City Hall: The best show in town
Today, it begins again.
The new season of Riverside City Council, the reality show that's coming back from its hiatus with a whole bunch of new, exciting episodes. The last season ended on a cliffhanger, which was how would the city government function in the wake of Election 2007? How will the economy impact the decisions made from the dais? That and more will be revealed in the months ahead.
If you've missed the excitement of city council meetings during the past several months, Here's a preview of upcoming events in two local cities, Riverside and Moreno Valley.
Don't feel bad if the past few Tuesdays during the holiday season have rolled by and you've wondered if you've been missing something. Someone once said that city council meetings were better than theater and also free. However, unlike in most live entertainment venues, there's a shortage of snacks provided at the governmental meetings though more intermissions than you'll see with most professional productions. Occasionally, business gets done in between musical numbers and dance routines.
However, it's an interesting and often sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat bed of intrigue in the chambers each Tuesday afternoon and evening.
Still, it's the political clashes and emotional showdowns that make the city council meetings one of the biggest hits in town. When alliances form one week to be broken the next and council members face off on some newly recognized Civic Olympic events like the eye rolling competition which is scored both on artistic and technical merit, not to mention the unexpected revelation category where you might not get something like, "I wasn't going to tell you this, but Isadora got abducted by UFOs" or "I wasn't going to tell you this but there's a sea monster in Lake Evans" but you can always hope. Instead, you might have to settle for a brief pause for dramatic effect, "I wasn't going to tell you this, but [insert revelation of choice about city resident of choice]. Like in December, I found out I had a blog!
But meetings are filled with all kinds of intrigue, including actions and words involving the assorted cast of characters to rival anything you'd see on most other reality shows.
Survivor, watch out. American Idol, what's that?
The Riverside city council meetings bring you elements of both successful franchises, including a talent competition.
It's only too bad that Riverside and Charter Communications can't donate episodes of the latest season's follies to major networks who are getting mighty hungry for original programming due to the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike. When the actors and directors' unions potentially join the walkout in June, then there will be an even bigger demand for programming that doesn't have that recycled feel. Some revenue could come in from syndication sales to other networks that might offset some of the budget crunches in this coming year which might not slow the progress of Riverside Renaissance but could leave the city's departments facing up to 15% in budget cuts.
It's been all about show and proving themselves to one another on the dais, when they don't come and sit on it leaving city residents feeling as if the decisions before them have already been made. That's why the same elected official can praise your conduct one week and then accuse you of not having any ethics the next. And that's just how they behave towards city residents. What's interesting is how they interrelate to each other in any given week. Allies or adversaries, in an arena that can often feel like political quick sand.
But with new blood on the dais due in part to voters' reactions to dais antics of the past, what will happen next? It's interesting, the contrast between the newbies and the veterans that is already apparent. Especially in terms of determining who should receive gold stars and who should be placed in the penalty box.
All the meetings need is a hotdog cart outside or perhaps one of those portable coffee stands like the city has installed at the downtown public library. So during intermissions, people could gather over jumbo sized hot dogs with sauerkraut and lattes to discuss what they've just witnessed and compare notes and score cards. Some people who watch the meetings at home on a weekly basis told me they always have a bowl of freshly made popcorn ready while they hunker down to enjoy the discussion calendar.
So what if you want to come down to City Hall and check one of these action-packed, angst-dripping, could-use-some-more-estrogen-infusion meetings out yourself, because the television season is perpetually in reruns until further notice? Perhaps you are just caught in between seasons of your favorite professional sports teams and are looking for some other team to root for or against in the meantime. Penants bearing the name of each elected official to be waved in support during key points of the city council meeting aren't available yet but maybe that's just until the licensing fees get worked out. Don't be surprised if the colllection of city council action figures comes to a venue near you.
But in the midst of all this drama, there are elected officials who can sit through a meeting without looking and acting as if they wish they were anywhere else. In fact, several look like they are happy enough just to be there. They listen to people who praise them and criticize them, express happiness at a project or have questions and concerns as if all of them deserve to be heard. They don't walk out in the middle of when people are speaking. They don't read reports that they should be prepared to discuss before attending the meeting. They don't hold conversations with other people on the dais while people are addressing them. They don't laugh at speakers who are concerned about civic issues. They act and present themselves as if they ran for elected office to do a job, not simply be on the receiving end of perks and praise. They can deal if not everyone in the city or in their ward agrees with them without having a meltdown. They remember who they represent, the residents in their wards not the development firms and why they represent.
Whenever I do see a city council member acting like a five-year-old for whatever reason, it's nice to see that there are those who are there, who are concerned, who are good listeners and who occasionally go against the grain. Those who remember what first got them excited to run, those who remember back when they actually walked their precincts. Those who remember why they ran. Those are the ones to strike up conversations on issues even if they don't represent your ward. They provide some of the rewards of the process of government which is good to see in the midst of all the drama.
Here's the weekly agenda from the city's Web site and you'll see one every week there's a meeting which is usually every week of the month except the fifth. The agenda lists every item that is up for a vote on the weekly meeting agenda. Most items have back up material known as the agenda report. Click anything that's in blue and you'll probably get a report on that particular agenda item.
For example, if you click item #1 or this link, you will get whatever is in writing for that particular agenda item. The reports are available in two formats. There's laserfische which although it often loads slowly is convenient for reading reports. There's buttons to press where you can go forward or backward through the pages of the report and others to use to enlarge or reduce the size of the print. The reports are also available as PDF documents which means that you need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader to access them. Version 7.0 is what the city is currently using with its documents, but earlier versions should work. The PDF version is the much better one if you intend to print out the report or make copies to circulate.
Hard copies of reports are available from City Hall but they aren't free. You can pay up to $.60 for the first page and $.10 for remaining pages. Copies of agendas for the city council meetings and subcommittee meetings are also available and those are free. Agendas are also posted in the glass box on the front wall of City Hall, pursuant to the meeting notification provision of the Brown Act. Access them, read them. These are the basis for the actions that your elected government takes. The meetings may or may not be a good representation of what good government does especially if you toss in the recent actions to restrict public expression such as banning residents to pull items from the consent calendar, or should do but information is a powerful tool at any rate.
Speaking of the Brown Act, which is the open meetings law for California, the text of it is available here. It's definitely worth your while to access it, read it, know it, memorize it. It and Robert's Rules of Order, the guide to parliamentary procedure are kind of the rule books. Unfortunately as often as not, governmental officials operate under the assumption even the fervent hope that their constituents know nothing about this important law or the rights it provides. So goes Robert's rules.
Not to mention, Riverside is a city where much of what its city attorney's office says about the Brown Act is often in terms of making the Brown Act into a rule guide more friendly to government, not enhancing what it allows the public to enjoy in terms of rights. But if you've been following the actions of the most recent city council before Election 2007 came along and changed its face, that shouldn't be surprising at all.
Here is also a pamphlet on the Brown Act courtesy of the State Attorney General's office in 2003. If you can, go out and talk to other people about the Brown Act.
The rules of city government are that every city resident has a city council representative that's assigned to them based on the geographic area of the city where they reside. City residents inside the seven wards have the opportunity to elect their representative every four years. The elections are staggered every two years depending on whether your city council member presides in an even or odd-numbered ward.
Here is a site where you can access more information about your elected council representative. Just click on the picture of your council member. If you're not sure who that is or what ward you live in, there's a search engine on this page along with a map of the city's wards. Just put in your address on the blank and the page dedicated to your council representative will come up. These pages include contact information for each one through both telephone and email.
If you wish to have a meeting with your elected representative at City Hall, give them a call. After all, you paid for the office space that they use, not the development firms.
There's also this thing called the Redevelopment Agency which consists of people who strangely look almost identical to those serving on the city council meetings. However, they get some extra cash each time they show up at a Redevelopment Agency meeting. So many of them do show up.
Here are agendas, reports and other documents related to the city's Redevelopment Agency. Here's what it means and these are the current project areas in Riverside.
Don't forget your all-important eminent domain wavier for single family residence while it still exists. It might come in handy.
Also, each city council member serves on 3-4 committees. The updated list of committee assignments is here. This is because there was a swap between Councilmen Mike Gardner and Rusty Bailey regarding being reassigned to the Finance Committee and Community and Youth Services Committee respectively. Most of these committees meet once monthly but nearly all of them are held during the daytime hours which means many people can't attend. Quite a bit of the discussion and decision making process is conducted at this level.
If you do choose to come to the weekly meetings of the city council, they take place at different times depending on when the body decides to meet and whether or not there's a meeting of the Redevelopment Agency (which typically meets twice monthly). Most people try to get to the 6:30 p.m. session which is held as all city council and Redevelopment Agency meetings are inside the City Council Chambers at City Hall which is located at 3900 Main Street, which sits at the southern end of the downtown pedestrian mall.
About 3/4 of those who do show up are there for the different awards and other types of presentations which begin the evening session and are usually very good to see. When the presentations end, the mayor usually calls for a recess and you'll have to stand aside so the tide of people departing doesn't run you over. But then comes the fun stuff like the blink-and-you'll-miss-it consent calendar where the bulk of the agenda including some high ticket items is listed and the discussion items which for the most part these days, are public reports.
Occasionally, there are no real discussion items as is the case at today's meeting but there's a public hearing instead, which can last an hour or four hours depending on the issue or what's at stake.
Come check out the city council meetings, which are the best live show in town.
In Moreno Valley, new mayor, Bill Batey ponders the challenges he will face in the upcoming year, according to the Press Enterprise. Mayors are not elected at large in Moreno Valley as they are in other cities. They are simply city council members who are chosen by others on the dais to serve in this capacity for one year. In this case, Moreno Valley will see something not seen in Riverside and many other local cities, which is a Black mayor.
Creating more jobs, dealing with an increase in home foreclosures and other issues face the new mayor who will grapple with them after being sworn in.
However, the system that appointed him mayor is itself under scrutiny as well.
(excerpt)
The mayor's position is largely ceremonial, confined to presiding at council meetings, representing the city at official functions and signing official documents. The mayor does not have more power than any of the other council members.
The council is expected to consider sponsoring a referendum this year asking voters whether they would prefer a directly elected mayor. A majority of the council seems to support sponsoring the ballot measure.
"At least the people will have their say," Batey said.
But White has spoken out against the idea of having a directly elected mayor.
"Why do we have to fix it if it's not broken?" he said at a meeting last month. "I don't think it's necessary."
It's not easy being green. However, one writer stated that the the Inland Empire needed to try.
Widespread drug tampering affecting over 1,000 cases was reported in Boston's Police Department.
Drugs in these cases either turned up missing because they were improperly tossed out or they were stolen, reported the Boston Globe.
(excerpt)
The FBI, prosecutors from Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley's office, and Boston police have launched a criminal investigation to determine who took the drugs.
The drugs included cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and Oxycontin, Davis said. The Oxycontin was often replaced with a substance similar to Tylenol or aspirin, he said.
An officer or officers were almost certainly involved, Davis said, because only police are allowed into the Hyde Park depository.
Davis said he plans to inform defense lawyers involved with the drug cases to let them know about the audit's results.
None of the drug cases in which evidence was missing are still open. Jake Wark, spokesman for Conley, said the district attorney's office is investigating whether any of the closed drug cases were compromised because of the missing evidence.
"It's simply too early to tell," he said. "We will be looking closely at whether and how any defendant's closed cases may have been affected."
This troubling set of circumstances pushes the question as to not only who's responsible especially for drug thefts, but who knows about it. Who right now if anyone knows exactly what happened but is remaining silent about it.
Hopefully, that silence will be broken. The anonymous tip phone is that way.
Outgoing Philadelphia Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson is left answering questions as to why police officers shot innocent bystanders on New Year's Eve for the second year in a row.
(excerpt, Associated Press)
This year, police chasing an armed reveler shot into a house filled with partygoers, leaving one man in a coma, a second wounded and a 9-year-old boy with a graze wound to the chest.
A year ago, police fatally shot a man in the back of the head as he tried to flee when neighbors started shooting guns into the air.
The latest shootings came as Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson ends a six-year tenure marked by public concern about gun violence and the police response to it.
Johnson has repeatedly been asked to answer questions about the department's use of deadly force, including two months ago when officers killed a distraught teenager wielding a clothes iron. City police fatally shot 16 people in 2007 and 20 the previous year.
"It seems that there's too much of a policy to shoot first and worry about the outcome later," said Bruce Ginsburg, an attorney representing two of the shooting victims. "It puts everybody in the city in danger."
Johnson defended his officers citing the number of police officers in the city shot last year. His replacement, Charles Ramsey said he was going to investigate the department's high officer-involved shooting rate. About a year ago, the city had convened a panel to examine this issue.
Philadelphia also began providing crisis intervention team training to its officers early last year because of past shootings and more current ones.
In Washington, D.C., an off-duty police officer spit at a bouncer at a club and when police officers were called out, they backed the intoxicated spitting officer, according to the Washington Post.
Now that officer and the city are being sued.
(excerpt)
The civil suit, filed by the bouncer, says the officer, Talika Moore, was allowed to leave the scene Nov. 10 and was arrested only after a police supervisor learned that there was a videotape of the incident. Moore, 27, was charged with assault and faces a status hearing Monday in D.C. Superior Court.
According to the suit, filed in U.S. District Court, Moore was not allowed into the Avenue club, in the 600 block of New York Avenue NW, because she appeared drunk and belligerent. Moore, who was with a friend, confronted the bouncer, Phillip T. Stewart, pulled out her badge and announced that she was going inside, the suit says.
"I am the [expletive] police. . . . I'm getting into this [expletive]. . . . You not going to stop me," Moore said, according to the suit, filed against the D.C. government and Moore as an individual and an officer. The suit also contends that Moore identified herself as an officer in the 7th Police District and said she had been an officer for six years.
Here are some blogs available to read online addressing police and fire department issues in different places.
Fire Fighter blog
Los Angeles Police Department Blog
Orlando CopWatch
Houston CopWatch
Harbor County (Michigan) CopWatch
Cop Watch
Redwood Curtain CopWatch
Inside Riverside
The new season of Riverside City Council, the reality show that's coming back from its hiatus with a whole bunch of new, exciting episodes. The last season ended on a cliffhanger, which was how would the city government function in the wake of Election 2007? How will the economy impact the decisions made from the dais? That and more will be revealed in the months ahead.
If you've missed the excitement of city council meetings during the past several months, Here's a preview of upcoming events in two local cities, Riverside and Moreno Valley.
Don't feel bad if the past few Tuesdays during the holiday season have rolled by and you've wondered if you've been missing something. Someone once said that city council meetings were better than theater and also free. However, unlike in most live entertainment venues, there's a shortage of snacks provided at the governmental meetings though more intermissions than you'll see with most professional productions. Occasionally, business gets done in between musical numbers and dance routines.
However, it's an interesting and often sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat bed of intrigue in the chambers each Tuesday afternoon and evening.
Still, it's the political clashes and emotional showdowns that make the city council meetings one of the biggest hits in town. When alliances form one week to be broken the next and council members face off on some newly recognized Civic Olympic events like the eye rolling competition which is scored both on artistic and technical merit, not to mention the unexpected revelation category where you might not get something like, "I wasn't going to tell you this, but Isadora got abducted by UFOs" or "I wasn't going to tell you this but there's a sea monster in Lake Evans" but you can always hope. Instead, you might have to settle for a brief pause for dramatic effect, "I wasn't going to tell you this, but [insert revelation of choice about city resident of choice]. Like in December, I found out I had a blog!
But meetings are filled with all kinds of intrigue, including actions and words involving the assorted cast of characters to rival anything you'd see on most other reality shows.
Survivor, watch out. American Idol, what's that?
The Riverside city council meetings bring you elements of both successful franchises, including a talent competition.
It's only too bad that Riverside and Charter Communications can't donate episodes of the latest season's follies to major networks who are getting mighty hungry for original programming due to the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike. When the actors and directors' unions potentially join the walkout in June, then there will be an even bigger demand for programming that doesn't have that recycled feel. Some revenue could come in from syndication sales to other networks that might offset some of the budget crunches in this coming year which might not slow the progress of Riverside Renaissance but could leave the city's departments facing up to 15% in budget cuts.
It's been all about show and proving themselves to one another on the dais, when they don't come and sit on it leaving city residents feeling as if the decisions before them have already been made. That's why the same elected official can praise your conduct one week and then accuse you of not having any ethics the next. And that's just how they behave towards city residents. What's interesting is how they interrelate to each other in any given week. Allies or adversaries, in an arena that can often feel like political quick sand.
But with new blood on the dais due in part to voters' reactions to dais antics of the past, what will happen next? It's interesting, the contrast between the newbies and the veterans that is already apparent. Especially in terms of determining who should receive gold stars and who should be placed in the penalty box.
All the meetings need is a hotdog cart outside or perhaps one of those portable coffee stands like the city has installed at the downtown public library. So during intermissions, people could gather over jumbo sized hot dogs with sauerkraut and lattes to discuss what they've just witnessed and compare notes and score cards. Some people who watch the meetings at home on a weekly basis told me they always have a bowl of freshly made popcorn ready while they hunker down to enjoy the discussion calendar.
So what if you want to come down to City Hall and check one of these action-packed, angst-dripping, could-use-some-more-estrogen-infusion meetings out yourself, because the television season is perpetually in reruns until further notice? Perhaps you are just caught in between seasons of your favorite professional sports teams and are looking for some other team to root for or against in the meantime. Penants bearing the name of each elected official to be waved in support during key points of the city council meeting aren't available yet but maybe that's just until the licensing fees get worked out. Don't be surprised if the colllection of city council action figures comes to a venue near you.
But in the midst of all this drama, there are elected officials who can sit through a meeting without looking and acting as if they wish they were anywhere else. In fact, several look like they are happy enough just to be there. They listen to people who praise them and criticize them, express happiness at a project or have questions and concerns as if all of them deserve to be heard. They don't walk out in the middle of when people are speaking. They don't read reports that they should be prepared to discuss before attending the meeting. They don't hold conversations with other people on the dais while people are addressing them. They don't laugh at speakers who are concerned about civic issues. They act and present themselves as if they ran for elected office to do a job, not simply be on the receiving end of perks and praise. They can deal if not everyone in the city or in their ward agrees with them without having a meltdown. They remember who they represent, the residents in their wards not the development firms and why they represent.
Whenever I do see a city council member acting like a five-year-old for whatever reason, it's nice to see that there are those who are there, who are concerned, who are good listeners and who occasionally go against the grain. Those who remember what first got them excited to run, those who remember back when they actually walked their precincts. Those who remember why they ran. Those are the ones to strike up conversations on issues even if they don't represent your ward. They provide some of the rewards of the process of government which is good to see in the midst of all the drama.
Here's the weekly agenda from the city's Web site and you'll see one every week there's a meeting which is usually every week of the month except the fifth. The agenda lists every item that is up for a vote on the weekly meeting agenda. Most items have back up material known as the agenda report. Click anything that's in blue and you'll probably get a report on that particular agenda item.
For example, if you click item #1 or this link, you will get whatever is in writing for that particular agenda item. The reports are available in two formats. There's laserfische which although it often loads slowly is convenient for reading reports. There's buttons to press where you can go forward or backward through the pages of the report and others to use to enlarge or reduce the size of the print. The reports are also available as PDF documents which means that you need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader to access them. Version 7.0 is what the city is currently using with its documents, but earlier versions should work. The PDF version is the much better one if you intend to print out the report or make copies to circulate.
Hard copies of reports are available from City Hall but they aren't free. You can pay up to $.60 for the first page and $.10 for remaining pages. Copies of agendas for the city council meetings and subcommittee meetings are also available and those are free. Agendas are also posted in the glass box on the front wall of City Hall, pursuant to the meeting notification provision of the Brown Act. Access them, read them. These are the basis for the actions that your elected government takes. The meetings may or may not be a good representation of what good government does especially if you toss in the recent actions to restrict public expression such as banning residents to pull items from the consent calendar, or should do but information is a powerful tool at any rate.
Speaking of the Brown Act, which is the open meetings law for California, the text of it is available here. It's definitely worth your while to access it, read it, know it, memorize it. It and Robert's Rules of Order, the guide to parliamentary procedure are kind of the rule books. Unfortunately as often as not, governmental officials operate under the assumption even the fervent hope that their constituents know nothing about this important law or the rights it provides. So goes Robert's rules.
Not to mention, Riverside is a city where much of what its city attorney's office says about the Brown Act is often in terms of making the Brown Act into a rule guide more friendly to government, not enhancing what it allows the public to enjoy in terms of rights. But if you've been following the actions of the most recent city council before Election 2007 came along and changed its face, that shouldn't be surprising at all.
Here is also a pamphlet on the Brown Act courtesy of the State Attorney General's office in 2003. If you can, go out and talk to other people about the Brown Act.
The rules of city government are that every city resident has a city council representative that's assigned to them based on the geographic area of the city where they reside. City residents inside the seven wards have the opportunity to elect their representative every four years. The elections are staggered every two years depending on whether your city council member presides in an even or odd-numbered ward.
Here is a site where you can access more information about your elected council representative. Just click on the picture of your council member. If you're not sure who that is or what ward you live in, there's a search engine on this page along with a map of the city's wards. Just put in your address on the blank and the page dedicated to your council representative will come up. These pages include contact information for each one through both telephone and email.
If you wish to have a meeting with your elected representative at City Hall, give them a call. After all, you paid for the office space that they use, not the development firms.
There's also this thing called the Redevelopment Agency which consists of people who strangely look almost identical to those serving on the city council meetings. However, they get some extra cash each time they show up at a Redevelopment Agency meeting. So many of them do show up.
Here are agendas, reports and other documents related to the city's Redevelopment Agency. Here's what it means and these are the current project areas in Riverside.
Don't forget your all-important eminent domain wavier for single family residence while it still exists. It might come in handy.
Also, each city council member serves on 3-4 committees. The updated list of committee assignments is here. This is because there was a swap between Councilmen Mike Gardner and Rusty Bailey regarding being reassigned to the Finance Committee and Community and Youth Services Committee respectively. Most of these committees meet once monthly but nearly all of them are held during the daytime hours which means many people can't attend. Quite a bit of the discussion and decision making process is conducted at this level.
If you do choose to come to the weekly meetings of the city council, they take place at different times depending on when the body decides to meet and whether or not there's a meeting of the Redevelopment Agency (which typically meets twice monthly). Most people try to get to the 6:30 p.m. session which is held as all city council and Redevelopment Agency meetings are inside the City Council Chambers at City Hall which is located at 3900 Main Street, which sits at the southern end of the downtown pedestrian mall.
About 3/4 of those who do show up are there for the different awards and other types of presentations which begin the evening session and are usually very good to see. When the presentations end, the mayor usually calls for a recess and you'll have to stand aside so the tide of people departing doesn't run you over. But then comes the fun stuff like the blink-and-you'll-miss-it consent calendar where the bulk of the agenda including some high ticket items is listed and the discussion items which for the most part these days, are public reports.
Occasionally, there are no real discussion items as is the case at today's meeting but there's a public hearing instead, which can last an hour or four hours depending on the issue or what's at stake.
Come check out the city council meetings, which are the best live show in town.
In Moreno Valley, new mayor, Bill Batey ponders the challenges he will face in the upcoming year, according to the Press Enterprise. Mayors are not elected at large in Moreno Valley as they are in other cities. They are simply city council members who are chosen by others on the dais to serve in this capacity for one year. In this case, Moreno Valley will see something not seen in Riverside and many other local cities, which is a Black mayor.
Creating more jobs, dealing with an increase in home foreclosures and other issues face the new mayor who will grapple with them after being sworn in.
However, the system that appointed him mayor is itself under scrutiny as well.
(excerpt)
The mayor's position is largely ceremonial, confined to presiding at council meetings, representing the city at official functions and signing official documents. The mayor does not have more power than any of the other council members.
The council is expected to consider sponsoring a referendum this year asking voters whether they would prefer a directly elected mayor. A majority of the council seems to support sponsoring the ballot measure.
"At least the people will have their say," Batey said.
But White has spoken out against the idea of having a directly elected mayor.
"Why do we have to fix it if it's not broken?" he said at a meeting last month. "I don't think it's necessary."
It's not easy being green. However, one writer stated that the the Inland Empire needed to try.
Widespread drug tampering affecting over 1,000 cases was reported in Boston's Police Department.
Drugs in these cases either turned up missing because they were improperly tossed out or they were stolen, reported the Boston Globe.
(excerpt)
The FBI, prosecutors from Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley's office, and Boston police have launched a criminal investigation to determine who took the drugs.
The drugs included cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and Oxycontin, Davis said. The Oxycontin was often replaced with a substance similar to Tylenol or aspirin, he said.
An officer or officers were almost certainly involved, Davis said, because only police are allowed into the Hyde Park depository.
Davis said he plans to inform defense lawyers involved with the drug cases to let them know about the audit's results.
None of the drug cases in which evidence was missing are still open. Jake Wark, spokesman for Conley, said the district attorney's office is investigating whether any of the closed drug cases were compromised because of the missing evidence.
"It's simply too early to tell," he said. "We will be looking closely at whether and how any defendant's closed cases may have been affected."
This troubling set of circumstances pushes the question as to not only who's responsible especially for drug thefts, but who knows about it. Who right now if anyone knows exactly what happened but is remaining silent about it.
Hopefully, that silence will be broken. The anonymous tip phone is that way.
Outgoing Philadelphia Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson is left answering questions as to why police officers shot innocent bystanders on New Year's Eve for the second year in a row.
(excerpt, Associated Press)
This year, police chasing an armed reveler shot into a house filled with partygoers, leaving one man in a coma, a second wounded and a 9-year-old boy with a graze wound to the chest.
A year ago, police fatally shot a man in the back of the head as he tried to flee when neighbors started shooting guns into the air.
The latest shootings came as Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson ends a six-year tenure marked by public concern about gun violence and the police response to it.
Johnson has repeatedly been asked to answer questions about the department's use of deadly force, including two months ago when officers killed a distraught teenager wielding a clothes iron. City police fatally shot 16 people in 2007 and 20 the previous year.
"It seems that there's too much of a policy to shoot first and worry about the outcome later," said Bruce Ginsburg, an attorney representing two of the shooting victims. "It puts everybody in the city in danger."
Johnson defended his officers citing the number of police officers in the city shot last year. His replacement, Charles Ramsey said he was going to investigate the department's high officer-involved shooting rate. About a year ago, the city had convened a panel to examine this issue.
Philadelphia also began providing crisis intervention team training to its officers early last year because of past shootings and more current ones.
In Washington, D.C., an off-duty police officer spit at a bouncer at a club and when police officers were called out, they backed the intoxicated spitting officer, according to the Washington Post.
Now that officer and the city are being sued.
(excerpt)
The civil suit, filed by the bouncer, says the officer, Talika Moore, was allowed to leave the scene Nov. 10 and was arrested only after a police supervisor learned that there was a videotape of the incident. Moore, 27, was charged with assault and faces a status hearing Monday in D.C. Superior Court.
According to the suit, filed in U.S. District Court, Moore was not allowed into the Avenue club, in the 600 block of New York Avenue NW, because she appeared drunk and belligerent. Moore, who was with a friend, confronted the bouncer, Phillip T. Stewart, pulled out her badge and announced that she was going inside, the suit says.
"I am the [expletive] police. . . . I'm getting into this [expletive]. . . . You not going to stop me," Moore said, according to the suit, filed against the D.C. government and Moore as an individual and an officer. The suit also contends that Moore identified herself as an officer in the 7th Police District and said she had been an officer for six years.
Here are some blogs available to read online addressing police and fire department issues in different places.
Fire Fighter blog
Los Angeles Police Department Blog
Orlando CopWatch
Houston CopWatch
Harbor County (Michigan) CopWatch
Cop Watch
Redwood Curtain CopWatch
Inside Riverside
Labels: business as usual, City Hall 101, corruption 101, officer-involved shootings
posted by Five Before Midnight | 9:10 AM
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