police to use the right biometric techniques for the right requirements will accelerate the benefits associated with digital policing and achieve public acceptance by linking the strategy to ease of adoption.

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Pennsylvania

Pa. Judge Sentenced To 28 Years In Massive Juvenile Justice Bribery Scandal

by Eyder Peralta, NPR

Editor's note, March 10, 2019: In recent days, this 2011 story has been circulating on social media with an altered Facebook headline that was not created by NPR. The headline and story published here are accurate as originally published in 2011.

A Pennsylvania judge was sentenced to 28 years in prison in connection to a bribery scandal that roiled the state's juvenile justice system. Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was convicted of taking $1 million in bribes from developers of juvenile detention centers. The judge then presided over cases that would send juveniles to those same centers.

The case came to be known as "kids-for-cash."

The AP adds:

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed about 4,000 convictions issued by Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008, saying he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles, including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea.

Ciavarella, 61, was tried and convicted of racketeering charges earlier this year. His attorneys had asked for a "reasonable" sentence in court papers, saying, in effect, that he's already been punished enough.

"The media attention to this matter has exceeded coverage given to many and almost all capital murders, and despite protestation, he will forever be unjustly branded as the 'Kids for Cash' judge," their sentencing memo said.

The Times Leader, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., reports that the court house in Scranton was overflowing this morning. More than a dozen people who said they had been affected by the judge's decision stood outside, awaiting the sentencing.

Jeff Pollins was in that crowd. His stepson was convicted by Ciavarella.

"These kids are still affected by it. It's like post traumatic stress disorder," Pollins told the Times Leader. "Our life is ruined. It's never going to be the same... I'd like to see that happen to him," he said.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2011/08/11/139536686/pa-judge-sentenced-to-28-years-in-massive-juvenile-justice-bribery-scanda