|
Written by Mark Nichols
|
|
Under a policy adopted in 2008, The Nebraska State Patrol has rejected potential recruits with tattoos or other body art that would be exposed while in uniform. Five of the 228 candidates invited to a pre-training camp orientation session back in October of last year were immediately rejected because they had "visible tattoos."
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Mark Nichols
|
|
Two Manhattan Beach, California police officers, fired for their roles in an off-duty hit-and-run crash, are both seeking $10 million from the city in damages. According the Daily breeze newspaper, the cops allege they have not only been inhumanely treated, they also might have to flee the country.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Mark Nichols
|
|
At a recent public hearing in Toledo, a parade of people showed up to testify about their police department. Probably no one was more surprised than the cops themselves, when every person who spoke had nothing but nice things to say about the officers who work for the Toledo, Ohio P.D.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Mark Nichols
|
|
What do you call 1,000 lawyers chained together at the bottom of the ocean? A good start. And it's not hard to see why that old joke is still funny when you consider the case of one Lewis B. Moon. Moon, an attorney, stands accused of being drunk, driving the wrong way in a fast-food drive-thru lane, impersonating law enforcement and then spitting on a police officer.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Mark Nichols
|
|
Even though their pleas will likely fall on deaf ears in Washington D.C., State Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. and U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez joined law enforcement and other officials outside Clifton City Hall in New Jersey recently to call on lawmakers to fund a program that would allow police departments to hire more officers.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Mark Nichols
|
|
In Chicago, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police says his organization will try to intervene in a recent lawsuit that alleges inequalities in how Chicago police deploy officers in minority neighborhoods. According to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, FOP president Michael Shields gave a speech at the City Club of Chicago on the topic.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by David J. Terestre
|
|
The events of the past year have put all public employees in the crosshairs of the knife-wielding budget-butchers, from the halls of the state capitol in Wisconsin, to Capitol Hill in D.C. They are sharpening their meat cleavers, and law enforcement agencies from across the country are no different from any other government entity.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Cynthia Brown
|
|
When the votes were tallied in Ohio on election day this past November, the results were astonishing. Voters turned out in record numbers and voted 61 to 39 percent to strike down Ohio Senate Bill (SB5), which had stripped all bargaining rights from the state's 350,000 public-sector workers. Jim Gilbert, a 15-year veteran sergeant with the Columbus Police Department who serves as president of the Capital City F.O.P. Lodge #9, was ecstatic over the victory. "This vote sent a message to Ohio and the country," Gilbert said.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by APB Staff
|
|
Two Manhattan Beach, California police officers, fired for their roles in an off-duty hit-and-run crash, are both seeking $10 million from the city in damages. According the Daily Breeze newspaper, the cops allege they have not only been inhumanely treated, they also might have to flee the country. In identical 12-page claims, Officers Eric Eccles and Kristopher Thompson said retired Manhattan Beach Police Chief Rod Uyeda likened them to the al-Qaida terrorist network and referred to them as "being much like Osama bin Laden" before he terminated them.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by APB Staff
|
|
Follow the money. Those famous words by "Deep Throat" in the book, All the President's Men, are worth living by. I personally came to realize this in 1997 when I started looking into correctional privatization in Florida. Little did I know that my investigations would lead me into what I call the "black-hole" of prison privatization.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Written by Mark Nichols
|
|
With pension funds under a full-scale attack by powerful special-interest groups, setting up a trust fund to protect police pensions seems like a good idea. Unfortunately, a Minnesota State auditor says a Minneapolis police pension funds efforts to create a $10 million trust fund is likely illegal. According to State Auditor Rebecca Otto, the proposal before the Minneapolis police pension board to set aside $10 million before the police pension fund merges with a state fund will face legal hurdles.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by APB Staff
|
A provision of the Michigan medical marijuana law prohibits police from seizing pot possessed by licensed medical marijuana patients. But State Attorney General Bill Schuette, in an opinion released recently, wrote that the provision is invalid because marijuana is illegal under federal law. If police follow the state law and actually return medical marijuana to licensed patients, those officers could be prosecuted as dope dealers.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Mark Nichols
|
|
One of the main flaws with the drug war is its singular focus on supply rather than demand. As long as there is a demand for illicit drugs, suppliers will find a way to satisfy it. And the demand is overwhelming. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times by Lisa Girion and Doug Smith, prescription drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in the United States.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Mark Nichols
|
|
Maybe when the economy turns around we can get back to the war on drugs, but for now budget cuts are making life easier for those who make their living growing, manufacturing and distributing illegal narcotics. Law enforcement officials in Georgia say a cut in federal funding means the Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad and Gang Task Force will be forced to focus more on local cases and not on the bigger state and federal cases.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Mark Nichols
|
|
It turns out drones, typically used for military action in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya, may soon be flying in the skies near you. Law enforcement agencies want drones for air support when chasing criminals on foot or in a vehicle, utility companies believe the drones will provide invaluable help monitoring oil, gas and water pipelines and farmers think the drones will be useful and farmers are convinced drones will be the perfect way to spray their crops with pesticides.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Mark Nichols
|
|
The following is posted on the official web site of the Obama Adminsistration’s www.whitehouse.gov. President Obama has committed to making his administration the most open and transparent in history, and WhiteHouse.gov will play a major role in delivering on that promise. But that’s what they say. The question of what federal officials actually do is a different proposition entirely.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Mark Nichols
|
|
According to a new report from DOJ's Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, a recent study shows the first-ever national decrease in law enforcement positions in 25 years. "Across the country, mayors, sheriffs, and chiefs have been asked not only to do more with less but to make painful budgetary cuts," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a speech at the recent International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference in Chicago.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Mark Nichols
|
|
If you live or work in Vallejo, California; Central Falls, Rhode Island; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Boise County, Idaho; or Jefferson County, Alabama, you might have noticed a few alarming changes recently. All of those municipalities have either filed for bankruptcy or plan to do so shortly. If the economy doesn't pick up any steam sometime soon, there could be hundreds more cities and counties filing Chapter 9 - the municipal version of Chapter 11 for individuals and businesses.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Mark Nichols
|
|
It's never an easy thing to know how to discipline a kid who's gotten into trouble. Some kids respond to tough love and harsh punishment. Other kids do better with encouragement and forgiveness. But whatever a parent chooses in terms of ways to respond to something like their child sneaking out to a party without permission, on thing is clear. If the punishment involves medieval armor, a beating with a tree branch, and a two-hour "duel," odds are at least one parent's getting arrested for child abuse.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Written by Cynthia Brown
|
|
Well, we're almost there! Yes, the holidays - and then right after the launch of our new business book, "Collaborate or Perish! Reaching Across Boundaries in a Networked World" (Random House/Crown Business, January 17, 2012) The response has been just great - from reviewers and folks buying for themselves and their companies. To all we say, "Thanks."
|
|
Read more...
|
|