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  How police chief remembered victims of Osama     By JOHN COLES Published: Today       ANTI-terror cop Colin Terry stunned onlookers by going to a village carnival as Osama Bin Laden — days before the 9/11 anniversary.            Proud moment ... Chief Superintendent Colin Terry at a long-service awards ceremony       The chief superintendent pulled on a full latex face mask of the al-Qaeda warlord, the monster behind the atrocities in which 3,500 died seven years ago today. Mr Terry — a Devon & Cornwall officer currently working in Afghanistan —...

Fayetteville Police Chief Tom Bergamine is accused of violating his son’s constitutional rights when his son, Joey, was arrested on a drunken driving charge last year. The violation is so severe that a judge should dismiss the case, Joey Bergamine’s lawyer Dave Boliek said in court papers filed Wednesday. Boliek thinks he has a persuasive argument that when Joey Bergamine was arrested in July 2007, Chief Bergamine couldn’t separate his role as Joey’s father from his role as a police officer and supervisor of the two officers who were investigating the case. Joey Bergamine, then age 18, was arrested in...

LAPD Police Chief William J. Bratton has come out -- in favor of gay marriage. As a wedding gift to friend and celebrity publicist Howard Bragman and his longtime partner, Chuck O'Donnell, Bratton made it official: He and his wife, former Court TV diva Rikki Kleiman, strongly believe that gays have a right to marry. And in honor of Bragman and O'Donnell, who wed this past week in Norwalk, the chief and Kleiman have made a donation to Equality California, a group seeking to stop a state ballot measure this November that would ban same-sex marriages. "The Constitution guarantees life,...

WASHINGTON - As the District prepares to begin accepting applications for handgun permits, police are having a tough time finding tens of thousands of handguns already registered in the city. "Honestly, there are thousands of handguns that were registered in the city and I don't know whether those handguns are still in the city," says D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier. About 41,000 handguns are already registered in D.C., and more than 36,000 of those guns are owned by residents who registered prior to the 1976 ban. On WTOP's Ask the Chief program, Lanier says police don't know where the 36,000...

MOUNT JULIET, Tenn. - A Midstate man said a police officer nearly choked him to death during a traffic stop. The incident was caught on tape. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating how Mount Juliet Cpl. Bill Cosby interacted with James Anders, Jr. Cosby stopped the 26-year-old Wilson County man in April. Cosby suspected Anders hid marijuana in his mouth. The officer used a vascular restraint technique to keep Anders from swallowing. On the video recorded inside Cosby's patrol car, Cosby said he smelled marijuana and handcuffed Anders and his passenger. The video also showed the officer putting his...

FLINT, Mich., June 27 (UPI) -- The new police chief in Flint, Mich., has a new policy on low-riding pants -- those that ride low enough to expose the rear end can lead to arrest. Interim Police Chief David Dicks said that he has been getting a lot of complaints from Flint citizens sick of looking at buttocks, Newhouse News Service reported. "This immoral self-expression goes beyond free speech," Dicks said. "It rises to the crime of indecent exposure/disorderly persons." Dicks said that any police officer who spots someone with pants that hang too low and show too much can...

It was my pleasure to help bring together various employees of Torrance. You could actually feel the love in the City Hall Council Chambers as they each received personal copies of the Federal Complaint. What made this so exciting for City Council members is that they were served both individually as civilians and in their official capacities. Served Chief Neu at PD HQ after waiting for 45 minutes in the lobby while he was in an important meeting. Lobby officer asked me to make an appointment to serve him. Told her it does not work that way. I would sit...

After being assailed by the police officer whose satiric videos earned him and nearly two dozen others suspensions in 2005, San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong acknowledged that she has gone years without taking the target practice required for officers who carry guns. Department rules require all police officers who carry guns to pass shooting range tests every six months... The issue of Fong's proficiency with a gun was raised last week by Officer Andrew Cohen. He wrote to Police Commission President Theresa Sparks that the chief had gone five years without being certified, which he called "an egregious matter...

Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY -- Police Chief Bill Citty called Monday for tighter gun control laws to curb the kind of gang violence that left six teenagers with gunshot wounds following a drive-by shooting in southeast Oklahoma City two days earlier. Citty, speaking at a news conference by a coalition of social services, clergy and community groups opposed to gang violence, said he believes in a citizen's right to carry firearms but that too many guns are reaching the hands of gang members. He said gang members and their victims are getting younger and younger. "There has to be some...

D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced a military-style checkpoint yesterday to stop cars this weekend in a Northeast Washington neighborhood inundated by gun violence, saying it will help keep criminals out of the area. Starting on Saturday, officers will check drivers' identification and ask whether they have a "legitimate purpose" to be in the Trinidad area, such as going to a doctor or church or visiting friends or relatives. If not, the drivers will be turned away. The Neighborhood Safety Zone initiative is the latest crime-fighting attempt by Lanier and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who have been under pressure...

D.C. police will seal off entire neighborhoods, set up checkpoints and kick out strangers under a new program that D.C. officials hope will help them rescue the city from its out-of-control violence. Under an executive order expected to be announced today, police Chief Cathy L. Lanier will have the authority to designate “Neighborhood Safety Zones.” At least six officers will man cordons around those zones and demand identification from people coming in and out of them. Anyone who doesn’t live there, work there or have “legitimate reason” to be there will be sent away or face arrest, documents obtained by...

One of Britain's most senior policemen says the country should talk to Al Qaeda to try and end their bloody campaign of violence. Sir Hugh Orde, a front-runner to replace Ian Blair as the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said he could not think of a single terrorist campaign that ended without negotiation. And after 30 years of tackling the IRA Sir Hugh, head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said he was convinced that policing - detecting plots and arresting people - was not enough alone to defeat terrorists. His comments come the day after Al Qaeda released...

MEXICO CITY — Assassins gunned down a senior police official in the border city of Ciudad Juarez early Saturday as Mexico's gangsters pressed their counteroffensive against the country's security forces. Municipal Police Chief Juan Antonio Roman was shot about 2 a.m. in front of his house on the outskirts of the city, which is across the Rio Grande from El Paso. Another of Roman's police commanders was shot shortly before he was killed. Roman's was one of more than 100 deaths, including those of at least 20 police officers, attributed to organized crime last week across Mexico. Among those killed...

Gunmen assassinated the acting chief of Mexico’s federal police early on Thursday morning in the most brazen attack so far in the year-and-a-half-old struggle between the government and organized crime gangs. The Mexican police have been under constant attack since President Felipe Calderón took office in December 2007 and started an offensive against drug cartels that had corrupted the municipal police forces and local officials in several towns along the border with the United States and on both coasts. Since then, Mr. Calderón has sent thousands of federal agents and troops into those areas to establish law and order, provoking...

The Metropolitan Police Department has joined other major U.S. cities in arming patrol officers with assault rifles to protect them against criminals with high-powered weapons, weeks after being released from a federal program that monitors the use of excessive force. "We want to be as accurate as possible and have more stopping power," Assistant Chief Patrick Burke said yesterday. The department already has 500 semiautomatic AR-15 rifles, which were converted from fully automatic rifles, and has trained 340 officers to use them.

The current leadership of the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department is an exercise in political correctness that will likely become a national laughingstock. The hopes of beleaguered citizens of the District of Columbia were dashed at the appointment of Cathy Lanier to become chief of police following the departure of Charles Ramsey, derisively known at "Chief Wiggums". Ramsey presided over the crime wave on the National Mall and could not find the body of missing intern Chandra Levy for nearly two years until a man walking his dog in Rock Creek Park discovered a leg bone. Ramsey has moved on...

WASHINGTON -- A crackdown on guns is under way in the District. Police are asking residents to submit to voluntary searches in exchange for amnesty under the District's gun ban. The program is starting in the Washington Highlands neighborhood of Southeast Washington on Monday and will later expand to other neighborhoods. Officers will go door to door asking residents for permission to search their homes. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said the "safe homes initiative" is aimed at residents who want to cooperate with police. She gave the example of parents or grandparents who know or suspect their children have...

ORANGEBURG, SC (AP) - A Midlands police chief was arrested for falling asleep at the wheel at a traffic light. It happened in Orangeburg County. In 2005, Kenneth McCaster was an Orangeburg County deputy. He got shot in the arm while on patrol. McCaster spoke about the suspect in court. "It was just tough to see him stand there and almost kind of pretend that it's someone else's fault." McCaster became Santee's police chief last December. Now he's the one blamed for something. The highway patrol says a trooper drove up to the intersection of Highway 601 and Russell Street...

NEW CITY, N.Y. -- A former prosecutor and PTA leader had sex with two boys, shared marijuana and alcohol with other teens and kept it all a secret from her police chief husband, officials said Tuesday. Beth Modica, 44, a mother of four, was indicted on 35 counts alleging statutory rape, criminal sex acts, sex abuse and endangering children. Wearing an olive-gray suit and handcuffs, she pleaded not guilty at her arraignment in Rockland County Court and was ordered held on $75,000 bail. "These are serious charges, against children in her community," said Judge Catherine Bartlett. The judge issued orders...

WASHINGTON - As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear the District's gun ban case, the former chief of police has changed his position on the issue. "Personally I never had a problem with gun registration," said Charles Ramsey, who is set to take over the job of running Philadelphia's police department. "I think there needs to be reasonable control over hand guns, registering a hand gun is a reasonable control." Ramsey stepped down as D.C.'s top cop after Mayor Adrian Fenty took office. Appearing on WTOP's Ask the Chief Program, Ramsey said he's taking a realistic approach. "I realize...

Former D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey is shifting his position on Washington's 31-year ban on handgun ownership as the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments on the issue. Ramsey says there needs to be reasonable control over guns, but he says handgun registration can provide that control. The former chief, who is set to take over Philadelphia's police department in January, says the nation is not going to ban handguns and he's taking a realistic approach to the issue.

Rutherford's retiring police chief is owed $311,000 in sick, vacation and other unused time from his 34 years on the force. That's on top of the $127,000 annual pension Steven Nienstedt will receive after retiring Saturday as the second-highest-paid police chief in Bergen County, with a yearly salary of more than $182,000. Nienstedt, 55, saw his salary balloon by about 40 percent in the last five years of his career, rising from $132,300 in 2002 -- much of it thanks to a whopping $24,797 raise the Borough Council awarded him in 2003. When Rutherford voters pushed Mayor Bernadette McPherson and...

Trevor Putnam knew the gun laws. The officer who stopped him didn’t. “When I told him that I hadn’t done anything, he said he’d find a reason to put me in jail,” said Putnam, 24, who works with guns every day as vice president of Coal Creek Armory in West Knoxville. “It’s not that I have a problem with police officers. I deal with police officers nationwide from Arizona to Maine every day. But I lost my confidence in a legal right that I knew I had.” Knoxville police officers will get a refresher course on the state’s gun permit...

A new report by Police Chief Charlie Deane showing how an illegal immigrant arrested on suspicion a traffic violation or minor crime could soon face deportation proceedings in Prince William County is expected to set off a strong debate over the issue Tuesday. Although many Prince William County residents have been pushing for tougher immigration enforcement, others have warned that Deane’s proposal could make life tougher for the community’s Hispanic population. “It will instill fear and distress for police in the community and increase racial tension,” said Nancy Lyall, coordinator for Hispanic outreach organization Mexicanos Sin Fronteras. “It will drive...

WENDOVER, Utah (AP) -- The police chief resigned after his wife was arrested in a drug bust at a Nevada nightclub where she performed as a stripper named "Ecstasy." Mayor Brett Shelton said he asked for Vaughn Tripp's resignation "on grounds of embarrassment." He quit Thursday after leading the four-member police force since October 1998. Sylvia Tripp, 39, was arrested last week in Elko County, Nev., just over the Utah-Nevada line, on suspicion of drug distribution and possessing medication without a prescription. The bust occurred at Southern X-Posure, a strip club in West Wendover, Nev. The Tripps could not be...

CALGARY (CP) - Been searching for that brand-new Beretta handgun, a form-fitting female flak jacket or maybe the latest chemical-protection suit ideal for any military-style raid? Welcome to the police chiefs trade show, where more than 150 exhibitors are displaying the latest in cop gear, weaponry, technology, squad cars and rows upon rows of miscellany designed to warm the cockles of any constable's heart. Calgary police Sgt. Peter Prims had his eyes on a set of sweet new onboard cameras and computers as he cruised the show Tuesday. "I'd like to check out the body armour," added Const. Adam Kelly....

<p>Police chief, activists to announce new procedures at morning news conference.</p> <p>Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz will hold a news conference just a few minutes from now with members of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos to explain new police procedures regarding illegal immigrants.</p>

ABINGDON, Va. — The Damascus police chief was arrested Saturday and charged with distributing methamphetamine. Anthony Stephen Richardson, 40, was arrested without incident at the city police department, Virginia State Police Sgt. M.T. Conroy said. The arrest was the result of an undercover investigation in which a confidential informant bought methamphetamine from Richardson on June 12, according to court documents.

CLAY CITY, Ky. (AP) - A trusting, small-town police chief - the city's only officer - was fatally shot Wednesday after he cuffed a suspect's hands in the front instead of the back, authorities said. In most circumstances, officers cuff in the back to restrict mobility. But cuffing in the front was a practice that Chief Randy Lacy, 55, often used when arresting people he knew, said Greg Adams, a Powell County sheriff's deputy. The suspect, who had been stopped on suspicion of driving under the influence, had a long criminal history, records show. It wasn't clear how the suspect...

The two men, Rudolph W. Giuliani and his former police commissioner William J. Bratton, had not spoken to each other in 10 years. When they had crossed paths at social gatherings, they exchanged little more than icy nods. But time, tragedy and a presidential campaign have started to change all that.

City of Pewaukee - Police Chief Gary Bach will serve a 10-day suspension without pay for using inappropriate language after an investigation determined he unacceptable and derogatory terms when referring to females and minorities, documents released today show. The suspension was issued by Mayor Scott Klein and begins on Monday, according to a letter dated today that Klein had delivered to Bach. The investigation into Bach, whose salary is $82,951 for 2007, was launched after City Administrator Tammy LaBorde received a letter from a female officer complaining of language she said Bach used in referring to her in conversations with...

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (UPI) -- A Florida police chief who sent members of his department an e-mail complaining about lack of physical fitness has been forced to resign. The memo from Paul Goward, head of the police department in Winter Haven, had as its subject line "Are you a jelly belly?" the Orlando Sentinel reported. "As I look around the department I see a disconcerting number of us that appear physically challenged with obesity and/or a general lack of physical fitness," Goward told his officers. In the e-mail, he said overweight police officers give a poor public impression and have...

AL ASAD — Despite sustaining a severe a wound during an insurgent attack earlier this month, a prominent Iraqi police chief vows to continue his fight to keep Iraq’s western Al Anbar province safe. Col. Shabban Barzan al-Ubaidi of the Baghdadi Police Force says the fact that he survived the attack is “proof the enemy cannot take (his) life away, only God can, and God is not on the enemy’s side.” Despite the attack, his police forces remain undeterred and Iraqis in the Al Anbar province are still willing to join Ubaidi’s police forces, he said. Baghdadi is a town...

SNYDER, Okla. Snyder Police Chief Tod Ozmun, Mayor Dale Moore and City Councilman Clifford Barnard are resigning in the midst of a controversy over Ozmun's wife appearing nude on a Web site. Ozmun had said earlier he would not step down, but now says he's fed up with the controversy and that the situation has become a media circus. Moore says he finds nothing wrong or illegal with what Ozmun's wife was doing and he doesn't want to work in what he calls "a community like this." Barnard also says he's disgusted with the situation that's brought national media attention...

As friends and co-workers continued to mourn the death of Holland Police Chief Doug Kaiser yesterday, questions remained about why the veteran officer took his own life. "It's a big shock," Holland Mayor Mike Yunker said last night. "Right at this point, we're just trying to deal with what has happened and not so much [with] what transpired moments before." Co-workers, fellow officers, and passers-by left flowers and signed Chief Kaiser's police cruiser, parked in front of the village administration building as a makeshift memorial. The 45-year-old police chief, born and raised in Holland, shot and killed himself in Sidney,...

A defiant Police Chief William J. Bratton on Tuesday rejected a call to apologize for criticism of some Los Angeles City Council members, including Bernard C. Parks. Bratton said he had a right to speak his mind because the former police chief turned politician has been attacking him for more than a year. Bratton made the remarks a day after City Council President Eric Garcetti called on the chief to apologize for and recant a statement he made publicly that Parks and Councilman Dennis Zine "don't know what the hell they are talking about" when they criticized changes in LAPD...

SAN LUIS OBISBO, Calif. - Former Los Angeles police chief and state Sen. Ed Davis, whose tough rhetoric during the turbulent 1970s made him popular with conservatives, died Saturday, a family spokesman said. He was 89. Davis died of complications from pneumonia at a hospital in San Luis Obispo, family spokesman Rob Wilcox said. He had been hospitalized since April 12, and his situation worsened Friday night, Wilcox said. In more than 50 years in public service, Davis rose through the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department from street cop to chief from 1969 to 1978. Known for his...

MONTERREY, Mexico - The former police chief of the border city of Nuevo Laredo on Friday said he resigned because he was tired from the stress of working in a city dominated by drug cartels fighting a bloody turf war. Omar Pimentel, 38, resigned late Wednesday, hours after police found three charred bodies dumped by the side of a road leading into Nuevo Laredo. Police did not immediately know how the bodies got there or who was behind the killings. "The truth is that I was tired. It's a tough job and with so much pressure that it becomes mentally...

Nine chiefs of police have endorsed a letter written by Belleville Police Chief Dave Ruebhausen urging that three Illinois state troopers charged with weapons violations not to be prosecuted. If they are guilty, they should be punished administratively, according to Ruebhausen's letter given Tuesday to the News-Democrat.The letter also was endorsed by two state senators, two sheriffs and retired Belleville Police Chief Terry Delaney, a former U.S. marshal.But a statement on Tuesday issued by interim U.S. Attorney Edward McNally cautioned, "These matters are now in public court ... no doubt many of the officials (listed in the letter) will look...

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) -- Two police chiefs were shot and killed within hours of each other in a violence-plagued region near the United States where drug smugglers have been battling for control of key routes across the border. It wasn't immediately clear if the killings Monday were related, but authorities say violence has spiked in Mexico's northeast since the 2003 arrest of the area's top reputed drug dealer set off the turf war. Hector Ayala, chief of police in the wealthy town of San Pedro Garza Garcia outside Monterrey, was killed Monday when a car overtook his vehicle and opened...

BELLEVILLE - Nine chiefs of police have endorsed a letter written by Belleville Police Chief Dave Ruebhausen urging that three Illinois state troopers charged with weapons violations not to be prosecuted. If they are guilty, they should be punished administratively, according to Ruebhausen's letter given Tuesday to the News-Democrat. The letter also was endorsed by two state senators, two sheriffs and retired Belleville Police Chief Terry Delaney, a former U.S. marshal. But a statement on Tuesday issued by interim U.S. Attorney Edward McNally cautioned, "These matters are now in public court ... no doubt many of the officials (listed in...

The Central American Free Trade Agreement-Dominican Republic is struggling to get on its feet after six Central American countries, including the Dominican Republic, failed to meet a Jan. 1 preliminary start-up date. All CAFTA countries have ratified the agreement with the exception of Costa Rica, El Salvador being the first in December 2004 and Nicaragua the most recent in September 2005. "All countries recognized the Jan.1 date was an ambitious goal and that they might not have completed their implementation process by that time," said Stephen Norton, spokesman for the U.S. Trade Representative office. At issue are the "technical changes"...

Embattled Greensboro Police Chief Resigns 10 minutes ago Greensboro Chief of Police David Wray has announced his resignation. In a letter dated Monday morning, Wray said events of the past several months created controversy and hurt his ability to lead the force. Assistant Chief Tim Bellamy was named acting chief effective immediately, according to City Manager Mitchell Johnson. Wray has dealt with allegations of a unit in his department targeting officers with investigations based on race. Johnson is reviewing a report concerning the accusations. Scheduling of officers has also caused unrest in the department. Johnson last month told Wray he...

Saturday December 31, 2005 SOMERSET TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) The township's police chief was suspended for two weeks without pay for smoking in a patrol car. The Township Board of Trustees on Thursday voted to uphold the suspension of Chief Clarence Perry, which was to end Friday. It cost him about $1,400 in pay, the Hillsdale Daily News reported. ``They're hitting me up for $1,400,'' Perry said. ``That's a very expensive cigarette.'' Perry was suspended after a complaint that he smoked two cigarettes while driving a minor home. Perry has been chief of the rural Hillsdale County township for more than...

New Orleans -- The city's police chief Thursday came out in support of an independent review board to investigate police shootings, a demand made by black ministers after a black man was killed by officers earlier this week. Police Superintendent Warren Riley met with the ministers for nearly two hours and said afterward that he will back their request to the City Council for an independent review process. The meeting came three days after police shot and killed Anthony Hayes, 38, who was wielding a hunting knife. Hayes' confrontation with 18 officers — but not the shooting itself — was...

Lutcher -- Police Chief Corey Pittman entered a guilty plea to three counts of distribution of five or more grams of cocaine and is facing up to 120 years in prison according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Lutcher was arrested in August following an investigation in which he directly sold crack cocaine to an undercover operative on three separate occasions in June and August of this year. “The distribution of dangerous narcotics by a law enforcement officer such as Corey Pittman - sworn to protect our citizens - and particularly those actions by a chief of police, is nothing short...

LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) -- The city's police chief left his loaded service pistol in a restaurant bathroom last month and didn't realize it until another officer returned the gun to him. When he realized his mistake, Chief Bob Deutsch wrote an e-mail to the entire department stating what he had done. He then wrote himself a written reprimand. "When I walked out of the restroom, I forgot it," Deutsch said Wednesday. "There are no excuses. Personally, I think that's a serious violation of policy." A customer found the .40-caliber Glock semiautomatic pistol in a holster on a countertop at Jeffrey's...

BELLEVUE, WA – Following almost a year of silence on the gun control issue, Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske recently came back into the spotlight, supporting yet another piece of gun legislation, while authorities still haven’t found the chief’s semiautomatic pistol, stolen from his car in 2004. During a press conference in Seattle earlier this week, Kerlikowske observed, “It’s important to me to do whatever I can to keep illegal guns out of our communities.” That remark brought a quick response from Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, based in Bellevue. “If the chief really wants to make...

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — Opelousas' former police chief, Larry Caillier, was indicted on charges of filing a false claim to a federal agency, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Monday. Between August 2000 and June 2003, Caillier submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, through the Opelousas Housing Authority, claims for payment that he "knew were false, fictitious or fraudulent," according to the bill of information filed in U.S. District Court. The Opelousas Housing Authority entered into three contracts with the police department to provide officers for a bicycle patrol to fight illegal drug trafficking in public housing,...

(From New Glarus, WI to Iraq and back) NEW GLARUS, WI - Monitoring the Iraqi police forces was less stressful than policing a small town can be, according to one Army sergeant who knows. "Actually, it was in many ways less stressful because we had one big job to do, not a thousand little jobs like I have here," said Sgt. First Class Steve Allbaugh, known in New Glarus as the police chief. "It was a more simplified setup, and we didn't deal with juvenile crime, domestic disputes and citizen complaints. Obviously, it was more dangerous because here I don't...