In Wisconsin Juvenile Interrogations must be taped

Wisconsin law enforcement agencies were ordered July 7, 2005 by the state Supreme Court to immediately begin electronically recording juvenile interrogations in both felony and misdemeanor cases. The ruling says audiotaping is sufficient to meet the requirement, “but videotaping may provide an even more complete picture” of the interrogation.

++++++++++

Bomb Threats in Schools

This COPS guide identifies a series of questions that may assist in analyzing the local problem of bomb threats in schools (k-12), review responses to the problem, and what is known about these from evaluative research and police practice. Bomb threats are primarily furtive crimes, crimes that can be committed from a distance.

++++++++++

Problem-Oriented Guide for Policing: Cruising

While cruising may be a much-beloved tradition since the 1950s, it also causes problems for the police, other motorists, some businesses and the community at large. These include conflicts between cruisers, noise, traffic congestion, traffic crashes, and vandalism and unintentional property damage. This COPS publication looks at cruising, the problems associated with it, and provides a selection of responses for police. About 50 pages long. Pdf file.

See also the COPS Gangs Toolkit.

++++++++++

Chicago Police Videos Offer Insights into Various Faiths

A series of five videos about cultural and religious practices, each about 10 minutes in length, have been shown to Chicago’s nearly 14,000 police officers and copies have been distributed to police chiefs in the nation’s 50 largest cities. The videos educate about the religious customs of Sikhs, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and Hindus. A narrator advises officers on practices they should be careful to avoid, like asking a Sikh to remove his turban in public.

++++++++++

FBI to Help Police Chiefs Deal With a New Brand of Gang Violence

The FBI will soon announce a new attack against gangs. FBI Director Robert Mueller says, in a lead article in US News and World Report that “The bureau is obligated to respond to the growing barbarity and the willingness to utilize homicide, torture, and assaults in furtherance of violent gang activities.” The FBI’s new strategy will:

	Centralize gang investigations at FBI headquarters, setting priorities that are “intelligence driven.”
	Reclassify gangs from “violent criminal offenders” to “criminal organizations and enterprises,” placing them on a part with the traditional organized crime families.
	Use federal racketeering statutes and tough federal sentences to systematically dismantle entire gang organizations.
	Create new field gang task forces nationwide.
	Establish a $10 million national gang intelligence center at FBI headquarters next year.
	Create a national gang task force to decimate one major gang – Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.

The FBI has now identified 1,500 to 2,000 MS-13 members and 15 Asian gangs in Northern Virginia alone. They are a major problem in Denver and even in southern cities like Charlotte and Durham, N.C.

MS-13 was created in Los Angeles by the children of immigrants who fled the civil war in El Salvador in the 1980s to protect themselves against a rival Mexican-American gang. When convicted of crimes here they were deported, taking their violent gang culture deep into El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. When those governments cracked down, MS-13 members illegally re-entered the US and proliferated along the US coasts.

++++++++++

Community Policing Beyond the Big Cities

NIJ report discusses a study of eight law enforcement agencies in small cities and rural areas that have implemented a wide variety of problem-solving initiatives. Researchers identified five progressive stages of community policing. 7 page pdf file.

++++++++++

Police Chiefs Call for Major Reform in Approach to Drugs and Crime

 A majority of American police chiefs view drug abuse as their number one problem and see efforts to address it as unsuccessful. Many chiefs, particularly in small towns, report major increases in drug abuse since a similar survey in 1996. From the Major Findings section of the report:

	Drug abuse continues to be the top law enforcement problem and it has increased in seriousness since 1996.
	The majority of police chiefs (63%) rate drug abuse as an extremely or quite serious problem in their communities, while only a small minority of chiefs describe the threat of terrorism (17%) and violent crime (18%) in those terms.
	Police chiefs (67%) believe overwhelmingly that law enforcement has been unsuccessful in reducing the drug problem.
	Police chiefs call for major changes in the way that law enforcement deals with the drug problem.
	Three out of four chiefs (74%) believe that the resource gap in dealing with drugs is far greater than the resource gap in dealing with any other crime problems they confront, including the threat of terrorism.

 The survey was conducted for the Drug Strategies and Police Foundation. 22 page pdf file.

++++++++++

Forensics Under the Microscope

The Chicago Tribune is running a series on the reliability of forensic theories, tests, and applications in forensic cases, specifically arson cases and bite marks, both nationally and in Illinois. Arson investigators, for instance, may still rely on a collection of beliefs and folk wisdom that have been replaced by new scientific knowledge, but may not be used by them. As a result, prosecutors around the country still seek to convict people based on theories that have been shown to be untrue and defense lawyers are using private investigators to conduct independent analyses. This link is to the arson article. Links to the rest of the series are at the same location.

++++++++++

Gun Violence Among Serious Young Offenders

 

This guide, a new product of the COPS Problem-Specific Guides Series, addresses serious youth gun violence, describes the problem and reviews factors that increase the risks of it. It identifies a series of questions to help analyze local problems, reviews responses to the problem and what is known about it from evaluative research and police practice. Downloadable pdf file. Minus the fluff it’s about 40 pages long.

This guide, a new product of the COPS Problem-Specific Guides Series, It identifies a series of from evaluative research and police practice. Downloadable pdf file. Minus the fluff it’s about 40 pages long.

 

++++++++++

 

Broken Windows

 

The Law Enforcement News (LEN) 2003 Person of the Year was George Kelling. He was interviewed by LEN in December, 2003. Kelling’s Broken Windows thesis has been pivotal in influencing law enforcement practices and is considered one of the foremost ground-breaking ideas in criminal justice over the past two decades. Kelling considers zero-tolerance policies, sweeps and crackdowns to be distortions of Broken Windows.

. He was interviewed by LEN in December, 2003. . Kelling considers zero-tolerance policies, sweeps and crackdowns to be distortions of Broken Windows.

 

++++++++++

 

Walking Tall on Hallway Beat

 

 

Interview with a New York police officer assigned to Jane Addams High School in the Bronx. Officer Kenan Sheppard is one of many New York City police officers stationed in public schools. He talks about the unique nature of a policeman’s job in a school setting.

 

NYTimes articles are available free online for 7 days from the date of publication and thereafter are available for a fee.

 

++++++++++

 

Bill Gates Answers Toronto Cop’s Plea

 

 

Last January, a frustrated Toronto police officer sent an email to Bill Gates asking for help fighting child pornography. Three weeks later the policeman had a call from Microsoft Canada and an offer to help. Microsoft and the Toronto police are now developing software that will make it easier for police to investigate the dissemination of child pornography on the internet.  They hope to complete the initial version in a month.    

++++++++++

Community Outreach Through Police in Schools

 

This OVC (Office for Victims of Crime) Bulletin reports on a short-term, prevention-oriented, school-based group intervention that brings together community police officers and child clinicians as group coleaders to provide weekly sessions for middle school students at risk of being exposed to violence in the community. It consists of 10 50-minute weekly sessions. Preliminary evaluation results of the program show both a serious need for intervention in this middle school population and some promising outcomes of the intervention.

++++++++++

Community Oriented Policing (COPS) Web Site Resources

 

Here is a brief look at the resources and information you will find on the COPS site. There is a lot more than you see here.

Here is a brief look at the resources and information you will find on the COPS site. There is a lot more than you see here.

 

	Justice Based After-School Programs – This Fact Sheet describes a pilot program to develop a preventive approach to juvenile crime and victimization. Includes descriptions of model programs. 2 pages.
	COPS Innovations – This section of the site examines important issues in community policing in depth. Promising Strategies from the Field: A National Overview, for instance, looks at innovative uses of COPS funding in a number of communities around the country that include several youth programs.

++++++++++

Public Safety Collaborative – Knoxville, Tennessee – An initiative of law enforcement, community corrections and human service agencies to enhance public safety by providing pro-active, coordinated and strategic case management and supervision services to high-risk/high-needs offenders residing in Knoxville.

 

++++++++++

Policing the Mentally Ill

 

The Phoenix , Ariz. Crisis Intervention Team program is designed to reduce the number of violent confrontations police experience with the mentally ill. Roughly 100 Phoenix police officers have taken the 40 hour course, which features a roster of speakers including mental-health professionals, advocates, and patients. The program started in Memphis , Tenn. in 1987 after a widely criticized police shooting of a mentally ill man.

 

To deal with mentally ill, cops act as “social workers” – Christian Science Monitor recent news article about the Phoenix program.

 

Law Enforcement News 2000 People of the Year – MPD’s Crisis Intervention Team - An article published in Behind the Badge, the newsletter of the Memphis PD, describes the history and development of the Crisis Intervention Team approach to the mentally ill.

 

++++++++++

 

NYPD Central Park Jogger Panel Report

 

 

In the last issue of Brevity I brought you reports on the Central Park jogger case from the point of view of the journalism profession. Now you can read the executive summary of the NYPD panel report examining the role of the police in this case.

 

A three-person panel appointed by the Police Commissioner of the NYPD reviewed the Central Park jogger case to determine whether police policy or procedures needed to be changed, to identify weaknesses in procedures and to make recommendations to address these weaknesses.

 

The panel agreed that the DNA evidence linked Matias Reyes, a convicted killer and serious rapist, to the rape and was sufficient grounds to overthrow the convictions against the five then teenage young men who have since served their time. The report said, however, that the new evidence did not exonerate them.

 

The report found no evidence of misconduct by New York police and made no comment about taping all interviews with minors, a suggestion that has been made by law enforcement experts.

 

++++++++++

 

False Confessions

 

 

Two articles in the latest issue of the Columbia Journalism Review deal with false confessions, how they happen, and the role of the press.

 

Wolf Pack: The Press and the Central Park Jogger  -  examines the role of the press and how it covered of the beating rape of a woman jogger who was left to die in Central Park in New York City in 1989, and the trial and conviction of a group of teenage boys for the crime. In January 2002 Matias Reyes, a serial rapist, confessed to beating and raping the jogger – by himself. The kids who had been convicted of the crime he committed have all served their prison sentences and are now young adults.

 

False Confessions: How They Happen – This article shows how old-fashioned skeptical reporting can sometimes find holes in juvenile confessions. It also discusses the practice of videotaping interrogations, not just final confessions.