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The Crime Report talks funding, inertia and over-incarceration with the man who heads Vera Institute of Justice’s NOLA office.
It’s rare for an entire city to get a do-over, but after Hurricane Katrina roared through New Orleans and the levees gave way, the Crescent City became ground zero for policy makers and visionaries wanting to transform the city’s agencies and social structures.
Zelaido Rivera Garcia went to the Minneapolis impound lot in 2008 to pick up his car. His encounter with Metro Gang Strike Force officers left him shaken, reports the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Garcia said police humiliated and taunted him and others. “We had not done anything,” he said. “We were just trying to retrieve our car that had been picked up by the tow truck.” Officers took Garcia’s wallet. When they returned it, he said, $100 was missing. That $100, and the ordeals of others whose money was seized by strike force officers, mushroomed to a $3 million settlement of a federal lawsuit announced yesterday. (more…)
Less than three months after taking control of Denver’s police, sheriff and fire departments, Manager of Safety Ron Perea resigned yesterday amid growing uproar over how he disciplined officers, the Denver Post reports. Perea brushed aside concerns earlier this month from other city officials who feared he was too lenient in refusing to fire three officers involved in two separate police abuse cases — including a highly publicized case in which video shows police beating a man. His decisions in those cases started to unravel in the past seven days. (more…)
Accountability and civilian oversight have transformed Los Angeles’ police culture. But the job isn’t complete yet.
The good news in L.A. these days is that the epic struggle to reform the Los Angeles Police Department, which caused some of the deadliest American riots of the 20th Century, and so fiercely dominated and divided the city, is finally nearing its end.
In a four-part series being published this week, the Raleigh News and Observer scrutinizes the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. The paper says SBI agents “have cut corners, bullied the vulnerable and twisted reports and court testimony when the truth threatened to undermine their cases.” The bureau is the state’s top law enforcement agency. Its 337 agents assist local police and deputies in investigating the most complicated crimes. The SBI also hosts the state’s crime lab, where analysts use forensic science to solve crimes. (more…)
Miami-Dade police abused trust funds meant to repel environmental crime by flouting purchasing rules, misrepresenting the need for the public dollars and lavishing millions on the agency instead of fighting polluters, a draft audit by the county Inspector General found. The fund was marred by “overall chaotic administration,” and replete with “excessive, unreasonable, or unnecessary” purchases, concludes the 38-page report obtained by The Miami Herald. (more…)
Tulsa’s former police chief tells the city’s World that he accepts some of the responsibility for the “culture” that gave birth to a growing narcotics scandal in the police department. Police there are reviewing guidelines for undercover operations in the wake of a grand jury probe over the handling of seized drug money and other issues. A former officer has pleaded guilty to stealing money as part of an FBI sting. Federal indictments also claim that undercover police officers falsified search warrants and used nonexistent informants to frame drug suspects. (more…)
