Has the city manager addressed staffing ratios in the police department?

I received several notices from concerned individuals about news that
'my blog has apparently been sabotaged in some fashion. If you can read it, it's still here. I'm not sure what the problem was because I haven't heard of any problems but I have notified Google about it to be on the safe side. I'm also always aware however that there are people out there who dislike and resent this blog including at City Hall. After all, I did receive a harassing email in a Yahoo account taken out in my name that traced back to the city's ISP. I received a lot of useful tips on this email and the one that was written about a week later from a Riverside-based ISP as an "apology" from individuals including some critics who were concerned about what happened.



I also have had my picture (which appeared to be taken by a cell phone camera), full name and harassing comments about me finally getting "what's coming to me" on Craigslist. Not to mention a year or so of cyberstalking done by unknown individuals. And who could forget the email sent calling me a "bitter cunt"? It's not always lovely to blog.

And so it goes, when you're blogging in Riverside but then there's been a lot of people who are supportive of the blog as well.



Interestingly enough, I was discussing my blog last night while talking with a representative of the national office of the American Civil Liberties Union who was very interested in Riverside and has been holding discussions with individuals who are active in this city particularly in terms of police accountability issues. During the time spent in the ACLU, this individual had been very active after hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Jena, Louisiana. And now Riverside.



Often it seems that your adversaries are louder, but then considering that they might be upset that this isn't a blog to cheer lead about the city, its elected government and the police department it's not surprising. And no, this is not a cheer leading blog, because while there are good things about Riverside and its agencies, there are problems as well and the city wants to pretend they don't exist. And if that's the case, there's no chance to work on these challenges, issues and problems in any meaningful way. Unfortunately, the negative backlash often serves as a useful barometer of how serious some of these problems are at this time.


One person read something on my blog and once berated me and beseeched me to not damage the image of the police department. But the image of the police department isn't my responsibility, doing my part as a concerned city resident to help make it the best it can be for all city residents is all of our responsibilities. If you take care of that, the image tends to take care of itself with relatively little work. You have to build from the ground up and from the inside, outward.



Not that cheer leading doesn't have its place. Because it does, on the football field and on the sidelines of a basketball court and in national competitions. But there's been a lot of cheer leading involving the police department for example including during the 1990s and what happened? The department wound up the focus of three outside investigations and one consent decree. Think about what seriously addressing the crisis that was emerging within that agency could have done to remedy its problems before they grew too large to contain any longer. It's always important to remember what these problems were in case they come back to visit again. If you don't recognize them, they quickly take over.



And given what's happening now involving the police department and its current level of staffing on the civilian and sworn sides, this is especially critical. Has the department accomplished a lot in a relatively short time? Yes, in some areas as the development of the mental health crisis intervention program has shown just in the one year it's existed. But it's these successes which make it harder to be quiet when city employees in high places and the individuals in city government which directs them are making the same mistakes they have derided their predecessors for doing.

It's one thing to look back and point the finger at past city managers, past elected officials and say it's all their fault and that the new city council would never do anything like that let alone follow in the same footsteps. But what happens when the city government and its staff do retrace those steps and don't pay any mind to doing so?



One small example is the issue of properly staffing the patrol shifts with adequate supervision as shown through the officer to supervisor ratio. When the state attorney general's office under Bill Lockyer was investigating the police department, one of the key issues that came up was inadequate staffing including at the supervisory level. But don't take my word for it. Go look up the Riverside County Superior Court case, The People of the State of California v The City of Riverside and read the writ mandamus to see how many times inadequate staffing is mentioned in the original lawsuit.



The required ratio to adhere to under the resultant stipulated judgment was 7 to 1. That's a number that was picked out after examination what the most successful ratio was used by different law enforcement agencies in the country. Examining records in the department that clearly documented these ratios over a period of several years, it was clear that the department was very successful at maintaining these ratios on over 95% of its patrol shifts throughout the years. That showed a serious commitment at least during that period of monitoring that the city and the department took this provision of the stipulated judgment seriously.



Unfortunately, now that the City Attorney's office is apparently handling all the CPRA requests filed involving the police department, similar documentation is no longer available to determine what the officer to supervisor ratio is on average, over a period of time since the dissolution of the judgment including during these critical past few months when the city and state have been in a budget crisis. A CPRA letter sent to the police department yielded only a copy of the power point presentation given by consultant Joe Brann several months ago and what was funny about the whole thing is that there was no actual mention of the officer to supervisor ratio in that entire document! So nothing was provided by the police department to respond to this issue of concern.



And why is it of concern? For one thing, Brann warned the city council in June that the staffing issues needed to be addressed immediately. Not tomorrow, not next year and not, never, but immediately. And he provided reasons why which anyone should be able to understand. But what he received in response was a rebuttal by Asst. City Manager Tom DeSantis who used what can only be described as "fuzzy math" to explain that not only was the department fully staffed but that the ratio was actually something more along the line of 4.2 to 1. That's kind of difficult to believe, considering the department has added quite a few new officer-level positions yet has lost at least two sergeant positions (one through retirement and one created by filling a higher position) with more likely later this year possibly as early as autumn. But then DeSantis wasn't actually in Riverside during the crisis that led us to where we are today.



But attempts to get answers and documentation of DeSantis' numbers through a CPRA to the city manager's office led to getting a response not from this department but from the City Attorney's office. Did they not teach how to process requests for information at city manager training school? At any rate, City Attorney Gregory Priamos stated in the letter that the information was in the city's 2008-09 preliminary budget at the Web site. However, upon reviewing that information (which wasn't even online when I sent my request), it's still difficult to figure out where exactly DeSantis received his figures from but then again, he was substituting in the big chair for an absent Brad Hudson and was likely caught offguard by Brann's audit.

So what's changed in the days and weeks since the city council and city manager were warned by a consultant they hired that the staffing issue was a pressing one? The public whose tax dollars pay for everyone involved hasn't been given straight forward consistent information about the status of the officer to supervisor ratio in the police department. I've heard it's getting better and I've heard it getting worse and the credit for that has been laid at the door of the city manager's office. So what's going on? And does the city really want anyone to know the answer to this question?

This isn't transparent. This isn't being accountable to the city residents about how the money's being spent in the city and on the police department. And knowing what the city's history has led to on this issue, it's also downright irresponsible.

What would be really awesome would be if the cheerleaders would ask these questions too. The people who say that the department's doing great and that they support it. The thing is, that when crises like this one arrive (and the end of this road has proven to be a crisis), the cheerleaders are often very quiet and you would think they'd be the first to line up and make it clear that there needs to be accountability and transparency on this issue impacting public safety. Yet often these same people who cheerlead in public complain to me and others no doubt when the police response times on calls are slow and it takes a long time to do anything including file criminal reports over the nonemergency phone services. Some of these issues go back to staffing as a temporary freeze of civilian positions in the police department led to long delays on several phone services last year.

They should be at City Hall crowding the chambers because as we have all learned, it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease and no place is that more true than at City Hall with crowds gathering at the city council meetings on the library, museum and a suspect attempt to push yet another "election reform" on the city's voters. If they care as much about police officers and other employees as they claim to, where are they? Where will they be if the officer to supervisor ratio exceeds 7 to 1? Where will they be if the percentage of shifts where sergeants serves as watch commanders exceeds 15% or even 20%? With at least two lieutenants on unspecified temporary leaves as of early summer, that's not an impossibility.

And what was the end result of these types of problematic trends nearly a decade ago? The beginning of a $22 million and still climbing court-mandated reform process which addressed serious problems in the department that should have been addressed much sooner.

The city council seemed to hear Brann's warnings at the audit but were they really listening? There's been some murmurings from a couple of them that they forwarded some "concerns" to the city manager's office but what does that mean exactly?

After all the city council had voted 7-0 in a March 2006 workshop to have quarterly audits done by Brann of the police department and how long did it take for the city council to push Hudson along to implement its mandate? About seven months and during that time, the department hit some rocky times as other departments like it had done when they completed their stipulated agreements or consent decrees.

Still, Riverside's setting a course for the future and what it looks like right now is that it might have learned from its mistakes. As one person said, it's probably because the city government and top-level employees have turned over to the extent that there's little to no collective memory on the dais or at City Hall that there ever were serious problems let alone the hard work and money spent to address those problems. Without that, it's much easier to slip down the slope again. Is that where the city's heading?

Will past become prologue once again?




Save Chinatown, is the directive of two opinion writers including former Museum director Vince Moses (and the story of his departure is another in a list of sad ones) in the Press Enterprise. The piece was in response to the Editorial Board's recommendation to not preserve the historical site.


(excerpt, op-ed)



The California Environmental Quality Act says, "When archaeological resources are involved, avoidance or preservation in an undisturbed state is the preferable course of action." The act is backed by established archaeological best practices. Undisturbed resources should be left undisturbed for future investigators, who can bring more advanced techniques to bear on the work. Once this site is gone, it is gone forever.

Let's make certain the project is right for Chinatown, or let's not do it. The county school board needs to help find a means of moving the medical office building, in the plans, from the undisturbed site before the close of escrow.

If the developer, city planners and the county Board of Education wish to build a project on the old Chinatown site, they must raise mitigation measures to a level matching the significance of the site, in honor of those early Chinese pioneers who lived and worked hard here for nearly a century to help, among their many other contributions, build our city's citrus industry.




The planning commission will be meeting soon to discuss an environmental impact report after getting a 30 day extension. A lively discussion on the issue continues here.





Asian-American Riverside is an excellent site on the history of Asian-Americans in this city including the Chinatowns.



In the wake of the death of a young boy who contracted a parasitic infection while swimming, people are asking questions about the amoeba that killed him.




No criminal charges will be filed against a San Bernardino City Councilman accused of assault.



Will voters in Corona pass the controversial landscaping fee initiative or not? The votes are coming in and are soon to be counted.



Murrieta’s city council gave the order to its staff to research term limits".






In California, the state has issued an order for all the parolees living at Soboba reservation to leave for their own safety.

Election 2009: Coming up on the horizon

A former Riverside County Sheriff’s Department deputy entered a not guilty plea at his arraignment on assault under the color of authority charges. About a half dozen deputies both in the field and in corrections are facing criminal charges, most of which are rape under the color of authority.



Some residents of Canyon Lake want to save the hillsides from high-density development, a campaign that resembles those that have taken place in Riverside during the past few years. Friends of Riverside's Hills have been actively involved in the same fight for years. Their focus is the enforcement of two growth control measures passed by the city's voters in the 1970s. Several members of the city council for the past couple of years have made it clear exactly what they think about those measures and it's not nice! They've even tried to go to court and challenge the interpretation of those measures and were slapped by a Riverside County Superior Court judge in 2006 for violating them. Not the best expenditures using tax dollars for the litigating expenses since on cases like this one the city attorney's office always retains outside counsel usually from Best, Best and Krieger.


Using the city attorney's office to get around Measure C and R puts the message on blast that when it comes to this mantra that's been invoked by certain parties across the city of "letting the voters' decide", you have to take those words with a grain of salt. So any expression of the wishes to do so by city council members should be viewed with some degree of skepticism.

Just look at the latest round of dilution attempts involving the Community Police Review Commission. The city council opted to "let the voters decide" on whether or not to pass Measure II and put the commission in the city's charter. The voters did decide and voted to do just that, perhaps in part because they were aware of how members of the city council had turned the commission into their political football. Resoundingly, the voters said no to that, loudly.

But has the city council really listened to the will of the voters? Has its members acted in its best interests or are they instead serving other interests that they are answering to? It's hard to believe that there's not an active contingent acting like the latter considering all the events which have shook the panel in the last several years, the latest being its noninvestigation of the death of Martin Gaspar Pablo. People have asked me if it really was true that City Attorney Gregory Priamos told the commissioners that they could face fines and/or jail time if they investigate the Pablo death and yes, it's true that Priamos told commissioners that if they initiated an investigation (or sought independent counsel for that matter), they would be in violation of the city's charter and then he explained the penalties while apparently wearing his "legal counsel" hat and not his "city prosecutor" one.

One major problem with the CPRC is that even though it likely is supported by a slender majority of the city council, the views of these council members aren't dictating its operations because most of these elected officials are loathed to even be construed as interfering with City Manager Brad Hudson and his assistants' handling of the panel and their vision for its future. That's probably a wise course to take because the direct employees of the city council need some autonomy but the city council should send a loud message to both Hudson and Priamos that they support the will of the voters and ensure that he's also allowing the CPRC some autonomy. It's not clear that this message is being sent by the CPRC's supporters.

The problem with their lack of involvement, is that it could be that the shrinking minority of those on the dais who oppose it (and always have) might not be nearly as reluctant to tell Hudson and Priamos what to do with the CPRC. If that's the case, then it explains a lot of what's been going on and how even shifting the views on the dais from majority against the CPRC to majority in support of it hasn't changed anything on what's been going on with it. It also explains the 180 degree turn that Priamos in particular has taken with his involvement with the CPRC in the past several years.

Still, even the commissioners for the most part were quiet on this issue, save a couple of them. Chair Brian Pearcy seems to be trying to figure out which way to go instead of leading the commission but it's difficult to forget the "counseling" sessions he allegedly held with former commissioner Steve Simpson whose grave sin was to promote discussion by the commissioners of the same issue that was raised by Commissioner John Brandriff at the July 23 meeting involving independent counsel. It doesn't appear that he was advocating for Simpson's rights as a commissioner to free expression without treats of removal from the commission, but simply carrying out the will of the "Seventh Floor" which was to tell Simpson to "tone it down" or face expulsion. Simpson resigned not long after that.



More campaign war chests being built in preparation for various Inland Empire elective offices across the counties.



In Riverside, the campaign fundraising has already begun and this site will provide more information on when and where these key events will take place. Some other elected officials are also actively fundraising at this time to absolve previous campaign debts.

Here are a couple of upcoming fundraisers. If you haven't received your invite in the mail, there's still time to sign up and pony up the major bucks so that you can nosh with the crowd who hang out at events like these.


Steve Adams (Ward Seven): Aug. 6 at 6-8:30 p.m. at the Mission Tobacco Lounge. Different rates depending on whether or not you’re attending alone and whether or not you want VIP treatment.



Ron Loveridge (mayor): Aug. 21 at 6-8:30 p.m. at the Cailo Bello restaurant. Same rules apply. The more money you spend, the better the accommodations.



Councilwoman Nancy Hart has begun her fundraising as well and has been sending material out in the mail the past month. She could be facing at least one rival who’s closely connected to at least one current city councilman but who hasn’t decided whether or not he will run in the sixth ward.


Ward Two Councilman Andrew Melendrez most likely will run for a second term and he's probably got the best chances of reelection of any incumbent up next year. But being an election year, this ward seat will probably attract some interesting candidates as well.

Councilman Frank Schiavone of the fourth ward hasn’t formally thrown in his hat for reelection but already residents of that ward are thinking about throwing their hats in. The Ward Four election might be quite crowded given that some individuals itching to run and get a chance to sit on the dais believe that Schiavone's loss to District One Supervisor Bob Buster in the June contest might make him politically vulnerable given that he failed to carry precincts inside his own ward. That reality might draw a crowd into this ward contest, coming the filing deadline for candidacy early next year.


Perhaps that's why the hosting of plurality elections was so enticing to the two-time incumbent. After all, it was just weeks ago that the Governmental Affairs Committee led by Schiavone tried to put yet another "election reform" platform on this November's ballot. That effort failed as it became clear that it didn't have much support on the dais and thus was sent to the Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee for further discussion. Don't be surprised if you never hear one more word about it again and if it ends up on the city government's version of the Island of Lost (political) Toys. After all, its time (and timing) has clearly passed.

Mayor Loveridge could also face a good-sized field in the mayoral contest, hotly anticipated to be possibly one for the books. Loveridge is going for a fifth (albeit abbreviated) term and many people believe it's so he has a shot at winning the presidency title for the National League of Cities. Loveridge is currently the second vice-president of the League but wants to move up.


The candidate on most people's lips to run against him is former Third Ward Councilman Art Gage who hasn't denied the rumors putting him smack into the race. He'll have a tough road ahead if he does run as it's difficult for many city officials to come off of a loss in an reelection and then win another political seat.



Gage has been writing letters to the Press Enterprise like this one decrying the attempts he said his colleagues in the city council made to limit public comments at meetings.



(excerpt)



As a councilman for the previous four years, I was a target of other members of the council and people in city administration over this very issue. There was a conscious effort to limit public input on issues large and small by rushing things through without adequate hearings, limiting public comment during open sessions, not allowing consent-calendar items to be pulled by the public and expanding the consent calendar to include significant items rather the usual routine business that doesn't require comment.

The attitude was one of "we know more than our constituents, so let's just do what we want." It has not gone unnoticed that council meetings are ending much earlier now, and people who previously were in attendance to keep the council accountable have just about stopped attending after being bullied by some members of the council during meetings.

These abuses should not be allowed. We cannot allow public business to be conducted in the back room or local pub. Let's open up the process to allow the public to have the input it deserves and that our laws mandate.





What's really interesting about the mayoral race is that since Riverside utilizes a City Council-City Manager system, the mayor really doesn't do all that much but one thing he or she would do is preside over city council meetings. Thus, the attitudes of the candidates including the incumbent on public participation in the process at meetings takes on a very large role among the various criteria used to decide who's the best person for the job.

That would be very interesting particularly in a contest pitting Loveridge against Gage and possibly even former Councilman, Dom Betro as well. The two were interviewed some time back by Inland Empire Magazine about their respective mayoral ambitions but at the time both of them were riding waves of success in politics. Their tides came crashing in during Election 2007 and reentering the political arena will require some rebuilding and perhaps some reinventing as well.

Betro and Gage had squared off on the controversial decision by the city council in July 2005 to bar city residents from pulling items from the consent calendar. Betro had proposed the motion to do so during that meeting and Gage was the sole vote against it.


Other candidates mentioned by people included former mayor, Terry Frizzel and current Riverside Community College District Board of Trustees Mary Figueroa, though the latter might have put end to them as it seems that she may be planning to seek reelection as a trustee next year.


Rumors also still abound about whether or not Betro will indeed throw his hat in the ring. He's facing a similar situation as Gage would but his election results were much closer than those of Gage and he puts himself out there enough in the public eye through opinion pieces in the Press Enterprise to remain in people's minds.




Betro in a letter to the editor criticized the "special interests" he feels are dominating the discussion of the downtown library and museum expansion.


Here, he talks about "special interests" dominating the discussion of Riverside Renaissance and how the "controversial" inclusion of Tesquesquite Park in the plan (as essentially a credit card) led to its discussion in the public forum.



Stagnation downtown is causing problems, he wrote in another opinion piece for the newspaper.



Betro's also been busy with his organization in Rubidoux building a daycare center with the Riverside County Economic Development Agency. So he's still a very visible entity and his days of foraying into Riverside's politics are probably not over.

Elections are great years for constituents, because during these seasons when elected officials are going all out trying to please the public and win its votes, it's like having Christmas every day. Pesky electricity hikes keeping people in an uproar? Bring them back down. Getting caught trying to sell a popular park off for cash to developers? Invite the public in, listen to them and then actually take their views seriously. Airplanes keeping you from sleeping for two years? During an election season, the city will pick up its saber and drop all those derogatory "gadfly" and "crazy malcontent" references and will become your champion.

Election, the season for giving. The season for pleasing. The season to get your issue out there and up front. So start putting your wish lists together for next year. Tis the season.

Election 2009 is coming upon us and it promises to be thrilling. Let the games begin.






Nine cases of West Nile disease have struck the Inland Empire this year, possibly setting a record for the highest number of cases since it was discovered in the region.

(excerpt, Press Enterprise)


We had years of a relative lull, and now it's our turn," said Robert Cummings, director of technical scientific services for Orange County Vector Control District, at a news conference Tuesday.

Human cases are occurring at five times the average rate this year, and 70 percent of the cases reported so far have involved the more serious and sometimes fatal neurological form of the disease.


Riverside County reported seven cases of West Nile infections in humans this week, according to the California Department of Public Health Web site. San Bernardino County public health officials said Tuesday that two Rialto men recently tested positive for the virus. The nine cases are the first confirmed in humans this season, which begins in May.

Health department and vector control officials gathered Tuesday in Garden Grove to spread the dire warning that Southern California is experiencing a West Nile virus epidemic.

"This is a very severe threat in 2008," said Gerard Geodhart, district manager for the Orange County Vector Control District.








Sergeants, lieutenants and captains at Fontana's police department will get raises. Their salary hikes will place them ahead of the curve in terms of other law enforcement agencies in the region including the Riverside Police Department. About two percent ahead.








A second lawsuit has been filed in connection with the fatal officer-involved shooting of a postal employee by Inglewood Police Department officers. This shooting and other recent ones in Inglewood have led to calls for an independent investigation of the police department there by outside agencies.


(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



In the federal lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District court in Los Angeles, Donna Wicks alleges Inglewood Officer Brian Ragan violated her son's civil rights when he entered Kevin Wicks' apartment in the 100 block of North Hillcrest Boulevard shortly after midnight July 21 and shot him. His death, the suit argues, deprived his mother of her civil rights because she can no longer associate with her son.

In addition to Ragan, a five-year veteran of Inglewood's Police Department, the lawsuit also names as defendants the city, police and Inglewood Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks.The suit asks for a federal court order forcing the city of Inglewood to provide internal investigation records of police misconduct complaints, officer-involved shootings and public corruption to the Citizen Police Oversight Commission and Office of Independent Review.


"They're hiding the ball," said Wicks' attorney, Gregory Yates. "This has got to come to a stop."





The Orange County Sheriff's Department is hiring an attorney to oversee its internal investigations. This action is similar to that taken by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department some years ago. The board of supervisors approved this through a vote.


Earlier, the supervisors had created the Office of Independent Review to monitor problems in the county's jails which came to light through several controversial incidents.



(excerpt, Orange County Register)


The proposal was spearheaded by Supervisor John Moorlach, who began work on a civilian review panel after an Orange County Register investigation found that deputies failed to prevent the beating death of inmate John Chamberlain in October 2007. The torture and killing of Chamberlain, who jail inmates erroneously thought was a child molester, is currently the subject of a county grand jury.

Directly modeled after the Los Angeles Sheriff Departments office, the Orange County version will be made up of civil rights attorneys who monitor and advise the sheriff's Internal Affairs Unit. It will help the county reduce the potential for inmate lawsuits and create more transparency within the sheriff's department, Moorlach said.

"It provides a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for taxpayers," he said.

Former Sheriff Mike Carona opposed the plan, but his successor, Assistant Sheriff Jack Anderson, endorsed it, even while saying the department already has procedures in place to record deputies' interactions with the public and inmates.






A Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputy was charged with a misdemeanor for violating a restraining order filed by his ex-girlfriend.





An excellent blog that documents incidents of domestic violence by law enforcement officers is here.











Five upper level Black officers in the Minneapolis Police Department received a settlement of $2 million on a lawsuit they had filed alleging an entrenched pattern of racial discrimination in the department.



(excerpt, Minneapolis Star Tribune)



The suit claims that black officers received fewer training, detail and overtime opportunities, as well as fewer appointments to key units, than white officers. It also claims the department fails in several diversity areas required by a mediation agreement brokered with the help of the Justice Department.

The suit details patterns of alleged discrimination involving each of the five officers. Arradondo, head of the Fourth Precinct's community response team, was refused overtime pay for the key role he played with critical incidents, the suit alleges. Harris, a Fourth Precinct investigator, was passed over for appointments in favor of white officers, the suit said.

While several white homicide officers received more than 150 hours of overtime after the Interstate 35W bridge collapse, Adams was never informed of the overtime opportunities until the last days of the detail, the suit said. Hamilton was fired for misconduct that for some white officers resulted in less discipline, the suit said.

Before their reassignment by Dolan, Harris had been one of the department's three deputy chiefs and Edwards was in charge of the city's Fourth Precinct, which encompasses north Minneapolis. The only black officer with a rank higher than lieutenant is Deputy Chief Valerie Wurster, who was appointed by Bill McManus, Dolan's predecessor.

About 18 percent of the department's employees are people of color, the highest in the department's history.




The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the New York City Police Department over its racial statistics on officer-initiated stops.




The New York Civil Liberties Union released this troubling analysis of fatal shootings by the NYPD. It also addressed the lack of racial diversity in the leadership of that department.



(excerpt)



During the last two years the NYPD reported the race of those shot by police, nearly 90 percent of the people shot at by officers were black or Latino. In 1998 the Department stopped reporting the race of civilian targets and started reporting the breed of dogs being shot.


The NYPD command structure remains almost entirely white. At the end of 2002, 85.3 percent of the 735 members of the NYPD at or above the rank of captain were white males, with blacks holding only 3.9 percent of those positions. At the end of 2007, after five years of a large number of retirements and promotions, 84.3 percent of leadership positions were held by white males, with the numbers of blacks actually shrinking to 3.7 percent.


In 77 percent of the incidents where officers fired their weapons at civilians between 1999 and 2006, the officers were the only ones shooting, with officers often shooting at unarmed civilians (like Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo).


In 2006 (the most recent year for which there is information), police officers fired an average of five shots per incident when they were the only ones shooting, which is the highest number for the entire eight years for which these figures have been reported.



The Million Father Walk comes to the Inland Empire.





After a controversial raid done on the house of the mayor of Berwyn Heights which led to the deaths of two of his dogs, people still doubt the mayor was tied to drugs, according to the Washington Post.

A month of silence

"Let's get rid of all the dirty Jews."


---a comment allegedly made by a Haddonfield Police Department officer





It's been almost a month since the still unexplained death of Martin Gaspar Pablo, 38, who died not long after being detained and handcuffed by Riverside Police Department officers on Bluffwood Street in Canyon Crest. It will have been a month by the time of the CPRC's next meeting next week whether it's placed on the agenda or not. Or rather if it's allowed to be placed on the agenda or not because the so-called independent body needs permission from several city departments before it can talk about anything.

Pablo had been the subject of a 911 public disturbance call on July 11 at about 2:17 p.m. that he was banging on the back door of a house on the street. When police got there nine minutes later, he was sitting at a nearby residence. The police officers handcuffed him then realized that he was in medical distress. Leaving him handcuffed, they called for medical assistance and the American Medical Response ambulance and Riverside Fire Department paramedics came out. He was then released from his handcuffs and medical assistance was given.


Just before 3 p.m., he was transported to the Riverside Community Hospital where he died just under an hour later. That's a summary of events but not many details were released then and none since.



The Community Police Review Commission in a similar case that took place in October 2005 was to have launched its own investigation into Pablo's death. But in the case of Pablo that never happened as the city soon clamped down on the CPRC through conversations and meetings that allegedly took place within two days of his death. No investigator was contacted and sent out by the CPRC. The police department didn't even respond to an invitation by Chair Brian Pearcy to brief the commission on the Pablo incident.



The CPRC's executive manager, Kevin Rogan, a former police captain in Pomona, first heard about the incident through an emailed link sent by his administrative assistant, Phoebe Sherron. But in his email list, he noted, the police department had sent him its press release, almost in a defensive manner.

At the July 23 commission meeting, instead of answers to questions, there were more questions and confusion about the incident, mostly due to the silence of all parties from the police department to the CPRC. The police department has remained silent even though it's likely that the agency has been forwarded at least the preliminary autopsy results from the Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner's office. Which means that it's more than likely that nothing in those results definitively established a cause of death for Pablo and that further studies are necessary.


Then City Attorney Gregory Priamos then warned the commissioners they'd better not investigate or else, something he hadn't done in the 2005 incustody death of Terry Rabb which he greeted with silence including the CPRC's initiation of its own investigation. Else, being that they could be charged by presumably his own office for violating the city's charter. That could with a conviction carry a maximum of $1,000 fine and/or six months in county jail. It was very enlightening to watch the commissioners get legal counsel from someone who could potentially prosecute them if they didn't abide by it. In most places, to wear both hats might be called a conflict of interest. In Riverside, it's just business as usual.

When commissioners such as John Brandriff raised the issue of the commission possibly retaining its own attorney to take a look at the city charter provision, Priamos said that to do so was a violation of the charter as well. But then every time the commissioners have tried to raise the issue of independent counsel, Priamos has forbade them from discussing it or even placing it on the agenda as he did in July 2007. At the moment, all agendas for the CPRC are currently vetted by both Priamos and the city manager's office and if they don't like an item, it's probably not going to be on the agenda. By doing all of this no matter what Priamos says (or actually perhaps because of what he says), he's showing that having the city attorney act as legal counsel for the CPRC, the police department and the city is a nothing more than a huge conflict of interest and the more Priamos protests that through his words, the more he amply shows it through his actions.

It was interesting as this story circulated through the NACOLE mailing list about how it was another example of civilian oversight being diluted or essentially shut down in terms of fulfilling one or more of its responsibilities by City Hall (which is always mindful of any body that puts it at risk of being sued by outside parties) and the police department which no matter what it states publicly, probably like most law enforcement agencies views civilian oversight as a four-letter word. What happened to the CPRC isn't uncommon but has happened to most forms of civilian oversight in this country at one time or another. Micromanagement by various factions of City Hall is just one of many challenges that they face since the day of their inception. Riverside's no different in that regard.

After all, former Riverside County Superior Court Judge Dallas Holmes said during a pivotal hearing in the case of Ryan Wilson v the City of Riverside that he hadn't met a police chief yet who supported civilian oversight. But then most people haven't.

Priamos bristled as he was grilled at the July 23 meeting by the one or two commissioners who actually remembered they were representative of communities, most likely because he's not used to it. Certainly not from members of the mostly passive-these-days, CPRC. It was actually surprising to see several members take the risk of taking him to task. It's not clear who was more surprised, Priamos or the audience.

Rogan spent most of his time trying to explain the Riverside Police Department's point of view on the matter and getting upset with city residents who spoke during public comment to challenge the CPRC on its latest round of inaction on a police issue. Even those individuals who felt that Rogan and the commissioners should have received more information from the police department than they did. But can you blame Rogan? Like the other CPRC executive directors or managers (which is simply another word for being "at will" of the city manager's office) before him, he simply knows which side of the bread the butter's on. The executive manager serves the commission as is required in the job description but never forgetting who signs the pay check and who has the power to hire, to fire or to pull back on the reins whenever the executive director or manager is perceived by that office to have stepped out of line.

After all, it's not like that's never happened before.

The city attorney's fervant interest in the CPRC which contrasts sharply with his relative apathy of a few years back, may be confusing to some until you count on your fingers how many lawsuits the city has been served in regards to incustody deaths involving the police department in the past several years and how many it's paid out on or will pay out on. The more lawsuits the city has to pay out (and so far about halfway through, about $1.3 million or so's been spent), the more nervous the city attorney's going to act because his role is to not put the city in or allow the city to be put in a situation of undue risk. The more concerned or nervous the city attorney is on the issue of civic liability, the more aggressive his or her actions will be involving the CPRC. And as has been seen in recent months, his actions have been much more aggressive than they were just four years ago when he was a no-show at a workshop the CPRC held in order to have a conversation with him. But then again, there weren't as many lawsuits filed against the city involving allegations of wrongful death.

The city's strategy including that of the city attorney's office (according to its own mission statement) is simply to produce the scenario in any future such case that puts it at the least risk of civil litigation and one way to do so is to keep the CPRC in the position where it can't investigate. If this had been a fatal officer-involved shooting, it's likely that other attempts would have been made to at least delay the CPRC's ability to investigate that incident as well for the same reason. After all, in early 2007 the city manager's office announced that it was suspending investigations into two officer-involved shootings temporarily and rethinking how it would direct the CPRC to investigate officer-involved deaths. Is it any surprise to see such resistance involving the very next fatal incident to come down the pike?

The shielding of the city from potential civic liability may be far more important now than it was in the past, because eventually if the city pays out too much money on too many claims, it's going to eventually have to find another financial resource besides its liability insurance carrier to foot the bills. Insurance companies are notorious for dropping clients or canceling policies in cases where it's anticipated that they are going to pay out loads of cash on claims or lawsuits involving their municipal clients.

And so far the city's been successful at doing this. Rogan's on their page and the commissioners who are looking at the CPRC as a stepping stone to bigger and better things don't want to make waves and jeopardize those futures. And the remaining few minus one are afraid to do anything which will make the police department unhappy with them. So it's most likely that City Hall is counting on not receiving much resistance from the CPRC and that's something they can take to the bank (bad pun).





Evergreen Cemetary in Riverside might finally be green.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



"Grass'll be up in about three weeks" in the section between Redwood Drive and Pine Street, said retired Riverside County Superior Court Judge Victor Miceli. He heads the committee working to restore the old cemetery, which had long been dried-up and ramshackle.

The grass is a new drought-tolerant Bermuda grass hybrid recommended by the University of California Cooperative Extension in Riverside, and summer heat helps the seeds germinate.

It'll take a full year for the grass to establish itself, said John Piscatella, owner of JP Landscape Maintenance Inc., which is taking care of the cemetery's oldest section for the committee.








Controversy has arisen over how much access local law enforcement has on Indian reservations.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Many of the problems stem from different interpretations of Public Law 280.

Even the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs' Inland representative, Jim Fletcher, said recently that the law has been "so litigated (and) written so poorly" that his office is asking its attorneys to research it for him.

Fletcher's request came in response to the ongoing dispute between the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians and the Sheriff's Department. The department said no other tribe in the county interprets the law the way Soboba does.

Fletcher said last week he was requesting the formal legal opinion and hopes to have it by next week.

Soboba requires deputies to check in with tribal security guards when visiting the reservation on nonemergency business and often has guards escort the deputies.
Most deputies arriving at other Riverside County reservations simply are waved through when they arrive at the entrance, said Riverside County Sheriff Stanley Sniff.

Salgado said he believes deputies don't have the right to come onto his reservation for nonemergency calls without having the tribe's guards verify the deputies' identities and reasons for coming to the reservation.

"I think it's probably going to take some time for them to realize ... that there's more to it -- Public Law 280 -- than they really realize," he said.




A former Riverside County Sheriff’s Department deputy was arraigned on criminal charges including assault under the color of authority.





In Moreno Valley, political intrigue is growing as some real estate development interests are creating a campaign war chest to oust two incumbents on the city council.



(excerpt, Press Enterprise )



Jerry Stephens, owner of Diversified Real Estate, has contributed $104,500 to the Moreno Valley Taxpayers Association campaign committee during the first half of 2008, according to the committee's semiannual report filed last week.
In addition, Highland Fairview Properties donated $60,000 to the committee. Highland Fairview is developing the Aquabella residential community near Riverside County Regional Medical Center and the Skechers distribution center project along Highway 60
.

In total, the Moreno Valley Taxpayers Association reported raising $175,854 during the first half of 2008. The committee has spent more than $45,500 on print ads, including $10,374 for ads on behalf of a related committee, Moreno Valley Citizens for Rancho Belago.

The taxpayers association has sent out a series of mailers to local voters accusing White and West of failing to protect Moreno Valley from crime and increasing traffic congestion.

The mailers included pictures of a man with his head buried in the sand, referring to the incumbent councilmen, and a man, ostensibly a criminal, wearing a ski mask.
Stephens said he donated so much money because he believes it's time for new blood on the council, especially in light of the crime and traffic and the city's need for jobs.

"The reputation of the city is getting so bad it's hard to sell real estate," Stephens said by phone. "It's hard to get people to invest in this town."






Will Eastvale become a city?







Los Angeles Times columnist, Dana Parsons barely survived his first city council meeting.





It's official. Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens is collecting those badges.




(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



Concern about the badge revocation has prompted Hutchens to schedule a meeting this month with the volunteers. She said she wanted to let them know that she appreciated their service and intended to continue the program, but with a new name and no badges.

"This undeserved stigma is rooted in the program's past and is no longer accurate. However, the badges, which have become a lightning rod for criticism and mistrust, are its most visible legacy and serve to undermine your service and tarnish the reputation of the program," she said in her letter to the volunteers.

The volunteers also work at the Orange County Fair and offer such professional expertise as Web and graphic design. Many of the volunteers are pilots who provide air travel to deputies during investigations. Last month, volunteer Tim Reynolds piloted his own plane to carry two investigators to Juarez, Mexico, to rescue a 9-year-old Orange County boy who had been kidnapped by his father.

"The program had such a bad reputation under Carona, but the truth is it's extremely positive," said Sheriff's Capt. Brian Wilkerson. "The overwhelming majority of the people aren't upset that they're losing the badge."






In the wake of all those videos surfacing which show New York City Police Department officers engaging in misconduct, the department's commissioner Raymond Kelly has asked the public to send them his way.


(excerpt, Yahoo)



"It's a fact of life," Kelly said. "Everybody has a camera in their telephones. When people can record an event taking place that helps us during an investigation, it's helpful."

Soon citizen sleuths can transmit evidence of criminal activity directly to the police and 911, including evidence of police misconduct, such as the recent video of a police officer shoving a bicyclist to the ground in Times Square.




That's not enough for the 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care which is an organization of Black police officers who've been outspoken on police issues. Now, they are calling for federal oversight of the NYPD



Speaking of the NYPD, a detective facing narcotics charges in federal court was caught by one of his own in an operation conducted by the FBI.



(excerpt, New York Daily News)



Sgt. Robert Kelly, the former head of the 90th Precinct detective squad in Williamsburg, became an undercover in his own office at the direction of the FBI agents who were investigating Detective Luis Batista for alleged illicit ties to a violent drug gang.

"Sgt. Kelly wore a hidden audio recorder and engaged Detective Batista in conversation in an attempt to get him to make incriminating statements," said papers filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.

"The implications of having an undercover officer not just inside the detective squad, but as Batista's commanding officer, are enormous," the papers state.





A blogger at The South Chicagoan discusses lawsuits filed by Latinos about racial profiling by law enforcement officers all across the country. Among those filing lawsuits are Latino officers who work for police departments in Denver and New Jersey.



(excerpt, South Chicagoan)



The lawsuit supported by the National Latino Peace Officers Association includes as its evidence a training tape used back in the late 1970s – about the time when the current police leadership were mere rookies at the Police Academy.

THAT TAPE DEPICTS an officer shouting various ethnic and sexist slurs at police trainees. Supporters of the police say such training is meant to get prospective police officers used to the idea of hostile people calling them names in public, and to develop the discipline to focus on their jobs.

But critics contend it gave the white trainees of that era the impression that such slurs were appropriate when thinking of their Latino colleagues.

Now some might think the key is to get more Latinos into law enforcement. More Hispanic patrolmen means Latinos working their way up the ranks into police management. In theory, it sounds nice. In fact, officials in Salem, Mass., announced this week they would try to double the number of Hispanic officers on their police department.

But then, there is the lawsuit filed earlier this week in New Jersey, contending that the state police has practices in place that make it extremely difficult for anyone of Hispanic ethnic background to be promoted beyond the rank of sergeant.

THE LAWSUIT CONTENDS that procedures are meant to protect the interests of a white hierarchy that runs the state police department.

Promotions are, “an arbitrary, antiquated and subjective process that is skewed in favor of male Caucasians,” reads the lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of two dozen former state troopers.



Members of St. Louis' police board are left on the defensive.




Is there hope for reform in the Connecticut State Police Agency? Yes, because of one man some people have said.



In Haddonfield, New Jersey, the state court ruled that a police officer in that city experienced harassment because he is Jewish.



(excerpt, Philadelphia Inquirer)



In its opinion, the court asserted for the first time that the standard for demonstrating religious-based harassment was the same as for sexual and racial discrimination in the workplace.

The officer, Jason Cutler, sued after a fellow officer made a comment in 1999 about "those dirty Jews."

His lawsuit went on to describe a number of other incidents, such as a superior officer telling him "Jews make all the money," and the former police chief asking him why he didn't have a "big Jew . . . nose."

"One would not have to be thin-skinned to perceive these comments as hostile to persons of Jewish faith," the court wrote in its opinion.





A federal lawsuit filed in Arkansas alleges that one of its law enforcement agencies has been conducting illegal searches.



Is El Nino returning?

Just another Monday morning

If you've ever wondered how you can participate more fully in keeping your elected government and its agencies accountable and transparent, there are organizations online that are very active in both doing so and also educating people on the tools that can help them to do it as well.


The California First Amendment Coalition was an organization that was once headed by Terry Francke and it served as a watch dog over the state's "sunshine" laws and their enforcement by different cities and counties.

The two areas of focus for the CFAC have been the Ralph M. Brown Act which addresses access to public meetings and the California Public Records Act which addresses access to public documents and information.

The site includes templates to assist people in writing letters to governmental entities for public information.



CPRA Request Letter


Brown Act Cure and Correction Letter




You can also contact the legal hotline with questions on the "sunshine" laws, though priority is given to those with annual memberships to the CFAC. It might be helpful to check out the FAQ sections first to see if your question can be answered there.



Speaking of the CFAC, the organization is seeking nominations for its annual awards. The deadline is Sept. 1 for nominations which can be sent utilizing the following methods.


By e-mail to awards@CFAC.org,


By regular mail to AWARDS, c/o the California First Amendment Coalition, 534 Fourth St., Suite B, San Rafael, CA 94901.

If you have any nominations or ideas for nominations for any of these awards, send them to the addresses above.





The three current awards given out by the CFAC are listed below.




The Bill Farr Award is given each year to an individual or group who has performed exemplary work to advance free speech, free press and public access to government.


Beacon awards are given to other individuals or organizations who have fought to keep government meetings or records open to the public and by supporting the First Amendment’s fundamental right of free speech.




The Darkness award (formerly known as the Black Hole award) is reserved for individuals, government agencies or other institutions that have acted to thwart free speech, public participation in government or access to meetings or public records.



Riverside itself was a winner of one of these prestigious awards in 1999, but alas, its city hall was the recipient of the Black Hole Award in large part due to its decision to hire a public relations firm to act on its behalf with media outlets in the wake of the Tyisha Miller shooting.



CFAC also has its own blog for further information about issues which impact the laws which ensure that the citizenry has access to information about its own government and to insure that those governmental agencies abide by these "sunshine" laws.






Francke ultimately left the CFAC and became a leader of another state watchdog organization Californians Aware which provides many of the same services as CFAC. Its resources are here including helpful links and the infamous state audits as well as the even more infamous local audits including two years worth of audits done on law enforcement agencies all across the state on how accessible they are in terms of obtaining public information. The different agencies were graded on different criteria and then those grades were averaged.



This includes the 2007 law enforcement agency audit. The Riverside Police Department received this grade.


Compare that grade to this earlier grade received by the police department. Not much improvement there but there's still hopes for next year.



The organization also has its NOVA awards.


How to be a Cal Aware watchdog is a way for residents of California to be more involved in holding their governmental agencies accountable by monitoring their actions.


Cal Aware also has a blog.





Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff is worried about the current rift between his agency and Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians.




A man who was tased by Riverside County Sheriff's Department deputies remains hospitalized.



One of the highest ranking financial officials in Riverside County is in serious trouble for allegedly misrepresenting himself as a certified public accountant when in fact he was not. His only certificate was one from Georgia which expired decades ago.




(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



Both the board and the Riverside County DA's office declined to say whether they had received complaints about Kincaid, citing the need for confidentiality in investigations.

"The rules are there. The rules are on our Web site. It is very clear," Hersh said, adding: "If you are not a certified public accountant, why would you put that by your name?"

County Supervisor Bob Buster said not knowing the law is not a valid excuse, especially considering the role of the auditor-controller's office as a watchdog over county operations.

The office's responsibilities include authorizing county financial transactions, managing payroll and independently auditing county boards and departments.

"It could well be a very serious issue that needs to be reviewed," Buster said.

"They are supposed to set the gold standard," he added. "A lot of agencies will be audited by them and held to a high standard. They have to be above reproach."


Buster did mention in the article that it was possible that he and others on the county board of supervisors might have to bring it to that forum for review.





The annual Inland Empire Non-profit Conference will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 16 from 8:1 a.m.-4:45 p.m. at the Marriot Hotel in downtown Riverside. There will be seminars providing information on developing skills and resources that will help people involved in non-profit organizations.






In Milwaukee, officers searching the locker of another officer found $100 that had been missing from money taken in a sting.




More feuding between the police chief and independent police auditor in Eugene.





The review panel in Silk Plant Forest probing into the handling of an assault case by the police department might have a subpoena for a former detective who worked on the case.




An off-duty San Diego Police Department officer who shot a mother and her son in Oceanside will be facing criminal charges.



(excerpt, San Diego Union-Tribune)



It marks the first time in 13 years in the county that a law enforcement officer, either on or off duty, has been charged with a crime for shooting someone while acting under the color of authority.

The officer, Frank White, fired five rounds into a car driven by Rachel Silva in the parking lot of a Lowe's store March 15, culminating what Oceanside police have described as a road-rage incident.

Silva, 28, who authorities say was intoxicated and driving on a suspended license for a previous DUI conviction, was hit twice in the right arm, and her 8-year-old son was struck once in his left leg.

At his arraignment yesterday, White pleaded not guilty to one felony count of grossly negligent discharge of a firearm and one misdemeanor count of exhibiting a firearm. The first charge carries two enhancements for causing great bodily injury to Silva and her son. He faces up to nine years in prison if convicted.





In Wichita, Kansas controversy has erupted over allegations that three police officers made racist comments while off-duty at a party.


The local NAACP chapter had some harsh words in response.


The following is a copy of a Press release issued this morning to 93
local reporters, the Chief of Police, the Mayor, and the entire
Wichita City Council
.
.
.
Contact: Kevin Myles; Wichita NAACP President
Email: Kevin@wichitanaacp. org
phone: (316) 655-9282

Date: 06/21/08

The Wichita NAACP Calls on the Wichita Police Department and Chief
Norman Williams to terminate officers overheard making Racist and
Bigoted comments

As recently reported, the Wichita Police department has suspended
three officers for making a series of Racist and Reprehensible
comments which were overheard and reported by a neighbor. These types
of comments undermine the public trust and are indicative of an
underlying hostility towards one of the very communities the Officers
are sworn to serve and protect. Expressions of Hatred and Bigotry
should not be tolerated within the ranks of our Public Safety officials.

We understand and appreciate that Professional Standards is now
conducting an investigation into the matter; which we will closely
monitor. However, we wish to go on record stating that if the Wichita
Police Department and Chief Norman Williams attempt to 'sweep this
under the rug' by quietly returning the officers to duty, it would
send a strong signal that such behavior is condoned by the leadership
of WPD.

The Wichita Police Department should have a zero tolerance policy for
racism and misogyny and it is our hope that the leadership in the
Police Department will resolve this matter accordingly. We are
therefore calling upon the Wichita Police Department and Chief Norman
Williams to act in the Public's interest by terminating the officers
upon the conclusion of the investigation.





The press release and other information is also located in the NAACP's blog.




Indiana State Police Department officers who assaulted a gay man have been fired but will not face criminal charges.

The sabbatical called August

All appears to be right in the universe with IE 6 and 7 which clashed this weekend with a commercial site log provider after the latter changed its source code during an upgrade without taking into account a bug that IE has been experiencing. Tens of thousands of blogs and other sites including some major ones were unable to be accessed by IE browser users for up to 13 hours which brought parts of the internet to a grinding halt. Apologies to anyone who tried to access this site since Friday afternoon and were unable to do so. But apparently, the bug's been fixed.


Still some visitors took the news hard.


Another earthquake hit but this one was just a rattle compared to the 5.4 tremor that hit last week.



Riverside City Hall is in a break period before the fall season begins in September, though there's some critical meetings taking place this month including the presentation to the city council by the blue ribbon panel regarding its recommendations on the expansion and renovation of the library and the museum downtown. That's scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 12 at the city council's evening session which begins at 6:30 p.m. in the chambers at City Hall. The attendance and dialogue at this meeting is expected to be robust.

But expect a lot to happen in September.



On Sept. 23 at 3 p.m. there will be a public hearing on the proposed sewer rate hikes at City Hall. Rates for single and multiple family housing are expected to more than double over the next four years, with the first hike starting on Nov. 1. It's too bad that the city can't conduct this important meeting which is set up solely for the purpose of informing city residents and receiving public input from them, during a time when more people could attend it and provide their opinions about the process.

There hasn't been any rate hikes in years regarding sewer charges as the system has aged and the sewer fund which was intended to be earmarked for sewers has been used as a credit card for other unrelated expenditures by the city. At one time recently the sewer fund was in the red amidst claims that the money wasn't needed by the city's sewers because they were in good shape and then after a request for information about the status of the sewer fund was made, it was replenished to the tune of about $22 million. If this was indeed the case, why put money in the depleted account at a time when there's more scrutiny about that fund and how it's being spent?

For quite awhile, city officials were all happy with the sewers and the sewer fund until the city decided that the whole infrastructure needed to be replaced and raising sewer costs was the only way to do it.


This process of borrowing from one fund to pay off another was greatly facilitated by the city council's decision to not make the decisions regarding loans between different city accounts and funds. This decision by the city council was made at about the time when concerns and questions were being raised about the status of some of the city's funds including the gone-tomorrow-here-today sewer fund.

Some times there's no getting around raising rates for various city services, but it's odd to hear all this concern about the infrastructure as it pertains to the city's sewer services when much of the money allotted for the sewer fund has been spent elsewhere. So much so that it's almost become a joke about what's going on this week with the sewer fund's monies. Part of the lexicon of this city when you talk about its spending habits as of late.

But then again, next year is an election year for local politicians so it's unpredictable to determine what could happen. What if the citizenry revolts at the sewer rate hikes? What if they start contacting elected officials especially those who are running for reelection next year? Will the situation that played out involving an increase in electricity rates play out all over again? Will the rates go up, then down, then up again?

But things are clearly going swimmingly with the budget otherwise. After all, the city manager's office (through its spokesperson, the city attorney's office) didn't produce much of a response to back the assertions by one of its representatives that the police department was fully staffed and had a officer to supervisor ratio much lower than that cited in a recent audit. These statements were made in response to warnings delivered in that quarterly audit at a city council meeting in June by the consultant hired to do the audit by the city manager's office. The audit report stated that the current staffing issues constituted a concern that should be immediately addressed by the city council. Of course, the definition of the word, "immediate" depends on who you talk to and what the circumstance is. And has this issue been addressed by City Hall?

It doesn't look like much if anything has changed and there's certainly been no reassurance that these issues are being addressed. Are they getting better, are they the same or are they getting worse?

The police department's response (again, apparently through the city attorney's office) to questions about the officer to supervisor ratio was to reference a document where these actual ratio statistics weren't included in it. On the brighter side, the police department also stated that there were no documents responsive to any frozen positions in the department, even though there are sergeant positions which have been or will be vacated through retirements and they aren't being filled any time soon. There were over 20 employment vacancies in the department not long ago. Are they being filled or are they being frozen? And if so, who keeps track of what's going on through documentation? It doesn't sound like it's the police department. So who does?






Tighter restrictions on street vendors will be going into effect which will impact how they can do business throughout Riverside County's cities.





Is there a silver lining to the tanking of the real estate market? Some cities seem to think so attributing the downturn of that market for lower cost associated with development projects.



The federal agency which regulates gambling is going to inspect Soboba casino after Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff contacted them as part of the ongoing feud between his department and the tribal leadership. But the leadership of the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians said the casino is safe.





A series of shootings done by off-duty law enforcement officers has catalyzed a review of guidelines in California.



(excerpt, San Diego Union-Tribune)



The San Diego County Police Chiefs and Sheriff's Association developed the guidelines with help from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Coalition for Justice.

The guidelines say off-duty officers should first try contacting the appropriate law enforcement agency so on-duty officers or deputies may respond. If an off-duty officer intervenes, he must -- if reasonably possible -- identify himself, his agency and his intent to stop criminal conduct.

The push to come up with a countywide policy came in the aftermath of the controversial shooting of Chargers linebacker Steve Foley.

Officer Aaron Mankser was in plain clothes and driving his personal car when he tried to stop Foley on suspicion of drunken driving. The encounter escalated in a Poway cul-de-sac, and Foley suffered injuries that ended his football career.

The city of Coronado recently agreed to pay Foley $5.5 million to settle a lawsuit.

When the policy was introduced in 2007, Chula Vista Police Chief Rick Emerson, president of the chiefs and sheriff's association, said the goal was to let the public know what to expect when someone is stopped by an off-duty officer who is not driving a squad car or is not in uniform.

Chula Vista Police Department officers are trained on the countywide guidelines, spokesman Bernard Gonzales said.

"These are things we have been doing for a long time," Gonzales said. "I don't think you can have a policy for every scenario."

The Carlsbad Police Department plans to adopt the policy and incorporate it into training.

"We are onboard with it as an agency," Carlsbad police Lt. Kelly Cain said.





In Florida, protesters asked presidential candidate Barack Obama why he's been so quiet on the Sean Bell shooting case. He responded by saying that he was the first presidential candidate to speak out on that controversial incident.





When officers contradict each other offers useful information on some tips for law enforcement officers who have to testify in court proceedings.







The city of Houston is spending over $100,000 fighting a lawsuit filed by officers fighting a ban against beards.

Links, places and things

If you can read this blog right now, then you probably don't have IE 6.0 as your browser of choice. Unfortunately, the stat log that's used on this site has crashed and taken IE with it, leaving many IE users and all IE 6.0 users may be receiving an error message that states, "operation aborted" and can't open this page. Apparently, the stat log service changed some code and forgot that IE browsers produce error messages if the changed code appears at a certain point within the site template.

The only solution is to download Firefox or Opera until it's fixed. If you can read this, then you're not having a problem and if you can't read it or access this site (not to mention other affected blogs), then you don't know what the problem is.





Former United States Marine and Riverside Police Department officer, Jose Luis Nazario, jr. is facing manslaughter charges in relation to the killings of Iraqi detainees in November 2004. His trial date is currently set for Aug. 19 at the federal courthouse in downtown Riverside.




This site has archived various documents filed in this court case including this motion filed by Nazario's attorney to oppose the new trial date.






Who issued the radio order? That's a question that many have been asking in connection wit this case.






A Canyonlake elected official who was the target of a probe is running for election again. He misused the city's issued credit card but apparently has paid the money back and has tossed his hat in the ring. Voters have short memories, he's clearly hoping. We shall see about that soon enough.




Three more council members in Riverside County's newest city, Wildomar are probably relieved to hear they won't have to run for office again in November. But alas, the reprieve is a brief one.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



The Wildomar man had sued the city and asked the courts to force the city to immediately draw up districts and put three council members up for re-election in November. All five council members started serving their terms July 1.

Schwartz said in his ruling statement that it would be "absurd" to expect council members to go up for re-election right after they started serving their terms.

Attorney Amy Hoyt, who represented the city in court, said the city will now proceed with setting up a process to create districts.

"We are going to follow the law provided and work to get these districts together," she said.

Attorney Dimetri Reyzin, said it was a partial win for his client, Ste. Marie, because the judge ruled the next election should be in June 2009, not 2010 like city officials argued.

"The city said it needed at least a year to make districts," Reyzin said. "The judge said, 'No, you don't.' "





Other prospective candidates in local elections are packing those war chests so that they can spend lots of money to try to win seats.



Recently, a San Bernardino Police Department sergeant alleged that his department was illegally detaining people, but a judge refused to lower bail in a hearing involving some of those defendants. He said that the department had been doing it for a while.


(excerpt, Press Enterprise)



The illegal-detention issue arose during a bail-reduction hearing meant to reduce the bail for all seven defendants from $1 million each. Police have identified the seven as gang members, and each has been charged with possession of cocaine, possession of marijuana for sale and street terrorism.

"People want to see San Bernardino cleaned out," said Deputy Public Defender David Menezes, among the many attorneys who watched the hearing from the audience. "But it has to be in a constitutional manner."

Deputy Public Defender Samuel Knudsen, who represents 27-year-old Carl Edward Alexander, said in court that he expects his client isn't the only suspect San Bernardino police have illegally detained.

"They're scooping people off the street and holding then without phone calls, and without charges, for hours," Knudsen said outside the courtroom. "It's a misdemeanor to do that."

Previously, The Press-Enterprise had obtained an e-mail from Sgt. Mike Desrochers saying Lawrence had a history of detaining suspects without charges and leaving them in jail overnight.

Another document shows suspect Greg Parker in a San Bernardino police log as being "on ice" and held on unknown charges. That department's jail is separate from the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.





Fontana Police Department supervisors have reached a new labor agreement. They get a new contract and some pay raises over the next several years.








Actress Lindsey Lohan had harsh words for Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton for referring to her as "gay".



(excerpt, Associated Press)



Police, you shouldn't get involved in everyone else's business when it comes to their personal life. It's inappropriate," Lohan said in a video shot by paparazzi Friday and posted on TMZ.com. In the footage, Lohan and gal pal Samantha Ronson are trekking through the Los Angeles Airport on their way to catch a flight to Chicago.

The day before, Chief William Bratton said the paparazzi have become less of a problem thanks to Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lohan leading more moderate lifestyles.

"If you notice, since Britney started wearing clothes and behaving; Paris is out of town not bothering anybody anymore, thank God, and evidently, Lindsay Lohan has gone gay, we don't seem to have much of an issue," he told KNBC-TV.




When asked to clarify his comments about Lohan, Bratton used the tried-and-true "I have a gay friend" only it was a family member and I'm a proponent of civil rights, only it's gay and lesbian rights.








The family of Kevin Wicks, a United States Postal employee shot and killed by Inglewood Police Department officers who apparently came to the wrong house on a 911 call, is planning to file civil action against the city.



(excerpt, Los Angeles Times)



Wicks' daughter and mother, who have rallied the support of community activists, insist that Ragan and three other officers went to the wrong apartment in the 100 block of North Hillcrest Boulevard. They also contend that if Wicks was in possession of a weapon, it was because he lived in a dangerous neighborhood and was concerned for his safety when he responded to the knock at his door shortly after midnight.

Outrage over Wicks' shooting intensified after it was revealed that Ragan was one of two officers involved in the May shooting of three unarmed men that resulted in the death of 19-year-old Michael Byoune.




The recent shootings in Inglewood by police officers led to the city's government voting to hire the Office of Independent Review from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to conduct its own probe.






An Orange County Register columnist has taken offense at county sheriff, Sandra Hutchens decision to take back over 400 ceremonial badges given out by former sheriff, Mike Carona.



(excerpt)



It's not as if the PSR badges have caused any significant problems. PSR volunteers are repeatedly warned that the badges confer no special privileges, and that any abuse will get them immediately kicked out of the program. According to sheriff's officials, in the past several years there has been only one documented case of a PSR possibly trying to "badge" his way out of a jam.

So, why take away all the PSR badges? According to sheriff's officials, it's a problem of perception.

You see, the PSR program was started by disgraced former Sheriff Mike Carona, and at the beginning it was largely a club for Carona's political supporters. Some of them – not all, but some – didn't really provide any significant services to the department.

That's no longer the case. In recent years, Sheriff's Department officials in the Community Services Division worked hard to buck the political pressures in the Carona-era department – sometimes at risk to their own careers – and implement higher standards for participation in the PSR program. The vast majority of PSRs today are simply ordinary men and women who want to serve their communities.

But the negative perception persists, not so much among the general public as in the news media. For example, a recent L.A. Times editorial criticized the program and declared that "few of (the PSRs) actually helped the department" – this about a group that, as I said, has contributed 20,000 hours of time in the past year.

So, in an effort to purge the department of any Carona-era taint, Hutchens announced plans to revamp the PSR program – starting with confiscating the PSRs' badges.

And while they don't really care about the badges – it's not like they're 6 years old and need shiny badges to feel cool -- the PSRs I've spoken with find the whole thing more than a little insulting. To them, it's as if the new sheriff is lumping them all together as badge-waving, do-nothing Carona cronies who can't be trusted to behave properly.







There's been a couple of developments in the case in Georgia where a deputy's wife was allegedly killed by a man trying to rob her who was then killed by her husband.


The District Attorney's office is quiet about the case which is about a month old.

Derrick Yance did have to submit a DNA sample to investigators.



Grand jury testimony is continuing in a special proceeding in relation to former Bolingbrook Police Department sergeant, Drew Peterson. Peterson's current wife has been missing since Oct. 28 and his third wife Kathleen Savio was killed in her bathtub several years ago. A recent attempt by Peterson and his attorneys to get his weapons charges case tossed out failed.




Some police officers from Minneapolis raided the wrong house and in return, they've received medals for heroism. The only surprising thing about that is when people hear about cases like these and assume it's anything new. It's an old civil rights attorney joke that when officers get sued or in trouble in the spotlight, they almost invariably win awards during the duration. The most notorious incident was back after the fatal shooting of Irwin Landrum in Claremont, California. The officers who shot him alleging he was holding a gun (which interestingly enough was traced back to a deceased former police chief) later won awards for city employees of the year. Awards that were later rescinded by the city after much outrage, though the two officers got to keep the cash prizes.



Atlantic City will be paying out $95,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a woman who said that she was drugged by police officers.



(excerpt, Press of Atlantic City)



Last week, City Council voted to settle the lawsuit, which claimed Sara Mulrooney received a prescription drug from two on-duty city officers in April 2006. Mulrooney, who was 20 years old at the time, later passed out and smashed her face on the Boardwalk, suffering fractures to her face and nose and dental injuries.

According to the suit and other city documents, Officers Rick Lasco and Russell Bouffard invited Mulrooney into their patrol car, which was stationed near Casbah nightclub at Trump Taj Mahal on April 8, 2006.

Lasco allegedly gave Mulrooney a pill, which was later determined to be Tramadol, a strong painkiller that can cause dizziness, drowsiness and possible seizures and is not supposed to be consumed with alcohol. The pills were later found in Bouffard's jacket.

Once the two officers' shifts ended, the three entered the nightclub where Mulrooney allegedly began drinking alcohol in front of the officers, despite her being under age at the time.


Mulrooney soon became dizzy and was brought back outside by Lasco before she lost consciousness and fell face-first to the Boardwalk. The lawsuit was filed about two years later.







A police union in Montgomery County is blocking the installation of video cameras in squad cars.


Riverside is still struggling to get similar equipment in its police department squad cars. It had promised to install cameras while the stipulated judgment with the state attorney general's office was winding down and actually allocated $500,000 from the general fund to pay to do so. However, it's now over two years later and the department still only has about 13 squad cars equipped with these devices, the same number it had in January 2006.

A response to the department on the racial and gender makeup of its field training officer division wasn't granted or denied but apparently ignored or at least not included by the police department in its response. On the other hand, the department did grant portions of the CPRA request which provided useful information about the guidelines involving training in that unit as long as it didn't have anything to do with sexual harassment.

Now that the City Attorney's office appears to be screening all CPRA requests and the city manager's office will receive copies of responses to CPRA requests addressed to them from the City Attorney's office rather than respond to the request themselves. For example, if you write a CPRA request asking for the operational budget of the Community Police Review Commission during the next fiscal year, the response you won't receive is one from City Manager Brad Hudson's office. What you will see is a letter written and signed by City Attorney Gregory Priamos and CC-ed to Hudson and one of his assistants, Tom DeSantis instead. Are the individuals earning six figured salaries for allegedly managing the city including its budget incapable of adequately responding to CPRA request? One would think that DeSantis would understand how to perform this function given his experience as Riverside County's public information officer. In contrast, the police department's public information officer Steve Frasher is well versed and rather good at performing this duty before the procedure changed.

And what Priamos' letter will state is directions to go to the city's Web site and check out the recently passed 2008-09 preliminary budget. The catch is that you won't find the operational budget information for the CPRC in that report under the city manager's office's budget since that office ditched including line item budgets for the different divisions and opted instead to lump it (and hide it?) under the entire budget for that office.

And as for information to back comments made by DeSantis in response to disturbing audit by consultant Joe Brann involving the police department's staffing issues, you'll again receive a written response from Priamos directing you back to that budget report which doesn't exactly produce figures that look like they are the basis for where DeSantis got his rather generous interpretation of the currently budgeted officer to supervisor ratios for example.