Crime Net

Rise In Violent Crimes Follows Nationwide Trend

2006-11-07T05:38:00.000-08:00

San Diego -- Homicides were up 51 percent in San Diego County during the first half of 2006, but thefts, burglaries and other property crimes decreased, according to a report released yesterday.

Authorities say the increase in violent crime – most likely the result of a rise in gang and drug activity – mirrors a nationwide trend in recent years, said Cindy Burke of the San Diego Association of Governments, which compiled the report.

“A lot of other jurisdictions are seeing a rise in violent crime,” Burke said.

Despite the slight increase from last year, the violent-crime rate in San Diego County remains significantly lower than it was in the mid-1990s, the report states. In 1997, there were 6.6 violent crimes – defined as homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults – for every 1,000 people. For the first half of 2006, the rate was 4.4 per 1,000.

SignOnSanDiego.com

The number of homicides during the first six months of 2006 jumped 51 percent from the same period last year. There were 65 homicides in San Diego County during the first six months of this year compared with 43 during the same period last year.

Robberies were up 12 percent from last year; rapes dropped 10 percent and aggravated assaults dropped 2 percent, the report states.

In all, there were 6,740 violent crimes during the first six months of this year, an average of roughly 37 per day, according to the report, based on statistics from all of the county's unincorporated areas and 18 municipalities.

Property crimes were down slightly from last year. In the first six months of 2006, there were 30.28 property crimes for every 1,000 residents compared with 32 per 1,000 in the first six months of 2005.

Motor-vehicle thefts dropped 5 percent from last year, as did residential burglaries. In total, there were 46,426 property crimes during the first six months of this year, most of them thefts and burglaries, according to the report.

UK Muslim Police Officer Claims Discriminationi

2006-11-07T05:36:00.000-08:00

LONDON — A Muslim police officer who was removed from a special unit that guards dignitaries such as Prime Minister Tony Blair has filed a complaint alleging discrimination.

The Independent newspaper reported Tuesday that Amjad Farooq, 39, was removed from London's Metropolitan Police's Diplomatic Protection Group SO16 after being told that he was a threat to national security because two of his five children had allegedly attended a mosque associated with a Muslim cleric linked to a suspected terrorist group. The officer also was told that his presence might upset the American secret service, which worked with the Met's 600-officer close-protection unit, the paper said.

A spokesman at Scotland Yard confirmed that a police officer has filed a complaint to an employment tribunal alleging discrimination on the grounds of race and religious belief, but would not identify the employee by name. In August, another Diplomatic Protection Group officer, Alexander Omar Basha, raised concern that if he was seen on television guarding the Israeli Embassy in London his relatives in Lebanon could be in jeopardy during fighting there between Israeli forces and Hezbollah. The Met told him he would not have to guard that embassy. Farooq had been a firearms specialist working for the Wiltshire Constabulary in western England before he was transferred to the Diplomatic Protection Group SO16, which protects officials at government, diplomatic and Metropolitan Police sites. Such officers are required to undergo security vetting, including a counterterrorism check.

The Independent said that on Dec. 16, 2003, the force told Farooq that he had failed the check because his 9-year-old and 11-year-old sons had attended their local mosque for religious studies when the building was associated with an imam the police suspected had links to an extremist Islamic group.Farooq, who denied any such links or inappropriate behaviour, had been working for the Diplomatic Protection Group for six weeks at that point. The Independent quoted Farooq's lawyer, Lawrence Davies, as saying that Muslims such as Farooq often are unjustly seen as a national security threat without any evidence.

Why So Many School Shootings In U.S?

2006-10-03T07:52:00.000-07:00

ATLANTA, Georgia (Reuters) -- A rash of deadly shootings at U.S. schools has raised fresh questions about the causes of classroom rampages.

On Monday a gunman attacked a one-room Amish school in rural Pennsylvania, shooting dead three girls before killing himself, police said.

Last week an armed 15-year-old at a Wisconsin school killed the school's principal and in Colorado a drifter took six female high school students hostage, molested them, fatally shot one and killed himself.

School shootings have prompted changes to school safety rules, sparked debate over the availability of guns and prompted a string of academic studies on the causes of stress, depression and violence in young people.

"You need to examine in detail what's going on. Quite apart from the children who are exposed to school violence, the teachers and families are really traumatized and they need a lot of help," said Nadine Kaslow, professor and chief psychologist at Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta.

Advocates of wider gun controls argue that the availability of guns has made it easier for people to commit murder in schools.

"It is extremely easy whether you are a juvenile or a convicted felon or a domestic abuser to purchase a firearm legally or illegally," Peter Hamm of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence told Reuters.

"We believe that there should be criminal background checks on every gun purchase in America bar none and limits on the number of firearms an individual can purchase at one time," he said.

The right of an individual to carry a firearm is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and efforts to link the incidence of gun crime with access to guns are widely disputed.

While two of the recent shootings involved outsiders coming into schools, recent studies focused on student-on-student violence after two teenagers killed 12 fellow students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Colorado in April 1999.

In the Columbine incident, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold armed themselves with assault rifles, handguns and home-made bombs and walked through their high school firing on anybody they met in what appeared to be a long-planned spree.

Afterward intense scrutiny of the lives and backgrounds of the pair, who committed suicide, focused attention on school bullying, social cliques as well as the potential effects of the music they listened to and the video games they played. Experts also looked for ways to spot warning signs of violence.

Kaslow said that violence in U.S. schools was a bigger problem than was reported because of the high incidence of bullying, hitting and sexual offenses. Shootings were just an extreme form of that violence.

"We get the message that the way to communicate is through violence and that somehow violence is acceptable," she said, as one explanation for the social factors behind school violence.

Despite the violence, Kaslow said it was important to keep school shootings in perspective.

Only 1 percent of homicides of school-age children occurred in or around school grounds, she said, adding that shootings at suburban or upper-middle-class schools attracted more attention than violence in city schools.

Fifth Girl Dies In Amish School Shooting

2006-10-03T07:50:00.000-07:00

A seven-year-old victim of a shooting at an Amish school in the US succumbed to her injuries today, hospital sources said, bringing the toll to five victims dead and six wounded.

The girl, whose age was previously given as eight, "passed away this morning at approximately 4.30am (18:30 AEST) just after being removed from life support", said Sean Young, a spokesman for Penn State Hershey Medical Centre in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

"I believe it was a gunshot wound to the head," Young said when asked what injuries the girl sustained.

A fourth girl died in hospital later, according to Lancaster General Hospital spokeswoman Kim Hatch.

A gunman armed with a huge arsenal of weapons burst into an Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania today, tied up 11 young girls and systematically executed three of them before killing himself.

Eight other girls were wounded, and CNN today reported one of them had since died. Police say some of the others are so badly wounded they may not survive.

The gunman - a father-of-three who called his wife to say he was exacting revenge for something that happened 20 years ago - lined his terrified young victims up against the blackboard and opened fire.

It is believed the four who died were all shot in the head, as were some of the injured.

Today's attack, at the Amish school in the small town of Nickel Mines, is the third deadly US school shooting in the past week.

US President George W Bush said he was "deeply saddened" by the tragedy, and has ordered an emergency conference on school violence next week.

The gunman - milk truck driver Charles Carl Roberts, 32 - had ordered 15 boys and some adults in the one-room schoolhouse to leave before opening fire on the girls, who he'd tied up with wire and plastic cables.

Roberts, who was not Amish, had dropped his three school-aged children at their bus stop in the morning, showing no sign of the rampage to come, said Commissioner Jeffrey Miller, of Pennsylvania state police.

But Roberts had left a rambling suicide note and letter to his wife and children, referring to an event 20 years ago for which he sought revenge, and he planned for a lengthy siege.

In a final conversation with his wife before killing himself, Roberts also spokes of his need for "revenge", Miller said.

"He was angry with life and was angry at God ... there may have been a loss of a child at some point in his life," Miller said. He did not elaborate, but local media have reported Roberts had a fourth child who died as an infant.

Doomed To More Crime

2006-06-26T07:26:00.000-07:00

By Janet Daley

Why are we all banging our heads against the wall, trying to come up with a cure for our law-and-order problem, when the answer has been on offer for a decade? Tony Blair utters the most insidious claptrap about rebalancing the criminal justice system in favour of the victim, when the justice system should not "favour" anyone. (Justice is blindfolded, remember?)

Today, David Cameron will propose a homegrown Bill of Rights to replace the foreign-born Human Rights Act, as if national ownership of the law were the solution rather than simply the beginning of the argument.

Mr Blair was doomed from the start on law and order. Once he had uttered that self-cancelling slogan, "Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime", he was locked into the mindset that he would now like to repudiate if only he had the political nerve.

To approach law enforcement on the premise that all crime is "caused" by social circumstances is to lose the battle before it begins. That is what ordinary people know and what Mr Blair would like to say, but in his speech last week, he funked it.

He implied that there was something deeply wrong with the philosophy that underpinned the criminal justice system, but somehow that question of basic philosophy got lost in a blizzard of procedural changes and confusion about civil liberties - and he left untouched the fundamental problem of a system that most people now see as profoundly out of touch with its purpose.

It was possible to hear the luminously obvious stated yet again last week at a conference organised by Politeia and the Manhattan Institute, the think tank behind New York's law-and-order miracle.

The American police spokesmen, retelling it all for the zillionth time, sounded so positive, so confident, so optimistic - so unlike our own defensive, whingeing criminal justice establishment busily blaming the press, or the politicians, or the public itself, for what seems to be its endemic failure.

Some of us are tired of hearing ourselves say it, but it is still true: we, in which I include politicians of all parties, know what the answer is to this problem.

I have lost count of the number of Home Office ministers and opposition spokesmen who have made their pilgrimages to William Bratton, New York's famous former police chief, to ask, like questing travellers in an Arabian legend, "What is the secret?" - and been duly and patiently told.

Virtually everyone who influences public policy in these matters can recite passages from James Q Wilson's "broken windows" theory of law enforcement.

The principles are so clear and so patently effective: it is crime prevention that matters to quality of life. If you act against the small offences that create a sense of civil disorder - what the British call hooliganism and anti-social behaviour - you prevent the bigger crimes that are bred by a culture of neglect and community breakdown.

In New York, they started by arresting the guys who jumped over the turnstiles in the subway instead of paying, and ended up turning a murder capital into the safest big city in America.

So here is the real mystery. Why hasn't it happened here? Why do British police still act as if the "little" crimes and the epidemic of commonplace destructiveness in the streets are beneath their notice? Why do they not accept that imposing order, as Mr Bratton said again last week, is an essential step to preventing crime? And why do the courts not actively support that concept of policing?

Because there is a lack of political will. Why is this so? And, more to the point, why is the will lacking here when it is not in the United States? Because public officials in America do not suffer from historical class guilt: the guilt that is embodied in that Blairite aphorism about the "causes of crime". This is where Mr Cameron's idea about a Bill of Rights comes in.

In the United States, constitutional rights are guaranteed as part of the 18th-century model of a social contract between the state and the people. The elected government undertakes to enforce the law, and the citizen undertakes to obey it.

Fundamental to this is the notion that the citizen is free to make decisions about whether or not he will commit crime.

Without that assumption - that individuals (unless they are truly mentally unfit) are responsible for their own actions - the entire logic of the system breaks down. So long as we accept the doctrine of socially determined criminality - that if a crime is committed, we are all at fault - we will never, ever be in a position to demand effective prosecution of criminals.

But, of course, many of us do not accept it. Law-abiding people, especially those who are poor and disadvantaged themselves, do not generally believe it is their fault when someone else commits a crime. This view is a self-indulgent, and deeply patronising, luxury of the privileged for whom the acceptance of the burden of guilt is a class shibboleth. Like so much else in British life, it comes down to snobbery.

To refuse to accept the guilt that makes you, a respectable citizen, responsible for criminality, is to mark yourself as a downmarket member of the tabloid rabble. So, bizarrely, social acceptance in enlightened circles requires even people who themselves came from poor, deprived backgrounds, and who did not become criminals, to deny that the poor and deprived might be capable of controlling their own impulses.

Of course, we must deal, as a society, with the problems that can lead people into crime; but that does not have to entail being excessively, irresponsibly lenient with those who have been led.

What follows from this is a disastrous fatalism: we must resign ourselves to the fact that we will never be able to reduce crime until we have solved the social problems of deprivation and poverty. But one thing they have learnt definitively in America, as Mr Bratton says repeatedly, is that good policing affects behaviour.

In other words, even people who are potential criminals can be influenced to make other choices if the community, through its approach to policing, asserts its will. Politicians talk endlessly about "respect" and the role it must play in promoting civil order.

They talk, too, of self-respect (or "self-esteem", as it is known) being a necessary part of this. What could be more essential to self-respect than the belief that you are responsible, under the law, for your own actions?

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Retired Police Officer Shot - Wife Is Held For Questioning

2006-04-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

A retired New York City police officer was seriously injured early yesterday when a woman drove up alongside the car he was driving on a Brooklyn street and shot him at least four times, the police said. Within hours, the victim's wife, herself a city police officer, was being held by the authorities in New Jersey in connection with the shooting.

The shooting took place on a bustling weekday morning about 10 a.m. near a school in East New York when, the police said, a woman driving a silver rental car pulled alongside the victim's red Mercedes-Benz, fired a few shots, then sped to the corner.

She then made a U-turn and returned and fired several more times before driving off, the police said.

No one else was injured in the shooting.

Some security guards from Junior High School 166 across the street ran to help the wounded man inside the car, which was stopped in the middle of Van Siclen Avenue near Linden Boulevard with its windows shattered.

"He was saying, 'I'm going to die, I'm going to die,' and they were saying, 'Don't say that,' " said Brandon Wigley, 12, who is in seventh grade at the school and who said he was buying a snack at a vending machine in the school when he heard the gunfire and ran outside to see what had happened.

On the street, the police recovered four shell casings from a Sig Sauer, a type of gun used by New York City police officers.

The injured officer, identified by his mother and an ex-wife as Todd B. Jamison, 43, was listed in stable condition last night at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn, the authorities and Mr. Jamison's relatives said.

The police said he had been shot at least four times in the torso.

His mother, Bernice Jamison, 65, said one bullet nearly pierced her son's heart.

"I almost lost my child," she said. "He's my youngest child and I almost lost him this morning."

Ms. Jamison said she was worried that her son might lose the use of an arm, since its bones were shattered, and she said that part of his intestines would have to be removed in a second round of surgery. Last night, she said her son was having trouble breathing.

Mr. Jamison, who lives on Staten Island, retired last year from the Police Department, where he spent much of his career working in the 70th Precinct in Brooklyn, most recently as a community affairs officer, said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. Mr. Jamison joined the force in 1985, the police said.

"All indications are that he did an excellent job and he was well known in the community and well known in the precinct," Mr. Kelly said.

No criminal charges had been filed in the case as of last evening, but Mr. Kelly said that detectives investigating the shooting were questioning Mr. Jamison's wife, who joined the force in 1994 and was also assigned to the 70th Precinct.

Later, the police said they had probable cause to hold the woman, identified by Mr. Jamison's mother as Alison Jamison.

Alison Jamison, 42, was stopped at a Budget Rent a Car facility at Newark International Airport sometime in the early afternoon, after the shooting, Mr. Kelly said. When she was taken into custody she was with a female friend, the police said.

The police said that Alison Jamison would be held overnight and that the authorities in New York would seek a court hearing to extradite her today.

Asked if the department had any indications of problems between Mr. Jamison and his wife, or if the police had been called to their Staten Island address for reports of domestic problems, Mr. Kelly said: "At this time, we have no record of that. We are still looking into it, but as of this juncture there is no indication of that."

Bernice Jamison said that her son and Alison Jamison met in 2003 and were married last July, her son's third marriage, but that about five weeks ago he had moved back home with her, on Essex Street, in East New York.

She said that Alison Jamison called her shortly after her son left yesterday morning to ask where he was. Mr. Jamison, who works as an athletic director at Nazareth Regional High School in Flatbush, may have been on his way to the school, she said.

"She seemed to be a very intelligent girl," Bernice Jamison said of her daughter-in-law. "I loved her and she loved me." She added, "Now, I don't know how I feel about her."

Nate Schweber contributed reporting for this article.

Source:www.nytimes.com

Oakland Officer Files Slander Suit Against City

2006-04-11T16:06:00.000-07:00

OAKLAND, Calif. - A former Oakland police officer sued the city for slander after being cleared of charges he was part of a rogue band of police officers known as "the Riders" that planted evidence and abused suspects.

Matt Hornung, 34, is seeking $5 million in the federal civil rights lawsuit filed April 3 in San Francisco federal court. The suit accuses officers Keith Batt and Steve Hewison and Sgt. Jon Madarang of lying in court to try to convict Hornung and two other officers.

The suit claims the defendants slandered Hornung when they called the accused officers "bad apples" and "a cancer which needed to be cut from the department."

They "engaged in a series of lies and false testimony" and need to be held accountable for their actions, said Hornung's attorney, Ed Fishman of Sebastopol.

A spokeswoman for Oakland City Attorney John Russo declined to comment because she had not seen the lawsuit.

Hornung, Clarence "Chuck" Mabanag and Jude Siapno were accused of abusing their power by assaulting or framing West Oakland residents in 2000.

A fourth officer, alleged ringleader Frank Vazquez, is a fugitive. All four were fired.

After two trials, Hornung was acquitted of making a false statement in a police report and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Prosecutors dropped the charges against Mabanag and Siapno after a jury deadlocked on most of the counts against them.

The three officers are seeking reinstatement. A hearing is scheduled April 21 in Alameda County Superior Court on whether to send the case to arbitration.

Driver Convicted Of Shooting Police Officer

2006-03-31T17:33:00.000-08:00

The punishment phase of a man convicted of attempted capital murder for shooting a Houston police officer resumes this morning after being delayed briefly Thursday when the judge ordered he be taken from the courtroom for speaking while a witness testified against him.

A jury convicted Wendell Roy Mitchell, 34, early Thursday in the wounding of Houston police officer Raul Montelongo Jr. during a traffic stop April 22.

He faces 15 years to life in prison. The punishment phase is scheduled to resume at 10 a.m.

Mitchell told investigators he did not intend to kill Montelongo when he fired his pistol. Jurors could have found him guilty of the lesser charge of deadly conduct if they had determined he had no intention of killing the officer.

During the trial's punishment phase late Thursday, several witnesses testified about Mitchell's previous arrest for robbing restaurants in 1990 in Houston and Jacinto City.

While Jacinto City Police Chief Joe M. Ayala read from a written statement Mitchell made when he was arrested and admitted committing one of those robberies, Mitchell pleaded with the judge, saying he had not made the statement.

"Your honor, I didn't write those things in that statement," he said in a calm, soft voice.

State District Judge Belinda Hill told bailiffs to escort the jury from the courtroom and to take Mitchell to a holding cell outside the court. She recessed court for about 10 minutes.

When court resumed but before the jury returned, she admonished Mitchell not to make any more outbursts or he would be returned to the holding cell.

He remained quiet for the remainder of testimony Thursday.

Mitchell told investigators after his arrest that he meant only to scare Montelongo when he fired his .380-caliber pistol as the officer stood within about a foot of him after stopping him for speeding in the 8400 block of the Eastex Freeway, according to court records.

"I believe him, because he's not a murderer," his mother, Lillian Davis, said outside the courtroom after the verdict was announced..

Montelongo, 36, said he was happy about the verdict.

"It's satisfying, knowing the justice system worked," he said outside the courtroom.

Source:http://www.chron.com

Man Fatally Shot By Holland Police Officer After Chase

2006-03-31T17:29:00.000-08:00

HOLLAND, Mich. (AP) — A driver who crashed into a police car and tried to run over an officer following an attempted traffic stop was fatally shot by a city police officer early Friday, authorities said.

The shooting happened about 2 a.m. in a parking lot, The Grand Rapids Press reported. The name of the man who was killed was not immediately released, nor was the identity of the officer who shot him.

Police said an officer tried to stop the driver, but that the motorist sped off. After eventually pulling into the parking lot, police said the vehicle hit a patrol car several times and the driver tried to run over an officer.

The driver was shot and taken to a local hospital, where he died, police said. It was uncertain how many officers were involved, the newspaper said. Holland police asked Michigan State Police to conduct an independent investigation into the shooting.

Crime And Probation

2006-03-27T03:17:00.000-08:00

By David Fraser

Each week, a murder or rape is committed by offenders supposedly under supervision. Yet, even knee-deep in evidence of its own failure, the National Probation Service cannot acknowledge its inability to reform these criminals. It is all a deadly con trick, writes David Fraser, who spent years working in the service

When I read that four of the six men who raped, tortured and then murdered the schoolgirl Maryann Leneghan were on probation, I felt angry and desperately sad. But I was not in the least surprised: I realised long ago that probation is a gigantic con trick played on the public.

I spent 34 years working with criminals. For most of those years, I was trying to reform criminals, first as an officer, then a manager, in the probation service. I witnessed at first hand the contempt of most criminals for the "rehabilitation sessions" - which then lasted, at most, half an hour a week - that were supposed to persuade them out of a life of crime.

Most of the criminals, when they did not see the sessions as a huge joke, thought our conversations a pointless bore. Their behaviour showed it: when they were not talking to me, they simply continued their criminal careers. That, to me, demonstrated just how futile the attempts to turn them into law-abiding citizens were.

Almost all governments since the 1960s have tried to convince the public that probation works and prison does not. In fact, that is the exact opposite of the truth. Probation, parole and community sentences fail miserably at reforming criminals. The reality is that if criminals are in prison, they cannot commit crimes. If they are in the community, they can - and they do.

The Government spends enormous amounts of money, time and energy on trying to deny this obvious truth. The statistics are blatantly fiddled to "prove" that probation and community sentences are as effective as prison at reducing crime.

The only way to get this result is simply to refuse to recognise that when in prison, criminals cannot commit crimes. So that is precisely what happens. The reconviction rates of prisoners are measured from the time of their release, while the reconviction rates of those on probation or community supervision are measured fom the start of the order. Even on that spurious comparison, which is blatantly and deliberately mendacious, the two rates of conviction are broadly similar.

The conjuring trick has the desired effect: it fools most people into thinking that probation is "just as good" as prison. Recent events, however, should have gone some way towards dispelling that illusion.

Damien Hanson, who stabbed the banker John Monckton to death in his Chelsea home, was on parole. Yousef Bouhaddaou, who murdered Robert Symons when the school teacher disturbed him as Bouhaddaou was burgling his house, was also under the supervision of the probation sevice.

Now we know that Michael Johnson, the ringleader of the group of vile and vicious sadists who murdered 16-year-old Maryann was on community supervision, as were three of the others involved. None of these hideous murders would have happened if the men had been in jail.

Harry Fletcher, the secretary of the National Associaton of Probation Officers, and Martin Wargent, the chief executive of the Probation Boards Association, have both been in the press and on the radio defending the service, and quoting a new statistic: that, of the 13,000 offenders who are assessed by the probation service to pose a "high or a very high" risk to the public, only "0.6 per cent committed serious offences last year".

That sounds as if it is an impressive testament to the National Probation Service's success. It starts to seem somewhat less so when you realise that "serious offences" covers such crimes murder, rape, arson and armed robbery.

It does not include assault, actual bodily harm, burglary, fraud or theft. Even if the "0.6 per cent of 13,000" statistic is correct, it still means that, on average, someone is raped or murdered or seriously injured each week by a criminal supposedly under the supervision of the probation service.

The admission that decisions by the probation service result in "only" one murder, rape or similarly serious offence a week does not sound like something to boast about. Again, these are all crimes that would not have happened had the criminal not been released to be supervised by the probation service.

It is an outrage. Those murders and rapes, not to say millions of lesser crimes, are wholly the result of the Government's policy of preferring probation, parole and "community punishments" to prison.

Moreover, it is important to point out that Johnson and the three others who murdered Maryann Leneghan while on probation would not be counted as among the "0.6 per cent" of offenders "assessed as high risk who reoffended last year". Astonishingly, they would all be classified, in Home Office statistics, not as a failure, but as a success for the probation service. This is for two reasons.

First, although the murder of Maryann was committed during their period of probation, they were not convicted of the crime or, indeed, charged with it until after that probation period was over. According to the probation service's definition of a "successfully completed period of supervision", these men did exactly that.

Amazingly, offences committed during the probation period do not count. Only offences for which a criminal is convicted while he is on probation are recorded in Home Office statistics as a "failure" of probation.

Second, Johnson et al were all assessed as at a "low risk", which automatically rules them out of being among the "13,000 high-risk offenders", of whom "only 0.6 per cent committed serious offences last year".

So a statistic that looks, on the surface, as if it is a tribute to the success of the probation service, is actually an example of its multiple failures. Although the probation service is able to predict accurately how likely criminals are to reoffend, it fails to stop them doing so.

This is as true of the probation service's much-vaunted "intensive supervision" courses as it is of the probation or parole consisting of a bog-standard, half-hour meeting a week. Consider, for example, the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme, which the Government introduced, at a cost of £98 million, as an alternative to sending young offenders to prison.

A recent assessment of that programme showed that it had been a total failure: a staggering 91 per cent of the juvenile offenders were reconvicted of an offence while they were still on the programme. But was that enough for it to be recognised as a failure by those within the criminal justice industry? Absolutely not.

Incredibly, Ellie Roy, the chief executive of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, insisted that a 91 per cent failure rate was, in fact, "a success". She claimed that "young people on the programme commit 40 per cent fewer crimes than previously, and those they do commit are much less serious".

Ms Roy's defence is spurious: she could not know either how many or how severe the offences that the juvenile offenders on the course were committing. All she or anyone else could possibly know for certain were the offences that the courts had found these young people guilty of committing.

Since about 20 times as many offences are committed as result in criminal convictions, this suggests that the young criminals on the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme were busy committing far more offences than those which they were actually convicted for while on the course.

The real recidivist rate on that programme was almost certainly not 91 per cent: it was 100 per cent. That is a failure by any standard - except, of course, the one that the National Probation Service uses.

It is the same story with just about every form of probation you care to consider. What Works - the special programme that was claimed, as its name suggests, to work, in direct contrast to earlier programmes - turned out not to work after all: 84 per cent of the criminals on that programme were convicted of offences committed while they were taking part.

Drug Testing and Treatment Orders, also rolled out with much fanfare by the Government as an effective way of dealing with crime "in the community", had an even higher rate of failure: 90 per cent of the criminals on that programme were convicted of offences committed while they were on it.

The Home Office statistics show that the rate of reconviction for all males on probation is more than 60 per cent. And, remember, these statistics count only reconvictions. When you consider that about 20 offences are committed for every one that results in a conviction, the real rate of reoffending is going to be far higher.

The Home Office and the Government is perfectly well aware of these figures - and of the shattering failure of probation and related "community sentences" which they represent. The truth is that criminals placed in the community commit crimes. No one knows that better than Government ministers and civil servants at the Home Office. Why, then, do they deny it in public?

There is a simple answer: money. The Government argues that probation and parole are, compared with prison, cheap. In reality, the cost of crime (at least £60 billion a year) far outweighs the cost of prisons. The only way of preventing criminals from committing crimes that is known to be effective is to lock them in prison.

But keeping criminals in prison is expensive. The Government would have to embark on a massive prison-building programme if it were to replace probation, parole and community sentences with incarceration.

No one in the Government, and certainly no one in the Treasury, is prepared to spend the enormous sums that would be required. So they keep on peddling the false promise that probation, parole and community sentences protect us all just as well as prison.

Honest, law-abiding people are the victims of this policy of pretending that probation does anything to reduce crime. It does not. The Government has evidently made the decision that it is too expensive to put criminals out of circulation, and that they must be allowed to prey on the rest of us.

Perhaps a majority of us would turn out to share the view that the millions of additional crimes, which include scores of murders and rapes, is a price worth paying. Somehow I doubt it.

But we have not been asked: instead, we have been lied to and conned, fed phoney statistics and imaginary "success" rates for probation, and told that everything is going just fine. It is not. The sooner we all realise that fact and see through the probation con-trick, the better.

• David Fraser is the author of A Land Fit for Criminals (Book Guild Publishing; £17.99), available in bookshops from Thursday or by telephoning 01825 873133.

22-Year-Old Arrested In Shooting Of Officer

2006-03-27T03:11:00.000-08:00

Seattle -- A 22-year-old man was arrested Saturday night for allegedly shooting a Puyallup police officer in the face. The man is being held on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder and felon in possession of a firearm. His name was not released.

The officer, who has served more than 14 years on the force, was in stable condition at Tacoma General Hospital late Saturday after being shot at Puyallup's South Hill mall.

Gary Shilley, 51, was investigating a suspicious vehicle at the mall about 12:20 a.m. when he was shot, police said.

He was shot once in the face, police said, but was able to call for help.

Police Search For Street Racer Who Struck Officer

2006-03-21T13:57:00.000-08:00

Brent Whiting
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 21, 2006 12:00 AM GOODYEAR - A Goodyear police officer escaped serious injury early Sunday when he was struck by a street racer who swerved and apparently tried to run him down, police said Monday.

Authorities say Sgt. Chris McCall had stepped out of his patrol car and fired his service weapon at the oncoming vehicle just before being hit.

McCall, a 10-year veteran of the Goodyear force, was taken to a Phoenix hospital for treatment but did not suffer any serious injury, said Ralph McLaughlin, a Goodyear police commander.

The incident occurred on Litchfield Road near the entrance to the Phoenix-Goodyear Municipal Airport after McCall and other officers tried to stop vehicles that were street racing, McLaughlin said.

Up to 40 vehicles had been racing in the area, McLaughlin said. Some of the cars raced past McCall, but the driver of one vehicle swerved toward him.

Police have several leads, but the driver has yet to be identified, McLaughlin said.

To offer information, call Robert Frederick, an Arizona Department of Public Safety investigator, at (602) 223-2363.

NSW Polcie Should Settle Out Of Court

2006-03-13T05:53:00.000-08:00

NSW, AU -- MARK COLVIN: The New South Wales Police Force has been accused of wasting millions of dollars by fighting compensation claims, by officers who've been physically or psychologically damaged in the line of duty.

It's been revealed that in a number of cases former police officers had offered to settle for less than $150,000 but ended up with payouts of three quarters of a million dollars, after the force insisted on going to court.

The Police Union says the way the claims are handled by the force's legal unit is "dysfunctional", and that the process only causes further injury to officers seeking compensation for negligence.

The allegations have prompted an external review of the force's legal services unit.

Jean Kennedy compiled this report for PM.

BOB RIDLEY: I had a total nervous breakdown in '98, and went into a state of depression and had a suicidal tendency, and I basically gave up on life.

JEAN KENNEDY: Bob Ridley was a former undercover officer with the New South Wales Police Service.

He worked for four years as a senior constable in the police service's most secretive squad, the special forces unit known as the stingers, and assumed a range of different identities posing as both a drug dealer and buyer for crime gangs.

He infiltrated bikie gangs and the Russian mafia, and to both fit in and cope with the danger, he drank to excess and took speed and cocaine, among other drugs.

But Bob Ridley says that when the job was done, he was left with an addiction but little support in picking up the pieces.

BOB RIDLEY: The biggest mental struggle I had was trying to find my feet being a policeman again after being a crook for four years, you know, purporting to be a drug dealer and running around living that sort of lifestyle.

JEAN KENNEDY: He sought compensation from the police force for negligence. They knocked back an offer of $100,000 forcing him to pursue a civil claim through the courts, which he ended up winning, and was awarded $ 750,000 plus court costs.

The police union says there are many such examples, where the police force's legal unit appears intent on dragging out cases and pushing them into the courts, at taxpayer's expense.

Peter Remfrey is the Police Association Secretary.

PETER REMFREY: Well we think the whole system for handling of these claims is dysfunctional, and part of the reason for that is that, there are so many different people, and so many different agencies that are involved in the system, that it makes it impossible for sensible decisions to be made when there's offers of settlement on the table.

JEAN KENNEDY: What sort of cases are having to go before the courts because they're not accepting settlement?

PETER REMFREY: The cases that have got the real problems around them are people who have been severely injured at work, who might have psychological claims, people who are working in crime scene for example, and are suing New South Wales Police for negligence.

They make offers of a small amount of settlement and unfortunately the system is forcing them to go through a court process, that asks them to repeat and relive the very things that it is, that damaged them. In our view forcing someone through such a system, who is already damaged, is criminal.

JEAN KENNEDY: The New South Wales Police Minister, Carl Scully.

CARL SCULLY: Well, I've had a number of complaints brought to my attention by serving and former police officers and lawyers, about the way claims are being managed. Not police prosecutors by the way, but the civil law claims, and I thought that those claims needed to be tested and that's why I've ordered an external review.

JEAN KENNEDY: How concerned are you about these cases where officers have been prepared to settle for around $150,000 or less, but end up going to court, being forced to go to court and getting $750,000 awarded to them?

CARL SCULLY: I'm very concerned about those allegations that have been made. I need to have them tested.

It's one thing for people to make informal approaches, it's quite another to put formal offers into the court documents. And I'd be quite concerned if the offer had been formalised by the plaintiffs' lawyers, and not seriously considered by Police legal when the consequence is taxpayers end up paying a lot more money than they necessarily should have.

JEAN KENNEDY: In Bob Ridley's case, after the court awarded him $750,000 the case was appealed against by the police force, but after four months it thought better of it, and dropped the matter. He says the way the force handled his compensation claim was disgraceful.

BOB RIDLEY: It's just fight them until they either die, or they lose interest, or they run out of money.

JEAN KENNEDY: So they made it very hard for you?

BOB RIDLEY: Most definitely. In fact, I probably got as much stress from that, than I did doing undercover work.

JEAN KENNEDY: Did you feel a sense of satisfaction that you ended up getting such a big amount rewarded to you, when you had been prepared to settle for so little?

BOB RIDLEY: Just relief, just relief that it was all over. I felt vindicated, that I had done nothing wrong myself, and that I was the loyal one to the Police Service, and a committed police officer, who tried his hardest to do the right thing and got shafted in the mean time.

MARK COLVIN: Former undercover police officer, Bob Ridley, ending Jean Kennedy's report.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1590674.htm

Crime in Scottsdale Arizona

2006-03-13T05:50:00.000-08:00

SCOTTSDALE, AZ - Property crimes are on the decline, according to Scottsdale police.

A 2005 crime analysis shows a decrease in robberies, burglaries and thefts from 2004.

Police reported slight increases in aggravated assaults and homicides. There were five homicides in 2005, up from four in 2004.

The statistics, compiled by Scottsdale's Crime Analysis Unit, highlight police partnerships with community organizations, such as neighborhood watch groups and homeowners associations, Scottsdale Police Sgt. Mark Clark said.

Clark said the declining crime rates could be attributed to community efforts.

Neighborhood groups are particularly useful property crime deterrents, considering that neighbors are what police have come to call "the first line of defense" against burglaries and thefts.

"The chances of someone in the neighborhood seeing someone doing that is a heck of a lot higher than a police officer catching it," Clark said.

The biggest crime trend from 2004 to 2005 was a 16 percent decrease in thefts, police said.

Motor vehicle thefts decreased 12 percent over the same period. Burglaries declined by 10.4 percent.

Victims reported 51 forcible rapes in 2005, down from 63 in 2004.

Aside from the slight increase in homicides, 285 aggravated assaults were reported in 2005 up from 269 the previous year.

Secret Service Officer Hurt in SE Shootout

2006-03-06T23:21:00.000-08:00

An off-duty police officer in the Secret Service's uniformed division was wounded last night in Southeast Washington in an exchange of gunfire during an attempt to steal his car.

It was the second time yesterday that shots were fired when gunmen tried to take a police officer's car in the District.

In last night's incident, The Secret Service officer was hit in the hand about 9:40 p.m. at a service station at Pennsylvania and Branch Avenues, according to Inspector Alton Bigelow of the 6th Police District.

The officer, who was not identified by name, was taken to a hospital for treatment.

The Secret Service officer, who was not in uniform, was filling the tank of his late-model Jeep when the would-be carjacker stepped out of an automobile, Bigelow said.

The assailant approached and demanded the officer's vehicle. The officer drew his gun, and the exchange of shots followed.

It was unclear last night how many shots were fired, but markers placed at the scene indicated the presence of about half a dozen spent cartridges.

After the shooting, the robber returned to his car and fled. At least one other person was inside, police said.

The Jeep remained at the scene last night. The window on its driver's side was shattered, apparently by gunfire.

The Secret Service's uniformed division patrols the White House and its grounds, as well embassies.

The earlier incident also occurred at a service station east of the Anacostia River. Robbers, at least one of them with a gun, seized a vehicle from an off-duty Prince George's County officer in the 3300 block of Benning Road NE, police said.

The officer fired at the robbers during the carjacking, police said.

Police who were searching for the officer's car found it about 10 minutes later, in another east-of-the-river neighborhood.

They said two suspects were taken into custody in the incident. One had a gunshot wound.

Source:www.washingtonpost.com

Police Officer Makes Quick Collar

2006-03-06T22:29:00.000-08:00

Their luck and timing could not have been worse.

Three men, one armed with a handgun, robbed a man at Rosemont and Madison streets in Hartford at 2:45 a.m. Sunday, practically right in front of Dexton Palmer, an off-duty Meriden police officer.

The victim told Palmer that he had been robbed and pointed out the suspects, Hartford police said Sunday. It wasn't immediately known if the victim knew Palmer was an officer. Palmer, a rookie who was armed with his service weapon, decided to intervene.

He identified himself as a police officer and held two of the men, Hartford police said. A third robber fled, police said.

When officers arrived, Palmer had two of the suspects on the ground, waiting to be handcuffed, police Lt. Bruce Roy said.

Joseph Murrell, 19, of Capen Street, and Terrence Anderson, 18, of 2329 Main St., both of Hartford, were charged with robbery, police said. Hartford police said they are still investigating.

Efforts Sunday to reach Palmer were unsuccessful.

Word of the arrest by Palmer, who has been in the department a little more than a year, had made it back to Meriden police later in the morning. Meriden police Sgt. Lenny Caponigro said many officers carry their firearms while off duty. "A lot of them carry them 24/7," he said.

"He basically happened to be in the right place at the right time," Caponigro said of Palmer.

In an unrelated incident, Hartford police were investigating a shooting at 911 Asylum Ave. in which a man was wounded in the leg by a .22-caliber firearm.

Police Officer Face Sacking Over ATM Theaft

2006-03-03T08:47:00.000-08:00

NSW, AU -- The New South Wales police corruption watchdog has recommended a suspended Sydney policeman be sacked after an investigation into the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars from automatic teller machines (ATMs).

The Police Integrity Commission (PIC) has not recommended criminal charges be laid, but says the officer should be prosecuted over other offences uncovered during hearings, including encouraging witnesses to give false testimony and falsifying documents.

The PIC has found that Senior Constable Daniel Francis Ryan engaged in police misconduct.
During a hearing, Senior Constable Ryan denied involvement in the theft of about $700,000 from ATMs in Sydney in 2001. It was alleged his brother and a Chubb security guard were also involved.

The PIC says the policeman was unable to provide a credible explanation about the source of more than $400,000 he had.

Police Officer Kills Armed Woman

2006-03-03T08:46:00.000-08:00

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) _ A police officer shot and killed a woman who lunged at him with a knife during a confrontation at a house early Friday, police said.

"It was very clear that the woman was in an irrational state and lunged at a police officer," said interim Chief Timothy Hickey.

The husband of Patricia Thompson, 54, alerted police around midnight to say that he needed help. Within a minute of the arrival of two officers, Thompson repeatedly attempted to strike Officer Jeffrey Lafave, who pushed her away, the chief said.

She then retreated into the kitchen, returned to the front hallway and moved toward the officer with a knife, Hickey said. The officer backed up but she kept moving toward him and he shot her once in the chest, Hickey added.

Thompson's husband and his daughter witnessed the confrontation and told officers they saw her attack the officer, the chief added.

Police were called to the house nine times over the last few years because of Thompson's mental health problems, Hickey said. But neither Lafave, an officer for one year, nor his partner knew about her health history, he said.

Lafave will be placed on administrative duty while an internal investigation is conducted, but the chief described the shooting as justified. The other officer, a three-year veteran, will resume regular patrol duties.

Source:www.newsday.com

Police Officer In Naked Photos Denial

2006-02-28T15:31:00.000-08:00

Scottland, UK -- A Scottish police officer threatened to put naked pictures of his deaf girlfriend on the internet unless she paid him, a court has heard.

Grampian Police Constable George Hall, 44, who denies trying to extort hundreds of pounds from Lynn Morrison, went on trial on Tuesday. The offence is alleged to have happened at her home in Cruden Bay, Aberdeenshire, last year. The officer has gone on trial at Peterhead Sheriff Court.

It is claimed Constable Hall told Ms Morrison that unless she paid him he would show the "naked and indecent" photographs of her in public.

This allegedly placed Ms Morrison, 33, in a state of fear and alarm.

'Private matter'

PC Hall, also of Cruden Bay, faces an alternative charge of breach of the peace by causing Ms Morrison to believe he would display naked and indecent images of her in a public forum.

Giving evidence on the first day of the trial, Ms Morrison - who was assisted in court by an interpreter - said she first got to know the police officer when she began babysitting for his children.

She said they began a relationship around August 2003 and PC Hall had taken photos of an intimate nature of her on a digital camera. Ms Morrison said she also took photos of herself using the camera's automatic timer.

Procurator fiscal Sandy Hutchison asked: "These photos, did you consider them a private matter or photos that could be distributed elsewhere?"

"No, no, very private," she said.

Ms Morrison said the photographs had been loaded onto both PC Hall's computer and her computer.

The court heard that during their relationship, Ms Morrison borrowed £500 from PC Hall as she owed her sister money.

"At its best, how would you describe your relationship with Mr Hall?" asked Mr Hutchison.

"It was love, the relationship was good," she said.

Ms Morrison added that at that time she was happy for the photos to be taken.

"It was boyfriend and girlfriend, it was about the relationship and we trusted each other," she said.

'Very shocked'

The court heard that Ms Morrison had paid PC Hall back £200 but still owed him £300 when their relationship ended in August 2004.

It was claimed that Ms Morrison started getting text messages from PC Hall in January 2005 "bothering" her over the amount she owed.

She told the court that on 3 March, 2005, she received a text message from PC Hall which prompted her to contact the police.

"It said if I did not pay the money back he would put images of me naked on the internet," she said

The fiscal asked: "The threat of him putting naked images of you on the internet, did you consider that related to the images of you still on his computer?"

She said: "Yes and it was shocking - I did not still know he had these photos of me and I was very shocked by that because these were such private things."

The trial continues.

Shooting In Seattle

2006-02-28T15:30:00.000-08:00

Seattle, US -- A Seattle police officer fired two shots at a car after the driver tried to run another officer down when the two officers interrupted an alleged drug deal.

The shooting happened about 1 a.m. Monday in the 200 block of Sixth Avenue North, Seattle police reported. No one was hurt, and police arrested two men for investigation of assault.

According to police, two bike officers patrolling around a motel saw two men in a white Buick in an area known for drug activity. When they went to investigate, the driver made what police described as a furtive movement, prompting one of the officers to draw his weapon and order the men out.

Instead, the driver put the car in reverse and sped backward, smashing one of the officers' bicycles and forcing the officer to jump out of the way.

The driver then drove forward, allegedly straight at the second officer, who fired his gun twice, hitting one of the car's tires. The driver lost control and

California Police Officer Attacks

2006-02-25T04:44:00.000-08:00

LOS ANGELES - Officer Bobbie Norman was making what should have been a routine traffic stop when someone inside the car he had pulled over fired a handgun out the rear window.

Norman, an 11-year-veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, had pulled over the white Toyota Camry for driving 70 mph. He was only two feet away from the vehicle when the shots were fired, and immediately went to the ground.

"By the grace of God he missed me from that range," said Norman, who hasn't been out on patrol since the Feb. 9 shooting in the city's Devonshire neighborhood. "They would've killed me over a $100 fine for speeding, and that's unacceptable."

Norman spoke to reporters Friday at a news conference where LAPD Chief William J. Bratton, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and other law enforcement officials called on the public to help stop this year's rise in the number of shootings targeting police officers, most committed by gang members.

Baca said everyone who shoots a police officer has friends, family members or loved ones who know they go out at night packing a firearm. He called on those close to gang members to either "talk some sense into your loved one" or turn him in.

The shootings appear to be a mix of random attacks and ambushes, though there does not seem to be any organized effort to kill officers, Bratton said.

"We need help," Bratton said. "We are the protectors, but we're appealing to the public to help protect the protectors."

There have been five shootings on LAPD officers this year, up from 16 shootings last year, Bratton said. If the rate continues this could be one of the department's worst years for officer shootings, he said.

There has been one shooting at a sheriff's deputy this year, compared to 10 shootings last year, Baca said.

The California Highway Patrol has had at least two shootings this year, CHP Assistant Chief Ellen Conley said.

The news conference came a day after thousands of people from around the country gathered to honor CHP Officer Earl Scott, 36, who was found dead last week on the side of Highway 99, about 10 miles north of Modesto. Scott was the fifth CHP officer killed in the line of duty during the last five months.

Stanislaus County prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty for 30-year-old Columbus Allen II, who is charged with murder for allegedly shooting Scott in the head. He is expected to enter a plea March 16.

Also Thursday, police in Mexico arrested Jorge Arroyo Garcia, the lead suspect in the April 2002 shooting death of Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy David March, 33.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said prosecutors want to seek the death penalty, but are barred by a 1978 treaty that lets Mexico deny extradition if a suspect could face execution.

Police Officer Who Shot Three Manson Family Members Dies

2006-02-25T04:40:00.000-08:00

Pete Frankel, 62, who was a member of the Hawthorne police force when he shot three Manson family members who were attempting a robbery in 1971, died Feb. 10 at Menifee Valley Medical Center in Sun City, Calif. He had suffered a heart attack several months ago.

On the night of Aug. 21, 1971, police responded to a silent alarm at the Western Surplus store on Hawthorne Boulevard, where robbers were holding three clerks and two customers at gunpoint as they raided the store.

After Lt. James Kobus pulled up near a van parked in the alley behind the store, the suspects opened fire from the van. Backup units responded to Kobus' radio call, and eight Hawthorne officers were involved in the 10-minute shootout.

Frankel blocked the other side of the alley with his car and, he recalled in a 2004 interview, as he went down the alley saw the shooters run from the van and hide behind a metal shed.

"I returned fire with my sidearm and said, 'This is not cutting it,' so I got the shotgun," he recalled.

Frankel wounded three of the five suspects who were captured; a sixth escaped. Only later did police discover that the robbers were members of the notorious Manson family and that the 140 firearms they had taken were to be used in a plot to free Manson (photo above). The cult leader had been convicted and sentenced to death in early 1971 for the seven Tate-La Bianca murders.

A native New Yorker, Frankel served in the Army and Navy and rose to the rank of lieutenant at the Hawthorne Police Department, where he served from 1968 to 1988.

Off-Duty Officer Shoots, Kills Theft Suspect in NE

2006-02-22T23:08:00.000-08:00

An off-duty D.C. police officer shot and killed a 51-year-old man during a confrontation yesterday afternoon in Northeast Washington, authorities said.

The officer, identified as Edward M. Ford, shot Ignatius Gary Brown about 3 p.m. at West Virginia Avenue and Neal Street NE, police said. Brown, of the 1200 block of Oates Street NE, was taken to Washington Hospital Center, where he died about a half-hour later, police said.

Investigators were trying to piece together what happened, and some details remained sketchy last night. Authorities said Ford was driving in the area and spotted Brown, who was being sought by police for allegedly having stolen tools at a nearby house on which Ford had been working.

According to police, events unfolded like this: Ford got out of his car, asked a neighborhood resident to call 911 and approached the man. The man made a threatening motion, and Ford pulled out his gun. At this point, the man lunged at Ford, and the officer's gun discharged. It was not clear whether the gun went off by accident, police said.

Authorities could not immediately say what Ford, who works in the 2nd Police District in Northwest Washington, was doing in the area. According to voter registration records, he lives about two miles from where the shooting took place.

Ford, 48, has been the subject of several internal and criminal investigations since he joined the force in 1990, according to court records and news reports.

In December 1993, Ford and another officer handcuffed a Silver Spring motorist to a mailbox in Northwest Washington after stopping her on suspicion of drunken driving. During that incident, Ford and the other officer forcibly took a camera from a Washington Post reporter who was at the scene.

No charges were filed against the officers. But the incident generated controversy after the newspaper published a front-page photograph of the woman locked to the mailbox. Lawsuits filed by the woman and the reporter, Brian Mooar, were settled out of court.

Ford has been arrested on assault charges three times -- in 1993, 1995 and 1999 -- but was not convicted. Prosecutors decided not to pursue charges in two of the cases, and a D.C. Superior Court judge granted a motion of acquittal in the third, court records show.

Residents of the neighborhood where yesterday's shooting occurred said they were surprised by the incident. The episode took place just outside the fence that borders Gallaudet University, next to Holy Name Catholic School. No one else was wounded in the shooting. The police investigation shut down traffic on West Virginia Avenue, clogging side streets with traffic during rush hour.

"If somebody died, somebody needs to know what happened," said Anthony Wilson, a resident who arrived home from work after the shooting. "We don't generally have homicides on this street or large crime waves here."

Officer Dies From "Friendly Fire"

2006-02-17T19:36:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK (AP) _ An off-duty police office shot by a patrolman on Jan. 8 in a case of mistaken identity died from three gunshot wounds, the medical examiner said Friday.

Though the death of Eric Hernandez was ruled a homicide, authorities have said the shooter followed proper procedure, and was not expected to face charges.

Hernandez, 24, suffered a severe beating during a dispute with several other men in a fast-food restaurant just before shooting. But there was no finding that the attack contributed to his death. The official cause of death was two gunshot wounds to the right abdomen, and one to the right leg, said medical examiner spokeswoman Ellen Borakove.

After he was beaten, the dazed officer pulled a gun on a man in the restaurant's parking lot before being shot by the patrolman, police said. The shooter, Alfredo Toro, had no way of knowing Hernandez was a fellow officer and fired only after Hernandez refused orders to drop his weapon, police said.

Authorities later arrested six men in connection with the assault on Hernandez. Hernandez, of White Plains, had been a police officer since July 2004, and was a member of the department's football team.

Man Impersonating Police Officer In Huston

2006-02-17T19:33:00.000-08:00

A man on probation for impersonating a police officer has been charged again with pretending to be an emergency medical technician and is being sought by state and local police.

Weylin Dawson Spradley, 25, who has the word "police" tattooed on his left arm, is driving a white 2003 Chevrolet Impala painted to look like an emergency vehicle, said Sgt. Brian Carr of the Houston Police Department's Major Offenders Division.

"We are concerned because the suspect may be using the vehicle to commit crimes pretending to be a police officer," Carr said today.

Police have been searching for Spradley since November when he drove the Impala into an auto-graphics shop and had the car fitted with stripes and emblems that made the car resemble an official government vehicle.

Carr said Spradley paid for the job with a check that looked like it was from a government agency. When the check bounced, the graphics shop called police.

Carr said Spradley was wearing a uniform with shoulder patches on the day the car was painted.

Investigators do not if Spradley has used the fake car to make any traffic stops.

The car and patches bear the name "South Ridge Emergency Services." Carr said police have not been able to find any political subdivision in Texas by that name.

Anyone with information about Spradley is asked call 713-308-3100, or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

eric.hanson@chron.com

Rapper Killed Police Officer In LA

2006-02-13T23:46:00.000-08:00

The man who killed a Las Vegas police officer responding to a domestic violence call was a rapper whose lyrics spoke of violence and hate, police said.

Rapper Amir Rashid Crump, 21, known as Trajik of the duo Desert Mobb, fatally shot Sgt. Henry Prendes, 37, who responded with a fellow officer to a home southwest of the Las Vegas Strip on Feb. 1, police say.

Crump is seen brandishing an assault rifle on the cover of the duo's 2005 debut, "L.Y.T. C.Y.T.I." Police say he fired an assault rifle at officers when they arrived at the scene. Crump was killed in the shootout.

"The guy who killed Henry was not talking [on his album] about wonderful things," said Las Vegas police Capt. Gary Schofield, who formerly oversaw the police gang unit. "It was hatred and violence."

Footballer Pushed Police Officer

2006-02-13T23:43:00.000-08:00

A Championship footballer has been found guilty of assaulting a police officer after a match.

Burnley player Wayne Thomas pushed Sgt John D'Arcy as the officer ushered him into the tunnel at the end of a match he played for former club Stoke City. The 26-year-old, of Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, had denied the assault, which happened at Millwall in February 2005.

District Judge Anthony Woodcock, at Bexley Magistrates' Court, gave Thomas an 18-month conditional discharge. The court heard claims that Thomas gesticulated from the dugout at opposing fans with his middle finger raised.

'Better behaviour'

The defendant had denied this, saying that when one of them shouted an insult about his mother he responded by holding up his hands in a one and a zero to show the score.

District Judge Woodcock said: "I accept that the police officer could see abusive gesticulation, he could see that there was interaction between the crowd and Thomas, and that was not having a particularly productive effect.

"I reach the conclusion that the action that he took in ushering Thomas in was sensible and reasonable."

He said he rejected the defendant's account that he "simply released his arm from what he perceived to be an unfair and unwarranted holding of his arm by Mr D'Arcy".

He added: "The police, even when you are goaded, are entitled to expect better behaviour."

Thomas was ordered to pay £400 court costs.

www.news.bbc.co.uk

Police Officer Admits Sex On Duty

2006-02-10T19:12:00.000-08:00

A former policeman has admitted misconduct in public office after having sex with a woman while on duty.

Former constable Shajan Miah, who resigned from Greater Manchester Police in October 2005, pleaded guilty to four counts of misconduct.

The offences relate to three occasions where he had sex with a woman while on duty and one count of inappropriate use of data from the police computer.

He will be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court at a later date.

'Abused power'

The charges were the result of an investigation carried out by Greater Manchester Police Internal Affairs Department and managed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

Naseem Malik, IPCC Commissioner for the North West, said: "These were very serious allegations and Greater Manchester Police, managed by the IPCC, carried out a thorough investigation.

"Shajan Miah abused the power granted to police officers and his behaviour fell well below the standard expected by the public and the police service."

An earlier charge of indecent assault against Miah was dropped.

Police Officer Slain By A Teenager

2006-02-10T19:09:00.000-08:00

MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. -- Police officers packed a church hall Friday to honor a veteran patrolman slain by a teenager who had fled across the country after attacking patrons of a Massachusetts gay bar with a hatchet and a gun.

Police officer James W. "Jim" Sell was remembered as a warrior for good who died while trying to stop evil.

Officers, sheriff's deputies and troopers from Arkansas, Massachusetts and Missouri formed a sea of blue and gray inside a Baptist church to honor Sell, who was shot Feb. 4 as he stopped Jacob Robida for a traffic violation.

"As police officers, we all know that there's a chance this could happen to us," Gassville Police Chief Tim Mayfield told a crowd of about 900. "For myself and my department, it became real."

The Rev. Sam Seamans echoed the theme of good and evil, saying many may wonder why an officer's life was lost in a senseless act.

"The truth is that since the beginning of time there have been good men and good women who have stood in the path of those who would do evil in our world, even if it would cost them their lives," said Seamans, the Mountain Home police department chaplain.

Sell, 63, was working a radar unit in Gassville when he pulled over Robida, 18, in a routine stop. State police said there was no indication Sell knew Robida was wanted for the bar attack in of New Bedford, Mass., that left three men injured.

Sell's shooting sparked a 20-mile chase that ended when Robida's car crashed. The teen killed a friend who was with him and then turned the gun on himself as police fired, officials said. Robida died the next day.

After Friday's church service, Sell was laid to rest with a 21-gun salute at a cemetery in Mountain Home.

Police Officer Found Dead At His Residence

2006-02-06T03:40:00.000-08:00

SINGAPORE : A police officer with over 13 years of service was found dead on Monday morning in his Woodlands Drive flat.

35-year-old senior staff sergeant Jansen Xavier Santhansa died from a single gunshot wound to his head.

Police said just after 11am, the family's maid had found the investigation officer slumped on a couch in the study room of his 4-room flat.

He had a single gunshot wound to his head and his personal-issue service revolver was found on his stomach.

There were no signs of struggle and police have classified the case as unnatural death.

No suicide notes were found at the scene. He was pronounced dead by paramedics at about 12.25pm.

"The officer is an investigations officer attached to the Ang Mo Kio Police division. He has been an investigator for the past five years. And he's actually currently on examinations leave from Jan 26 to Feb 9. He is doing a diploma course at a polytechnic," said police spokesperson ASP Victor Keong.

Police said Santhansa did not indicate any personal problems to his supervisors or colleagues. He is described as hardworking.

Neighbours said the man is friendly but the family often kept to themselves.

"Just last Christmas, they were celebrating. Everything seems fine. We, neighbours, have not heard them quarrelling," said neighbour Munirah Samat.

"I saw him last night at about 12am. I did not hear any noise at all," said neighbour Mrs Xie.

Santhansa, who left behind two children aged 8 and 4, was last seen leaving home early Sunday morning.

His wife of nine years had not seen him return when she left for work that night.

In July last year, a national service policeman was also found dead with a gunshot wound to his head at a police station gym.

Student Protest Shooting Of Teen By Gary Police Officer

2006-02-06T03:39:00.000-08:00

GARY, Ind. -- About 40 college students chanted and handed out fliers to protest the fatal shooting of a teen by a Gary police officer.

The group, some carrying signs that read "killer" and "trigger happy cop," marched near the Gary Public Library on Saturday to protest the shooting of 16-year-old Vincent L. Smith.

Patrolman Levi Randolph shot the Gary West High School freshman Jan. 15 outside Smith's cousin's home while responding to a reported burglary. Randolph, a Gary police officer since August 2002, was placed on administrative leave while Lake County police investigate the shooting.

Police said Randolph saw two people running when he arrived at the scene and shot Smith in the back of the head when he ignored repeated orders to stop running and show his hands. The other person escaped. Police said Randolph thought Smith had a gun, but investigators determined the teen did not have a gun when he was killed.

The protest was organized by Purdue-Calumet's Social Justice Club, and students from Chicago State University joined the group. Students want the officer fired and charged with murder.

Off Duty Police Officer Kills Carjacker

2006-02-01T19:03:00.000-08:00

An off-duty Richmond police officer shot two men, killing one, as they attempted to hijack her car in a northwest Harris County apartment complex Tuesday, police said.

The incident happened about 6:30 a.m. at 11011 Pleasant Colony in the Trails of Steeplechase apartments parking lot, Jersey Village Police Chief Charles N. Wedemeyer said.

Two armed men entered the officer's personal vehicle as she was putting her keys in the ignition. As one man pointed a pistol at her head and instructed her to move over, police said, she pulled out her weapon and fired. One man was pronounced dead at the scene. Another was flown by Life Flight to Memorial Hermann Hospital. His condition was unknown Tuesday night.

The name of the officer, who was not in uniform, has not been released. The shooting is being investigated by Jersey Village police, Texas Rangers and the Harris County District Attorney's Office. Richmond police and the Texas Rangers would not comment.

Police Officer Shot Himslef In The Leg

2006-02-01T17:46:00.000-08:00

Lauderhill -- An undercover Lauderhill police officer accidentally shot himself in the leg Tuesday night after he and a partner tried to stop three men in a car, officials said.

The officer was part of an undercover narcotics unit working behind a Blockbuster video store in the 5700 block of West Oakland Park Boulevard, said Lauderhill police Lt. Tundra King.

The suspect's car came around the back of the store and the officers, in an unmarked car, tried to stop them at around 9:30 p.m.

As the officer got out of the car, the suspect's car ''bumped the rear of the car the officers were in,'' King said.

The officer had his gun out, pointed downward, and ''an accidental discharge took place,'' King said.

The officer shot himself once in the lower part of his right leg and was taken to Broward General Medical Center, where he was in stable condition, King said.

Several police officers were in the area near the two officers in the unmarked car.

Officer Dies After Collapsing During Pursuit

2006-01-28T05:24:00.000-08:00

A 31-year-old cop who always wanted to be a police officer collapsed and died Friday night after grappling with a robbery suspect on the Upper East Side, police said.

Kevin Lee, a 10-year NYPD veteran from the Bronx, was pronounced dead at 7:35 p.m. at Lenox Hill Hospital, said Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who rushed to the hospital Friday night to meet with the officer's wife, parents and sister. It was not immediately clear what caused the officer to collapse.

"We just don't know whether it was an aneurysm or his heart or what it was," said Bloomberg, who added Lee was a tall, strapping guy who looked to be in great shape.

"All his life he wanted to be a police officer," Bloomberg said, adding that Lee took courses in high school to become a police officer and also attended John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Lee and two other cops were chasing three men who had just ripped off a laptop computer from Snappy Auctions.com, a Lexington Avenue shop at 86th Street that sells goods on eBay at about 6 p.m. Three officers started chasing the suspects and one of the officers went back to the store and was told by one of the clerks that a laptop was missing. Lee, already in pursuit of the suspects, grabbed one of them, according to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, and then Lee collapsed.

Later on, police captured two of the suspects and charged them with grand larceny and resisting arrest. The charges could be upgraded, they said Friday night. "The charges depend on the result of the autopsy and the nature of the struggle," Kelly said.

Lee, who grew up on Staten Island, had been assigned to a borough-wide larceny team for two years. Prior to the chase, he and three other officers had been in that area, at Lexington Avenue and 86th Street, to watch for suspicious behavior.

"The incident underscores the tension and high pressure that officers on patrol face every minute. At any moment, danger can strike," Kelly said.

Bloomberg described Lee as "an outstanding officer" and "devoted to duty" who made more than 200 arrests. In addition to his wife, Lee has a 6-year-old son.

At a news conference Friday night, Bloomberg said, "They all said that this was a person who wanted to be a police officer, and he was so proud to be one of New York Finest. He relished the job every day.

"It's another one of those tragedies that no one can ever explain."

Earlier this month, a Brooklyn cop, Officer Francis Hennessy, 35, of the 70th Precinct, died of an aneurysm responding to a call of a man with a gun.

Officer Sues HPD Over 'Gag Order' On Chase Rule

2006-01-28T05:22:00.000-08:00

A Houston police officer who was disciplined for criticizing the department's chase policy filed a lawsuit Friday, contending his free speech and civil rights are being violated.

After the Jan. 19 chase, which ended in a head-on collision, officer Thomas Nixon complained publicly that the Houston Police Department policy wasn't strict enough to allow officers to stop suspects before injuries to other motorists. There were two women — one suffered minor injuries — and an infant in the other vehicle.

In the federal lawsuit, Nixon, who has been assigned to desk duty, is seeking an immediate return to his duties as a patrol officer, said his attorney Chad Hoffman. Nixon, a patrol officer for 10 years, claims his right to free speech has been violated by "a gag order" by Police Chief Harold Hurtt, Hoffman said.

The lawsuit also asks U.S. District Judge David Hittner to issue a temporary restraining order to force the HPD to allow Nixon to exercise his constitutional right to free speech.

After criticizing the HPD chase policy, "Officer Nixon was hauled into the chief's office and told not to talk anymore," Hoffman said.

The next day, Nixon received a memo from an assistant chief of internal affairs, ordering him not to comment about pending investigations.

On Friday, Lt. Robert Manzo, an HPD spokesman, said no one in the department had seen a copy of the lawsuit.

Manzo said Hurtt issued an April 5 memorandum to all HPD officers that states officers "must refrain from criticizing the department" in a manner that "undermines the effectiveness of the department, interferes with discipline or recklessly disregards the truth."

Police Officer Investigates Own Robbery

2006-01-24T04:08:00.000-08:00

A Swedish police officer robbed a bank - then returned a short while later to lead the hunt for the culprit.

The 36-year-old admitted to a charge of robbery and acquiring a car by making threats during a closed court hearing.

According to Swedish radio, he led a police investigation into the robbery that led to a raid on a flat and the arrest and remand of two people.

Colleagues became suspicious after he bought a new car using banknotes from the robbery, the court said.

At a court hearing in the town of Bollnas, he admitted robbing a branch of the Nordea Bank in the nearby coastal town of Soderhamn, 240km (150 miles) north of Stockholm.

He used threats to seize a car after the robbery on 17 December, the court was told.

'Deeply regretful'

Swedish radio Ekot said he is also accused of gross dereliction of duty for then leading the police investigation into the robbery.

This led to a raid on a flat in Soderhamn and the arrest of two people on suspicion of carrying out the crime.

His defence solicitor, KG Myhrberg was quoted by Ekot as saying his client was "deeply regretful" and did not know why he carried out the robbery.

"He is disconsolate about what he did, both in relation to his family and to others who are affected by the robbery," he said. "He cannot give any reasonable explanation for it."

The amount of money stolen has not made public, but is said to be sizeable, Reuters news agency reported.

Suspicion was raised after he bought a car for 219,000 Swedish crowns ($31,400) in mid-January.

NYPD Shootout With Uzi-toting Criminal

2006-01-24T03:59:00.000-08:00

(Farragut, Brooklyn -WABC, January 21, 2006) -- Police in Brooklyn were involved in an early morning shootout with a man carrying an Uzi. But it's not the first time this suspect has been in the crosshairs of the NYPD.

One thing is clear about the suspect in this case: he doesn't like getting kicked out of clubs and restaurants. He was kicked out of local restaurant last June for smoking and the owner says the man nearly killed him. The this morning he was turned away from a club right up the street and that posed problems too: a shootout with police that left the gunman in critical condition.

It was just after 4:30 Saturday morning authorities say, that a 25-year-old man, Damien Henry, began firing at police on Utica Avenue.

The alleged weapon was a 9 mm Uzi. Al Zirino, who owns the bakery and ice cream shop up the block says he saw the whole thing on his surveillance video, which is now in the hands of police.

Al Zirino, Store Owner: "You could see it on the cameras and it went for about 30 seconds. There was a lot of rounds on the floor."

Police Tell us Damien Henry had tried to enter an after-hours club, showing a bouncer the Uzi. That's when someone at the club called police.

Meanwhile, the woman behind the door, who says she's the gunman's mother, had little to say about her son's criminal past. Henry is out on bail for another shooting in June at a restaurant nearby, where the owner tells us Henry nearly killed him.

Police tell us the gun in that case was the same gun used by Allen Cameron in the November shooting that killed Brooklyn police officer Dillon Stewart.

Al Zirino: "When the system lets these guys hit the street, it makes it bad for everybody."

We can also tell you people in this neighborhood considered Damien Henry to be close friends of Allen Cameron, who is accused of killing that police officer.

Henry was accused of shooting another police officer bad in 2002 but was acquitted in that case. Today the police commissioner is saying this man should have never been out on the street.

Minneapolis Police Officer Returning Medal

2006-01-20T07:01:00.000-08:00

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A Minneapolis police officer said Thursday that he would return a medal for bravery he received for a 1990 incident in which he shot and killed a teenager.

Sgt. Dan May cited the outburst of criticism that followed the awarding of the Medal of Valor last week by a committee of fellow officers and civilian police department employees. The criticism ``has adversely affected me and my family and has been a distraction to the police department. I hope that my decision to return the medal can put this matter to rest so that I, and everyone involved, can move forward,'' May said in a letter to Police Chief Bill McManus.

May has always maintained that he shot 17-year-old Tycel Nelson in self defense in a case that had racial overtones. Nelson was black and May is white. In his letter, May said several investigations had cleared him of wrongdoing in the shooting. ``I have tried to move past this, but the refusal of some people to accept the facts and findings of the case is frustrating,'' he said.

Though he was returning the medal, May said ``it means a lot to have received validation'' from his colleagues.

McManus, who had said he was caught off guard when he learned that the medal was being awarded, apologized Thursday in a meeting with Nelson's mother, Earline Skinner, and other family members. Skinner said that May's return of the medal ``makes me feel a whole lot better.''

``God works for all of us,'' she said. ``Maybe now all of the truth will come out.''

The shooting occurred after May arrived at the scene of a gang shooting and chased a man he believed was armed. After momentarily losing sight of the suspect, May said, he saw the man raise a gun at him. The officer said he fired after the man ignored an order to drop the weapon.

Nelson's family said the young man did nothing wrong. The family's attorneys contested the officer's account, pointing out that Nelson had been shot in the back and that the gun found at the scene bore no fingerprints traceable to him.

A grand jury declined to indict May, but the city paid Nelson's family $250,000 to settle a lawsuit.

Injured Police officer Run Over By Pickup Truck

2006-01-20T06:54:00.000-08:00

PORTLAND, Maine --A Waldoboro police officer faces months of recovery from lower body injuries after two bank robbery suspects rammed their stolen pickup truck into his police cruiser on Route 32 in Jefferson and pushed it on top of him.

Officer Jeff Fuller said his assailants tried to kill him and might have succeeded if another injured officer hadn't fired a single shot at the pickup before it sped away.The suspects, Michael Kelley, 30, and Stephen Otis, 25, both of Westbrook, were being held at the Lincoln County Jail in Wiscasset following their appearances Thursday in Lincoln County Superior Court.

Kelley was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail and Otis on $20,000 cash bail on charges of bank robbery and aggravated attempted murder.From his bed at Maine Medical Center, Fuller described the incident that began Tuesday morning when a man armed with what turned out to be a pellet gun held up the Gardiner Savings Institution in Newcastle, left with cash stuffed into a backpack and took off with an accomplice in a heavy-duty pickup with dual rear wheels.

Fuller and Detective Sgt. Ken Hatch of the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office were in pursuit of the truck when it suddenly stopped in the middle of Route 32 and the two officers stopped their cruisers behind it.

"When we got out, they put the truck in reverse and pretty much ran over us," said Fuller, 35. Keith Taylor, who watch the drama unfold from his home, said the pickup reversed at top speed, with tires spinning and smoking, and rammed Fuller's cruiser so hard that both vehicles lifted 4 to 5 feet off the ground.

Fuller was behind his car when the truck pushed it into him. "I went down. I never got a chance to get up," he said.The pickup pushed his cruiser's rear and front wheels over his lower body, Fuller said. He was trying to get his head out of the way of the truck, which was still backing up, when Hatch drew his guna and fired at the pickup."I was just wondering when it was going to end," Fuller said.

Police chased the truck back to Newcastle, where it hit spike mats and rolled over an embankment. Police arrested Kelley and Otis after a chase into woods. Otis said Kelley robbed the bank and both men told police that Kelley was behind the wheel of the pickup, according to an affidavit. Fuller suffered a broken left leg and broken pelvis and his right leg was dislocated from his hip. He said it could have ended worse and he hopes to return to work on the police force.

Source:www.boston.com

Woman Jailed For False Accusations Against Police Officer

2006-01-16T04:08:00.000-08:00

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine --A 29-year-old woman who accused a police officer of sexual assault is behind bars after being charged with making up the story.

Shannon Wehkoja, whom police described as a transient from Massachusetts, was arrested Friday and charged with perjury, false swearing, filing a false report, violating a condition of release and possession of drugs.

Police Chief Edward Googins said Wehkoja accused Officer Ed Knutson of sexually touching her while taking her to jail after arresting her on a drunken-driving charge on Jan. 1.

But a video from Knutson's cruiser documented the trip and showed that Wehkoja made up the story, Googins said.

"The concern that the department had was, these charges could have been career-ending for the officer and they were totally false and fabricated," he said.

S.F. Police Officer Dragged By A Suspect's Car

2006-01-16T04:05:00.000-08:00

SAN FRANCISCO - A San Francisco police officer was recovering Sunday after he was dragged by a suspect's car following a double-shooting in the city that led to a high-speed chase, authorities said.

Craig Leong, a five-year veteran of the department, underwent surgery on Saturday for major leg injuries, police said.

Alfonso Sandoval, 23, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder of a police officer and felony hit-and-run, among other charges.

The incident occurred after officers responded to a double-shooting in the city's Mission District Saturday afternoon. Two 17-year-old boys suffered non life threatening gunshot wounds, police said.

Officers who responded pursued a fleeing vehicle that soon crashed into a parked car. Leong approached but the driver sped off, dragging the officer who was clinging to the car, police Sgt. Neville Gittens said.

Leong eventually let go, and the suspect was arrested a short time later after he crashed again.

Sandoval had not yet been charged in the double-shooting, Gittens said.

The conditions of the shooting victims were not immediately available Sunday.

Cincinnati Police Officer Hurt In A Shootout

2006-01-12T07:14:00.000-08:00

A Cincinnati police officer was wounded early today in a shootout in Bond Hill.

Officer Kristina Holtmann was taken to University Hospital after a man in a car officers pulled over in the 1100 block of California Avenue opened fire on her and Officer Lauren Smith about 1:45 a.m., police said.

Both officers fired at least four shots in return, with one of the bullets hitting the man, police said. It was not known which officer fired the shot that hit the man, police said.

Holtmann was treated in the emergency room at University Hospital for a wound to her cheek that was not considered life-threatening, police said. The bullet caused a 2½-inch gash from the center of her right cheek to the base of her right eye, said Cincinnati Police Chief Tom Streicher.

Either that bullet or a second shot left a bullet hole in the brim of her cap, he said. "She's got a number of stitches in her face," Streicher said.

"An ophthalmologist is going to see her later today, and they're also going to do some more X-rays to make sure that she doesn't have any other type of internal damage in her face."

Holtmann and Smith were on routine patrol when they stopped the car and ran the license plate number. Information returned to them said the owner was wanted on an outstanding warrant, police said.

As the officers were placing the driver of the car under arrest, a passenger, later identified as Dante Person, 18, jumped out and fired at the officers, with one of the bullets hitting Holtmann in the cheek near her temple, police said. Both officers returned fire, with one bullet hitting Person in the upper right thigh, police said.

Person fled into a nearby house at 4913 Corinth St., police said. About an hour later, a police SWAT team secured the house and a canine unit was sent into the basement, where Person was found trying to bandage his wound with clothing that he had been wearing, police said. Person surrendered without incident, police said.

A .45-caliber automatic handgun, believed used by Person, was found in the rear of the house, police said.

Person was treated at the scene by a Cincinnati Fire Department Rescue Unit and also was taken to University Hospital, where he was undergoing surgery under police guard. Doctors said Person suffered a shattered femur in his right thigh and an artery had been severed in the leg, Streicher said.

Information about his condition was unavailable.

Smith suffered some psychological trauma from the incident and was sedated and treated by doctors at University Hospital, Streicher said. She later was released.

Holtmann has been a police officer since July 1999, Smith since May 2001, police said.

http://news.cincypost.com

Injured Police Officer Heroic

2006-01-12T07:10:00.000-08:00

A NORTHERN Territory (Australia) police officer seriously injured when she went to help victims of a fatal bus crash in Egypt was heroic, NT Police Commissioner Paul White said today. Senior Constable Carmen Butcher, 29, received a dislocated hip and fractured pelvis when a roof collapsed as she helped a seriously injured passenger.

Two other NT police, Superintendents Jeanette Kerr and Helen Braam, escaped injury when they went to the aid of crash victims.

All three women were in a second coach travelling behind the one that overturned near Cairo.

"It would seem that Jeanette was lucky enough to just get out of the way when the roof of the bus collapsed, but Carmen wasn't so lucky," Commissioner White told ABC Radio.

"It would certainly seem that her efforts, and in fact the efforts of all the territory police, were pretty heroic after you can imagine the shock of this."

Sen Con Butcher was expected to be operated on shortly, and could be back in Australia within a week, he said.

"Both Helen and Jeanette have ... taken the decision not to continue with their holiday ... and are standing by to assist Carmen and in fact other Australians injured in this terrible tragedy."

NT Chief Minister Clare Martin wished Sen Con Butcher a "speedy recovery", and offered her condolences to the families of those killed in the crash.

"There is something about being on a holiday ... of a lifetime and then an awful tragedy like this happening," she told ABC Radio.

"Certainly, I think all Territorians feel for those Victorian police officers and the others who have died in this crash."

Shaquille O'Neal To Tour Phoenix Jail Facility

2006-01-06T06:06:00.000-08:00

PHOENIX -- Shaquille O'Neal's interest in law enforcement will get him a visit of a Phoenix jail facility.

Maricopa (Ariz.) County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says the Miami Heat star will tour the county's Tent City Jail Thursday evening.

Arpaio says Miami Beach Police Chief Don DeLucca will accompany O'Neal, who is a reserve Miami Beach police officer.

Arpaio says he'll discuss with his guests the pros and cons of a canvas incarceration compound. He also plans to swear in Shaq as a special deputy at the conclusion of the tour.

O'Neal and the Heat play the Phoenix Suns on Friday night in Phoenix.

Uninvolved Driver Hurt in Police Car Chase

2006-01-06T05:58:00.000-08:00

A police pursuit late Thursday included a crash that left an Indianapolis police officer and an uninvolved driver injured. Two suspects who had fled the stolen car involved in the chase escaped and were being sought in a house-to-house search.

The injuries to Indianapolis Police Department K-9 Officer Andrew Branham and a woman driving the Dodge Neon he collided with about 9:10 p.m. at 38th Street and Washington Boulevard were not believed to be life-threatening. They were taken to Methodist Hospital.

Branham's police dog was not injured.

IPD Sgt. Bill Owensby said the chase began shortly before 9 p.m. when an officer was using an onboard computer to check license plates near 32nd and Illinois streets. The plates on a silver Porsche came back as stolen, and the officer tried to stop the car. However, the sports car sped off and the pursuit began, circling streets in the neighborhood before heading north on Washington, Owensby said.

The Porsche already had made it through the intersection of 38th and Washington when Branham and the eastbound Neon collided. Two men believed to have been in the Porsche abandoned it near 52nd Street and Washington in an upscale section of the Meridian-Kessler neighborhood. Police were going house to house there late Thursday, searching for the suspects.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, at least 86 people -- including suspects and law enforcement officers -- died as a result of police pursuits in Indiana from 1993 through 2003. Twenty-five people were bystanders not involved in the chase. Nationally, more than 3,800 people were killed during the same period. Roughly a third were not part of the pursuit.

An analysis by The Indianapolis Star of 947 police pursuits in Indiana from 2003 and 2004 showed that IPD, the Marion County Sheriff's Department and the Indiana State Police are given wide discretion in pursuing suspects. Motorists were chased at speeds of 100 mph on city streets and more than 170 mph on an interstate highway.

Local police view chases as an important crime-fighting tool.

Source:www.indystar.com

Queens Woman Run Over A Police Officer

2006-01-04T03:51:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK (AP),U.S -- A Queens woman already accused of endangering her infant daughter has been arraigned on charges that she ran over a police officer who was arresting another motorist at a checkpoint for drunken drivers on New Year's Day.

Denise Messner, 28, was drunk when she struck police Officer John Walsh, his vehicle and the other motorist's car at about 1:30 a.m. on the Grand Central Parkway near the entrance to the Long Island Expressway, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Walsh, who had been arresting the other motorist for drunken driving when he was hit, suffered cuts, bruises, a head injury and a leg injury requiring surgery, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a news release.

A criminal complaint alleges that Messner smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot, watery eyes and slurred her speech. Her driver's license apparently was suspended, prosecutors said.

Messner was charged with second-degree assault, reckless driving, driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs and other offenses. She was arraigned on Monday night before Judge Joseph Zayas, who set bail at $250,000.

A telephone message left for Messner's lawyer was not immediately returned Tuesday evening.

Messner already faced charges including child endangerment and resisting arrest after she swung her 1-month-old daughter around in an infant carrier on Dec. 9 while screaming that she didn't want the baby, a criminal complaint said. That case is pending.

Texas Officers Charged With Beating Handcuffed Suspect

2006-01-01T21:42:00.000-08:00

AUSTIN -- Three police officers accused of punching a handcuffed suspect and shocking him with their Tasers were indicted Friday on misdemeanor official oppression charges.

If convicted, Christopher Gray, William Heilman and Joel Follmer face up to a year in jail and could be fined up to $4,000.

Heilman, a four-year veteran with the Austin Police Department, resigned earlier this year. Gray, a six-year veteran, and Follmer, a rookie, are on restricted duty.

Source:www.policeone.com

New York City - Safest Big City In America

2006-01-01T06:19:00.000-08:00

MAYOR BLOOMBERG AND POLICE COMMISSIONER KELLY ANNOUNCE NEW YORK CITY IS THE SAFEST BIG CITY IN AMERICA ACCORDING TO FBI UNIFORM CRIME REPORT

New York City Once Again Safest Out of 25 Largest Cities in the Country;
FBI Statistics Show 3.4% Drop in Overall Crime Citywide for the First Six Months of 2005;
Violent Crime Offenses Decline by Nearly Six Times the National Average

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly today announced that New York City continues to reduce overall crime to levels not seen in decades and remains the safest big city in America according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report for the first six months of 2005. According to the report, the City experienced a 3.4% drop in overall crime compared to 2004 figures. In the violent crime category, New York City experienced a 2.8% decrease, a drop of nearly six times the national decline of 0.5%. The City's the reduction in property crime by 3.6% also outpaced the national rate of 2.8%.

"Once again, New York City has the distinction of being America's safest big city. We've not only maintained that position, but improved upon it, making America's safest big city even safer," said Mayor Bloomberg. "Today's report by the FBI shows that we are decreasing crime in nearly every category across New York City and most importantly, our decrease in violent crime outpaces the nation by nearly six times. I want to thank the brave men and women of the NYPD for this remarkable achievement."

"This latest report reflects the focused crime fighting of the men and women of the Police Department, often at great risk and sacrifice," said Police Commissioner Kelly.

The crime categories with the largest reductions citywide include homicide, down 14.4%; motor vehicle theft is down 13.2%; rape is down 12.7% and burglary is down 11.2%. Aggravated assault and larceny also experienced a decrease while robbery experienced a slight increase of 1.7%.

Out of the nation's 10 and 25 largest cities, New York City ranked the safest with the lowest overall crime rate. Among cities with 100,000 residents or more, New York City ranked 211th out of 227 cities, between Alexandria, Virginia and Edison Township, New Jersey.

Source: www.nyc.gov

Chihuahuas Pack Attack Police Officer

2005-12-31T03:36:00.000-08:00

By Lisa Fernandez (www.MercuryNews.com)

Ferocious pit bulls they weren't.

But it couldn't have been pleasant for a Fremont police officer whose body parts were chomped on by a pack of nippy Chihuahuas, angry that police woke them from an early morning sleep and entered their master's home in a middle-class suburban neighborhood.

The officers were bringing home a 17-year-old boy, who was spotted in a car Wednesday about 3 a.m. without a driver's license. When officers Paul Mourgos and Paul Rush arrived and opened the door, five itty-bitty dogs "viciously attacked'' officer Rush, according to a Fremont police report.

Of course, the dogs couldn't reach anything higher than Rush's ankles, and the officer was treated and released from the hospital with only minor gashes, police said.

Rush is the third Fremont officer in two months bitten by a dog. Contacted Friday on his day off, Rush declined to comment about the incident. The case was forwarded to the city's animal-control services, which was closed Friday.

The name of the teen was not released because he is a juvenile and a Mercury News check of the neighborhood yielded only one Chihuahua owner, Lucas Valasquez, 18. But he said neither he nor his three brothers were the ones involved in that case. He also said that as far as he knows, his dog, "Casper'' is the only Chihuahua on the street.

Police Closer To Child's Attacker

2005-12-30T23:13:00.000-08:00

U.K -- Police hunting the man who abducted a six-year-old girl from her bath and left her naked in the street after a sexual assault said yesterday that they were building up a detailed picture of the attacker.

The detective leading the inquiry, which has been inundated with information from people on North Tyneside, said that officers were "getting ever closer" to the middle-aged suspect seen hanging around and acting suspiciously before the snatch in icy weather on Tuesday evening. Detective Chief Inspector Jim Napier made a direct appeal to the man, who has been described as "extremely dangerous", to give himself up. He said: "Come forward now and get this off your chest before we find you. I have a team of highly trained, experienced detectives who are working with the sole aim of finding you."

The girl, who has described a "nasty man" to her family and specially trained police investigators, is believed to have made it clear that she did not recognise her attacker. But lines of inquiry are thought to include casual acquaintances of the girl's mother and her gay partner, or people who knew about access through an unlocked back door.

Northumbria police said yesterday that they were taking legal advice about photographs of the girl, disguised by pixellation, which were published in the Daily Mail and the Sun yesterday. The pictures were obtained from the family before the child's father, a former soldier, arrived at the house and demanded other copies back. He has lived apart from the family since the mother met her new partner in an internet chatroom.

The force's press officer, Barbara Brewis, said: "The pictures could quite clearly lead to her being identified and were used despite a warning issued to the media. There is an obligation not to publish anything which could lead to the identity of this victim being revealed, as she is both a juvenile and the victim of a sexually motivated assault."

Mr Napier said the girl, who has an 18-month-old brother, was safe and well back with her family. She was found screaming and shivering in a back lane about 15 minutes after her mother found the ground floor bathroom empty.

The child's grandmother, who lives in County Durham, said: "She seems to be coping well, though you never know what is going on underneath. As well as the nasty man who took her away from the house, she's been talking about the nice man who found her crying.

"She has been to hospital twice and been interviewed by the police, who've said that we should let her talk if she wants to but not to make a big thing of it. There are so many questions in my head and her dad's head but it is clear from what the police have said that she doesn't know this man at all."

The man who rescued the girl, after neighbours joined a search of the small grid of streets near the Tyne tunnel entrance, said yesterday he and his wife had been left devastated by the experience.

Geoff Brown said he ran over to the child standing naked in the cold shortly after 7pm and asked what had happened. She told him between sobs that she had been taken from her bath.

"I couldn't understand what had happened, so I just picked her up in my arms and brought her in the house," he said.

Police believe from the girl's account, and minor injuries she suffered, that a sexual assault occurred, possibly in a car which was seen driving erratically in the area shortly before the attack. Police have described a man in dark clothing and wearing dark gloves who may have been in the car and was also seen on foot by children playing in another alley.

Police are expected to question the girl further today. They are working through known paedophiles from the area's register of sex offenders to check their whereabouts on Tuesday evening.

Regular patrols have also been increased.

Egypt Police Attacks Sudanese Refugee Camp

2005-12-30T23:07:00.000-08:00

CAIRO, Dec. 30 -- A three-month standoff between Sudanese refugees and Egyptian authorities climaxed in bloodshed early Friday when club-wielding police invaded a refugee squatter camp, setting off a melee in which at least 20 and perhaps 26 Sudanese were killed.

Some refugees fought back, using tent poles as weapons. An Egyptian Interior Ministry statement, which acknowledged 12 deaths, said 74 police officers were wounded. Officials blamed the deaths on a stampede.

The refugees set up the camp in a park in September to press their demands for resettlement in a Western country. They refused to return to their unstable homeland despite a January peace deal that ended years of north-south civil war. After the peace agreement, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees stopped registering Sudanese for political asylum. Protesters resisted police orders and appeals from the Sudanese Embassy to leave.

At about 1 a.m. Friday, about 3,000 helmeted riot police surrounded the park, which is located in the relatively affluent Mohandessin district on the west side of the Nile River. They fired water cannons at some of the 2,000 refugees gathered there. After trying to drag people one by one onto buses for about two hours, the police invaded.

As is common with riot police in Egypt, the stiff rows of officers soon turned into a throbbing mob of uncontrolled baton-swingers. Police pursued refugees to the buses and whacked them as they boarded, including women and children.

Boutrous Deng, a Sudanese protest leader, told the Associated Press that 26 Sudanese were killed -- 17 men, 2 women and 7 children. Hospital officials earlier put the figure at 23, according to the Reuters news agency. Security officials cited anonymously by the AP said there were 20 deaths.

By dawn, the park was cleared, and about 1,000 refugees were transported to police barracks outside the city limits, Interior Ministry officials said. Other Sudanese huddled in parks and on street corners elsewhere in the sprawling capital. Piles of luggage and clothing remained where the protest camp had stood.

Tension over refugee arrivals from the south is felt across North Africa. Sub-Saharan Africans, fleeing violence and hunger in their homelands, have flocked to countries along Africa's Mediterranean coast. Many then board boats to try to reach Spain or Italy.

The European Union has pressured North African governments to curb the migrant traffic to its shores. Compliance commonly ends in brutality. In Libya, which until recently permitted sub-Saharan Africans to enter without a visa, reports of refugees disappearing without a trace after arrest are common.

On Thursday, seven migrants fled Morocco by clambering over a razor-wire fence into Spain's North African enclave of Melilla. In September and October, hundreds of African migrants stormed Melilla and Ceuta, another Spanish possession in North Africa. In separate incidents, Moroccan and Spanish police shot at the crowds, killing 11.

The exact number of Sudanese in Egypt is not known, but estimates range from 200,000 to 2 million.

Egypt's Interior Ministry said police were responding to the needs of the UNHCR, which, according to a ministry statement, had received "threats to attack the commission offices and its members." The ministry also asserted that the refugees ignored a Sudanese Embassy deadline for them to abandon the park or face the consequences.

"Attempts had been made to convince them to disperse, but to no avail," the ministry statement said. "The Egyptian security forces were implementing the deadline imposed by the Sudanese Embassy. The migrants' leaders resorted to incitement and attacks against the police."

The UNHCR reported last week that it had reached a compromise with some protest leaders. The agency pledged to resume hearing some asylum cases and offered a one-time payment of up to $700 for housing expenses.

In Geneva, UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement: "I am deeply shocked and saddened by the tragic events early today in Cairo. There is no justification for such violence and loss of life."

The Sudanese government expressed understanding of the police action, with a spokesman saying the Egyptian government "was within its rights to reestablish its control."

Source:www.washingtonpost.com

South Korean National Police Commissioner Resigns

2005-12-29T05:09:00.000-08:00

SEOUL, Dec 29 (Reuters) - The head of South Korea's National Police Agency offered to resign on Thursday in order to take responsibility for the deaths of two farmers who clashed with police during a violent protest, a police spokesman said.

Huh said he thought the deaths of the farmers were accidental, the official said. Use of excessive force by police led directly to the farmers' deaths, according to South Korea's Human Rights Commission, which recommended criminal investigations and reprimands of the officers involved. National Police Commissioner Huh Joon-young, seen as a possible candidate for mayor of Seoul, had apologised earlier this week for the incident that took place at a rally in Seoul in protest at a measure to open markets wider to imported rice.

President Roh Moo-hyun intends to accept the resignation, a spokesman of the presidential Blue House said. Thousands of farmers and activists clashed with police on Nov. 15 in front of parliament, demanding the withdrawal of a bill to gradually increase rice imports.

Cheon Yong-chul died several days later from head injuries suffered after he was pushed to the ground by police, the human rights commission said in a report. Hong Duk-pyo suffered fatal neck injuries from a shield swung by police, it added. In several of the protests against the rice market bill, South Korean farmers and activists used steel pipes and bamboo sticks in clashes with the police, who retaliated with water cannons, batons and metal shields. Earlier this month, about 1,000 South Korean farmers travelled to Hong Kong and staged violent protests there against globalisation during a World Trade Organisation meeting.

Officer's Wife Campaigns For Injured Police Support

2005-12-27T01:25:00.000-08:00

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -- The wife of a northern Idaho police officer shot in the face a year ago wants to improve support services for law enforcement agents injured in the line of duty.

Michael Kralicek, 33, was shot three days after Christmas last year by a handcuffed man suspected of stealing a beer keg.

Other officers killed Michael Madonna, 39, after police say he fired the bullet that shattered Kralicek's jaw, severed his carotid artery and broke into fragments in his spine, leaving him partially paralyzed.

Carrie Kralicek and representatives of the Fraternal Order of Police, a support group for law enforcement, say they are now campaigning for better assistance for injured law officers like her husband.

Carrie Kralicek says she's fought with the Idaho State Insurance Fund over everything from aspirin prescriptions to getting more in-home help.

"I was nickel and dimed over everything," Carrie Kralicek told the Spokesman-Review newspaper. "It was absolutely horrible. It's not like he busted a knee cap. It's 10 times worse."

Carrie Kralicek didn't say if she was working with any of Idaho's lawmakers on legislation to boost aid to injured police.

Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Idaho State Insurance Fund officials for comment weren't immediately successful.

For the past year, the city has paid the difference between state worker's compensation insurance and Michael Kralicek's salary as he does hours of grueling rehabilitation. He says he wants to get back as much of his old life as he can.

Before the shooting, he was an athlete who lifted weights regularly.

Now, after seven months of working with a physical therapist, he's finally taking short walks. It's been a struggle, he said.

His biggest challenge? "It's confidence," he said. "I keep thinking I'm going to fall over."

He was welcomed home from a rehabilitation hospital in Denver last summer and was named grand marshal of this northern Idaho resort city's Fourth of July Parade.

Still, the family has been unhappy with his treatment by state and local officials they say should be more responsive to his needs. The situation has improved, Carrie Kralicek said, but only after media coverage.

A new challenge is looming: On Jan. 1, Michael Kralicek will be classified for insurance purposes as permanently disabled, allowing him to collect federal and state benefits. But that also means he'll lose his job and related benefits.

Carrie Kralicek is upset that her husband and other injured law officers have a limited time to rehabilitate before being stripped of their employment.

She says these concerns - and the financial struggle that has gripped the family following Michael Kralicek's injuries - has convinced her more needs to be done to protect law officers in Idaho after they've been wounded.

She's working with Brad Landes, national trustee of the Idaho Chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, to boost support for people like her husband. A Pennsylvania labor attorney has chipped in his services for free, she said.

"Before it was about a fight for Mike," Carrie Kralicek said. "Now it's grown beyond that."

Source:www.seattlepi.com

Border Patrol Officers Take a Chance on Love

2005-12-27T01:05:00.000-08:00

DOUGLAS, Ariz. — The forbidden romance between the Border Patrol agent and the illegal immigrant began in a gym.

Maria Terrazas, 31, met Jose Ruiz three years ago at LM's Body Builders in this remote border town. Terrazas, a waitress and mother of two, knew Ruiz was a catch. As a Border Patrol officer, Ruiz belonged to an elite class in town: available men with good jobs and an education.

The two began dating, and their relationship continued even after Terrazas was deported to Mexico in November 2004. She quickly bluffed her way through U.S. customs and back to Ruiz.

Terrazas, who said several of her illegal immigrant girlfriends have relationships with border agents, saw nothing unusual about dating a man whose job was to keep people like her out of the U.S. "He had his own job and I had mine," Terrazas said in an interview. "I never thought it'd cause problems."

But it did.

Terrazas faces deportation again and Ruiz, 30, is on leave from the patrol. A second agent has been charged with felonies for giving Terrazas a short ride across the border from Mexico. It is one of four felony cases stemming from a federal crackdown against corruption on the Arizona border.

That push has highlighted an open secret along the border: romance between illegal immigrants and those responsible for deporting them.

Some locals say that such relationships are inevitable in a town where the nearest movie theater is 51 miles north and the nearest nightclubs lie just across the border in Agua Prieta, Mexico. The clandestine romances, they add, also make a mockery of efforts targeting illegal immigrants, such as laws being considered by Congress that would mandate fences along sections of the border and fine employers who hire illegal aliens.

But such lines between the legal and illegal can be hard to draw on the southwestern border. For generations, families have easily moved back and forth between the U.S. and Mexico, and even Douglas' mayor says he doesn't know whether longtime residents are in the country legally or not. Border Patrol agents, often young, single and new to the area, can get caught between the clear dictates of U.S. immigration law and the ambiguities of the heart.

"The absurdity of it gets played out in the day-to-day lives of Border Patrol agents," said Jennifer Allen, director of the Border Action Network, an immigrant rights group based in Tucson. "Everybody knows somebody [in the U.S. illegally] who has some kind of relationship with a Border Patrol agent. Either someone in their family is married to one, or they're sleeping with one. People's lives are very complicated and intertwined and they're not very clear-cut."

To the U.S. attorney's office in Phoenix and Border Patrol officials, the issue is clear-cut, especially after the Sept. 11 attacks highlighted the importance of securing the nation's borders.

Agents aren't expected to inquire about the citizenship of women they meet socially, said Gustavo Soto, a Border Patrol spokesman in Tucson. "That's one of the last things a young lady wants to hear — 'Hey, you have any papers?' " he said. "But once that information is found, that the person is here illegally," the patrol expects the relationship to end.

Paul Charlton, U.S. attorney for the district of Arizona, said it's especially important to be diligent about enforcing immigration law in a state where 52% of all illegal immigrants caught entering the country are detained.

Charlton said of the agents: "These are individuals who have put aside concern, both for immigration laws and the security of their own country, for their own interests."

Border agents, or any U.S. citizen, who wish to marry foreigners can get approval to bring them into the country legally, Charlton said. But that approval doesn't always come smoothly.

Pablo Berry was a 17-year-old student at Douglas High School when he met the only woman he ever dated: classmate Claudia Veronica Vasquez-Banda, 18. Like many at the school, Vasquez-Banda, court records show, was an illegal immigrant.

After graduating, Berry held a series of minimum-wage jobs that reflected the paucity of opportunities on the border — picking chiles, cooking at a Kentucky Fried Chicken — before securing an $11-an-hour post at a resort in Sedona, Ariz. In March 2003, the couple's daughter, Emily, was born. Berry needed better pay to support his family.

In southern Arizona, there was only one growth industry: the Border Patrol. Berry's hometown of 17,000 was opening a new station with 500 agents and entry-level wages of $40,000 a year.

Berry joined the patrol in July 2003, stating in his application that he had no illegal immigrants in his household.

"He was blinded by love," said Berry's attorney, Gary Spector. "If you have a family member [who's an illegal immigrant] you don't feel it's as egregious as someone who's trying to sneak across the border."

1 Police Officer Dead, 1 Missing

2005-12-27T01:02:00.000-08:00

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Authorities searched a river Monday for a missing police officer after two officers in an emergency truck plunged more than 40 feet off an open drawbridge in thick fog late Sunday. At least one of the officers was killed; the missing man was feared dead.

The vehicle fell into the Hackensack River after the officers crossed the Lincoln Highway Bridge — also known as Hackensack River Bridge — and placed flares to warn motorists that the bridge's safety warning system was not operating, said Jersey City Police Chief Robert Troy.

Before the officers turned around and drove back across the river, the bridge's middle span was raised to allow a tugboat to go under.

"They dropped off the cones and the flares, wished everyone a Merry Christmas and were joking around. From what I've heard, they were all in good spirits," Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy said.

"The horrible irony is they were responding to the very situation that caused their demise. The bridge operator wanted cones and flares, and our police department was the first to respond."

The safety bar and bell used to warn motorists when the bridge is open had not been working for two days because a vehicle had crashed into them, officials said.

The body of Officer Shawn Carson, 40, was found Sunday night. Carson was a 16-year veteran of the force.

Divers searched the 40-degree water Monday for Officer Robert Nguyen, 30, who has been with the department for six years.

The bridge, which links Jersey City and Kearny, is operated by the state Department of Transportation.

Department spokeswoman Erin Phalon said investigators were trying to determine whether the bridge operator was required to contact the officers before they crossed back into Jersey City, or whether the officers should have notified the operator.

"Everything in the universe that could have gone wrong, did go wrong," said police Lt. Tom Comey.

www.latimes.com