26 Oct 2011

Record Low Support for Gun Control Found In Gallup Survey ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A record-low 26 percent of Americans favor a ban on the possession of handguns in the U.S. other than by police and other authorized people, reports a new Gallup survey. When Gallup first asked in 1959, 60 percent favored banning handguns. Since 1975, the majority of Americans have opposed such a measure, with opposition around 70% in recent years. This year's annual Gallup crime poll found support for a variety of gun-control measures at historical lows.or the first time, Gallup found greater opposition to than support for a ban on semiautomatic guns or assault rifles, 53 percent to 43 percent. In the initial asking of this question in 1996, the numbers were nearly reversed, with 57 percent for and 42 percent against an assault rifle ban. Congress passed such a ban in 1994, but the law expired when Congress did not act to renew it in 2004. When the law expired, Americans were about evenly divided in their views. Support for the broader concept of making gun laws "more strict" is at its lowest by one percentage point (43 percent). Forty-four percent prefer that gun laws be kept as they are now, while 11 percent favor less strict laws. As recently as 2007, a majority of Americans still favored stricter laws, which had been the dominant view since Gallup first asked the question in 1990. Gallup Organization

How Traffickers Exploit the Patchwork of State Gun Laws ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A new report from Brown University illustrates how varying state laws regulating firearms impact interstate gun trafficking patterns. Using data on guns recovered in crimes, economist Brian White created a gun flow analysis for the 50 states, showing that guns tend to move from states with weak regulation to those with stricter laws, particularly when the states are in close proximity. Brown University/The Crime Report

Patriot Act 10 Years Old--Success or Civil-Liberties Violation? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The USA Patriot Act is 10 years old today, passed overwhelmingly by Congress weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, NPR reports. It's designed to give the FBI more power to collect information in cases that involve national security. In the last decade, civil liberties groups have raised concerns about whether the Patriot Act goes too far by scooping up too much data and violating people's rights to privacy. The American Civil Liberties union also is bothered by another part of the law, the sneak and peek provision. It lets FBI agents search a person's home or business with a judge's blessing, but without telling the person they're doing it. "We're now finding from public reports that less than 1 percent of these sneak and peek searches are happening for terrorism investigations," says the ACLU's Michelle Richardson. "They're instead being used primarily in drug cases, in immigration cases, and some fraud." Richardson says the Justice Department doesn't usually point to specific terrorism cases it built thanks to the Patriot Act, raising questions about whether the powerful law really works. "I think a number of provisions have been very useful," says Pat Rowan, who led the Justice Department's national security unit during the Bush administration. "But it's not so much that they can be isolated and pointed to and said, 'oh well this particular provision caused the government to discover a plot it otherwise wouldn't have discovered.'" Viet Dinh, the former Justice Department lawyer who wrote the Patriot Act, tells NPR that despite all the criticism from civil liberties groups, most people couldn't tell you what's in the law. "There's no question that the USA Patriot Act has become a brand if you will, a symbol of all the counter-terrorism activities after 9-11," he says. NPR

Mayors, Police Losing Patience With "Occupy" Demonstrations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A few days after seeming to accept the idea of Occupy Oakland protesters camping outside city hall by saying "democracy is messy," Mayor Jean Quan ordered riot police to move in yesterday and scatter two city protest camps in the pre-dawn hours, says the Christian Science Monitor. In Atlanta, after originally giving protesters until Nov. 7 to clear out from a downtown park, Mayor Kasim Reed threatened to revoke that order on Monday. He said the relationship between the city and protesters had changed and campers are "on a clear path to escalation." While the original Occupy Wall Street protesters have won standoffs with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, other mayors are quickly losing patience with the protest movement, which drew inspiration from Middle East revolutions and anti-austerity protests in Europe as it spread to dozens of U.S. cities in recent weeks. Framing the confrontation as police overreach, protesters charged Atlanta's Reed with "malfeasance." One protest supporter, former City Councilor Derrick Boazman, called Atlanta police chief George Turner, who is black, a "Bull Connor" character in reference to the Birmingham, Al, police commissioner who cracked down on civil rights protesters. Christian Science Monitor

Bart Johnson Succeeds Dan Rosenblatt as IACP Director ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bart Johnson has been named executive director of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the nation's largest police organization. He succeeds Dan Rosenblatt, who has stepped down after serving as IACP director for more than two decades. Johnson has been Principal Deputy Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He came to that department from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), where he was Director of Homeland Security and Law Enforcement. Johnson had spent 25 years in the New York State Police, where he served in narcotics-enforcement and counterterrorism leadership positions. He also has served as Vice Chair of the advisory committee to the U.S. Justice Department's Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative. Johnson's appointment was announced at this week's annual convention of the IACP in Chicago

Arizona Police Agencies Are Hiring Despite Sluggish Economy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Police departments across Arizona once again are hiring new officers despite the continued sluggish economy, reports the Arizona Republic. When the economy began to tank three years ago and agencies faced shrinking budgets, police hiring plummeted. Now small and medium-size police agencies are starting to hire more officers, though not nearly at the same level as in 2005. There are 40 recruits from 13 agencies in the current class at the Arizona Law Enforcement Academy in Phoenix, the state's largest police academy. Fifteen agencies have reserved all of the maximum 56 spots in the class that begins Nov. 28, and one more recruit is on a waiting list. Police officials haven't added any new positions. The vacancies came through attrition, or officers leaving a police department by retiring, resigning, or being terminated. The number of recruits who started training at the academy each year plummeted from 725 in 2005 to 79 in 2010. The numbers now are on the rise. So far this year, 121 recruits have started at the academy, and an estimated 55 more will start next month in the academy's final class of the year. Arizona Republic

Ex-FBI Profiler's Book May Make You Buy a Deadbolt Lock ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole wrote a book, "Dangerous Instincts," whose premise goes against everything humans want to believe about their hunches. Your gut instinct? It is wrong, says the Washington Post. The book takes anecdotes from O'Toole's serial killer investigations and exports them to suburbia, reading like a mash-up between a self-help manual and a Thomas Harris novel. What can O'Toole's experiences with the Baton Rouge Serial Killer teach you about analyzing the effectiveness of your decision-making? What can Phillip Garrido, the man who held Jaycee Dugard captive for nearly two decades, teach you about which sleepover invites your children should accept? O'Toole believes that that the most dangerous criminals often are the ones who come across as the most harmless. That's how they are able to continue harming people. "If there's a strange, dark figure in your yard, that's an easy one," O'Toole says. "You're calling the police." Boogeymen are rarely so neatly packaged. People put themselves in physical or emotional danger in dozens of less obvious ways every day, from sussing out an online dating profile to hiring a financial planner. Reading the book is likely to do one of two things, says the Post. If you tend to be lackadaisical about things such as door-locking, then the book will introduce you to the deadbolt. If you're already vigilant, then it will make you purchase a Navy SEAL dog with bionic teeth. O'Toole, who retired in 2009, and who lives in Stafford, Va., is the opposite of what one would expect a serial killer expert to look like, which, if you have read her book, means she's probably exactly what one should expect. Washington Post

Washington Post to Congress: Don't Cut Juvenile Justice Funding ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Congress is threatening to cut federal grants to states and localities for effective programs in preventing juvenile delinquency or in dealing with youths who run into trouble with the law, says the Washington Post in an editorial. The fed have been spending $54 million on delinquency-prevention programs on the state and local level and $62 million to offset the costs of keeping incarcerated youths away from adults or to house them in youth-only facilities. These separation policies have helped to reduce the number of physical and sexual attacks on minors and shield youths from older and more hardened criminals. U.S. House appropriators would eliminate funding altogether for the delinquency-prevention component and cut the latter program by roughly one-third. The Post calls the Senate approach only slightly more palatable, with cuts of 27 percent and 38 percent, respectively, on top of significant reductions over the past decade. The Obama administration is asking for an $18 million increase for the first program and an $8 million boost for the latter. Delinquency prevention or diversion programs are significantly cheaper than incarceration. States spent between $66,000 and $88,000 in 2008 to incarcerate each juvenile offender, says the American Correctional Association. The incidence of such counterproductive punishment for nonviolent offenses "will almost certainly rise if these federal funds are cut further," the Post says. Washington Post

8 Current, Former NYC Cops Charged In Gun Running Case ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Eight current and former New York City police officers were arrested yesterday and charged in federal court with accepting thousands of dollars in cash to drive a caravan of firearms into the state, which they New York Times called "an act of corruption that brazenly defied the city's strenuous efforts to get illegal guns off the streets." The officers - five are still on the force, and three are retired - and four other men were accused of transporting M-16 rifles and handguns, as well as what they believed to be stolen merchandise across state lines. The officers, most of whom worked in the same Brooklyn station house, were arrested by FBI agents and New York police investigators. The gun-trafficking accusations strike at the heart of one of the police department's most hard-fought and robust initiatives, and one that has been a central theme of the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg: getting guns off the city's streets. Bloomberg heads Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of 600 municipal chief executives. The arrests come at a difficult time for a department, the nation's largest municipal police force, already besieged by corruption accusations. New York Times

Milwaukee Cops Not Penalized Heavily for Drunk Driving ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At least 35 members of Milwaukee's police force have been disciplined after being arrested for driving drunk off-duty since they were hired, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation found. Wisconsin is the only state in which first-offense drunken driving is usually a traffic violation rather than a crime. Numerous attempts to change that in the legislature have never gotten off the ground in a state where so many people drink socially. Even so, one drunken-driving conviction is enough to get someone fired from Milwaukee's largest cab company. A second offense - which rises to the level of a misdemeanor - results in a lifetime ban from the commercial driver's license needed to work as a truck driver. Milwaukee cops caught drunk behind the wheel continue to be responsible for stopping drunken drivers and enforcing other laws, even if they've been convicted more than once. That's not the case in many departments around the U.S. It tells the community the police don't take drunken driving seriously, advocates say. "It puts people's lives and livelihoods at risk," said John Vose of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "When someone in law enforcement drives drunk, that just makes it all the more difficult for us to send the message that drinking and driving is wrong." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

How Police Officers Are Trained To Deliver Bad News ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Last year, 32,788 people died in U.S. motor vehicle crashes. The way that family and friends are told about such deaths plays a crucial role in determining how soon they begin to recover from their loss, says a death notification expert and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which trains police officers on how to notify relatives of crash fatalities, says USA Today. "Nobody's ready to hear the news of a sudden, violent, untimely death," says Alan Stewart of the University of Georgia, who has studied death notifications for 14 years. "It makes it all the more important that the way a person is told the news itself doesn't traumatize them." MADD President Jan Withers, who spent nearly a decade training police on death notifications, says, "When someone is delivering this information, if they're kind of curt, if they're not available, not giving complete information, doing it over the phone or if they give misinformation, all of these cause more trauma to the person who's just received this information." MADD has trained police officers in death notification since 1988. In 1995, the organization got a U.S. Justice Department grant to develop a standardized notification training program. The group trains 700-1,400 police officers a year. USA Today

Iowa Sex Offender Population, Monitoring Costs Increase ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The number of people convicted in Iowa for sex crimes has grown for each of the last five years, driving up the growing cost to taxpayers of monitoring and imprisonment, reports the Des Moines Register. A state report shows prisons are housing sex offenders for longer periods and parole caseloads are growing significantly. By 2021, some 2,600 sex offenders are expected to be serving "special sentences" under a stringent state law passed in 2005, meaning they will be supervised after their prison release for 10 years or life depending on the seriousness of their crimes. "The special sentence, particularly lifetime supervision, will increase the parole caseload by 78 percent in 10 years," says a draft report from Iowa's Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning found. The additional cost of monitoring the offenders will total at least $34.54 million during that span. The Iowa Sex Offender Research Council has urged state leaders to explore more effective and less expensive ways of monitoring sex offenders. "We're trying to figure out policy-wise what makes the most sense to do now," said Sally Kreamer, who heads the 5th Judicial District correctional services. "Caseloads are only going to get larger and larger. If we don't figure out some strategy soon, I'll have to come back to my board and say, 'What is it that you don't want us to do anymore?' " Des Moines Register