Goodbye holidays, back to doing business as usual?

Mayor Ron Loveridge in Riverside told the Press Enterprise last week that the Governmental Affairs Committee would be addressing the ongoing issue revolving around independent investigations of officer-involved deaths with the Community Police Review Commission this month yet according to a representative from the City Clerk's office, it won't be included on the agenda for the committee's meeting being held on Wednesday Jan. 7 at 3 pm at City Hall. In fact, the city council doesn't seem to have come to a consensus yet on where to host a public discussion on the CPRC and how to restrict it further, although a couple of council members have said that the issue might come to the full body for analysis and discussion.

What does this indecision and conflicting information mean?

It just shows how divided the city government is on whether or not to curtail the commission's ability to perform its charter-mandated responsibilities. Did the mayor want to push it in the direction of Governmental Affairs Committee while the chair of that committee, Councilman Frank Schiavone might have been thinking it's not the best idea during his reelection year? Why then did Governmental Affairs earlier try to muscle control of this issue away from the Public Safety Committee chaired by Councilman Andrew Melendrez which has received briefings on the commission on various issues since early 2006? As the worm twists and turns...

There will be a few more twists before the latest neutering of the CPRC has been done. In the meantime, the city council has to fumble its hold on the political football a while longer, with the city residents as its captive audience.

What the city council has shown during the past several months is how right the voters were to pass Measure II in November 2004 to place the CPRC in what they thought was a safe place for it, the city charter. It wouldn't take long for the city's residents to find out how wrong they were that their vote had actually made a difference and that the city government would respect the wishes of the voters and that yes, there were elected officials on the dais who would thumb their noses at them and interfere with the commission anyway by creating one of the most elaborate straw man arguments in recent civic history.


It's called the incompetent, interfering and obstructing independent investigator fallacy that's been perpetuated by direct employees of the city council and at least three city council members. Despite a seven year record involving 11 cases where there had not been a whisper of complaint about investigation protocol, these individuals are now jumping up and down in various venues claiming that the integrity of the department's own criminal investigation is at terrible risk of well, something. And to their limited credit, none of these parties promoting this bogus argument can even list a complaint in the city's history where there were any problems. They can't because they spent those seven years with their lips zipped being quiet, except for Chief Russ Leach who actually told the CPRC at one of its meetings in 2002 that it had to decide how best to do its own investigation including when, which were sensible words.

What they do owe is an apology to the investigators at the Bakers Street Group which did those 11 investigations for the CPRC for insinuating that they were anything but complete professionals when they conducted these investigations for the commission. If anything, City Hall has tried to control how this firm does its work, by allegedly telling them through phone calls that if they want their pay checks to be signed by the city manager's office, they'd better produce investigations more to that office's liking. Since then, the written work product of the investigators of that firm has been watered down. All this drama involving the city's handling of the investigations and the investigators was brought out at several CPRC meetings during this past year. And in some very sad commentary, no one sitting in the audience was really that surprised at what had taken place behind the scenes but had finally entered into the public forum for some sort of disclosure.

To examine this for yourself, all you need to do is visit the CPRC office and ask for written copies of the investigation reports submitted by individuals from this firm (and not the commission's final public reports which are a different work product) and compare and contrast the investigations done of the fatal shootings of Summer Lane and Lee Deante Brown not to mention the investigation report for the incustody death of Terry Rabb with the later ones done involving the fatal shootings of Douglas Steven Cloud and especially Joseph Darnell Hill. You might have to wrestle them out of the CPRC's office's hands these days but these investigations were paid for by city residents' dollars.

The city residents who have come up to me or contacted me totally puzzled as to why this is being done and asked me if there were any complaints have left with the answer being that no, there weren't any. In reality, this appears to be some sort of power play by these parties. Nothing more and nothing less. That there are puppets in this charade and that there are also puppeteers. Not exactly Punch and Judy but fairly close.

A Press Enterprise reporter covering the Tyisha Miller event where I and other individuals in this city spoke on the past and present of Riverside and the police department asked me about something I had mentioned in my speech. And that was the often repeated adage about canaries in mines. It's a visual metaphor for what's been going on in this city for the past few years as well as what had happened in the 1990s that works as well as anything else.


Why did miners take canaries into mines?



In this case, the canary is the CPRC and the mine, the Riverside Police Department. It's a pretty good indication that if the canary or the CPRC is ailing, then the police department's probably not in great shape either or exactly where it needs to be. The problem is when people focus on the canary and ignore the mine, or in this case actually punish the canary for being sick.

And rather than look at what's going on in the police department, all the attention and energy is focused on the CPRC. The city council will expend energy trying to dilute the power or weaken the effectiveness of the commission but won't spend any time discussing actions taken in the wake of the budget crisis against the police department during this past year including the freezing of many civilian and sworn positions. It's not known whether or not the training budget has been adversely impacted by budget cuts coming out of City Manager Brad Hudson's office, but if it has been, the city will know soon enough. But the city government has no time to even discuss those issues because it's too busy preoccupying itself with nonexistent problems involving the CPRC.




The Governmental Affairs Committee will however be reviewing the city council rules at the meeting on Jan. 7 so expect more recommendations for restricting public expression and participation to come out of any discussion of that agenda item. This report provides more information on the agenda item but interestingly enough, not very much as it simply states that if any recommendations are forthcoming, they will be reviewed, discussed and recommended. That's useful to elected officials more than members of the public attending or unable to attend the meeting because the members of the committee will know what they wish to recommend and discuss it without giving the public any advance notice on what's being discussed.

But in the meantime, more political game playing involving the CPRC because Riverside wouldn't be River City without it.


In related news, the Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee has been scheduled to hold its next meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 6 at 1:30 p.m. at the Mayor's office on the seventh floor of City Hall. This meeting like all city council committee meetings is open to the public.

Every January, the committee which consists of Loveridge and the members of the aforementioned Governmental Affairs Committees meet to screen applications and select city residents to be interviewed by the city council at a later date to fill vacancies on the city's boards and commissions. And sure enough that's what's on the agenda.

Here is the report. You will notice on page three that there's an attachment that's available for viewing at the city clerk's office on the seventh floor of City Hall. These are the applications submitted for serving on the boards and commissions as well as a list of the openings for each board and commission.


This provides a very educational process in witnessing how the committee members make their decisions or reach a consensus on who in the pile of candidates gets to be interviewed and who doesn't. And sadly, too often it does come down to who knows who, especially when candidates are introduced by committee members which is their purview who didn't submit applications to the city clerk's office. Sometimes, it's political backscratching at its best or worst depending on how you look at it. Especially if one board or commission has been designated with the title, "special" or on occasion, "very special" titles.


Quite a few of them "special" and otherwise have vacancies from term expirations as well as resignations submitted in December. One of the latter includes the CPRC which lost its Ward Four commissioner, Linda Soubirous last month. If the appointment takes longer than 60 days to fill, then normally it's up to the discretion of the mayor who usually discusses candidates with a city council member if the vacancy is in one of the ward-designated seats. However, if they are members of the city's Planning Commission, the Board of Public Utilities and the CPRC, then the candidates go to the city council for interviews.

Some prospective appointments have already been working hard with elected officials to get on boards and commissions. And that usually means behaving yourself and not making waves on any issue in this city. Expect yet another political appointment for the CPRC to arise out of this process, especially considering which ward is being represented.






Speaking of the city council, it comes off its holiday season and will meet again this Tuesday for both afternoon and evening sessions. The city council breaks its monotony of "receive and file" reports disguised as discussion items and actually will be hosting a public hearing. However, the consent calendar as usual is packed with lots of items including at least one high-ticket item.

The Greyhound debacle must be going to the Transportation Committee chaired by Councilman Steve Adams because there's a consent calendar item substituting Ward One Councilman Mike Gardner for another council member on that committee. Perhaps during any discussion on that committee, Adams can further elaborate on his offer to personally drive customers of Greyhound to the San Bernardino station. Surely he wasn't joking at the expense of other people when he made those comments at an earlier meeting? Most astute, intelligent elected officials realize that joking about hardships and increasing the hardships faced by the elderly, lower incomed and/or disabled populations who make up the majority of Greyhound's riders especially during these difficult economic times is just tacky and tasteless.

But then there's intelligent and astute, and then there's Adams.




The family of Julian Alexander, a man shot to death by Anaheim Police Department officers earlier this year have filed a lawsuit against the city.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Their son, Julian Alexander, 20, who was black, was shot dead by an Anaheim officer early in the morning of Oct. 28, as he stood outside his in-laws' Anaheim home, where the newlywed was living with his wife.

The suit claims that Alexander was a victim of police negligence and excessive use of force motivated by racial prejudice. Alexander, who was born in Riverside and grew up in Moreno Valley and San Bernardino County, went to Riverside's Notre Dame High School.

Bell, his mother, lives in Moreno Valley. His father, Jerry Alexander, is a former Crestline resident who lives in San Luis Obispo County.

Cristina Talley, Anaheim's acting city attorney, said she could not comment because her office had yet to receive notice of the lawsuit. Talley said that Alexander's parents have filed a claim with the city but said the city has yet to accept or deny it.

Alexander was shot as he came out of the house to check out a commotion at the property, said the Anaheim Police Department. A police officer pursuing four burglary suspects on foot shot Alexander. In the shooting's aftermath, Anaheim police said that a police investigation found that Alexander had armed himself with a club-style weapon.




Did a pursuit in New York City contribute to the hit and run death of a woman? That question has led to an internal investigation by the police department.


(excerpt, Newsday)



The NYPD, as a rule, advises its officers not to engage in high-speed chases unless there is reason to believe someone's life is in jeopardy.

State Sen. Eric Adams (D-Brooklyn), a former NYPD captain, said Kelly should issue a directive re-emphasizing the department's policy.

"If I was a supervisor, I would have called for a termination of the pursuit," Adams said. "If the perpetrator had just shot someone and got in a car with a gun, I could see letting it go on longer. But if all you've got is someone in a stolen vehicle, that's not enough to continue the pursuit."

Blount's relatives said they still were learning details of the case and wouldn't comment on how she died. Instead, relatives chose to focus on the life Blount lived.

"She was a very kind and helpful person," said niece Sharice Ward, 28. "She knew everyone and was very generous."




A police officer in Cedar City, Utah faces misconduct charges.



(excerpt, Deseret News)




Cedar City Police Chief Bob Allinson referred the complaint to St. George police to investigate. An internal affairs investigation also is pending.

Allinson would not divulge details of the complaint but said he was called about it by a third party on Dec. 14. The chief tracked down the people involved, then placed his officer on administrative leave while he called on an outside agency to investigate. Allinson wouldn't characterize the complaint to protect the reputation of the officer.

"If there's something there, he'll be held accountable," Allinson said Tuesday. "If not, I hate to throw too much out there because it's so hard to recover from."







Prosecutors involved in the investigation of the fates of two wives of former Bolingbrook Police Department Sgt. Drew Peterson are confident that 2009 will see the filing of criminal charges in at least one of the two pending cases.



(excerpt, Chicago Sun-Times)

"I'm very positive. I'm very encouraged by the work the police have done,'' said Glasgow, speaking about the cases for the first time in several months. "We are not at a dead end by any stretch of the imagination.''

A grand jury that for 14 months has been probing Stacy Peterson's disappearance and Savio's death will resume hearing evidence next month, Glasgow confirmed.

"It'll be meeting next year,'' Glasgow said of the grand jury, which also has heard evidence in the April 2007 still-unsolved disappearance of Plainfield mom Lisa Stebic.

In October -- near the one-year anniversary of Stacy Peterson's disappearance -- Glasgow said he expected a resolution to at least one of the cases in the "near future.'' He wouldn't clarify that timetable Tuesday.

Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, allegedly had drowned in her own bathtub several years ago. Her death was ruled accidental by a coroner's jury which didn't have many ruling options to choose from for cause of death (including no option to issue an inconclusive ruling) and after her body was exhumed last year, her death was determined to be a homicide and is currently under investigation with Peterson as the main suspect.

Stacy Peterson, the current wife disappeared in late October 2007 and hasn't been seen since. Her disappearance is being investigated as a potential homicide.

People, places and things as 2008 nears its end

" I'm very ashamed. People always used to say to me: `Oh, you live in Hamilton? Do you have horses?' Now I don't want to tell them where I live, because they'll say, `Oh, you have the crooked police department."'


---Lois Davis, resident Hamilton, Massachusetts where the police department's erupted into scandals.






At least nine law enforcement officers were arrested and charged with crimes in the Inland Empire in 2008, according to the Press Enterprise. And most of the charges faced by these officers involved sexual battery or sexual assault under the color of authority. Before anyone claims that I'm obsessed with these crimes, it doesn't sound like I or anyone who blogs on this issue is the problem. It sounds like it's those who engage in this misconduct that have raised this and other misconduct issues to the level of needing to be addressed are the ones with serious problems.

One of those arrested this past year was Riverside Police Department Officer Robert Forman who has since been fired by his agency after being arrested in October and charged with three sexual misconduct felonies. He was arraigned several weeks after that and plead not guilty to two counts of oral copulation under the power of authority and one count of sexual battery. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 23. The allegations raised against him came about after an investigation into incidents involving three separate women who came into contact with Forman while he worked as a patrol officer.


Not surprisingly, a lot of the focus was on the recruitment and hiring process involving law enforcement officers including the conducting of background checks, which is the stage where experts believe the problems that erupt later on, may actually start.



(excerpt)

Prospective officers' criminal, civil and credit histories are checked. They face physical, medical and mental exams. Their friends, neighbors and siblings are interviewed.

No felony convictions are allowed, said Bob Stresak, spokesman for the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. The commission sets minimum standards for screening and training.

Sniff wants the commission to add an integrity test.

"There is a lot of trust we put in these folks to do the right thing even when nobody is watching," Sniff said.

Riverside police Capt. Michael Blakely, who oversees training, police personnel and internal affairs, said troubled histories help identify most problem applicants.

"What they have done in the past is the best indicator of what they will do in the future," Blakely said.

Sniff said people fresh out of college or high school sometimes slip through because they have not had enough life experience to reveal their true character. That is why he would like the state to implement an integrity test that would probe the candidate's ethics.

About 10 percent of candidates make it to the academy, where they receive at least 664 hours of training, Stresak said.

Capt. Greg Bottrell, the head of training for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, estimated at least 40 hours are dedicated to training that orders officers to report any criminal activity or serious break in policy by colleagues.

"That is their first lesson," Bottrell said.

2009 begins a new year and hopefully, there will be fewer similar problems with law enforcement officers in the upcoming months. Of course, the majority of law enforcement officers don't get themselves into trouble like these nine apparently did. But do they speak out when they see this kind of misconduct or hear about it or do they remain silent? And what happens to them if they do speak out?




The economic crisis will have a negative impact on the budget picture of many cities in Riverside County. However, most cities are probably not going to raise taxes. At least that's what they say right now.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Riverside, Corona and Norco officials outlined spending cuts to bring budgets in line with lower revenue.

Riverside's general fund revenues dropped from $228 million in 2007-08 to less than $205 million projected for the current year, Assistant City Manager Thomas DeSantis said.

Riverside and Norco are freezing most positions as they become vacant, with exceptions for public safety, DeSantis said in an e-mail.

For instance, when Norco's city clerk left for another job in Rancho Cucamonga, the city manager's secretary assumed the city clerk's duties as well as her own, Azevedo said.

Norco also is considering reducing some nonpatrol positions it contracts from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, such as community service officers performing administrative duties, Okoro and Azevedo said.

Riverside plans to impose "minimal layoffs," DeSantis said. Some projects will be postponed, as well.

Corona laid off 69 employees and eliminated 43 vacant positions in October. Mayor Steve Nolan said he believes the city is in good shape now.



In the city of San Bernardino, the gang intervention program, Operation Phoenix will be expanded even as Riverside cuts its own back including firing two of its community outreach workers not long ago.




So far DeSantis has underreported those "minimal layoffs" as he did when he said that during one week in December that the city had laid off only a civilian employee in the Fire Department while in reality, the city had also laid off Community Relations Director Yvette Pierre, Riverside Police Department public information officer Steve Frasher and a female employee in the city's general services division. So unfortunately, you have to kind of take his words with a grain of salt.

And it's great news that DeSantis stated by email that there will be no freezing of public safety positions. That surely means that he will also be lifting all the freezes in public safety which must surely mean the officer, sergeant, lieutenant and civilian positions which have been frozen for months now. I'm not sure why he's apparently speaking for Norco as well.

The discussion on the 10th year anniversary of Tyisha Miller continues on various venues at the Press Enterprise.


"Crazy Horse" and "Shockwave" continue to lead the brigade, as they have on earlier threads, defending what they claim is their profession. The only problem is that probably without intending it, they're doing the opposite by confirming some of people's fears of it. Particularly, its insulated, "us versus them" culture. They're fairly distinctive because they pull out every defense mechanism in their bag right down to the use of personal attacks using derogatory terms commonly used against disabled individuals to try and prove their arguments. It's not like it's not been said before.



On the latest article, "Crazy Horse" discusses armored vehicles and anatomical body parts. Notice how quickly rather than providing a comprehensive and well-structured argument on the issues brought up by other individuals, he descends into making personal attacks. Often, they either infantalize (the use of "little boy") or emasculate their critics who are believed to be male and the women? They may resort to using gender slurs which mercifully enough hasn't happened so far.



(excerpts)




Actually, when LAPD came out with their 'rescue vehicle", I was one of the first group of guys to see it on an operation. So yeah, I know they exist. The Tyisha Miller caper isn't the appropriate application for such a vehicle.

You reveal the depth of your ignorance when you flap your lips about that which you know nothing. You weren't at the scene and you have never been called upon to make decisions under that type of pressure. Run along little boy.





I guess Ralph is the boy in the plastic bubble. Tyisha Miller was nothing but a no good robber and a gangster. Only reason for a girl to get hopped up on Ecstasy, weed, and liquor and ride around at midnight with two guns given to her by a parolee is because she's looking to commit a crime. I personally, based on years of throwing these losers in jail, believe she was going to commit an armed robbery.

Only thing those officers did that night was do society a favor. I don't care if she's deceased. I call it straight and factual. All these flowery b.s. things her family and gangster friends say about her are vomit-inducing.

Ralph, take the exhausting exam process for police officer before flapping your lips. Take a ride through Belltown and Rubidoux. Maybe the graffiti is still there that says "R.I.P. Terrible Tyee."

Your wonderful human being Tyisha was a full fledged member of the Westside PJ's.....a notorious Crips set.





"Shockwave" uses the same tactics and calls someone else a "moron". He hasn't called anyone a "whore" yet but the conversation's still young. It's not that his initial sentences don't sometimes make some sort of sense and have merit, it's just that he shoots himself in the foot ( which is a bad pun), by then using his status defined through those sentences to engage in personal attacks including the use of "moron" which is considered a slur to disabled individuals and their communities. Something the law enforcement agency which employs him should keep in mind when crafting its cultural diversity training program because he also loves the word "idiot" which is another offensive word to these communities.





(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



JWB..Your the moron! Police Officers "put" themselves in a position to be shot everyday simply by going to work. Your just a typical idiot who can't seem to understand or appreciate the danger those officers, and others, are in everyday. Morons like yourself love to shoot your mouth off when you (and those like you) have absolutely no idea what your talking about. That makes you "stupid". You don't like the fact most of the officers received retirements?? Awww,,,too bad. Get over it!



Not that it's not in a way fascinating seeing remnants of the old police culture fight for recognition and survival in venues like this one, but are they on this site because no one in their crowd wants to hear about it, or because they view themselves as the spokesmen for that culture, which includes pimping the difficult aspects of being a law enforcement officer to justify their own name calling in lieu of rational and well-thought out arguments.

And unlike with women and men like Miller, the state laws constrict the rights of city residents to know any misconduct that police officers become involved in until it spills out in the public arena usually through the media. Meaning that the vast majority of what there is to know about law enforcement officers is shielded from the public by state laws. And if they are what they say they are and conducting themselves like this, what else are they doing?

What's ironic about these comments is that one of these individuals tells people to "get over it" when what's abundantly clear is that it's these individuals who are still freeze-framed in December 1998. It's interesting in its own way but it's sobering in another.



After reading some of these comments against Miller, you have to ask yourself, are these authors all self-identified law enforcement officers revealing the best sides of themselves, the worse sides or what's the truth about what kind of people that they are or is like the first sentence of the article on Miller?.



... life cannot be summed up tidily.



And it might be useful to have forums like that at the Press Enterprise for them to express themselves, because for one thing, it provides an insight into a side of some law enforcement officers that they usually keep hidden from plain sight.





Attorney Virginia Blumenthal was voted the president of the Riverside Community College Board of Trustees by the other members.





One major question in Orange County is being asked. Why didn't former Sheriff Mike Carona take a plea bargain?

After two weeks out on holiday, closing arguments will be delivered to end the trial phase of his federal corruption case.




(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)


So Carona stayed in his seat, hoping for . . . what?

That jurors would dismiss Haidl as a self-serving liar? Or, perhaps, that even if he gave Carona money, it wouldn't strike jurors as having a corrupting effect?

A former prosecutor I interviewed earlier in the trial talked about the "no harm, no foul" defense, in which jurors come to accept that the public was not wronged by alleged misdeeds.

Maybe jurors will sign off on some or all of that.

More realistically, Carona needs only one juror to hold fast to that position -- enough to create a hung jury and no conviction.But what a risk.

And that's what I don't get. Not so much that Carona didn't testify, but that if he knew he wasn't going to -- leaving Haidl and the tapes largely unchallenged -- why not settle this case long ago and presumably get a better deal than a conviction would land him?

The government is always willing to barter. It's pretty standard that defendants who reject plea deals get tougher sentences if convicted.

And just as it was more than a year ago, not taking one may prove the biggest mistake Mike Carona ever made.




Comprehensive coverage of the Carona case and trial is here.




The number of officer deaths declined in 2008 which is very good news. According to the news article, this was attributed to better tactics and training. But keep in mind, many departments across the country are in danger of reductions in training due to budget cuts which might have an impact on the upcoming year.

However, one of the areas where deaths increased were those involving female law enforcement officers with 15 being killed this year.


(excerpt, Associated Press)

Gunfire deaths dropped to 41 officers this year, compared to 68 in 2007. The 2008 number represented the lowest total since 1956 - when there were 35 - and was far below the peak of 156 officers killed by gunfire in 1973.

Traffic-related deaths also declined, with 71 officers killed this year, compared to 83 in 2007. It was the 11th consecutive year that more officers were killed in traffic incidents than from any other cause.

More than 61 percent of this year's fatalities involved accidents and 39 percent resulted from criminal acts.

The only downside was deaths of women officers: 15 in 2008 compared to 6 a year ago. More women officers than before are in harm's way, the groups said, because they're taking on the same dangerous assignments as men.

Craig Floyd, chairman of the Memorial Fund, said in an interview that officers are getting better training and equipment.

More than 70 percent of policemen use bullet-resistant vests compared to fewer than half a decade ago, he said.

And officers are making better use of Taser stun guns and other non-lethal weapons that keep them a safe distance from violent offenders, Floyd said.

To avoid traffic deaths, officers are better trained in high-speed and defensive driving techniques. Police vehicles now have better safety equipment, including side air bags and a substance installed near the gas tank to suppress fire when the vehicle is struck.

In coverage, the deaths of officers in traffic accidents is often deemphasized compared to those who die through firearms, even though until this year the trend had been that these led the causes of deaths. Improvements in training including the use of defensive driving hopefully has turned the tide.






A supervisor with the Denver Police Department is in hot water after being busted for taping himself having sex with subordinate employees.




An officer in New Mexico got caught being a "peeping tom" while off-duty.




(excerpt, Albuquerque Journal)

A friend of the woman told police he confronted Officer Adam Gallegos, 37, at the scene and tried to keep him there until officers arrived, saying whatever the officer was doing "wasn't cool," according to police reports.

"It just wasn't right," said Luis Flores, 28, a Santa Fe construction worker and bartender. "Honestly, it's pretty creepy. That dude should not be a cop."

Deputy Police Chief Benjie Montano told The New Mexican that the department is awared of the allegations against Gallegos and is conducting an investigation of the incident.

The corruption in Hamilton, Massachusetts involving the police department has scarred the city and is having a domino effect.



(excerpt, The Boston Globe)

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health suspended the license of Hamilton's police-run ambulance service earlier this month after an investigation revealed that a majority of the town's officers, including the chief, participated in a scheme to falsify emergency medical technician training and certification records.

That enabled them to continue to run the ambulance service - and receive thousands of dollars in bonus pay as officer-EMTs - despite the apparent widespread failure to keep up with mandatory continuing education and refresher training designed to protect the public.

"I could see if a few got away with it, but all the way to the top? That's unforgivable," said Anthony DiFrancisco, a 74-year-old architect. Like Davis, he was interviewed at the Shoppes at Hamilton Crossing, a clapboard-covered plaza near the Wenham line where all the stores, including the Dunkin' Donuts, have signs of carved wood and polished brass.

"The hardest thing to swallow is that it's so widespread," DiFrancisco added. "That's the thing that's really scary."

With his retirement pending and his roughly $80,000-a-year pension in jeopardy, Chief Walter Cullen was recently placed on paid leave, along with Sergeant Donald Dupray. An independent, selectmen-commissioned investigation found that the two had misappropriated a $6,100 federal technology grant.

Dupray declined to be interviewed. Cullen did not return calls seeking comment.

The last few minutes of the Columbia space shuttle. NASA releases a lengthy report on the ill-fated mission.

Responses and reportaire to the Miller anniversary and blogger harassment

Over 150 people appeared at the Kansas Avenue Seventh Day Adventist Church to memorialize the 10th anniversary of the officer-involved shooting death of Tyisha Miller. About a dozen speakers from different parts of one of Riverside's most significant chapters spoke on where Riverside was 10 years ago and where it is today.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)

"The ultimate issue of justice is with the community. Does it meet the criteria of our society as being just?" said Jack B. Clarke Jr., who headed the mayor's use-of-force panel after Miller's shooting.

The Riverside Coalition for Police Accountability, a community watchdog group borne of the Miller shooting, will meet Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. at the church, 4491 Kansas Ave., Riverside, to discuss the issue. Information is available on the group's Web site, http://www.rcpa.weebly.com./

Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge, who also spoke at the service, said the council's governmental affairs committee likely will take up the commission matter next month. He told those in attendance that the Police Department has made considerable progress since Miller's death.

The department under Chief Russ Leach has shown leadership and professionalism, Loveridge said. Changes include stronger supervision, increased training and better equipment, he added.

"We can do better. We will," Loveridge said.

For two years after Miller's death, there were no fatal police shootings, said Andy Roth, a civil rights attorney who represented the Miller family. Since then, however, there have been 15 officer-involved shootings, including three this fall, he said.

"Remember what we felt, joining our voices together, the protests, marching the streets," Roth told the crowd. "We can rededicate ourselves to fight police violence."

Afterward, people gathered near the 76 gas station on Central and Brockton for a candlelight vigil and prayer.




More comments about the Press Enterprise's 10th anniversary coverage of the Miller shooting, mostly from entities named "Crazy Horse" and "Shockwave", which I guess are not really their names, because the former individual is a major historical figure has been dead awhile. He's now been reenvisioned as a bigot just as an unknown individual who posted under "Serpico", an actual living figure here, was the antithesis of that person.


It's difficult to follow these conversations sometimes because of the format but this one's quite interesting as a bunch of people with aliases go back and forth on the issues as they often do on articles involving the Riverside Police Department.



This is "Shockwave" whose actually written some pretty interesting prose in the past on male officers being afraid to undress in front of other male officers in the locker room and about bubble bath and candles. Here, he fearlessly tackles a more serious topic with his usual syntax and accentuated punctuation. His love for putting a lot of words in quotation marks provides some elegance to his comments even as his overexuberance for exclamation points hasn't quite been tamed.


(excerpts)



november19...Just trying to make sense of your ignorant comment. First of all, facing a person armed with a firearm would make me "gun happy" too. Sounds like your a little jaded because maybe the police shot your dog. And I beg to differ, Riverside area law enforcement is top notch. It's a tough job dealing with "bottom of the barrel" members of the community, like yourself.




Grow up?? That officer should get a medal for saving a man's life! By that logic, I guess all of those LAPD officers involved in the North Hollywood bank robbery gun battle should be bannished from field duty for all the misses. Of course since your an expert now, you know that shooting at a paper target at the range vs. a real life situation is exactly the same, right?? Wow!,,you passed the "firearm requirement". Well heck, lets give "Raw Reality" a "Jr. G-man badge"!!





On the other side of the three rings, "Crazy Horse" joins in with among other things, the his list of people he doesn't like, cribbing off the name of a renowned American Indian leader to among other things express his paranoia that brown people are taking over the country led by some sort of secret plot by well known and respected community leader Mary Figueroa who by the way is a strong supporter of the police department. How can simply explaining the future reality of Riverside and California being a majority minority state be tied on with any form of "Mexican agenda"? Hopefully, he'll expound in future comments because it just sounds ridiculous.




First, Mary Figueroa should shut up now. What an irresponsible statement on her part. Second, I think she's got a Mexican agenda as evidenced by her frequent comments in public that in 20 years, Riverside will be overwhelmingly Mexican. She says it with a smirk.

And third, I don't care to hear anymore about some loser female gangster who acted like a fool and was shot by the police. Good riddance.






"Crazy Horse" moves around the different comment threads quite a bit. Here he discusses the importance of having a place to vent on the serious issues which impact the city's infrastructural political hierarchy.

He's absolutely right. It's good that he has some place to get it out of his system before he goes into the field.


(excerpt)



Having a presence in these article forums is the exact reason for their existence by the way. Better a presence here than by doing ignorant things like screaming in front of the D.A.'s office using little children from the neighborhood, or by walking onto the 91 Freeway like mental cases.








"Zisiskaos", the most imaginative and clever moniker of the group chimes in with a comment about an earlier comment. He comments on the lack of correct word usage by "November 19" for "their" and "there", which is useful to know, just as it might be to understand the correct usage of some other pronouns. He provides some helpful grammar information and in other posts, delicately and flawlessly implements the always difficult to master, ampersand.



November 19. I'm guessing that is the day you were born. November 19, 2008. I'm impressed that you can type at such an early age. When you graduate from grammer school, develop some common sense and learn the difference between the words "there" and "their", come back and leave an intelligent comment.






And what did "November 19" write? The following.



Riverside's police departments are all gun happy! They will shoot anything; if they think they will get away with it. Black, White, Mexican, but mostly they like to shoot dogs, then claim it was in defense of another cop but in reality they just wanted to shoot it. If you ask me they should be taught how to write an incident report without lying, and bring up there standards a little! Riverside sheriffs and police departments are the bottom of the barrel. Please no reply from cops Wife’s!


Obvious some of these individuals have met on earlier threads, it seems in a matter of speaking. Watching them interact is interesting.



The discussion continues, on all the articles posted on the Tyisha Miller 10th anniversary special section.








News came from Mayor Ron Loveridge that the Community Police Review Commission is headed off for discussion at the Governmental Affairs Committee chaired by its biggest foe, Councilman Frank Schiavone. There, it is expected to face further recommendations to weaken its power given that none of the three city council members serving on the committee support either the commission or the will of the city's voters to protect it from the very same political manipulation that it's currently facing now.

Governmental Affairs Committee meets on Wednesday, Jan. 7 at 3pm and hasn't announced its planned agenda yet. Several days ago, a lot of people received an education on exactly who and what in the city's leadership structure is beneficial to the CPRC and who's detrimental to its future. Just in time for an upcoming election year. It's expected that the draconian recommendations expected to be slipped out of this committee will be exactly that, designed to weaken the CPRC, the canary, to avoid addressing what's happening in the mine, the police department.




The page on "Another blogger harassed" set a page view record today and for this past week with 3,000 readers so far not counting feeds, including over 1,000 today and currently averaging 175 views per hour. These readers come from all around the world including six continents. The story of a woman who blogs on law enforcement related domestic violence and who has been threatened on the internet over it, has obviously struck a chord as it should.

More than a half a dozen other sites have picked up her story, some through this site. Hopefully, attention will spur Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department to do the right thing and initiate an investigation involving its deputy who came to his fourth law enforcement agency with a record no law enforcement officer should have and still remain in what's supposed to be an honorable profession. When you refuse to even initiate an investigation into any allegations of misconduct of your employees, you are simply showing that law enforcement again has very serious problems with self-investigation. That attitude as abhorrant as it is and because it's just that, is a good advertisement for civilian review mechanisms. This is why many members of the public want them in their cities and counties so they can be assured of an independent, thorough and objective investigation or at least review of their complaints.

Speaking of which, there were two press releases on openings in bodies involved in this process.







Complaints about Riverside's so-called Wi Fi abound especially in the last few weeks as it being totally unaccessible. It offers a free service and maybe you do get what you pay for but it's also intended in part to attract paying customers to the provider, AT&T.

I tried some test runs on the free service myself to test these allegations and I said, tried because even though I tested it at different points, different times of the day, it failed to connect pr to respond in any meaningful way every single time. Either it failed to connect to the internet from its server or lost its connection or it was so slow, the medium time for loading web pages was 7.5 minutes. During one test, the home page to log in had crashed as well.

Most popular error message? "The server at [IP address] is taking too long to respond."

Once, it failed to identify itself properly and was listed an unknown and on particular time, it kept saying it was accessible or had low connectivity. I had no desire to test the paid version as much of the time, it wasn't picked up as a wireless signal at all or it and the free version were apparently draining each other's signals.

Any attempt to click links for "customer service" or "contact AT&T" merely led to an error page saying the certificate for the site was invalid. Eek.


So after testing that complaint a few times, I found it to be sustained. The city's Wi Fi just might be a disaster in the making and anyone who invests in AT&T wireless service with their money is probably looking at some serious misery if their advertising version is any indication. And since the city installed its current Wi Fi equipment through a contract with a company that it no longer has on contract means that it can't as readily repair any problems that do arise.

It's primary purpose is for emergency public safety use and it's hoped that its performance on that level is a whole lot better than at the internet level.





Volunteers needed for Citizen Review Panel

The City of Tacoma is recruiting volunteers for the Citizen Review
Panel, which is a policy advisory panel to the City Council with
oversight of Tacoma Police Department policy. The Citizen Review Panel
is a five-member volunteer panel that is currently seeking
applications for two positions.

Members of the Citizen Review Panel are appointed by the City Council
for three-year terms and are responsible for:

* Conducting policy review
* Reviewing trends in complaint investigation and statistical reports
* Engaging in community outreach
* Attending monthly public meetings

Qualified applicants will be screened by a criminal background check
and must: be a registered voter, have lived in Tacoma for at least two
years immediately before applying, not hold any other elective public
office, not currently serve as a member of the Tacoma Police
Department or be an immediate family member of a department employee.

Applications must be submitted to the Mayor's Office by Jan. 23, 2009.
To apply, send a completed application to Cindy Leingang, Mayor's
Office, Room 1200, Municipal Building, 747 Market St., Tacoma, WA
98402. Applicants can download the required application for
committees, boards and commissions from the City's Web site at

www.cityoftacoma. org/Page. aspx?hid= 1834

or call (253) 594-7848.

NACOLE announces it filled two board vacancies with Barbara Attard and Myrian Rangel.

The NACOLE Board of Directors is pleased to announce that it appointed Barbara Attard and Myrian Rangel this month to fill two vacant Board seats.

Barbara recently completed her term as the independent police auditor in San Jose and previously held oversight positions in Berkeley and San Francisco. Myrian is an assistant ombudsman for the County of Los Angeles and has prior experience working for public safety and criminal justice agencies in the Los Angeles area.

Following the announcement of the application process that went out over the NACOLE listserv in November, the Board was faced with the difficult task of choosing two candidates from among the 13 who applied. It was a very impressive and highly qualified group of candidates and we are grateful for the level of interest in NACOLE shown by those who took the time and made the effort to apply.

The two vacancies arose when Andre Birotte was elected as the president-elect at the annual conference in Cincinnati and when Sam Pailca had to resign due to other professional commitments. Barbara will fill the unexpired portion of Andre's term (2007 - 2010) while Myrian will fill the unexpired portion of Sam's term (2006 - 2009).

The Board looks forward to including many members of the wider NACOLE community in the work of the organization during the coming year as we also prepare for the next annual conference in Austin, Texas (October 31 - November 3, 2009).Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!Phil EurePresidentNACOLE Board of Directors

10 Years Later: What do Lockyer (and others) think?

Dec. 28, 1998-Dec. 28, 2008

"When I die, hundreds of people will be at my funeral. Everybody loves me."


---Tyisha Shenee Miller





"It's almost the perfect storm."


---Former Use of Force Panel member Mary Figueroa about the current conditions in the department mirroring those leading to the Miller shooting in 1998.





"People were angry, man. There was a huge amount of distrust. I really thought we were going to have a riot. I was really worried that downtown Riverside would be burned down."


---Use of Force Panel Chair Jack Clarke, Jr.





"Toughest decision of my career."


---Former Riverside Police Department Chief Jerry Carroll about his decision to fire five officers involved in the shooting. He was gone within one year of making that fateful decision.




"To this day, the city does not have a policy on dealing with the same situation."


---Former Riverside Police Department Officer Wayne Stewart who was one of the four officers who shot and killed Miller, his last action while employed by the department.






"The agony had turned into rage."


---Former Riverside County District Attorney's office prosecutor, Mike Soccio who sat on the panel which addressed filing criminal charges against police officers for onduty incidents.




"The city could easily find itself back in that type of situation again."


---Consultant Joe Brann in response to current staffing reductions in the RPD.




"I see us today falling back in the same rut."


---Riverside Police Officers' Association President Det. Chris Lanzillo





"I shall never, never forget." [said the King]

"You will though," the Queen said, "if you don't make a memorandum of it."



---Lewis Carroll






The Press Enterprise takes on the 10th anniversary of the fatal officer-involved shooting of Tyisha Miller. It's a whole series of articles, pictures, diagrams and video-taped interviews of different people but curiously enough, not much from anyone who actually protested in the streets after the shooting that changed the city's history forever. It's strange to see pictures of those who marched, but see them get rendered invisible by the same publication which vilified them in 1998. Not that it's not nice to hear from city officials (who actually were missing in action which is pretty much their behavior lately involving the police department), police management, a couple of police officers and community leaders but if the department and city go back to being hell in a hand basket, none of these people will be speaking with their feet in the streets. Will any of them be speaking about these issues at all?

What has history taught us?

There's a lot of speculation about why so many people from different racial backgrounds, genders, ages, religious and economic backgrounds marched and even some quotes about pending riots and a burning downtown. Yet they didn't really ask anyone why they marched and what brought them to gather by hundreds and even thousands to demonstrate within days of the shooting, for marches that would last a year. And many of these people who came out saw those days coming before many of the leaders did.

The slide show provides the only real opportunity to get any sense of what the populace felt at the time, through snapshots of meetings, protests and Miller's funeral. Something that's missing from the rest of the series, where in contrast you have people talking about what they thought demonstrators were thinking and their own more negative reactions to the prospect and reality of people marching en mass (which happened) or rioting (which didn't) including the often invoked image of a downtown up in flames. But then that was present in the five-year anniversary coverage by the newspaper as well.

Interestingly enough, the same thing happens with the police officers. Several officers who represent management and labor comment on where their department was then and now 10 years later. They provide important perspectives to be sure but like the protesters, many of the other officers who remained or were hired after the Miller shooting, are only shown in the photographs, mostly attending training sessions or showing off video technology as was the case of Field Training Officer Felix Medina and Personnel and Training Officer Erik Lindgren. Though Medina (who ironically attended the same peace academy class as former officer, Paul Bugar) was written about several days ago in the Press Enterprise for his assistance to a family who had their Christmas gifts stolen from their house.

And Los Angeles Times Columnist Steve Harvey had this to say about Lindgren who's a smart officer who thinks outside the box.



(excerpt)

Navel operation: Riverside police used a loudspeaker in an attempt to awaken a suspected drunk driver who had stopped in the middle of the road with a gun in his lap.

When that didn’t work, one cop resorted to one of Riverside’s most famous products: the navel orange.

Officer Erik Lindgren grabbed two off a nearby tree and lobbed them at the car. The first missed. The second bounced off the back the window, rousing the driver. He stepped out of the car and peacefully surrendered himself and his pellet gun.

Press Enterprise columnist Dan Bernstein termed it “a happy chapter of pulp non-fiction.”

The same video technology which consultant and monitor Joe Brann pointed out took them an awful long time to purchase and install. I know that, because it took nearly two years of pushing the city council members (except former Councilman Ed Adkison who was the only elected official who was vocally supportive of the effort) and city manager's office who dragged their heels on that issue for most of that time despite having seed money taken from the city's general fund to pay to equip every squad car with a dash camera.

During two years, I heard every excuse in the book as to why the city couldn't equip these squad cars with the cameras in a timely manner including some really creative ones. It was a blessing when two years ago, Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis petulantly informed me I was not to speak to him anymore because he didn't think I was nice and he believed he was nice (although at least one woman out there might beg to differ with that self-assessment). One less layer of absolute metaphoric cow pies to plow through always makes for a much more streamlined fact-finding process.


Tyisha Miller through her family's eyes offers some perspective outside the usual players in offering some insights about her life, that are a bit apart from the earliest Press Enterprise headlines which screamed about her being drunk at the time, yet downplayed her seizure which could have been epileptic considering her family history with that medical condition. And the same District Attorney's office that labeled her the "victim" passed out over 1,000 pages of every negative item they could dig up on Miller including insinuations about her sexual orientation and even notes to go to the principal's office while providing very little to no information on any of the officers who shot her.





Has anything changed in 10 years in the RPD? That question was a major thrust of the series of articles and the article about it was pretty comprehensive. Is it true that what's past is prologue? Or have things really changed inside the law enforcement agency that was thrust in the international spotlight within hours of the shooting? The views tend to be pessimistic and some of them surprised me because some of these people say the opposite in public and it's interesting how the community leaders and police management personnel in the department tend to be more optimistic about the department than the few community members who were interviewed.

It's always been difficult watching community leaders privately fret about what's going on with the police department (and I seem to be a popular venue for that type of venting) who publicly say everything is great because concern about reputations in this city including at City Hall supersedes the truth of what's going on around us. And it amplifies the grand canyon which exists between some of these leaders and the communities they speak for, in terms of perceptions about law enforcement and the police department. It will be great if some of them step up to the plate on these issues that have caused great ongoing concern in the police department.

That's not that surprising if you've been talking to residents from one end to the other about their feelings about the police department, one which quite a few feel has come a long way, but has stalled in recent years due in large part to having a thoroughly disengaged city government (which it just put on blast by not participating in the Press Enterprise articles by choice). Their refusal to do this as civic leaders especially in these difficult times should be grounds for those up for reelection next year not being reelected and recall elections being called for everyone else. It is just so profoundly disrespectful to the city residents and the department by the city council and mayor to behave in such a fashion. It's really inexcusable.

The silence from these leaders who hold the public trust deserves no less than public accountability and asking those running for office next year including Mayor Ron Loveridge who was in office during that era, why they kept their lips zipped on one of the city's most critical episodes of its history, is worthy fodder material for some serious questions on the campaign trail.

Drastic? Perhaps but the city residents incurred a $22 million tab on the reforms implemented in the department due in large part because of gross neglect by the city government and its direct employees in the 1990s leading up to the Miller shooting. This is some of the best money ever spent by the city. There's no doubt about that but it should always be remembered that the city spent this money under duress, under force of litigation and that it had to be pretty much dragged kicking and screaming to do so to make any sort of investment at all. And what the current government has shown publicly since then is that it is not willing to do any more than the same predecessors that some current elected officials have criticized for the actions taken in the 1990s and even earlier.

There's really no words to say just how ashamed of themselves our elected officials should be for their silence which merely reflects the same attitudes which led to the police department's decline in the years before Miller was killed. If they are ignorant about the issues impacting the police department, they should just say so but there's still room to express concern and interest. This city's police department is worth this struggle and the best effort, its employees are definitely worth that and so are the city residents. Maybe they see the loss of a young Black woman who's not a campaign donor, who's not a wealthy developer, who can't help them climb the political ladder as being inconsequential. Maybe the police department's a toy they've grown tired of looking at because there's no marquee signs nearby with their names in the starring roles of some Riverside Renaissance project.

That's the message that through their collective silence, they are sending and their silence on the issue has increased the chances that a similar tragic episode could happen again in the future.


A lot of people (and it's usually the same people) were interviewed for this story on the police department 1o years after Miller's death, and many raised good points. The most notable aspect of it was that it was the Press Enterprise's first honest look at how the department's staffing levels and lack of racial and gender diversity among its employees could create what Mary Figueroa called a "perfect storm" for another tragic shooting and its aftermath which interesting enough was a term used by one of the four officers who shot and killed Miller. Some communities in Riverside are certainly broiling with anger that's still fairly below the radar at the moment. But then that's how the years and months preceding Miller played out. Quite a few of the hot button issues and incidents that are "blowing over" are just stacking up into another pile of kindling.

As noted earlier, not one elected official at City Hall participated in this series of news articles, which again shows a major dysfunction still remains in the city government's relationship with the police department and the community. This dynamic was one of those criticized by former State Attorney General Bill Lockyer in his lawsuit filed against the city in 2001 which ultimately led to the stipulated judgment. People reading the article should contact their elected officials and ask them for a response on the police department 10 years ago and in the present especially considering the warning bells raised by individuals in the article, with as diverse perspectives as Figueroa, Brann and Riverside Police Officers' Association President Chris Lanzillo.

One major issue raised by all three of these individuals was the current staffing situation with vacancies for funded positions in both the civilian and sworn divisions, from rank and file, to supervisory to civilian support staff. Vacancies which will only grow as attrition leads to retirements, firings, failures to make probation and resignations including eight officer vacancies which emerged this past autumn. Talk to a different individual and you'll get different statistics on everything from the department's current number of officer vacancies, current averages for officers assigned to patrol shifts to the officer to supervisor ratios on patrol shifts. None of which can be backed by anything in writing, because all the records kept on these issues are for "personal use" only by various members of the department's management.

That needs to change. There needs to be much more transparency to city residents on these issues as this current economic downturn or meltdown as it's been called by various individuals continues until at least late next year (and probably longer than that in the housing market-dependent Inland Empire). In fact, there should have been a public dialogue or workshop on these issues but the city council is so disengaged and apparently disinterested in these issues to not be quoted for these news stories because they believed that this is all ancient history that has nothing to do with them. If they can't or won't comment on a news story, then it's unlikely they will bring any of the issues that are as relevant on Dec. 28, 2008 as they were on Dec. 28, 1998 to any discussion forum.


The city council should sponsor a workshop either through the city council as a whole or through the Public Safety Committee to bring these issues for reporting and discussion. Participants should include city council, the city manager's office, the police management, the personnel and training captain and representatives from the Riverside Police Officers' Association, the Riverside Police Administrators' Association and the SEIU General Unit.

One major issue which should be addressed through this process is the role of community policing both under the strategic plan and any further blue print for its progression produced by the department after December 2009. Chief Russ Leach's statements about creating such a plan is encouraging but needs to involve a lot of the city's residents and not just the usual suspects to provide input on that process. This should also include the futures of community programs which were suspended indefinitely during the budget crisis including the citizens' academy as well as current equipment and technology inventories.

There should be some of blue print plan to what the department will be doing in regarding to the staffing levels of civilian and sworn positions as well as expenditures on equipment, technology and training during the economic downturn along with strategies and some sort of time line for how and when the department will address and correct any deficiencies in these areas. There should of course be no deficiencies allowed in areas of training and equipment and only the minimal levels in staffing civilian and sworn positions.

This committee or the full city council through a workshop process needs to do similar discussion and examination of issues involving any reduction in funding for officer and civilian employee training including but not limited to tactics and use of force. These issues are all very critical and they need to be treated as such. So far, they have not been by the elected leadership, certainly not in public which is the only access to information that the vast majority of city residents enjoy.



Another issue raised is the lack of racial and gender diversity in the police department where the percentage of Black officers is lower than it was in 1998 and the percentage of female officers makes slow climbs and then makes even more dramatic declines over and over again during the past 10 years. Brann's idea of having the department take a look at its poor retention rate for officers of color is a good one and should be implemented. The department's already assigned its audit and compliance panel to do an audit on the department's high attrition and poor retention rates for its female officers. But both of these examinations need to be removed from the insulation of the police department and brought to its outside for a further look.

Several years ago, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department put together what it called a "recruitment, retention and diversity" panel which focused mostly on racial issues in recruitment, hiring and retention with gender secondary but the department appointed different community leaders to participate in meetings to deliberate these issues and issue recommendations through a written report to be reviewed and then implemented by the Sheriff's Department.

The police department needs to do something similar for men of color and women. It's fairly probable that there could be some serious issues uncovered during any audit particularly involving female officers especially considering the city's rush to settle litigation filed by a female probationary officer who was fired on the first day she showed up for a field training assignment. The minute record and document trail on that lawsuit raised red flags as it should.

The panel could mirror that of the Mayor's Use of Force Panel created after the Miller shooting which issued a written list of recommendations in a rather comprehensive report to the city council. The fact is, until the department at the very least starts reaching out to the communities it hopes to recruit from, not just for brief conversations but for involvement in a comprehensive process, these retention rates haven't a prayer of improving any time soon. Exit interviews should be conducted for any and all officers particularly those who are men of color and female who left, resigned, failed to make probation, were terminated or took an injury or stress retirement in the past five years. In addition, exit interviews should be given to men of color and particularly women who passed or failed to complete the field training program as well as to all officers who fail to pass probation while employed by the police department. These exit interviews should be conducted in a manner which protects officers from retaliation including blackballing for any information they report during their interviews.

The Human Resources Board recently stepped up to the plate on several of these issues including asking to receive a report from the police department on its audit involving female officers. Human Resources Director Rhonda Strout and Administrative Analyst Jeremy Hammond didn't look too thrilled at this development. But then this city department has its own problematic history when it comes to hiring decisions at City Hall and the police department including issues going back to the 1990s including but not limited to, problems with nepotistic hirings, problems with ensuring the integrity of urine samples for drug testing and the rather liberal hiring processes involving the city's two public safety departments which were so problematic one decade ago.


Examination of hiring practices involving new and lateral officers including the assurance and insurance that there are no short cuts taken during this process for any openings that are filled, including cuts in funding involving background investigations, psychological testing and the personnel connected with these procedures. Examination should be done of any hiring of any relative of any city employee and elected official of both the city and county to ensure that the city's provisions against nepotism in hiring are strictly adhered to in practice. No background investigations including polygraphs are to be expedited for any reason including in cases involving the rehiring or reinstatement of previous employees including those reinstated in arbitration or through the state court system.

There needs to be an examination of the department's promotional practices at its highest levels in light of the enlightening and embarrassing situation that erupted at a city council meeting in March 2006 involving the allegedly illegal conversion of management positions in the department to serving "at will" until the process was halted by a lot of protest and a belated ruling issued by City Attorney Gregory Priamos. In light of the recent claim for damages and lawsuit filed by two police lieutenants, there needs to be further examination of inappropriate interference by other city employees and/or elected officials in the department's promotional processes. The allegations the two lieutenants raised are very serious and should be addressed.


An examination of the Internal Affairs Division's and police management's handling and investigations of complaints and internal investigations in light of a huge backlog which rivals that of the criminal and civil trials in the Riverside County Superior Court system. The backlog on complaints is to the point that the average time it takes complaints from intake to just being received by the CPRC for its own review process, is well over 100-200 days or higher. This greatly exceeds the 30-60 day guidelines set for category one and two allegations, in departmental policy #4.12. Some people blame this on the CPRC because it's external and easy but actually, it appears that it's the investigations which aren't under the scope of the commission's jurisdiction which may be where the true problem lies. Everything else likely gets backed up behind those investigations, much like the civil trials in the county courts get backed by ill-advised policy making and implementation and a shortage of judicial officers in the criminal courts.

The department temporarily transferred Lt. Mike Cook into that division to help offset the backlog but also transferred out Sgt. Duane May to work in the Traffic Bureau and it's not clear whether that fifth sergeant spot was filled or left vacant. On top of that, the division moved from its more geographically isolated digs on Central Avenue near the Riverside Plaza to the downtown bus terminal putting the investigative division in closer proximity to police officers. Not a good or even informed move on the city's part even to save a little bit of cash. In fact, it just goes to show how out of touch the city manager's office is with police operations and how unwilling the city council is to ensure that its direct employees are properly educated or informed.


These investigations must remain in compliance with the state constitution, the peace officer bill of rights, Governmental Code 3304(d) and Penal Code 832.5, all things they weren't before the stipulated jugment was signed by the city and the state. All efforts must be made to ensure that this process is in accordance to the same laws it allegedly violated before the reforms were implemented involving its operation and staffing. The strategy of creating some sort of group or task force to both tackle the complaint and investigation backlog as well as create strategies to both reduce it and to ensure more streamlined handling of its investigations in the future might be a useful tool for addressing this serious issue.

Perhaps the Public Safety Committee or even the CPRC could serve as a venue for the discussions of the process of bringing this division back online in completing thorough, objective and timely investigations in accordance with these provisions in state law.

The audits of the complaint form access and process which were conducted at least four times annually under the consent decree with the state should be continued.

The department needs to stop jerking city residents around about the much delayed release of a traffic pretext stop study report which was originally financed by the city's general fund in August 2005 and was supposed to be released to the Human Relations Commission and the public in March 2006. If it's not available for public consumption and review, the department needs to provide a detailed, thorough and timely explanation as to what has happened to it and why the three year delay on its release.

Reexamination of the department's audio recording policy, to include recording all professional contacts between field officers and supervisors with members of the public. In the past, these recordings when done have been valuable in helping to determine whether misconduct allegations were true or false so they've proven to be of great value. There should be an auditing process in place to randomly sort and listen to recordings that are not used in evidence in a citizen complaint, internal investigation or any investigation involving an officer-involved death, to among other reasons find incidents which can be useful training scenarios for officers. The department should retain all audio recordings for a period of at least two to five years even as the city has either reduced or is in the process of reducing that period of time to only six months.


The police management, the audit and compliance bureau and all four NPC commanders are to report at least semiannually to the city council at one of its regular evening sessions on progress implementing the strategic plan. The bureau should present an audit of its own operations in implementing this plan as well as the provisions of the stipulated judgment that are still in effect per a vote taken by the city council at a March 2006 workshop. The NPC commanders are to report on their MAP strategies for policing in their respective areas as well as trends noted in those areas including crime statistics.

There should also be at least one public forum on the plan's implementation in at least each NPC per year. This past year, there were three total public community forums. The general one held at Cal Baptist University and forums held in the Central and West NPCs. A forum planned for November to be held in Orangecrest in the East NPC was canceled and has not been rescheduled as of yet.

These are some ideas to start with, in terms of addressing elected officials. More will be forthcoming in future blog postings.




City Council and Mayor:

Phone number: (951) 826-5991




Email:

rloveridge@riversideca.gov

mgardner@riversideca.gov

asmelendrez@riversideca.gov

rbailey@riversideca.gov

fschiavone@riversideca.gov

cmacarthur@riversideca.gov

nhart@riversideca.gov

sadams@riversideca.gov







Former Riverside Police Department Officer Wayne Stewart breaks his silence on the shooting and says that the department still has not come up with training to prevent the shooting that he and the three other officers were involved in the early morning hours of Dec. 18, 1998 and he's actually right. That actually apparent when two other officers shot and killed Douglas Steven Cloud in less time than it took to kill Miller in October 2006. The collision of a medical injury scenario with a situation involving the broadcast of a robbery created a dynamic that wasn't much different from what happened in 1998. Maybe that's why the financial settlement paid out on the Cloud case at $800,000 was second only to that of the $3 million paid out on Miller.


The Riverside District Attorney's office's report on the shooting of Tyisha Shenee Miller provides that office's analysis of how it allegedly was so close but still no dice when it came to its decision on whether or not to file criminal charges against the officers who shot Miller. The United States Attorney's office would reach a similar if much more convoluted finding in 2002 but not before calling the involved officers to appear before a federal grand jury.


The 911 transcripts of her cousin's call for medical assistance, the incident which sparked 10 years of events leading the city and department to where it is today, looking back as some of the same troubling patterns reemerge and reassert themselves.


There are already some comments on the story including this one.



(excerpt)




Mary Figueroa....this has nothing to do with a lack of diversity and adequate staffing. Turning police officers into kindergarten cops for minorities is not going to prevent something like this from happening again. The lesson here is, don't grab a gun if you plan on going out and getting so intoxicated that you may pass out in your car with a gun on you lap. Just so nobody turns this into a racial comment...this applies to whites, blacks, Hispanics, etc. I was tired of hearing about this 10 years ago, and I don't want to hear about it now. Thank you for stirring the pot again, Press Enterprise. You did it to me when I was a young cop years ago and you're still doing it now. Keep it up and maybe you can incite the riot you were uncessful at inciting 10 years ago.




More comments here



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You notice how all these officers found a way to deal with this fiasco after shooting this born loser? These officers all went on with their lives and have been successful.

The fact that 3 of the 4 are active in law enforcement today tells a person exactly what the government and law enforcement structure think of Tyisha Miller and that embarrassingly weak Jerry Miller.

We haven't seen those two pimp daddies, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton in town since all the cameras left. Jesse's busy making babies with other women behind his wife's back and Al is still in Harlem smearing pomade in his hair.




Wild and arrogant is not accurate sir. Paul Bugar was intelligent, calm, and easy going. Wayne Stewart was also intelligent and very funny. Alagna was the more experienced of the group and fair to everyone he dealt with. Hotard was a polite kid who put together an interesting "winter" uniform one night for graveyard. They were dealt a bad hand that night paid with their careers. Live on disco saturday night!




Nobody with common sense would describe those officers as wild and arrogant. Ridiculous statement.

I don't care a whit about Tyisha Miller. She was a young welfare momma growing up to be an old welfare momma. She was a member of the Westside PJ's also know as the Westside Project Crips. Terrible Tyee they called her. Read the graffiti if you're not sure. She was drunk, stoned, and carrying two guns for some parolee idiot friend of hers fresh out of state prison. She lived like a fool and died like a fool. I don't want to hear any more about this loser.

Dredging this incident up ten years after the fact makes the P-E look like even more of a small town podunk rag than they already do.


Thank you, for reminding us what happens when time stands still in the minds of some and no growth takes place between the ears.

To be continued...





Bad news for Inglewood's police department, from the Los Angeles Times. Its study determined that its officers have a higher rate of shooting and killing unarmed individuals.

Some of its findings:


(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



* Five of the 11 people shot and killed by Inglewood police since 2003 were unarmed. They include a man who fled when officers tried to stop him for riding his bicycle on a sidewalk. An officer said he fired when the man reached for a bulge in his waistband, which turned out to be a rolled-up T-shirt.

* Several officers -- including a training sergeant -- have complained about the department's policy on when to shoot, and about a lack of training.

* To investigate shootings by police, the department has assigned the vice president of the Inglewood police officers' union, which advocates for officers accused of wrongdoing, and a detective accused by prosecutors of lying about his own off-duty shooting.

* Two Inglewood officers were involved in using electric Taser guns on unarmed suspects four times in five weeks -- including one man in the genitals -- prompting defense attorneys to call them the "Taser Twins."

Earlier this year, the city hired consultants to review the department's training, policies and procedures and initiated a training program to improve officers' tactics.

Inglewood Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said it was unfair to portray her officers as quick to pull the trigger or excessive in using force.

In some cases, she said, police opened fire only after suspects stabbed officers, shot at them or pointed guns in their direction. The 195-member department responds to more than 130,000 calls each year, she said, usually without problems or headlines.

"We interact with people who are exceedingly violent and resistive to the lesser levels of force, and we don't always shoot them," said Seabrooks, who became chief last year.




But the bad news for Inglewood doesn't stop there. The department's officers have also been involved in a large number of sexual misconduct scandals including some of the following.




(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)


Later that year, an anonymous letter sent to the department's Internal Affairs Bureau prompted a sexual harassment investigation of traffic Officer James Manzi. Manzi, according to an internal affairs report included in court records, played for on-duty colleagues a videotape and an audio recording of himself having sex. Manzi was suspended for 20 days but retired on disability before the discipline was imposed. He declined to comment. In January 2006, another officer was accused of taking a cellphone photograph of an inmate during a strip search. The officer was suspended and then fired for unrelated misconduct. Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said supervisors now monitor strip searches. "That's one of the circumstances where we have to be exceedingly careful because it has the potential to be interpreted as something very demeaning," she said. In December 2006, a woman visiting from Florida claimed that an on-duty Inglewood officer raped her and forced her to perform sexual acts while he kept his hand on his holstered gun. According to a district attorney's report, the woman was standing on a street corner wearing a miniskirt and fishnet stockings when Officers Donvey Lindsey and Brandon Beak pulled up, suspecting she was a prostitute. The officers followed the woman back to her motel and confirmed she was a registered guest, according to the report. Lindsey then followed her to her room, telling Beak that he would check her identification, Beak told authorities. The woman, in a statement to the FBI, claimed she complied with Lindsey's orders to perform sexual acts because he threatened to arrest her.



This isn't even counting the major scandal that erupted involving massage parlors in 2007.






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