Robberies on the rise in Lakewood? LASD won't give you the info to decide

We are getting tired of learning about crime patterns and trends from local news sites like LBReport.com. For example this armed home invasion robbery near Candlewood and Bellflower Blvd on June 8, 2008 as well as a second June 6, 2008 bike jacking that residents need to be aware of especially as the criminals have not been caught and are likely to do this again. This information must be distributed by LASD directly and quickly via crime blotters. We have been asking the city council for this since June 2007! LAAG has offered to connect LASD with computer experts that could automate this function for a very low cost. Nothing has happened.

Other cities with responsible and accommodating police department's provide that information on their websites on a daily basis in an easy to understand and read format. For example this is what Santa Monica PD and Gardena PD does for its tax paying residents. This information is collected daily by LASD and it would not take much effort to publish it daily on the web for Lakewood residents. LASD is doing it in Bellflower (for some added cost to that city but the Lakewood reporting could be better, faster, more complete and cheaper) We suspect the reason it is not done is that Lakewood residents would either find out how few calls the LASD actually rolls on each day, how few crimes are really ever "resolved" via an arrest, or what the "real" crime rate is on a weekly basis. So what are we getting for 9 million in taxes a year? Not much in the way of tangible information thats for sure. Information is power and I dont think LASD wants to share any with Lakewood residents. I think with a new Sheriff Captain (Lt. Christy Guyovich who replaced Capt. Fender on April 6, 2008) in Lakewood we need to see a new level of disclosure. With all the armed robberies in Lakewood this year something has to be done.

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

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Time to clean house over at LASD

We really do think its time to clean house over at LASD. The policy should be that deputies get two strikes. If they take some action that the Office of Independent review says was wrong or a violation of policy and it results in a settlement or verdict against the LASD then the officers involved should be fired. Period. No opportunity for review or appeals allowed. These bad apples have to go as they are costing us a fortune and as there is no downside for them personally they are not going to learn. Also the policy needs to be that LASD cant hire anyone that has had the same problem at another department. And if a prospective deputy fails to disclose these prior incidents he can be fired on the spot.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-taser22mar22,1,7795673.story
From the Los Angeles Times
L.A. Sheriff's supervisors investigated in Taser incident
An unruly 21-year-old man in custody fell and broke his back after a deputy used a stun gun to subdue him.
By Richard Winton and Scott Glover
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

March 22, 2008

Los Angeles County sheriff's officials have launched a misconduct investigation of two supervisors who authorized the use of a stun gun on a 21-year-old arrestee because he was unruly and refused to submit to electronic fingerprinting, The Times has learned.

As a result of being shocked with a Taser, Blake Dupree fell off the top of a jail bunk bed and broke his back. The injury has left him temporarily paralyzed and he could be crippled for life, his attorney said.

According to sheriff's officials, Dupree, who showed signs of being mentally ill or under the influence of drugs, had been generally "uncooperative" for hours before a lieutenant at the Lakewood sheriff's station approved the use of the Taser, which delivers a 50,000-volt shock.

The investigation into the Feb. 27 incident -- much of it captured on videotape -- will determine whether use of the Taser violated department policy.

Department rules prohibit using the device on "persons in danger of falling or becoming entangled in machinery or heavy equipment which could result in death or serious bodily injury." Despite the prohibition, the policy does allow for supervisors to decide whether use of a Taser is warranted on a case-by-case basis.

Lt. James Tatreau Jr., who authorized the use of the device on Dupree, has been reassigned to administrative duties pending the outcome of the investigation, sources said. A unnamed sergeant who was involved in the decision has also been reassigned.

Tatreau, a former driver and bodyguard for L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, received some unwanted attention last year after The Times disclosed that he had organized a game called "Operation Any Booking" in which deputies competed to see how many people they could arrest.

The competition was decried by civil libertarians, disavowed by Baca and made fun of by "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno.

Tatreau did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

Baca said his preliminary assessment of the recent incident was that "common sense" should have dictated that using the Taser on Dupree was inappropriate while he was on the bunk and likely to fall as a result of being shocked.

Baca added that he was concerned, because of Dupree's demeanor, that deputies and supervisors may not have sufficiently explored alternatives to the stun gun.

"If someone is off balance mentally . . . call the mental health evaluation team in," Baca said in an interview Wednesday, shortly before departing on a trip to Saudi Arabia. "Those with the most experience should deal with them."

Dupree, a Bellflower resident, was arrested Feb. 26 on suspicion of carjacking his mother's vehicle.

According to his attorney, Stan Sanders, Dupree and his mother were at a Jack in the Box restaurant when Dupree took his mother's car without her consent. Concerned that her son was acting erratically and might hurt himself, she called police, Sanders said. Sheriff's deputies found Dupree at Bellflower High School, where he was looking for his sister, the attorney said.

Dupree was not charged with carjacking, according to a district attorney's representative. Rather, he was charged with violating his probation on an earlier conviction for gun possession.

After his arrest, Dupree was taken to the Lakewood station; there, deputies said, he failed to cooperate with routine instructions and behaved strangely. As a result, he was placed in a cell by himself where he began throwing mattresses around the room, authorities said. This behavior continued until the morning after his arrest.

When Dupree refused to submit to electronic fingerprinting -- a process in which a suspect's digits are scanned into a computer database -- Tatreau authorized the use of the Taser if Dupree continued to resist, according to two Sheriff's Department sources familiar with the incident.

At the time, Dupree was on the top bed of a double bunk about 4 feet off the ground and refused to come down. He was given a verbal warning by Tatreau, who had conferred with the sergeant on the scene, and a deputy was ordered to fire the equivalent of a warning shot by activating the Taser so Dupree could hear its buzz, according to Sheriff's Department reports obtained by The Times.

After the warnings, Dupree stood on the bunk and began to move toward the edge, in the direction of the deputies, said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore. It was then that the unidentified deputy shot Dupree with the Taser, causing him to fall to the floor.

Baca said he was convinced that no one intended to "punish" Dupree by shocking him but that the potential consequences of doing so should have been clear.

"We have to do better," he said.

Sanders, who has filed a legal claim against the Sheriff's Department in connection with the incident, said Dupree suffered extensive damage to his spinal cord and cannot move his legs. He said doctors have told him that the condition is likely to be permanent.

"This is a young man . . . with many years to live," Sanders said. "He's now paralyzed."


Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

click here to receive LAAG posts by email

Its time for a reality check in "public safety"

Surely you have read about problems in Vallejo, Orange County and a number of other municipalities that are facing huge funding shortfalls due some very poor choices by elected officials who gave away the store in back room private deals struck with greedy public service unions, mostly representing police and fire union members. These deals and their true cost were hidden from the public by elected officials as they thought they could hide these deals until they got out of office. But alas were are now in a clearly foreseen public funding meltdown (spurred by inflation stock prices, the subprime meltdown and other causes) and now these little deals are coming to light as public officials scramble to find the dollars to fund them. But the dollars are not there and now they must sell tax increases on the poor schlep voters. In most cases they cant even cut back on the numbers of these employees. So its either raise taxes or cut the budget in other areas. Like LAAG loves to say..."well you got what you voted for"!


Thomas Elias: Warning signs for California cities
Vallejo's not alone when it comes to financial problems
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/earthquakes_61643___article.html/warning_elias.html
March 18, 2008 12:01:00 AM

Like a swarm of small earthquakes that might — just might — turn out to be foreshocks of a Big One to come, the spate of near bankruptcies and other fiscal woes befalling small and medium-sized California cities this spring could be an early warning of far more serious trouble to come.

The city with the worst difficulties so far has been Vallejo, a medium-sized town on San Pablo Bay about 30 miles northeast of San Francisco that has never been quite the same since the Mare Island Naval Shipyard — opened in 1854 — shut down in 1996.

Under pressure from union contracts whose terms it simply could not meet, Vallejo came within days of declaring bankruptcy in late February, bailed out only when police and firefighter' unions agreed to trim a contracted pay raise from 10 percent to 2 percent. Firefighters also agreed to relax staffing requirements, allowing the city to operate two fewer fire companies each day than before.

But that might turn out to be only a stopgap measure, as Vallejo is like many other California cities, counties and school districts that will likely see revenue drop this year. State budget cuts already partially in force mean there will be less state money coming to localities in the next year. Falling property values will reduce property tax funds, while the overall near-recession means less sales tax money for everyone and stock market losses will mean fewer capital gains tax receipts.

Every restaurant meal forgone by cautious families, every home repair put off, every new car purchase delayed because of the slumping economy means less money coming into local government coffers just as surely as it means increased pressure on the far more publicized state budget.

Besides Vallejo, warning signals this spring have already come from Orange County, where supervisors warn of a possibly serious shortfall at budget time two months from now. The West Contra Costa Unified School District covering Richmond, El Cerrito, Kensington and several other cities, warns it has enough money to cover payroll and bills through June, but might not meet all its obligations beyond then.

Contra Costa County warns that some local sales tax receipts are down as much as 50 percent so far this year, while property taxes have not risen. But retiree health care costs are skyrocketing, with about 4,000 county employees due to retire over the next 10 years.

In Fresno County, officials warn their retirement plan may soon need to borrow money, just four years after taking a $400 million bailout loan. One consequence is that county employees will pay about 14 percent more into the plan this year than before.

The city of San Diego is putting new limits on retiree pensions in its effort to avoid a brush with bankruptcy. Employees who have not yet retired will no longer be able to collect benefits exceeding their annual salaries and will have to work longer to reach the top benefit level.

The Fresno suburb of Clovis warns it will have a $3 million deficit heading into the 2008-2009 fiscal year. To avoid bankruptcy, that small city will try for an 8 percent across-the-board spending cutback, and will ask for some employee "give backs" and voluntary furloughs.

It all adds up to an entirely new scene for government workers in California and their unions.

The days when savvy labor contract negotiating meant figuring out ways to extract maximum dollars and benefits are gone. Things become more complex when unions have to worry about making sure they don't take so much that they bankrupt their employers, thus forcing them to renege on many longstanding contracts and obligations.

It's almost like Aesop's old fable about the goose that laid golden eggs. The goose was in no danger of stopping until its owners got greedy and decided to check its innards to see if they could mine a large amount of gold all at once rather than settling for one egg per day. They cut it open, killed it and stopped the flow of gold altogether.

Similarly, public employee unions have not been satisfied with excellent jobs, good working conditions, solid pensions and health care plans, but continually press for more. Their greed is one big reason for the looming crisis threatening both state and local governments. Widespread bankruptcies would be the equivalent of the dead goose, as the big payouts public employees now get might quickly dwindle.

So it behooves them to give a little ground in this time of foreclosures and recession or near-recession, or the voting public might turn against them and install elected officials who won't go along with the steady increases to which unions and workers are now accustomed.

Thomas D. Elias writes on California politics and other issues. His syndicated column appears Tuesdays. E-mail him at tdelias@aol.com.


The bottom line of safety
Article Launched: 03/17/2008 06:12:24 PM PDT
http://www.sgvtribune.com/opinions/ci_8606407

PUBLIC safety is always the No. 1 concern of those who live in our region.

Public safety also costs big bucks, more of them every year.

Right now, many local cities are confronted with ever-higher costs for police and fire employees - especially for their retirement packages. After decades of work on the part of these indispensable people and their unions, their salaries and benefits are at extraordinary levels befitting their extraordinary performance.

But there's a point beyond which taxpayers cannot go. While no city wants to sacrifice public safety, many are being squeezed by aggressive bargaining tactics from public safety employee unions on one side, and reduced tax revenues from a slumping economy on the other.

Cities are required to balance their budgets; they can't borrow their way into the black, as the state Legislature and governor do far too often.

That's why it is crucial - today more than ever - for cities to take a strong stand against unreasonable demands for compensation from employee unions. Granting pay raises to police and fire employees that jeopardize fiscal solvency or lead to cuts in other services is foolish and irresponsible. When the budget tilts too much toward employee compensation, police and fire included, we believe the quality of life in the small and medium-sized cities of southeastern Los Angeles County and the San Gabriel Valley deteriorates.

Today, the city of Monrovia, population
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39,900, is getting prepared to take a courageous stand for fiscal responsibility. After months of considerate, reasonable negotiations, its City Council is ready to impose a one-year contract with the Monrovia Police Officers Association, albeit one that the union has already rejected.

We think the city has negotiated in good faith. We also see the city's offer of a 5.5 percent pay raise over 3.5 years - 16.5percent overall - as not only reasonable, but generous. Any other employee group in the private sector would be thrilled with such an offer during these troubled economic times. But the police officers' association reportedly wants a 23.2 percent raise.

The one-year offer to be set tonight will hike the salary of a police officer by 4.68 percent and a sergeant by 6.19 percent. Top scale for each would go to $71,064 and $91,512, respectively. The city's offer also increases the city contribution to retirees' medical benefits, which for employees of 25 years or more would be a one-time lump sum of $4,000. The city already offers the most generous retirement benefits of "3 percent at 50," which means an employee of 30 years, multiplied by 3percent, gets 90 percent of his salary upon retirement as part of the CalPERS system.

Again, these are generous benefits. In fact, we're concerned that cities are shortchanging other services to pay hefty salaries and benefits to city employees.

Monrovia's police union has used scare tactics in its campaign to get the largest pay raise possible, telling residents in 11,000 "robo calls" that the city has "ignored" officers' request for "the resources to make our city more secure." By taking advantage of a spate of gang shootings in December and January, the tactic is a new low in campaigning. We're not convinced that more officers is the solution. In fact, some union members have suggested not filling the four officer vacancies and distributing the savings to the existing members through raises, a councilman told us.

If more officers is not an answer, more pay for existing ones is no answer, either.

After 30 or so community meetings, city officials and neighborhood leaders say there needs to be a more comprehensive anti-gang effort, one that Mayor Rob Hammond says should include suppression combined with intervention programs, such as Monrovia's Youth Employment Service or summer job program.

These programs cost money. Expanding them costs money - money that Monrovia would not have if it went above and beyond a 16.5 percent increase.

Monrovia is acting responsibly in its budget decisions. It's time for Monrovia's excellent - and well-compensated - police officers to do the same.

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

click here to receive LAAG posts by email

Must we keep paying for LASD to make the same mistakes over and over?

Well hopefully we wont be having shootouts in Lakewood anytime soon, but with LASD who knows. Shoot first ask questions later. Correction ....shoot 120 times first then ask questions. I think the sheriff's Office of Independent Review, who concluded that deputies violated tactical and pursuit policies summed up the situation and the LASD in general when they said the scene was "mass confusion." But not to worry. The deputies are on their way to management I am sure and big fat pensions. Meanwhile guess who foots the bill? That's right. Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer. We pay the Sheriffs AND the victims. Now all we need is to pay for the sheriff's who sue the county for disciplining them when they screwed up. (oh and yes that happens quite regularly in all law enforcement agencies...its called the triple jackpot) Maybe we send all these sheriff's who screw up in shootouts to Iraq. At least in Iraq there are no trial for victims (just ask Blackwater).


http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-hayes8mar08,1,5503103.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Man wins case over L.A. County deputies' barrage of gunfire

Shot at more than 100 times in Compton after a low-speed pursuit, he is awarded $1.3. million by a jury.
By John Spano
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

March 8, 2008

As a young man in South Los Angeles, Winston Hayes got to know the Compton courthouse well, getting hauled before judges more than a dozen times to answer charges of arson, assault and other crimes.

On Friday, Hayes, 46, was back in court, but this time he walked out $1,326,468.60 richer after a civil court jury decided that Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies used excessive force on him three years ago.

"Justice was done," Hayes said after the verdict, his left eye drooping from injuries he received as a result of his encounter with deputies.

During a four-week trial, Hayes showed jurors nine bullet wounds he suffered when deputies fired 120 shots at him at the end of a low-speed pursuit on May 9, 2005.

A total of 66 bullets struck Hayes' sport utility vehicle. Eleven bullets struck the deputies' own patrol cars, and another 11 pelted nearby residences.

In the end, only Hayes and a deputy were hit. The deputy was wearing a bulletproof vest and was not seriously injured.

"We do hope this verdict acts as a catalyst for building relationships between the Sheriff's Department and the community it serves," said Hayes' attorney, Brian Dunn, whose client had turned down the county's offer of $500,000 to settle the case. County lawyers declined to comment

On the night of the shooting, deputies had been investigating a report of shots fired in a Compton neighborhood when they saw Hayes' vehicle and approached to question him. Hayes, who was high on drugs at the time, said he panicked when he saw deputies and fled.

At the heart of the trial was a videotape shot by an amateur photographer showing the end of the 12-minute, low-speed chase. It showed Hayes in his SUV, his path blocked by squad cars, and a dozen deputies closing in on foot with guns drawn. Deputies testified that they fired at Hayes because they believed he had tried to run them down. Each said he fired to save his own life or that of a fellow deputy.

But to many residents and police observers, the shooting appeared excessive and dangerous, imperiling the safety of deputies and residents.

Sheriff Lee Baca quickly disciplined all the deputies involved with suspensions of up to 15 days. He also made changes to the department's shooting policy.

The incident prompted a report by Michael Gennaco, head of the sheriff's Office of Independent Review, who concluded that deputies violated tactical and pursuit policies. He described the scene as "mass confusion."

After 10 days of deliberations, jurors agreed that only two of the 10 deputies involved -- Michael Haggerty and Vergilian Bolder -- had used excessive force.

It was Hayes himself, his past and his motives that dominated deliberations, jurors said.

When he testified on his own behalf, he sounded defensive as he attempted to explain his past convictions for assault, arson, theft and resisting arrest -- and his use of cocaine and marijuana the night he was shot.

"There was a lot of disagreement," said jury forewoman Julia Christmas of Paramount.

She said she was persuaded from the beginning that deputies used excessive force, but it took 10 days to persuade nine of the 12 jurors -- the minimum needed to reach a verdict.

Christmas said the video was the key evidence.

"The shooting was excessive. At the time, they didn't have a clear shot," she said. "They weren't at a place where they needed to shoot."

Ultimately, the victim was less important than the deputies, she said.

"That's what I had to keep reminding jurors," Christmas said. "This wasn't about" Hayes. "It was about the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department taking responsibility for their actions."

Deputies "should have waited a little bit more," said juror Curtis Martin of Lakewood.

"I would not want this to happen in my neighborhood," he said. "It could have ended in a different way. The police could have had more patience."

john.spano@latimes.com


Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

click here to receive LAAG posts by email

Murder rate not affected by police force increases

The underlying (implied) message here is that murder rates grab the headlines but is one of many violent "crimes of passion" (or crimes of opportunity) not deterred by an increased police presence, nor deterred by prosecutions or finding the suspects. The murder rate is more likely tied to the weather than it is police staffing levels, yet police love to use these headlines to get taxpayers to fork out more money for overtime and police pensions. Wake up people. Its a scam. The police and the news media (the "drive by" "sound bite" TV media at least) work hand in hand to instill fear in taxpayers hearts: if you dont give into the demands of the police union the boogey man will get you...

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-homicide19mar19,0,3057227.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Jump in homicides not tied to racial animosity, LAPD says
No single factor can explain the increase, officials say.
By Joel Rubin
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

March 19, 2008

Los Angeles Police Department officials, alarmed by the continued rise in the homicide rate this year, sought Tuesday to debunk the notion that racial animosity has been at the heart of many of the killings.

A detailed analysis of each of the homicides this year leaves little doubt that race is not the prime factor and that "the most likely suspect is one that looks just like their victim," Deputy Chief Charlie Beck said in a presentation to the department's civilian Police Commission.

By Monday, 93 people had been killed in Los Angeles this year, compared with 69 during the same period last year -- a nearly 35% increase. As the weeks pass, the bloodshed in 2008 grows worse than the previous year. Two weeks ago, for example, the increase in the homicide rate over last year stood at 27%. The rise is also outpacing those in New York City and Chicago -- cities that have seen significant, but less dramatic, increases this year, according to Det. Jeff Godown, who oversees the LAPD's extensive effort to analyze crime statistics.

In addressing the commission, however, Beck and Godown hammered on a message that top police officials have been sounding for weeks: that neither race nor any other single factor can explain the increase in homicides.

In fact, they said, department statistics for this year found that in cases in which police have information about the suspect, the vast majority of alleged assailants in the killings of Latinos were other Latinos and the vast majority in killings of blacks were other blacks.

Of 57 Latinos killed this year, 87% are believed to have been struck down by other Latinos, the LAPD data show. (Those statistics do not include several cases in which the race of the suspect is unknown and one case in which the assailant is white.)

Nearly two-thirds of black homicide victims, meanwhile, are suspected to have been killed by other blacks. In about one of every three cases, the killer is thought to be Latino -- up from 14% over all of 2007. But even in instances in which a Latino is believed to have killed a black person or vice versa this year, police insist that there is no evidence that points to race being the primary factor in the homicide.

Police Chief William J. Bratton is counting on those raw numbers to deflate what several commissioners and police officials called the "rumors" and "myth" of violent racial tensions between blacks and Latinos. True or not, that sentiment has gained credence in recent weeks with several high-profile slayings and injuries in which suspected Latino gang members killed blacks. In one case, a 6-year-old black boy was shot in the head when two men flashed gang signs and opened fire on the SUV the boy was riding in. Days earlier, 17-year-old football standout Jamiel Shaw Jr. was gunned down on the sidewalk near his home, allegedly by a member of the notorious 18th Street gang. The attacker shot Shaw after demanding to know if the teenager belonged to a gang.

The question of race-related homicides has been a prickly one for Bratton. At a recent news conference about several high-profile slayings, he angrily rebuked a television news reporter for suggesting that the crimes spoke to racial tensions.

"He's full of [expletive]," Bratton said of the reporter.

Black civic leaders, although agreeing that there is no evidence to support the notion of a full-scale, widespread race-driven battle between Latinos and blacks, cautioned Bratton and others not to downplay the idea that race has played a role in some of the killings.

"Anyone who is saying that race is not a factor at all is not completely in touch with the feelings of people on the streets," said John Hope Bryant, chairman of Operation HOPE. Referring to Shaw, Bryant said police would be "hard pressed to tell people on the streets that it is not about race . . . when two Hispanics approach you with a clear energy that is about race and shoot you dead."

Earl Ofari Hutchinson, a political analyst who heads the Urban Policy Roundtable, echoed Bryant.

"They do not want to inflame tensions; I understand that," he said. "But . . . they also must not disarm a community by not fully coming to grips with the possibility" that race is a factor in some cases.

Despite the new numbers from the LAPD, authorities have said in the past that race-based violence has been a problem in some L.A. neighborhoods. Federal prosecutors last year charged members of a Latino gang with a violent campaign to drive blacks out of the unincorporated Florence-Firestone neighborhood, which allegedly resulted in 20 homicides over several years.

In the Harbor Gateway district of L.A., police launched a crackdown last year on another Latino gang accused of targeting blacks, including 14-year-old Cheryl Green, whose death became a rallying point. In 2006, members of the Avenues, a Latino gang, were convicted in federal court for a series of assaults and killings in the early 1990s targeting blacks in Highland Park.

But both police and some academics who have studied L.A. homicide numbers have long insisted that interracial violence is still relatively rare.

Apart from dissecting each homicide in search of common denominators, Bratton and his deputies have been at a loss on how to counter the rise in killings this year. In many ways, the homicide rate appears to be an anomaly, because other violent crimes, and crime overall, are down in the city.

With the so-called precursor crimes -- such as assault with a deadly weapon and shootings -- down, Bratton and Beck said they still expected homicides to taper off as the year goes on. And the city is struggling with the perception of widespread violence in part because there was a record low number of killings last year. Compared with the homicide rate for the same period of 2006, this year's figures are up only 7%.

Regardless, it has been a frustrating year, police said. "If I could find a pattern, if I could find something that I could immediately impact . . . I would," Beck said. "But the truth is that so far there is not a lot of connectivity" between the killings.

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

click here to receive LAAG posts by email

crime lower in LAPD areas than LASD areas

This is a rather interesting article. LA Police Dept. says their crime is down and its all due to their good police work. LASD admits crime is up in the LA Sheriff Dept. areas (many of which coincidentally adjoin LAPD areas) and claim that this increase is not do to lack of work by the LASD but rather "economic and environmental" factors. This is the same BS we have heard before. Crime goes down its all the police. Crime goes up its outside factors. What is so funny is that LASD and LAPD disagree. Maybe if LASD were as up to date on their crime maps and statistics as LAPD we would see more results from LASD. LASD can't even seem to find the time to put a decent website together, which is very embarrassing given it is one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the country. Lets face it. Baca has to go and we need a Sheriff appointed by the Board of Supervisors. Quite frankly LAPD has benefited from outside talent searches rather than promoting staid characters from within the department that have zero management skills.

If Baca is correct, that economic or environmental factors were all to blame for the crime increase, then we should lay off some deputies as having more is not helping.

Every year at the various dog and pony show "state of the city" events in LASD patrolled contract cities (Lakewood's is in January) we hear LASD tout how crime is going down as compared to last year. Each year they pick the figures that go down and fail to mention the areas that go up or how increases fluctuate over the years due to unknown factors. Quite frankly having more police drive down the street is not going to deter most serious crimes of passion (like murders of related people, family members etc. or rapes) Police may help deter a few crimes via their visibility, the very type that increased in the LASD areas! So the next time the LASD touts how their 22 million dollar new Lakewood station is going to make you safer, ask for some details and a warranty. Quite frankly the new LASD station will do lots for the Sheriff's union members (i.e. better break rooms and nicer offices for the big brass) but little for for the taxpayers.

As far as the crime stats below take note of the raw numbers. The large percentage decrease in the murder rate is tied to the fact that there is a small number of murders overall. Just the opposite for the increases. Small percentages due to large raw numbers. The arson increases are especially interesting considering the rise of fireworks in this area and the pyros that love them...



http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-crime4jan04,1,2983566.story?coll=la-headlines-california
From the Los Angeles Times
Region sees rise in crime
Homicides are down, but the L.A. County Sheriff's Department reports a 4% uptick in serious offenses in 2007.
By Richard Winton
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

January 4, 2008

While homicides fell significantly, serious crime in the dozens of communities patrolled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department rose 4% overall in 2007 -- prompting Sheriff Lee Baca to warn that a worsening economy could present a tough crime picture for 2008.

An increase in robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries and other property crimes drove the crime uptick, according to statistics compiled by the department, which protects about 3 million people.

Baca said rising unemployment in some impoverished communities doesn't bode well for the year ahead.

"Our economy is driving the property crimes -- burglary and larceny," the sheriff said. "In some communities, with high unemployment, some people resort to theft."

Baca's concerns are borne out by Los Angeles County's unemployment rate, which stood at 5.3% in November, nearly 1% higher than the same month a year before. It was the largest year-to-year increase since 2002.

At the same time, however, serious crime dropped 4.9% on neighboring turf patrolled by the Los Angeles Police Department, which also recorded its fewest homicides -- 392 -- in 37 years. LAPD Chief William J. Bratton, in comments Wednesday, differed sharply with Baca in his analysis of crime.

"I will take them all on, the economists, the criminologists, all of these people who give you the baloney," Bratton said. "What makes the difference is cops focused on crime."

Malcolm Klein, professor emeritus of sociology at USC and a gang expert, said Bratton is mistaken in deriding socioeconomic factors but said it's overly simplistic to draw a direct connection between unemployment and the crime rate.

"The answers are more complex. It may be something going down nationally," Klein said.

"It's hard to believe the economy in the county areas is any different than in neighboring Los Angeles," said George Tita, a UC Irvine criminology professor. "The reality is we don't know what . . . makes crime numbers go up and down."
Baca also blamed narcotics for fueling the rise in thefts, burglaries and robberies in the more than 3,000 square miles his deputies patrol. "Drug users commit a couple of hundred crimes each a year," he said.

Baca said that his 17% reduction in homicides, coming on top of a 13% plunge in 2006, is a success story. Deputies investigated 273 slayings, down from 328 the previous year.

Compton was a bright spot, reporting a sharp drop in homicides since 2005.

That year, the city recorded 72 homicides, placing it among the nation's deadliest cities on a per capita basis. Last year, there were 38.

Baca credited aggressive gang enforcement and a close partnership with communities such as Compton for the turnaround in homicides.

"We can make a difference when it comes to gang murders, but it is much more difficult when it comes to other kinds of murders," Baca said. "In Compton the word is out that things have changed. Gang members are getting out of town."

Anti-gang deputies have concentrated on getting guns out of the hands of gang members. Last year, sheriff's officials and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives shut down a Compton gun store that had sold nearly 900 weapons that ended up being confiscated during criminal investigations.

Store employees had illegally helped criminals buy guns by encouraging them to use friends or family with clean records to pass background checks. Thousands of guns were seized during the raid.

The serious crime category includes homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assaults, burglary, car theft, larceny and arson.

Rapes declined 7%, but robberies rose 3% and aggravated assaults jumped 6%.

Burglaries climbed by 6% and larceny/thefts went up by 7%, while vehicle thefts declined by 5%.

Sheriff's officials said there was also a 12% jump in arson -- from 904 in 2006 to 1,015 last year. "That is almost three a day," said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore. "It's a growing concern. We're locking arsonists up more than ever."

richard.winton@latimes.com

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

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Its time for a new captain in Lakewood

LAAG started in March 2006 in response to the Lakewood house explosion due to fireworks. What seemed like a "fireworks" problem at first really turned out to be a totally dysfunctional Sheriff's substation that was literally asleep at the switch. Since that time we have seen more money poured into the Sheriff's department in Lakewood without much in the way of results. (like hundreds of thousands for fireworks patrols and 20 million for a new station) We are plagued with embarrassing stories like these regarding the Lakewood station. So we started looking around for information on Captain David Fender who runs this circus that is the Lakewood Sheriff's substation. Lo and behold he is not held in very high regard by his peers or his deputies either. Just take a look at the 2004-2006 ratings his own deputies give him. He is 39th out of 43 captains rated!! Dismal and getting worse. Cant wait to see 2007 ratings. You can read the full reviews for 2005 here and 2006 here. I think its time the City of Lakewood, which is in charge of the Lakewood Station, (as its their contract) demand that a new Captain be brought in. LAAG can help in the selection process.

Lakewood Sheriff Captain David Fender 2005 ALADS Leadership Assessment
(click on each image below to enlarge)

Lakewood Sheriff Captain David Fender 2006 ALADS Leadership Assessment

Summary of 2004-2006 ALADS Leadership Assessments for all Sheriffs Captains



Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

L.A. County Sheriff's lax investigation of use-of-force cases

This story was only reported in a few newspapers whereas the related issue of how Paris Hilton and Mel Gibson were treated was given 10 times the amount of press in this Hollywood celebrity obsessed culture. The same "Special Counsel" also reported on the celebrity issues. We dont care about people killed by LA Sheriff's but we do want to know if Mel got a ride to the tow yard by a Sheriff!? All joking aside, both issues point to the fact that the LASD is poorly run and managed. This leads to deputies doing whatever they want in the field as they have such wide discretion and no one to call them on it. And what is the cause? Well one major cause is Baca having zero management skills and being "promoted" (by the voters not knowing who to vote for) to the point where he is in over his head (the "peter principle"). The other cause is police unions. Without the ability to fire deputies or dock their pay you will never have the ability to enforce rules. Period. So do all the studies you want and get all the oversight and consent decrees that you want. If the officers union challenges managements every move then management is held hostage. Lets face it. The unions protect rogue cops. As far as consent decrees and unions go just look at the story regarding the LAPD at the very bottom of this page.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bobb20dec20,1,2351119.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Report faults internal affairs' shooting probes
L.A. County sheriff's monitor cites lax investigation of use-of-force cases.
By Stuart Pfeifer
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

December 20, 2007

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department failed to thoroughly investigate half of its recent use-of-force cases, according to a monitor's report released Wednesday.

Special Counsel Merrick Bobb, who monitors the Sheriff's Department under a contract with the county, said he was concerned that internal affairs investigators didn't interview several deputies who fired weapons at suspects. Instead, the investigators relied on previous interviews of the deputies by homicide detectives.

Bobb, whose staff reviewed dozens of deputies' use of force from 2004 and 2005, also concluded that some of the department's internal affairs detectives appeared to side with deputies while interviewing them.

For example, while investigating the shooting of a juvenile in Compton in 2004, an investigator said, "very good," or "perfect," when a deputy answered questions in a manner that appeared to justify the shooting, according to Bobb's report.

The report found some things to commend, however. It said the Office of Independent Review, which monitors sheriff's internal affairs investigations, had provided useful oversight and improved the thoroughness of the investigations. It also noted that the department's internal affairs process has become a model for agencies across the country.

Sheriff's Division Chief Roberta Abner said the department, in response to Bobb's concerns, recently adopted a policy that requires internal affairs investigators to interview all deputies who shoot suspects, even if homicide detectives already had spoken with the deputies.

By policy, homicide detectives review deputy shootings to help determine whether the deputies were justified. Deputies now will be interviewed first by homicide detectives conducting a criminal investigation and then by internal affairs investigators to determine whether a shooting was within department policy.

In the report, Bobb said he found the review of one deputy-involved shooting particularly troubling. The deputy shot a juvenile whom he said had shot at him. None of six witnesses said they saw the juvenile with a gun, and a gunshot residue test found no evidence that the youth had fired a weapon.

Deputies said they found a handgun in a nearby bush, but there was no evidence linking the juvenile to the gun. In addition, the deputy gave conflicting accounts of the shooting, the report said. He told one investigator he did not see what happened to the gun but told another he saw the juvenile throw it toward the bush, the report said.

Based on the deputy's statements, the juvenile was convicted of assault with a firearm against a peace officer and sentenced to seven years in the California Youth Authority. Bobb requested that the department reopen the investigation, but the department declined. The deputy has left the department.

"If it turns out that the facts were different than as found in the initial investigation it would have very profound consequences for the criminal justice system as a whole and the juvenile in particular," Bobb said Wednesday.

Abner said the department has reviewed the case thoroughly and determined that reopening the case would produce no useful information.

"The issue is whether the juvenile was in possession of a weapon. What we don't feel can happen by reopening it is having any more information that goes to that fact," Abner said.

stuart.pfeifer@latimes.com


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lapd21dec21,1,2149924.story
From the Los Angeles Times
L.A. police panel requires financial disclosure for some officers; union sues
The commission is trying to get out from under a court order for reform. Critics say the new policy is invasive and won't work.
By Joel Rubin
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

December 21, 2007

The Los Angeles Police Commission approved a plan Thursday to require hundreds of anti-gang and narcotics officers to disclose detailed information about their personal finances, triggering an immediate court challenge by the police officers union and a debate at City Hall over whether to overrule the panel.

At issue in the rapidly intensifying dispute is what LAPD Chief William J. Bratton and the five-member commission hope will be one of the final pieces of a broad reform campaign that began after the Rampart corruption scandal and has kept the department under federal oversight since 2000.

Bratton and his civilian bosses are eager to get out of the federal consent decree, which calls for some sort of financial disclosure rule for officers in specialized units who frequently handle cash, drugs and other contraband. The issue has proved to be the most contentious sticking point as union and city officials have struggled for years to strike a compromise between officers' privacy rights and the need to satisfy the decree.

The reform is intended to help supervisors detect an officer who is taking bribes or involved in other illegal conduct. Under its terms, about 600 officers would be required to disclose to department officials any outside income, real estate, stocks, other assets and debts every two years. They would also have to reveal the size of their bank accounts and include any holdings they share with family members or business partners. Officers already assigned to the units would be granted a two-year grace period before having to complete the records.

"It's important that we use every tool available to make absolutely sure that even if it's just one officer who is potentially inclined to go down this path, that we do everything within our . . . authority to make sure that doesn't happen," said Commissioner John Mack. "We cannot forget the Rampart incident."

Indeed, the legacy of the Rampart Division scandal hung heavy over the commission's special meeting Thursday. The call for financial disclosure stemmed in part from admissions by a former anti-gang officer that he and his partner routinely stole thousands of dollars in cash and narcotics from gang members and drug dealers. He said there was little scrutiny of what officers did on the streets and that many officers in his unit took advantage of the lack of supervision by beating and framing suspects.

But Thursday, several police officers, union leaders and elected officials questioned whether the disclosure requirement would do anything to improve on audits, polygraph tests and other safeguards against abuse already in place.

"You would have to look at the ebb and flow of money coming in and going. This is just a snapshot. All they are doing is looking at one day, and with that you have no idea what has happened," said Don Brady, a lieutenant in charge of about 40 narcotics officers, some of whom specialize in tracking the assets of drug dealers.

Critics warned that the commission's move has left rank-and-file officers deeply angry and that hundreds may retire or request transfers out of the specialized units instead of submitting to the new rules.

"It has dampened morale," Brady said of the officers in his units. "They really feel like they're not being trusted."

Civil rights attorney Connie Rice, who has been closely involved in the push to reform the LAPD, echoed the opposition to the policy, saying increased supervision of officers was needed instead.

"The commission is caught between a rock and a hard place on this one. It is trying to do what the court wants it to do, whether it's a good idea or not," she said, referring to U.S. District Judge Gary A. Feess, who oversees the decree. She said police officers "have a right to be angry. They know this won't do any good and is an infringement on their rights."

Although the vote was unanimous, Commissioner Alan Skobin said he sympathized with the officers' concerns.

"I could not look the officers in the eye and tell them that it will do anything to improve the Los Angeles Police Department, except to hope that it will get us beyond the consent decree," he said. "What we're asking them to do and what we're asking their families to do is a very bitter pill. In fact, we're not asking, we're ordering them."

The scope of the policy goes beyond what is demanded of Bratton in the financial interest forms he must file with the city Ethics Commission. But although Bratton's disclosures are public record, the officers' information would be kept confidential. In response to union officials' concerns that the department would not be able to keep the documents safe, the commission refined the policy Thursday to make clear that the information would be kept locked in Bratton's office until it was periodically destroyed.

The commission's disclosure policy puts the officers on par with many federal law enforcement agents. Every five years, for example, agents in the Drug Enforcement Administration must submit to thorough investigations of their finances, said Special Agent Jose Martinez.

Before Thursday's vote, union President Tim Sands urged commissioners to reconsider a compromise that city, federal and union lawyers agreed to last year but that Judge Feess threw out as insufficient.That deal called in part for the department to conduct frequent sting operations and audits of narcotics and anti-gang officers but did not require across-the-board disclosures.

"Go back to this judge and tell him that we had an agreement," Sands said. "We will protect the rights of our officers. . . . We don't want to go down that road. I am asking you, do not move this order forward."

In response to the commission's action, the union filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court seeking an immediate injunction against the disclosures, contending that they violate state laws and collective bargaining rules that protect officers' privacy rights.

Councilman Jack Weiss, who chairs the council's public safety committee said he would push other council members to take the rare step of voting to supersede the commission and assume jurisdiction over the issue. Such a move would require the support of 10 of the 15 council members. If the council takes that action, it can then vote on whether to veto the commission's plan and force the panel to try again.

"I am skeptical" about the policy, Weiss said. "It's not clear that it will assist in detecting bad cops."

Councilman Dennis Zine, a former LAPD sergeant, said he also opposed the commission's decision but would not support Weiss' effort, which he called a "disingenuous" move targeted at winning the police union's endorsement in Weiss' upcoming run for city attorney.

Weiss could not be reached for comment on Zine's assertion. Lisa Hansen, Weiss' chief of staff, said: "This is not about politics. The council will decide this issue on the merits, but clearly it warrants discussion."

joel.rubin@latimes.com

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™r>

LASD discourages independent oversight

Some of these quotes below are classic, especially those from the LASD union spokesman. Most "reviewed law enforcement agencies in the nation"...oh please. Given the few things that have leaked out about LASD and that are on this website, (this one for example) LAAG supports any effort to take the LASD review process away from its union and place it in the hands of taxpayer entities that are truly independent. Now the question is how "independent" will "The Office of Independent Review" remain. LAAG is always a little suspicious of an entity that sucks up still more tax dollars and needs to use the word "independent" in its name. You can read more on the "The Office of Independent Review" here and also contact them directly from that site.


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/orange/la-me-audit25oct25,1,7934644.story?coll=la-editions-orange
From the Los Angeles Times
Report lauds work of Sheriff's Department monitor
The Office of Independent Review, which looks into misconduct allegations, is fair and necessary, according to a county review.
By Stuart Pfeifer
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

October 25, 2007

The Office of Independent Review, which oversees investigations into alleged misconduct by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies, does a good job of making sure internal investigations and discipline are fair and has increased public confidence in the department, according to a report by the county executive.

The Board of Supervisors ordered the review last month after agreeing to spend more than $3 million to fund the unit for the next three years. The office is staffed by civil rights attorneys who consult with internal affairs investigators and make recommendations about discipline and training.

Supervisors sought the review at the request of the union that represents sheriff's deputies. Steve Remige, president of the Assn. for Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriffs, had told supervisors that he thought the department was already well monitored and that the money it spends on the review team could be better used to hire additional deputies.

The county report, released this week, concluded that the oversight group provides a valuable service to the county, including reducing liability to potential civil lawsuits by recommending training for deputies and by ensuring that deputies who violate policy are appropriately disciplined.

"By having the OIR monitor the department's actions, LASD personnel are more cognizant to follow departmental policy," according to the report by county Chief Executive Officer William T. Fujioka.

Michael Gennaco, chief attorney for the Office of Independent Review, said he believed the report accurately reflected the role his office plays in the sheriff's discipline and training process.

"I'm pleased to see that the CEO's office has reported that we actually make a difference," he said. "The most important thing we do in my view is actually keep investigations and departmental decisions on discipline honest, and when they're not we have the ability to tell the public that they're not."

Among its duties, Gennaco's office reviews lawsuits filed against the department and produces reports, available online at www.laoir.com, about the outcomes of investigations into alleged misconduct by deputies in the nation's largest sheriff's department.

"OIR's involvement gives the public confidence knowing that the LASD investigation is being monitored. The OIR's ability to be objective and impartial gives the review process more credibility," Fujioka's report says. "The idea that the department will cover up or hide essential facts from the case will have less significance when the OIR is involved to ensure the integrity of the investigation."

Sheriff Lee Baca launched the Office of Independent Review in 2001. The report "is a complete vindication of my desire to have transparency and to strengthen public trust of the Sheriff's Department," Baca said Wednesday.

Remige said he was not swayed by the report. He said the department already was one of the most reviewed law enforcement agencies in the nation, with an internal affairs bureau, a criminal internal affairs bureau, a county ombudsman, district attorney's office reviews of uses of force and semiannual reports by Merrick Bobb, an attorney who monitors the department for the Board of Supervisors.

"It's another layer of oversight that personally I don't think we need," Remige said.

stuart.pfeifer@latimes.com

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

2,002 die in police custody in 3 years

This article below is an interesting companion story to an earlier one we did here. Note the next to last paragraph in the article below.


2,002 die in police custody in 3 years
By Hope Yen, Associated Press
Article Launched: 10/11/2007 08:37:02 PM PDT

WASHINGTON - More than 2,000 criminal suspects died in police custody over a three-year period, half of them killed by officers as they scuffled or attempted to flee, the government said Thursday.

The study by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics is the first nationwide compilation of the reasons behind arrest- related deaths in the wake of high-profile police assaults or killings involving Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo in New York in the late 1990s.

The review found 55 percent of the 2,002 arrest-related deaths from 2003 through 2005 were due to homicide by state and local law enforcement officers. Alcohol and drug intoxication caused 13 percent of the deaths, followed by suicides at 12 percent, accidental injury at 7 percent and illness or natural causes, 6 percent. The causes of the deaths for the remaining 7 percent were unknown.

The highly populated states of California, Texas and Florida led the pack for both police killings and overall arrest-related deaths. Georgia, Maryland and Montana were not included in the study because they did not submit data.

Most of those who died in custody were men (96 percent) between the ages of 18 and 44 (77 percent). Approximately 44 percent were white; 32 percent black; 20 percent Hispanic; and 4 percent were of other or multiple races.

"Keep in mind we have 2,000 deaths out of almost 40 million arrests over three years, so that tells you by their nature they are very unusual cases," said Christopher J. Mumola, who wrote the study.

"Still, they do need to be looked at to determine whether police training can be better or practices can be better," he said.

State laws and police department policy typically let officers use deadly force to defend themselves or others from the threat of death or serious injury. Deadly force also is allowed to prevent the escape of a suspect in a violent felony who poses an immediate threat to others.

The Justice Department study released Thursday suggests that most of the police killings would be considered justified, although it does not make that final determination. About 80 percent of the cases involved criminal suspects who reportedly brandished a weapon "to threaten or assault" the arresting officers.

Another 17 percent involved suspects who allegedly grabbed, hit or fought with police. More than one-third of the police killings, or about 36 percent, involved a suspect who tried to flee or otherwise escape arrest.

The report was compiled at the request of Congress in 2000 after the 1997 struggle between New York police and Louima, a black security guard who left the precinct house bleeding after officers jammed a broken broomstick into his mouth and rectum. A few years later, two police shootings of unarmed black men followed, including Diallo, who was shot 41 times after he reached into his pocket for a wallet.

Since then, following police sensitivity training, New York has seen a few killings involving suspects and officers, including last year's shooting of Sean Bell, an unarmed black bridegroom-to-be whom police say they believed was reaching for a gun.

Other findings:

Among law enforcement, 380 officers were killed in the line of duty over the three-year period and 174,760 were reportedly assaulted, according to FBI data. Most of the deaths were accidental (221), while 159 were homicides.

Blacks were disproportionately represented in arrest-related deaths due to alcohol or drug intoxication (41 percent vs. 33 percent for whites); accidental injury (42 percent vs. 37 percent for whites); and unknown causes (46 percent vs. 39 percent for whites)

On the Net

Bureau of Justice Statistics: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

Where does Baca get his material?

Since when are "quotas" an innovative "new" form of policing? Been there done that. Management 101 Baca. Nothing in the Sheriff's department is innovative from what we have seen. Their crime stats were wrong for 2006 and it takes months for them to be posted even with the wrong data. Then they are next to unusable as there is no easy way to compare crimes, cities or date ranges. Just look at their stats page compared to other large departments like LAPD. LAAG asked for 2006 stats in spring 2007. No response. Ever. At all. Their computer systems are antiquated which is why their crime data and their response and cost data are so inaccurate. It is a big and an old department and not as nimble as smaller departments yet other departments of the same size are more "innovative". Just compare the websites of www.lasd.org with www.lapdonline.org. The difference might be attributed to the fact that LASD promotes from within (regardless of the Sheriff being elected), whereas LAPD gets chiefs through extensive job searches from the entire country. That is where they got "Broadway" Bill Bratton (we call him Broadway as he has never met a camera he did not like). The problem with sheriff elections is that there are never any real opponents. Most know once they run against the incumbent and loose their career is over.

When LAAG thinks of the LASD "innovative" is not a term that comes to mind. Lethargic, bloated, slow, bureaucratic, overpriced, inefficient, lazy, unorganized. Those are the terms that come to mind.

If LASD wants to be innovate here are some ideas to start with:

1. When people email or call LASD about an issue, respond, in the same manner, promptly, that you will look into the issue (or wont and why) and then follow up with the result (or no result). In the private sector we call it customer service. You should try it.

2. Get going on crime stats as you hold these up a some sort of a Holy Grail as to your usefulness. Look here for real ideas on innovation.

3. The Lakewood PAVE (Partnership, Accountability, Visibility, and Enforcement) Program is a beat program where deputies who work in the City of Lakewood are made accountable for specific geographical areas. In addition to their regular duties, deputies are assigned to individual beats to better serve Lakewood neighborhoods. PAVE Deputies are responsible for interacting with residents, overseeing schools and parks in their respective areas and knowing the specific concerns and issues in their beat.

LAAG requested all the contact info for the PAVE deputies to post here as it was not posted anywhere on the LASD site. The "A" in PAVE means accountability. Without ways to contact these deputies we cant hold them accountable.

4. How about a Sheriff blotter like LAAG asked for months ago? (see related story)

Baca quotes from Jack Kennedy below and in a way seems to try to compare himself to the late President. To borrow a phrase from Senator Bentsen in the 1988 debates with Dan Quale: "Sheriff, you're no Jack Kennedy"..(for details read here)

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/web/la-oew-baca9oct09,1,6454891.story
Blowback
Criticism is the cost of police innovation The arrest-contest incident in Lakewood is not an indication of poor county policing, says Sheriff Lee Baca. By Lee Baca

October 9, 2007

The recent criticism of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reminded me of a statement President Kennedy made in 1961 regarding his reform-minded approach to Latin America, which at the time was causing consternation among many of the old guard in government: "My experience in government is that when things are noncontroversial, beautifully coordinated and all the rest, it may be that there is not much going on," he said. "We are attempting to do something about Latin America, and there is bound to be ferment. If the ferment produces a useful result, it will be worthwhile." Soon after this statement, Kennedy and his administration averted a global nuclear disaster that has come to be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Obviously the recent criticism of the Sheriff's Department is not by any stretch of the imagination on the level of U.S. foreign policy in the early 1960s. However, Kennedy was trying something new, and it was causing controversy.

Since I have been elected sheriff, I also have been trying something new, and it too has caused some controversy. I want every department member, regardless of their standing, to be leaders in this department so that they can act independently of the bureaucracy to do their jobs right.

In fact, when I address a room full of deputies or professional staff, I always start by saying: "I see a room full of leaders." Furthermore, I always ask department members: "What new thing am I willing to do to make a difference?"

Most recently, a leader in the Lakewood station undertook an informal arrest competition among deputies. This idea was to boost morale and increase productivity among the deputies. It was a well-intentioned, ill-conceived idea.

When you try new things, there will be mistakes. We will not hide from them. We will be accountable. When I learned of the contests, I stopped them. I also was criticized for not being aware of the informal contests sooner. The station's captain knew about the contest and allowed it to go forward. But the key to growing as a leader is making decisions without constant interference from your superiors.

Again, I applaud the initiative but not the result. Law enforcement is not about contests, it is about quality.

I am called by some a "public safety reformer." Perhaps there's some truth to that, but that does not mean I ignore best practices of law enforcement. My deputies know what is right and what is wrong. They will stay well within the legal and moral boundaries while applying common sense and fairness in all they do.

So how are we doing with this leadership approach to public safety?

Crime is down in Los Angeles County, with homicides and rapes down by 13.02% and 13.36%, respectively. Homicides in Compton alone are down by nearly 50% over the spike in 2005.

We are on the verge of opening a gang emergency operations center that for the first time in the history of this great county will bring together all resources under one roof to combat the scourge of gangs. We have recently opened a new state-of-the-art regional crime lab.

Our Office of Independent Review is considered the model of law enforcement oversight nationwide, with one of our OIR attorneys recently selected to run the oversight of Chicago's police department.

Our Los Angeles Sheriff's Department University has graduated scores of sheriff's department personnel with bachelor's and master's degrees, with the full support of this department. I have long held that the better the education, the better the department.

And finally, by the end of this year, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department will have recruited more than 2,600 new deputy sheriffs.

When you try new ideas, pave new roads, pioneer new innovations, there is "bound to be ferment. If the ferment produces a useful result, it will be worthwhile."

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is producing a public safety result much more than worthwhile. It is one that is essential to keep us safe and secure well into the 21st Century.

Lee Baca is sheriff of Los Angeles County.


Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

Sheriff Crime Blotter

LAAG asked the city and LASD for a up to date "Sheriff Blotter" which is done in many cities. It can also be combined with a daily updated crime map like this

The Sheriff and the City's response to LAAG's request below? complete silence. No response. Nice.

Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 23:52:44 -0700
To: "Todd Rogers, City Council" , , "Joe Esquivel, City Council" , , "Larry Van Nostran, city council" , , "Steve Croft, city council" , , "Diane DuBois, City Council" , "Howard Chambers, City Mgr" , "Sandi Ruyle, Deputy City Mgr" ,
From: "www.LAAG.us | Lakewood Accountability Action Group"
Subject: good question
Cc: "Capt. Dave L. Fender" , "Lt. Terry W. Benjestorf" , "Dep. Scott Scally" , "LBReport.com" , "LBReport.com" , karen.robes@presstelegram.com, "The Bellflower Bulletin" , "Carla Collado" , "Pose, Elizabeth" ,

Why dont we have a log/blotter like those below in Lakewood? LAAG would be glad to post/host it if we could get the feed. If we already do where/when is it posted on the internet and who edits it.? Maybe some of the 23 million being spent on the Substation could be spent on disseminating some information which costs nothing really..just a little time...and I think the Sheriff's have enough time to do it if other departments do.

LAPD does not have a blotter (it appears) but they have weekly crime maps which is almost better. LASD has nether. LAPD also has weekly crime stats.

http://www.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/2007_crime_summary.pdf

Lots of examples here..some better than others..some third party..some direct from the dept

http://www.city.waltham.ma.us/wpdweb/WalthamPDWeb/PoliceBlotter/policeblotter.htm

http://www.ci.brisbane.ca.us/html/cityDept/police/policeBlotter.asp

http://www.arcataeye.com/index.php?module=pagesetter&tid=2&topic=7

http://www.carmelpinecone.com/070622-8.html

http://cityofdavis.org/police/log/

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/lagunaniguel/article_1746216.php
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Sheriff's log
By LOIS EVEZICH
STAFF WRITER

Monday, June 25

Avila Road/Moulton Parkway, disturbance, 1:18 p.m. Juveniles were throwing debris onto the street.

Alicia Parkway, 27200 block, petty theft, 4:24 p.m. Two female juveniles were seen taking items from Mervyn's. They were taken into custody and released to their parents.

Golden lantern/Crown Valley Parkway, suspicious person in vehicle with arrest, 6:06 p.m. A man at the Shell Station had shortness of breath. Deputies called paramedics then took the 27-year-old male subject into custody. He's being held on $20,000 bail.

Port Street, disturbance, 7:31 p.m. Someone reported juveniles throwing rocks at vehicles.

Paseo de la Valle, suspicious persons, 7:29 p.m. A man came home and found his front door open. He also saw four men hiding in the bushes around the driveway next door. He called deputies because he thought there might be items missing from his home.

Sunday, June 24

Yosemite Road/Big Bend Drive, suspicious vehicle, 10:19 a.m. A silver Honda Prelude looked like its windows had been shot out.

Cascades Drive neighborhood, vandalism report, 10:35 a.m. A woman said duct tape was placed in front of her residence and it caused damage to her vehicle.

Crown Valley Parkway, 28200 block, grand theft report, 11 a.m. The manager at Ralphs suspected a former employee of theft.

Cape Drive, 26000 block suspicious person in vehicle, 5:43 p.m. A caller said a couple at Rock's Bar were acting suspiciously and letting other people buy them drinks, etc. When a male patron left the bar the woman, wearing a strapless dress, followed them out. The bartender was watching. The male part of the couple stayed in the bar. He was described as wearing a tan shirt, shorts and hiking shoes, and was missing teeth.

Saturday, June 23

Marina Hills Drive/Niguel Road, disturbance, 3:22 a.m. An unknown subject was throwing eggs at vehicles.

Avenida de la Plata, 27200 block, burglary report, 5:30 a.m. Someone took items from a residence.

Alicia Parkway, 27200 block, petty theft with arrest, 12:14 p.m. A woman with a baby was picked up for taking things at Mervyn's. While in the office she was semi-cooperative, so she was taken into custody, cited and released.

Aloma Avenue, 28800 block, battery, 1:54 p.m. A woman said her husband was hit in the face by a softball thrown from Niguel Hills Middle School. He didn't need medical aid, but went out to find who threw the ball.

Augusta Drive, 31000 block, burglary report, 3:52 p.m. Someone took items from a vehicle.

Alicia/Crown Valley parkways, traffic stop with arrest, 4:07 p.m. A 29-year-old male subject was taken into custody at a traffic stop, made bail and was released.

Alicia Parkway/Pacific Island Drive, suspicious person in vehicle with arrest, 4:44 p.m. A male subject, 24, was arrested when someone reported he had kicked in the door of the gym in the complex. He is held on narcotics violations for $50,000.

Jarrett Circle, 29700 block, assisting an outside agency, 7:15 p.m. Paramedics were called when a male subject, 94, was not breathing. They did CPR on him and took him to Mission Hospital.

Friday, June 22

Camino Capistrano, vandalism report, 9:54 a.m. Someone at Crown Valley Business Park reported damage to a cell phone.

Beacon Hill Way/Sentry Hill, fireworks violation, 1:59 p.m. Male juveniles were shooting off rockets.

Crown Valley Parkway/ Niguel Road, traffic accident, unknown injuries, 4:44 p.m. Someone on a bicycle was hit by a truck and complained of pain as well as abrasions on his or her arms and legs.

Niguel Road, 29700 block, unknown trouble, 6:44 p.m. A deputy asked for back up for a house search. A juvenile was uncooperative about letting him the house. A search was made and deputies took the boy to Juvenile Hall.

Niguel Ranch Road/Marina Hills Drive, disturbance, 11:09 p.m. Deputies picked up five juveniles who were suspected of throwing things from the Camden Court complex. They were hiding on the greenbelt between Marina Hills Drive and Hidden Hills Park. A deputy threw a flare to see them and they were taken into custody.

Mirandela Lane, 30500 block, citizen assist, 11:28 p.m. A woman reported sticky stuff was thrown onto her vehicle.

Thursday, June 21

Briones Drive, vandalism report, 12:47 a.m. Someone inflicted damage to a vehicle.

Crown Valley Parkway/Hillhurst Drive, traffic accident, 1:30 a.m. Two vehicles collided and one rolled over and may have hit a pole. A witness said one of the drivers tried to run away.

Crested Butte Circle, vandalism report, 7:55 a.m. Someone damaged property.

Pacific Island Drive, 30200 Pacific Island Drive, 8:39 a.m. Someone damaged a white Toyota 4Runner.

Crown Valley Parkway/Niguel Road, welfare check, 8:56 a.m. Someone reported an elderly woman driving in the parking lot with sparks coming from her tires. Deputies arrived and found the woman had a flat tire.

Hidden Hills Road, 24800 block, burglary report, 12:15 p.m.

Rancho Grande, 28400 block, burglary report, 12:20 p.m.

Highlands Avenue/Niguel Road, assisting an outside agency, 3:27 p.m. Three Sheriff's vehicles were asked to block off streets due to a brush fire.

Golden Lantern/Camino del Avion, pedestrian check with arrest, 4:04 p.m. A male subject was taken into custody, cited and released.

La Paz Road/Crown Valley Parkway, traffic accident, 5:51 p.m. Three vehicles collided at an intersection. One subject complained of pain.

Crown Ridge, family dispute with arrest, 10:14 p.m. The child of a couple reported that his mother and father were fighting. He called deputies who arrested a 56-year-old female subject. She was cited and released.

Wednesday, June 20

Camino del Avion/Peak Drive, welfare check, 8:19 a.m. Two men picked up an elderly man who was disoriented and had fallen down, but didn't know where to take him. Deputies took him to San Rafael in Dana Point.

Camino Los Padres, 25500 block, medical aid, 9:49 a.m. A woman lost control in an office and was throwing things around. The caller tried to keep her calm until deputies arrived. Turned out the woman was recently arrested and was being evicted from her apartment. Deputies took her to Mission Hospital.

Niguel Road/Beacon Hill Way, traffic stop with arrest, 3:30 p.m. Deputies arrested a male subject, 31, at a traffic stop. He was cited and released.

Pacific Park Drive, 24500 block, vandalism report, 6:21 p.m. Someone inflicted damage on property at the Aliso Laguna Villa.

Tuesday, June 19

Seafare, vandalism report, 9:58 a.m. Someone damaged a vehicle.

Niguel Heights Boulevard/Avila Road, stolen vehicle located, 1:16 p.m. Deputies found a black Saturn inside a storage unit that had been reported stolen. They held it for fingerprints.

Rancho del Sol, 28500 block, resisting arrest, 2:59 p.m. Deputies took a woman into custody at Patsy's Bar after her friend said she had threatened to overdose on pills.

Greenfield/Rancho Niguel Road, disturbance, 3:56 p.m. An irate customer at Café Car Wash blocked the entrance with a vehicle.

The Laguna Niguel Sheriff's Blotter was compiled by Lois Evezich from Internet reports posted by the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

Contact the writer: levezich@ocregister.com or 949-454-7323
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The "Regulators" and the "Vikings"

Is this the same "professional organization" that Baca touts he is the head of and has managed so well? Reference this editorial by Sheriff Baca.

Deputy's lawsuit alleges Sheriff's Department racism
The Regulators say they are an elite cadre. Their critics compare them to the Mexican Mafia.
By Stuart Pfeifer
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 5, 2007

They call themselves the Regulators.

They wear tattoos of a skull-faced man holding a shotgun, fire screaming from its barrels. They refuse to testify against their buddies. They've been accused of extorting and intimidating those outside their ranks.

No, they're not members of a street gang. They're Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies at the Century station in Lynwood. And their "club" is part of a culture that's dogged the nation's largest sheriff's department for years.

A decade after the county paid $9 million to resolve a series of brutality lawsuits involving a different group of Lynwood deputies known as the Vikings, the Regulators are the focus of litigation alleging racism in the department and involving accusations that a group of deputies is behaving like a gang.

This time the lawsuit was filed by a deputy, Angel Jaimes, a Regulators member who alleges that black administrators in the department unfairly stalled his career by referring to him and other Latino deputies as the Mexican Mafia, a notorious prison gang.

Jaimes, a beefy 43-year-old who joined the department in 1989, said the Regulators are nothing more than a close-knit group of deputies, not exclusively Latinos, who support one another and promote aggressive, ethical policing that keeps communities safe. Only deputies who work hard and follow policy are encouraged to join, Jaimes said.

"It's like the all-stars of a baseball team. You get the best," he said.

Jaimes would not disclose how many deputies belong to the group, but he says he was the 63rd to join when he signed up years ago. They don't all still work at the Century station, which is staffed by more than 100 deputies.

Allegations of misconduct by Regulators have simmered for more than four years. Anonymous letters, purportedly drafted by deputies not in the group, have accused members of extorting money from other deputies, acting like gang members and heavily influencing shift scheduling and administration at the Century station. But no allegations have been proved, Sheriff's Department officials say.

Concern about the Regulators is reminiscent of one of the department's darkest chapters: allegations in the early 1990s that Lynwood station deputies -- many of them members of a group dubbed the Vikings -- brutalized minorities, falsely arrested suspects and engaged in wrongful shootings.

A federal judge referred to the Vikings as a "neo-Nazi white supremacist gang," and the county agreed as part of a 1996 settlement to spend $1.5 million retraining deputies to prevent such abuses and $7.5 million to compensate victims of alleged abuses by Lynwood deputies.

Since then, Sheriff Lee Baca has tried unsuccessfully to discourage deputies from forming cliques. But the club culture is deeply rooted in the department, and clubs exist at virtually every station, officials say. Even one of Baca's top managers, Assistant Sheriff Paul Tanaka, got a Vikings tattoo while assigned to the Lynwood station in the 1980s. Tanaka has said that the tattoos are harmless and that he didn't know of any inappropriate behavior by deputies who had them.

Baca declined to comment for this report, citing concerns about interfering with the pending lawsuit. But his office issued a statement that said he opposes "any clique, organization or club that does not embrace the core values of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department."

In 2003, the first of two anonymous letters was sent to Sheriff's Department executives about the Regulators. The letter referred to the group as the Mexican Mafia and accused Jaimes and another member of "strong-arming" deputies to contribute money for deputies in need.

"They don't ask for a contribution, rather they demand and enforce the payment of a set price," according to the letter, which was signed by "a concerned deputy." A second letter, mailed in 2004, said, "Something has to be done immediately, maybe a cleaning of the station to get rid of the gang mentality of the Mexican Mafia."

Members of the Regulators acknowledge that they raise money for deputies in need, including some who have been suspended without pay for violating department policy. But they deny ever pressuring fellow deputies to contribute.

Jaimes' lawsuit, which seeks to overturn his 2004 transfer from the Century station, has led to allegations of racial tension within the department and has shed new light on the culture of groups like the Regulators.

One of Jaimes' potential witnesses is Lt. Terri Williams , who has testified previously that two black Sheriff's Department executives told her they were concerned that Century station "was run by Mexicans and they were going to change that."

But many of the group's activities and members remain cloaked in secrecy. Deputy James Grubb, a longtime member of the Regulators, refused under questioning from Los Angeles County attorneys to confirm whether some deputies were members of the group.

"You want me to talk to you about somebody else that may not want their business known. I can't do that for you," Grubb said while under oath in a deposition for Jaimes' lawsuit. "It's not up to me to bring somebody else out."

Grubb would not answer many questions from Christy L. O'Donnell, a lawyer representing the county in the lawsuit:

"Are you the leader of the Regulators?"

"There's no such thing as the leader," Grubb replied.

"How do decisions get made, then, by the Regulators?"

"I won't discuss that. It's not something that's public knowledge," Grubb said.

"You do understand, though, that when you refuse to answer questions . . . it has the negative inference of the code of silence?"

"As does a lot of things in general life," Grubb said.

Grubb confirmed that deceased Deputy Jerry Ortiz, slain by a gang member in 2005, was once a member of the Regulators. Grubb said he drove Ortiz to a Huntington Beach tattoo shop to get his Regulators tattoo in 2000 or 2001.

Ortiz's killer, Jose Luis Orozco, was sentenced to death in May. In a recent interview, defense attorney Stan Perlo said he was unaware of Ortiz's membership in the Regulators. Had he known about it, he might have presented it as evidence during the penalty phase of the trial, which focused largely on Ortiz's character and Orozco's history of gang membership.

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Lowell Anger, who prosecuted the case, also said he didn't know Ortiz was once a Regulators member.

Perlo said the Sheriff's Department should have told prosecutors about Ortiz's membership in the Regulators. He said it could become an issue in his client's appeal.

Baca said he did not consider the issue relevant.

"The murderer was convicted of his cowardly act of gunning down a deputy sheriff in cold blood. Justice was most assuredly served," Baca said.

Michael Gennaco, chief attorney for the sheriff's Office of Independent Review, which monitors internal affairs investigations, said he was concerned that groups like the Regulators hurt morale and divide deputies.

He said that the name itself, the Regulators, is a cause for concern. In jail culture, regulators are inmates who control other inmates' behavior.

In 1994, rapper Warren G's hit single "Regulate," began: "Regulators we regulate any stealing of his property and we damn good too. But you can't be any geek off the street. Gotta be handy with the steel, if you know what I mean."

"The name and connotation and symbol they have selected can cause sinister perceptions, even if in reality nothing sinister is going on," Gennaco said.

Jaimes said Regulators' members have done nothing inappropriate. No deputy has ever been disciplined for activity related to the group, he said. Rather, he said, department administrators wronged him by referring to the group as the Mexican Mafia, a gang implicated in murders, drug dealing and extortion.

"Everybody in the Sheriff's Department knows the name Mexican Mafia, because we work the jails," he said. "You're talking to a Mexican Mafia expert. I testified against the Mexican Mafia. So having them call me this hurts me."

Sheriff's Sgt. Arthur Scott, one of Jaimes' former supervisors, testified at a deposition in the lawsuit that he once saw Latino deputies gathered in a room at the Century station and said, "This looks like a meeting of the Mexican Mafia." Scott said he made the statement "in a joking fashion."

It was a confrontation with Scott that ultimately led Jaimes to sue the department that has employed him for 18 years. Jaimes said he confronted Scott at a briefing and used profanity while criticizing the sergeant's management style and for failing to apologize for using the Mexican Mafia term.

As a result of that incident, Jaimes was suspended for 25 days and transferred out of the Century station. His lawsuit against the department seeks to overturn the discipline and the transfer. A hearing on the county's efforts to have the lawsuit dismissed is scheduled for Monday.

stuart.pfeifer@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-deputies22sep22,1,3251609.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Deputy is allowed to pursue his bias suit The member of the Regulators claims he was transferred from a station because he is Latino.
By Stuart Pfeifer
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 22, 2007

A sheriff's deputy can move forward with a lawsuit that alleges the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department unfairly transferred him out of its Century station because he is Latino, a judge ruled Friday.

Deputy Angel Jaimes alleges that African American supervising officers transferred him in 2004 to rid the Century station of experienced Latinos who were admired by other deputies.

The lawsuit has brought attention to a group of deputies in the Century station -- Jaimes among them -- who got matching tattoos and called themselves the Regulators. A series of anonymous letters, purportedly written by fellow deputies, claimed that Jaimes and other Regulators intimidated those who were not part of their clique, extorted money from them and had undue influence over the running of the Century station.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Terry A. Green ruled that the case can proceed to trial, despite sheriff's officials' claims that the transfer was related to defamatory statements the deputy made to a supervisor, not to ethnicity.

Green said he based the decision in part on a lieutenant's testimony that Cmdr. Willie Miller and division Chief Ronnie Williams told her the Century station was "was run by Mexicans and they were going to change that."

Jaimes has alleged in the lawsuit that supervisors, including Sgt. Arthur Scott, openly referred to him and other Latino deputies at the Century station as the Mexican Mafia, the name of a prison gang linked to violent crimes throughout the country.

Jaimes confronted Scott in a meeting at the Lynwood station and used profanity while criticizing the sergeant's management style and for failing to apologize for using the Mexican Mafia term. The department later suspended Jaimes for 25 days for those comments and transferred him from Century to the department's Transit Services Bureau.

Jaimes' lawsuit seeks to overturn the transfer and suspension and seeks monetary damages. Green said allegations that the department was motivated to transfer Latino deputies out of the Century station was enough to allow the case to go to trial.

stuart.pfeifer@latimes.com

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™r>