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Private companies in the US are hoping to use red light cameras and speed cameras as the basis for a nationwide surveillance network similar to one that will be active next year in the UK. Redflex and American Traffic Solutions (ATS), the top two photo enforcement providers in the US, are quietly shopping new motorist tracking options to prospective state and local government clients.... The technology would be integrated with the Australian company's existing red light camera and speed camera systems. It allows officials to keep full video records of passing motorists and their passengers, limited only by available hard...

WASHINGTON - The ATF lost 76 weapons and hundreds of laptops over five years, the Justice Department reported Wednesday, blaming carelessness and sloppy record-keeping. ... "It is especially troubling that that ATF's rate of loss for weapons was nearly double that of the FBI and DEA, and that ATF did not even know whether most of its lost, stolen, or missing laptop computers contained sensitive or classified information," he added. ... Compared to weapons loss rates for the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration, the ATF misplaced almost twice as many guns. ... The Justice Department's report can be found at:...

Patrol fires 12 troopers in cheating case Thursday, September 11, 2008 3:21 AM FROM THE (CANTON) REPOSITORY CANTON -- Twelve officers accused of cheating on a certification test for a device used to gather evidence against intoxicated drivers have been fired from the State Highway Patrol. Patrol spokesman Lt. Tony Bradshaw said it's the first time in the law-enforcement agency's 75-year history that so many officers have been let go at once. The patrol said the three sergeants and eight troopers from the Canton post and one Wooster trooper cheated on a certification exam for administering breath tests to determine...

On Aug. 14, at around 3 p.m. my wife stepped out of Target in El Centro. I stayed in Target to throw away the trash because we ate in the “Food Ave.” When I walked outside, my wife informed me that a guy in a four-door, silver-colored car sped down the parking lot and somewhat yielded as my daughter was crossing the parking lot intersection. As soon as the driver saw enough room to squeeze by the curve and my daughter, he accelerated fast enough to make the tires skid causing a burning rubber noise (also scared my daughter). He...

A British man was jailed for five hours after he photographed a cop reversing the wrong way up a one-way street. After Andrew Carter snapped the cop van, officer Aqil Farooq leaped out, hit the camera to the ground, handcuffed him and bundled him into the back of the vehicle. The plumber, 44, was arrested for supposedly being drunk, resisting arrest and assaulting the officer with the camera. He was kept in cells before finally being released on police bail at midnight. Carter, of Bedminster, Bristol, said: “I was nearly knocked down there once so when the police van went...

Murder and attempted murder charges against seven New Orleans police officers, accused of shooting unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina, were tossed out by Criminal District Court Judge Raymond Bigelow, who concluded that an Orleans Parish prosecutor tainted the secrecy of the grand jury process by showing a piece of testimony to another officer. "The violation is clear, and indeed, uncontroverted. The state improperly disclosed grand jury testimony to another police officer," Bigelow said, reading his ruling from the bench. The judge also dealt a blow to the prosecution on two other pending defense challenges to the...

Albany DA David Soares sought to put the Troopergate scandal to rest (Spitzer siccing state troopers on elected officials like a Third World generalissimo). Soares reluctantly released 8,562 pages of documents from his two Troopergate probes.....that show Soares treated then-Gov. Spitzer with kid gloves and totally whitewashed the role of Spitzer and his aides in the plot to use State Police to smear elected officials......the Public Integrity Commission, found at least four (if not more) top Spitzer aides broke the law. Troopergate has grown well beyond the smear campaign and long ago became a scandal of coverup - Soares' own...

A rookie cop - the son of a highly respected New York City detective - has been stripped of his badge and gun after being caught on video viciously attacking a bicyclist who was part of a Times Square demonstration. ' The startling YouTube video shows Officer Patrick Pogan, 22, apparently setting his sights on - and then tackling - a bicyclist as he pedaled along Seventh Avenue as part of last Friday's controversial Critical Mass ride. Christopher Long, 29, was among a throng of riders as he whizzed toward the corner of West 46th Street at 9:30 p.m. and...

Racial slur? So what! Two police officers say black chief didn't care BY JOHN MARZULLI DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Sunday, July 27th 2008, 11:11 PM Pace for News Cops Shelron Smikle (l.), 28, and Blanch O’Neal, 38, pictured here at their lawyer’s office, plan to sue NYPD. Cairo for News The cops say when Assistant Chief Gerald Nelson (above) found out they had lodged a complaint about a black sergeant’s N-word-laced rant, Nelson repeated the N-word. Two black cops who reported a boss for using a racial slur say they were viciously chewed out by an African-American chief in the...

Two former officials with the Houston Police Officers' Union -- one a police officer, the other a recently retired officer -- were indicted this morning on charges accusing them of stealing more than $100,000 from the union. A Harris County grand jury indicted ex-board secretary Ronny Martin on charges of misapplication of fiduciary property and theft by a public servant. Former board treasurer Jeff Larson is charged with misapplication of fiduciary property. All of the charges allege that $100,000 to $200,000 was taken. Both men were relieved of duty in mid-January in the midst of an investigation, police union officials...

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A police lieutenant in Daytona Beach was fired over accusations that he threatened slower emergency response times if he was not given complimentary specialty Starbucks coffee drinks. An internal police investigation found that Daytona Lt. Major Garvin received free coffee for about two years from a city Starbucks coffee store. However, when recently denied free coffee from new management, Garvin allegedly told managers that he could change the police department's response time if they refuse to give him complimentary drinks. Garvin is accused of saying, "If something happens, either we can respond really fast or we...

For the first time in recent years Cameron County's Democratic Party may not have a candidate on the ballot for a constable's race in the November general election. Precinct 1 Constable Saul P. Ochoa was to represent the party in the election, but after pleading guilty last month to a charge of distributing marijuana, it knocks him out of the race. The Democratic Party has until Aug. 26 to nominate another candidate in his place. However, with Ochoa's sentencing on the drug charge not scheduled until Sept. 22, this leaves the party without a candidate in this election. "I don't...

A Hillsborough sheriff's deputy who said he had always wanted to spend his life in law enforcement used a Taser on his wife then held his service pistol to her head before he was arrested and held for mental evaluation, deputies say. Carlos Thomas Tanner, 38, a 10-year veteran of the sheriff's office, was arrested at his Dover home about 1:45 a.m. Monday. He is charged with felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and misdemeanor battery-domestic violence. Tanner was taken in under the state's Baker Act because he threatened to harm himself if he were arrested, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie...

SAN JUAN -- A Mission police officer has been suspended indefinitely after a Saturday morning arrest for allegedly driving an unmarked police car while drunk, officials said. This is at least the third arrest on suspicion of driving while intoxicated for Officer Martin Flores Villarreal, 40, of Mission, and at least his second while driving an unmarked Mission police car, according to court records and Trooper Johnny Hernandez, a local spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. The first two charges, in 2004 and 2006, were both dismissed, court records indicate. Villarreal is suspended from the department indefinitely and...

Hundreds of cases could be dropped Prosecutors say they will throw out pending cases in which 2 police officers facing charges played a major role. By Gary L. Wright gwright@charlotteobserver.com Mecklenburg prosecutors say they'll dismiss a “substantial” number of criminal cases made by two police officers now facing drug conspiracy charges. District Attorney Peter Gilchrist said Friday he'll dismiss any pending cases in which Charlotte-Mecklenburg officers Jason Ross and Gerald Holas played a crucial role. Gilchrist might also agree with defense lawyers to set aside some convictions if it can be shown that the cases substantially hinged on the two...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Some cash-strapped US municipalities are resorting to slapping fuel surcharges onto tickets issued to speeding drivers in order to fill dwindling city coffers hit hard by skyrocketing gas prices. Beginning July 1, the Georgia town of Holly Springs, near the city of Atlanta, will add a surcharge of 12 dollars for each moving violation as a means to avert a budget deficit brought on by high fuel prices. "It's a creative and innovative idea of our police chief," said Holly CothranDrake, spokeswoman of the city administration which on Wednesday received queries from several American municipalities that are...

MEMPHIS, TN (WMC-TV) - Exclusive video obtained by Action News 5 shows a Memphis police officer beating a suspect at 201 Poplar in an apparent case of police brutality. The video, recorded February 12th, shows Duanna Johnson in the booking area at the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center after an arrest for prostitution. The tape clearly shows a Memphis police officer walk over to Johnson - a transsexual - and hit her in the face several times. "Actually he was trying to get me to come over to where he was, and I responded by telling him that wasn't my...

<p>CHICAGO — On-duty Chicago police officers and any officers who shoot their weapons, on or off-duty, would be required to submit to random alcohol tests under a contract proposal sent to the union.</p> <p>Police officers also would be forbidden to drink alcohol four hours before any shift.</p>

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged a South Carolina state trooper with striking an African-American man with his patrol car, while videotaping the incident with the cruiser's dashboard camera, NBC News reported.

In yet another in the series of "guess the missing party label" we once again present the case of imprisoned former Broward County (FL) sheriff, Ken Jenne. As we have seen before, the South Florida news media is extremely reluctant to apply a party label to the disgraced Jenne, who was convicted of mail fraud and tax evasion while in office, despite the fact that the Broward sheriff  office is most most important political post in the county. A hint as to what  is Jenne's political label is the fact that if he had been a Republican, we would have seen that fact...

Seeking a balance between outreach and enforcement, Miami is launching a nearly $1 million crime-fighting initiative in Overtown that will mix police patrols, video cameras -- and suit-and-tie wearing Muslims. The stepped-up policing seeks to deter would-be lawbreakers without making Overtown residents feel ''invaded,'' in the words of Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones. Which is where the Muslims come in. Along with budgeting hundreds of thousands of dollars for increased police patrols and the installation of surveillance cameras, Miami is spending $150,000 on a ''Peacemakers'' pilot program run by a nonprofit with ties to the Nation of Islam.

DETROIT - A former federal agent who pleaded guilty to faking a marriage to gain U.S. citizenship and improperly searching FBI databases was sentenced Tuesday to pay $975 in fines and other fees, but will serve no prison time. U.S. District Court Judge Avern Cohn said Nada Nadim Prouty, 38, "erred in judgment" 19 years ago when she lied to enter the U.S. in 1989 from her native Lebanon, but has provided "exemplary service to the country" as a federal agent. Cohn also signed an order revoking Prouty's citizenship, but Prouty's attorney Thomas Cranmer said after the hearing she will...

A former top State Police official who killed himself left behind a detailed suicide note focusing on Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's probe of the Dirty Tricks Scandal and feared an ongoing investigation of ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer's involvement with prostitutes, The Post has learned. Recently retired State Police Inspector Gary Berwick, who hung himself in the garage of his home on Thursday, wrote a wide-ranging and sometimes rambling suicide note, sources said. The letter zeroed in on his close relationship with former acting State Police Superintendent Preston Felton, a key figure in last summer's political espionage scandal who was dumped after...

TAMPA - Deputies have arrested 35-year-old Edward Allen Covington in connection with a gruesome triple murder in Lutz. He is charged with three counts of first degree murder, three counts of abuse of dead human bodies, one count of cruelty to animals, and one count of violating probation. He is charged in connection with the murders of Lisa Freiberg and her two children, 7-year-old Zachary and 2-year-old Heather Savannah. Their bodies were discovered inside their mobile home on Mobile Villa Drive in Lutz on Monday.  Hillsborough Chief Deputy Jose Docobo said there was a substantial amount of physical evidence linking...

ADMITTED TO AFFAIRS BEFORE PROBE Associated Press May 2, 2008 -- Gov. David Paterson said Friday that he admitted past marital affairs in part because he feared an "out-of-control" element in the state police that he says was investigating politicians. The Democrat, who took office in March after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer amid a prostitution scandal, had already called for an investigation into lawmakers' claims that a state police unit was keeping tabs on elected officials. At that time, though, he wouldn't say if he believed there was such a unit and the state police union said it doubted...

A driver nailed by a roving radar truck in San Jose is taking his case to court in hopes of getting back the money he spent on speeding tickets and increases in insurance costs for himself and others mailed fines by the city. The city killed the program that put white radar photo vans on the streets to cut down on speeding after questions were raised in 2006 about the legality of having city engineers - not cops - write citations. But that was after officials had issued about $5 million worth of tickets through the decade-old program. In 2006...

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — The scandal-plagued Orange County Sheriff's Department is investigating whether jail staff used a Taser stun gun on a cat that was found dead on facility grounds. The investigation comes after a scathing criminal grand jury report last week that found deputies at Theo Lacy Jail sent personal text messages and watched TV while inmates beat a fellow inmate to death. Sheriff's spokesman John McDonald says a tipster told the department Monday that jail personnel used a Taser on the cat. The animal was later found dead on the jail grounds, between two fences. It had...

HE'S A COP AND 'ROBBER'- ROOKIE BUSTED IN BANK STICKUP By ERIKA MARTINEZ and C.J. SULLIVAN April 11, 2008 -- A rookie NYPD cop was busted yesterday for an armed bank robbery in Pennsylvania, authorities said. Christian Torres, 21, a transit officer who lives in Queens, waited outside a Sovereign Bank branch in Muhlenberg Township shortly after 8 a.m., police said. Torres, who had traded his NYPD uniform for a black suit with a button-down shirt, approached a teller as she arrived for work, police said.

March 31, 2008 ALBANY - The scandal-scarred State Police is suspected of harboring a renegade unit that for years has secretly compiled personal information on top New York officials - possibly including Gov. Paterson, The Post has learned. The governor got a whiff of the existence of such an illegal, politically directed operation after being told by several lawmakers that the State Police targeted them for unjustified traffic stops and "interfered in their personal lives," a senior Paterson aide told The Post yesterday. The explosive information - supplied to Paterson by both Democrats and Republicans - suggests that the Dirty...

A 23-year Atlanta Police Department veteran pleaded guilty on Monday to conspiring to violate civil rights by searching a private residence without a warrant, federal prosecutors said. Wilbert Stallings, 44, of Conyers, a sergeant in the department's narcotics unit, faces up to 10 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines. A sentencing date wasn't immediately set.

Capitol Police officer admits setting fires Story Highlights - Karen Emory agreed to resign and pay restitution to avoid prosecution - Must get professional counseling, and avoid any other criminal activity - She has been with the Capitol Police since January 2003 From Paul Courson CNN Washington Bureau WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A policewoman suspected in a series of small fires in restrooms in buildings around Capitol Hill late last year has admitted guilt and agreed to resign and pay restitution to avoid prosecution. A Capitol Police officer agrees to resign after admitting setting fires in Capitol Hill buildings late last...

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...

NEW YORK — A police detective and a woman forced a 13-year-old runaway to work as a prostitute at parties around the city, telling her that if she tried to escape the officer would make her sell herself on the streets, prosecutors said. Wayne Taylor, 35, and Zelika Brown, 29, were arrested on charges of kidnapping, promoting prostitution, assault and endangering the welfare of a child, the Queens district attorney's office said Wednesday. Taylor, a 14-year New York Police Department member assigned to the housing bureau, was suspended without pay, the department said. Both he and Brown pleaded not guilty...

A Shreveport police officer was suspended after being caught on camera tasing a man in a clearly unprovoked incident. Surveillance video from outside a downtown riverfront nightclub shows Carnado Brown getting tased from behind by Officer Ryan Robinson this past summer. Brown was talking on the cell phone when he was zapped with the weapon, which is supposed to be used as a non-lethal way to immobilize a combative person. Robinson was suspended without pay for 45 days but no criminal charges were filed against him. A Police Department spokeswoman on Thursday refused to discuss the incident, saying it was...

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- A 75-year-old woman was arrested at a Clearwater McDonald's drive-thru, because police say she wouldn't pull her car forward. Authorities said Jean Merola, a grandmother of eight, was arrested for disorderly conduct after she refused an officer's orders to move her car while she waited for the coffee and fries she ordered at the drive-through window. Merola said the McDonald's employees told her to wait there for her food. Merola was handcuffed behind her back and put in the cruiser. Another officer arrived and took her to the Pinellas County Jail . Merola said she was searched,...

The acting Killian police chief allegedly traded firearms for narcotic pain pills with undercover agents to help his wife, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge on Thursday. Acting Killian Police Chief Joseph Guy Crawford Jr., 38, allegedly told federal agents that his wife’s prescription did not provide enough pills to keep her pain-free, the affidavit says. The affidavit did not say why the woman allegedly needed the narcotics, and U.S. Attorney David Dugas said he could not comment further on Crawford’s arrest. Crawford was arrested Wednesday after trading a .38-caliber pistol and $40 for...

The former counterterrorism officer for the Defense Logistics Agency's headquarters at Fort Belvoir pleaded guilty yesterday to federal charges that he ordered official police credentials for a business associate. Edward Flanagan, who also had served as a security operations chief at the defense agency, told a co-worker that he ordered the fake credentials as gifts for “future business ventures,” according to filings in federal court in Alexandria. Flanagan, 46, faced felony charges that carry up to 15 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Under sentencing guidelines, his attorney said, he could get 33 to 41 months in prison. U.S....

Pro-life activists are calling for an investigation into – and possibly prosecution of – police officers who responded to a severely injured abortion clinic sidewalk counselor, but then allowed his suspected attacker to leave the scene. "It is unbelievable that an officer would allow an attacker to go free after inflicting life-threatening injuries on an elderly gentleman, then threaten to arrest the witness to the crime," said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue. "That was not only unprofessional conduct, but it showed a fundamental lack of respect for Mr. Snell's life and beliefs. She should face serious discipline."

Santa Ana, CA (AHN) -- A California Highway Patrol Officer has been charged with stealing more than $1 million worth of cocaine from an evidence room. Joshua Blackburn, 32, stole more than 40 kilograms of cocaine from an evidence locker room at the California Highway Patrol office at about 4 a.m. last Friday, according to the Orange County District Attorney's office. He was scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday but his attorney, John Barnett, requested the hearing postponed because he said he had not received all police reports on the case. Orange County Superior Court Commissioner Cheryl Leininger scheduled the...

W.Va. Woman Accused of Wiping Her Nose on Cop's Shirt Charged With BatteryThursday, December 27, 2007 DUNBAR, W.Va. — Sometimes you need a police officer; sometimes you need a tissue. Confuse the two, and it could cost you. A woman in this Charleston suburb was charged with battery on a police officer after the officer said she wiped her nose on the back of his shirt.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Are Idaho police academy graduates trying to cause Posttraumatic Stress Disorder? That's the message on the latest class's graduation programs, and it's got leaders of the Idaho Police Officer Standards and Training Academy doing damage control. The program read, "Don't suffer from PTSD, go out and cause it." Jeff Black, who heads up the academy in Meridian, Idaho, where the latest class graduated December 14th, says, "That's not something we encourage or condone. We were mortified it was in there." Apparently, each academy class chooses its own slogan. This is the one that the latest class...

Associated Press A state police academy leader has disavowed the slogan of the most recent graduating class urging one another to "go out and cause" post-traumatic stress disorder. Each class at the Idaho Police Officer Standards and Training Academy is allowed to choose a slogan that is printed on its graduation programs, and the class of 43 graduates came up with "Don't suffer from PTSD, go out and cause it." According to the Veterans Association, tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers suffer from PTSD, which causes nightmares, flashbacks and physical symptoms that make sufferers feel as if they are reliving...

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — The U.S. deported a man to Mexico on Sunday who had taken a dead cousin's identity to pose as a citizen in order to become a Milwaukee police officer. Oscar Ayala-Cornejo, 25, arrived late afternoon Sunday at Guadalajara's international airport, where he was greeted by nearly a dozen relatives. He was visibly tired after traveling for more than 10 hours from Milwaukee, but the reunion appeared to be joyous and hugs were exchanged. Ayala-Cornejo said he was too tired to talk to reporters at the airport but indicated he would speak publicly in the coming days.

Cop indicted in road-rage incident during which other driver shot him in leg After being indicted Thursday for allegedly making terroristic threats during a road-rage incident last summer in Coon Rapids, a Robbinsdale police officer gave his side of what happened in the confrontation that left him with a gunshot wound to the leg. [...] A 19-year-old Anoka woman said she saw the man later identified as Beard driving next to another vehicle and leaning out his window as he repeatedly swore and threatened to kill the other driver, adding, "I don't care about jail." Several witnesses said they saw...

LIMA — Two robbers who broke into Luther Ricks Sr.’s house this summer may have not gotten his life savings he had in a safe, but after the FBI confiscated it he may not get it back. Ricks has tried to get an attorney to fight for the $402,767 but he has no money. Lima Police Department officers originally took the money from his house but the FBI stepped in and took it from the Police Department. Ricks has not been charged with a crime and was cleared in a fatal shooting of one of the robbers but still the...

Coon Rapids man charged with shooting officer in road rage The Anoka County courthouse revealed documents Wednesday that charge 35-year-old Martin Scott Treptow with the shooting of a Robbinsdale Police officer. Treptow, of Coon Rapids, claims Officer Landen Beard was not wearing a uniform at the time he forced Treptow off of the road on June 7. Beard supposedly was driving an unmarked car. When the two men confronted each other, Treptow claimed Beard pointed a gun at his wife. "We were about three feet away from each other and he pointed the gun at my wife. It was a...

Boston police are launching a program that will call upon parents in high-crime neighborhoods to allow detectives into their homes, without a warrant, to search for guns in their children's bedrooms. more stories like this Witness intimidation ruling upheld Trooper says police halted his gigs as DJ Police chief pledges probe 26 arrested after Red Sox win pennant Fans celebrate Sox' World Series berth The program, which is already raising questions about civil liberties, is based on the premise that parents are so fearful of gun violence and the possibility that their own teenagers will be caught up in it...

MEMPHIS - A Memphis police sergeant who was named Tennessee Narcotics Officer of the Year for 2006 was charged with selling illegal anabolic steroids and tipping off drug dealers about surveillance and investigations. Sgt. Brady Valentine, 36, a police officer since 1994, was indicted Friday and relieved of duty after a federal complaint was unsealed. The complaint was based on information from informants, wire taps and taped conversations. Valentine was assigned to the West Tennessee Violent Crimes and Drug Task Force, a multi-agency team that regularly lands some of the biggest drug busts in the state. He was honored by...

PORT HURON, Mich. (AP) - A former Wayne County sheriff's deputy who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking could have gotten 20 years in prison, but was sentenced to 30 months' probation instead.

Accumulated leave time during former Chief Agustin Dovalina III's nearly 30 years with the Laredo Police Department totals $86,895, a payment that is forcing the city to dip into its fund balance.Dovalina's cohorts in a bribery conspiracy involving illegal gambling operations, Lt. Eloy Rodriguez and Sgt. Alfonso Santos, will receive approximately $41,900 and $27,350, respectively, according to city documents. Before pleading guilty to extortion, Dovalina submitted a letter of retirement, entitling him to full pension and payment for accrued leave time. Santos also retired from the police department but Rodriguez was not eligible. Both, however, will receive payment for accrued...