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National
News Sources
San
Antonio Express: Cities face troubles in hiring cops
Mercury
News:Southern California Man Arrested for Pointing Laser at Police Helicopter
NLEOMF:
2006 is Deadly Thus Far for Law Enforcement
San
Antonio Express News: 03-04-06: Cop Shooting Defended
The
San Jose Mercury News 02-08-06: LA stops identifying police officers involved
in shootings
The
LA TIMES 02-07-06: Police Panel Scraps ID Policy
Dallas
Morning News 02-03-06: Dallas police struggle to recruit officers
The
Athens News 02-02-06: New Ohio Law Eases Residency Rules
Houston
Chronicle 01-17-06: Police enhance recruiting efforts
Houston
Chronicle 01-16-06: Many youths looking beyond old-fashioned police work
Dallas
Morning News 01-01-06: Money makes FW safer than Dallas
New
York Times 12-28-05: Police Forces, Their Ranks Thin, Offer Bonuses, Bounties
and More?
LA
Times 12-12-05: Deputies Not Keeping Pace With L.A. Gangs
Dallas
Morning News 12-05-05: Dallas Area Interfaith wants more officers on city streets
Houston
Chronicle
12-03-05: Hurtt's plan: More police on the streets
Star-Telegram
(Fort Worth) - 12-02-05: Police often confront the unexpected
Star-Telegram
(Fort Worth) - 12-02-05: Fort Worth officer pronounced dead
Legal
Digest: 11-25-05: Is Force Excessive?
The
Associated Press 11-14-05: Police Aggressively Recruit Job Candidates
USA
Today: 11-09-05: Police Recruits in Heavy Demand
USA
Today: 11-09-05: Cops put out a dragnet - for more cops
back to top
National NEWS STORIES & OTHER NEWS SOURCES
Police Finding It Hard to Fill Jobs
Forces
Use Perks And Alter Standards
By John Pomfret
Washington Post Staff
Writer
Monday, March 27, 2006; A01 LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Police departments
around the country are contending with a shortage of officers and trying to lure
new applicants with signing bonuses, eased standards, house down payments and
extra vacation time. From this seaside Southern California city to Washington's
suburbs, more than 80 percent of the nation's 17,000 law enforcement agencies,
big and small, have vacancies that many can't fill, police officials estimate. "I
was just at a conference of police chiefs," said William Bratton, the chief
of police in Los Angeles, which has 720 openings. "It was all everybody was
talking about." Police officials and researchers say a confluence of
demographic changes and social trends have precipitated the shortage. The wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan have siphoned off public-service-minded people to the
military. Hundreds of law enforcement officers have handed in their badges to
take higher-paying positions in the booming homeland security industry. And
each year an increasingly large number of baby-boomer officers, hired in the 1970s,
retires. The labor pool in the next generation is smaller, further cutting the
number of prospective applicants. The younger generation is better educated
than its predecessor, so a career in policing, where the average starting salary
is $32,000, is not as attractive as it was before. Prince William, Fairfax
and Loudoun counties all have recently instituted programs -- signing bonuses,
bounties for county employees recommending successful candidates, and pay increases
-- designed to keep their police departments intact. In the District, officials
said they have noticed increased competition for applicants but are not facing
a shortage. But Prince George's County began a $1 million advertising campaign
last summer touting police work as exciting and challenging in the hope of boosting
its chronically understaffed ranks. The force is 60 officers short of its authorized
complement of 1,420 officers. Elsewhere, departments have dropped their
zero-tolerance policy on drug use and past gang association, eased restrictions
on applicants with bad credit ratings, and tweaked physical requirements to make
room for more female candidates or smaller male candidates, police officials said.
Departments also offer crash courses in reading and remedial English for the written
parts of the entrance exam, and provide strength and agility coaches for the physical
part -- all of which have raised concerns about how qualified some of the new
personnel will be. "We no longer say if you've smoked marijuana five
times, you can't be in the LAPD," said Cmdr. Kenneth Garner, who runs recruitment
for the Los Angeles Police Department. "If we did that, I'd be sitting in
this office by myself. But we really take a hard look at honesty." In
the past, some recruitment drives have resulted in questionable hiring. In 1989
and 1990, the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, seeking to quell a crime wave,
mistakenly hired numerous gang members and people with substantial criminal histories
and drug and credit problems. Some were later implicated in questionable police
shootings. Experts said that while they hope the inherently conservative
nature of law enforcement agencies will protect against a slew of bad hires, there
is a concern that with a smaller pool of applicants, less-qualified people are
becoming police officers. "That is clearly a concern, and police chiefs
are very uneasy about that possibility," said Hubert Williams, president
of the Police Foundation, a law enforcement advocacy group. "The question
is, do we keep our radio cars empty or hire people who a few years ago we wouldn't
have hired? It is very problematic." Williams said that some departments
are hiring applicants with criminal records. "A few years ago, an arrest
record was a deal breaker," he said. "Now departments are asking whether
someone is salvageable." To fill the void, police recruiters are fanning
out across the country. When layoffs were announced in the automotive industry
in Detroit, recruiters flocked there to try to sign up furloughed assembly-line
workers. Police recruiters comb the beaches of Florida, California and Texas during
spring break and conduct ad campaigns -- on billboards, in newspapers, on radio
and TV -- at a level unprecedented in the history of U.S. policing. Police
officials say the shortage of police officers has hit law enforcement agencies
west of the Mississippi particularly hard because they historically have carried
smaller staffs. For example, New York City has twice as many people as Los Angeles
but nearly four times as many police -- about 37,000, compared with L.A.'s 9,600
-- and last week announced plans to hire 800 more. In Texas, the need for
law enforcement officers is so great that Dallas, Austin and Houston are in the
midst of a bidding war to hire veteran officers, with Houston recently upping
its bonus to $7,000. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, one of
the country's more aggressive recruiters, recently drew the line on tattoos, branding
and body piercing -- but left some wiggle room. If the body art can be covered
by a long-sleeved shirt and pants, then applications are still welcome. To
find new recruits, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department has offered a $500
bounty to county employees who find applicants who become deputies. The sheriff's
department, like many agencies, used to frown on transfers from other departments,
but now such lateral hires are given a signing bonus of $5,000. Mike Farrell
was lured over to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department from the San Diego
city police force in December. The six-year police veteran got $5,000 to sign,
better hours, the chance to clock more overtime and the promise of a fatter pension
when he retires. The San Diego city government is tottering toward bankruptcy,
so law enforcement recruiters from around the country, including Honolulu and
Phoenix (which is sweetening its offer with a down payment on a house), have been
picking over its force. Of Farrell's original squad of six on the city police
force, he said, only two remain. "When I first started applying, there
were 100 applicants as qualified as I was," said Farrell, 33. "Now they
are having a hard time finding 25 to 30 people like that." In past
decades, police departments were hampered by budget cuts. But now, even when there
is adequate funding, cities can't find enough cops. In 2004, voters in Oakland
approved a $9 million tax increase to hire 63 additional officers to increase
the ranks of that police department to 802. Today the city is nowhere close to
meeting its recruitment goal because there are not enough suitable applicants. "People
are not as equipped or as inclined to be police officers as in the past,"
said Barbara Raymond, who has researched the police shortage for Rand Corp. "There's
more drug use, there's a more sedentary lifestyle. People are more in debt and
overweight." "What you are really talking about is a major national
shortage in a variety of sectors -- teachers, firefighters, nurses and police
officers," said Williams, the Police Foundation president. "Corporate
America can move across the world to find people to work in its factories. But
there are some things that you can't outsource." And unlike the nursing industry,
which has attracted thousands of overseas applicants to the United States, most,
if not all, police departments require candidates to be U.S. citizens. Policing
also has changed, Raymond noted in her report for Rand. The job is far from the
adrenaline-packed hook 'em and book 'em, car chase stereotype of the past. As
cities around the nation become more culturally diverse and police departments
embrace community policing tactics, officers are often pushed to deal with the
root causes of crime, becoming more social worker than cop. The events of
Sept. 11, 2001, have put new stresses on police work. In Long Beach, for example,
the terrorist attacks prompted the department of 1,000 officers to create its
first counterterrorism unit and a special port unit. To do it, Long Beach reduced
foot patrols, cut staffing in the narcotics division and switched most officers
from two-person to one-person patrol cars. There are concerns, said Elaine
Deck, a researcher at the International Association of Chiefs of Police, that
staffing changes and shortages could affect public safety and the well-being of
law enforcement officers. The LAPD, for example, is too short-staffed to investigate
complaints against its officers, so that many complaints from 2005 may not result
in punishment until this year. "When you have single officers in vehicles,
a lack of backup, slower response time, cuts in prevention programs and fewer
school resource officers, things obviously could be affected," Deck said.
Also, with fewer recruits entering the system and a large number of veterans exiting,
officers' street knowledge -- critical to effective law enforcement -- is evaporating.
It used to take 10 years to make sergeant. Now in many bigger departments, people
are getting promotions after only two.
The
Dallas Morning News
Half of officers let go by chief back on
force
back to top
Dallas: 6 others under appeal 7 months after Kunkle's housecleaning
01:04 AM CST on Friday, January 19, 2007
By TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning
News Over two weeks in June, Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle fired 12
officers in what was billed as an unprecedented housecleaning aimed at cleaning
up the department's image and creating more accountability within its ranks. The
chief even ordered his roughly 3,000 police officers to watch a recording of a
news conference in which he explained his decisions. More than seven months
later, half of them are back on the force. The other six firings remain
under appeal. Chief Kunkle says some of the reinstatements are evidence
of flaws in the appeals process, something that previous chiefs have complained
about in public and private. Also Online
WFAA-TV's Rebecca Lopez reports
But attorneys for the officers, the head of the largest police association
in Dallas and one of the reinstated officers view the reinstatements as evidence
that the chief, in some cases, rushed to judgment and meted out punishments that
were too harsh for the alleged transgressions. Of those reinstated, three
were given back their jobs by assistant city mangers. One got his job back after
being acquitted by a jury on an indecent exposure charge. Another was reinstated
because of a paperwork error. The sixth officer was told Tuesday by an administrative
law judge that he could go back to work. "It was common knowledge
that these officers would get their jobs back," Sgt. Bob Crider said. "A
lot of the officers lost faith in him over what he did." Sgt. Crider
was fired in June for failing to tell his supervisor that other officers had threatened
to embarrass a TV reporter who was critical of the department. Sgt. Crider,
who did not hear the threat, did report the comments to the reporter. Chief
Kunkle concedes that others might see some of the firings as too harsh, such as
the firing of Sgt. Crider or a police sergeant who sent a taunting, anonymous
e-mail to a neighborhood activist from a private account on a city computer. "Depending
on how you interpret what happened, you can tell the story in different ways,"
Chief Kunkle said Thursday. 'Defies logic'
It was the latest reinstatement
that irritated the department's top brass the most. In June, Chief Kunkle
fired Officer Johnny Rodriguez after an internal investigation concluded that
he took tires and wheels that did not belong to him from the city's auto pound.
A civilian employee told detectives that she saw him leave with two tires and
wheels. But a grand jury twice declined to indict him. On Tuesday, Administrative
Law Judge Kimberly Lonergan reinstated Officer Rodriguez with full back pay and
benefits. Her order included no explanation for her decision. She did not return
a call asking for comment. "The Johnny Rodriguez decision defies logic,"
Chief Kunkle said. He said there was no other logical explanation for how the
wheels could have ended up for sale on eBay "without him having participated
in the theft." The officer's attorney sees it differently. "Mr.
Rodriguez has always denied the allegations," said John Haring, Officer Rodriguez's
attorney. "Mr. Rodriguez is very happy about being returned to work, and
he feels vindicated." Since his reinstatement, Officer Rodriguez has
been put on special assignment in the department's communications unit. Appeal
process
For fired employees, the first step is an appeal to the city manager's
office. An assistant city manager then arranges a hearing. If the appeal is denied,
the former officer can make a second appeal to either a three-member civilian
trial board or an administrative law judge. If still not satisfied, the
fired officer can take the case to an outside venue such as state district court.
Chief Kunkle said he believed that some reinstatement decisions, such as
the one in the Officer Rodriguez case and that of another officer who was accused
of shoplifting, contradict the intent of a recent change to the city charter.
Previously, civil service trial boards and administrative law judges who
are the last stop in the city's internal appeals process had determined whether
discipline was "just and equitable." The new wording still has the "just
and equitable" language, but the city charter now dictates that the disciplinary
action must be upheld "if a reasonable person could have taken the same disciplinary
action against the employee." City officials and some legal experts
had hoped the charter change would narrow judges' discretion about reversing disciplinary
decisions during appeals. Chief Kunkle said finding work for reinstated
officers is problematic, too. "Where do we assign these officers?"
Chief Kunkle said. "If we think they've committed theft based on the evidence,
I can't put them at the auto pound or the property room or out in the public where
they'll be in people's homes and businesses frequently without any oversight."
Frederick Ahrens, an administrative law judge who reinstated the officer
accused of shoplifting, said he did not see the charter change as a significant
change. "Obviously, when you make a ruling, you got to follow whatever
laws that apply," he said. "We just look at each case and apply the
law. If the [administrative law judges] aren't following the intent or the spirit
of the law, they can always appeal." First Assistant City Manager
Ryan Evans said he understands Chief Kunkle's frustrations but he added that the
"appeals process is in place to protect individual employees and to provide
them due process." Little solace
Meanwhile, Sgt. Crider, who
was reinstated by an assistant city manager in November and received no punishment,
said he feels bitter and finds little solace in the roughly $33,000 he got in
back pay. Sgt. Crider believes that his firing was related to a federal
whistle-blower lawsuit he filed last February, in which he alleged that he was
transferred to the Dallas County Jail after speaking up about security flaws and
overtime abuse at the airport. "They fired me for supposedly not taking
immediate action on a rumor that I heard off-duty," said Sgt. Crider, who
was reassigned to the jail after his reinstatement. "It's not like someone
was planning to rob a bank and I didn't tell until afterward. With 27 years on
the department, I meant no more to the department than that. "It damages
you for the rest of your career," Sgt. Crider said. "It hinders your
ability to supervise. It ruins your reputation. It leaves a sour taste in your
mouth." Chief Kunkle says he wouldn't change anything about the firings
and would do the same thing again. "Faced by those same set of facts,
I would have done it the same way," he said. "I thought about it a long
time before I made the decision. There are good men and women who do their jobs
professionally on this department, and they should not be defined by the relatively
small number of people who don't follow the rules and engage in misconduct."
E-mail teiserer@dallasnews.com OTHER REINSTATED OFFICERS
Other
officers who were fired during the first part of June by Dallas Police Chief David
Kunkle but who have now been reinstated: Sgt. Ramon Gonzalez was fired
in early June after being accused of acting in a retaliatory manner by sending
a taunting e-mail to Avi Adelman after Mr. Adelman was ticketed for abuse of 911
when he called to report loud noise coming from a Greenville Avenue bar. The ticket
was later dismissed. Sgt. Gonzalez was reinstated in September because the officer
was not properly served with written notice of the allegations against him. He's
now assigned to a patrol station. Officer Zenoc Castro was fired in early
June after investigators found he made comments in May in front of other Love
Field unit officers threatening to embarrass a local TV reporter whose undercover
camera videotaped officers on the overnight shift spending several hours hanging
out at a private jet company. Assistant City Manager Jill Jordan overturned the
decision in November. He's now assigned to a patrol station. Sgt. Richard
Garcia was fired that same day after investigators found he failed to report misconduct
to his superiors in connection with the Love Field incident. He was present when
Officer Castro made the comments about the TV reporter. Assistant City Manager
Charles Daniels overturned the firing in December, and Sgt. Garcia is now assigned
to the unit that collects physical evidence. Senior Cpl. Steven Reideler,
a veteran homicide detective, was fired after he was accused of committing conduct
discrediting the department in connection with an incident in February in Coppell.
Detective Reideler, 47, faced a charge of indecent exposure after a woman accused
him of exposing himself in a vehicle on a residential street. He was reinstated
after an August trial in which a jury panel acquitted him. His attorney has said
that the detective often fished near the location and at the time of the alleged
incidents was sitting in the truck preparing fishing lures. He is now assigned
to a patrol station. back to top
Houston Chronicle
As Houston's rate of violent crimes rises, the number of police
officers falls.
EDITORIAL
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
A
graph charting the rise in the rate of all violent crimes in Houston for the first
half of 2006 would show a line rising relatively slowly. A graph of the number
of Houston police officers in recent years would show a line rapidly descending. Both
of those lines are heading in the wrong direction. Unless the decline in the number
of police officers is reversed, Houston risks continued increases in the rate
of violent crimes. According to figures compiled by the FBI, per capita
violent crimes in Houston rose by 5.9 percent — not quite twice the national
rate. The murder rate, however, jumped a startling 28 percent, from 158 during
the first six months of 2005 to 202 for the same period this year. During
Mayor Bill White's tenure, retirements in the veteran force have shrunk the department
by about 600 officers. At the same time, the city's population has been burgeoning,
even without the influx of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. The result: a sharp
decline in the number of officers per 1,000 residents. Police officials
point out that a vigorous overtime program has increased police presence on the
streets, and that the rate of violent crimes again is on a downward trend. This
is an argument that additional police on patrol can deter crime and therefore
the city should hire as many officers as it can afford. Unfortunately, policing
is not as attractive to young people as it once was. Competition for experienced
officers is stiff and expensive. As Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt acknowledges,
the department also needs extensive improvements to its infrastructure and technology.
These will cost many millions of dollars, although the investment might prove
cost-efficient in lowering crime rates. The first priority, however, must
be for HPD to redouble its efforts to recruit, train and deploy new officers.
If the force continues to decline at a time of swift population growth, the department
could find itself in a personnel hole from which it could not easily extricate
itself. back to top
San Antonio Express
Cities face troubles in hiring cops
Web Posted: 06/28/2006
12:00 AM CDT
Lomi Kriel
Express-News Staff Writer Police departments
around the country - including in San Antonio - are
struggling to fill their
ranks in the face of growing populations,
fluctuating city budgets and baby-boomer
retirements. Combined with a generation that's shying away from policing,
many law
enforcement authorities characterize it as a perfect storm. Consider
the numbers: Police officials estimate more than 80 percent of
the nation's
17,000 law enforcement agencies have vacancies that many
can't fill. In
Texas alone, Dallas needs another 800 officers; Houston, up to 1,200. San
Antonio is short anywhere between "300 officers on the low end to
500
on the high end," Police Chief William McManus said. Law enforcement
experts point to a variety of reasons to explain the
shortage. Police
departments are shouldering more duties, including homeland
security and immigration
control; many have officers serving in the
military. Hampered by city
budgets that fluctuate every year - San Antonio likely
will have a $21 million
surplus for the upcoming budget, but projected
multimillion-dollar deficits
loom after that - long-term planning is
difficult. Meanwhile, a law
enforcement-hiring boom in the 1960s and 1970s has
police departments facing
an exodus of retiring officers as the pool of
eligible recruits has shrunk. For
some departments, it's so bad they've resorted to advertising on
highway billboards. As
San Antonio officials meet today to see how their funding priorities
mesh
for the new budget, City Manager Sheryl Sculley said money will be
included
for more officers. The number of police, local law enforcement officials
said, simply
hasn't kept pace with a population that increased by about 111,865
people since 2000, based on U.S. Census Bureau estimates for 2005. The
Alamo
City has
1.6 officers for every 1,000 people compared to the national average
of
three. Response time up And although the city's crime rate
has stayed relatively low compared to
other large cities, the department's
average response time has slowly
crept up since 1995.
Police officials
say specialized units - particularly the Gang Detail,
Repeat Offenders Program
and Traffic Investigations - suffer when new
officers automatically go to
plug shortages in patrol. A new Crime Response Unit - launched earlier this
month and touted as a
mobile way to combine all the department's expertise
and offset some of
its manpower struggles - is supposed to target crime hotspots
around the
city for 60 days. But McManus would like to see it become permanent. The
department has been doing more with less for years, McManus said,
adding that
more officers is the difference between a "responsive police
department,
that acts on crimes after they occur, to a preventive,
proactive police department." "No
one's getting what they pay for," said Teddy Stewart, president of
the
Police Officers' Association. "We just don't have the time." Exactly
how many officers are needed is unclear. A study commissioned by SAPD in
2001 called for 500 more police
officers, but the goal never was met. A Crime
Control and Prevention
District proposed last year would have allowed for
120 new cadet and 60
new officer positions, but voters overwhelmingly shunned
the idea. McManus, who said he's evaluating his staffing needs to present
to city
officials, estimated the department needs 300 to 500 officers simply
to
be on par with the city's growth. However, it's also short about
60 positions it was authorized to fill,
and the department estimates it will
have another 87 vacancies this year
- from retirement, death or resignation.
Of the 2,008 officers
available, some are off sick, on vacation, in academy
training or on
military leave, McManus said, leaving only 1,894 on the street. Then
there are the nearly 500 police officers who have more than 20
years of service,
meaning they're eligible for retirement. "If the city doesn't start
hiring today, it's going to get bad," Stewart
said. Smaller pool But,
at least for now, San Antonio's problems seem less dire than many
other cities'.
Law enforcement experts say a worrying trend has left
police departments nationwide
clamoring over a smaller pool of recruits
and unable to fill vacancies they
have money for.
"We have our backs against the wall," said Houston
Police Chief Harold
Hurtt, whose department struggled to land the nearly 70
cadets who
graduated in May. In Phoenix, where police will lose 372
officers to retirement this year,
"we test and test and test, and we're
having a hard time finding enough
quality candidates," spokeswoman Stacie
Derge said. "We've got the money to do it but we just can't find the
recruits," said
David Cohen, spokesman for the San Diego Police Department,
where an
average of eight officers are retiring a month. "We're all going
after
the same people." But in San Antonio, McManus said the department
has had more qualified
candidates than the money to fund new positions. Last
year, 2,728
applied but only 47 cadets graduated from the academy. "Every
police department would like to see more applicants," police
spokesman
Sgt. Gabe Trevino said, "but we still have enough to choose
from." The
city's strong military presence and low cost of living, combined
with the
department's good reputation and competitive benefits package
make for a good
recruiting climate, he said. A lower educational requirement also may be
a reason. In Dallas and
Houston, recruits need 60 hours of college credit
or four years of
military service. In San Antonio, applicants need only a
high school
diploma.
Candidates with higher education, however, receive
more pay. Without the educational requirement, "we'd dramatically increase
our
applicant pool," Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle said. Dallas,
which needs to hire 250 officers each year simply to break even
with those
retiring, barely can keep up, he said. "We've got the money. Our problem
is a problem of volume," Kunkle said. The stringent standards employed
by most police departments mean they
routinely reject 95 percent of their
applicants, so to hire about 300
officers, 3,000 need to apply. "The
problem is getting those 3,000," Kunkle said. "There's just not as
many people who want to be police officers today." Jack Riley, acting
director for the Center of Quality Policing, part of
the Rand Corp., researched
the shortage last year and pointed to several
cultural and social issues to
explain the phenomenon. More young people hold college degrees today, and
even a high school
diploma can land someone a higher-paying career than the
$32,000 an
average starting salary in policing provides. Public service-minded
individuals increasingly go to the military, and
the private homeland security
industry lures those looking for good
money. A higher level of financial
debt and more obesity, drug use and lower
physical fitness among young people
narrow the pool even further. "A generation ago, we thought the job
of policing spoke for itself. I'm
not sure it does anymore," Riley said. Elaine
Deck, a researcher at the International Association of Chiefs of
Police, said
police departments should up the ante with their marketing
campaigns and revisit,
perhaps even modernize, their message. As the U.S. Army did with its "Army
of One" campaign, she said, they
need to target a Generation X that's
more concerned with individual
development than public service, that wants
to move into high-powered
positions, earn higher pay, and retire early. And
increasingly, that's what departments are doing. Many, like Houston, have
turned to creative strategies employed by
private industry. They fan out across
the country looking for recruits,
from military bases, universities and schools.
When automotive layoffs
were announced in Detroit, they flocked there. Police
officers relocating to Houston get a $7,000 signing bonus. Dallas also has
invested heavily in advertising to flaunt a lucrative
signing bonus for officers
who complete the academy.
back to top
Mercury News
Southern California Man Arrested for
Pointing Laser at Police Helicopter
Newport Beach (CA) Police
arrested a man for shining a green laser at a police helicopter. Peter Kontos
was booked into jail on a $500,000 bond and faces up to three years in prison
if convicted of the felony charges. The Airborne Law Enforcement Services
(ABLE) helicopter was responding to a burglary call at the condominium complex
where Kontos lives. After locating all three burglary suspects, the ABLE flight
crew directed ground units to Kontos' condo. He eventually admitted to shining
the laser at the helicopter. The device pointed at the aircraft was reported to
be 30 times more powerful than a typical laser pointer. The pilot reported that
the laser beam struck the interior of the cockpit three times during the call.
back to top
NLEOMF
2006 is Deadly Thus Far for Law Enforcement Officers:
Line of Duty
Deaths
Increase 44% Over the First Quarter of 2005
Auto
Crashes are Leading Cause of Deaths; New York Leads Nation with Six Fatalities
As of March 5th, 33 law enforcement officers have died in the line of duty, representing
a 44% increase in line of duty deaths over the same period in 2005, when 23 officers
made the ultimate sacrifice. New York, which has lost six officers, has the nation's
most line-of-duty fatalities, followed by California, with four fallen officers,
and Florida, which has lost two officers. Seventeen states have lost at least
one officer. According to preliminary numbers, 14 officers have died either
as the result of an auto crash or because they were struck by a vehicle, often
while investigating an accident or crime. Twelve officers have died from gunshots. "This
data is alarming on many levels," said Craig W. Floyd, Chairman of the National
Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF), which released the year-end figures
in partnership with Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS). "Firstly, our roads
are rapidly becoming the most hazardous places for law enforcement officers. The
public absolutely must be more aware of officers patrolling our roads, and how
to respond to accident scenes. Only in these ways will we be successful in reducing
these often preventable deaths. Every citizen who drives is responsible for making
sure our officers are safe while they patrol our nation's highways and byways." The
14 officers who have died thus far in 2006 in auto crashes continues a trend in
which auto crashes are threatening to eclipse shooting deaths as the leading cause
of death among law enforcement officers. In 2005, automobile and motorcycle-related
crashes (62) topped gunfire (60) as the leading cause of death. As a result of
the trend, the NLEOMF and COPS are urging communities to equip all law enforcement
officers with body armor, and are encouraging officers to continue wearing the
armor despite recent controversy over the effectiveness of some brands of armor.
To reduce the number of officers injured and killed in motor vehicle-related incidents,
the organizations are also calling for better driver training, safer automobiles,
and better public awareness of proper procedures when encountering police and
emergency vehicles. Every officer who died in the line of duty during 2006
will be honored at a Candlelight Vigil in May 2007 during National Police Week.
The officers will also be commemorated at the Hall of Remembrance exhibit at the
National Law Enforcement Museum, which will open in 2009. The Museum is
located at the site of the National Law Enforcement Memorial
at Judiciary
Square in Washington, D.C. The Hall of Remembrance will include stories, photos,
and personal mementoes of officers who have died in the line of duty. In addition
to honoring fallen officers, the Museum will feature numerous interactive
programs and exhibits that enable visitors to experience the challenges faced
by law enforcement firsthand.
back to top
03-04-06:
The San Antonio Express News
Cop shooting defended
Web
Posted: 03/04/2006 12:00 AM CST
Brian Chasnoff
Express-News Staff Writer As
angry, grieving relatives gathered outside an East Side home Friday, the police
chief defended a San Antonio officer who shot and killed an unarmed man inside
the residence. About 11:50 p.m. Thursday, John Henry Cervantes, 26, was
striking his girlfriend in a bedroom in the 200 block of H Street when Reynaldo
Montes, a three-year member of the force, entered the room and yelled for Cervantes
to stop, police said. Cervantes turned and lunged at Montes, who then fired
a handgun from his hip, striking Cervantes in the chest, police said. Cervantes
died at Brooke Army Medical Center about two hours later. His girlfriend, Samantha
Rivera, 23, was taken to University Hospital, where she was treated and released. The
incident marked the fourth fatal shooting by a local law enforcement officer in
six days. A car belonging to Samantha Rivera sits in front of the house
where her boyfriend, John Henry Cervantes, was fatally shot. His truck is in the
driveway. Bloodstains dot the refrigerator and kitchen wall inside a house
in the 200 block of H Street, the scene of a domestic disturbance Thursday night
that turned deadly. Police Chief Albert Ortiz defended the officer's actions
at a news conference Friday, asserting Montes had reason to believe a violent
stabbing was taking place when Montes and another officer, Rachel Barnes, entered
the house. When Montes and Barnes arrived at the house in response to a
911 call, they
heard a man and a woman yelling and struggling inside the
bedroom, police said. With Montes leading, both officers entered the house through
the front door with their weapons holstered. Inside, Montes saw "a
large amount of blood on the walls, furniture and other household items,"
according to a media release from police. A reporter's walk at the scene
Friday morning revealed a sparsely dotted trail of blood that began outside near
the shattered windows of Rivera's car and continued into the house. In the kitchen,
the refrigerator was smeared and splattered with blood. Ortiz said it was
too early in the investigation to determine whether Montes violated department
policies. "I think the totality of the circumstances would indicate
to a reasonable person that the officer acted in a reasonable manner," Ortiz
said. Cervantes began arguing with Rivera at the house Thursday night, a
police report said. At one point, Cervantes picked up a brick and tossed
it through the back window of Rivera's car, the report said. Cervantes also punched
the passenger-side window of the car, shattering the glass and cutting his hand,
relatives said. His hand bleeding, Cervantes began hitting Rivera in the
face as she held their 1-year-old son in her arms. Rivera put the baby down,
ran to call police and dialed 911, but Cervantes grabbed the phone, threw it to
the floor and grabbed Rivera by the throat, according to the report. Cervantes
then dragged Rivera by the hair to the front bedroom, where he delivered a punch
to the face that knocked her to the ground, the report said. Montes rounded
a tight corner and entered the bedroom, which he described as "dimly lit
with a lot of shadows," and saw a man standing over a woman, making an "upward
and downward motion" with one hand, police said. In the span of about
five seconds, the following occurred, according to police: Montes yelled
for Cervantes to stop but didn't identify himself as an officer. Cervantes turned
and lunged at Montes, who, standing 5 feet away and believing he was going to
be stabbed, took one-half step backward and fired his weapon. Police are
authorized to use deadly force only when protecting an officer or another person
from "what is reasonably believed to be an immediate threat of death or serious
bodily injury," according to the San Antonio Police Department general manual. The
manual doesn't include a use of force policy that specifically applies to domestic
violence incidents. Ortiz and a police spokeswoman said the immediacy of
the situation coupled with Montes' belief that it was life-threatening justified
the officer's use of deadly force. "They weren't able to sit back and
assess and evaluate different options," police spokeswoman Sandy Gutierrez
said. Geoffrey Alpert, a professor at the University of South Carolina and
an expert on the use of deadly force, said the officer reacted appropriately if
he believed Cervantes was armed. "Shootings need to be judged on what
the officer knows at the time, not on 20-20 hindsight," Alpert said, adding
that attempting to subdue a suspect believed to be armed is unsafe. "You
don't try to subdue someone and take a chance of getting stabbed," he said. Meanwhile,
about 20 relatives who had assembled Friday outside the house where the shooting
occurred disagreed with Ortiz's assessment. "They didn't have to shoot
him. They're trained. They should have" subdued him, said Josephine Mendez,
Cervantes' mother. "He wasn't an animal. He was my son." His uncle,
Placido Hernandez, echoed the sentiment. "If two cops can't subdue
an (unarmed) person, I guess they don't belong being cops," Hernandez said. At
the time of his death, Cervantes was awaiting trial in connection with two charges
of assault with bodily injury stemming from two separate incidents, one in March
2003 and another in October 2003. Those incidents were domestic disturbances
involving Cervantes and a previous girlfriend, police said. Cervantes died
on the first birthday of his son, relatives said. back
to top
02-08-06: The San Jose Mercury News
LA stops
identifying police officers involved in shootings
LOS ANGELES,
CA – The city could legally release the names of police officers involved
in shootings but will keep them secret, partly to prevent officers from filing
invasion of privacy lawsuits, the Police Commission decided. The five-member
panel voted unanimously Tuesday to withhold the officers' names, affirming a decision
made during a closed-door meeting two months ago. The change overturned a 25-year-old
policy. Commissioner Andrea Ordin said the decision ensures that shooting
reports would not be considered "personnel information" under state
law and exempted from public disclosure. "There were concerns that
someone could argue persuasively that these (shooting reports) were personnel
records," she said. "It was the city attorney's advice that the redaction
of the officers' names would reduce that risk significantly." Police
union officials had long called for the change, arguing that releasing officers'
names could expose them to danger. The union had indicated it was prepared to
sue over the disclosures, said Hank Hernandez, the organization's general counsel.
Advocates of government openness, however, said the commission is improperly
shielding officers from public accountability. "Police officers who
wear their names on their badges have no expectation of privacy in their names
themselves," said Catherine Lhamon, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties
Union of Southern California. "By contrast, shedding sunlight on police
activity - including through public identification of officers involved in shootings
- strongly bolsters public confidence in the workings of the department sworn
to protect and serve the community." The commission began releasing
the names of officers involved in shootings following the 1979 shooting of Eulia
Mae Love, a knife-wielding South Los Angeles woman who was killed by police after
a dispute over an unpaid gas bill. The commission changed the policy on
Dec. 13 based on advice from a lawyer in the office of City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo.
A week after the change, the commission unveiled a plan to "provide
greater transparency" by posting detailed summaries of police shootings on
the Internet. Officers' names, however, are not included in those summaries.
back to top
02-07-06:
The LA TIMES
Police Panel Scraps ID Policy
L.A. commission has quietly stopped naming officers in shootings, but will
talk publicly today.
By Scott Glover and Matt Lait
Times Staff Writers
February
7, 2006 Without any public discussion, the Los Angeles Police Commission
decided two months ago to overturn a 25-year-old policy and begin withholding
the names of police officers involved in shootings. Cocivil
rights activist noted for his insistence on holding officers accountable, said
the commission made the change after being told that state law protects the privacy
of officers. In fact, while the law has long recognized
an officer's right to privacy, it has also given police agencies wide discretion
to release such information, legal experts said. In
Los Angeles, the Police Commission has released the names of officers involved
in shootings since 1980, a practice embraced by the public after the controversial
killing by LAPD officers of a South Los Angeles woman in 1979. Since then, the
actions of LAPD officers involved in shootings have frequently been the object
of intense public interest — although police officers have routinely objected
to being identified. The change in commission policy
was made during a closed-door meeting Dec. 13. The five-member civilian panel,
which functions much like a corporate board for the Police Department, sets standards
and oversees operations in conjunction with Chief William J. Bratton. It meets
each Tuesday and usually makes decisions in public and by a majority vote. In
this instance, it did neither. Mack said in an
interview last week that the commission changed the disclosure policy based on
advice from a lawyer in the office of City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo, who concluded
that commissioners had no choice in the matter. Delgadillo, whose office had previously
approved the release of officers' names, declined to be interviewed for this report. On
Friday, after inquiries from The Times, commission officials scheduled a public
discussion of the policy change for today's meeting. The commission's policy
change had been in the making for nearly a year and was prompted, at least in
part, by Police Commission Executive Director Richard Tefank, a former Buena Park
police chief who has long said he believes the panel violates the law by releasing
too much information about shootings. In a letter to the commission last week,
Tefank summarized several state laws that he said indicate that officers' names
"may" be deemed private personnel information. His concerns were
echoed by leaders of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that
represents LAPD officers. Union officials said that they discussed the matter
with Tefank and that he suggested they threaten litigation if they wanted to see
a change in the commission's policy. Tefank acknowledged advising the union
to write a letter documenting its concerns but said he did not recall telling
officials to threaten litigation. "I don't believe I did it, but if
they say I did, I mean, that's fine," Tefank said. After receiving
the union's letter in the spring of 2005, Tefank said, the commission sought a
legal opinion from the city attorney. Tefank said the commission received
that opinion late last year. He said the city attorney concluded that officers'
names had to be withheld from the public. Tefank said the commission discussed
the matter at least twice in closed session — the threat of a lawsuit, he
added, made it legal for commissioners to discuss it privately. The commissioners,
he said, voted unanimously to change the policy. In a subsequent interview, however,
Tefank said there had been no formal vote and commissioners had merely agreed
that the policy should be changed. Tefank declined to provide a copy of
the legal opinion. A week after the policy change, the commission announced
with much fanfare a plan to "provide greater transparency" by posting
detailed summaries of police shootings on the Internet. Those summaries, however,
do not contain the officers' names. In touting its new approach to publicizing
shooting details, the commission made no mention of its decision to withhold the
identity of officers from other shooting reports. "The irony of all
this," Mack said, "is that, frankly, it's the commission's desire to
really become more public in sharing with the public the decisions that we make
in closed session regarding the use of force incidents that we consider every
week." The public reports in question are summaries written by the
police chief, known in LAPD parlance as 15.2 reports. They were created in response
to the 1979 shooting of Eulia Mae Love, a knife-wielding South Los Angeles housewife
who was killed by police after a dispute over an unpaid gas bill. Since
then, the reports have been released as public documents. The commission reviews
them when deciding whether an officer's use of deadly force complies with department
rules. Over the years, the reports have provided details on a host of controversial
episodes at the LAPD, including the 1999 shooting of Margaret Mitchell, a frail
homeless woman who allegedly lunged at an officer with a screwdriver; shootings
by Rampart Division officers; and, most recently, last year's fatal shooting of
13-year-old Devin Brown, who allegedly backed up a stolen car toward an officer. The
Times used such reports in 2004 to examine the way the LAPD had investigated police
shootings since 1985. The paper found that a small group — 1% of the 16,000
officers who worked field assignments — was involved in more than 20% of
all shootings at suspects. One officer, for example, had four shootings in five
months. Under the new policy, such information cannot be gleaned by the
public. Last month, the first shooting report in which officers' names were
withheld involved a shooting by undercover internal affairs officers. In the report,
Bratton recommended that a deputy chief, lieutenant and sergeants in charge of
the covert sting operation be disciplined because their tactics were poor. Not
only does the change in policy end a long-standing practice of the Police Commission,
it also contradicts the LAPD's own handling of cases. Police officers' names are
released by the department in the immediate aftermath of a shooting, especially
high-profile incidents attracting media attention. But those reports are often
sketchy, and union officials argue that the re-release of officers' names in reports
detailing an incident months later represent a threat to officers' safety. "This
has nothing to do with whether or not the media should have access or the public
should have access to this information," said Bob Baker, president of the
LAPD's union. "There are people who could use [this information] for not
legitimate purposes. And that's what our concern is." Many LAPD critics
and advocates of government openness argue that although certain information in
officers' personnel records deserves to be private, their identity does not. They
say that police officers wear their names on their uniforms to allow the public
to readily identify them, and that their actions while in uniform are those of
public officials, entrusted with the right to use force if necessary but accountable
for using it properly. "Part of the bargain when you get a badge and
a gun is accountability," said Jeffrey C. Eglash, a former inspector general
for the Police Commission and an opponent of the new policy. "Although police
officers, like any employees, have an interest in privacy, their jobs are unlike
any other in that they have the power to arrest and to use deadly force."
back to top
02-03-06:
The Dallas Morning News
Dallas police struggle to recruit
officers
09:41 PM CST on Saturday, February 4, 2006
By
TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News In nearly 22 years on the force,
Lt. Tammie Hughes has arrested bad guys, investigated problem officers and helped
prosecute crooked cops. But the difficulty of those jobs pales to her current
job: recruiting new police officers for the Dallas Police Department.
 |
"I didn't realize that it was this hard,"
said Lt. Hughes, the recruiting unit's commander. "You can see an applicant
come through the door, and they look like they have so much promise. Then all
of the sudden, we find something in their background. We hired less than 10 percent
that applied last year." The Dallas Police
Department isn't alone in struggling to fill openings. Nationwide, major metropolitan
police departments, particularly those that hire large numbers of officers each
year, face a drought of qualified recruits. The
reasons for the shortage vary, and include low pay, a tight job market, higher
private sector pay and competition from the military for the same people. "We're
having a hell of a time," said Sgt. John Urquhart, spokesman for the King
County sheriff's office in Seattle. "Police work doesn't have as much as
allure as it did 10 years ago. ... Take your pick. Pick your reason." Dallas'
problem is aggravated by flawed hiring practices in the past that have left the
department with a tainted reputation, a complicated lawsuit that affects how the
city gives raises to firefighters and police officers, and higher pay and better
benefits in the suburbs. The city has nearly 3,000
officers but needs about 600 more to reach the city's goal of having three officers
per 1,000 residents. The City Council has authorized about 50 new jobs each year
in recent years. But the revolving door means
the department needs to hire about 250 officers per year to replace those who
retire or leave and to increase the ranks. |
The problem is that the department can't find enough qualified
candidates to fill academy classes. During the last fiscal year, Dallas police
filled only 65 to 70 percent of its academy slots. "We're hiring the
right people, but there's just not enough of them," said Dallas Police Deputy
Chief Floyd Simpson, head of the department's recruiting and hiring division.
Higher pay in suburbs Adrian Riojas said he barely gave Dallas
a second look because the starting pay wasn't high enough and the job didn't offer
tuition reimbursement. The Corpus Christi native chose instead to apply to Grand
Prairie and Frisco.
 |
"The salary wasn't really worth that commute"
to Dallas, said Mr. Riojas, 23, who lives in Arlington and attends the University
of North Texas. "I didn't want to be any lower than $40,000."
Taking a look statewide, Dallas' starting
pay for recruits – nearly $39,000 – fares well in compared with major
Texas cities such as Houston, San Antonio, Fort Worth and Austin. But
compared with many area suburbs, Dallas' pay sits on the low end, even with a
$1,000 hiring bonus for recruits who graduate from the academy. Officer
Joe Harn, a Garland police spokesman, said money is "very important in today's
market. Here in the metroplex each police department is vying for the very same
person." Richardson Police Chief Larry Zacharias
said his department needs 11 more officers. "Like
everybody else, we need people," he said. "But you can't lower your
standards just to fill your vacancies." | Recruiters
say younger people often aren't attracted by good retirement benefits such as
those offered for Dallas police and fire personnel. "I
think it's a generational difference," said Lt. Hughes. "It's like a
bell goes off about 35," she said. Lucrative private sector Austin
police Lt. Raul Munguia, supervisor of recruiting, says he's struggling with an
initial low pay of $32,000 year for recruits. "We've fallen behind the state
average as far as cadet pay goes," Lt. Munguia said. After they graduate
from the police academy, they get a huge raise to $44,570. Departments
often require recruits to have at least some college credit. Plano and Arlington
require four-year degrees. But young people can get more money in other professional
careers. Austin "can't compete with Dell or Samsung" in terms
of pay, said Lt. Munguia. He said two recent academy classes were only about 65
to 75 percent full. Police departments are also struggling to navigate
a changing society. Most departments only hire between 5 percent and 10
percent of those who apply, and many get weeded out for prior drug use. Dallas
won't take anybody who has tried – even once – harder drugs like cocaine
or heroin, although it will take people who have tried marijuana. "What
they're exposed to now I never saw when I was in high school," Lt. Munguia
said. "Times have changed." Tarnished reputation Dallas
can't simply raise starting salaries because of legal complications from a 1979
public referendum that police and firefighters say requires that all sworn personnel
get the same percentage raise at all levels in the departments whenever any raise
is given. The city disagrees, but has been cautious about how salaries
are raised while the issue is settled in court. The Dallas department has
also suffered from its own reputation, notably the 2001 scandal in which fake
drugs were planted on innocent people by paid police informants. Dallas'
top brass are also well aware of how flawed practices in the past led to the hiring
of officers with questionable character and criminal histories. Tracy Gaines,
34, said he recently chose the Rockwall Police Department because it's "not
in the news a lot with scandal." CHANGING STRATEGIES Dallas
officials say they're aggressively pursuing better recruiting strategies: Last
year, the department began waiving the college credit requirement for those who
have four years of active military service. About 20 percent of those currently
in the academy came in under the new rules. This month, police recruiters
are traveling to colleges and military bases in Mississippi, Oklahoma, Kansas,
Alabama and Louisiana. In December, Dallas placed 17 billboards across
Texas and 10 billboards in Oklahoma City; Little Rock, Ark.; Jackson, Miss.; and
Shreveport, La. The department may place billboards in Pittsburgh and Detroit.
"We're going to start putting our salaries on them," Lt. Tammie Hughes
said. "In Louisiana, a starting police officer is paid, like, $24,000. We
look very good there." INCENTIVES IN OTHER CITIES The
police officer hiring crunch has forced agencies to get creative: The San
Diego County Sheriff's Department offers hiring bonuses of up to $5,000 for experienced
law officers. The department has also tripled its advertising budget to $250,000
in recent years. The result: A 100 percent increase in people taking application
tests. The King County sheriff's office, in the Seattle area, offers its
1,000 officers and civilians a one-time gift of 40 hours of vacation if they bring
in someone who completes the academy and three months of post-academy training.
The Houston City Council is considering giving certified Texas police officers
who defect to Houston a $7,000 bonus. The city also is looking at starting those
officers somewhere higher on the pay scale, rather than making them begin at entry-level
pay.
back to top
02-02-06:
The Athens News
New Ohio Law Eases Residency Rules
AHTENS,
OH – Some Athens police and firefighters say a new state law restricting
Ohio cities from imposing residency requirements on municipal employees is welcome
news. Many city officials and the Ohio Municipal League, however, are less
excited about what they see as an erosion of "home rule" provisions
in the state constitution. The law takes effect in April and will nullify standing
residency rules in 125 cities and 13 villages statewide, according to the OML.
Gov. Bob Taft signed the law Jan. 27, nine days after its approval by the
Ohio House and seven months after it passed the state Senate. The House vote was
68-28 in favor, with state Rep. Jimmy Stewart, R-Albany, supporting the measure.
"I voted in favor of the bill," said Stewart. "I had heard
the most from firemen in different parts of the state of Ohio." Firefighters
and police, especially in bigger cities, strongly backed the legislation because
they said it would let them live near better schools and, in some cases, avoid
retribution from criminals in the cities where they work. Stewart said
he and his aide don't recall hearing any opposition to the bill in his 92nd District.
Though it passed overwhelmingly, the vote did not follow party lines, with a mixture
of Democrats and Republicans on each side. Municipalities can enact new
residency rules under the law, but these can only require city employees to live
in the same county or in a bordering county. Currently, Athens police officers
must live within a 20-minute drive of the city, while Athens firefighters are
restricted to living within Athens County. "I'm pretty happy with
it," said Athens Police officer Ron Brooks. "Shy of a major pay raise,
most people can't afford decent housing in the city of Athens." Brooks,
who also represents the Fraternal Order of Police/Ohio Labor Council city police
union, called the cost of living in Athens "outrageous." Growing student
neighborhoods also limit opportunities to find housing that works for families,
he added. The city administration has already been "pretty liberal"
about residency requirements, according to Brooks, and there are no stipulations
about it in the present union contract. Athens Mayor Ric Abel is out of
town this week and was unavailable for comment, but he advised members of City
Council at its Jan. 23 meeting that officials would need to monitor the situation.
The idea for the bill has been around for a while, Abel said, and in rural areas
"where you don't have a heck of a lot of staffing," it could pose problems.
"It seemed reasonable to me the way we had it," said City Council
member Debbie Phillips, D-4th Ward. Phillips emphasized that some residency rules
remain necessary to ensure adequate response times by critical personnel, but
said she also understands the value of city employees having freedom to live where
they choose. Athens firefighter and AFSCME union Local 3351 representative
Rich Ohms said the new law is fine with him and his colleagues, but he doesn't
foresee any "mass exodus" as a result. He said big-city fire departments'
needs are different from cities the size of Athens. "They don't have
the need to have people come in off-duty like we do," Ohms said. Still,
Ohms said he could envision some Athens firefighters wanting to live past Albany
or around Coolville because of the new flexibility they will have. Parts of Vinton
and Meigs counties are closer to the city of Athens in terms of driving time than
certain parts of Athens County, and improved highways have cut commuting times
from some areas. "We used to have to live within 10 miles or 10 minutes
of the city of Athens," said Ohms. About a decade ago, this was widened to
the entire county, he recalled. Most city firefighters are in their 30s and many
have built homes and already live in outlying areas of Athens County, according
to Ohms and Stewart. "I don't think they're going anywhere," Ohms predicted.
Critics of the bill have pointed out that residency requirements are an
important bargaining chip for cities when working out union contracts, but Ohms
said they have not been part of any negotiations he's been part of. Supporters
of residency rules also say they help stabilize neighborhoods and improve quality
of life, but opponents say they're an artificial way to boost property tax revenue
and that cities should focus on being more attractive places to live. "They
can't rent and they can't buy," said Athens City Council member Paul Wiehl,
D-1st Ward, echoing Brooks' concern about the housing dilemma facing some moderate-income
workers. The new legislation is widely expected to face a court challenge
to untangle two conflicting parts of the Ohio constitution. Home-rule provisions
grant powers of self-governance to municipalities, but the document's supremacy
clause lays out a principle whereby state laws trump local ones. In terms
of case law, decisions by both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Ohio Supreme Court
"have held that there is no (emphasis in original) constitutional right to
be employed by a municipality while residing elsewhere," according to a bill
analysis by the non-partisan Ohio Legislative Service Commission. State
constitutional scholar Alan Tarr of Rutgers University-Camden in New Jersey said,
"In the absence of something guaranteeing" the authority of local governments,
the state's supremacy clause would likely prevail. Told of the home-rule provisions,
Tarr said, "Then it would become more technical." City workers
defined as "volunteers," including part-time employees, are exempted
from the new legislation, and municipalities can still require them to live where
they work. Two new Athens police officers live outside Athens County, said
Brooks, who expects the new law to affect one of the new officers' plans. "At
least he won't have to move as far," he said. back
to top
01-17-06: The Houston Chronicle
Police enhance recruiting
efforts
Attrition has HPD trying to lure officers from across Texas
By MÓNICA GUZMÁN
Houston police struggled to land
the 62 cadets who graduated from the city's
training academy last week.
Earlier this month, the Dallas Police Department was able to graduate just
25 cadets in a class that could have accommodated 50.
And in Austin, recruitment
officials filled just 80 of 108 slots for the
current class - despite a pool
of 3,200 interested candidates. A rush of retiring baby boomers and a shortage
of strong candidates to
replace them has the state's biggest police departments
working extra hard
to fill the ranks. Increasingly, they are trying
to poach from one another. "I'm sorry. it's business," said Lt.
Kenneth Miller of the Houston Police
Department's human resources division,
which finds it cheaper and more
efficient to hire certified peace officers
from other cities instead of
finding and training raw recruits. "We need
good applicants, and if someone
wants to come here (from another department),
we'd be foolish not to take
them. If someone were recruited here, we certainly
wouldn't be offended." A Houston City Council committee takes up the
issue today with a planned
discussion about authorizing HPD to begin offering
in-state police officers
a $7,000 bonus to make the move to Houston and enroll
in a 12-week modified
entry academy class that starts in March. "We're
in intense competition with other departments," said Miller, who has
sent recruiters as far as Detroit, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, where there
have
been layoffs. While on recruiting trips there and elsewhere, he said,
he has
encountered a number of other agencies doing the same thing. "I think
(the competition) is already stiff" between us, agreed Deputy
Police
Chief Floyd Simpson of the Dallas Police Department. "Our hopes in
Dallas
are that Houston succeeds (in filling jobs). I'm sure Chief (Harold)
Hurtt's
hope is that Dallas succeeds." Looking for experience
Recruiters with Houston and Dallas, the two largest departments in the
state,
regularly try to recruit from each other, though Miller and others
could not
say how many officers have come or gone through the effort. "Officers
haven't left here in droves to go to other cities," he said. Recruitment
has become a critical issue nationwide as officers retire,
leaving departments
to fill the gaps without losing experience, said Elaine
Deck, who studies
recruitment for the International Association of Chiefs of
Police.
At Houston's High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, career
counselor Ursel Simmons said her students would "jump ship in a minute"
for
good police jobs elsewhere "because they are so motivated to money
and
opportunity."
Although larger departments offer relatively
good pay and good opportunity
for promotion, they're having a hard time filling
academy rosters. "Our last two years, we have not hit the numbers
we were looking for," said
Lt. Raul Munguia with the Austin Police Department.
Simpson reported a similar struggle in Dallas. The problem is not
a shortage of applicants, but of good applicants, they
said. HPD also
wants to make Houston a more lucrative option for other Texans in
law enforcement.
The department is considering giving officers credit for up
to five years
of experience elsewhere, Miller said, which is not typically
done. The credit
would affect their starting salary here. "We want it to be a step
up," Miller said. He acknowledged, however, that HPD's starting salary
could be a step down
for some people coming from other large departments.
An HPD officer in his
first full year makes a minimum of $36,022, less than
base salaries in
Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. But the Austin Police
Department, which pays its first-year officers almost
$9,000 more than Houston
does, has its own problems. Despite its attractive
salary, the department
has been struggling to keep its manpower at full
force and has spent heavily
on overtime - a familiar situation in Houston. "We realize that it's
gotten so competitive out there that we need to stay
on top of things,"
Munguia said. That competition has departments nationwide offering more
incentives to
recruits, Deck said, and some even offer help with home loans
and other
payments. To attract young people, she added, "I've heard of
agencies
putting out brochures on the beach during spring break." Dallas
police currently offer a $1,000 signing bonus to all cadets who
complete academy
training, but Simpson said officials are considering
incentives similar to
Houston's proposed bonus and salary scale for
experienced officers. "We
are both trying to entice the same guy, just like San Antonio is, just
like
Austin is. We were going to do it anyway," said Simpson. "Those people
who meet the strict standards that we have just did not come out of the
bunch"
who applied. There has been some concern that the standards could be too
strict for the
times, Deck said. Miller, Simpson and Munguia all said
drug use - usually marijuana - has
turned up more frequently in candidate
investigations. While not grounds for
immediate disqualification, marijuana
use is a damaging sign of immaturity
to recruiters, especially if a candidate
tries to cover it up, they said. Rolando V. del Carmen, a criminal justice
professor at Sam Houston State
University, said standards were not so strict
before departments began to be
held accountable for hiring bad officers in
the early 1990s. Nationally, some departments have relaxed their drug use
restrictions. But
Texas police officials said they are not planning to change
their standards
any time soon, even as they acknowledged the difficulty of
finding
candidates with spotless records. "Some people who have
some baggage that keeps them from getting in, I feel
bad for them," Miller
said. "I wish we could take them because they seem to
be good folks."
Instead, departments are looking for ways to broaden their search for
candidates who meet the standards, and spread the word to possible police
wannabes in this generation. Looking out of state
HPD recruiters
are planning more out-of-state trips, and Miller hopes to
start an abbreviated
training class solely for out-of-state officers, a
first for the department.
No police departments from outside the region have come to recruit
at the
738-student criminal justice high school, but Simmons said they are
welcome.
"I want the best jobs and careers for our students,
no matter where they are
in the U.S.," she said. "We're one of Houston's
best-kept secrets. They just
haven't found us yet."
back
to top
01-16-06: The Houston Chronicle
Many youths
looking beyond old-fashioned police work
Experts say local departments
don't have appeal they had in the past
By MÓNICA GUZMÁN
David Losoya is a police recruiter's dream.
A 17-year-old student
at the High School for Criminal Justice and Law
Enforcement, Losoya plans
to continue his studies at Sam Houston State
University, serve a stint in
the Army and then come home to Houston to work
as a patrol officer, "a
regular policeman," fighting crime on the front
lines. He said
he won't be a police officer anywhere else, even for better pay. "I
just have deep thoughts about Houston because I've been here all my
life,"
he said. "I've never looked at money as the boss of things." But
experts say Losoya is fast becoming the exception among his generation. "It
used to be that law and order was perceived as a major problem. Now it
no
longer is seen as that," said Rolando V. del Carmen, a criminal justice
professor at Sam Houston State. "The allure of being in a job where you
serve the community and society is no longer as strong as in previous
years."
Giuliana Sisson's career goals are more typical of her generation's
ambitions, experts say. This 17-year-old senior wants to be a crime scene
investigator, not only because she's drawn to the job glamorized by the
popular
crime drama CSI, but also because it can "take you places" - places
beyond the local police department. "It can help you look for a nice
job," she said. "You know the FBI are
looking for people like that."
And although she might start with the Houston Police Department, which
is
closely affiliated with the high school, Sisson would follow opportunity
wherever it happened to lead her. "The higher, the better," she
said. Teachers Valgene Holmes and Don Chasteen agreed that fewer students
share
Losoya's motivations. "There's not as many as there used
to be," said Chasteen, who grew up with
the Korean War and World War
II still fresh in the nation's memory. "God, country, family - that
was the value system back then," he said. "I
think right around
when MTV hit, that's when you kind of saw it going down." Even many
students interested in law enforcement don't find old-fashioned
police work
attractive. In his 12 years teaching at the school, Holmes, a former Atlanta
Police
Department detective, has seen children of the video-game generation
turn
their interest to simulations and crime-analysis programs, the high-tech
side of crime fighting. A bachelor's degree could add about $3,500 to the
salary of a Houston police
officer, but Chasteen, an 11-year veteran of Central
Texas police
departments, encourages his college-bound students to aim elsewhere.
"You talk about experiencing the most you can in your career and your
family, go federal," he said. Despite the trends, Holmes and Chasteen
believe plenty of qualified young
applicants still want to start as police
officers, but departments will cash
in only if they relax some of their strict
standards - especially those
regarding drug use - to match the changing times.
"You have too many young people being exposed to things we didn't
have to
think about," Holmes said. "Quiet as it's kept, the
values, the criteria, are going to have to change."
back
to top
01-01-06: The Dallas Morning News
Money makes
FW safer than Dallas
Money helped launch community policing efforts
By JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News
A recent list naming
Dallas one of the most dangerous big cities in America and Fort Worth one of the
safest left many people scratching their heads. How did these North Texas
neighbors end up on opposite ends of a national crime statistics list? Some
Dallas officials think they know the answer: money. Fort Worth sets aside a half-cent
of sales tax – $43.5 million annually – for crime-fighting and crime-prevention
efforts. "I think Fort Worth was probably ahead of the curve and made
an early commitment through its half-cent sales tax for crime control," said
Dallas First Assistant Chief David Brown. "During the lean years, when every
city was suffering, Fort Worth bit the bullet." When the Morgan Quitno
Press report was released in November, Dallas was ranked as the fifth-most-dangerous
city with more than 500,000 residents, and Fort Worth was ninth-safest. The Kansas-based
publisher based its rankings on 2004 FBI crime statistics reported by the cities.
Ralph Mendoza, Fort Worth's police chief, said the Crime Control and Prevention
District has made his job and his officers' jobs easier. The money generated
by the tax, created in 1995, helped start many community-policing efforts that
he said have made a difference. But now the biggest factor is not the tax
but the consistent focus on community policing, Chief Mendoza said. "You
have to be strategic in regards to how you fight the battles," he said. A
decade after that initial flood of money, Fort Worth is in the middle of the pack
on police spending per capita, Chief Mendoza said. Dallas spends less on
police protection per resident that its neighbor to the west. Fort Worth's
annual police budget amounts to $278 per resident, while Dallas spends $270. For
Dallas to catch up, it would have to add nearly $10 million to a $333 million
police budget. Proactive approach Jeff Ferrell, a criminal
justice professor at Texas Christian University, said that while Dallas stuck
with a more traditional "catch and arrest" approach, Fort Worth became
a leader in the community policing movement. "Invest your human power
in and your resources in calming the conditions that lead to crime instead of
just responding and being in a reactive mode," he said, describing the philosophy
of community policing. Community policing supporters believe that officers
are able to defuse problems before they become crimes. One example in southeast
Fort Worth is a pilot program that assigns a prosecutor to handle "quality
of life" violations such as code compliance, manifestation of prostitution,
possession of drug paraphernalia and illegal dumping. The reasoning is
that ignoring minor offenses leads to an atmosphere where more serious crime can
thrive. The prosecutor assigned to southeast Fort Worth is also expected
to attend at least 80 community meetings during the fiscal year to get a sense
of the problems facing the neighborhoods. "This also creates a belief
from the community that you're going to do something, which means they [the public]
are more prone to call in," Chief Mendoza said. Police call loads
in Fort Worth jumped when the department began focusing on community policing,
and they remain high, Chief Mendoza said, and that gives officers more civilian
"eyes and ears" on the streets. The Fort Worth crime tax also
funds graffiti abatement and security at city parks, pays for some community policing
officers and buys new equipment for officers. Kunkle's tenure Since
becoming Dallas' police chief in 2004, David Kunkle has also promoted a new community
policing plan to make officers responsible for lowering crime in small areas instead
of answering calls throughout the division. Dr. Ferrell said it looks as
if Chief Kunkle has brought badly needed stability and a new direction to the
department. In past years, Dallas police have suffered through the firing
of former Chief Terrell Bolton, the fake-drug scandal and lawsuits from demoted
commanders. "Certainly, there have been some fairly serious morale
problems," Dr. Ferrell said, "but I think those are being addressed."
The Dallas Police Department is also receiving a multiyear $15 million
grant from the W.W. Caruth Jr. Foundation Fund of the Communities Foundation of
Texas to help with crime prevention and reduction. That will bring the police
funding closer to Fort Worth's level. "I think Dallas will see the
same results," Chief Brown said, referring to Fort Worth's success. "In
2005 and 2006, I think we will see some significant crime reductions." Charles
Terrell, a former Dallas City Council member and public safety advocate, said
that the Fort Worth Police Department has help, especially downtown. The
Bass family, who developed Sundance Square, provides private security to keep
that portion of downtown Fort Worth safe. That eases some of the burden on the
Police Department while shoppers, diners and club patrons feel safe. "They
have done so much in downtown to make it economically alive at night," Mr.
Terrell said. Dr. Ferrell said that although the comparisons between Dallas
and Fort Worth are interesting to study, the Morgan Quitno ranking shouldn't be
taken too seriously. Placing cities on safest and most-dangerous lists oversimplifies
the crime problems. "We need to be a little bit cautious," he
said. "This is not an absolute measure of dangerousness but probably
more of a snapshot." Staff writer Tanya Eiserer contributed to this
report.
12-28-05: The New York Times
Police Forces, Their
Ranks Thin, Offer Bonuses, Bounties and More
By TIMOTHY EGAN
SEATTLE,
Dec. 26 - Among the depleted ranks of police departments
throughout the country,
it has come to this: desperate want ads offering
signing bonuses to new recruits,
and cops paying other cops to find new cops. It seems nobody wants to be
a police officer anymore, officials say. As a
result, departments are taking
a page from recruiters in sports and the
corporate world. Here in King County,
the most populous in the Pacific
Northwest, the Sheriff's Office is trying
a kind of bounty hunting: any
deputy who can bring in someone who eventually
becomes an officer will get
a bonus of 40 hours of extra vacation time, worth
up to $1,300. "This job used to be more enticing, and we didn't have
to do a lot of
marketing," said Sheriff's Deputy Jessica Cline, the
chief recruiter for
the King County force. "Over time, it's become less
attractive. We needed
to do something." But it is a competitive
world out there among police recruiters. San Diego
County, for instance,
has already gone King County one better. "Put a star
in your future
- now offering a signing bonus of up to $5,000," goes the
Web advertisement
for the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. In a generation's time,
the job of an American police officer, previously
among the most sought-after
by people with little college background, has
become one that in many communities
now goes begging. Experts find that the
life has little appeal among young
people, and those who might be attracted
to it are frequently lured instead
by aggressive counteroffers from the
military. The problem is compounded
by better pay at entry-level jobs in
the private sector, where employment
opportunities have recently brightened. The resulting shortage of new officers,
says Elaine Deck, who tracks
recruitment matters for the International Association
of Chiefs of Police,
is the top concern among issues facing law enforcement
across the country.
Nearly every police department at a recent statewide
meeting in California
reported being at least 10 percent short of the officers
it needed. The Los
Angeles Police Department has about 700 officers fewer
than its full
complement of 10,000, says Cmdr. Kenny Garner, who oversees
recruiting there. "When I started out in the 1970's, there were lines
around the block of
people waiting to take the police test, and I had to
sleep overnight in an
elementary school to get my place," Commander
Garner said. "It's not an
easy sell anymore." Similarly,
the test to join King County's ranks now draws only a small
fraction of the
3,000 who used to take it. In the face of developments like those, police
agencies have tried a
variety of enticements. "Walk-ins accepted
for immediate testing!" says an advertisement from the
Los Angeles police
force, which at one point sent recruiters to Florida to
troll for prospective
officers among college students lying on the beach
during spring break. There,
Fort Lauderdale's come-on for police academy prospects says "no
maximum
age," along with "up to five weeks' vacation." The New York
Police Department recently placed advertisements in newspapers
in and around
Buffalo, part of a broad sweep to find recruits in the
economically depressed
upstate region. Many cities have raised salaries well above the rate of
inflation and are
offering benefits like discount mortgages. Lexington, Ky.,
will give new
officers up to $7,400 for a down payment on a home. The
Los Angeles police are offering $500 to any city employee who can bring
in
a police recruit who makes it through the academy, and another $500 if
the
prospect becomes a sworn officer. But the bonus, along with recruit
inducements
that include a retirement payment of $250,000 after 20 years in
addition
to a pension, has yet to turn the tide. "We're trying to cook up some
other things so we can get back in the game,"
Commander Garner said,
in a bow to the competition. The pay in most departments remains competitive
with that in other jobs
that do not necessarily require a college degree.
A rookie officer in Los
Angeles will start at $51,000 a year - certainly
better than the starting
salary for many teachers, of whom a degree is demanded.
Police jobs also
typically come with comfortable vacation, health care and
retirement packages. Further, most height and weight restrictions have
been thrown out at major
police departments, after lawsuits challenging them
on grounds of gender
and race. As for strength and stamina, a recruit in
King County need be
able to do only 30 situps in a minute and run a mile
and a half in less
than 14 minutes 31 seconds. "You don't have to be
Superman," said Sheriff's
Deputy Kurt Lange, a 14-year veteran of King
County, where the vacation
bonus has led deputies to start recruiting on
their own, looking for
friends, relatives or just casual acquaintances who
might want to wear a badge. But whatever the attractions to the job, a
powerful constraint is working
against them, experts say. "The
people we are now trying to recruit look at life and jobs in a very
different
way than baby boomers do," said Ms. Deck, of the police chiefs
association.
"People used to live to work. This younger generation works to
live.
Working late, working weekends, that's not attractive. They want to
make
money and retire early." Then there is the competition from the armed
services. At some military
bases, commanders will not even allow police recruiters
on the grounds, for
fear that they will steal troops who might otherwise
re-enlist, said Lt.
Mike Barletta of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.
King County has been sending recruiters to distant cities, where they scour
job fairs, employment offices and even other police departments to find new
people to wear the sheriff's uniform. "We went to Houston, made
a presentation after their roll call, spent eight
days in the city, and at
the end of it all we got was only one new officer
out of it - and he didn't
last," said Detective Robert Burrows, who does
recruitment screening
at the King County Sheriff's Office. What proved to be a bidding war of
sorts between King County and San Diego
County broke out this year when the
sheriff's office here bought radio
advertisements and sent recruiters south.
The selling point was that houses
are cheaper in the Pacific Northwest than
in Southern California. "We sell the lifestyle, and the cost of living,
less crime, the mountains,"
said Deputy Cline, the chief recruiter for
King County. "And in turn, we're
looking for diversity, for someone
with good people skills, someone who can
go from a missing-child call to
a bar fight." San Diego countered by describing the Seattle area as
a damp, cold outpost
far from the beaches of Southern California. "We
say, 'Would you rather live in Washington State, where it's gloomy and
gray,
or live here with the sunshine and beaches?' " Lieutenant Barletta
said.
"Our biggest obstacle is housing prices. Young people can't afford to
buy a home here." To help with housing costs, San Diego started a
Cop Next Door program,
arranging with certain lenders to offer discount home
loans to officers
willing to live in less desirable neighborhoods. But the
program has yet to
show much promise, Lieutenant Barletta said. "We've
got all the sunshine anyone could want," he said, "but not enough
officers. It's been bad for some time, but it's getting worse."
back
to top
12-12-05: The LATimes
Deputies Not Keeping Pace
With L.A. Gangs
With killings up more than 30%, the sheriff has fewer
officers to assign to understaffed units.
By Megan Garvey
Times Staff
Writer
December 12, 2005 Gang-related homicides are up more than 30%
this year in areas under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Department, but the department's countywide gang enforcement team is substantially
smaller than it was three years ago and remains chronically understaffed. For
many years the department dealt with significantly less gang crime than police
in the city of Los Angeles. No more. At least half of the homicides in sheriff's
territories are now gang killings, about the same level as in the city. Statewide,
gang violence accounts for about 16% of all homicides. But although the
Los Angeles Police Department under Chief William J. Bratton has reconstituted
and increased the size of its anti-gang units, assigning nearly 350 officers to
gang enforcement duty, the gang unit under Sheriff Lee Baca has shrunk. The
sheriff's anti-gang units have 20 fewer deputies than authorized in the department's
budget — about 150 sworn officers instead of 170. Those numbers are down
from a high of nearly 190 sworn deputies on duty three years ago. This year,
while gang homicides rose sharply in a few small areas patrolled by the sheriff
— Compton, East Los Angeles and unincorporated neighborhoods bordering Watts
— Operation Safe Streets, the department's anti-gang unit, lacked flexibility
to move specially trained personnel out of lower-crime areas and into communities
with soaring gang killings, according to its head of operations. "Unit
commanders should have the autonomy to put their resources in the places they
would have the greatest impact based on crime statistics," said Lt. Bob Rifkin.
"We are spread too thin to try to do the whole county. Do you do a mediocre
job in the whole county or do you do a dynamite job in the quarter of the county
where the worst crime is?" In an interview Friday, Baca seemed surprised
that gang homicides were up substantially — 210 as of late last week, compared
with 164 for the same period last year — but said he needs more personnel
to deal with gang crime. "We are doing our best with what we have and
we don't have enough," he said. "If you doubled what we have, we don't
have enough." Baca is promoting a quarter-cent sales tax earmarked
for gang intervention and enforcement, which he hopes to get on the ballot next
year. Such a tax would generate about $280 million annually for law enforcement
agencies in L.A. County, he said. For the time being, Baca said, shifting
resources is not the answer because it might suppress crime in one area at the
cost of allowing it to increase elsewhere."What one has to understand is
the nature of policing gangs," Baca said. "There are over 100-plus active
violent gangs in Los Angeles County, and you have 100 holes in the dike and the
problem is you only have so many plugs. If you pull one plug in an area where
you've plugged up the violence, will it pour out there again?" The
department's difficulties responding to the increased rate of killing underscore
two of the biggest problems the Sheriff's Department faces: It is seriously understaffed,
with nearly 1,000 fewer deputies overall than the 9,500 authorized, and its political
structure works against assigning available deputies based on the worst crime
problems. The Sheriff's Department patrols unincorporated areas of the county
and 41 cities that contract with the department for policing. Cities pay for a
specific number of deputies each year and, if they can afford it, may add personnel
and specialized teams as needed. Baca said about 55% of his deputies work under
city contracts. Maintaining good relationships with the officials of contract
cities has long been a high priority for senior officials of the department. There
has also been considerable pressure recently from the county Board of Supervisors
to ensure that county areas are getting their fair share of services. The
gang unit is one of several specialized teams that work countywide for all residents,
allowing the sheriff discretion — in theory, at least — in their deployment.
But because the department serves an area with 2.6 million residents over 4,000
square miles, distribution of limited resources is challenging. Capt. Mike
Ford, who runs Operation Safe Streets and is Rifkin's boss, noted that although
other areas have fewer homicides than Compton, gang crime is quite real to people
who live in those areas. "The reality is we work for the people who
live there, and no one likes to deal with graffiti or drug dealing," he said,
adding that he would be reluctant to withdraw officers from other areas, even
if that were politically possible. But some gang crime experts warn that
the department's approach to distributing its deputies could allow crime to spread. "If
50% or more of your murders are gang-related, it looks to me like you ought to
have a lot of resources doing that," said Wes McBride, president of the Assn.
of California Gang Investigators. "When these guys come out of Compton
— when they do their rape, rob and pillage in the rest of the county because
they've maximized what they can get in Compton — they're going to come to
other cities," said McBride, who headed Operation Safe Streets before retiring
in 2002. Sheriff's officials count a crime as gang-related only if it is
directly tied to gang activity. If the wife of a gang member is killed by her
husband in a domestic dispute, for example, it is not counted as a gang crime.
If she is killed to stop her from telling authorities about the gang, it is. The
rise in gang violence in Compton, as well as in East Los Angeles and areas bordering
southeast Los Angeles, has pushed up overall homicides for the Sheriff's Department.
With three weeks remaining in 2005, homicides of all types in county areas and
in cities that contract with the Sheriff's Department total 395, passing last
year's 392. By contrast, although the city of Los Angeles continues to record
more homicides than the county, its total has fallen and is on track to be at
its lowest in half a dozen years. As of the end of October, the LAPD reported
a 15% decline in gang homicides over the same period last year, 216 compared with
255. Ford said gang suppression and investigation remain top priorities
for the department. "The question," he said, "is how many resources
do you have?" Through late last week, Compton had 68 gang-related homicides,
up from 42 for all of last year. The nearby territory bordering southeast Los
Angeles, patrolled by the Century sheriff's station, had 57 gang-related homicides,
up from 37 in 2004. Together, the two areas account for nearly 60% of the
county's gang-related homicides, Sheriff's Department statistics show. Yet about
a quarter of available gang investigators are assigned to those areas. In
addition, each shares a gang suppression team with a neighboring station, a move
made last year by Ford when, he said, insufficient staff made regional teams necessary.
Ten gang suppression deputies and a sergeant are assigned to the Compton-Carson
area, where there have been 72 gang homicides this year. Another team of 11 serves
Century and Lennox stations, which account for 70 gang killings. In comparison,
the Palmdale and Lancaster area also has a team of 11 gang suppression officers,
two paid under Lancaster's contract. That area has had 13 gang-related homicides
this year. The sheriff made no move to shift gang officers to Compton when
violence shot upward there early this year. At Century station, where a specific
gang war was identified, a task force was formed, but the gang unit was not expanded. Another
problem area has been East Los Angeles, which has had 20 gang-related homicides
this year, up from 11 for each of the previous two years. In that area, too, the
number of gang enforcement personnel has not been increased. The need for
a larger gang enforcement team is widely acknowledged. McBride, who spent nearly
three decades as a gang specialist in the Sheriff's Department, estimated that
Compton's gang problem alone would justify 50 gang suppression officers and a
team of 10 to 15 investigators. Ford and other gang experts caution that
simply moving deputies to a hot spot might not have much impact. Effective gang
officers, they note, develop sources on the street over time. Compton's
level of gang activity, for instance, complicates law enforcement efforts to get
intelligence and also makes it harder to target any one area to significantly
reduce criminal activity, sheriff's officials said. The city, which covers
10 square miles and has about 96,000 residents, has at least 10 active and violent
street gangs, as well as numerous other crews, said Percy Perrodin, the city's
former deputy police chief and brother of Mayor Eric Perrodin. "You're
talking about a very complex gang situation," said Cheryl Maxson, a UC Irvine
professor who studies street gangs. By mid-2005, Compton had as many homicides
as all of 2004, but city officials said there were no additional funds to add
to the 72 deputies who patrol the city. The problem, McBride notes, is that
"a lot of people will say Compton needs to buy more resources, but Compton
can't afford more resources. "People need to realize that Compton's
problems won't stay in Compton. Absolutely, they ought to be concerned about what's
happening, and they ought to help," he said. "We give foreign aid to
other countries so they won't fall apart. How about some domestic aid?" Anti-gang
resources The Los Angeles County Sheriff Department's anti-gang unit,
Operation Safe Streets, has been used as a model for other law enforcement agencies.
But the operation has been cut from 190 sworn deputies to about 150. This year,
gang killings in areas under the sheriff's jurisdiction are up 31% over last year.
Here's a look at where gang-related homicides have occurred and how many sheriff's
anti-gang investigators and suppression deputies are stationed in each area.
|
Sheriff's station |
Gang homicides | Suppression
Team | | |
05 | 04 |
03 | Investigators |
Deputies | |
Compton | 68 |
42 | 51 |
10 | 11 |
| Carson |
4 | 12 |
10 | 6 |
11 | | Century |
57 | 37 |
35 | 10 |
11 | | Lennox |
13 | 27 |
25 | 6 |
11 | | East
L.A. | 20 |
11 | 11 |
7 | 10 |
| Pico Rivera |
6 | 6 |
6 | 4 |
10 | | Industry |
12 | 12 |
8 | 8 |
10 | | Norwalk |
4 | 3 |
5 | 4 |
10 | | Temple |
4 | 5 |
5 | 2* |
10 | | Walnut |
0 | 2 |
0 | 1* |
10 | | Lancaster |
8 | 8 |
10 | 6 |
11 | | Palmdale |
5 | 2 |
7 | 4 |
11 | | Lakewood+ |
5 | 8 |
8 | 9 |
9 | | |
| |
| |
|
Note: 2005 gang homicide
figures are year-to-date as of Dec. 8. Teams of investigators at each station
are headed by a sergeant. Enforcement teams consist of deputies and a sergeant.
There are four additional gang-related homicides not in the chart that took place
in areas with little gang activity.
* Two investigators at the Temple station
share a sergeant with East L.A. station; investigator at the Walnut station shares
a sergeant with Industry station. + (incl. Hawaiian Gardens, Paramount and
Bellflower) Source: Los Angeles County Sheriff. Graphics reporting by Megan
Garvey Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times
12-05-06: The Dallas Morning News
Dallas Area
Interfaith wants more officers on city streets
But Police Department
prefers alternatives to raising number of hires
12:00 AM CST on Monday,
December 5, 2005 By LAUREN D'AVOLIO / The Dallas Morning News Dallas
Area Interfaith leaders appealed Sunday to the city to drastically increase the
number of officers in the police force. Willie Bennett, lead organizer
for Dallas Area Interfaith, said his organization is pressing for more than 50
new officers – the number already budgeted for this year. "If
we're serious about crime and really changing this, we need to hire more police
officers," Mr. Bennett said. "We are pulling people together who are
willing to make us a priority." Some 100 residents demanded new officer-hiring
incentives from their council representatives, launching a six-month campaign
of small group meetings and neighborhood watchdog patrols. Dallas Area
Interfaith members spoke of beautifying blighted areas and augmenting commerce
– especially in the city's southern sector, where the meeting was held. The
group is also a proponent of officers walking regular beats. Gerald Britt,
a Dallas Area Interfaith leader who is also affiliated with Freedom Baptist Church,
said the city needs to act now so it can keep up with crime and population increases.
"There are citizens here who feel strongly enough about this to say
yes to a tax increase for public safety," he said. Celso Martinez,
Dallas city spokesman, said there are other ways to increase the number of officers
on the street. "Instead of having a sergeant at the desk, we can substitute
a civilian and free up that individual to be on the street," Mr. Martinez
said, referring to what he called a "Civilianization Project." Mr.
Martinez also said aggressively recruiting people with prior military service
and rejiggering the number of police officers assigned to schools are potential
solutions. "To say that 50 officers might be a small number might
be true, but we're only talking about cadets. ... The truth is that we have other
ways and means of continuing police presence on the streets," Mr. Martinez
said. "We are going to continue to be aggressive in finding ways to put more
officers on the beat, as opposed to behind the desk." Senior Cpl.
Donna Hernandez said the Dallas Police Department would love to see more police
officers hired as well. "We definitely could use more officers on
the streets. ... But we have to stick by what we are allotted to do financially,"
she said.
12-03-06: The Houston Chronicle
Hurtt's plan: More
police on the streets
To accomplish that, HPD's chief says he'll hire
recruits, rehire retired officers
By MÓNICA GUZMÁN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Police Chief Harold Hurtt will bring officers
out of retirement and hire recruits before they've completed training as part
of a series of initiatives announced Friday to address a manpower shortage that
has plagued the Houston Police Department for more than a year. Responding
to a week of criticism that followed a deadly Thanksgiving holiday weekend with
14 homicides across the city, Hurtt also said he will adjust schedules and quadruple
the department's overtime budget to get more officers onto the streets immediately.
Flanked by his command staff at a news conference, Hurtt acknowledged that
the job would not be easy. In the last two years, some 700 officers have
left the department, many through retirement. "We have lost 700 people-plus
and the population's increasing - we just picked up another 150 to 200,000 people
from Louisiana. So we have some significant challenges," Hurtt said. Houston
Police Officers Union President Hans Marticiuc called Hurtt's initiatives "a
step in the right direction" but said he was "uncomfortable" with
rehiring as many as 50 retired officers. Hurtt's handling of the shortage
became the subject of intense criticism Monday, when the union released a report
indicating that response times to some 500 calls about property crimes and assaults
from three police districts took officers anywhere from 90 minutes to 12 hours.
The report raised concerns that Houston's crime could rise along with its
population unless the department puts more officers on the streets. Crime
rate down On Friday, Hurtt reiterated what a department spokesman said
earlier this week, that the city's overall crime rate was down and that citywide
response times to more serious crimes are | 
