thedailyecho--2019-05-07--New nurse training ward opens at Southampton Solent University

THE CHIEF nurse for England opened a new nursing simulation suite at a Southampton university yesterday.  Lisa Bayliss-Pratt, chief nurse for Health Education England, came to Solent University to open the new six-bed nursing simulation ward, care home and doctor’s surgery, which is part of the university's £100 million campus improvement plan.  The facility gives nursing students and apprentices the opportunity to develop and refine their clinical skills, as well as support their developing knowledge of physiological and pharmacology.  It also supports the university’s growing portfolio of nursing degrees and apprenticeships.  Lisa Bayliss-Pratt said: "I’m really excited by the simulation suite because patient safety has to come first. We should deliver a lot more of our education and training in a formative, simulated way so that when we do engage with patients and people within communities, we are properly prepared, we know where our competencies lie and we can deliver safe and effective care."  She added about the university: "The fundamentals that have been demonstrated to me today, providing a warm and friendly welcome and having a really nice environment that makes people feel comfortable, shows me that they are off to a fantastic start within nursing and health careers here at Solent."  Professor Graham Baldwin, Solent University’s Vice-Chancellor, said: "It’s great to see this area grow at Solent - from the original FdSc in Health and Social care to the introduction of our nursing associate degree apprenticeships, apprenticeships, a BSc in Adult Nursing, and a mental health nursing course in the very near future.  "At some point in our lives we will all come into contact with the nursing profession, which highlights its important for society, the university and us as individuals. Here at Solent, we want to play our part in producing the nurses of the future and making sure that we can continue with the fantastic success that is the NHS."


thedenverpost--2019-06-03--Career training program to stay in operation in Colorado

GRAND JUNCTION — The U.S. Department of Labor says the Forest Service will stop operating Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers, slating nine for closure.  The Daily Sentinel reported that 16 of the job centers will stay open under new operators or partnerships, including the center at Grand Mesa High School in Collbran.  School principal Wendy Nichols says they’re trying to continue operating the education and career technical training program as normal, but there’s uncertainty for how it will proceed.  The Collbran center currently has 166 students enrolled. It operates year-round at no cost to students.  The department says the new operators of the centers will set new policies to “offer students the skills they need to earn an independent living and succeed in meaningful in-demand jobs.”


eveningstandard--2019-05-29--The best cookery courses in London

The best cookery courses in London

Need to add some purpose to your superficially fulfilling but fundamentally empty existence?  Learn to cook. Call it survivalism, bunkering down from the Brexageddon with a sofrito chopped in the company of like minds and a secure bulwark of tagliatelle, kneaded and rolled by your own fair hands.  Call it rejection of the relentless, soul-destroying, health-wrecking, sanity-sapping rat race, one which makes you want to retrain as a jolly, red-cheeked chef plump with butter and shortcrust satisfaction. Maybe it’s just the deluge of cookery shows on telly, or the realisation that we app-addicted urbanites are incapable of completing practical tasks. Whatever — here’s where to learn to cook your way to happiness.  As you know from watching Nigella, Tom, Michel et al attacking a pile of onions, proper chopping is not only crucial but dead impressive. Learn how to work those blade angles like a pro and which knife to use where — as well as how to prep, truss and segment a chicken — at Borough Kitchen’s hugely useful applied knife skills course.  Honing your pastry or chopping technique is all well and good, but it’s not going to put a hugely impressive three-course dinner party on your table, is it? For that, you need to get into a Building Feasts sesh, where you’ll learn to cook (and eat) all manner of multi-course marvels with minimal stress on your part. The dream.  Fancy a career change? Do you harbour deep longings of being elbow-deep in flour, enveloped in the steam of simmering scarlet sauces? Quit your job and go to Leiths. Okay, maybe don’t quit straight away, but certainly take a mini-sabbatical at one of its week-long courses in the fundamentals of cooking, for a sense of what it might be like to go pro.  Woah, you don’t want to go pro. You kind of actually just want to have a laugh, with some mates, in really nice surroundings with really nice booze. Off you pop to Bentley’s, the wonderful old-school Mayfair joint, for a brilliantly OTT seafood cookery class including champagne and canapés, a four-course lunch with matched wines and a goody bag.  Hello, do you like pasta? Obviously you like pasta. Learn to make the thing you love — and other things, such as foccacia, and tiramisu, and pizza, and ragu — with The Essential Italian course at Marylebone’s wonderfully warm La Cucina Caldesi, founded by brilliant cookbook writers Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi.


rawstory--2019-11-07--Learn to master all of Adobe Creative Cloud with these courses

A great orator can shift the viewpoint of millions of people with a carefully composed speech. But sometimes, images speak louder than words.  If you want to learn how to create compelling visual content, the Ultimate Adobe CC Training Bundle provides the perfect education. It contains 12 hands-on video courses, focusing on the software used by top creative professionals (software not included). Get all of this training now for $39 at the Raw Story Store.  Whether you dream about starting a career in design or you want to run effective marketing campaigns, this bundle offers some essential know-how. Through 639 video tutorials, you’ll learn the Adobe CC suite inside out.  Along the way, you learn the basics of Photoshop, from creating social media posts to retouching photos. Two courses on Illustrator show you how to design logos and beautiful charts, while the InDesign training focuses on brochure and magazine design.  You also get a healthy introduction to designing for the web. Courses on Adobe XD and Dreamweaver show you how to create great interfaces, while the HTML5 and After Effects tracks look at animated content.  Pick up the bundle now for $39 and get lifetime access to all the courses.


thedenverpost--2019-07-06--Want to be a college dean or president CU Denver training diverse mid-level professionals to ascen

Want to be a college dean or president? CU Denver training diverse, mid-level professionals to ascend higher-ed’s ranks

A first-of-its kind program at the University of Colorado Denver is helping people like Lynette Bates become the leader in higher education she wished she knew when she was an undergraduate.  Bates grew up in Pueblo County and said she was discouraged from pursuing a college degree by her high school guidance counselor because neither of her parents finished school or earned their GED.  Since her understanding of the higher education system was fuzzy, she picked up two jobs after high school and delayed advancing her studies because she thought she needed pay for all of her college tuition up front.  “I thought I was unique in not knowing the processes,” said Bates, now the vice president of academic affairs at Trinidad State Junior College. “I realized I am not the only one with this lack of understanding of how higher education works. I wanted to do this degree so that I can better serve the students that I serve.”  The CU Denver Leadership for Educational Equity program welcomes Bates among its first cohort this summer. The largely online doctoral course — costing approximately $22,000, excluding books, materials and fees — is targeting folks already involved in higher ed with hopes of shaping the next university dean, president and beyond. The degree aims to bring diversity to positions that Diane Hegeman, the program’s senior instructor, noted were increasingly becoming vacant.  Bruce Benson, the 81-year-old who served as CU president for more than a decade, retired last month, leading to a contentious search for his successor, Mark Kennedy, that left many in the higher education community disheartened. Joyce McConnell took the reins from Colorado State University’s longtime president Tony Frank in April. Jeremy Haefner was tapped to lead the University of Denver in June.  “The baby boomer leaders in higher education, just like we’re seeing in industries everywhere, are all retiring and exiting,” Hegeman said. “What are we doing to fill that void and training and helping other developing leaders to assume those roles?”  Hegeman is putting in the work to answer her question.  The degree seeks mid-level professionals ready to move up the career ladder who need a bit more experience — a department chair, a program director or someone in a vice president role with higher aspirations, for example.  The courses — subjects like finance, resource allocation, government and policy, conflict resolution, education law and ethics — are viewed through a social justice lens with an emphasis on using technology and data to help all student populations.  “For many years in higher education, we focused on access to get as many people into our institution as possible, but we didn’t necessarily utilize technology to make the kind of precise decisions needed to help students,” said Linda Bowman, CU Denver’s interim vice provost and senior vice chancellor for student access and achievement. “We now have the opportunity to use data analytics to project how to best accommodate different populations.  “If I am a student who goes back to school and, perhaps, I’m an older student, and I work, and I have family responsibilities, what are the kind of support systems we as an institution need to have available? Utilizing data to find things like this is really important.”  Seventeen students from diverse backgrounds are ushering in the program’s inaugural class this summer. Close to half are CU employees looking for ways to grow in their careers, and the rest span the gamut of higher education institutions from public to private, two-year to four-year, local and national.  “It’s designed so a working professional is able to be in this program because it utilizes online education,” Bowman said. “It’s offered one course at a time, so you can focus on that course and be working and apply what you learn.”  The degree also features off-campus “intensive bootcamps” at which students can meet face-to-face, but all the course work and the doctoral dissertation can be completed online.  Bates looks forward to strengthening her leadership skills and fine-tuning her higher education knowledge so she can better serve her rural Colorado students.  “This degree I firmly believe will help me be a better administrator,” Bates said. “I believe that higher education is for everyone. I’ve served incredible students who, like myself, were told they wouldn’t go on to higher education… Too many people have assumptions placed on them, and we need to be able to help find pathways for them.”


theguardianuk--2019-02-13--How retraining refugees could help tackle NHS staffing crisis

When Horani Othman fled Syria with his Kurdish family in 2012, he arrived in the UK not knowing how he would make ends meet. Sent to live in Birmingham by the Home Office immigration authorities, he and his family were granted indefinite leave to remain last year. Now Othman, 54, is keen to get his career back on track. A pilot project in the Black Country is not only giving him valuable work experience in the UK, it could offer a solution to the growing crisis in NHS staffing levels.  Latest figures show that there are more than 100,000 vacancies for doctors and nurses. Brexit threatens to exacerbate the shortages: 9% of licensed doctors in the UK come from the European Economic Area, while in the West Midlands alone, EU nationals account for 10% of all nursing staff.  In 2017, Lawrence Kelly, widening participation project manager, at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust set up the Use-It programme to help unemployed, medically qualified refugees and migrants in Sandwell and west Birmingham find work in the NHS. The project offers participants free English language classes and work experience in a clinical environment. In little over a year, Lawrence and his team have recruited almost 200 people to the programme. Many of them have been referred by the nearby Brushstrokes community project.  “This far exceeds our initial target of 60 when we set up the programme,” says Kelly. “The feedback from those we are helping has been amazing. People who chose medicine as a career did so because they want to help people. It is frustrating not to be able to practise, due to being displaced from your home country. As they rebuild their lives here, it is good to be able to offer them the tools to improve their English and get back to work.”  Othman, a trained pharmacist, is working at the pharmacy in Sandwell hospital as an assistant for 12 weeks. He works there as an assistant under supervision two days a week and is being shown how the systems work and the hospital’s prescription processes. “I work in the store, assisting with the booking, ordering and checking supplies,” he says. “And on the wards, observing the clinical pharmacist at work reviewing patients’ medication. The practice is different from Syria and I learn more about the patients here.”  The aim of the work placements is to support participants’ registration with their relevant professional medical body. They earn no money during these attachments, but Othman says it’s still worth it. “It’s unpaid but it’s really good as I feel I am back in my field.”  But before Othman can apply to join the General Pharmaceutical Council, he needs to pass the international English language testing system with very high marks. The IELT is a standardised test of English language proficiency for non-native English speakers, covering speaking, reading, writing and listening skills. Othman needs to get high marks in each element to apply to register with the GPC and look for a permanent job. Like many of those on the Use-It programme, he struggles with the written and reading elements of the language course and feels the subject matter isn’t always relevant to his professional needs.  “I understand when the texts are on science and medicine but struggle when it is on subjects like insects, animals and dinosaurs,” he says. When I tried the test later, I struggled with it too. So for now, Horani plans to look for assistant work in a pharmacy or dispensary until he’s ready to sit the IELT.  Even when the participants pass the language test, there are still numerous hurdles to getting a permanent job. Everyone on the programme has their professional qualifications vetted by the National Recognition Improvement Centre. They then often have to complete a practical test for the relevant professional body.  Nikhat Iftikhar, 46, a genito-urinary physcian, specialising in sexual health and HIV, fled Karachi, Pakistan, in 2013, following attacks by Sunni fundamentalists. She has passed the IELT. To meet the requirements of the practical elements of the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board test set by the General Medical Council, she needs to brush up her medical skills. So as part of the Use-It programme, she has been shadowing sexual health doctors for the past three months. “After five years I’m a little bit rusty,” she says. “I need to be in the work environment again. The placement helps to familiarise me with the system here. And I’ll see the protocols of consulting with patients.” As the next step on her return to work, Use-It is arranging for her to return to GP practice on a two-year foundation training contract with all her further professional studies and registration fees paid. Similar arrangements are in hand for a further two doctors.  Now, senior managers plan to roll out the Use-It scheme beyond Sandwell and West Birmingham to the rest of the Black Country. The Black Country Transformation Partnership’s new £300,000 “health overseas professionals” programme is being introduced this year in Dudley, Wolverhampton and west Birmingham, as well as Sandwell, with the aim of recruiting scores of unemployed medically qualified migrants to the scheme and then into permanent NHS jobs. “Finding skilled clinicians in our communities from around the world and helping them to polish and share their expertise is a programme we are committed to for the long term,” says Toby Lewis, chief executive of Sandwell. “The investment is dwarfed by the return, with talented people joining GP, mental health and hospital services locally.”  For Mariam Darman, a senior obstetrician and gynaecologist from Kabul, getting back to her job is vital to her self-worth. “I saved people’s lives before. I’d like to do it again. I lose my identity without work.”


theguardianuk--2019-09-27--Virtual path: how an aviation training startup got onboard with remote internships

Claudio Marturano runs Nubis Aviation Training, a compliance training and support platform for the aviation industry. Marturano began studying for an MBA through The Open University (OU) before setting up his own business. He recruited two OU virtual interns, Lily Beach (online marketing and customer relations officer) and Helen Wood (business development officer), via its online vacancy service, OpportunityHub. They’re both now full-time members of staff.  How did you hear about the OU?  Marturano: I started doing an MBA through the OU because I didn’t have the resources to stop work and go to university full-time. I knew all about OpportunityHub and the ways in which it connects OU students and alumni with career opportunities.  As an employer, what made you recruit via the OU?  Marturano: Having started my own business, my first thought – when the time came to hire people and think about expanding – was the OU. It was an obvious choice because I know that OU students and graduates have a similar mindset to me – we share a commitment to learning and bettering ourselves, and have the resourcefulness to study at the same time as working. That lends itself well to the demands of growing a business.  How did you find Helen and Lily?  Marturano: I contacted the OU via OpportunityHub and they put me in touch with several candidates. Helen and Lily were by far the best fit.  How easy was it to find the right people?  Marturano: It was completely seamless and easy. The OU were fantastic and made it very simple to find the right candidates. They actually did most of the work for us. They took care of everything from collating CVs to contacting candidates. They even put the job advert together.  How did the OU compare with other agencies?  Marturano: I did work with a couple of other recruitment agencies too and they weren’t nearly as helpful.  Were you surprised by the calibre of candidates?  Marturano: I’ll be honest, no. I knew the OU would unearth people with impressive skills and the mindset to succeed. What has surprised me is the fact that I went to the OU as a means to an end – I needed an MBA to progress in my career when I was offered a directorship – but I ended up with the team to start and scale my own business!  Do you have any advice for other employers?  Marturano: Think about what you want from an employee and particularly how you want them to help grow and sustain your business. OU students and graduates don’t want to be average employees – they have the skills and tenacity to become an integral part of your business.  How did you find the position?  Wood: I joined the OU to do a maths degree and I spent a lot of time on the OpportunityHub looking at jobs and seeing what openings were out there. I came across Claudio’s advert and thought the idea of a virtual internship sounded really interesting. I applied and came onboard as a virtual intern for six weeks. After that, I was delighted when Claudio offered me a full-time job.  Beach: When I started international studies with the OU, I immediately began looking for jobs as I’d always planned to work alongside studying for my degree. The online internship seemed perfect for me because you can fit your working hours around your other studies and commitments.  What do you do?  Wood: I work in business development, looking after the sales and finance side of things. I’m also involved in deciding what direction the business will go in the future.  What’s your favourite thing about working?  Wood: I’m in my final year of my degree so I’m working full-time alongside studying, and I enjoy that. I also really like having had the opportunity to join the business from the very early stages of its development. It’s been an invaluable experience.  Beach: I enjoy the fact that I can bring the skills I am learning through my studies to my working environment. It’s great to have this opportunity through the OU to work alongside studying, gaining and developing vital work experience to use for the future and in any professional setting.  What have Lily and Helen brought to your business?  Marturano: They have literally helped build the company from scratch. They were very eager and wanted to achieve from the get-go. Within six weeks, we had made a lot of progress and I realised very quickly they would be of real benefit to the business. Soon after they joined, they helped design an infrastructure for our working environment, which brought us from startup to being ready to scale.  So together they’ve been a dream team?  Marturano: So far, so good, yes!  Any challenges?  Beach: One thing we initially found a little bit of a challenge was communication, but since then we’ve developed our own communication system and way of sharing new information and keeping track of everything we need to work effectively, from project management to workflow.  Marturano: It’s not without its difficulties; you’re doing something brand new and working with people you’ve never met before. But aviation is not a nine-to-five job; you have to work in different time zones and I travel a lot, so having a virtual team that I can communicate with from everywhere has been invaluable.  Hang on – you’ve never met your staff?  Marturano: We’ve met twice since December, but I didn’t meet Helen or Lily until more than a month after they joined the team. The nature of a virtual internship meant I didn’t need to! And I actually think that’s one of the key advantages of a virtual internship; aside from the fact that it keeps overheads low from an economic point of view, it also means you’re not forced in front of each other just because you work together.  Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?  Beach: I am enjoying learning about the business, particularly the aviation industry and contributing towards the growth of the company. We recently launched the official website and I am looking forward to attending events and talking about the products. Although it is difficult to say where I’ll be in five years, I hope to continue to develop my skillset and have completed my degree.  Wood: I’m really enjoying watching the business grow and helping to develop it. I’m not quite sure where I’ll be in five years’ time. I haven’t planned that far ahead. I am taking one thing at a time, finishing my degree and learning more about the business.  Marturano: As an employer it’s wonderful to hear your team say that. They’re already an integral part of the business but that they want to help grow it – well, I couldn’t ask for anything more.  In five years’ time, I’d like us to be a sustainable business with lots more people onboard; the go-to for support and training for the aviation industry.  This article was amended on 5 November 2019 to clarify Claudio Marturano has yet to complete his MBA.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2019-01-14--Revealed Hundreds Of Carillion Apprentices Dropped Out Of Training After Collapse

Revealed: Hundreds Of Carillion Apprentices Dropped Out Of Training After Collapse

Hundreds of young apprentices dropped out of their studies and employment following the collapse of construction giant Carillion, new figures confirm.  Some 163 construction trainees left education, employment and training altogether after Carillion was declared insolvent, despite a £3million government effort to keep them in work.  A further 149 left their education programme to look for other work elsewhere.  The figures from the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), obtained by HuffPost UK, reveal that 70% of Carillion’s 1,148 apprentices were moved to alternative programmes or jobs.  Many of those assumed to have dropped out could not be contacted by the CITB, which is linked to the Department for Education, following the collapse.  Carillion – which struggled under a mounting debt pile – was believed to be “too big to fail” before it went under a year ago in January 2018. It held huge public contracts, from Ministry of Defence deals to multi-million pound NHS works, but was criticised by MPs for “recklessness, hubris and greed”.  “The mystery is not that it collapsed, but that it lasted so long,” they said at the time of its collapse.  Most of Carillion’s contracts have since been taken on by its rivals.  The government was expected to spend around £3m to find new work for the apprentices affected, according to the National Audit Office.  At the time of the collapse, the government refused to offer reassurances that apprentices would not lose out.  Trade unions said the fact young workers were in fact affected shows the “direct human misery” caused by the firm’s demise.  Unite’s assistant general secretary, Gail Cartmail, said: “These are really important figures as they demonstrate the direct human misery and loss of talent caused by Carillion’s collapse.  “At a time of acute and growing skills shortages in the construction , the loss of any apprentices further severely weakens the industry and undermines its future.  “The government is the construction industry’s largest customer, it was a huge failure of political will that jobs could not be found for over 300 displaced Carillion apprentices.  “These figures further underline that the government failed to protect the innocent victims of Carillion’s collapse and that it is has not learnt the lessons from the biggest corporate failure in the UK in modern times.”  Deborah Madden, of the CITB, said: “While not every apprentice was redeployed, and in fact some chose to leave construction, the fact that industry came together to help shows that there is a strong commitment to training in construction.  “Together we secured this important pipeline of talent and gave over 900 individuals the opportunity to continue in their chosen career.”  Meanwhile, Unite is stepping up calls for a criminal investigation into Carillion on the first anniversary of the group going out of business.  An ongoing investigation into Carillion’s collapse by the government’s Insolvency Service could see the company’s directors banned from leading businesses.  The report by the Official Receiver is expected to be published later this year.  Unite has accused the Government of not taking enough action to ensure there wasn’t another “corporate meltdown” at Carillion.  The union said the cost to the taxpayer was over £150 million, including redundancy pay and “lucrative” work for accountants.


activistpost--2019-05-14--Police Use LexisNexis Facial Recognition To Identify Your Family And Friends

What is it going to take for Americans to realize that law enforcement has become an extension of Big Brother?  All across the country, police officers are secretly using facial recognition to identify neighbors and people of interest.  Police already have a history of abusing criminal record searches like CORI.  Ex-State Trooper Michael Szymanski said, “I can’t tell you how many times I saw troopers run their next-door neighbor through CORI, run their old girlfriends’ names, or run someone who they’re having a dispute with,” he said. “I’ve seen a million different guys using CORI inappropriately.”  Keep in mind that police abuse of criminal record searches is not limited to just Massachusetts, a Google search for “police abuse criminal records searches” returned more than 114 million hits.  What do you think will happen when police use facial recognition smartphones to identify anyone they want?  A recent NBC News article titled “How Facial Recognition Became A Routine Policing Tool In America” revealed how difficult it is to find out if police are using facial recognition.  The article revealed that “few local law enforcement agencies talk openly about how they use facial recognition.” It also revealed that their is “no mention of facial recognition in arrest reports and court documents” and that is a huge problem.  Last week a press release revealed that LexisNexis Risk Solutions acquired Lumen from Numerica Corporation.  “The acquisition of the Lumen product line of Numerica continues our 20-year investment and commitment to the public safety sector,” said Haywood Talcove, CEO, Government, LexisNexis Risk Solutions. “We will continue to foster the innovations that have made both LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Numerica leaders in the marketplace. We look forward to working with our joint customers and welcoming the new police agencies, including the Colorado Information Sharing Consortium (CISC).”  The article also revealed that police across the country are using Lexis Nexis’s, “Lumen” facial recognition app. to identify a person’s “personal links, vehicle associations, tattoos and much more.”  According to Lumen, police officers can use Lumen to pull up pictures of your friends and relatives in seconds!  LexisNexis, is one of the country’s largest collectors of personal information on individuals. They profit from collecting everyone’s Social Security Number, birth-date and much much more.  Lexis Nexis’s “Why Lumen Mobile” page allows police officers to use their smartphone or tablet to identify “a subject and get a clear view of his or her known associates, vehicles, and involvements.”  Wherever you are, you have instant access to information about people, vehicles, events, and locations at the click of a button. If you combine all the information that LexisNexis collects with Lumen’s facial recognition software, the amount of personal information that law enforcement has access to is terrifying. East Germany’s Stasi would be frothing at their mouths to have had this kind of information to spy on everyone. Corporate surveillance and law enforcement working together to track a person’s known associates, relatives, vehicles, SSN etc., is a recipe for disaster. You can read more at the MassPrivateI blog, where this article first appeared. Provide, Protect and Profit in unstable times! Get a free issue of Counter Markets today.


activistpost--2019-05-25--The Militarization of Americas Police A Brief History

The Militarization of America’s Police: A Brief History

“Get the weapons of war off our streets!” This may sound familiar, as it’s often heard from those attempting to pass more gun control legislation. But what you don’t hear is that it’s simply untrue that “weapons of war” are available to the general public.  What is true is that you’d last about three minutes in a conventional war with an AR-15, even with one of the most aggressive builds you can get your hands on. The only people with “weapons of war” on America’s streets are, increasingly, the police.  Thanks primarily to the Pentagon’s 1033 program, which allows law enforcement agencies to get their hands on Department of Defense technology, and the Bush-era War on Terror, American police have received a startling amount of heavy-duty, military-grade hardware.  In fact, between 1998 and 2014, the dollar value of military hardware sent to police departments skyrocketed from $9.4 million to a startling $796.8 million.  As the police have militarized, focus has shifted from one who keeps the peace to one who enforces the law—an important difference.  It’s a subtle, but important, distinction: Is the role of the police to enforce the law or to keep the peace?  Consider the difference between the police force of a typical American city and the fictional Andy Taylor of The Andy Griffith Show. The former is concerned primarily with enforcing the law for its own sake and catching as many “lawbreakers” as possible. The latter, on the other hand, is primarily concerned with keeping the peace. Sometimes that means looking the other way when laws get broken.  It all began during Prohibition in the 1920s. Organized crime got its first foothold in American life thanks to the lucrative black market in liquor. This was also the golden age of bank robbery with figures like Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, and John Dillinger becoming folk heroes. The Thompson submachine gun and the Browning Automatic Rifle were increasingly used by these crime “stars.”  On the flipside, the Prohibition Era saw domestic police departments using automatic weapons, armored vehicles, and ammo developed with the express purpose of being able to penetrate the early bulletproof vests worn by gangsters of the era.  Overall crime increased by 24 percent during the first two years of Prohibition. This included a 9 percent increase in theft and burglary, a 13 percent increase in homicides, and a 13 percent increase in assault and battery.  Because the police were busy fighting the scourge of demon rum, it was difficult for them to target crimes unrelated to this.  In fact, a study of South Carolina counties that enforced Prohibition versus those who didn’t found a whopping 30 to 60 percent increase in homicides in the counties that enforced the law.  A few decades later, America saw another wave of police militarization during the race riots, including the Watts Riots and the 1967 riots in Detroit, as well as increasingly militarized organized crime—thanks in part to the beginnings of the War on Drugs.  Incidents like the 1986 FBI Miami shootout and the North Hollywood shootout of 1997 were game-changers for law enforcement weaponry and equipment—due to officers not having sufficient stopping power during these notorious shootouts.  The 1033 Program was enacted in the wake of the 1997 North Hollywood shootout. Created by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997, it allowed law enforcement agencies to get their hands on military hardware.  Between 1997 and 2014, $5.1 billion in material was transferred from the Department of Defense to local law enforcement—with ammunition being the most common requisition.  About 8,000 law enforcement offices were participating in the program as of 2014.  Civil asset forfeiture (CAF) is a major driver in the militarization of the police force. Put simply, CAF is a legal principle that allows police to seize money and property from suspected criminals, which they can do without a warrant because the suspect’s property doesn’t have the presumption of innocence.  CAF is effectively a legally allowed form of theft by police officers. Here is a short list of military hardware purchased with CAF funds:  Begun in 1965 in Philadelphia, SWAT teams were conceived as a way to restrain urban unrest, deal with hostage situations, or handle barricaded marksmen.  The number of SWAT raids in the US grew dramatically from about 3,000 in 1980, to a whopping 50,000 SWAT raids in 2014.  Some more startling facts about SWAT teams:


activistpost--2019-08-08--Police Used Streetlamps To Spy On The Public More Than 140 Times

Gone are the days when cities used streetlamps to simply illuminate sidewalks and streets. Today’s streetlamps are being used to form an inter-connected web of surveillance devices.  A recent San Diego Union-Tribune article revealed how San Diego police officers have used streetlamp video surveillance in at least 140 cases and sometimes as frequently as 20 times a month.  Let that sink in for a moment; spying streetlamps are real and police have already requested video footage from more than 140 streetlamps.  Lt. Jeffery Jordon called spying streetlamps “game changing” and that is exactly how they should be viewed. Streetlamps that are designed to spy on the public, really is a game changer.  San Diego’s streetlamps are also equipped with ShotSpotter microphones that police claim are not being used to listen to public conversations.  Should we believe them?  Could police use ShotSpotter to listen to public conversations? Nearly a decade ago, the East Bay Times revealed how the Oakland Police used ShotSpotter to record public conversations.  It was only three years ago when the NJ Transit secretly used DriveCam’s LTYX cameras equipped with microphones to listen to public conversations.  So just what is law enforcement using these streetlamps for?  No one knows for sure; but a spokesperson for San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer said that a citywide policy to regulate the use of the microphones and cameras in streetlamps is “under development.”  The San Diego Union-Tribune claims that 100 police officers have direct access to streetlamp surveillance and said that nearly every one of the department’s 1,800 police officers can request access.  Just how concerned is the City Council that law enforcement is using streetlamps as surveillance devices?  Apparently not very much, as City Councilwoman Monica Montgomery admitted, by saying that she’s “open to exploring” oversight of the program.  In what dystopian nightmare are we living in, where listening and watching everything we do in public is “under development” or “open to oversight”?  Over the past few years, I have written numerous stories about smart streetlamp/streetlight surveillance.  Police are also using streetlamps equipped with things like Smart Nodes and secret facial recognition cameras to identify Bluetooth devices and people. More recently, I warned everyone that law enforcement is using GE’s CityIQ street lights and Intellistreets to identify people. (Click here to learn more about SKYEYE streetlamps.)  But this story is far more disturbing than those because as the San Diego Union-Tribune points out, politicians and police think nothing of using streetlamps to track people in real-time.  How could police track an alleged attacker to a 7-11 unless they have real-time access to streetlamp videos?


activistpost--2019-09-23--Detroit Police Commission Board Approves Use Of Facial Recognition Technology Despite National Backl

Detroit Police Commission Board Approves Use Of Facial Recognition Technology Despite National Backlash

The Detroit Board of Police Commissioners voted to approve the Detroit Police Department’s use of controversial facial recognition technology on the public, Courthouse News reported.  According to the directive, police would be limited to using the system when officers have “reasonable suspicion” of home invasions and violent crimes involving incidents like shootings, sexual assaults and carjacking. Further, the system doesn’t have assess to check immigration status on individuals and was restricted from accessing live surveillance streaming video or any security camera device. Outside agencies would be allowed access to the information if needed after proper paperwork is filed.  The order also clarified the technology will not be used to fully identify a suspect, but as an investigatory lead. However, given the nature of the technology we know that promise is bollocks.  A local security officer will be assigned to monitor requests for using the tool and confirm the purge of irrelevant information. Misuse of the system by officers will be considered major misconduct that will require telling the mayor, City Council and Police Board of Commissioners within 24 hours if an incident occurs, Courthouse News reported.  Police Commissioners approved the use of the system despite nationwide backlash against use of the technology.  Recently Orlando, Florida cancelled its own police trial of Amazon’s Facial Rekognition after unsuccessful results combining a total of 15 months of technical issues with accuracy, bandwidth issues and controversy over the face-scanning technology. It is not known whether Detroit police will be using Amazon’s Facial Rekognition or another form of software. However, all forms of facial recognition software have the same privacy related problems.  San Francisco became the first city to ban facial recognition technology being used by the government in May of this year, then Somerville, Massachusetts, and Oakland, California followed suit.  The rapid growth of this technology has triggered a much-needed debate to slow down the rollout. Activists, politicians, academics and even police forces are expressing serious concerns over the impact facial recognition could have on our society.  Several lawmakers have even chimed in to voice concerns about Amazon’s facial recognition software, expressing worry that it could be misused, The Hill reported.  A Senate bill introduced in March would force companies who want to use facial recognition technology on consumers to first get their consent. If that happens, as soon as the ink is dry Amazon’s Ring and Amazon’s Facial Rekognition which heavily relies on facial recognition technology could be banned across the U.S.  Congress under the House Oversight Committee recently held a bipartisan discussion on the issue of regulating the use of facial recognition technology and biometric cameras.  House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said, “there are virtually no controls …. Whatever walk of life you come from, you may be a part of this [surveillance] process.”  The committee’s top Republican Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio.) also expressed “It’s time for a time out” on government use of the surveillance technology.  Privacy advocate groups, attorneys, and even more recently Microsoft, which also markets its own facial recognition system, have all raised concerns over the technology, pointing to issues of consent, racial profiling, and the potential to use images gathered through facial recognition cameras as evidence of criminal guilt by law enforcement.  The FBI has also failed to assuage concerns of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on its own use of facial recognition technology using the Next Generation Identification-Interstate Photo System.  A national survey of 3,151 U.S. adults in December, found only one in four Americans believe the federal government should strictly limit the use of facial recognition biometrics technology.  The survey also indicates Americans are more likely to support a trade-off to their own privacy caused by biometric technology if it benefits law enforcement, reduces shoplifting or speeds up airport security lines.  Only 18 percent of those polled stated they agreed with strict limitations on facial recognition tech if it comes at the expense of public safety, compared to 55 percent who disagreed with such limitations.  However, a poll from the Brookings Institution in September 2018 contradicts that and found half of Americans favored limitations of the use of facial recognition by law enforcement, while 42 percent felt it invaded personal privacy rights.  Facial recognition technology is even invading concerts, which Fight For The Future and artists have teamed up to stop the deployment of the tech within concert venues, as Activist Post reported.


activistpost--2019-10-09--Signed as Law: California Bans Facial Recognition on Police Body Cameras

Yesterday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that bans police from using facial recognition and biometric scanners with body-worn cameras for the next three years. The law will not only help protect privacy in California, but it would also hinder one aspect of the federal surveillance state.  Assm. Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) introduced Assembly Bill 1215 (AB1215) on Feb. 21. The new law prohibits a law enforcement agency or law enforcement official from installing, activating, or using any biometric surveillance system in connection with an officer camera or data collected by an officer camera.  Before the final Senate vote, that chamber amended the bill twice to make the provisions temporary. With the initial amendment, the law would have been automatically repealed on Jan. 1, 2027. A second amendment whittled that backed to 2023. So in effect, AB1215 institutes a 3-year ban on facial recognition combined with body-worn cameras.  On May 9, the Assembly approved the measure by a vote of 45-17. The Senate passed AB1215 by a 22-15 vote over heavy opposition from police around the state. On Sept. 12, the Assembly concurred with the Senate amendment by a 47-21 margin. Only three Republicans in both the Assembly and the Senate voted yes on AB1215. With Gov. Newsom’s signature, the new law goes into effect on Jan. 1.  “Without my bill, face recognition technology can subject law-abiding citizens to perpetual police line-ups, as their every movement is tracked without consent. Its use, if left unchecked, undermines public trust in government institutions and unduly intrudes on one’s constitutional right to privacy. AB 1215 is an important civil rights measure that will prevent exploitation of vulnerable communities,” Ting wrote in a statement on his website.  Passage of this bill takes an important step forward but much work remains. When the provisions of the law sunset in three years, things will return to the status quo – which will mean police using facial recognition on body-cam footage whenever they please with no restrictions or oversight. It’s imperative to continue pushing legislators to make these restrictions permanent.  Powerful police lobbies opposed passage of the bill. According to USA Today, no law enforcement agency in California currently uses facial recognition with their body-worn cameras, but police opposed the measure because “a valuable tool could be lost.” Detective Lou Turriaga, director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League played the public safety card in opposing the bill.  “Facial recognition could be a valuable tool for us, helping identify felons or even abducted children, “he said. “I understand trying to seek a balance between civil liberties and law enforcement, but a wholesale ban doesn’t help us protect anybody. Why remove that tool from law enforcement? It just doesn’t make sense.”  A recent report revealed that the federal government has turned state drivers’ license photos into a giant facial recognition database, putting virtually every driver in America in a perpetual electronic police lineup. The revelations generated widespread outrage, but this story isn’t new. The federal government has been developing a massive, nationwide facial recognition system for years.  The FBI rolled out a nationwide facial-recognition program in the fall of 2014, with the goal of building a giant biometric database with pictures provided by the states and corporate friends.  In 2016, the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law released “The Perpetual Lineup,” a massive report on law enforcement use of facial recognition technology in the U.S. You can read the complete report at perpetuallineup.org. The organization conducted a year-long investigation and collected more than 15,000 pages of documents through more than 100 public records requests. The report paints a disturbing picture of intense cooperation between the federal government, and state and local law enforcement to develop a massive facial recognition database.  There are many technical and legal problems with facial recognition, including significant concerns about the accuracy of the technology, particularly when reading the facial features of minority populations. During a test run by the ACLU of Northern California, facial recognition misidentified 26 members of the California legislature as people in a database of arrest photos.  With facial recognition technology, police and other government officials have the capability to track individuals in real-time. These systems allow law enforcement agents to use video cameras and continually scan everybody who walks by. According to the report, several major police departments have expressed an interest in this type of real-time tracking. Documents revealed agencies in at least five major cities, including Los Angeles, either claimed to run real-time face recognition off of street cameras, bought technology with the capability, or expressed written interest in buying it.  In all likelihood, the federal government heavily involves itself in helping state and local agencies obtain this technology. The feds provide grant money to local law enforcement agencies for a vast array of surveillance gear, including ALPRs, stingray devices and drones. The federal government essentially encourages and funds a giant nationwide surveillance net and then taps into the information via fusion centers and the Information Sharing Environment (ISE).


activistpost--2019-11-08--Entire Police Department Now Gone After Good Cops Refused to Enforce Quota System

Collegedale, TN — Most people reading this article know what it is like to have the blue and red lights pop up in your rear view mirror. The last thing going through your mind at this point is the feeling of ‘being protected.’ This feeling comes from the fact that the overwhelming majority of the time a driver sees police lights in their mirror is because they have been targeted for revenue collection—often the result of a quota system—and they are about to be given a ticket, or worse.  Police, we are told, are here to keep us safe and protect us from the bad guys. However, public safety all too often takes a back seat to revenue collection. Time and time again, the Free Thought Project has exposed quota schemes in which officers were punished for not writing enough tickets.  The most recent ticket writing scheme to be exposed comes of out Collegedale, Tennessee in which multiple police officers claim they were fired for attempting to call out the illegal orders handed down to them to make arrests and write tickets. Former Collegedale police officers Robert Bedell, Kolby Duckett, and David Schilling have all filed lawsuits against the city and its officials for wrongful termination after speaking out against what they refer to as an “illegal quota system.”  Now, this month, the last officer left on the force finally resigned. On Friday, Ridgetop Police Chief Bryan Morris submitted his resignation and the town is now without a police force.  “Due to the allegations of a quota system being implemented by members of police department administration either written or unwritten, stated or implied, I feel it is necessary for a formal investigationto [sic] be conducted,” read a statement from City Commissioner Ethan White in July when Bedell announced his lawsuit. “Today, I have reached out to District Attorney General Neal Pinkston requesting that he immediately request the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to conduct a full investigation into the Collegedale Police Department’s operating policies.”  In September, two more officers, Duckett and Schilling, came forward with the same allegations as Bedell. All three officers were fired without reason when they claimed to be exposing the illegal quota system.  Janie Parks Varnell, the attorney representing all three cops, argued the firings were “just another example of the City of Collegedale, Chief Brian Hickman and City Manager Ted Rogers terminating skilled officers simply because those officers brought attention to the illegal quota system implemented by the Department.”  She added that “Tennessee law protects public employees who bring attention to the illegal activities of their employers. I will be filing suit against City Manager Ted Rogers, Chief Brian Hickman and the City of Collegedale for the illegal firing of these outstanding officers who were serving and protecting our community by speaking out against unlawful quotas.”  See: 177 Different Ways to Generate Extra Income  According to Bedell, who was a Collegedale cop from January 2013 to January 2019, in December 2018, the department began directing officers to make a certain number of arrests and citations or face disciplinary actions. Each officer had to complete at least 25 enforcement actions and 100 patrol activities per month, according to the lawsuit.  Bedell’s claim was backed up with photo evidence of a department flyer which had specific categories for officers to check off to show they had made their minimum number of arrests, citations, and patrols.  When Bedell confronted chief Hickman about the quota system, Hickman told him that he could “either resign from the Department or be terminated,” according to the lawsuit. As the Times Free Press points out, Bedell asked if he’d done something wrong, but Hickman told Bedell he “could not discuss it,” and since Tennessee is an at-will state, Hickman could terminate Bedell at any time, the lawsuit states.  Both Duckett and Schilling experienced similar firings and their claims are backed up by Morris.  Although the city disputes this claim by Morris, these cops took it upon themselves to secretly record the corruption. The recording, released back in January, does not lie.  “I will make a proposal right now. I will give the two bottom guys a raise for the 12-month period and hire back the seventh officer if you write an average of 210 tickets a month. I will do that, but I better see 210 tickets a month,” said Vice Mayor McCaw Johnson.  This move to get rid of the police department is unlike other moves we’ve seen where the officers are corrupt and therefore all fired. This time, the example shows what happens in towns across the country who are strapped for revenue.  City officials want more money to justify their bureaucratic budgets so they lean on cops to extort the citizens through traffic fines. We have seen this play out time and again.  These local governments have long advocated for police departments to prey on poor people to finance themselves. However, this time, it appeared that this department didn’t want to do that—so they were fired and now the chief has quit.  “Law enforcement is not about tickets. It’s about trying to cut down on crime. That is a local government taking advantage of its people. That’s not what we are here for,” said officer Shawn Taylor, who conducted the secret recording of officials demanding a quota.  “For a city this size and the budget we have, the tickets we are writing is out of hand,” former chief Morris said.  Indeed it was. Showing just how out of hand it was are some local stats from a study done by FOX17, who looked at ticket revenue in other towns.  When the police department realized the city officials only wanted them for revenue collection, the controversy began—and now we are seeing where it ends.


birminghammail--2019-03-16--Police desperately search for Audi driver after two brothers killed in Wolverhampton crash

Police are still urgently trying to find the driver of a blue Audi S3 after a horror crash which left two young brothers dead.  Sanjay Singh, 10, and his 23-month-old brother Pawanveer, from Dudley , were killed when the white BMW being driven by their mother was hit by the Audi S3 as they turned right into Lawnswood Avenue, at around 8.45pm on Thursday (March 14).  The driver of the blue Audi left the scene , while a 31-year-old man - who was driving a white Bentley Continental convertible, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. He has since been released pending further investigation.  The death of the two young brothers has devastated communities across the West Midlands.  More than 24 hours on from the crash here's what we know:  Black Country Live contacted West Midlands Police today (March 16) who confirmed the driver of the blue Audi S3 has still not been traced.  The family have released a statement via West Midlands Police.  They said: “Our family are grieving over the tragic deaths of our two beautiful children, as well as dealing with the shock of the horrific crash.  “We appeal to the general public to come forward as witnesses in order help police find the perpetrator who fled from the scene and to bring him or her to justice.  “At this time we would appreciate some privacy and space to grieve over our precious loss.  “Your co-operation in this would be very much appreciated.”  Detective Sergeant Paul Hughes who is leading the investigation released desperate appeal for the Audi driver to "do the right thing" and come forward.  Talking at a press conference yesterday he said: "You may not have been fully aware of the full tragic facts at the time, but you are now. You know what has happened so please do the right thing and come and see us."  He added: "The public can always help us and always do.  "The driver may have told you what’s gone on, if not, do you know someone who is suddenly without a car?  "By not telling us, you're not helping them, us or the family.  "We can’t solve these sort of things without the help of the public. Did you see the cars beforehand? Did you witness the collision?  Residents in the Lanesfield area near the Birmingham New Road have spoken out about the "dangerous" road that is "atrocious for accidents".  Many have called for speed cameras to be set up to reduce the number of accidents.  A spokesperson at City of Wolverhampton Council said: “This is a horrific incident which has cost the lives of two innocent children.  "Clearly it is inappropriate to speculate on the causes while the police undertake their investigation, but needless to say, we take our road safety duties very seriously.  “The City Council constantly monitors speed and accident data to help identify and address areas of concern.  We will continue to do this and will be liaising closely with the police to ensure we can help and support them as much as we can.  “Our thoughts are with the children’s family and friends and would encourage anyone with information to contact the police as soon as possible.”  West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, David Jamieson, has said he will support any proposals the council puts forward to improve average speed enforcement measures.  A note left at the scene reads: “Two beautiful boys taken away so suddenly. You will be missed so much and always remembered.  Goodnight, God Bless you superstars. Love from Miss Best (Princess Angel).  Another said: “We will all miss your cheeky smile and funny jokes. You’re wearing the shiniest tiara now! I have left your exact one with your flowers.  Mrs Worrall left a tribute that read: “Sweet angels, gone too soon. Your smiles and laughter were contagious. We shall miss you so much!”  Anyone with information is urged to contact police via Live Chat at west-midlands.police.uk between 8am and midnight or call 101 anytime.  Crimestoppers can be called anonymously on 0800 555 111, quoting log number 2580 of March 14.


chicagosuntimes--2019-04-11--Chicago Police gang database is disorganized and outdated IG

Chicago Police gang database is disorganized and outdated: IG

The Chicago Police Department’s “gang database” isn’t so much an effective crime-fighting tool as it is a disorganized hodgepodge of outdated and often unverified information, according to a blistering report released Thursday by the Office of the Inspector General.  In fact, according to the OIG, the “database” label is something of a misnomer as the CPD has collected and stored gang data in more than a dozen places in just the last decade.  “OIG found that CPD has captured, reported, and visualized gang-related data in at least 18 different forms, records, and systems of records in the past 10 years, although CPD was not able to definitively account for all such information in its possession and control,” the 160-page audit reads.  Announcing the release of the report at a City Hall press conference Thursday morning, Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson noted the collateral damage a person can face once they’re designated a gang member by the CPD.  “The impact that it has on these individuals extends far beyond the intended law enforcement purposes for which CPD collects and utilizes this information,” Ferguson said.  The report says that, in its current form, the CPD’s gang data collection and storing methods exacerbate the already strained relationship between law enforcement and minority communities.  “These [gang member] designations may contribute to a variety of adverse consequences for individuals and communities in, among others, law enforcement, criminal justice, immigration and employment contexts,” the report added.  The audit suggested the City Council consider amending Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance, which says that city agencies will not ask for or disclose a person’s immigration status to federal authorities unless that person has been identified as a known gang member either in a law enforcement agency’s database or by their own admission.  Thursday, Ferguson also called for the City Council’s Public Safety Committee to have a hearing on the CPD’s gang data practices. Ferguson added that, as it stands now, more than 500 outside agencies currently have unlimited access to the CPD’s gang data.  Karen Sheley, director of the ACLU of Illinois’ police practices project, said in a statement:  “The city will have a lot of work to do in cleaning up its act on this database. Before it starts, the City Council should call hearings to examine why the department rejected some of the Inspector General’s recommendations and only partially accepted others.  “The CPD has outright refused to work with impacted communities in developing a fix to this problem and has also refused to place additional safeguards for juveniles labeled as gang members. Chicagoans deserve to know why.”  Among its findings, the OIG noted:   • the department “lacks sufficient controls” for creating, storing and sharing gang-related data   • the CPD’s gang information practices “lack procedural fairness protections”   • the methods by which people are designated gang members “raise significant data quality concerns”   • the department’s practices and lack of transparency regarding its gang designations strain police-community relations  Chicago’s gang structure has changed dramatically in the past 20 years. The days of groups following a strict hierarchical structure are largely gone, having given way to smaller, splintered factions. And while the drug trade still fuels many gang conflicts in the city — especially on the West Side — interpersonal conflicts among various gang members also drive a substantial portion of the city’s gun violence.  The CPD has been slow to adjust to the shifting gang landscape, according to the OIG.  The audit listed more than two dozen recommendations that could help the department catch up. Among them:   • evaluating whether the people and groups designated as gangs meet the legal criteria   • inventorying all gang-related data collection points   • more closely monitoring the CPD’s data sharing policy with other law enforcement agencies   • requiring officers undertake more training in gang-related data collection   • requiring the inclusion of “specified types of evidence required to support the proposed gang designations”   • notifying people that they are on the list of gang members and providing them a way to appeal that designation  Between January 1997 and November 2018, more than 134,000 people were designated as gang members by Chicago police. Eighty-eight percent of those designations were made because an arrestee told police about their gang affiliation. However, “there were 15,648 individuals for which CPD has never listed a reason for gang designation,” according to the OIG.  Additionally, “OIG’s analysis of Gang Arrest Card data found that Black, African American, and Latinx persons comprise 95% of the 134,242 individuals designated as gang members during arrest, and are designated at both younger and older ages as well as issued more Gang Arrest Cards per person than White gang designees.”  Last summer, a federal class-action lawsuit was filed against the city by several community groups who are asking a judge to impose far more stringent standards on the CPD as it relates to its gang data collection practices.  Speaking at a press conference held a few hours after the OIG audit was released, Sheila Bedi, an attorney representing the community groups suing the city, said the report “vindicated every single claim the plaintiffs filed in their litigation.”  “Because of the way this data is gathered, because of the way it is used, there is no legitimate law enforcement purpose to continue to collect this data and the report proves this indisputably,” she added.  For its part, the Chicago Police Department, with a few exceptions, largely agreed with the OIG’s recommendations and signaled its intent to create and implement a new system to track gang membership in Chicago. No timetable was established for the new system, and the department said that the current gang data storing methods would remain in place, according to the OIG.  “CPD acknowledged that its gang information policies, practices, and technology had impeded the Department’s ability to maintain updated and relevant information,” the audit reads. “It should be noted that these proposed controls and reforms do not apply to the gang information currently maintained by the Department and that this unverified, outdated information will remain available to any officer or department that currently has access to this information.”  The OIG also suggested the department engage with community stakeholders and publicly evaluate whether collecting gang membership data “services CPD’s violence reduction efforts.”  In an April 5 letter to Joseph Lipari, the city’s deputy inspector general for public safety, police Supt. Eddie Johnson disagreed, saying: “CPD does not concur that a public evaluation is necessary, and further asserts that such an evaluation could put certain gang crime strategies or information at risk and negatively impact the public and officer safety.”  Shortly after Ferguson’s press conference Thursday, the CPD released a draft of a new departmental directive that would govern its future gang data collection practices in the proposed “Criminal Enterprise Database.”  In the new policy, a person’s admission to being in a gang would have to be recorded for it to be used as the basis for a “gang member” designation.  The “gang member” label would also have to meet two of the following criteria:   • The person wears distinctive gang markers, such as tattoos or gang colors that “would not reasonably be expected” to be worn by someone not in a gang.   • The person uses symbols or signals that are solely associated with gang activity.   • The person is identified as a gang member by a person “who has provided reliable information to the Department in the past” and whose claims can be corroborated.   • The person is identified as a gang member by a state, local or federal jail or prison.   • The person is charged with a crime in which gang membership is “an element of the offense.”  To be removed from the proposed gang database, a person would have to go five years without being arrested or charged with “a qualifying criminal offense.” Also, a gang member designation could be removed from a person’s name if the information that led to the label proves to be inaccurate.  Jesus Salazar, 37, said that despite leaving his gang 10 years ago, he is still designated as a gang member by the CPD. Salazar now works as a violence intervention program manager at Enlace Chicago, a community group in Little Village.  “I’ve been an asset to my community, I’ve been an asset to young folks in my community who have no aspirations but to join a gang,” Salazar said. “And I try to steer them away from gangs. I put my life on the lines through mediations on a daily basis and I try to combat gang violence as much as I can. I’ve been pulled over, harassed because of my designation in the gang database.”  • EDITORIAL: Overhaul Chicago’s gang member database — but don’t chuck it   • Lawsuit takes aim at Chicago Police’s gang database as ‘unconstitutional’   • Cook County unplugs ‘gang database,’ but critics still have concerns


cnsnews--2019-08-13--Chinese Anti-Terror Police Seen Assembling Near Hong Kong

(CNSNews.com) – Chinese Communist Party outlets have posted videos purporting to show anti-terror paramilitary police personnel and vehicles assembling in a mainland city adjacent to Hong Kong. They did so on the same day as a senior official in Beijing for the first time accused protests in the territory of showing “signs of terrorism.”  Amid ongoing criticism from members of Congress, the government on Monday repeated its demand that U.S. politicians “stop interfering in China’s internal affairs.”  Under the “one country, two systems” agreement governing the former British colony’s return to Chinese rule in 1997, security falls under the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF), comprising permanent residents of Hong Kong.  But the troops assembling in Shenzhen, the mainland city bordering Hong Kong, belong to the People’s Armed Police (PAP), a paramilitary unit which by law responds to “rebellions, riots, serious violent and illegal incidents, terrorist attacks and other social security incidents,” the People’s Daily explained on Monday.  That newspaper, and another Communist Party-affiliated paper, Global Times, posted video clips showing a convoy of PAP armored personnel carriers moving towards and assembling in Shenzhen, to a backdrop of martial music.  Global Times said the PAP deployment in Shenzhen was “in advance of apparent large-scale exercises.”  Unlike the regular police, PAP personnel fall under military command, wear military rather than blue uniforms, and have a rank structure similar to that of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).  A week ago, Hong Kong authorities in a statement denied as “totally unfounded” rumors that PLA personnel were being “deployed as Hong Kong Police.”  The video images, together with the use of the word “terrorism” to describe actions taken by some of the masses of protestors who have been demonstrating for the past ten weeks, will do nothing to quell fears arising from such rumors.  At a press conference in Beijing, the spokesman for the government department responsible for Hong Kong affairs charged that protesters have committed “serious violent crimes and have begun to show signs of terrorism.”  “This is a gross violation of Hong Kong’s rule of law and social order,” said Yang Guang, spokesman for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, who warned that matters have “reached a critical juncture.”  Yang said violent crimes must be stamped out, and said Beijing “strongly supports the decisive enforcement of the Hong Kong Police Force.”  The HKPF was under fire on Monday for some of its actions over the weekend, including the use of teargas and batons inside an enclosed subway station, assaults against already-subdued protestors, and the deployment of police officers posing as protestors.  Defending the force, the territory’s security minister also used the “terrorism” term to describe the actions of some protesters, who had thrown stones and other objects at police – including petrol bombs in a couple of cases.  “This is sowing the seed of terror, which I think the police must deal with,” Secretary for Security John Lee told a press conference.  Hong Kong’s deputy police commissioner, Tang Ping-keung, acknowledged to reporters that some officers had disguised themselves as protestors – he called them “decoy operatives” – although he declined to say how many there were. He insisted they would not “engage in any unlawful actions.”  Also using the word “terrorism” was the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong, which said in a statement, “If these terrorist atrocities are allowed to spread, Hong Kong will slide into a bottomless abyss.”  Mass protests began in early June in response to a proposed law that would allow criminal suspects to be extradited to the mainland to face trial. The territory’s government later suspended the move, but pro-democracy groups want it permanently dropped. Other demands include inquiries into police tactics in responding to the demonstrations.  On Monday Hong Kong’s international airport, the world’s eighth-busiest by passenger traffic, canceled all flights after protestors occupied terminals.  The U.S. relationship with Hong Kong is governed by the 1992 Hong Kong Policy Act, passed in advance of the territory’s return to Chinese rule two years later. Under it, the president may suspend privileges enjoyed by Hong Kong if he determines that it is not “sufficiently autonomous” from the mainland.  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Monday pointed to legislation he and Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) have authored to reevaluate the bilateral relationship.  “America's relationship with Hong Kong is premised on its autonomy from China, and if the Communist Party refuses to ensure that autonomy then the United States should and will reevaluate that relationship,” he said.  “The people of Hong Kong are bravely standing up to the Chinese Communist Party as Beijing tries to encroach on their autonomy and freedom,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tweeted. “Any violent crackdown would be completely unacceptable.”  “The U.S. has been making various Hong Kong-related accusations that are wanton, fact-distorting and inflammatory,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Monday.  She complained again about U.S. diplomats in Hong Kong meeting with pro-democracy activists – or what she called “anti-China rabble-rousers.”  “Hong Kong is part of China, and its affairs are entirely China’s internal affairs,” said Hua. “We urge the U.S. to observe international law and the basic norms governing international relations, and to stop interfering in China's internal affairs at once.”


dailyheraldchicago--2019-08-19--California governor signs law to limit shootings by police

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California is changing its standards for when police can kill under a law signed Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, as it tries to deter police shootings of young minority men that have roiled the nation.  "We are doing something today that stretches the boundary of possibility and sends a message to people all across this country that they can do more and they can do better to meet this moment," Newsom said as he stood alongside family members of people killed by police.  The law by Democratic Assemblywoman Shirley Weber of San Diego will allow police to use lethal force only when necessary to defend against an imminent threat of death or serious injury to officers or bystanders. But lawmakers dropped an explicit definition of "necessary" that previously had said officers could use deadly force only when there is "no reasonable alternative."  One catalyst was last year's fatal shooting of Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man suspected of vandalism whose death sparked major protests in the state capital and reverberated nationwide. Despite the public anger, law enforcement objections stalled the bill last year and even some supporters had reservations until it was amended in May.  The measure passed with bipartisan support after major police organizations won concessions and ended their vehement opposition.  Lawmakers also removed an explicit requirement that officers try to de-escalate confrontations. Law enforcement officials said that would have opened officers to endless second-guessing of what often are split-second life-and-death decisions.  The measure still contains the strongest language of any state, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which proposed the bill and negotiated the changes.  Weber said the law "changes the culture of policing in California." She was joined on stage by fellow lawmakers and family members of people who have been shot by police, including Clark's family and the mother of Oscar Grant, a man killed by police officers on an Oakland train platform in 2009.  It is linked to a pending Senate bill requiring that officers be trained in ways to de-escalate confrontations, alternatives to opening fire and how to interact with people with mental illness or other issues.


dailyheraldchicago--2019-08-24--Change in state law on police questioning prompted by death of Naperville North student

A change in state law signed Friday by Gov. J.B. Pritzker requiring that a parent or guardian be notified when law enforcement questions a student on school grounds was prompted by the death of a Naperville North High School student.  House Bill 2627 says that before detaining and questioning a student under 18 who is suspected of committing a criminal act, a police officer, school resource officer or school security personnel must notify parents and make "reasonable efforts" to ensure they are present.  If that isn't possible, a school social worker, psychologist, nurse, guidance counselor or any other mental health professional should be present, according to the amended law, which is effective immediately.  If practical, efforts also should be made to have a law enforcement officer trained in "promoting safe interactions and communications with youth" present during questioning.  The proposal sponsored by 84th District state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit was in response to the death in January 2017 of 16-year old Corey Walgren. Hours after being questioned by school and police officials, he walked to the top of a five-story parking deck and jumped.  The staff had warned him he may have to register as a sex offender because they suspected he made a video of himself having sex with a classmate without her knowledge. Walgren was questioned before his mom was called and headed toward the school.  Kifowit earlier this year said she and members of her Youth Citizen Advisory council drafted the bill because Corey's death "really rattled" Naperville-area students.  "I think it's a clarification of the law that's really needed," she said Saturday. It acknowledges students shouldn't be alone during questioning.  "I think it's a step in the right direction and I think it's an overdue piece of legislation," she said.  The governor's signing is a "wonderful first step" to changes in Illinois law the family hopes will save lives, said Corey's father, Doug.  "It is very important that parents and guardians are informed and present any time a school resource officer is questioning a minor. A natural next step for us is to pursue a similar change at the national level," he said.  Corey's mother, Maureen, said the family believes it is a minor student's right to have a parent present during police questioning but learned there is a gray area regarding school resource officers working in schools.  "Courts, schools, parents and police all have varying ideas of what the role is of the SRO and how they should be involved in questioning minors," she said.  Work will continue to change the school code to more clearly define the role of school resource officers and how schools use them during investigations and disciplinary incidents, she said.  "We don't want any other student to feel the fear and intimidation that Corey felt while he was alone with people of authority," she said.  Doug and Maureen Walgren sued two school officials, a school resource officer, Naperville Unit District 203 and the city of Naperville after Corey's death. A federal judge dismissed the action, but the ruling is being appealed.


dcgazette--2019-07-02--Flashback ICE Threatens to Sue City of Portland after Mayor Tells Police to Stand Down During Antif

Flashback: ICE Threatens to Sue City of Portland after Mayor Tells Police to Stand Down During Antifa Siege of Facility

I represent the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council (“Council”). The Council and I assert that your current policy forbidding Portland law enforcement agencies from assisting employees of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (“ICE”) who request law enforcement assistance while at or away from work is a violation of the United States Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. As you are aware, the 14th Amendment forbids the government from denying any person or persons equal protection of the laws. Your policy of not providing police services to employees of ICE creates a class of people based upon their source of income. You have failed to articulate why these people deserve to be the target of your ire and, you have failed to articulate the legitimate government interest protected or supported by your targeting of hardworking citizens. We understand that you have a difference of opinion with the current President of the United States, and some of his policies, but we fail to see why targeting the employees of ICE and leaving them vulnerable to violence, harassment and even death furthers a legitimate government interest. Your policy has created a zone of terror and lawlessness. We ask that you end your policy of not responding to calls for police services from ICE employees immediately. Our membership has been the subjected to threats of physical violence and harassment since you announced your policy.  We are requesting a meeting with you to discuss how you can provide law enforcement services to ICE employees. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to schedule a meeting between yourself and my clients. We would like to avoid federal litigation, but we are prepared to protect our membership and their families.