drudgereport--2019-02-01--How police make millions by seizing property

How police make millions by seizing property...

When a man barged into Isiah Kinloch’s apartment and broke a bottle over his head, the North Charleston resident called 911. After cops arrived on that day in 2015, they searched the injured man’s home and found an ounce of marijuana.  So they took $1,800 in cash from his apartment and kept it.  When Eamon Cools-Lartigue was driving on Interstate 85 in Spartanburg County, deputies stopped him for speeding. The Atlanta businessman wasn’t criminally charged in the April 2016 incident. Deputies discovered $29,000 in his car, though, and decided to take it.  When Brandy Cooke dropped her friend off at a Myrtle Beach sports bar as a favor, drug enforcement agents swarmed her in the parking lot and found $4,670 in the car.  Her friend was wanted in a drug distribution case, but Cooke wasn’t involved. She had no drugs and was never charged in the 2014 bust. Agents seized her money anyway.  She worked as a waitress and carried cash because she didn’t have a checking account. She spent more than a year trying to get her money back.  The Greenville News and Anderson Independent Mail examined these cases and every other court case involving civil asset forfeiture in South Carolina from 2014-2016.  Our examination was aimed at understanding this little-discussed, potentially life-changing power that state law holds over citizens — the ability of officers to seize property from people, even if they aren't charged with a crime.  The resulting investigation became TAKEN, a statewide journalism project with an exclusive database and in-depth reporting. It’s the first time a comprehensive forfeiture investigation like this has been done for an entire U.S. state, according to experts.  The TAKEN team scoured more than 3,200 forfeiture cases and spoke to dozens of targeted citizens plus more than 50 experts and officials. Additionally, the team contacted every law enforcement agency in the state.  This yielded a clear picture of what is happening: Police are systematically seizing cash and property — many times from people who aren’t guilty of a crime — netting millions of dollars each year. South Carolina law enforcement profits from this policing tactic: the bulk of the money ends up in its possession.  The intent is to give law enforcement a tool to use against nefarious organizations by grabbing the fruits of their illegal deeds and using the proceeds to fight more crime.  Officers gather in places like Spartanburg County for contests with trophies to see who can make the largest or most seizures during highway blitzes. They earn hats, mementos and free dinners, and agencies that participate take home a cut of the forfeiture proceeds.  That money adds up. Over three years, law enforcement agencies seized more than $17 million, our investigation shows.  “We’ve heard so many awful stories,” said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP’s Washington bureau. “Having cash makes you vulnerable to an illicit practice by a police organization.  “It’s a dirty little secret. It’s so consistent with the issue of how law enforcement functions. They say, ‘Oh yeah, we want to make sure that resources used for the trafficking of drugs are stopped’ … but many of the people they are taking money from are not drug traffickers or even users.”  These seizures leave thousands of citizens without their cash and belongings or reliable means to get them back. They target black men most, our investigation found — with crushing consequences when life savings or a small business payroll is taken.  Many people never get their money back. Or they have to fight to have their property returned and incur high attorney fees.  Police officials respond by saying forfeiture allows them to hamstring crime rings and take money from drug dealers, a move they say hurts trafficking more than taking their drugs.  In 2016, when a Myrtle Beach police unit broke up a sophisticated drug ring called the 24/7 Boyz that offered a dispatch system to order drugs and have them delivered on demand, the police used seizure powers. They took cars, firearms, a four-bedroom house and $80,000. They also arrested 12 people.  Fifteenth Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson initially prosecuted the case before turning it over to the federal government. In January, 10 of the 12 defendants pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy charges.  Richardson said taking a drug ring’s operating cash strikes a critical blow against traffickers in a way that criminal charges don’t. “A drug enterprise is an onion, it’s a multitude of layers,” he said. “Some tools hurt the traffickers, some hurt the enterprise itself. I feel this hurts the enterprise.”  Agencies also said funding for their work would be imperiled without the profit from this tool. Clemson Police Chief Jimmy Dixon said losing those profits could shut down his agency’s K-9 unit entirely. Undercover narcotics operations overall would suffer, Dixon said, citing limits on the department’s operating budget.  •  Black men pay the price for this program. They represent 13 percent of the state's population. Yet 65 percent of all citizens targeted for civil forfeiture in the state are black males.  “These types of civil asset forfeiture practices are going to put a heavier burden on lower-income people,” said Ngozi Ndulue, recently a national NAACP senior director, now working at the Death Penalty Information Center. “And when you add in racial disparities around policing and traffic stops and arrest and prosecution, we know this is going to have a disproportionate effect on black communities.”  •  If you are white, you are twice as likely to get your money back than if you are black.  •  Nearly one-fifth of people who had their assets seized weren't charged with a related crime. Out of more than 4,000 people hit with civil forfeiture over three years, 19 percent were never arrested. They may have left a police encounter without so much as a traffic ticket. But they also left without their cash.  Roughly the same number — nearly 800 people — were charged with a crime but not convicted.  Greenville attorney Jake Erwin said the overarching idea is that the money being seized is earnings from past drug sales, so it's fair game. “In theory, that makes a little bit of sense," he said. "The problem is that they don’t really have to prove that.”  In some states, the suspicions behind a civil forfeiture must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in court, but there is no requirement of proof in South Carolina. When a forfeiture is contested, prosecutors only have to show a preponderance of evidence to keep seized goods.  Practically anything can be confiscated and sold at auction: jewelry, electronics, firearms, boats, RVs. In South Carolina, 95 percent of forfeiture revenue goes back to law enforcement. The rest is deposited into the state’s general fund.  •  Most of the money isn’t coming from kingpins or money laundering operations. It’s coming from hundreds of encounters where police take smaller amounts of cash, often when they find regular people with drugs for personal use. Customers, not dealers. More than 55 percent of the time when police seized cash, they took less than $1,000.  •  Your cash or property can disappear in minutes but take years to get back. The average time between when property is seized and when a prosecutor files for forfeiture is 304 days, with the items in custody the whole time. Often, it’s far longer, well beyond the two-year period state law allows for a civil case to be filed. But only rarely are prosecutors called out for missing the filing window and forced to return property to owners.  •  The entire burden of recovering property is on the citizens, who must prove the goods belong to them and were obtained legally. Since it’s not a criminal case, an attorney isn’t provided. Citizens are left to figure out a complex court process on their own. Once cases are filed, they have 30 days to respond. Most of the time, they give up.  Part 2 of TAKEN: How civil forfeiture errors, delays enrich SC police, hurt people  •  The bulk of forfeited money finances law enforcement, but there’s little oversight of what is seized or how it’s spent. Police use it to pay for new guns and gear, for training and meals and for food for their police dogs. In one case, the Spartanburg County sheriff kept a top-of-the-line pick-up truck as his official vehicle and sold countless other items at auctions.  In many other places, changes are being made: 29 states have taken steps to reform their forfeiture process. Fifteen states now require a criminal conviction before property can be forfeited, according to the Institute for Justice, a non-profit libertarian law firm.  South Carolina lawmakers have crafted reform bills in recent General Assembly sessions, but none of the efforts made it out of committee.  To critics, South Carolina is the poster child for the injustice inherent in the for-profit civil forfeiture system, said Louis Rulli, a law expert at the University of Pennsylvania.  Forfeiture doesn’t square with the rest of the justice system, Rulli said. “How could it be possible that my property could be taken when I am not even charged with any criminal offense? It seems un-American," he said.  Those who pay the biggest price are black men. Men like Kinloch. While he was hospitalized for a head injury from a home intruder, North Charleston police removed money from the tattoo artist’s apartment.  That department earns 12 percent of their annual operating budget from cash and property seized under civil law, our investigation shows.  “The robber didn’t get anything, but the police got everything,” said the 28-year-old Kinloch.  Police charged him with possession with intent to distribute after finding the marijuana in his apartment, but the charge was dismissed.  Kinloch never got his cash back.  Without his $1,800, he couldn’t pay the landlord and was forced out of his home.  More: He fought off a robber, but police seized his $1,800  Kinloch isn't alone as a black man facing forfeiture over small, or nonexistent, criminal charges in South Carolina. Our investigation found that black men make up the largest share by far of people targeted for civil forfeiture, much higher than even the drug arrest or incarceration rate for black men. Read about our exclusive findings here:  Atlanta musician Johnnie Grant jerked awake in the back seat as blue lights flashed and a Greenville sheriff's deputy leaned in to question his driver.  Grant, his photographer and a videographer were on their way to a show in Charlotte in March 2017.  The deputy picked out his target among hundreds of cars that pass through the stretch of Interstate 85 near White Horse Road every hour. He said he pulled over the rented Chevrolet Malibu and its three black occupants for following too closely.  He and other deputies soon asked the men to step out of the car, searched it and found 1.5 ounces of marijuana inside a jar in the videographer’s backpack.  When deputies opened Grant’s bag, they found $8,000 wrapped in rubber bands. All three were charged with marijuana possession, even though the videographer explained it was his personal stash. The deputies took Grant’s cash and told him it was drug money.  “If I’d have been white, I guarantee you they wouldn’t have taken my money,” the 30-year-old Grant said. “They probably wouldn’t have even searched my car. They probably wouldn’t have even pulled me over.”  It fits the pattern. Black men carry the burden of South Carolina's civil forfeiture program. Almost two-thirds of people targeted by forfeiture are black males, according to TAKEN investigation data analysis. Yet they represent just 13 percent of the general population.  Hilary Shelton, the NAACP Washington bureau director, said the organization worries the racial targeting in South Carolina is even worse than has been reported.  “Civil asset forfeiture, combined with the historic and consistent problems of racial profiling on our highways and byways, becomes very much part of a troubling equation,” he said. “It’s been used in a racially discriminatory manner. The law must be fully reviewed.”  The state has a long history of racial discrimination related to property.  Civil forfeiture is a vestige of that history, some critics say. It links to an established trend of targeted law enforcement that puts more police in contact with non-whites, an exposure that can lead to civil forfeiture, experts say.  Some departments have built a money-making machine on the backs of this type of targeting.  It starts with where police use forfeiture. It's happening in every urban environment in South Carolina. There are only six cities in the state with a population over 50,000. All of them frequently use forfeiture.  In smaller towns, only about half the police forces use the tool at all, and most agencies don’t pursue many cases.  The system is designed to be applied at scale. The more forfeiture is used, the more money police have at their disposal for equipment, training and for undercover drug purchases.  Though the racial disparities in the data exist broadly across the state, the decisions that lead to civil forfeiture are situational. It’s a traffic stop, or a drug investigation that leads to a residence, or increased patrols in low-income or historically black neighborhoods.  The TAKEN team used census data to analyze the widest disparities between the number of forfeiture cases with black subjects compared with the number of black residents in an agency’s jurisdiction.  The largest racial gaps? The highest disproportionate targeting of black people came from the Myrtle Beach Police Department, followed by the Lexington County Sheriff’s Office and the Charleston Police Department.  During 2014-2016, there was one black person targeted for forfeiture by Myrtle Beach police for every 50 black residents who live there. If you roughly extrapolated that rate over a generation, one in five black people would have money or goods taken by police in Myrtle Beach at some point over three decades, despite the fact that the city is mostly white.  The city is 69 percent white and just 14 percent black, according to 2014 U.S. Census data.  In Greenville County, black people were targeted for forfeiture at a rate of one per every 587 black residents during our three-year study period.  In comparison, forfeiture affected one white person per every 4,139 white residents in the county. Greenville County is 69 percent white and 19 percent black, according to U.S. Census data.  “It just sort of reinforces an understanding we already knew — that black residents disproportionately come in contact with law enforcement given the way criminal justice policy is oriented in this country,” said Nicole Porter, spokeswoman at The Sentencing Project, a reform advocacy group.  A piece of this policing story is tied to the highway and police behavior and assumptions.  In one case, a Wellford officer pulled over a black man on Interstate 85 for what he said was failure to maintain a lane. When he discovered cash in the car that day in 2012, the officer called in the top Homeland Security agent in Greenville to help seize it. They’d found what police said were “marijuana particles.”  The North Carolina driver, Lee Harris Jr., said it was tobacco. The officers took $7,008 from the glove box.  “I call them pirates,” said Lee Harris Sr., the driver's father. The elder Harris is a minister and a military veteran who said the money comes from his bank and from documented Social Security and benefits.  Harris said he had left $7,000 in the car when his son went on a trip to Atlanta. He filed a lawsuit, and after a year-and-a-half, he settled. The government kept $2,008 even though Harris' son was never charged with a crime.  Sometimes police seize cash when the driver is merely ticketed for a minor violation not related to drugs, according to court records.  Ramando Moore was cited for having an open container in Richland County in 2015; he lost $604.  Plexton Denard Hunter was pulled over for a seatbelt violation in 2015 in Richland County and had $541 seized. Tesla Carter, another seatbelt violation, this time in Anderson in 2015. She lost $1,361.    If you’re black and driving in South Carolina, you are more likely to be stopped by police. In 24 states with available race data by traffic stop, the state had the second highest rate of black motorists stopped by state troopers, according to a 2017 study by the Stanford Open Policing Project.  In Greenville County, there were 24 state patrol stops for every 100 black residents of driving age. There were only 15 stops for every 100 white residents in the nine-year study period, according to the project.  Officers have a lower threshold to search black drivers than white drivers, the Stanford research shows, evidenced by data that revealed when officers searched drivers, they found contraband more often on white drivers than black ones.  Yet the scope of action taken by law enforcement and the justice system against black Americans throughout U.S. history makes it easier for an officer to take from a black person than a white person, said Heather Ann Thompson, a criminal justice and African-American history professor at the University of Michigan and author of “Blood in the Water."  It’s the same reason black people are prosecuted more harshly, are incarcerated more often and for longer sentences and face civil fines and penalties more often than whites. They’re just not as likely to be able to marshal resources to fight back against the justice system, she said.  “It has everything to do with who has access to good defense lawyers and who’s getting pulled over to begin with,” said Thompson, who’s a leading voice in criminal justice reform.  The racial disparity may begin with traffic stops, but it extends well beyond them in South Carolina.  How often are black people in this state the victim of civil forfeiture when the police encounter doesn’t involve being pulled over in a car?  Excluding known traffic stops, police seized money from black people in two-thirds of all cases compared with one-third for whites, our TAKEN data analysis shows. It’s an even more startling fact when considering South Carolina is 69 percent white.  Ella Bromell, a 72-year-old widow from Conway, twice nearly lost her home, though she’s never been convicted of a crime in her life.  Yet the city of Conway nearly succeeded in seizing her house because they said she didn’t do enough to stop crime happening on the sidewalk and in her yard. Young men were using her lawn as a location to sell drugs at night, according to court records.  The fight between Conway officials and Bromell, who is black, began in 2007 and lasted a decade — culminating in court in 2017 when two judges sided with her and wrote that the city “failed to produce any evidence that the residence was an integral or otherwise fundamental part of illegal drug activity.”  Still, Bromell fears the city will try again, despite the police admission in court that they couldn’t say if she was even aware of a single drug sale around her house.  Conway City Manager Adam Emrick said the city has contemplated future seizures in the case of Bromell or similar property owners.  Losing her home would be the end of her, Bromell said. “I don’t want to go nowhere else.”  More: She gave her friend a ride and lost her wages  Thurmond Brooker, Bromell’s attorney, said the law is being warped without the public even noticing. “It's being used in a way in which innocent people can have their property taken,” he said. “Little old ladies whose property is being trespassed upon can be victimized for a second time."  Why are black citizens like Bromell facing forfeiture more often than their white neighbors?  One police official said it’s because there’s more drug crime in the black community.  “We go where we’re called,” Greenville Police Chief Ken Miller said. “We police where people are telling us there are problems. We’re not an agency — and I don’t know a police agency — that tries to balance racially its interdiction of drugs off the street.”  The bulk of the drugs and weapons calls the city receives are in minority communities, Miller said. He said he won't apologize if police tactics disproportionately engage black men and lead to more seizures.  In Greenville County, the Sheriff’s Office initiated 256 forfeiture cases from 2014-2016, of which 150 involved blacks and 85 involved whites.  Greenville city police had 89 cases. Of those, 53 involved blacks and 22 involved whites.  Miller said the city has spent time and money on racial bias training and is working to better track data on traffic stops.  David Smith, one of the architects of the expanded forfeiture laws enacted in the 1980s to fight the War on Drugs, said it’s a great tool for going after significant criminals. Drug lords. White collar masterminds. But increasingly forfeiture has been co-opted by local police forces to take petty cash on the side of the road, he said.  Grant, the Atlanta musician, said he understands how police work and knew right away he would fight to get his money back, even if it cost him legal fees.  "They knew we were young, and we were black,” Grant said. “They pulled us over, gave us a bogus reason. We didn’t consent to search; they searched anyway.”  Grant's drug charge was dismissed, and though he had proof that he earned his money legally — show schedules, payment receipts, contracts — it could have taken another two years before he could challenge the forfeiture in court. So Grant chose to settle rather than wait.  The state got $500. He got $7,500 back but had to pay his attorney $2,500.  “We’re the ones being railroaded,” Grant said. “It just speaks volumes to where we are as a people.”  More: For years, a SC city tried to seize a widow's home. It still might.  More: Atlanta rapper fought the law and won  Enjoying the TAKEN investigation series? Please support local journalism by subscribing to The News.  Have you lost property through civil forfeiture? Or do you have information about the practice we should know? We'd like to hear about it. Or about any investigative tips we could work on. Contact our reporters at taken@greenvillenews.com.  Also, check out our Instagram content for TAKEN.  BACKGROUND: Journalists in the Greenville News and Anderson Independent Mail newsrooms spent two years on this investigative project. Here's why.


drudgereport--2019-04-06--Police suicides worry law enforcement brass

Police suicides worry law enforcement brass...

Officer Andrew Einstein was supposed to die on May 12, 2012.  The former Marine who served two tours overseas, now a cop, had planned it all out.  Before going out that night, he laid out his prescription drugs on his bedside table.  He was going to get drunk and take all of the pills when he got home. He hoped to never wake up.  Einstein, wounded in Afghanistan in 2011, was having problems with post-traumatic stress disorder and a brain injury, but he was afraid to ask for help.  "I thought in my mind if I reached out and asked for help, they would take my badge and my gun," he said, speaking at the Law Enforcement Suicide and Prevention Symposium at NYPD headquarters.  Einstein said he got too drunk to take the pills, and his friends put him on the couch when he got home. He woke up the next morning.  Einstein's story is not uncommon, according to law enforcement officials and health experts, and it's one more and more police officers are starting to share.  Police suicides, according to Blue H.E.L.P., a nonprofit organization that's tracked these figures since 2016, are responsible for more deaths than occur in the line of duty each year.  In 2018, that number reached 165, according to Blue H.E.L.P.  That number is "conservative," said Miriam Heyman, a researcher with the Ruderman Family Foundation, a nonprofit, philanthropic research organization. There isn't a central database for all police suicides.  "Police officers experience trauma on a regular basis -- not just what is on the front line of nightly news," Heyman continued. She went on to say that 10% of police officers have injured or have killed someone in the past three years, and officers experience on average 188 "critical incidents" over the course of their careers.  "It's usually not an event, it's a culmination of many events," Anthony Riccio, first deputy superintendent for the Chicago Police Department, said at the event.  The event put on by the Police Executive Research Forum brought together federal, state, local and international law enforcement agencies to address the problem.  "I can't think of a more important issue," Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, told the more than 300 people in the room.  Roccio detailed one instance where a police officer drove into a parking lot after she reported for duty and killed herself in her police cruiser.  "It's been hard for us," he said, choking up. "We take it personally."  "I've never seen it as bad as it is now," he added, citing his 35 years on the force.  This year, the CPD already has had three police officer suicides.  Einstein told ABC affiliate WPVI that he suffered a serious brain injury due to a grenade blast in Afghanistan.  "My life was a wreck, to say the least, and having no purpose, I thought about suicide. But I didn't just think about it. Killing myself became a viable option. I began formulating a plan. It was the worst place I've ever been in my life, by far," he later wrote on the military website American Grit.  Einstein credits his service dog, Gunner, and a veterans program with saving his life.  "He gave me purpose. Though my life was still a wreck, I had a responsibility to take care of him. He truly saved my life," he wrote.  After he came out of a dark place, he returned to being a police officer. But, he said, the threat of suicide didn't end when he put his police uniform back on.  "If you are a law enforcement officer, you have a 54% greater chance of dying from suicide," said John Violanti, an epidemiology and environmental health professor and expert on police stress at the University of Buffalo.  Breaking the stigma on getting help is the first step, experts said.  "You smash the stigma, you save lives," said Jon Adler, a former police officer and the director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance at the Department of Justice.  Supportive families can also help.  "We need to educate families on what this job can do -- I think it's extremely important," Violanti added.  Some police departments are hiring mental health and wellness experts, while others are turning to peer counseling or outside counseling.  Einstein is now an officer at a police department in New Jersey. He said he's grateful for the opportunity -- not just to serve his community, but to have support in understanding his condition and serve to the very best of his ability.  If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741-741.


drudgereport--2019-11-12--Police struggle to recruit amid poor pay, public perception...

Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.  PRINCETON, Iowa — Some days Brian Carsten will pin his badge on at 9 a.m. and not take it off until well after midnight. It’s the reality of his job as the only full-time police officer in this small town on the border with Illinois.  Every day is different, as the phone is always ringing with reports of domestic disputes, assaults, mental health crises, burglary or even runaway dogs. Carsten, 52, answers those calls largely alone in this town of about 1,000 people — which can be risky when the nearest backup is up to 15 minutes away.  “That's a long time, especially when you're fighting with someone, or you got a high-risk situation,” Carsten said. “You really got to think about that and how you play the call out and how you deal with the person.”  And in his limited free time, Carsten, who has more than three decades of experience in law enforcement, moonlights for a handful of nearby police departments. He earns some extra cash and enjoys the change of pace while supporting small rural police departments that are having trouble recruiting and acquiring up-to-date law enforcement resources and technology as they grapple with budget shortfalls.  “I don't know that there's any department out there that says, ‘Man, I have enough officers, and I don't have a problem with hiring officers,’" Carsten said. “The smaller towns that I part time at have the same problem that I'm having.”  Attracting recruits to work for rural police departments is getting increasingly difficult, especially as most new law enforcement officers are choosing to work in urban areas, which tend to pay better and be better staffed.  Police officers earned an average of $56,160 in 2011. That rose to $65,210 in 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Rural departments, however, struggle to match those salaries.  “I don’t see the younger officers, the newer officers, coming into the smaller towns,” Carsten said, noting that pay disparity was one reason.  The federal government now considers these problems so bad that it has been getting involved.  Over the spring and summer, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS — an agency under the Justice Department that supports community policing — conducted a series of listening sessions with rural law enforcement leaders in South Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, Iowa and Montana to help them identify the needs of their departments.  COPS Director Phil Keith said Attorney General William Barr had directed him to spend more time in rural communities to focus on issues that affect them. He said antiquated technology and the methamphetamine epidemic are major issues, but the biggest problem may be just having enough qualified officers to do the job.  “The competition for deputies and police officers is extremely high,” he said. “There is a general trend where many rural agencies are losing law enforcement staff to larger communities because of benefits and salaries, and the tax base in the rural areas just can’t grow.”  COPS is working to help these departments apply for grants and get access to a number of programs, and they’re planning to hold more listening sessions in Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming and North Dakota over the next few months.  Most troubling to Keith is that many rural departments didn’t have access to bulletproof vests, were working with faulty radios and had no means to update basic technology. He said COPS was working on a new mandate that grants will go to those most in need — not those who submit the best applications.  “We can’t just reward those who can afford to pay grant writers to write polished applications,” he said.  Still, amid headlines of officer-involved shootings, of officers being found guilty of murder and of charges of police corruption, law enforcement agencies are struggling to convince potential recruits that policing is a career worth pursuing, Carsten said.  The Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization that works to improve the professionalism of policing, said that 36 percent of its members reported a significant decline in applications for police officer positions over the past five years. Another 27 percent said they’d seen at least a slight decline.  Greg Graver, 45, has served as the sheriff of Jones County in Iowa for eight years. His department, which includes 10 deputies, serves about 14,000 people across 577 square miles and 850 miles of county roads.  The trouble — as he told the Gazette in Cedar Rapids — is that he has a lot of land to cover, but few people to do it.  “We're still a rural county,” Graver said. “You have limited tax base that you can work off, and there's several county departments that are vying for this money. If the county had the money available to us, then we could certainly add six or seven deputy sheriffs.”  That’s a concern because there aren’t enough police officers to address the country’s growing population. A Department of Justice report found that the number of officers per capita dropped by about 11 percent from 1997 to 2016, from 2.43 to 2.17 officers per 1,000 residents.  In Iowa, that number is even lower.  Tim Miller was recently hired as a deputy sheriff in Jones County. Because of the few number of officers, he said he feels like a hindrance sometimes, as they struggle to answer calls coming in from across the county.  “You do have to be a jack-of-all-trades,” Miller said, adding that he had to know traffic and motor vehicle law.  “Know when you can or cannot enter into a vehicle to search. Then it comes to like a burglary or theft, we can't just take the report and say, ‘Hey, we're going to hand you over to the investigation unit.’ We are the investigation unit. We are the arson unit. We're the medical unit.”  It’s those stressors and other concerns — work-related alcoholism, the rising suicide rate among officers and the high rate of divorce in policing — that has Graver, a career officer, worried that his three children might consider following in his footsteps.  “I would never tell my kid, no,” Graver said. “I will support whatever my children's decision is. Would it be the career path that I would pick for them? I would say it definitely would not be.”  Shako Liu reported from Iowa, and Phil McCausland reported from New York.


drudgereport--2019-11-26--First robot police dog unleashed...

First robot police dog unleashed...

Cops have long had dogs, and robots, to help them do their jobs. And now, they have a robot dog.  Massachusetts State Police is the first law enforcement agency in the country to use Boston Dynamics' dog-like robot, called Spot. While the use of robotic technology is not new for state police, the temporary acquisition of Spot — a customizable robot some have called “terrifying” — is raising questions from civil rights advocates about how much oversight there should be over police robotics programs.  The state’s bomb squad had Spot on loan from the Waltham-based Boston Dynamics for three months starting in August until November, according to records obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and reviewed by WBUR.  The documents do not reveal a lot of details on the robot dog’s exact use, but a state police spokesman said Spot, like the department’s other robots, was used as a “mobile remote observation device” to provide troopers with images of suspicious devices or potentially hazardous locations, like where an armed suspect might be hiding.  “Robot technology is a valuable tool for law enforcement because of its ability to provide situational awareness of potentially dangerous environments,” state police spokesman David Procopio wrote.  State police say Spot was used in two incidents, in addition to testing.  Boston Dynamics vice president for business development Michael Perry said the company wants Spot to have lots of different uses, in industries ranging from oil and gas companies, to construction, to entertainment. He envisions police sending Spot into areas that are too hazardous for a human — a chemical spill, or near a suspected bomb, or into a hostage situation.  “Right now, our primary interest is sending the robot into situations where you want to collect information in an environment where it's too dangerous to send a person, but not actually physically interacting with the space,” Perry said.  Spot is a “general purpose” robot, with an open API. That means customers — whether a police department or warehouse operator — can customize Spot with its own software. (State police say they didn't use this feature.) It has a 360-degree, low-light camera, and an arm.  For all of its potential, Boston Dynamics doesn’t want Spot weaponized. Perry said the lease agreements have a clause requiring the robot not be used in a way that would “physically harm or intimidate people.”  “Part of our early evaluation process with customers is making sure that we're on the same page for the usage of the robot,” he said. “So upfront, we're very clear with our customers that we don't want the robot being used in a way that can physically harm somebody.”  That’s one of the reasons why the company is opting for lease agreements, rather than a sale, Perry said. Boston Dynamics wants to be selective in which companies get access to Spot — and have the ability to take the equipment back if the lease is violated.  Through Procopio, state police said the department never weaponized any of its robots, including Spot.  But while Spot and other tactical robots aren’t designed to kill, they still can. In 2016, Dallas Police sent a bomb disposal robot armed with explosives to kill a sniper who had shot at police officers and killed five. Experts said it was the first time a non-military robot had been used to intentionally kill a person.  That deadly potential, and lack of transparency about the state police’s overall robotics program, worries Kade Crockford, director of the technology for liberty program at the ACLU of Massachusetts. Crockford said they want to see a policy from state police about its use of robotics and a conversation about how and when robots should be used. State police didn’t say whether there’s a current policy about the use of robots, and the ACLU’s records request to the agency didn’t turn one up.  “We just really don't know enough about how the state police are using this,” Crockford said. “And the technology that can be used in concert with a robotic system like this is almost limitless in terms of what kinds of surveillance and potentially even weaponization operations may be allowed.”


foxnews--2019-08-22--North Carolinas Dem governor vetoes bill requiring police cooperation with ICE on illegal immigrant

North Carolina's Dem governor vetoes bill requiring police cooperation with ICE on illegal immigrants

In vetoing a bill calling  for better state and local cooperation with U.S. immigration authorities, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is favoring the interests of illegal immigrants over basic public safety, the state's Republicans argued Wednesday.  Earlier in the day, Cooper, a Democrat, nixed a proposal that would have made it mandatory for state and local law enforcement to comply with detainer requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  Under the plan, sheriff’s offices and other law enforcement departments would have been required to hold detainees who are illegal immigrants until ICE personnel could come retrieve them. Those who did not honor the requests would have been subject to dismissal, The Wall Street Journal reported.  But those plans were set aside after Cooper opted not to support them.  “Law enforcement officers have a sworn responsibility to protect their citizens -- and that includes cooperating with federal authorities,” state Sen. Chuck Edwards, a Republican from Henderson County, told The News & Observer of Raleigh. “Governor Cooper, who prefers to pander to his far-left supporters, we will protect North Carolinians and plan to override his irresponsible veto.”  Edwards pointed to last week’s case in Mecklenburg County, where the city of Charlotte is located, in which ICE officers picked up a Honduran man who had been previously arrested on rape and child-sex-offense charges.  The Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office rejected an ICE detainer request two months ago and released the man from custody after he fulfilled court-ordered conditions, including paying bail, the Journal reported.  “This legislation is simply about scoring partisan political points and using fear to divide North Carolina,” the governor said in a statement. “This bill, in addition to being unconstitutional, weakens law enforcement in North Carolina by mandating sheriffs to do the job of federal agents.”  The state House voted in favor of the measure Tuesday along party lines. The state Senate approved the bill in June. Republican lawmakers, who have a majority in both houses, could move to override the governor’s veto but would need some Democrats to cross party lines.  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP  Republican state Rep. Destin Hall accused Cooper of being a “sanctuary governor,” referring to "sanctuary city" policies adopted in at least 10 states meant to shield illegal immigrants from deportation and limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, the Journal reported.  The issue of immigration is expected to be at the center of state debates as Cooper faces re-election next year.  Republicans in North Carolina's House introduced House Bill 370 last year in response to the election of sheriffs in some of North Carolina’s largest and more liberal counties, including Wake, Mecklenburg and Durham, who advocated against ICE during their campaigns, The News & Observer reported. Those sheriffs said they would not hold illegal immigrants after a judge or magistrate approved their release.


freedombunker--2019-01-10--California Police Fight To Stop New Law Releasing Their Misconduct Records

Thanks to the state's newly implemented public records rules, we're starting to see the first stories detailing misconduct of California police officers. We're also seeing the lengths to which police groups will go to keep those records secret.  In Burlingame, up in the Bay Area, media outlets were successful in getting records showing that a police officer, David Granucci, was fired last year after the Burlingame Police Department found out he had offered to help a woman deal with a DUI charge if she'd have sex with him. He appears to have made similar offers to two other women, one of whom apparently went through with it.  For decades, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, for media outlets or the public to find out exactly what happened with Granucci because a state law in California, pushed through by police unions and signed by former Gov. Jerry Brown back in 1978, blocked the release of disciplinary records.  But the rules finally changed last year when Brown, who just concluded his fourth and final term as governor, approved changes that made public police investigation and disciplinary records. The law went into effect with the start of the new year.  Some folks are now doing whatever they can to stem the tide of releases. Two California cities, Inglewood and Long Beach, destroyed decades of police records, with both municipalities insisting that it was part of a plan to streamline record-keeping and had nothing to do with the new law. The police commander in Long Beach says they made sure to preserve records pertaining to current employees and only purged records of officers who no longer worked there. It's not clear how that's a good idea, given that officers who get fired for incompetence or misconduct frequently move on to other police departments in other cities, with the public often unaware of their troubled backgrounds.  Then there are the lawsuits. Police unions and their representatives are now trying to argue that the transparency law only applies to new records, produced after the start of 2019. There's nothing in the bill itself that says this: It amends existing public records laws to add additional records that law enforcement agencies are required to release. The date of the bill's implementation was the start of the year.  The California Supreme Court has declined to hear a suit from San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department employees, in which they argue that the law is not retroactive. But in Los Angeles, a superior court judge did grant an injunction that stops the Los Angeles Police Department from releasing records from prior to Jan. 1, until a hearing to determine whether the law covers records prior to 2019.  To be clear here, this new law does not order the public release of all police personnel records. It requires the release of records that pertain to incidents in which a law enforcement officer fires a weapon; an officer-involved incident that results in a person's death or great bodily injury; an officer found to have engaged in sexual assault with a member of the public (this includes any sex act while on duty—relevant to the disclosure of the records about Granucci's firing); and officers found to have engaged in dishonest conduct like concealing evidence, falsifying reports, and/or committing perjury.  These are all things the public deserves to know about state employees who have the power to kill them, take their belongings, and deprive them of their freedom. Nevertheless, police unions are fighting to stop law enforcement agencies from releasing this information, claiming that revealing records about their conduct somehow violates their rights.


freedombunker--2019-05-15--San Francisco Bans Police Use of Facial Recognition

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8 to 1 to ban local law enforcement from using facial recognition technology. Not everyone is pleased.  "It is ridiculous to deny the value of this technology in securing airports and border installations," said Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law expert at George Washington University to The New York Times. "It is hard to deny that there is a public safety value to this technology."  Well, yes. And the public safety value of putting electronic ankle bracelets on everybody and keeping their location information in a giant database so that police can later find out if an individual was near the site where a crime happened is similarly undeniable. But that doesn't seem like such a good idea.  The San Francisco ban was passed, as the Times reports, in response to civil libertarian concerns about the technology's potential abuse by the government amid fears that it may shove the United States in the direction of an overly oppressive surveillance state.  Police, on the other hand, argue that facial recognition would now just be a handy investigative tool simply used to identify suspects committing crimes while caught on closed-circuit city and private security cameras. Sounds reasonable, yes?  Consider the recent Florida case in which officers used facial recognition technology to identify someone as an allegedly low-level drug dealer by comparing cell phone camera snaps with a mugshot database. The alleged dealer claims that the police got the wrong guy. As part of his defense, the accused man's attorney challenged the accuracy of the technology and asked to see what other booking photos were returned as probable matches by the facial recognition algorithm. The police refused to turn them over. "Their refusal violated the Constitution, which requires prosecutors to disclose information favorable to a defendant," asserts the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Sadly, such police and prosecutorial misfeasance is not all that rare.  As bad as this misconduct is, that is not the main concern with widespread government deployment of facial recognition technology. Civil libertarians worry that the technology could morph into pervasive automated authoritarianism in which individuals can be tracked everywhere, in real time, similar to the version being developed by the Chinese government. The Chinese government reportedly aims, as part of its Skynet surveillance system, to add an additional 400 million video cameras to its existing 170 million over the next three years. The cameras employ real time facial recognition technology.  As Matt Cagle, a lawyer with the ACLU of Northern California tells the Times, the technology "provides government with unprecedented power to track people going about their daily lives. That's incompatible with a healthy democracy."


freedombunker--2019-07-02--California Police Agencies Were Supposed To Make Misconduct Records Public Why Isnt It Happening

California Police Agencies Were Supposed To Make Misconduct Records Public. Why Isn’t It Happening?

California judges ruled earlier this year that a new California law making police misconduct records public is retroactive, so that means law enforcement offices are opening up the file cabinets and sending off photocopies in response to media requests, right?  Ha. No. They're continuing to fight by trying to charge massive fees, destroying records, and, in some cases, simply not responding. Reporters from four different California media outlets recently combined forces to explain what's been going on with obstruction efforts against a statewide project where journalists attempt to report on newly available misconduct records.  S.B. 1421, passed in the fall of 2018, requires that California law enforcement agencies start making public records of police conduct in cases where officers fired their weapons, killed or seriously injured somebody, engaged in sexual misconduct, or engaged in dishonest conduct while on the job. These were records that have been kept sealed from the public for decades, per state law, preventing the public from knowing whether police officers in their midst had been abusing their power.  While there were some very promising initial stories at the start of 2019 as S.B. 1421 was formally implemented, things seem to have gone wrong. Seven months later, many law enforcement agencies within California are not releasing the records as state law mandates. Some, like the California Highway Patrol, have not coughed up a single one. From the Los Angeles Times:  Both the Orange County Sheriff's Department and the Long Beach Police Department have yet to release any records to KPCC, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register or KQED. The Los Angeles County Probation Department, which supervises youths held in detention, has declined to release records, claiming disclosure about cases involving minors is prohibited by law. Records from the department, which also supervises adults, could be redacted to remove names of protected individuals. [Los Angeles Sheriff Alex] Villanueva has refused to search for records, instead demanding that reporters identify specific cases they are seeking. The Sheriff's Department released records about one deputy to the Los Angeles Times, a handful of separate files to KPCC, but nothing to the Orange County Register.  Villanueva's office has declined to provide any records to Reason about Villanueva himself. When Villanueva ran for office, he claimed that he had been unfairly targeted by higher-ups at the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (LASD) for discipline because he had complained about misconduct by leaders. So Reason, under S.B. 1421, requested his discipline records back in January. Initially, the sheriff's department did not comply because the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs sought an injunction and attempted to argue that S.B. 1421 was not retroactive.  Ultimately, that effort failed and multiple judges across the state ruled that the law is indeed retroactive as the bill's sponsor, Democratic State Sen. Nancy Skinner, had intended. In March, the LASD informed Reason that our request for Villanueva's records was being processed.  It's now July and we've gotten nothing. In fact, the LASD's public records request office is not replying to emails from Reason requesting updates. It looks as though we're not alone.  Some cities and counties decided that January 2019 was the right time to catch up on housekeeping and have destroyed years of old police records over the past few months. Many have insisted that the timing is just a coincidence. But as the Los Angeles Times notes, many of the records from these offices—like Yuba County's Sheriff's Office—had been kept around for much longer than internal guidelines required; it was just after these agencies knew they could be forced to disclose them that such records were destroyed.


eveningstandard--2019-01-08--How to code Best free coding courses online to up your digital skills

How to code: Best free coding courses online to up your digital skills

It’s a cliché we all mock as January rolls around and we promise to exercise more, eat less and be more productive.  But for many, a new year is the perfect time to change career paths – with many taking the chance to update CVs and look for new opportunities.  As the tech world continues to dominate our daily lives and disrupting how we do things, digital skills are increasingly sought out by employers – so how can the less tech-savvy among us keep up?  Learning how to get to grips with the digital world can be daunting, but there are hundreds of self-learning courses on offer to help make sense of digital.  Andy Ayim, managing director at Backstage Capital London, said: "Free coding courses are a great example of how technology has been democratised and made more accessible than ever so people can feed their curiosity and learn about coding without facing the financial barrier of a coding school."  Here, we have listed some of the most popular coding courses you can take for free to learn the basics and make yourself a top candidate.  Perhaps one of the most popular options for people in the first stages of learning how to code with around 25 million users, Codecademy provides online guidance that teaches you how to understand and type algorithms with interactive learning. Users will read up on how to create codes, before being asked to type them out. When you start out, you will be asked exactly what you want to get out of the project, to choose the right course. Codecademy is free for the first 7 days of use  This free course starts off by teaching you the basics, before moving on to covering more complex topics. In that sense, you can continue with the course for as much or as little time as you’d like. Its first ‘tier’ of teaching is a Web Development 101 programme which gives you the basic tools to create a website. Then, if you want to keep going, you can learn how to take on databases, write Javascript, HTML and CSS and Ruby. The project also has an online chatroom you can join to talk to other people taking the course.  This platform helps you get to grips with HTML, CSS and Javascript. It is the free course run by General Assembly, which also runs paid-for courses and coding bootcamps to give people digital skills they need to succeed in the tech world. When logging onto GA Dash, you are met with a series of projects that you complete using the coding skills you will be taught – for example, building a personal website or creating a responsive blog theme.


theirishtimes--2019-05-15--9000 free third-level courses to help workers adjust to digitised workplace

9,000 free third-level courses to help workers adjust to digitised workplace

Thousands of free or subsidised upskilling course places are being offered to workers seeking to future-proof their skills in areas impacted by digital technology.  More than 9,000 courses, ranging from certificate to masters level, will be available in the coming academic year in key areas such as digital skills, soft skills, management and leadership and the workplace of the future.  Among the courses on offer through the State-funded Springboard+ programme include cutting-edge training in blockchain, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, virtual reality and smart factory technology.  They are typically taught on the premises of universities and institutes of technology or through online or distance learning.  The majority of courses commence next autumn, however there are a number of courses that start later in the year and in early 2020.  Employees, jobseekers or those returning to work may avail of the courses.  These course are free for for people who are unemployed, those who were previously self-employed and returning to the workforce.  Courses are also free for people in employment for certificate-level courses, while they must pay 10 per cent of the cost for degree or masters level courses, which is typically several hundred euro.  Minister for Education Joe McHugh said these training programmes provide a great opportunity to upskill or reskill in areas in which employers need skilled workers.  “As technology evolves, it brings with it new ways of doing business and new economic opportunities,” he said.  “The Government recognises that it is essential that people in employment have the opportunity to keep pace with these advances.”  The 9,000-plus places on offer under Springboard+ 2019 represents an investment of more than €30m.  This is drawn from the National Training Fund - a levy on employers - along wityh funding from the European.  Candidates who wish to participate in the programme can find full details of approved courses on the dedicated information and applications website (springboardcourses.ie ).  The Springboard+ initiative has until recently been targeted mainly at unemployed people to help them to re-enter the labour market.  With jobless rates falling, courses are now being made available to all people irrespective of their employment status.  Springboard, which is managed by the Higher Education Authority on behalf of the Department of Education, began in 2011 as part of the Government’s jobs initiative.  These courses form part of a wider strategy to boost numbers taking part in lifelong learning  Courses are not all at full award at each level and may involve minor awards or special purposes awards.  All courses have been required to provide job-readiness training and most offer the opportunity for work placement, project-based learning or industry site visits where appropriate.  The courses approved for funding were selected by an independent panel with experts from industry and education following a competitive tendering process.  In particular, courses with a proven track record in getting people back into employment were recommended for funding.


dailyheraldchicago--2019-10-07--U-46 could offer 23 career pathway programs

Elgin schools officials Monday night got a glimpse of 23 distinct career pathways proposed as part of new academies at the district's five comprehensive high schools and Dream Academy alternative school.  Each Elgin Area School District U-46 high school will house the same five college and career academies focusing on the fine arts, human services, business, liberal arts, and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields by the 2021-22 school year. Those academies will comprise multiple educational pathways -- a multiyear sequence of courses -- allowing students to explore a field of interest as elective courses during their sophomore, junior and senior years while taking core classes and meeting rigorous college admission requirements.  Some pathways will be offered at all schools and others will be unique to one or two buildings based on site or equipment requirements.  Among the career pathways currently offered at select high schools are courses in automotive, welding, health care science and manufacturing. Those will be rolled into the new academies. Proposed career pathways by academy are:  Students will have the opportunity to earn industry certification, dual college credit and gain internship experience through the pathway programs, said Kinasha Brown, U-46 director of educational pathways.  They also can switch once enrolled in a particular pathway and choose courses offered only at select sites, even if it is not available at their home school. For instance, the district recently built a state-of-the-art welding lab at Elgin High School that won't be duplicated elsewhere, Brown said.  "We have students that are traveling within the district to attend pathways -- welding, automotive and culinary arts -- that are not offered within their home school," Brown said.  These small learning communities will emphasize rigor, relevance to current employment trends, relationships with peers and staff, and college and career readiness skills, officials said.  High school freshmen will be required to take a semesterlong seminar course that includes notetaking, study skills and career exploration before selecting an intentionally-designed sequence of courses housed within each academy.  "We are looking at the freshman year to be sort of a foundation year," Brown said.  Officials are reviewing how district facilities are being used with the goal of preparing for the launch of the new educational pathways.  Among the criteria officials used to determine which pathways to offer are local and national employment data, program design, teachers who meet state and industry licensing requirements to teach courses, and student interest based on test scores and surveys through Naviance, a web-based college and career readiness platform used in middle school and high school.  The district likely will hire instructors for some pathways and provide professional development for existing staff to be certified, Brown said.  Meanwhile, U-46's existing high school academies will become unique magnet programs: STEM at Bartlett; International Baccalaureate Studies at Elgin; Visual and Performing Arts at Larkin; Beacon Academy of Media and Digital Arts at South Elgin; and World Languages International Studies at Streamwood.  The programs are in the process of being certified by Magnet Schools of America.  Town hall sessions are scheduled this month and next on pathways plans. They will run from 6 to 7:30 p.m.


dailyheraldchicago--2019-08-15--Nicor career academy gives grads peace of mind and stability

Nicor career academy gives grads 'peace of mind and stability'

Wesley Strickland's career path involved a lot of bouncing around before he came to Nicor -- jumping from one school or job to another or balancing multiple at a time.  Now it involves a lot of walking, yet more stability, the 27-year-old Lisle native says.  Strickland is one of 21 graduates in the first cohort of the Nicor Gas Career Academy, and since Dec. 3, he's been employed as a Nicor meter reader.  He's learned the most efficient ways to complete long routes of up to 600 meters a day; the importance of wearing watertight shoes, staying hydrated and packing pepper spray for aggressive dogs; and the locations of the best beef and burger joints in his territory. And he's learned the value of working in an industry he says has staying power.  "I really enjoy working with my hands, and Nicor gives you that peace of mind and stability that you can finish a career here," Strickland said. "This, I can depend on."  The utility's career academy launched last year as a free workforce education program designed to help fill positions expected to be vacated by retirees.  Nearly half the energy workforce will retire within the next 10 years, according to the Center for Energy Workforce Development. So the academy works to transfer on-the-job knowledge from experienced Nicor employees to new ones, spokeswoman Jennifer Golz said.  Strickland completed the six-week program last September and was hired by the company less than three months later.  "I started in December, so layer up," he said, describing his work attire. His knees took some time to adjust to a job he says is "pretty much like hiking all day."  And after eight months, Strickland is getting accustomed to training for a higher position as a utility specialist.  Nicor is working on a meter modernization project that by the end of 2020 is expected to change out all 2.2 million meters in its 650-community distribution area, Golz said. The new meters will transmit automatic readings.  "This will give more accurate data and timely energy usage information to our customers," Golz said.  But automatic transmission will remove the need for the entry-level workers like Strickland to serve as meter readers.  So as Nicor employees like Hector Rivas, an upgrade installer, switch out meters and install modules to transmit readings, meter readers like Strickland tag along to observe and learn.  On Wednesday, Rivas showed Strickland the five-minute process of removing an old module, then attaching and activating a new one on the side of a brick house in Addison.  Hopping out of his company SUV, Rivas brought a bucket for garbage and a box containing the new module up to the home, notified the owner, then made the switch. The longest part of the process, he explained to Strickland, can be getting a mini computer called a Trimble to connect to Wi-Fi to activate the module.  After shadowing Rivas on the job, Strickland said he's open to see where a Nicor career can take him. He has skills in graphic design and broadcasting from an associate degree he earned at College of DuPage and an interest in voice acting and stand-up comedy. And from the career program he completed last fall, he says he has an appreciation of the clean energy market.  "It gave me a good overview of how natural gas works in Illinois," he said.  Nicor plans to continue the career academy, with a new group starting classes Sept. 30. Registration is closed, but for details about the program, visit https://www.nicorgas.com/community/discover-careers-in-energy/educational-partnerships.


dailyheraldchicago--2019-12-27--Suburban high school students showing strong interest in career and technical education

Stevenson High School senior Gavin Meng and his classmates hatched a plan for their lemonade stand to outsell the competition just before winter break.  Meng's team at the Lincolnshire school devoted most of its money to buy lemons for a freshly squeezed product sold at a basic stand while the other group went for an eye-catching inflatable bar, but offered a cheaper powdered lemonade. Each team had a $50 budget and agreed to donate all profits to the Animal Welfare Institute.  This competition, however, wasn't just a bunch of teenagers having fun in a school cafeteria. The lemonade stands were an entrepreneurship class marketing assignment as part of Stevenson's career and technical education program.  "For me, it's always been engineering or business," said Meng, pausing from his lemonade duties. "So, I'm definitely going to pursue either one of those in college and this is a really good hands-on experience for that."  Courses such as Stevenson's entrepreneurship class exemplify the growth in career and technical education (CTE) enrollment at high schools statewide. Of 611,732 high schoolers in Illinois, there were 284,680 enrolled in CTE in 2019 -- an increase of nearly 5,000 since 2016 -- despite overall pupil declines, according to the current State Board of Education report card.  The report card shows Stevenson was among the suburban CTE enrollment leaders with 1,962 students. Others with strong CTE enrollment are Huntley High School at 1,806 students and Barrington High School with 1,703 teenagers.  Career and technical education courses, typically taken as electives, allow students an opportunity to become well prepared for their majors before starting college or qualify them for some jobs right after high school graduation. Students can even earn college credits in advance in certain courses.  Stevenson's director of applied arts, Wendy Custable, said CTE also is valuable when students find out in high school that a certain profession is not for them before entering college.  "It's a cheaper route, right?" Custable said. "An example might be in our web development and game development courses. Kids think, 'Ooh, fun, I play games.' Well, there's a lot that goes into those. There's the coding. There's all that design work on the other end. They're like, 'Oh, I didn't know what that meant' or 'I didn't know this is what it entails.'"  Erika Schlichter, assistant superintendent for learning and innovation at Huntley Community School District 158, said the high school's career and technical education program continues to evolve.  "One of our goals is to make as many CTE classes as possible dual credit so our students could actually get those college transcripts before they leave high school, which is a huge benefit to them financially but also their careers," Schlichter said.  Geometry in construction, fashion, small engines and personal finance are some of Huntley High's CTE offerings. Schlichter said trade unions related to automotive work and welding have been contacted in an effort to learn about apprenticeship programs and how Huntley High potentially can help meet employment and other needs.  "We're just realizing that there's such a richness there, that it's going to prepare kids to go to a two-year college, a four-year college, directly to careers, really helping them focus on what they want to do and what they want to be and then being able to provide it," Schlichter said.  Barrington High School Assistant Principal Ben Rodriguez said he recently observed a student counseling session that illustrated how career and technical education can be part of an overall plan.  Rodriguez said the student has a goal of taking higher-level classes at Barrington High and attending college, but the counselor asked whether there was a degree focus or career interests. He said the counselor and student then crafted a plan to include CTE courses for next year.  Culinary arts, video production, financial accounting and certified nursing assistant are some of Barrington High's CTE choices. Rodriguez said the school is exploring the possibility of having certain endorsements attached to the culinary arts course that would allow students to enter the field straight from high school.  Rodriguez said having students experience "really authentic courses" mirroring a potential career can help guide their future path. He added that Barrington High's CTE offerings are guided by student interests.  "Even if a student says, 'You know what, I didn't necessarily like everything about my course in (certified nursing assistant), but I really liked the insurance part of that course,' from there, they could take courses in business and courses related to that," he said. "Even if they're not necessarily going into the medical field, there's still a lot of exposure to a lot of things they could go explore later."


eveningstandard--2019-05-18--Londoner who slept on dining room floor while studying for his dream medical career earns lab placem

Londoner who slept on dining room floor while studying for his dream medical career earns lab placement at King's College Hospital

A young Londoner who slept on his dining room floor while studying for his dream career has earnt a rare lab placement at King's College Hospital.  Stephen Addoco, who had to seek help from a homeless charity as a teenager, will spend time working in the neurology department.  The 27-year-old moved to London from Ghana when he was 17, but faced challenges as he tried to create a new life in the capital.  While studying for his A Levels, he lived in cramped conditions alongside several family members in a three-bedroom home in east London.  He wound up sleeping on the dining room floor and the situation became so difficult that he had to seek help from Centrepoint.  The charity eventually helped him secure his own property and Mr Addoco went on to gain a first class honours degree in biomedical sciences from the University of East London.  He now wants to become a doctor so he can “be an impact in someone’s life” and says the placement is a step in the right direction.  He said: “I didn’t really have my own room or space. I slept in a dining room that was detached from the kitchen, it was uncomfortable.  “It was difficult. Most of the time I would have to study in other places.”  Mr Addoco moved to the UK to be reunited with his family.  But Mr Addoco said he found it "really, really tough” to study in those conditions.  He got in touch with Ilford Council, who referred him to the charity.  The charity gave Mr Addoco funds to travel to and from his college and university, and helped him move to a property in nearby Redbridge.  He also supported himself by working at Tesco, part time.  Mr Addoco, now a qualified biomedical scientist, has also won an education award from Centrepoint for his efforts.  The award, which was endorsed by Prince William, was given to Mr Addoco because he showed “great strength of character”, according to Seyi Obkin, Centrepoint’s CEO.  Speaking about his award, Mr Addoco said: “My dad couldn’t believe it. It felt really, really great. The fact that it was endorsed by Prince William is such a good feeling.”  Describing his dreams to work in medicine, he added: “I’ve always wanted to study medicine and become a doctor.  “I enjoy making a change in someone’s life, helping them and making someone feel better. I want to be able to make an impact in someone’s life.”


birminghammail--2019-06-26--Training provider creates 80 new apprenticeship starts

A provider of apprenticeships and work-based training has created nearly 80 new apprentice starts since the launch of an employment campaign last year.  The Ladder for Greater Birmingham initiative was started in 2018 with the aim of creating 1,000 new apprenticeships in Birmingham and Solihull.  The Birmingham office of UK company JTL is behind 79 new starts through the Ladder campaign - with plans to take on a fresh cohort in September.  JTL is also one of the region's leaders in the provision of opportunities under the Government's 'Traineeship' programme.  Still a relatively new approach, it is aiming to increase the employability skills of young people leaving school or classed as NEETs - not in employment, education or training.  Under the campaign, 16 to 18 year olds complete a programme combining work preparation and training alongside real-life work experience with an employer.  JTL screens and prepares learners before they are sent out on work experience and it is hoped traineeships will then lead to apprenticeships or job opportunities.  The training firm, whose city base is in Aston, has been a big supporter of the Ladder for Greater Birmingham campaign since its launch last summer.  The initiative is run by community development group The Vine Trust and training provider Performance Through People with funding from the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP and Birmingham and Solihull Training Provider Network, with BirminghamLive as media partner.  It is running in conjunction with the new Ladder for Birmingham Apprenticeship Awards which takes place on July 4 and will celebrate apprentices, employers and the organisations helping them succeed.  JTL placed Birmingham-based trainees Hamza Hussain and William Stewart with construction group Wates on a four-week placement.  The programme covers modules such as health and safety and employability skills including interview techniques, communications and CV writing.  The pair also spent time on taster days alongside various teams around the business to learn more about the type of work Wates does and the skills it needs.  Hamza focused on plumbing and heating, working with a team on void residential properties, while William spent time with electrical, plumbing and carpentry teams before deciding the latter was his preferred route.  Ronda D'Aguilar, Wates' customer and community manager, said: "The supervisors in the teams they have been working with were very impressed with their commitment to the experience.  "They found the trainees to be highly motivated and very eager to learn. It has been the first time we have worked with JTL on the Traineeship programme.  "You don't know how these things will pan out but it has been such a positive experience for us as a business that we would like to continue this on a regular basis.  "It's a great way to see how a potential apprentice might get along - almost like an extended interview process - and our experience with Hamza and William has been hugely positive."  Following their placements, Hamza and William were offered the chance to apply for an apprenticeship with Wates to start in September.  Performance manager Dave Singh added: "For us, this is almost a 'try before you buy' scenario.  "We may get 20 to 30 people come in to interview for apprentice positions and it's never easy to gauge how committed somebody will be to the job once they are given a place on an apprenticeship just through an interview process.  "With the traineeships, we are able to see how the candidate fits within the company in real time and establish how they get on with other team members over a period, gauging their enthusiasm for the job role we are looking to place them in."  Both Hamza and William speak positively about their time on placement with Wates - so much so that Hamza has recommended the process to his brother and cousin.  William added: "I liked being able to move around within my placement until I found something I really enjoyed.  "Now I can focus on doing what I want to do and be a part of a company that offers me financial security now and in the future."  JTL is running a taster day aimed at 16 to 18 year olds, from 11am to 2pm on Thursday June 27, at its training centre in Mill Street, Aston. To register your interest, text your name and age to 07825 937 945. The next Birmingham Traineeship programmes start on July 8 and August 6.


birminghammail--2019-11-01--Midlands towns invited to apply for share of £3.6bn for jobs, training and transport

The Government has invited towns across the Midlands and the North to apply for a share of £3.6bn in funding, in what it describes as a plan to “rebalance the national economy and level up our regions”.  But it admitted that towns had been neglected in the past - as successive governments concentrated on pouring investment into big cities.  A total of 101 towns have been invited to apply for a share of the cash. They include Bloxwich in the Black Country; Burton-upon-Trent in Staffordshire; Dudley; Hereford; Kidsgrove in Staffordshire; Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire; Nuneaton in Warwickshire; Redditch in Worcestershire; Rowley Regis in the Black Country; Smethwick in the Black Country; Telford in Shropshire; Walsall; West Bromwich; Wolverhampton and Worcester.  Robert Jenrick, the Local Government Secretary, said: “We know that a bright and prosperous future lies ahead for the whole of the United Kingdom. However, for too long, the benefits of this unprecedented growth in many of our world-renowned cities has not been felt as strongly by communities in our towns and rural areas.”  And a report published by the Government to launch the scheme said: “Successive Governments have often focused on cities as engines of economic growth.”  Councils will first need to bid for a share of the money by drawing up plans explaining how they would spend it, and have today been allocated up to £173,000 for each town to help them do this.  The Government’s report sets out some examples of projects that money could be spent on. They include • Improving transport links to major economic assets, such as large manufacturers. This would help firms win contracts as suppliers • Making it easier for people to reach the local train station, which is often the way to get the nearest big city. This can help people in towns access jobs in cities. • Redeveloping vacant sites - such as empty factories - for new business and leisure uses • Making it easier for people to access training, such as developing sites which have office space and training facilities next door to each other • General improvements to quality of life, which can encourage businesses to locate to an area  The report warns: “While some towns have prospered through their links to growing cities, generally residential towns – including commuter towns – have seen declining populations. For those still living in shrinking towns, social mobility often falters, even when compared to the most deprived communities in cities.  “Where this is accompanied by declining quality of employment opportunities that can be accessed in towns, it can lead to feelings of being ‘left-behind’. In addition, the decline in retail offer and business closures often leaves a very visible mark on town centres and the wider built environment.”  Mr Jenrick said: “This government is committed to levelling up all parts of the country. We created the £3.6bn Towns Fund to help businesses grow, connect communities and give people the skills they need to succeed.  “But no place is exactly the same. That is why we want to help local people to decide how this investment of up to £25 million in each town can be used to help create new businesses, new jobs and new homes for generations to come.”


eveningstandard--2019-02-28--How can I get a job in the digital industry Upskill Digital CEO Gori Yahaya on training London

How can I get a job in the digital industry? Upskill Digital CEO Gori Yahaya on training London

London is the largest tech hub in the UK and the challenge is on to ensure Londoners are geared up for a bright digital future.  While start-ups are flourishing in East London’s Tech City near Shoreditch, the race is on to get even more people to adapt to new technologies and to help youngsters realise how their social media skills could function in the workplace. There’s plenty we still have to learn.  Future London spoke to Gori Yahaya, Founder and CEO of Upskill Digital to hear more about ensuring London stays ahead of the digital revolution.  “I feel London being a big metropolitan city, we have access to amazing things, we’re quite hungry and ambitious to get our hands on with different things, but the city is often overwhelming,” says Gori. “It’s hard to know the best way to use the facilities. So you need support.”  Working with Future London partners, Google Digital Garage, Gori is delivering digital skills sessions across the city’s harder to reach places to ensure all Londoners can develop their skills.  “It’s amazing, and going to be great to reach prospective people. Going into youth centres in Hackney, the kids are great on social media, but what they need for the workplace is that business acumen to drive impact in their job.  “There are lots of big start-ups in London, but we still need to be at the forefront to combat those education challenges and encourage talent. There’s still a lot we can learn.”  Gori has owned Upskill Digital for four years now and worked with a number of start-ups to help develop their digital presence.  “It’s all about training and getting hands on,” he says.  “You need to have charismatic digital experts and reach lots of people by making it relatable. You don’t go straight in by telling them to build a website, it’s often too technical, has too many parts and the process is too complicated. There are lots of great platforms out there that you can build quickly instead.  “The big difference now is you need your audience to find you. The old saying “build it and they will come” just doesn’t work online in the same way.  “And there is this intimidation towards technology as people don’t know exactly how it works. They need humans to show them and get them feeling comfortable, people they find relatable to show them what the outcomes can be.”  According to Gori, it’s all about engaging with local communities.  “We see all ages, from older people overcoming the first step by asking ‘I need to know how to do this’ to young people who still need to upskill themselves. It’s not just about being able to use Instagram, but also having that business acumen – looking at how to turn your skills to a business context,” says Gori.  “Getting into the industry can be hard. You can’t be what you can’t see. But if you find someone you can relate to, and see how those skills are useful to you, it’s so important. Different backgrounds, ages, races and genders – we need to make sure everyone feels empowered enough to take control and that we get into those harder to reach places and put the extra work in with communities and youth centres, because a diversity of thought brings better ideas.”


fortune--2019-09-09--How to Tell If Your Job Is a Stepping Stone to a Career

When it comes to seeing a path forward in their current roles, half of employees feel like they have a career while half feel they have “just a job,” according to an August 2019 survey from CareerBuilder.  But what is the difference between seeking your vocation as a work-a-day role versus a stepping stone to bigger things? And does it matter?  Considering that the same survey found that 32% of employees plan to leave their roles this year, it does matter for companies that want to attract and retain talent, says Michelle Armer, chief people officer with CareerBuilder. She was surprised at the findings. “From a talent acquisition perspective, that’s very encouraging. From a talent retention perspective, that’s really scary,” she says.  When people talk about having a “career,” they’re typically referring to having a role that offers “meaningful progression over time,” says career coach Dorie Clark, author of Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future. However, having a “job” it’s more of a placeholder —a way to make money that may or may not be aligned with their ultimate goals for themselves.  Work often creates a sense of purpose which can lead to greater overall satisfaction, Clark says. In fact, a 2018 Pew Research Center report said that career ranked second only to family in what gives people meaning to their lives. “If you feel that you have a career and a professional purpose that you're working towards, that is certainly preferable to feeling like you're just punching the clock,” Clark says.  Career coach Allison Holzer, co-author of Dare to Inspire: Sustain the Fire of Inspiration in Work and in Life points to the research report “Jobs, Careers, and Callings: People’s Relationships to their Work.” The report identified three categories of work orientation: those who have a job essentially do it for the money; those with careers have a deeper personal investment and measure achievement through advancement and money; and those with callings do their work because of the fulfilment it brings, regardless of reward.  Holzer also posits whether there might be a generational component to the findings. She points to research that millennials want to feel like their work is meaningful and part of a solution. That may be more of a motivating factor in how they choose to earn money than being on an upward trajectory, she says.  But that doesn’t necessarily mean that people who feel like they aren’t on a career track are heading for the door. Armer says understanding the employee’s mindset is important. People may change their opinions about their career paths or growth opportunities at different stages in their lives, she says. Sometimes, an individual may be highly engaged in their career for a period of time. Then, something may happen in their personal lives that takes priority. Or, they may be spending more time pursuing interests outside of work. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re looking for a new opportunity.     “There is something extremely noble in somebody that wants to come to work and give excellent output and results and make an impact in the work that they do, but then they're also satisfied going home,” Armer says.  For managers seeking to keep talented employees, whether they’re looking for a regular paycheck or a path to the CEO’s office, the first step lies in understanding their motivation. “It’s crucially important for employers to understand what motivates their employees,” Clark says. Whether you’re blocking an employee who’s seeking a career path or pushing another one who’s looking for a way to earn money while spending 35 to 40 hours a week likely isn’t going to make anyone happy. Look at your employees as individuals and help them establish the kind of work relationship they want.  Shifts in performance management techniques can help, Holzer says. As more companies abandon the annual performance review for more regular check-ins and feedback, managers have more opportunities to take the pulse of their team members and find out where they are.  Armer agrees. “As an employer, you want to be agile as to the percent of your population that feels like, ‘Right now I'm in rapid growth mode. I want to develop and continue to grow in my career.’ And then there might be some people that just think, ‘Now is not the right time,’” she says. But, don’t pigeonhole people —their feelings may change over time.  And, regardless of the role the employee wishes to take, if the individual is someone you want to retain, provide them with the support and training they need be successful, Clark says. The CareerBuilder survey reinforces the importance of doing so. More than half of respondents (58%) say their companies don’t offer enough opportunities to learn new skills and help them move up in their career. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of employees who work at places that don’t offer educational opportunities would take advantage of them if they were offered.  Talented employees have different needs and motivations when it comes to the way they spend their workdays. Understanding those individual attributes and ensuring they remain connected with the meaning in their work, is the key to motivating them, regardless of whether they’re on a career or job-focused path.  —Yes, you can find a good job without a college degree  —Why is job hunting (still) so slow?  —How to deliver an apology your colleague will actually want to hear  —3 ways to wow a tech recruiter  —Job applicants with a “comprehensive” LinkedIn profile 71% more likely to get interviews  Get Fortune’s RaceAhead newsletter for sharp insights on corporate culture and diversity.


newsweek--2019-01-28--5 LinkedIn Strategies to Help Grow Your Career

As a job seeker (or a consultant), leveraging LinkedIn could be a viable way to boost your digital presence and build a personal brand.  While 5 strategies won’t suffice for a complete revamp, here are the top 5 categories that you can focus on.  LinkedIn provides a vast set of internal tools for building one’s profile. Make sure you fill out all areas and provide enough value in order to demonstrate your skills and qualifications in the best possible manner.  Browse a few profiles of industry leaders and influencers in your field. Leverage some of the best practices and adjust them for your profile.  LinkedIn lets you publish regular posts (similarly to other social networks) and write articles (formerly their LinkedIn Pulse platform).  HubSpot suggests posting once a day on LinkedIn around 10–11am.  With articles, it’s a bit tricky. Different influencers report various results regarding their success rates.  I’ve seen success stories varying from once a week to every day (for highly successful personal blogs). Aiming for at least once a week would let you benefit from the aggregating volume that keeps receiving traction over time.  Moreover, LinkedIn launched video updates and they keep featuring that proactively. Recording daily educational videos (or every few days) will most likely receive more attention than standard textual posts.  Tag other people who will get notified once mentioned - especially if you discuss more active LinkedIn members.  If you want to build your portfolio for work purposes, make sure your topics are closely related with your specialty. You want to end up with a complete profile that screams “professional” and is focused on what you do and are eager to do.  “Build it and they will come” sounds great in theory, but isn’t as efficient in practice.  Connect your emails and other social accounts and grow your existing network through peers using other mediums. Reach out to former colleagues of yours, fellow students, teachers, and people you’ve met at conferences.  Join LinkedIn groups and interact with people. Comment on discussions, share topics on your own feed, mention other team members. Most people would be sending invitations every now and then - and don’t be afraid to ask for a connection request after a couple of interactions.  Pro tip: There are certain groups including LION in their titles - which stands for “LinkedIn Open Networkers”. Those folks are actively networking with as many people as possible. This may increasingly grow your network over the next months and bring a solid volume of 2nd level connections.  LinkedIn supports both endorsements and recommendations. Here’s the formal overview for each features:  A skill endorsement is a one-click way for your connections to endorse the skills listed on your profile. There is not an automatic way to request an endorsement and only skills already listed can be endorsed. A written recommendation isn't included with this feature. Learn more about skill endorsements. A recommendation is a written statement of endorsement from a connection. You can request recommendations from your connections, as well as proactively recommend your connections. Learn more about recommendations.  Recommendations work better than job references as they are public and connected to a specific profile on LinkedIn. This is highly valuable and those may come from former colleagues, managers, teachers, or other peers that you have worked with.  Endorsements don’t carry as much weight, but could be helpful when you want to showcase expertise in a certain area.  For instance, as the owner of a WordPress tech agency who has built hundreds of plugins and contributed to the WordPress core numerous times, my network has testified of my skill set:  When over a hundred people confirm your expertise (including their own profiles), that confirms your knowledge which makes it more likely to land a relevant offer.  This works both ways, of course—help your other peers and upvote their skills and they may return the favor as well.  All of that works flawlessly and you may soon start receiving regular job offers. But if you want to push it further, follow the top companies in your field that you are interested in.  Add some of their employees in your network as well. And probably join some relevant groups, too.  This would give you the competitive advantage of following job posts on LinkedIn once they come and see similar statuses published on a company’s page or shared by their employees. This head start could be invaluable if you are among the first applicants submitting their resume to the hiring managers.  Other press releases or industry news may be helpful as well. If a startup has announced a recent funding, they may soon be looking for new team members. Reach out to the hiring manager or one of the founders and talk to them about possible opportunities.