Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Crime Commission backs NYPD overseer (Crain's New York Business) and Other Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 NYC Police Related News Articles

 

 

Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 — Good Afternoon, Stay Safe

 

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Crime Commission backs NYPD overseer

By Andrew J. Hawkins — Monday, April 8th, 2013 'Crain's New York Business' / New York, NY

 

 

The Citizens Crime Commission, a group that strongly supports NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly, came out in favor of a controversial proposal that Mr. Kelly fiercely opposes: the creation of an inspector general's office to supervise the police department.

 

"As we move into a new administration, we ask ourselves, 'If we were designing a major urban police force today, would independent oversight be an element?'" said Richard Aborn, the group's president, in a statement Monday. "To us, the clear answer is yes."

 

The issue of the inspector general has become a flashpoint in the mayor's race, with most of the major Democratic candidates favoring the proposal, to the consternation of the current administration. Left-leaning groups and civil rights organizations are pushing the plan in the hopes that it will reform the practice of stop-and-frisk and make the department more accountable.

 

Republican Joseph Lhota has taken Democratic frontrunner Christine Quinn to task for her support of a Council bill to create an inspector general to monitor the police. Mr. Lhota, as well as Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Mr. Kelly, say the plan would make New Yorkers less safe by adding another layer of bureaucracy to the process.

 

But Mr. Aborn, who ran for Manhattan district attorney in 2009, says the proposal makes sense.

 

"The concept of meaningful independent oversight is commonplace throughout federal and municipal law enforcement, as well as the military," Mr. Aborn said. "Meaningful oversight allows law enforcement agencies to provide transparency to the public, and acts as an early warning system to identify and address systemic problematic practices."

 

Questions about a rise in crime and police effectiveness under an inspector general are "valid," Mr. Aborn said, but he noted that his group sees "no such correlation in other cities and see no reason for such to occur in New York."

 

In Democratic primary of the 2009 district attorney race, Mr. Aborn ran to the political left of Cyrus Vance Jr., who ultimately won the post. The race also included former Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder.

 

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Raymond Kelly Gobbledygook      (a/k/a Desperation)

 

For The Record

By RICHARD STEIER — Monday, April 8th, 2013 'The Chief / Civil Service Leader'

(Op-Ed / Commentary)

 

 

The battle for hearts and minds in the stop-and-frisk controversy last week focused attention on several numbers that show how statistics can be manipulated depending upon which side of the argument you're taking.

 

The most-glaring example came when Police Commissioner Ray Kelly cited a 44-percent drop in complaints about allegedly abusive tactics during stops so far this year. He told reporters following a speech at the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network that this was evidence that better training of officers was responsible for the decline.

 

On the surface, this made sense, since the NYPD over the past year has been revising protocols for the stop-and-frisk program to address issues raised both by its critics and in the ongoing trial of a lawsuit to which class-action status was granted 11 months ago by the Federal Judge hearing the case.

 

There is another possible explanation for the 44-percent drop in stop complaints that seems at least as plausible, however: a spokesman for the Civilian Complaint Review Board told the Daily News that its 800 phone number, which had been out of commission due to damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, was not fully restored until March. It may be some consolation to Mr. Kelly that the stop complaints have diminished more than overall beefs to the CCRB, which are 26 percent below where they were for the same period last year.

 

The other instance in which there was more to a statistical claim than was offered by the presenter involved a Daily News editorial titled, "Stop, frisk hype exposed."

 

The News editorial page has gone beyond the call of duty in its claims that the NYPD is being persecuted on this issue, even as the department's significant changes in the program have signaled a belated acknowledgment that it had gone off the rails with commanders' past emphasis on quantity rather than quality.

 

The latest effort by the paper to defend the NYPD's honor involved citing testimony from an expert witness for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that his analysis of 4.4 million stops showed that there were valid reasons for 82 percent of them. The testimony by Columbia University law professor Jeffrey Fagan was that in another 12 percent of the cases, not enough information was supplied in the forms to determine whether they were valid, and cops failed to justify 6 percent of the stops.

 

This showed, the editorial said, that the NYPD exercised "extraordinary quality control over police-public interactions that demand sensitive judgment calls."

 

Unless, of course, you consider that 6 percent of 4.4 million stops is 264,000 cases in which Professor Fagan deemed the stops unjustified. In the record-setting 2011 alone, that would be 41,000 unjustified stops.

 

In that light, "extraordinary quality control" might be pushing it a bit.

 

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NYPD Stop, Question and Frisk

 

Shira Scheindlin, Federal Judge in Stop-and-Frisk Trial, Distills Debate Over Controversial Tactic

By Graham Rayman — Monday, April 8th, 2013  'The Villiage Voice' / Manhattan

 

 

The judge in the stop-and-frisk trial Friday offered an interesting explanation of her view on the case, and a key element of the city's defense. It came at a point where in questioning a plaintiff's expert, a city lawyer was trying to make the point that the tactic is an effective crime strategy.

 

Judge Shira Scheindlin blocked the line of questioning, saying her role is not to weight the effectiveness of stop-and-frisk, but whether the tactic as used by the NYPD is constitutional. "Whether this is good or bad is of no interest," she said from the bench. "What I mean by that is there are effective police tactics that might be good for reducing crime but that are unconstitutional. The Court's interest is only with the constitution, not with the effectiveness."

 

She continued: "There are police tactics that could reduce crime that don't happen to be constitutional. That's the point. One could have preventive detention. Everybody, I think, would worry about it being criminal. It could be unconstitutional. Our constitution doesn't allow that. We could stop giving Miranda warnings. That would probably be exciting for reducing crimes. But we don't allow that. So there are a number of things that might reduce crime but they're unconstitutional."

 

In making the statement, the judge essentially removed a key leg of the city's argument, that Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly have made on countless occasions: that stops get guns off the street.

 

The plaintiff's expert, Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Fagan, got a long grilling from the city's lawyers in which they tried doggedly to poke holes in his research. Fagan found that the vast majority of stops are based on race, not on crime. But the city's lawyers contended his analysis was flawed, and that the tactic resulted in a higher percentage of gun arrests than he said.

 

This week, the recently retired Chief of Department, Joseph Esposito, is expected to take the witness stand. Unless Commissioner Kelly changes his mind, Esposito will be the highest-ranking NYPD official to testify in the trial.

 

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Commissioner: 'Absolutely Untrue'
Uproar Over Adams' Claim Kelly Targeted Young Blacks, Latinos

By MARK TOOR — Monday, April 8th, 2013 'The Chief / Civil Service Leader'

 

 

State Sen. Eric Adams, a retired NYPD Captain, created shockwaves last week when he testified that Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said he concentrated stop-and-frisk efforts on young black and Latino males "because he wanted to instill fear in them that every time they left home they could be targeted by police."

 

Mr. Adams, on the stand April 1 in a class-action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the way the department runs the program, said Mr. Kelly asked, "How else are we going to get rid of guns?"

 

 

'Amazed' He Said It

 

Mr. Adams said Mr. Kelly made the comment during a meeting in 2010 also attended by then-Gov. David Paterson, State Sen. Martin Golden and Hakeem Jeffries, then an Assemblyman and now a Member of Congress.

 

"I was amazed that he was comfortable enough to say that in that setting," Mr. Adams testified. "I was shocked to hear that. I told him that was illegal and that was not what stop-and-frisk was supposed to be used for."

 

Under cross-examination, he agreed that his testimony reflected his interpretation of Mr. Kelly's comments.

 

Mr. Kelly, who has told the court he is too busy to testify at the trial, said Mr. Adams' testimony was "absolutely, categorically untrue... Anybody knowing Mr. Adams' history with this department and how often he's criticized it, that I would make that type of statement in front of three elected African-American officials, it just defies anyone's logic."

 

Mr. Adams was an outspoken critic of police policies even before his retirement in 2006. He and Mr. Kelly are not fans of each other.

 

 

'Never Said We Targeted'

 

The Commissioner filed an affidavit saying, "At that meeting I did not, nor would I ever, state or suggest that the New York City Police Department targets young black and Latino men for stop-and-frisk activity. That has not been nor is it now the policy or practice of the NYPD."

 

The presiding Judge, Shira A. Scheindlin, refused to allow the city's lawyers to introduce the affidavit, saying that if Mr. Kelly wanted to make his point he would have to testify. "If he'd like to come here, he's welcome in this courtroom," she said.

 

Mr. Jeffries told the Wall Street Journal that Mr. Kelly said at the meeting that "he wanted individuals to think hard before carrying a weapon out in public because of the likelihood of being stopped and frisked at any time." But, he told the Daily News, "The problem with deterrence is it's completely unconstitutional in the absence of any individualized suspicion of criminal behavior."

 

Mr. Golden, a retired city cop, said he recalled Mr. Kelly saying minorities were the targets of most of the stops because the highest-crime areas of the city are in minority neighborhoods. But, Mr. Golden said of the frequent stop-and-frisks, Mr. Kelly "never indicated he did it to instill fear in anyone."

 

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Editorial: Misinterpreting Kelly

By RICHARD STEIER — Monday, April 8th, 2013 'The Chief / Civil Service Leader'

 

 

State Sen. Eric Adams created a furor last week when he testified during the Federal stop-and-frisk trial that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly had once said in his presence that the NYPD went after young black and Latino males "because he wanted to instill fear in them that every time they left home they could be targeted by police."

 

Mr. Kelly emphatically denied making that statement, both through a court affidavit and in remarks in which he said that it "defies anyone's logic" to believe he would have said such a thing in a conversation involving Mr. Adams, given their tense relationship going back to the days when the Senator was an NYPD Captain.

 

We believe Mr. Kelly, a careful and politically astute man, is telling the truth. We're doubtful he would have made such an incendiary statement that smacked of racial profiling in any setting, but particularly not in a discussion with Mr. Adams and two other African-American officials, including then-Gov. David Paterson.

 

The second official, then-Assemblyman and now-Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, told the Wall Street Journal that he recalled Mr. Kelly saying that "he wanted individuals to think hard before carrying a weapon out in public because of the likelihood of being stopped and frisked at any time." That sounds a lot closer to the truth than Mr. Adams' account of the Police Commissioner's remarks.

 

Mr. Jeffries said in a separate interview that going heavy on stop-and-frisks for the sake of deterrence is unconstitutional, and he's right. That's at the heart of the stop-and-frisk trial: the complications that ensue when most violent crimes in the city are indeed being committed by young males of color, but police must have reasonable suspicion in order to stop someone, and there is evidence they have frequently gone beyond that legal standard.

 

Just as that distinction must be made, so must officials be careful not to turn their interpretation of what someone said into something more inflammatory.

 

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NYPD Stop & Frisk Racial Profiling Under Legal and Community Spotlight

By Maegan Ortiz — Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 'Politic365.Com'

 

 

In New York City, the epicenter of radicalized police violence against communities of color, the practice of stop and frisks is in the spotlight again with the Floyd v. the City of New York trial. The trial  is named after a member of a local grassroots organization, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement,  that has been fighting police brutality for years, David Floyd.  The trial is considered a pivotal legal challenge to the New York City Police Department practice that has stopped millions of people in the name of getting guns off the streets. The NYPD insists that the practice is essential to maintain public safety but data shows that of the about 4.4 million people stopped and detained from 2004 to June 30, 2012, only one-tenth of 1% of those stops resulted in firearm confiscation. That means that nine out of ten people stopped were innocent according to the NYPD's own statistics.

 

Last week in the trial it was revealed that the policy is more than applying the theory of "broken windows", that is stopping low level crime so that it does not escalate into higher level crime, is less about safer streets in communities of color, overwhelmingly impacted by gun violence, and more about terrorizing residents of those communities. 90 percent of those stopped are Black and Latino, even though these two groups make up only 52 percent of the city's population.

 

According to the testimony of State Senator Eric Adams (D-Brooklyn), himself a former NYPD officer, in a 2012 meeting  Police Commissioner Ray Kelly "…stated that he targeted and focused on that group [Blacks and Latinos] because he wanted to instill fear in them that every time that they left their homes they could be targeted by police."

 

This is not the first time that that practice of stop and frisk is under legal scrutiny. In 2002, Daniels v. the City of New York  was filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). Via a 2003 settlement, the infamous Street Crimes Unit, the unit behind the 1999 Bronx shooting death of unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo, was disbanded. Diallo's death sparked a resurgence in the anti-police brutality movement in New York City with the founding of People's Justice, a multi-racial and multi-gendered coalition of organizations fighting for community control and police accountability.  Floyd v. the City of New York was filed based on what the CCR is calling  non-compliance on the part of the NYPD of the Daniels settlement.

 

Earlier this year, Manhattan Federal Court Judge Shira Scheindlin ordered police to refrain from making some trespass stops outside private residential buildings, declaring the practice unconstitutional but that hasn't stopped the practice. While the trial and controversy continues, stop and frisk is spreading throughout the country, with former New York City Mayor Giuliani's former police commissioner, William Bratton spearheading the effort. Bratton, who also ran the Los Angeles Police Department for some time, now wants the practice to be implemented in Oakland. Under Bratton's watch in New York City in the late 1990s, people of color communities in New York City saw in increase in police brutality with cases like  that of Abner Louima and Anthony Baez making national headlines.

 

Floyd v. the City of New York argues that stop and frisk policies violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. What remains to be seen as more testimony and data come out, is if the culture of racist policing in New York City can be stopped via a combination of legal and grassroots strategies. It's a question that communities in New York City, especially families of those lost to police violence,  have been seeking an answer to for decades.

 

The Center for Constitutional Rights has daily trial updates on its blog. For example, additional tapes of roll calls and conversations were introduced into evidence and revealed that police are pushed to meet stop and frisk quotas. Testimony this week by police officers confirmed that they were subject to ""performance objectives" or "performance goals." Officially, the NYPD claims to not have quotas.

 

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OWS and Deputy Inspector Johnny Cardona  /  CEA Roy Richter Comes to His Defense

 

Captains' Head Blasts Refusal
Law Dept. Cuts Loose 2nd OWS Cop

By MARK TOOR — Monday, April 8th, 2013 'The Chief / Civil Service Leader'

 

 

The city Law Department has declined to represent Deputy Inspector Johnny Cardona, who is being sued by an Occupy Wall Street protester who claims he was punched in the face by Mr. Cardona during a protest in October 2011. But the president of the Captains Endowment Association said it is Mr. Cardona who is the real victim here.

 

"Deputy Inspector Cardona is the true victim of the OWS fiasco," the CEA president, Roy T. Richter, said in an e-mail last week. "He has been out of work for months and is recovering from multiple surgeries to his body as a result of injuries he sustained in the protest."

 

 

Another Surgery Due

 

He said Mr. Cardona underwent both knee-replacement and hip-replacement surgery and is scheduled for another operation in the next month.

 

The city's decision was first reported by the New York Times, which said that paperwork filed by city attorneys in the protester's lawsuit listed Corporation Counsel Michael A. Cardozo as counsel for the city but not for Mr. Cardona. Asked for comment, the Department of Law said only, "At the present time, we are not in a position to represent the Deputy Inspector in this matter."

 

The city has also refused to represent another commander sued over his involvement in the OWS protests, Deputy Insp. Anthony Bologna. He became infamous because of a videotape showing him pepper-spraying a small group of protesters whom subordinate officers had contained with plastic netting.

 

Mr. Bologna accepted an administrative charge that he had violated police regulations on the use of pepper spray. He was fined 10 days' pay and transferred from Manhattan South to Staten Island.

 

The refusal of counsel was first reported last August. At the time, Mr. Cardozo said that "state law prohibits the city from representing or indemnifying city employees who are found to have violated agency rules and regulations."

 

 

'Cleared of All Misconduct'

 

Mr. Richter said that stricture would not apply to Mr. Cardona. "Deputy Inspector Cardona has been cleared of all misconduct allegations lodged with the Police Department related to Occupy Wall Street," the union leader said. "He has fully cooperated with the Office of the Manhattan District Attorney and the New York City Law Department at every stage of their review process.

 

"Deputy Inspector Cardona has received no notification, either formal or informal, from the Law Department that they are declining to represent him in lawsuits stemming from the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations," he continued.

 

The video, posted on YouTube, shows a police officer in the white shirt worn by those in the ranks of Lieutenants and above advancing through the crowd, drawing back an arm and punching Felix Rivera-Pitre. The officer is mostly shown from the side, and his face is hidden at key points in the video. Mr. Rivera-Pitre's lawyers identified the officer as Mr. Cardona.

 

An attorney for Mr. Rivera-Pitre, Ronald Kuby, said in a statement, "I am glad the city recognizes Cardona is not worth defending, but it is disturbing that the same city gives him a badge, a gun, and a six-figure salary. It is a belated April Fool's joke."

 

 

Calls Kuby 'An Opportunist'

 

Mr. Richter took exception to the comment. "For Kuby to refer to Inspector Cardona's sacrifice as a 'joke' is a disgrace and highlights the actions of an opportunist attorney seeking to further violent conduct by groups of professional agitators."

 

When THE CHIEF-LEADER inquired about his statement, Mr. Kuby said, "Inspector Cardona's sacrificing the skin on his knuckles to beat down my client was a crime, not a joke."

 

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Forgotten NYPD History

 

NYPD Once Did Sanit's Work
When Cleaning Up Didn't Mean Cleaner Streets

By MARK TOOR — Monday, April 8th, 2013 'The Chief / Civil Service Leader'

 

 

More than 200 years ago, before the Department of Sanitation was even a gleam in some city official's eye, it was the New York Police Department and its predecessors that were responsible for cleaning the streets.

 

 

Less Than Sparkling

 

The police were given miscellaneous duties, including housing the homeless and inspecting boilers. Their record on street-sweeping and garbage disposal between 1780 and 1881 was less than sparkling.

 

"A number of NYPD Police Commissioners were forced to resign over the cleanliness of New York City streets or the lack thereof," said Mike Bosak, a retired NYPD Sergeant and unofficial historian for the department who wants to make sure people don't forget the involvement of police with city sanitation.

 

"A Mayor who wished to remove police commissioners could always bring charges that they were not fulfilling their responsibilities on street cleaning," according to "The New York Police: Colonial Times to 1901" by James F. Richardson. "Charges of this nature were usually available, true and likely to provoke a sympathetic response from the public."

 

The sanitation situation did hold a bright spot. "Everybody lined their pockets getting the garbage picked up," Mr. Bosak said. "There was lots of graft to be made cleaning the streets of New York."

 

Keeping the streets clean was generally recognized at the time to be impossible. It didn't help that householders and business owners regularly threw their garbage in the streets. Neither did the ubiquitous presence of constantly-overflowing ash barrels. The crowded condition of the tenements was a major problem, as was their architecture, which meant that ashes and refuse dumped in the back had to be brought around to the front for pickup.

 

 

Early Contracting-Out

 

Though Captains were supposedly responsible for the conditions of streets in their precincts, the actual cleaning was done by private contractors employed by the NYPD's Bureau of Street-Cleaning. The contractors blamed the police for the condition of the streets, saying they failed to enforce sanitary laws.

 

An investigation by the Board of Aldermen in 1874 found that police "had completely failed to prevent garbage from being dumped in the streets," according to a 1965 history. "The bureau was infested with incompetent employees. Supervisors were ignorant and disdainful of their duties and they levied assessments on their subordinates. The workforce of the bureau, in its turn, demanded contributions from householders."

 

An article published in Popular Science magazine in April 1891 described the street-cleaning situation under the Police Department: "It soon appeared that both parties were clamoring for appointments and political patronage under the Bureau of Street-Cleaning, with a power and persistence almost irresistible and not always resisted.

 

"Nor was there any improvement in the enforcement of the laws and sanitary ordinances in respect to the streets and the care and removal of ashes and garbage," the article continued. "The police force of New York, in physique, intelligence and bravery, in the detection and prevention of crime, and in the protection of life and property, is certainly the equal to any in the world; but for a proper and thorough enforcement of ordinance and regulations, trifling in detail but important in its aggregate, which concern and are necessary to the comfort of the people, it has never been distinguished."

 

 

Clubber's Garbage Wars

 

At one point the Street-Cleaning Bureau was commanded by one of the most-infamous officers in NYPD history. He was Alexander S. Williams, nicknamed "Clubber" for a law-enforcement style that is epitomized in his famous quote: "There is more law in the end of a policeman's nightstick than in a decision of the Supreme Court." He spent a year at the bureau as punishment for punching an Alderman.

 

"That brings us to the NYPD/Brooklyn P.D. garbage wars," Mr. Bosak said, regarding an era when Brooklyn was still an independent city. "Clubber would dump the garbage off of Bay Ridge or in Sheepshead Bay in the dark of night if the fog was right. It created quite the stink and awful unsanitary conditions for Brooklyn.

 

"So when conditions were ripe—or shall we say ripe for this unlawful behavior—the Brooklyn department called up its reserves and rented tugboats to stop the NYPD. Brooklyn and New York cops beat each other to bloody pulps."

 

In any case, at a City Hall hearing in 1877, a Bureau of Street-Cleaning functionary described "the difficulty of finding places in which to deposit the refuse collected from the streets."

 

 

Launched Hero Cop's Rise

 

Joseph Petrosino, who rose to Lieutenant before he was killed investigating the Mafia in Italy in 1909, got his start with the NYPD on one of its garbage scows, Mr. Bosak said. He was a raker, shoveling the garbage onto the scow and then shoveling it into the Atlantic Ocean. Most rakers were Italian immigrants.

 

"Petrosino excelled at fighting," Mr. Bosak wrote. "He also had the gift of gab and knew how to organize and control the other rakers." So when Mr. Williams returned from exile to his "Tenderloin" precinct, he brought Mr. Petrosino with him and gave him a badge. (This was before the era of civil-service tests.)

 

The vice-ridden Tenderloin district may have gotten its name from Mr. Williams, who when he was transferred there for the first time reportedly said, "I've had nothing but chuck steak for a long time and now I'm going to get a little tenderloin." When he was investigated for corruption in 1894, a government commission found that despite a salary of $3,500 a year he had amassed more than $1 million in wealth. Mr. Williams credited thrifty living and wise real-estate investments in Japan.

 

The city eventually created a Department of Street-Cleaning to replace the NYPD bureau. But it wasn't until George Washington Waring became its Commissioner in 1895 and enforced standards of professionalism—as well as regular attendance among the once patronage-ridden workforce—that the city's streets became clean.

 

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Fixing The NYPD's LGBT Problem
One step toward accountability can help heal relations between the NYPD and New York's LGBT population

BY Amos Toh — Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 'The Advocate' [magazine] / Los Angeles, CA

(Op-Ed / Commentary)

 

 

Acceptance of LGBT Americans may be at an all-time high, but the relationship between the New York Police Department and this community remain fraught.

 

On March 19, the City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, proposed establishing an inspector general for the NYPD. This could provide oversight of the nation's biggest police department, a critical step in ensuring respect for the basic rights of thousands of the city's LGBT inhabitants.

 

Recent studies show that gay men of color are particularly vulnerable to stop-and-frisk and other forms of police harassment and intimidation. Transgender women are routinely profiled for prostitution and other sex-related offenses, while queer youth are twice as likely as their straight counterparts to report negative contact with the police. Not long ago, the department also drew sharp criticism for entrapping dozens of gay men in public spaces.

 

To address concerns about these types of police interactions, Speaker Quinn, working with the NYPD, created the LGBT Advisory Panel. This group of community leaders considered the concerns of the LGBT community and recommended changes, some of which were incorporated into the NYPD Patrol Guide. The police were given long overdue guidance on how officers should address, process, search and house gender non-conforming individuals.

 

While this was a welcome step, LGBT groups and activists know there is still a long way to go. How will the revised guidelines be implemented and enforced? Who will assess how effective they have been and how they should be refined? The guide is also silent on one of the most criticized practices of the Department: the policy of using the possession of condoms as evidence of prostitution.

 

The LGBT Advisory Panel does not have the resources to monitor compliance, and its mandate beyond making recommendations for changes to the Patrol Guide is unclear. Monitoring calls for an oversight structure that has the powers, resources and credibility to scrutinize aspects of the department's work that affect the LGBT community, from the training of officers to practices on the ground.  

 

An inspector general can fill the void. Such an office is part of the oversight apparatus credited for rebuilding relations between the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and LGBT communities. After years of difficulty, in 2008, the LAPD was praised for working closely with LGBT organizers to protect those protesting against a statewide initiative to ban gay marriage.

 

Los Angeles's experience reveals that the systematic, ongoing review of police work is central to the implementation of meaningful reform. The role of the LAPD Inspector General transcends the investigation of individual misconduct. This office also oversees police practices that historically affect the LGBT community, such as street stops and arrest booking, and may also undertake special investigations directed by the Board of Police Commissioners (the civilian leadership body of the LAPD) or at the Inspector General's own discretion.

 

An inspector general is well-positioned to investigate patterns of sexual discrimination and monitor compliance with anti-discrimination laws. However, an inspector general cannot work in isolation. The support and cooperation of the Police Department and the City are also critical in ensuring that it operates effectively. LA's Inspector General has forged strong working relationships with the LAPD leadership and city officials: His office provides detailed reports to the Board of Commissioners and the Chief of Police, and has received strong political endorsement from the Mayor.  

 

Under the leadership of Mayor Bloomberg, New York has positioned itself as "a leader on marriage equality" and the "freest city in the freest country in the world." There is no other place, he has proclaimed, "more welcoming of all people, no matter what their ethnicity, no matter what their beliefs, no matter what their orientation." These ideals must become a reality for LGBT New Yorkers in their interactions with the police. Independent civilian oversight will be a crucial step in improving relations between the NYPD and one of the biggest LGBT communities in the world. Speaker Quinn is to be lauded for supporting this important initiative.

 

AMOS TOH is a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

 

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The NYPD Doesn't Care About Speeding Drivers, Data Shows

By Christopher Robbins — Monday, April 8th, 2013; 2:10 p.m. 'The Gothamist' / New York, NY

 

 

Pedestrian fatalities increased in 2012, and the most common factor in the 274 deaths was speeding. Yet the police have made enforcing the speed limit even less of a priority: last year the NYPD wrote 71,305 speeding summonses, down from the 76,493 they issued in 2011. To dispel any doubt that far too many drivers continue to speed with impunity, Transportation Alternatives used a radar gun to clock cars across the city. According to their data, after eight hours in Canarsie's 115th Precinct, TA found 194 drivers exceeding the speed limit by 10 mph or more, with the fastest driver traveling 59 mph in a 30 mph zone. Total number of speeding violations handed out by the 115th precinct for all of 2012? 163.

 

Even in Elmhurst, Queens, where speeding drivers received the most tickets of any area in the city (4,130), enforcement does not meet demand: TA clocked 237 drivers going 10 mph or more above the limit in East Elmhurst's 115th Precinct. Only 177 speeding tickets were issued last year.

 

Wonder how many speeding tickets Midtown South's Precinct handed out? Zero (0). Midtown North had one (1). The 7th Precinct, home to the Delancey Street and the spot where a 12-year-old girl was killed by a van a year ago, had fourteen times what Midtown North did. That is, 14 citations for speeding in 2012. We're willing to guess that there are 14 Manhattan-bound vehicles speeding off the bridge to make the light right now.

 

"Since speeding is the leading cause of traffic deaths, it's clear we need every enforcement tool at our disposal—speed cameras foremost among them—to tackle this major problem," Michael Murphy, a spokesman for Transportation Alternatives said. No luck on speed cameras, but hey, at least it's tough to sport tinted windows in this town.

 

At a recent hearing before the City Council's Public Safety Committee, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly agreed with a councilmember when he stated that infractions such as tinted windows are much easier to enforce than speeding.

 

"You have to have calibrated devices to give speeding summonses, you need experts," Kelly said. The Post reports that there are only five officers per precinct who issue traffic and parking summonses. Only one of those officers is trained to use a radar gun.

 

Meanwhile, there are at least 3,000 cameras in the NYPD's "all-seeing" Domain Awareness System.

 

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52 Precinct P.O. Kelly Hughes DWI MVA

 

Bronx NYPD officer agrees to rehab after crashing car drunk into parked SUV
Kelly Hughes, 24, was not charged but agreed to the reform program. Hughes and a passenger tried to flee and hide in a house near the crash on Revere Ave. in Schuylerville. Cops eventually found her at home in Edgewater Park.

By Rocco Parascandola — Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 'The New York Daily News'

 

 

The NYPD has suspended a drunken Bronx cop who smashed her car and then fled in hopes of holing up in a nearby house to avoid police, the Daily News has learned.

 

Officer Kelly Hughes, 24, was not criminally charged, but has agreed to enter a rehab program, sources said.

 

Police said Hughes flipped her Nissan after smashing into a parked Mitsubishi SUV on Revere Ave. in Schuylerville around 4:10 a.m. last Thursday.

 

"We looked outside, and we saw a car upside down," said Michael Londonio, 64, who owns the Mitsubishi with his wife, Maureen. "My car was banged up pretty good."

 

"There was no one" in the Nissan when police officers arrived, Maureen Londonio added.

 

She also said a resident on her block told investigators that she was approached by either Hughes or her passenger, who wanted to hide in her home.

 

A police source said Hughes was eventually found at her home in Edgewater Park, about a mile away.

 

She and her passenger were "both hammered and couldn't remember anything," a source said.

 

It is unclear where the women were before the crash, but investigators have been interviewing employees in at least one bar on East Tremont Ave. near the accident.

 

A NYPD spokesman confirmed the suspension, The incident is being investigated by the Internal Affairs Bureau.

 

Hughes joined the force in January 2010 and was assigned to the 52nd Precinct.

 

Her lawyer offered no comment.

 

_______________________________________________________________________

 

Ret. Insp. Tom Harris

Former NYPD Cop at Helm of Times Square Transformation

By Alan Neuhauser — Tuesday, April 9th, 2013  'DNAinfo.Com News' / Manhattan

 

 

TIMES SQUARE — At the center of the center of the world stands a former NYPD cop turned executive holding the whole thing together.

 

Tom Harris, senior vice president for operations of the Times Square Alliance, oversees the day-to-day operation of New York City's most famous intersection. He addresses issues that range from coordinating which companies can hang new billboards when, keeps tabs on the much-heralded $27 million overhaul of Times Square's pedestrian plazas, and personally changes the LED light bulbs inside the red glass steps in Father Duffy Square.

 

"There's a lot of moving parts here, and we have to grease the wheels when it's necessary, and give a push when it's necessary," said Harris, who arrives to work every morning wearing a suit and tie, but keeps a pair of jeans and a T-shirt at the office for more hands-on tasks. "Every day there's a new problem to solve, and every week or month or so, there's a new high of a problem being solved."

 

Harris, who will be marking his fifth anniversary at the alliance May 1, has helped shepherd one of the most profound periods of transformation in Times Square. The bow tie was already a major tourist destination by 2008, but it was still searching for its identity.

 

"Five years ago, if you asked what Times Square was, you couldn't describe it," Harris said. "It was kind of nebulous. It was two streets that crossed, and there were a lot of signs.

 

"Now, five years later," he added, "we have Duffy Square, the glass steps, a pedestrian plaza — these anchors for Times Square."

 

Those features, from the steps to the light posts to new solar-powered recycling- and trash-compactors placed throughout Times Square, are maintained by a phalanx of about 170 sanitation and public safety officers overseen by Harris, who himself once commanded three Brooklyn precincts for the NYPD.

 

That experience with New York's Finest shows — only three public safety officers have resigned in the years since Harris arrived, and one keeps asking for his job back every six months.

 

"We have really developed a family here," Harris described.

 

What's more, when it comes to working with staff or interacting with local business owners and tenants, "I use both my investigatory background and my skills working with people to try to get to the root cause of the problem."

 

"They come to you with one problem, and that's the surface," he said. "But if you dig, you find there's a root, an underlying problem."

 

Harris spent more than 23 years with the NYPD, rising from patrolman to inspector. Now living in Pearl River with his wife and two teenage children, he said he hopes to spend another 25 years with the alliance.

 

"Every day is a challenge. Every day is a new adventure," Harris said.

 

"I am never bored. I get a great deal of satisfaction," he added. "When I get up in the morning, I love coming to work. I can wait to get here and face the challenges of the day."

 

_______________________________________________________________________

 

NY / NJ Port Authority Police Department

 

Port Authority agrees to $3.5 million fine, stand-alone fire department for airports

By Steve Strunsky — Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 'The Newark Star-Ledger' / Newark, NJ

 

 

NEWARK — The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has agreed to form a separate airport firefighting unit officially outside the control of the police department, and to pay $3.5 million in fines to the Federal Aviation Administration for failing to show that officers assigned to fight fires were adequately trained.

 

Up to now, crash response and firefighting at Newark Liberty, John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports have been handled by specially trained Port Authority Police officers.

 

Those officers have been assigned to firefighting duty, while retaining their police powers to carry guns and make arrests in emergencies, a dual role that defenders of the arrangement say benefits public safety and security at the nation's busiest airport system.

 

But the Port Authority's police/firefighting arrangement is unique among the nation's major airports, which typically use their own or municipal stand-alone fire departments. And federal aviation officials began pressing the bi-state agency to form a separate department during a series of meetings in Washington, D.C. The meetings, held this winter, included Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who oversees the FAA.

 

Firefighting at Teterboro Airport, a general aviation hub run by the Port Authority in Bergen County, will fall under the same arrangement.

 

Whether to create a stand-alone fire department has been debated for years. But the situation came to a head after the Port Authority was found to be in violation of federal record-keeping rules in thousands of cases, mostly at JFK, in which the agency could not provide firefighting certification records for officers assigned to firefighting shifts during a December 2011 inspection. The $3.5 million fine is a direct result of the record-keeping failures.

 

"We expect all airports to comply with our safety regulations and to correct any deficiencies immediately," LaHood said in a statement accompanying the announcement. "These violations were egregious, and they will not be tolerated."

 

The Port Authority continues to conduct an internal investigation into the record-keeping failures.

 

Port Authority officials were not quoted in the FAA announcement, but the agency released its own statement afterward.

 

"Once notified by the FAA, Port Authority leadership took immediate steps and brought PA airports in full compliance with Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) responsibilities. We put in place new standard operating procedures and training protocols, hired the agency's first Chief Security Officer, and recruited former FDNY Commissioner Tom Von Essen to review ARFF operations. "

 

"We also are launching a nationwide search for a new fire chief and fire captains to lead a standalone ARFF cadre, which is consistent with other large hub airports around the country, " the statement read.

 

While the creation of separate department has been supported by some officials within the Port Authority, the agency has insisted that its airports are safe and its police officers are thoroughly qualified for rescue and firefighting duty.

 

The Port Authority Policemen's Benevolent Association had fiercely opposed the creation of a stand-alone fire department, fearful of layoffs among its 600 members cross-trained in firefighting. The union had endorsed Gov. Chris Christie in his re-election bid this year, and was counting on support on the issue from Christie, who shares control of the Port Authority with Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York.

 

A spokesman for Christie declined to comment on today's announcement.

 

The PBA issued a statement rejecting what it said was LaHood's implication that Port Authority airports were less than safe.

 

"We would put up our firefighting response against any airport in the country as borne out by repeated citations in National Air Traffic Safety Board reports," said Paul Nunziato.

 

Port Authority officials said the same officers who have been assigned to firefighting duties would have the option of continuing in that capacity. Officials said those officers would remain police officers, retaining their PBA membership, pay and benefits, though they would not carry weapons or engage in police activity except in the event of an airport shutdown, when their rescue and firefighting services would not be needed.

 

The announcement by the FAA today said the changes would be effective March 31, 2014. The announcement also said the department would officially answer directly to the Port Authority's civilian aviation department, not to police officials.

 

Aviation Director Susan Baer had supported creation of a stand-alone firefighting squad outside the police department in order to control firefighting operations, according to the union.

 

Baer declined to comment about her position on the issue.

 

Federal lawmakers from both states expressed concern over the changes, questioning why the FAA would want to tinker with a proven firefighting operation.

 

"There's no clear evidence that bifurcation will increase safety; however, it is certain to increase PA costs," Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY), stated. "Who will pay for this?"

 

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-9th District) said the FAA had ignored the PBA's concerns and its contract, which specifies officers' roles as firefighters: "Today's announcement from the FAA fails to include input from our front line public safety officers and undermines their collective bargaining rights."

 

_______________________________________________________________________

 

Authority Fined $3.5 Million for Lapses in Airport Safety Training

By PATRICK McGEEHAN — Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 'The New York Times'

 

 

The operator of the major airports in the New York metropolitan region has agreed to pay $3.5 million for failing to train its police officers to perform rescues and fight fires, under a settlement agreement announced Monday by the Federal Aviation Administration.

 

Along with the fine, the aviation agency ordered the operator, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, to create cadres of aircraft rescue and firefighting officers to operate independently of the authority's Police Department. At four airports in and around New York City — Kennedy International, La Guardia, Newark Liberty International and the smaller Teterboro — the chief of the Port Authority Police Department had overseen those functions.

 

The officers in those units will work 12-hour shifts and will not have to perform other police functions, according to the settlement agreement between the Port Authority and the aviation administration. Ray LaHood, the federal transportation secretary, called the violations "egregious."

 

Michael P. Huerta, the F.A.A. administrator, said, "We expect the Port Authority to have trained safety personnel to ensure the safety of the traveling public and airport personnel, just like we have at all airports in the United States."

 

To satisfy federal officials, the Port Authority hired a former first deputy commissioner of the New York Police Department, Joseph P. Dunne, as its chief security officer last year, and has begun a "nationwide search for a new fire chief and fire captains," said Lisa MacSpadden, a spokeswoman for the Port Authority. The Port Authority also hired Thomas Von Essen, a former city fire commissioner, to review the operations, she said.

 

The aviation administration did not point to any specific problems caused by the lack of training at the airports. But it said in the settlement that on most days between Jan. 1, 2011, and June 9, 2012, the Port Authority failed to ensure that all rescue and firefighting personnel at La Guardia and Newark Airports were properly trained for their duties.

 

At Kennedy Airport, the Port Authority allowed 77 police officers who were untrained for their duties to work 357 shifts from early May to early June 2012, the settlement agreement said.

 

The aviation administration said it became aware of the violations during a safety inspection at Kennedy in December 2011. After finding similar problems at Teterboro, which the Port Authority operates in New Jersey, the administration looked into safety procedures at La Guardia, Newark and Stewart International, an airport the authority operates in Newburgh, N.Y. No violations were found at Stewart, a former military base where the Department of Defense provides rescue and firefighting services, according to the agreement.

 

_______________________________________________________________________

 

Long Island

 

Nassau police union applauds postponed precinct merger

By TANIA LOPEZ — Tuesday, April 9th, 2013  'New York Newsday' / Melville, L.I.

 

 

Union leaders for Nassau's rank-and-file police officers said the county's decision to postpone a final precinct merger should be the first step toward reopening all precincts shuttered last year.

 

"I think it was a good move," James Carver, president of Nassau Police Benevolent Association, said at a news conference Monday in Mineola. He said the county's decision to merge eight precincts never had union support. Hopefully, he said, the latest postponement will lead to a rethinking of the entire plan.

 

"The union was not in favor of these mergers to begin with, and we believe not merging the First and the Seventh is a step in the right direction," Carver said, adding he plans to meet with County Executive Edward Mangano to discuss the plan. "Hopefully, going forward, they'll see about the other precincts and realize that wasn't the right thing either."

 

Last week, the county postponed merging the Baldwin-based First Precinct into the Seaford-based Seventh.

 

Storm flooding at the Seventh Precinct building after Superstorm Sandy prompted reconsideration of the final merger, First Deputy Police Commissioner Thomas C. Krumpter said.

 

The merger plan, approved by the county legislature in March 2012, called for the department's eight precincts to be merged into four. The closed precincts would become lighter-staffed "community policing centers."

 

The Second Precinct in Woodbury absorbed the Eighth, in Levittown, last spring. The Third Precinct in Williston Park absorbed the Sixth, in Manhasset, last summer. The Fourth in Hewlett later absorbed the Fifth, in Elmont. The first three mergers have saved money and have not jeopardized public safety, Krumpter said.

 

Carver said the consolidations have not worked out. "What we've seen is that the community centers have become almost bare," he said. "We only have two police officers in there that cover the precinct . . . the Second, Third and Fourth Precincts have been overloaded with administrative and police work."

 

He said there have been an influx of calls and people waiting in the lobby of the Fourth Precinct since its merger.

 

Mangano "should be discussing with us going forward on how we correct the many problems that we have with the other precinct mergers," Carver said.

 

With William Murphy

 

_______________________________________________________________________

 

New York State

 

NY trooper accused of girlfriend assault suspended
(Broke Girlfriend's Nose)

By Unnamed Author(s) (The Associated Press)  —  Tuesday, April 9th, 2013; 3:01 a.m. EDT

 

 

HIGHLAND, N.Y. — Authorities say an off-duty state police investigator accused of breaking his girlfriend's nose during a fight in the Hudson Valley has been charged with misdemeanor assault.

 

State police say 59-year-old Louis Morales has been suspended without pay from his job at the agency's headquarters in Albany while the criminal case and an internal investigation proceed.

 

They say Morales was charged Saturday with third-degree assault after the woman reported she was injured when he pushed her into a wall on Friday at her home in the Ulster County hamlet of Highland.

 

Morales was ticketed and is due in the town of Lloyd Court on Tuesday. Police said Monday he didn't initially have a lawyer.

 

Highland is 66 miles south of Albany.

 

_______________________________________________________________________

 

Federal agents report porous shipping system for guns   (Stolen Firearms)
Shipping purchased firearms is ripe for thieves, law enforcement officials say.

By Gary Craig [The (Rochester, N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle] — Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 'USA Today'

 

 

While much of the current controversy over gun control and gun rights revolves around the purchase of firearms, a topic typically overlooked is the thousands of guns shipped around the country each week.

 

Those transactions can be ripe opportunities for thieves to walk away with firearms. And, authorities suspect many guns stolen in transit end up in the criminal underworld.

 

Hindering investigations into firearms looted during transit is a lack of mandated reporting, officials say. While firearms dealers do have to report guns missing in their inventories, there is no comparable mandate that guns lost during shipping must be reported. Shipping companies can report voluntarily, and some do.

 

"The reporting by carriers isn't mandatory, so I never had a sense of the population (of stolen guns)," said David Chipman, an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, for 25 years who is now a consultant to the gun control organization Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

 

Records obtained by the Democrat and Chronicle under the state Freedom of Information law reveal the occasionally porous transit network for firearms that have been bought and sold. Police reports that focus on the firearms trade of one large wholesaler — AmChar Wholesale Inc. in Chili, N.Y. — show more than 40 guns went missing in transport over a five-year period. In most of those cases, the reports do not detail whether the guns were located later.

 

A Glock 9 mm handgun started its journey to Maryland from the AmChar firearms wholesaler warehouse on Aug. 7, 2009.

 

Traveling via United Parcel Service, the package went to a Henrietta, N.Y., UPS location, then to Syracuse and Willow Grove, Pa., before arriving at a UPS shop in Easton, Md. The customer who'd bought the gun picked up the package there on Aug. 18, 2009, and left.

 

He later returned and reported that the gun and two magazines were stolen out of the case.

 

That theft and others prompted a Monroe County Sheriff's Office investigation that led to the arrest of an employee at the Henrietta UPS location who admitted that he'd stolen six handguns that were being shipped, investigative and court records show.

 

 

Other incidents:

 

-- In 2007, AmChar shipped 21 handguns — including 9 mm and .380-caliber pistols — to a Tampa, Fla., gun dealer. "The (UPS) shipment was never received," records show.

 

-- A 2007 shipment of three handguns did not make it to a New York City buyer. One of them ended up in possession of a New Jersey man now imprisoned for a fatal stabbing.

 

-- In 2010 AmChar bought an AK-47 from a Shreveport, La., firearms dealer. When the box arrived, it appeared to have been "tampered with." Inside was a "12-inch pipe wrench" but no semiautomatic rifle.

 

AmChar, of course, can't be held responsible for the loss of guns in shipping to or from the business. And, records show, they have reported firearms lost in transit, despite no mandate to do so.

 

Officials with the ATF say the true scope of guns stolen in transport is unknown because of the lack of reporting regulations.

 

"It's hard to track because they're not required to report (guns stolen or missing during shipment)," said Ginger Colbrun, a spokeswoman for the federal ATF.

 

AmChar and sister company American Tactical Imports are both owned by Anthony DiChario, who says the facility is very secure, protected by round-the-clock audio and video surveillance. All employees are subject to background checks. And the businesses will soon be adding a high-tech radio frequency tracking system to help keep better tabs on guns as they move through the warehouse to sale and transport.

 

Employing more than 100 people, the two businesses deal in tens of thousands of firearms, buying nationally and internationally and selling to thousands of customers — many of them police agencies — across the U.S. The company also deals in everything from knives to body armor. ATI serves as the importing arm, while AmChar is a wholesaler.

 

"To our knowledge, only two firearms we have reported in the last five years have been officially recovered by law enforcement as stolen," DiChario said in a two-page statement responding to questions from the Democrat and Chronicle. "The total number of firearms unaccounted for as a result of our ATF inspection total one tenth of a percent of the total volume of firearms to pass through our companies in 2012.

 

"Human and system errors such as incorrectly recorded serial numbers, incorrect adjustments, product returns and misshipments to customers have proven to be the bulk of the firearms we have had to report (missing)."

 

Carriers make shipping changes

 

In the late 1990s, UPS changed its delivery mechanism for firearms after workers at a Maryland hub brazenly stole 29 guns in different shipments and sold them on the streets. As the Washington Post reported then, one of the guns "was used in an armed carjacking less than 36 hours after it was stolen from a UPS shipment."

 

In 1999, UPS began requiring all handguns to be delivered by next-day service, which usually requires air transport. Federal Express Corp. had similar shipping mandates for firearms sellers.

 

The change eliminated longer travels — and more opportunities for theft — for firearms, said UPS spokesman Dan McMackin

 

"We segregated handguns into the air (shipping) network, which minimizes the amount of times those packages are touched," McMackin said.

 

The change did add shipping costs for firearms dealers, and created "some pushback from guns rights groups," McMackin said.

 

Now, most firearms dealers are accustomed to the extra costs.

 

Fred Calcagno, president of the East Rochester, N.Y.-based American Sportsman, said the expense is not a burden. Nor, he said, has he had issues with gun transport during his years selling firearms.

 

"As long as I've been in business we've not had one pistol or long gun missing in transit," said Calcagno, who has been selling firearms for 26 years.

 

 

Not foolproof

 

As records obtained by the Democrat and Chronicle show, the transit system is not foolproof.

 

In 2007, AmChar contacted the Tampa, Fla., gun dealer, University Gun and Pawn, about $4,075 still owed for 21 handguns. The shop had not received the guns, shipped via UPS, nor contacted AmChar about the undelivered firearms, a report states.

 

Records show that the guns traveled overnight, from Buffalo to Louisville then Florida. The package was shipped out of a Tampa UPS station "with no status of the package documented thereafter." AmChar notified local ATF agents, who contacted law enforcement in Tampa about the theft.

 

An April 2007 AmChar shipment of two 9 mm handguns and a .45-caliber pistol was delivered via UPS but "never made it to the customer," according to a report. Four months later, the .45-caliber was found in Montclair, N.J., during a traffic stop of Richard W. Smith, who "was arrested and held on several weapons charges."

 

According to New Jersey authorities, Smith was not convicted on the weapons charges but is now imprisoned for a fatal 2006 stabbing at a party. He was not arrested for that murder until 2010. Information about how he obtained the pistol shipped from AmChar was not available.

 

UPS spokesman McMackin said the company works closely with firearms sellers to build protections into the transport system. Firearms shipments are inconspicuously marked so the contents are not apparent. Plus, tracking mechanisms are now far more advanced than in years past, McMackin said.

 

Through "telematics" vehicle tracking, UPS knows when a truck starts, stops, and even shifts into reverse, he said. In turn, drivers cannot make unexplained stops.

 

Still, as the Henrietta arrest shows, a UPS loading dock employee familiar with packages from firearms dealers can be tough to counter.

 

"We don't tolerate dishonesty and you have to understand how important that is to us," McMackin said. "We're handling peoples' goods and dishonesty is absolutely not tolerated."

 

Reports from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office also show that firearms have gone missing when shipped to and from AmChar via smaller private trucking companies. For instance, in 2009, a California gun seller reported that he had not received six carbine rifles bought from AmChar.

 

The dealership suspected a driver for the trucking company that had delivered guns, records show. The driver claimed that he'd erred and not delivered a box. However, once delivered, one of the guns was still missing, according to a Sheriff's Office report.

 

The resolution of the case was not available in the records obtained by the Democrat and Chronicle. A manager at the California firearms dealer, Martin Retting Inc., declined to comment.

 

Colbrun said ATF has investigated suspected gun trafficking rings that have managed to intercept and steal guns during transport.

 

But, she said, the choice is up to firearms dealers and shipping companies whether to let ATF know when guns are stolen via transit. Without that knowledge, there is little ATF can do, she said.

 

"It's hard to capture if it's not reported," she said.

 

_______________________________________________________________________

 

New Jersey

Split verdict for ex-Ramsey police officer accused of molesting 6-year-old

By Unnamed Author(s) (The Associated Press)  —  Monday, April 8th, 2013; 11:11 p.m. EDT

 

 

HACKENSACK — A former northern New Jersey police officer has been acquitted of child sexual assault charges but convicted of child endangerment.

 

The Record of Woodland Park reports that 49-year-old Jeffrey Kimmel faces up to 10 years in prison following his conviction today. Kimmel was a patrol officer with the Ramsey police department.

 

During the trial, prosecutors said Kimmel fondled a 6-year-old girl in a relative's home in 2010. But the defense claimed the girl's "sketchy memory" meant Kimmel should be acquitted on both counts.

 

Kimmel was convicted of stealing more than $110,000 from his police union while he served as its treasurer. He received a six-year sentence but was freed on parole after serving seven months.

 

Authorities say his parole may be revoked due to the child endangerment conviction.

 

_______________________________________________________________________

 

U.S.A.

 

Big brother or better police work? New technology automatically runs license plates ... of everyone
License-plate reading devices help police respond to crimes and violations, but its broad use and lack of regulations are raising some privacy issues

By Shawn Musgrave — Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 'The Boston Globe' / Boston, MA

 

 

CHELSEA — The high-speed cameras mounted on Sergeant Robert Griffin's cruiser trigger a beeping alarm every time they read another license plate, automatically checking to see if each car is unregistered, uninsured, or stolen. In a single hour of near-constant beeps, Griffin runs 786 plates on parked cars without lifting a finger.

 

The plate-reading cameras were introduced for police use in Massachusetts in 2008, and quickly proved their worth. The one on Griffin's Chelsea cruiser repaid its $24,000 price tag in its first 11 days on the road. "We located more uninsured vehicles in our first month . . . using [the camera] in one cruiser than the entire department did the whole year before," said Griffin.

 

Now, automated license plate recognition technology's popularity is exploding — seven Boston area police departments will add a combined 21 new license readers during the next month alone — and with that expanded use has come debate on whether the privacy of law-abiding citizens is being violated.

 

These high-tech license readers, now mounted on 87 police cruisers statewide, scan literally millions of license plates in Massachusetts each year, checking not only the car and owner's legal history, but also creating a precise record of where each vehicle was at a given moment.

 

The records can be enormously helpful in solving crimes — for example, Fitchburg police used the technology to catch a serial flasher — but they increasingly make privacy advocates uneasy.

 

Use of the technology is outstripping creation of rules to prevent abuses such as tracking the movements of private citizens, or monitoring who visits sensitive places such as strip clubs, union halls, or abortion clinics.

 

A survey of police departments that use automated license readers found that fewer than a third — just 17 out of 53 — have written policies, leaving the rest with no formal standards for who can see the records or how long they will be preserved.

 

"The worst-case scenario — vast databases with records of movements of massive numbers of people — is already happening," warns Kade Crockford of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which is pushing for a state law to regulate use of license plate scanners and limit the time departments can routinely keep the electronic records to 48 hours.

 

But police fear that zeal to protect privacy could stifle the use of a promising law enforcement tool, especially if they are prevented from preserving and pooling license plate scans for use in detective work. Currently, all of the police departments keep their plate scans longer than two days, with data storage ranging from 14 days in Somerville and Brookline to 90 days in Boston and up to a year in Leicester, Malden, Pittsfield, and Worcester.

 

Sergeant Griffin, whose own department has no written policy, agrees that there should be rules to prevent abuse, but thinks that these should be set by local departments rather than at the State House. He said that rather than restrict use of the scanners, the Legislature should "trust law enforcement to do the right thing."

 

The usefulness of the automated license plate reader as an investigative tool springs from the astounding number of license plates the units can scan and record. With an array of high-speed cameras mounted on police cruisers snapping pictures, these systems are designed to capture up to 1,800 plates per minute, even at high speeds and in difficult driving conditions.

 

"I've had my [license plater reader] correctly scan plates on cars parked bumper-to-bumper when I'm driving full speed," said Griffin, who caught three scofflaws owing a combined $1,900 in parking tickets from the 786 license plates his reader checked on a recent one-hour patrol. The devices misidentify plates often enough that scans have to be confirmed by an officer on the scene before writing a ticket. In this case, after confirming the parking tickets, and the money owed, police initiated the collection process. Griffin called headquarters to confirm that the vehicles still had unpaid tickets, and then arranged for them to be towed.

 

Boston's four scanner-equipped cars do 3,500 scans a day and more than 1 million per year, according to police data. Even smaller departments such as Fitchburg scan 30,000 plates per month with just one license-reading system, easily 10 times more than an officer could manually check.

 

Most of the departments that deploy license plate readers use them primarily for traffic enforcement. But the scanners — sometimes called by the acronym ALPR — are also used for missing persons, AMBER alerts, active warrants, and open cases

 

"Every once in a while our detectives will use the ALPR database for retrospective searches," said Griffin, adding that the technology has proved useful to scan vehicles in neighborhoods surrounding crime scenes.

 

Griffin's counterpart in Fitchburg, Officer Paul McNamara, said license scanner data played a crucial role in solving a string of indecent exposure incidents at Fitchburg State University in April 2011. At the request of the university police, McNamara entered the alleged flasher's plate into his license-scan database. The system indicated that a suspect's vehicle had passed the scanner just 10 minutes earlier, leading to a suspect's arrest and later guilty plea to charges of indecent exposure and lewdness.

 

McNamara said that there is no formal process when another police department requests a license inquiry of this kind into his unit's database.

 

"It can't be a fishing expedition, though," he said. "We look at it as a form of mutual aid, so it has to be a serious criminal matter for us to share data."

 

 

While law enforcement officials are enthusiastic, critics can point to alleged abuses:

 

■  In 2004, police tracked Canadian reporter Kerry Diotte via automated license scans after he wrote articles critical of the local traffic division. A senior officer admitted to inappropriately searching for the reporter's vehicle in a license scan database in an attempt to catch Diotte driving drunk.

 

■  Plainclothes NYPD officers used license readers to scan license plates of worshipers at a mosque in 2006 and 2007, the Associated Press reported, under a program that was partially funded by a federal drug enforcement grant.

 

■  In December, the Minneapolis Police Department released a USB thumb drive with 2.1 million license plate scans and GPS vehicle location tags in response to a public records request, raising fears that such releases might help stalkers follow their victims. A few days later, the Minneapolis mayor asked the state to classify license scan data as nonpublic.

 

ACLU attorney Fritz Mulhauser warned last summer that, within a few years, police will be able to use license scan records to determine whether a particular vehicle "has been spotted at a specific church, union hall, bar, political party headquarters, abortion clinic, strip club, or any number of other locations a driver might wish to keep private."

 

But many law enforcement officials say they are just starting to tap the potential of license plate scanners.

 

"If anything, we're not using ALPR enough," said Medford's Chief Leo Sacco, who would like to deploy the scanners 24 hours a day on all of his cruisers.

 

Massachusetts public safety officials are trying to create a central repository of license scans similar to a system in Maryland where all 262 scanner-equipped cruisers feed data to the state. In 2011, the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security handed out $750,000 in federal grants for 43 police departments to buy scanners with the understanding that all scan results would be shared.

 

The bill introduced on Beacon Hill by Senator Cynthia Creem and Representative Jonathan Hecht would allow police to share scan results for law enforcement purposes, but it would require every agency to develop formal policies that protect privacy. It would also set statewide standards for preserving camera scanner data and require regular reports to the state on how departments are using their scanners.

 

Currently, even the state Executive Office of Public Safety lacks a formal policy governing the use of its planned database, while 36 police departments out of the 53 using automated license readers have no written policies, the survey found. The Massachusetts State Police are currently developing a policy for the department's 20 camera scanners.

 

Even departments that do have formal license-reading policies differ widely on specifics such as whether the collected data must be released to the public in response to a written request; Wakefield and Revere say no; many others use vague language that leaves it unclear.

 

Likewise, the police differ widely on how long they can retain license scans not connected to an ongoing investigation or law enforcement action, ranging from as little as 14 days in Somerville and Brookline to indefinitely in Milford.

 

The town of Brookline, police, and selectmen have worked with the ACLU to develop perhaps the most detailed policies in the state.

 

Brookline's policy prohibits using camera scanners to intimidate or harass, to infringe free speech, or to conduct discriminatory surveillance based on race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or other protected characteristics. The Brookline policy also requires civilian oversight and biannual audits for the town's camera scanner system, which will be online within the next two months, according to Police Chief Daniel O'Leary.

 

Though police have concerns about provisions in the Creem-Hecht bill — particularly the proposed 48-hour limit on saving license scans — some law enforcement officials say they can see a role for the state in setting standards on the technology.

 

"Some departments are keeping the data forever, others seem to be dumping it every 20 minutes," said Peabody Police Chief Robert Champagne, who said his department has yet to set a limit on retaining its license scans.

 

Hecht, who represents parts of Cambridge and Watertown, said the important thing is to get people talking about the potential pitfalls of the new technology — and avoid them.

 

"Technology is rapidly moving ahead in terms of our ability to gather information about people," said Hecht. "We need to have a conversation about how to balance legitimate uses . . . with protecting people's legitimate expectation of privacy."

 

This investigation was done for the Globe in collaboration with MuckRock, a Boston-based company that specializes in obtaining government documents through records requests. It was supported by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

 

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ATF Seeks 'Massive' Database For Faster Investigations

By Gerry Smith — Monday, April 8th, 2013; 3:28 p.m. 'The Huffington Post' / New York, NY

 

 

The federal agency tasked with regulating firearms wants a new weapon in its investigative arsenal: Big Data.

 

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is seeking proposals for "a massive online data repository system" that could allow agents to make faster connections between suspects' names, social security numbers, telephone numbers and utility bills, according to a request issued last month.

 

The ATF already uses such databases, but it analyzes the data largely by hand, "resulting in longer turnaround times on important information and intelligence research and analysis requests," the agency said. It's also difficult for law enforcement to use the information effectively because it's not connected in a single database, according to Mark Tanner, president of Law Enforcement and Intelligence Consulting, which helps tech companies meet the needs of federal agencies.

 

Computing power would dramatically reduce the amount of time it takes federal agents to link pieces of information on suspects, Tanner said.

 

Police departments across the country are using data analytics to predict where a crime is likely to occur and deploy resources to those areas. The FBI is creating a database that will connect suspects to crimes using not just fingerprints, but also palm prints, iris scans and images of faces. Several companies are competing in the market to help create these databases, including IBM, Palantir and Textron Systems, Tanner said.

 

The ATF has faced mounting criticism for using what many consider to be antiquated technology. Critics have called its system of tracking gun sales "horse and buggy" technology and "a national embarrassment." The agency is prohibited from creating a federal registry of gun transactions. Instead, when federal agents want to trace the source of gun sales, they must search records on microfilm, a process that can take as long as five days, according to Information Week.

 

ATF spokeswoman Ginger Colbrun said the new database would not be used to analyze gun purchases, but instead would be used to gather publicly-available data without requiring agents to go to multiple sources.

 

While some law enforcement agencies are seeking technology to find patterns in existing data, others are clamoring for access to even more data on the web. New York police officials have said they want to scour the web for chatter that could identify a gunman to prevent another mass shooting. In a speech last month, the FBI's general counsel said the bureau's "top priority" in 2013 is to modernize surveillance law so that authorities can monitor in real time the web activities of Americans suspected of committing crimes.

 

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Guns and Money
By DOROTHY SAMUELS — Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 'The New York Times'

 

 

On Wednesday, President Obama will unveil his first budget proposal since the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. One thing to look for is whether he will challenge the quiet weakening of gun enforcement embedded in the recently signed Continuing Resolution, the stopgap spending plan for the second half of this fiscal year.

 

Even with gun safety measures headed to the Senate floor, and with memories of the slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School still fresh, House and Senate enablers of the gun lobby succeeded in including a half dozen provisions in the C.R., extending crippling restrictions on the ability of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to combat illegal guns.

 

Perhaps the most dangerous of these legislative riders, which have been renewed separately at various points, prohibits the A.T.F. from requiring federally licensed firearms dealers to conduct annual inventories to ensure they have not lost guns or had them stolen. Left to stand, it would undermine any new measure against gun trafficking that Congress might pass.

 

Among the other harmful gun measures in the C.R. is one preventing the Bureau from using gun sales data to "draw broad conclusions about firearms-related crimes," and another establishing a broad definition of "antique" guns that can be imported into the U.S. outside of normal regulations.

 

"The N.R.A. keeps saying we should enforce the gun laws on the books, but it keeps inserting riders to appropriations bills that make it increasingly hard for federal agencies to carry out their policing task," said Arkadi Gerney, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and the co-author of a March 19 report detailing the practice.

 

Shortly after the report's publication, 43 House Democrats sent a letter to the Office of Management and Budget urging exclusion of all existing riders that limit the federal government's ability to enforce gun laws and combat gun crime.

 

Whether the White House will take the Democrats' advice remains to be seen. But it should. Congressional proponents of the risky provisions should be forced to justify their handiwork in public, and have to fight to retain them in current negotiations over stronger gun laws.

 

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Michael Bloomberg group's gun-control scorecard will give lawmakers letter grades

By Philip Rucker — Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 'The Washington Post' / Washington, DC

 

 

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, one of the nation's most committed and deep-pocketed gun-control proponents, is ratcheting up pressure on lawmakers by launching a new system to grade them based on their votes and statements on gun issues.

 

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the nonprofit group financed by Bloomberg (I), will unveil a scoring system Tuesday to award lawmakers grades of A through F, much like the National Rifle Association, which has derived much of its power by deploying letter rankings against politicians at election time. The group's strategists briefed The Washington Post on the plans ahead of Tuesday's announcement.

 

"For decades, the NRA has done an admirable job of tracking to minute detail how members of Congress stand on gun bills. We've simply decided to do the same," said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which is chaired by Bloomberg and is made up of more than 900 mayors from across the country.

 

This is Bloomberg's latest move to establish his organization as a counterweight to the influential NRA and to create legislative momentum on Capitol Hill around President Obama's proposals to toughen the nation's gun laws.

 

Mayors Against Illegal Guns will start airing a 60-second ad on Tuesday featuring Neil Heslin, whose son, Jesse Lewis, was killed in December's elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn. The group is spending more than $1 million to air the ad on cable news in Washington and on television stations in 10 targeted states, officials said.

 

The group is targeting Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Daniel Coats (R-Ind.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.).

 

The group also this week will begin airing a new television ad statewide in Pennsylvania focused on Toomey, who quietly has been negotiating on a compromise on expanding background checks with Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.). The ad highlights Toomey's past statements in support of the idea and urges Pennsylvanians to call his office to "demand action" when a background-check bill comes up for a vote in coming days.

 

The group's new ratings system would produce a scorecard for senators and representatives that could serve as a guide for voters as well as campaign donors heading into the 2014 midterm elections and in future campaign cycles.

 

Glaze outlined a sophisticated algorithm that would weigh lawmakers' votes on gun bills as well as their public statements and other actions to issue overall letter grades.

 

"Not every member can vote for every bill, but if not, there are other things they can and should be doing, and we will have our eye out for those as well," Glaze said.

 

A good grade could reward a vulnerable lawmaker for backing tougher gun laws, the thinking goes, while a poor grade would publicly shame a politician who votes against popular ideas such as universal background checks.

 

Bloomberg, the billionaire mayor, has said he would tap his personal fortune to finance television ad campaigns defending lawmakers who vote for gun-control measures and attacking those who do not.

 

Earlier this year, Bloomberg spent more than $2 million on an ad blitz for a special primary election in an Illinois congressional district to deny the seat to NRA-backed former congresswoman Debbie Halvorson, a Democrat.

 

The Mayors Against Illegal Guns scoring system was developed in part because major political donors who support gun control have been seeking guidance about how to direct their contributions in upcoming election cycles, Glaze said.

 

Some influential Democratic benefactors, including businessman Kenneth Lerer and technology entrepreneur David Bohnett, have warned publicly that they will not write another check to Senate Democrats who do not vote to expand background checks.

 

"The appetite for information about where members are is very high," Glaze said. Of the scorecard, he added: "We don't intend that this will be a tree falling in the forest. We intend for people to have all the information they need to make sound voting and political-contribution decisions."

 

The grading system is most directly a threat to Democrats from conservative states such as Arkansas, Montana and North Carolina who could feel compelled to vote against some gun measures because of the large number of gun owners in their states yet rely on donations from liberal donors in places such as California and New York to fuel their campaigns.

 

It is too soon to know whether Bloomberg's new and untested scorecard will have the same impact as the NRA's. For decades, Republicans as well as Democrats from more conservative states — including Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) — have campaigned on their "A" ratings from the NRA.

 

"The reason NRA scorecards are effective is that they have the weight of approximately 5 million dues-paying members and tens of millions of other supporters behind them," NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said. In a dig at Bloomberg, he added, "We'll take that over the purse of one billionaire any day of the week and twice on Sunday."

 

Mayors Against Illegal Guns has been airing television ads in 10 key states for two weeks, and the results are uncertain. The group is trying to pressure lawmakers to vote for expanding background checks, but a deal in the Senate has proved elusive and many of the targeted senators have been circumspect about their positions.

 

"It is close to impossible to get a senator who is the subject of an ad to tell you whether it helps or it hurts," Glaze said. "I think the proof will be in what the Senate ends up producing."

 

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Invoking Newtown Dead, Obama Presses Gun Laws

By PETER APPLEBOME and JONATHAN WEISMAN — Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 'The New York Times'

 

 

HARTFORD — President Obama came here on Monday before a roaring, enthusiastic crowd to remember the tragedy of 20 children and 6 educators slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School and put new pressure on a recalcitrant Congress to honor them with gun-control legislation.

 

In an impassioned speech that at times took on the tone of a campaign rally, Mr. Obama told an audience of 3,100 at the University of Hartford that he came to Connecticut to ensure that the deaths in the school in Newtown would not recede and to remind Americans how important their voice is as the gun debates unfold.

 

"If you're an American who wants to do something to prevent more families from knowing the immeasurable anguish that these families here have known, then we have to act," Mr. Obama said. "Now's the time to get engaged. Now's the time to get involved. Now's the time to push back on fear and frustration and misinformation. Now's the time for everybody to make their voices heard, from every statehouse to the corridors of Congress."

 

But as Mr. Obama spoke, Republicans on Capitol Hill were threatening to prevent a gun-control measure from even coming up for debate.

 

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, announced Monday that he would join at least 13 other Republicans who have vowed to block consideration of gun legislation passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee and assembled by the Democratic leadership. That effectively made the threatened filibuster a test of Republican unity.

 

Mr. McConnell made his announcement as the Senate returned from recess and the legislative struggle over new gun safety legislation entered a critical phase. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, took steps to force a vote to start a broad review of gun-control proposals and accused those threatening a filibuster of "blatant obstruction," even as they showed no signs of backing down.

 

"Shame on them," said Mr. Reid, a Democrat.

 

Mr. Obama spoke in Hartford less than a week after the Connecticut General Assembly passed a sweeping package of gun and mental health legislation with bipartisan support.

 

The president was introduced by Nicole Hockley, whose first-grade son, Dylan, was killed at Sandy Hook. She recalled her life with her two sons before the tragedy and said she no longer had the option of turning away from the effects of gun violence. She said she was convinced that she and others had approached Connecticut lawmakers with the "love and logic" that persuaded them to pass the bill. She believed that approach could work with Congress, she said.

 

"If you want to protect your children, if you want to avoid this loss, you will not turn away either," Ms. Hockley said. "Do something before our tragedy becomes your tragedy."

 

Mr. Obama, who last visited Connecticut for a raw and emotional memorial shortly after the Dec. 14 shootings in Newtown, met again with the victims' relatives before his speech. Afterward about a dozen family members left with him from Connecticut on Air Force One to make their case in Washington to members of Congress this week.

 

Mr. Obama, who was wearing a green Newtown bracelet, made reference in his speech to the brutal cases of recent mass violence from Aurora, Colo., to Virginia Tech. He pushed for a broad agenda that would include universal background checks for gun buyers, restraints on gun trafficking and a ban on assault weapons. But he focused on the background checks, which he said were supported by 90 percent of Americans. "There's only one thing that can stand in the way of change that just about everybody agrees on, and that's politics in Washington," he said.

 

Mr. Obama, who included remarks respectful of gun owners, said "common-sense" gun measures could be enacted that would acknowledge the rights of gun owners and the Second Amendment. But he said that at the very least, Newtown and similar tragedies demanded a vote in Congress on gun control issues.

 

"If our democracy's working the way it's supposed to and 90 percent of the American people agree on something, in the wake of a tragedy, you'd think this would not be a heavy lift," Mr. Obama said. "And yet some folks back in Washington are already floating the idea that they may use political stunts to prevent votes on any of these reforms. Think about that.

 

"They're not just saying they'll vote no on ideas that almost all Americans support," he said. "They're saying they'll do everything they can to even prevent any votes on these provisions. They're saying your opinion doesn't matter, and that's not right."

 

Still, Democrats said they were encouraged that senior Republicans, including Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, had indicated that a filibuster of gun legislation would be a mistake.

 

Connecticut has enormous symbolism in almost every way in the gun debate. Beyond the tragedy, the state legislature last week passed a major package of new gun laws, joining states — including Colorado, Maryland and New York — that have moved to enact strong gun legislation as efforts have largely stalled in Washington. But bipartisan talks on Capitol Hill were continuing in an attempt to reach a compromise on background checks that could lead to a breakthrough.

 

The bills before Congress would make penalties for buying guns illegally more onerous, address trafficking, and greatly expand the number of sales covered by background checks, which gun control advocates see as an essential component. The fight over background checks has been about the balance between how far to expand the current checks at licensed dealers and conservatives' fears over a paper trail that they insist could lead to a de facto national gun registry.

 

Mr. Obama said, as he has in the past, that the day of the Newtown massacre was the toughest of his presidency. He said that a failure to respond on gun issues would be tough, too, but that he believed the nation was not as divided as its political culture could seem.

 

"We have to believe that every once in a while we set politics aside, and just do what's right," Mr. Obama said.

 

After the speech, as the Newtown family members boarded Air Force One, one mother wiped away tears and another held up a notebook. On it were written two words: "Love Wins."

 

When the president's plane landed at Joint Base Andrews near Washington, Mr. Obama could be seen through its windows gathered with the families. A White House official said he was telling them where matters stood in Congress ahead of their lobbying this week.

 

Then they exited together, the president standing at the portal as each passed to descend the Air Force One stairs. He returned to the White House by helicopter; they were driven in government vans to Washington.

 

 

Peter Applebome reported from Hartford, and Jonathan Weisman from Washington. Jackie Calmes contributed reporting from Hartford, and Jennifer Steinhauer from Washington.

 

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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia Police Department Ponders How to Record Interrogations

By Ted Gest — Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 'The John Jay College of Criminal Justice Crime & Justice News' / Washington, DC

 

 

Defense lawyers tell the Philadelphia Daily News that Philadelphia should join the estimated 850 U.S. police departments that videotape interrogations. "It's foolish that they don't videotape," said defense lawyer Samuel Stretton. "The only reason I can surmise is they do not want anyone to see the give-and-take that results in the statements."

 

The blackout in interrogation rooms undermines the credibility of criminal trials and the police department, legal experts say. "The inference is they are using techniques that would be abhorrent to the public and to judges," said lawyer Ronald Greenblatt, chairman of the Philadelphia chapter of the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

 

Police spokesman Lt. John Stanford said Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey supports recording interrogations. The department is in the "infancy stages" of working with the city and others on a new policy for recording interrogations that will spell out how suspects and witnesses are to be treated, Stanford said.

 

Logistics, money, and a state law that requires that permission be obtained from those being recorded are hampering the department's goal, he said.

 

Philadelphia Daily News:  http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20130409_Should_Philadelphia_record_interrogations_.html

 

 

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Seattle, Washington

Seattle Police Chief John Diaz retiring

By Steve Miletich — Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 'The Seattle Times' / Seattle, WA

 

 

UPDATE:  In a one-on-one interview in his office at police headquarters on Monday afternoon, Seattle Police Chief John Diaz said he and Mayor Mike McGinn have been talking about his retirement for the past couple months. He said he has no immediate plans other than enjoying the summer with his family and maybe getting some fly fishing in, but acknowledged he won't be taking up a hobby or spending his days at home.

 

"It's just not me," said Diaz, whose first priority is to create more balance in his life.

 

"You can't let work overwhelm your entire life and frankly, it has," he said.

 

While Diaz acknowledged criticism of his quiet leadership style, he said he was raised to listen more than talk.

 

"You are who you are at the end of the day. There's no right way or wrong way to be a leader," he said. "…I always tried to make my decisions based on what I believed was right…I will let history decide if I was right or wrong."

 

ORIGINAL POST:  Chief John Diaz, who oversaw the Seattle Police Department for three tumultuous years, announced today he is stepping down.

 

"This has been a profession that I truly believe in," he said during a news conference. His retirement takes effect in May.

 

Assistant Chief Jim Pugel will be interim chief, Mayor Mike McGinn said. Pugel has been with the department since 1983.

 

Diaz, 55, was serving as interim chief when he was appointed chief by McGinn in June 2010. He replaced Gil Kerlikowske, who left Seattle to become drug czar in the Obama administration.

 

Diaz has been under close scrutiny since the Department of Justice (DOJ) found in December 2011  that Seattle police officers had engaged in a pattern and practice of excessive force and displayed evidence of biased policing. The DOJ and the City of Seattle reached a settlement in July requiring the department to adopt sweeping reforms.

 

"We've gone through some challenges," he said during the news conference.

 

Diaz has embraced the need for reform while resisting some elements of the changes, including the appointment of Merrick Bobb as the independent federal monitor overseeing the reforms and the scope of Bobb's monitoring plan.

 

Diaz, who has been with the Seattle Police Department for more than 30 years, cited the DOJ settlement agreement and monitoring plan, a drop in the city's crime rate and the "innovative" measures the department has undertaken to combat crime in deciding to retire now.

 

"This is the time to go," he said.

 

The Police Department also came under sharp criticism last week, when an outside review found the department had inadequately prepared for last year's May Day protests that led to widespread vandalism and violence.

 

Also, last week, another outside report sharply criticized the Police Department over its handling of a high-profile physical confrontation between a veteran officer and a man last summer. The report, commissioned by the City Attorney's Office, said that the ability to charge the officer with assault had been hampered because the department botched the investigation into the incident.

 

"He had a quiet leadership style that can be both very effective and ineffective," Councilmember Bruce Harrell said this morning.

 

Diaz, who is Latino, was Seattle's first minority chief.

 

He was appointed chief at a time when the department was under fire for several high-profile incidents involving officers and minority citizens. Many of the incidents were caught on video: one showing two Seattle officers stomping a prone Latino man; another involving a white cop slugging a 17-year-old black girl over a jaywalking incident. Both went viral, making national news.

 

Before he was named chief, Diaz was deputy chief, and assistant chief commanding the Special Operations Bureau. He also worked in the East Precinct as a sergeant, lieutenant and captain, and from 1995 to 2000 Diaz served as the precinct captain, according to the department's website.

 

Other command assignments have included the internal-investigation, gang and violent-crimes sections. Diaz also spent five years working as patrol officer in the South Precinct before being promoted to sergeant. He served the Army from 1977 to 1980 as a criminal investigator.

 

He is a San Francisco native. His wife, Linda Diaz, is a Seattle police detective. They have three children.

 

During the news conference, Diaz credited McGinn for giving him the opportunity to serve as chief.

 

"To the men and women of the Seattle Police Department, you have shown me that you're going to get through it and do it well," he said. "I leave here pretty proud of my career here."

 

Chris Stearns, chairman of the Seattle Human Rights Commission, released the following statement on Diaz's retirement:

 

"The Seattle Human Rights Commission has worked with Chief John Diaz for a number of years, starting with the Angel Rosenthal punching, the Shandy Cobane beating, and the John T. Williams shooting.  While we have not always been in agreement with SPD, we have been grateful for the manner in which Chief Diaz led through his humility and for his willingness to reach out to the many communities affected by SPD actions during his tenure."

 

City Attorney Pete Holmes issued a statement which read, in part: "He has helped prepare SPD for the reform effort now under way, and richly deserves some R&R before pursuing the next chapter in his life. I hope he will remain involved in police reform efforts throughout the country. I look forward to working with Interim Chief Jim Pugel to continue to advance these critical reforms and to ensure that public safety remains our first priority for Seattle."

 

Pugel began his career with the Seattle Police Department as a volunteer reserve officer in 1981, according to the department's website. He was hired as a police officer in January 1983 and was promoted to sergeant in January 1990.

 

Pugel was promoted to lieutenant in January 1994 and served as both a watch commander and an operations lieutenant in the East Precinct before commanding the department's Sexual Assault Unit. He was promoted to assistant chief in July 2000.

 

Pugel graduated from the University of Washington.

 

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Immigration Enforcement  /  Illegal Aliens

 

ICE Agrees to New Regulations in Warrantless Raid Settlement

By Manuel E. Avendaño (El Diario La Prensa ) — Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 'The John Jay College of Criminal Justice Crime & Justice Crime Report' / New York, NY

 

 

This post originally appeared in Voices of New York, by way of El Diario La Prensa. Voices of New York curates journalism from community and ethnic publications and when necessary translates the work into English.

 

Twenty-two Latinos will receive compensation for damages from a settlement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a result of illegal raids the agency carried out on Long Island in 2006 and 2007.

 

The $1 million settlement also requires ICE to adopt new regulations nationally that will prevent their agents from entering private homes without a search warrant.

 

The lawsuit, known as Adriana Aguilar et al. v. ICE, was filed on behalf of 22 New Yorkers including men, women, children, citizens, permanent legal residents, and others. It was brought to court as a result of violent early morning raids conducted by immigration authorities; knocking doors and demanding entry to homes in front of frightened occupants.

 

The raids took place in Suffolk and Nassau Counties on Long Island, and also in the town of Mount Kisco in Westchester County.

 

"Immigrants across the country can stand up and cheer for what has been accomplished by this settlement," said Juan Cartagena, president of LatinoJustice PRLDEF. "No longer will ICE agents have free rein to invade the homes of immigrants, especially Latino immigrants, and be as abusive as they want without any worry that they might be reprimanded."

 

Adriana Aguilar, a 35-year-old Ecuadorean woman whose current name is Adriana León, was the victim who headed the lawsuit. The case was represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the law firm Winston & Strawn and LatinoJustice.

 

León was "very content and proud of the settlement," but she hasn't forgotten the horrifying ordeal that she went through with her young children at her home in Suffolk.

 

"My husband had left for work at 2 a.m. I only heard very loud yelling, everything was dark and the first thing that came to mind was an accident or that the house was on fire. I was very confused," said León.

 

"All of a sudden one of these men appeared at the foot of my bed. He pulled the covers off me and told me to leave the room. I was with my 4-year-old child who stayed in the room and cried. They didn't say who they were or what they were doing in my house and they didn't show any search warrant."

 

After that painful experience, León and her three children lived in constant fear despite all of them being American citizens.

 

"My son didn't want to sleep and he always remembers that moment. My daughters were afraid to go to school. We locked the doors tightly; we were scared they would return the same way they did before."

 

Peggy de la Rosa, a Dominican woman who is also an American citizen, said her three children remain traumatized from the two times immigration agents raided her home, in 2006 and 2007.

 

Christopher Jiménez, who was 17 at the time, was the one who opened the door when he heard the ICE agents knocking.

 

"They pushed me and I fell on the stairs," he said. "The worst thing was that they had already done the same thing a year before and we told them that we didn't know the man they were looking for. They didn't care."

 

Ghita Schwarz, the lead counsel for the case and an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, said she felt "proud of what our plaintiffs have achieved" and it has been proven that "ICE must follow the law like everyone else, and that all people – whether they are immigrants, citizens, or residents – have the same right to be safe in their own homes."

 

 

Changes taking effect on April 4:


• ICE agents will have to gain permission to enter and investigate a home, and must communicate with the residents in their native language whenever possible.

 

• The teams that conduct raids must have Spanish-speaking agents who can ask for permission to enter when the residents are from a Spanish-speaking country.

 

• At the same time, agents must obtain consent in order to enter other parts of a home, such as a backyard.

 

• ICE agents will not be able to carry out any type of precautionary inspection of a home without genuinely suspecting danger.

 

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Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 'The New York Times' Editorial:

When ICE Ran Amok

 

 

In a series of raids in suburban New York in 2006 and 2007, agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement burst into private homes in the dead of night, without warrants, looking for undocumented immigrants, often in the wrong houses. They pounded on doors, terrorized innocent residents, ineptly drew guns on police officers who were supposed to be their partners, and found hardly any of the gang members they were hunting. It was a stunning display of aggression and incompetence.

 

It took six years, but the lawsuit filed after the raids finally ended last week, with a settlement approved by a federal district judge in New York. Under the agreement, ICE agents will now have to honor some elementary norms of the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches. Its agents will be forbidden to invade private homes without "a reasonable, articulable suspicion of danger." When they have no warrant and need consent to enter a private home, they will have to ask permission in a language the resident understands, "whenever feasible." They must also get permission to enter yards and other private areas adjoining homes. The federal government will pay $1 million in damages and fees, including $36,000 to each of 22 plaintiffs.

 

The raids, part of a series of ICE home invasions in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and other states, were outrageous, but so was some of the reaction on Long Island, where several victims lived. The Nassau County police commissioner, Lawrence Mulvey, rightly condemned the botched "cowboy" operation. But in Suffolk County, where County Executive Steve Levy was stoking a climate of intolerance against immigrants, his police commissioner, Richard Dormer, defended ICE, even though homes in Suffolk had been invaded and children traumatized by mistake.

 

George W. Bush's administration was a bad time for immigration enforcement run amok. Six years is a long time to wait to undo some of the damage done in those raids. But the era of excess is not over. President Obama's administration has handled enforcement more quietly, but it has doggedly outdone its predecessor in sheer magnitude — 400,000 deportations a year, a record pace that is not letting up.

 

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Drug Wars

Dominican drug enforcement director extradited to U.S.

By: Jim Kouri — Monday, April 8th, 2013 'The Examiner.Com'

 

 

A former director of the Dominican Republic's drug enforcement agency was extradited to the U.S. to face drug trafficking charges, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Saturday.

 

Former Dominican Navy Admiral Francisco Hiraldo is scheduled for prosecution in federal court in New York City. U.S. officials have accused the 55-year-old law enforcement chief of protecting the very people he was supposed to arrest -- drug traffickers -- for close to 10 years.

 

According to drug enforcement expert Douglas Tenzas, Hiraldo is suspected of helping many shipments of cocaine and other illegal drugs to pass through the Dominican Republic in return for payments made to him of at least $100,000 per cargo shipment.

 

Tenzas stated that the DEA also accuses him of receiving 1,500 pounds of cocaine as payment for his services sometime in 2008.

 

Hiraldo repeatedly told law enforcement, government officials and the news media in his home country that he's completely innocent and he said he agreed to be extradited, according to the DEA.

 

DEA officials said on Saturday that Hiraldo was quietly turned over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration late Friday night and landed in New York early Saturday morning.

 

Hiraldo, a popular retired Navy admiral and former director of operations for the Dominican National Drug Control Agency, originally refused to sign the extradition papers and vowed fight the charges with the help of an unnamed defense attorney from the United States.

 

His attorney in the Dominican Republic, Ramon Pina, said that Hiraldo continues to claim his innocence and that he'll fight the allegations in the U.S. courts.

 

The Dominican attorney general's office has alleged that Hiraldo was able to transport drugs to the United States independent of the Mexican and Central American cartels and the Colombian and Dominican drug ring.

 

Drug gangs in the Dominican Republic have become major players in narcotics transport for South American drugs shipped to Europe and the U.S.

 

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                                                          Mike Bosak

 

 

 

 

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