Police/LEO News

Contra Costa Times

SOLANO COUNTY, Calif. — More than $235,000 in federal funding is on its way to Solano County law enforcement agencies, local congressional leaders announced Tuesday.

Representatives George Miller and John Garamendi, both D-Solano, announced the new federal funds awarded to law enforcement agencies from the federal Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program (JAG).

The JAG Program, administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), is the leading source of federal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions.

Read more on the Contra Costa Times.

Ledger Independent

FRANKFORT — The war against drugs got a boost last week in the amount of $171,000.

On Friday, State Rep. Jill York announced grant funds for the FIVCO Area Drug Enforcement Task Force which serves Lewis, Greenup and Carter counties in York's district.

The funds were secured through the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, from the Justice Assistance Grant federal funding program and the state funded Law Enforcement Services Fee grant program.

Read more on the Ledger Independent.

The Modesto Bee

MODESTO, Calif. — Four Northern San Joaquin Valley police departments are receiving federal grants to buy equipment.

Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, on Tuesday announced the allocations from the Justice Department's Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program.

He is running for re-election against former Turlock Irrigation District Director Mike Berryhill.

Read more on the Modesto Bee.

By Demian Bulwa, Henry K. Lee, Carolyn Jones, and Jaxon Van Derbeken San Francisco Chronicle

VALLEJO — A string of crimes that left five people dead and one of the victims' sons missing may have been prompted in part by jealousy, investigators said Wednesday as they tried to untangle a web of violence that ended with officers fatally shooting the main suspect.

The suspect, 38-year-old Efren Valdemoro, beat a 73-year-old man to death in Hercules because he thought there was "something going on" romantically between the man or his son - who is still missing - and Valdemoro's girlfriend, said Hercules police spokeswoman Michelle Harrington.

The body of Valdemoro's strangled girlfriend - Cindy Tran, 46 - was in the passenger seat as he led police on a high-speed freeway chase across the East Bay on Tuesday night that ended at a Richmond mall. There, two California Highway Patrol officers shot him to death when he waved a cleaver at them, authorities said.

Read more on the San Francisco Chronicle.

By Astrid Galvan Albuquerque Journal

ALBUQUERQUE — Albuquerque police confiscated the guns of a man who allegedly threatened to shoot protesters who heckled him outside an abortion clinic, according to an incident report.

The incident started Saturday around 9:30 a.m., when the man was walking into the Southwestern Women's Options on 522 Lomas NE with his wife and teenage daughter.

As the family walked in, a woman protesting the clinic asked whether she could pray for them and the baby. The man responded that he did not believe in God. He told police he felt verbally assaulted because the protesters yelled at them and told his family they were going to hell if they got an abortion, according to the report.

The family then walked into the building.

A few minutes later, the man walked out to his car. The protester again approached him, telling him, "Jesus loves him," according to the complaint.

The man then allegedly told the protester if she said anything to his daughter, who was getting an abortion, he would "put a bullet" in her heart, according to the report. The man placed his hand on his right hip as if reaching for a gun but didn't actually have a weapon, witnesses said.

One of the protesters called police.

When police arrived, they found the man was unarmed but had weapons in his car that he said he was going to use at a shooting range. He said he was already stressed by the situation and felt worse when the protesters told him he would go to hell.

The man was not arrested, but police confiscated a rifle, a pistol and several magazines. Police said they were likely returned to him the next day.

Copyright 2010 Albuquerque Journal

By Denise Lavoie and Bill Draper Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Police found such a small amount of crack cocaine in James V. Taylor's car that investigators described it as unweighable. It was enough for a 15-year prison sentence in Missouri, where the courts make an enormous distinction between crack and powder cocaine.

Missouri and several other states followed the federal government's lead in creating such disparities decades ago, but now federal law has changed and prisoner advocates say it's time for the states to do the same.

Critics of the tougher crack sentences say they subject mostly blacks to long prison terms while those caught with powder cocaine — mostly whites — get more lenient treatment. Some prosecutors say crack should be punished more harshly because it is more addictive.

By Dan Rozek The Chicago Sun-Times

OAK BROOK, Ill. — Drew Peterson's police officer son will fight any departmental allegations that he improperly held several guns for his father after Stacy Peterson disappeared in 2007.

Oak Brook police have placed Stephen Peterson, 31, on paid leave while they investigate his recent court testimony that he took up to three weapons from his father after Drew Peterson's wife, Stacy, vanished in 2007.

Stephen Peterson's attorney called the police probe "vindictive" and said his client did nothing improper.

"It should be abundantly clear that as soon as he became aware that the guns were of interest to the State Police, [Stephen] Peterson gave the guns to the appropriate authorities and fully cooperated with their investigation," attorney Tamara Cummings said in a written statement Wednesday.

Copyright 2010 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.

By Frank Main The Chicago Sun-Times

CHICAGO — David Kennedy — the New York professor behind a nearly 15-year-old law enforcement strategy of warning gang leaders to put their guns down or else — said he expects Chicago will see a dramatic decrease in killings after launching a pilot program here.

It has been done in about 60 jurisdictions across the country, including Cincinnati, where murders are down about 40 percent since 2007, Kennedy said.

"It's almost to the point in the crime control business that if [Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis] were not to do it, it would be borderline irresponsible," Kennedy said.

"What we would like to see in Chicago is what we've seen everywhere else where it's done well, which is a very large and sustained crime reduction," he said.

Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, is an adviser for the Chicago program along with two former Chicagoans, Andrew Papachristos, a professor at the University of Massachusetts, and Tracey Meares, deputy dean of the Yale Law School. The MacArthur Foundation is funding it.

The idea was first tried in 1996 in Boston, where homicides fell nearly 30 percent in the program's first six months.

On Aug. 17, Weis and representatives of other law-enforcement agencies met with a small group of alleged gang chiefs from the West Side.

At the hush-hush meeting in Garfield Park Conservatory, gang leaders were given a phone number offering help with jobs and social services.

People in the community recounted tragic stories of loved ones killed in gang violence.

Then came the warning: Police told the leaders they must stop the killing or they and their gangs would immediately be targeted by law-enforcement officials with everything from federal conspiracy charges to increased parole visits and traffic enforcement.

News of the meeting, which Mayor Daley has defended, drew immediate criticism from other politicians. The latest came Wednesday from Gov. Quinn, who said: "I don't think that's a particularly good strategy."

Labar Spann, a reputed leader of the Four Corner Hustlers, told the Chicago Sun-Times it was unfair for him to be held responsible for what others do. And a group purporting to represent the Vice Lords Nation said it will hold a news conference today to voice its opposition.

That shows the message is grabbing gang leaders' attention, Kennedy said.

"It's a matter of fact that even really hard-core offenders will jump out of the way of a speeding car," he said.

In other cities, Kennedy said, the streets are usually abuzz after such meetings.

"You get it from wiretaps, jailhouse phone calls, people talking to their parole officers — even [gang members] talking to cops," he said.

In Cincinnati, police identified members of 69 gangs. The first meeting with gang leaders was in June 2007 in the county courthouse there.

As a result, Kennedy said, murder fell through mid-2008.

Then the cops put the hammer down on a gang that wasn't getting the message, Kennedy said. About 25 members of the Northside Taliband6 were arrested in a conspiracy case, he said.

Authorities in Cincinnati have continued to hold meetings with gang leaders about every four months, Kennedy said. As of last year, about 100 people had received jobs through the program — and almost half had kept them.

Copyright 2010 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.

By Sophia Tareen Associated Press

CHICAGO — The idea seemed simple though bold: Call reputed gang leaders to a meeting with top police and federal prosecutors and deliver an ultimatum to end killings in the nation's third-largest city.

But Chicago police Superintendent Jody Weis is facing mounting criticism for holding a so-called "gang summit" last month, even though several police departments across the country have relied on that approach for decades to help reduce crime.

Among the chief complaints: that Weis himself was at the meeting, that the department should instead be adding more officers on the streets and that gangs won't take the message seriously.

"What are we doing negotiating or having a sit-down with urban terrorists who are killing with guns and drugs on the streets?" Chicago Alderman Bob Fioretti said. "Gangs are not to be coddled."

The issue resonates deeply in Chicago, where the number of brazen shootings has escalated this year, even though the overall homicide rate is down. Earlier this year, two state lawmakers asked to send in the National Guard to patrol streets. On Wednesday, two cops were shot and injured while serving a warrant.

The Chicago Gang Violence Reduction Initiative launched at an unpublicized Aug. 17 meeting, when Weis met with parolees and reputed gang members from Chicago's west side. The meeting, which was also attended by family members of victims, was first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Some reputed members of gangs like the Four Corner Hustlers and the Traveling Vice Lords said they were surprised to see Weis there after being told by their parole officers to show up. Many were visibly angry and some left during the meeting.

But Weis has defended the initiative with the support of Mayor Richard M. Daley and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who likened the tactic to his office holding parolee forums to warn people leaving prison that they'll be watched.

Weis said the message was simple: "If you should resort to violence, we'll sharpen our focus on you and really really make your lives uncomfortable. You have the ability to influence people within your sphere. You guys are in the position to stop the killing."

Some gang leaders called a news conference Thursday to respond to Weis, saying his comments amount to unfair harassment. Weis tricked gang members into attending the meeting, Jim Allen, who identified himself as a member of the Vice Lords, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Weis said prosecutors at the meeting threatened attendees that they could be charged under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act if killings were traced back to gangs with members attending the meeting. The federal law, commonly known as RICO, provides stiffer penalties for acts performed as part of a criminal organization such as the Mafia.

Experts say the tactic of meeting with gang leaders — whether formally with top administrators or at the neighborhood level — is just part of good police work.

"It's become almost standard practice in police departments around the country," said David Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "It's simply saying to people that violence is going to get special attention from law enforcement and that a whole lot of violence, especially in places like Chicago, is driven by gangs."

At least 50 jurisdictions nationwide use the approach. In Cincinnati, Chief Tom Streicher Jr. attends similar meetings, and the Los Angeles Police Department has started using the approach.

Among the pioneers was the Boston Police Department. In the early 1990s when the city's murder rate hovered around 150 a year, the department launched Operation Ceasefire, which continues today.

Parolees and other alleged criminals attend meetings with prosecutors where they're warned of consequences and given jobs information. Police say it has helped cut Boston's homicide rate. Last year the department reported 49.

"We give them a conversation about the fact that we know who they are, what they're up to and they have two options," said Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll. "Take advantage of the resources or end up in jail."

Still, criticism in Chicago has continued.

"I don't think that's the way to go," Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn said. He suggested going after guns on the streets.

Fioretti, who is mulling a run at Chicago mayor, said Weis shouldn't have been there with reputed gangsters.

"He brought them to a table and made them equal," Fioretti said.

Chicago Alderman Joe Moore has called it "a desperation tactic," while others have suggested younger and active gang members may not listen to the word of parolees.

Some of the scrutiny could simply be because it was Weis' idea.

Since he took over in 2008, the department has been wary of Weis, a career FBI agent who continues to be seen as an outsider by many rank and file officers.

Weis noted the program hasn't incurred big costs and that if it doesn't work, the department will drop it. He said he thinks his presence at the meeting made it more meaningful and that attendees were chosen because of their influence.

Overall, Chicago's homicide rate has mirrored national trends and dropped significantly since the 1990s. It fell from a high of 943 in 1992 to 460 last year and has held steady in recent years.

But if residents and police need evidence that the city remains a dangerous place for officers — four officers were killed in the line of duty this year — they found it Wednesday morning. Two plainclothes officers were shot and wounded while serving a warrant on the city's South Side.

Weis said the next step is to determine if recent crimes can be traced to gangs at the meting.

"I don't view it as the panacea to stop all crimes," he said. "It certainly seemed like a worthwhile effort, even to try."

Associated Press

SEATTLE — A prosecutor says he'll seek the death penalty against the man accused of killing a Seattle police officer on Halloween.

Christopher Monfort has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the shooting death of Officer Timothy Brenton.

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg filed notice Thursday that he would seek the death penalty if Monfort is convicted.

Investigators say Monfort drove alongside Brenton's cruiser as it was parked and opened fire, killing Brenton instantly and grazing the neck of his partner, Brit Sweeney.

Monfort also is charged with arson and attempted murder for the firebombing of several police vehicles in a maintenance yard on Oct. 22 - the first step in what prosecutors called Monfort's "one-man war" against Seattle police.

POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY, Okla. — On August 18th, Deputy Joe Leeds pulled over a mid-model Chevy pickup after the truck ran a stop sign. As he approached the vehicle from behind, a white, male passenger in the back seat rolled down his window and opened fire.

Leeds took four rounds center-mass from the gunman’s .22.

He quickly moved to within point-blank range and returned fire. The truck sped away and Leeds ran back to his cruiser. He pursued the pickup until the pain in his chest became unbearable.

Body Armor Prior to becoming the K-9 handler in Pottawatomie County, Leeds was with the Seminole County Sheriff’s Department for seven years. One of his former partners was shot and killed while serving an arrest warrant in 2009.

The officer was not wearing a vest.

Leeds says he has always been diligent about wearing body armor, even though his department didn’t require it, coincidentally, until two weeks before he was shot.

Department Mandate “We didn’t have vests here,” Captain Travis Palmer said. “We were using hand-me-downs.”

Some of the department’s vests didn’t fit, so it was impossible to require them until they received an equipment grant earlier this month. That’s when the department ordered the body armor and made plans to implement the mandate. The new level III vests should arrive anytime.

There are plenty of departments in the country that can’t provide vests for all officers. Programs like the Armor of God Project aim to fix that.

The program allows cops to donate old vests, which then get distributed to needy officers in departments around the United States and the rest of the world.

Leeds was wearing his personal body armor when he was shot — a Second Chance vest with a trauma plate.

“It felt like getting hit at close range with a paintball gun,” he told the Oklahoman newspaper after the incident.

Second Chance offers a wide variety of concealable and external carriers and trauma-reduction plates. The vests range in size and style to fit officers’ needs, regardless of size, sex and the type of patrol they are doing.

The concealable Level II vest Leeds wears everyday is equipped with metal plates. He said he’s tempted to hang the dented plates next to his front door to remind himself daily of his brush with death.

In addition to titanium, Second Chance also makes trauma-reduction plates out of tightly woven layers of fiber and lightweight composite material similar to what you’d find in a hard-armor shield. All of these products and other ballistic systems can be found on their website.

Back on Patrol Leeds has been on leave since the incident nearly two weeks ago. According to Sheriff Palmer, he has a doctors appointment scheduled for Wednesday and could be back starting Thursday.

Dave Balleweg is the department’s other sheriff. He said that although Leeds has had some trouble sleeping, he seems to be doing well.

As the department’s K-9 handler, Leeds works with his personal dog. A reserve unit has had to fill in as much as possible during his absence.

Suspects Loose The people who shot Deputy Leeds still have not been caught.

He said he saw three heads inside the vehicle, but could not offer specific details beyond that. The suspects were driving a lifted pickup truck, which he shot at as they drove away.

The fact that the gunmen are still loose will possibly enter his mind as he returns to work. But if not for his vest, he may not have had a chance to come back at all.

Captain Palmer has only good things to say about the piece of equipment that saved the deputy’s life.

“It’ll make a believer out of you,” he said. “He probably wouldn’t be here if he didn’t have it on.”

San Francisco Chronicle

LAREDO, Texas — Monday's bloodless capture of Edgar Valdez Villarreal, a fair-haired Texan accused of helping run a murderous drug-trafficking gang in Mexico, could yield more breakthroughs by giving Mexican and U.S. authorities a deeper look into the workings of Mexico's drug underworld, analysts said Tuesday.

In addition, Valdez's status as an American citizen may ease his possible handover to the United States, where he is wanted on cocaine-smuggling charges, by allowing authorities to skip or shorten the often-lengthy extradition process.

That would give U.S. prosecutors a chance to glean information from Valdez about smuggling operations, money-laundering and the whereabouts of other drug bosses in exchange for the promise of a lighter sentence, if he is convicted.

Read more on the San Francisco Chronicle.

By Paul Elias Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — California officials are moving to resume executing death-row inmates as soon as September, prompting a judge to rule that a 3-year-old death penalty ban remains in effect.

Prosecutors point to new, recently approved procedures for lethal injections, saying the state is ready to execute condemned inmates.

Marin County Superior Court Judge Verna Adams had put lethal injections on hold in 2007 while the regulations were being drafted and adopted.

Adams said Tuesday the ban remains in effect until she rules otherwise.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown says the governor has asked him to appeal the judge's order. The state argues that the prohibition was automatically lifted when the regulations became official policy Monday.

USA Today

DETROIT — Only months after showing off a police version of the Ford Taurus, Ford today is displaying the caped crusader's new companion, the police version of the new Ford Explorer.

It's called the "Police Interceptor utility vehicle" and like the Taurus, it's built to get at least a 20% gas-mileage boost over the Ford Crown Victoria, that mainstay police car and taxicab that's no longer going to be produced after 2011.

The new crossover SUV has a 3.5-liter V-6 engine that develops 280 horsepower and can run on E85 ethanol blend fuel. It has a six-speed automatic transmission and can carry up to 800 pounds of guns, ammo, suspects, K-9s or just about anything else police haul these days.

Read more on USA Today.

By Hope Yen Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. has dropped for the first time in 20 years as substantially fewer undocumented workers from Mexico, Latin America and elsewhere are crossing the border in search of jobs, an independent research group says.

The analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center suggests the nation's economic downturn and increased border enforcement have reduced the number of illegal immigrants, who make up roughly 4 percent of the U.S. population.

The findings come amid bitter debate over Arizona's strict new immigration law - now being challenged in federal court after lawmakers passed it earlier this year. The Obama administration contends the state law usurps federal authority and promotes racial profiling, while Arizona says states are justified to step in if federal enforcement falls substantially short.

The study released Wednesday estimates that 11.1 million illegal immigrants lived in the U.S. in 2009. That represents a decrease of roughly 1 million, or 8 percent, from a peak of 12 million in 2007, before Arizona intervened with its new enforcement measures.

The study, based on an analysis of 2009 census data, puts the number of illegal immigrants about where it was in 2005.

The 11.1 million is slightly higher than the Homeland Security Department's own estimate of 10.8 million. The government uses a different census survey that makes some year-to-year comparisons difficult.

Much of the recent decrease comes from a sharp drop-off in illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border into the U.S., particularly those from the Caribbean, Central America and South America. An increase in unauthorized immigrants leaving the U.S., by deportation or for economic reasons, also may have played a factor.

States in the Southeast and Southwest saw some of the biggest declines in the number of illegal immigrants from 2008 to 2009, including Florida, Nevada and Virginia. Arizona saw a decrease, but it was too small to be statistically significant.

It's hard to figure out how much of the decline to attribute to the bad economy and how much to immigration enforcement, said Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at Pew who co-wrote the analysis.

"They're certainly acting together," he said. Passel said illegal immigrants now find it more expensive and dangerous to cross into the U.S. and also have less incentive to do given the languishing job market in construction and other low-wage industries.

"While people are arguing the government is not stopping illegal immigration, our data suggests the flow of undocumented immigrants sneaking into the country has dropped dramatically," Passel said.

He declined to predict how long the decline in illegal immigration may last, other than to say it could take a while before unemployment in the U.S. substantially improves.

The estimates by Pew will add to the political back-and-forth on immigration reform.

Boosted by immigration and high fertility among Latinos, minorities now make up roughly half the children born in the U.S., part of a historic trend in which they are projected to become the new U.S. majority by mid-century. Roughly one in four counties currently have more minority children than white children or are nearing that point.

Still, the Census Bureau has made clear that projected minority growth - particularly among Hispanics - could change substantially depending on immigration policies and the economy. President Barack Obama, who is challenging the Arizona law, has pledged to push an overhaul of federal immigration law but has declined to set a timeline.

Following the passage of Arizona's immigration law - which is now largely on hold as it's reviewed by the courts - more than a dozen states were considering similar legislation or issued legal opinions aimed at strengthening immigration enforcement. They include Florida, Virginia, South Carolina and Utah.

Other Pew findings: - The states with the highest percentage of illegal immigrants were California (6.9 percent), Nevada (6.8 percent), Texas (6.5 percent) and Arizona (5.8 percent). The numbers are expected to play an important factor in whether those states lose or gain fewer U.S. House seats than expected after the 2010 census.

-Illegal immigrants make up about 28 percent of the foreign-born population in the U.S., down from 31 percent in 2007.

-The unemployment rate for illegal immigrants in March 2009 was 10.4 percent - higher than that of U.S.-born workers or legal immigrants, who had unemployment of 9.2 percent and 9.1 percent, respectively.

The Pew analysis is based on census data through March 2009. Because the Census Bureau does not ask people about their immigration status, the estimate on illegal immigrants is derived largely by subtracting the estimated legal immigrant population from the total foreign-born population. It is a method that has been used by the government and Pew for many years and is generally accepted.

Associated Press

BERKELEY, Calif. — Police have gunned down a 100-pound mountain lion romping through Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto neighborhood blocks from Alice Waters' famed Chez Panisse restaurant.

Authorities said a neighborhood resident reported the big cat to Berkeley police and firefighters around 2 a.m. Tuesday.

The animal was seen roaming through residential backyards and a church playground before officers caught up with it.

Police and state wildlife officials quickly deemed the animal a threat to public safety, and officers were given the OK to shoot it. An officer killed it with a shotgun at about 3:30 a.m.

Pat Foy, a state game warden, says he has not ruled out that the female lion was being kept as an illegal pet since no lions have been spotted in Berkeley in recent years.